2.2.13
on July 1, 2024
at 3:00 am
it would’ve broken the pacing so bad but the temptation to let tess just absolutely smash through the wooden deck was strong
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
it would’ve broken the pacing so bad but the temptation to let tess just absolutely smash through the wooden deck was strong
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: if I was made of metal I would never ever take the stairs
Image source: soul
Yesterday was my birthday! I’m 27 now!
Happy Birthday you wonderful helper of mobile readers!
Happy(pretty) late birthday Zer0W0lf!
“I had no idea. So that’s why you’re always touching your tattoos!” Alinua exclaims, catching his arm and peering at the designs.
“You won’t be able to make out the runes,” Erin tells her. “I had them embellished later. I prefer not to advertise that my enemies can stop my casting just by restraining my hands.”
“Ooh. That’s a pretty big liability.”
“It’s also why I know that simply trying to Seal the Dragon won’t work. Not only do my existing seals have no effect on him… I’ve noticed that when he takes over, he can force me to channel at will — without needing to touch the tattoos.
“The Soulshaper Monks are experts on my soul-channels. If we want to sever my link to the Dragon, they are an entirely reasonable place for us to start.”
“Why couldn’t you get your sealing tattoos done in Asera?” Dainix suddenly asks. “Oh! You don’t have to explain–” he exclaims when Erin doesn’t respond.
“My soul-channels were uncooperative,” Erin interrupts. “The details are tedious and not entirely pleasant. I’d… rather not–”
He’s interrupted when Tess suddenly jumps down to the deck from the mast with a wham. “Somebody said breakfast?” she says, standing up.
happy birfday
(misspelled word intended)
Happy birthday, and thank you for the alt text as always!
Reply fail. Let’s try this again — I hope you had a good day 🙂
Tumblr text: Chatting! Conversation!
Happy (belated) birthday!
Look! A distraction!
OMG BIRTHDAY BUDDIES! I’m a mobile reader, thank you so much for your posts and I hope you had a great day!!
Happy birthday Zer0 W0lf! Thanks for all your help with the alt text!
Twitter text: look! a distraction!
Happy birthday!!
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday Zer0!
Happy birthday. Thank for all your help to us mobile readers.
Happy Birthday!
Aitch bee dee!
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday!
I mostly read on my phone. I’ve figured out how to read the alt text on phones (tap and hold image), but I mostly rely on these comments.
Happy Birthday, When I am reading on my phone thou art a great aid.
happy birthday! there was a time i was mostly reading on my phone and your comments were very helpful :3
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! 🍰
happy birthday. i know i’m just another person wishing you a happy birthday but hey, i hope you like the bajilion replies that you got out of it
Happy Birthday! Sorry for the late reply, but better than never, right?
Sorry for the late reply- happy birthday Zer0!
Happy Birthday Zer0 Wolf. May the world bring more floof to you.
I love Tess coming in to save Erin from an uncomfortable conversation
Sibling behavior
Not in my experience.
As an older sister, nobody’s allowed to make my sibling feel bad except ME.
She’s a good big sis.
Yeah, someone’s not telling us everything…
small dainix alinua and erin losing their balance while kendal is not surprised at all on panel eight X)
Good eye @Meme! Thank you for sharing that who missed that detail! (smile)
Feels like Tess woulda still climbed out of that hole casually asking about breakfast, honestly.
Tess my gal
BACKSTORY! BACKSTORY!
Big sis Tess saving Erin from uncomfortable conversations! (Do we even know who’s the older sibling?)
Doesn’t matter, Erin has so much younger sibling energy, that even if he was older Tess would still be his big sister.
I am sorry, I don’t make the rules.
Tess, it’s great you’re looking out for your brother, but we’re trying NOT to have him fall overboard.
Hiding the sealing rules behind embellishment? Smart move. Not only hides their nature as seals, but observers would be distracted by the pretty ink work and assume they’re decorative. This shows just how much Erin trusts the gang; you don’t reveal such a huge weakness to just anyone. It’s also a good idea for future fights if your allies know your limitations.
He’s mostly doing it to explain the working of himself, how the dragon uses them, and why the monks are a good angle to explore. But those elements of trust building and practical fighting are there, subconsciously if nothing else.
Ah, finally addressing V.D.’s no touching style. The races of Aurora were created by him for the express purpose of being possessed to use their elemental powers; maybe that’s so hard-coded in their very existence, any seals to stop channeling might as well not be there. If seals can’t cut it, going deeper and addressing Erin’s soul channels is the logical next step.
This also makes me wonder about Ferin; they’re based on the elder races and must have void in them, but can V.D. still possess them? Have they diverged so much from the original blueprints they’re not longer his creations?
Soul channels uncooperative? I reckon that Erin’s soul problems were deep enough to warrant the monks unique skills and getting the tattoos from them may have just been a case of “while you’re here, we might as well do this too”. I bet those hands from the glort vision were part of this work; from the sheer number of hands shown it must have been a long process.
In any case, we must wait for the details; Tess is being a very good sister by shifting attention to herself and changing the subject so Erin has an out. She knows the details will come out, but wants Erin to be the one to decide when and how that happens.
Continuing Erin theories from last page:
To be honest, I really don’t have much of an idea what Erin’s big secret could be. On one hand, such a powerful elemental Magus being born to a wealthy family, whose patriarch has been shown to do shifty things, rings alarm bells about Erin being made an Elemental Magus. On the other hand, the lore is very clear that such a thing is not possible; if it were, V.D. would have been able to make an Elemental Magus centuries ago.
My current, tentative theory, is that Erin was born with many malformed soul channels, making him able to use all the elemental powers, but said powers and channeling thereof was incredibly dangerous, to himself and others around him (like what @Coal suggested last page).
The sensible, and ethical, thing to do would be to close off those channels, cutting off his powers, but allowing him to live a normal life. But Galen wanted an Elemental Magus son, so refused to do so, even getting his son an indestructible play-mate, Tess, since others couldn’t be around him.
Eventually though, he realised he needed the monks help to stabilise Erin, so took him to Helm, got the work done to stabilise him while keeping the links, and paid off the monks to keep quiet about it (maybe even paid them to make the channels even wider than before).
What do you mean “V.D. would have been able”? Isn’t that exactly what he did on 0.1.2?
V.D. didn’t make that human mage; the twins did.
V.D. has some power to manipulate the world, like when he made the storm, but he was still reliant on an Elemental Magus coming to him rather than making one himself. But if the means to make a magus did exist, I think he’d use what power he had to make one of his own, rather than wait millennia for one to come along by chance.
I’m not convinced… VD repeatedly, in situations where it makes no sense for him to lie (such as talking to himself), credits himself with designing and creating humans (and the other elder races). Whether directly by himself or indirectly through the twins is irrelevant, he created that elemental magus.
The reason he couldn’t just go that way again is the Lady Dragon, who gave humans a consciousness/free will/purpose/a spark/whatever it may have been so he couldn’t just reach out and take over anymore and had to use a trap and his great rune to do so with Erin.
Besides that, this one panel shows that there is absolutely a way to create an elemental magus. Whatever the twins may be and however they might do it, they can do it. So, yeah, not convinced that the lore says it’s impossible.
What panel shows its possible to make an elemental magus? Also he couldn’t control which human got access to all the elements and had to keep making them until one happened to.
I feel like on the other hand, Tess and Erin’s demeanors are definitely implying that they’re hiding something bigger than “was always elemental magus but previously it was dangerous to do the magic”. They didn’t have any trouble discussing “oops, high capacity channels result in a lot of strain”, which I feel is pretty similar, while Tess basically shuts down the entire conversation the moment Dainix asks why they didn’t do it in Asera (paired with the “careful” last page, I think that it’s more than just not wanting Erin to be stuck in an uncomfortable conversation).
Agreed, they’re hiding something big, but I can’t think what that “something” could be.
We know mages cannot be made; that’s a hard rule else V.D. would have gotten his magus centuries ago. I thought for a bit that maybe something was done with Erin in in utero, but I think Mrs Ruunaser’s soul barrier would prevent that.
There’s also some of Tess’s dialogue in 1-19-13 and -16, “Spill your greatest secret” and “After everything you did”, that may imply a degree of agency on Erin’s part, not Galen’s. Did Erin take a risky gambit to cure his faulty channels in the hopes it would make him an Elemental Magus, and Galen wasn’t involved at all?
Man, Red is really keeping us guessing, isn’t she?
Man, I bet Red is so pleased right now – especially after how much we try to guess and plot predict – she’s finally got us without a clue 😁
I think you’re right LilacSpiral, you’ve convinced me it’s something bigger than embarrassing privilege and lack of ethics. And Erin having agency in it. Gonna turn it over for a few days, I haven’t really thought much about this before now, just enjoyed it, lol
My guess is that Erin was initially an Elemental Magus, but he had very low capacity soul channels or something, so Galen went to the monks to get their capacity increased, which then turned out to be extremely hard and dangerous to control, meaning they had to be sealed.
Tess implied Erin went to the monks on his own after he explained VD
https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-19-16/ Right here
I LOVE TESS SO MUCH.
And the shifts and changes and twists of this fantastic damn comic <3
The runes are hidden with embellishing designs;
He must touch them to channel-
Though when the Dragon rides his body,
It can these limits annul.
“Why couldn’t you get your sealing tattoos
Done in Asera?” Asks Dainix.
Tess crashes to the deck is search of breakfast,
Saving her brother’s secrets.
Crashes to the deck In search of breakfast 🤣 best line ever
Gotta agree with Tess, I also like to grab fall damage negation in any game I play just so I can jump off of anything for giggles or dramatic entries
I know that feel. I can’t count the number of times I died playing Minecraft or something because I’d gotten used to Breath of the Wild.
Not me who has spent years perfecting the skill of jumping off of ridiculously high structures on top of my friends for the express purpose of jump scaring them. They don’t need to know is cost me a golden apple and all but half a heart 🙂
Had a friend do that in D&D. Got a staff that negated fall damage and went, “Hell yeah!” and took every subsequent opportunity to not take the stairs.
Happy birthday! I hope it was a good one 🙂
Cool, that reply didn’t work out. Ah well.
Sorry to you @Sylermage that was a kindly gesture! May we all enjoy Aurora for many happy years!
Thanks XD
I’m on mobile, so sometimes I’ll accidentally reload the page with a swipe when I’m typing! But you know what, happy birthday to everybody anyway :p
Panel 8 *insert falling metal pipe sfx*
I don’t see the monks being very effective unless they can draw The Dragon out of Erin. The guy literally created soul channels. Anything they seal or completely close he’ll just reopen or make a new one. And Erin says the monks are experts on his soul channels? That may not be true anymore if he’s rearranged some stuff making that new soul channel.
He had to make a special trap for it so it’ll probably work
Oh lol, thank you Erin for being your expositive self, you answered most of my questions from the last page
I like how everyone was caught off guard by Tess’ landing except Kendal
“my enemies can stop my casting by restraining my hands”
[Red, loading Chekhov’s gun and placing it gently on the table]
Oh god yeah I didn’t think of that
It already happened with the big crawler too
Just spiralling, but how desperate would he have to be, do you think…to hand control to the Dragon because he can bypass that weakness?
Not pictured: Falst, put off by the ground shaking, but not surprised since Tess is on board
Tess to the rescue! I guess we’ll find out more Erin lore later… how many arcs is this comic supposed to have? I wanna know how long Red might keep us in suspense about this lol
My guess is it’s something about how Erin came from a privileged, and not very ethical, family.
I think the last time we got a number on this was Seven ish arcs in total. Red posted about it at the end of arc one or I am sorely mistaken.
Erin’s wrists must stay free, and this the monks know
Why them and not Asera? Tess breaks the awkward flow
THAT was intentional.
Okay, now THAT made me a little thirsty for Tess. Protective, compassionate, loyal, and de-escalating, all at the same time!
Tess is such a great character… Very goofy at times but pays close attention to the ones she cares about and knows what the best thing for them at a time of need is
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!
Secretsssss
Tess is clearly used to hardships.
You know your shaggy dog stories, don’t you?
Busted.
TL;DR: Time for me to conveniently save my brother from an awkward conversation!
Erin saved from sharing secrets! Good thing Tess is always looking out for her bro. So sweet!
Preemptively saying i really do appreciate tess’ and erin’s siblingisms and that banter n caring for one another are always treats to read. a big sister looking out for her little putz of a brother and easily diverting attention is sweet easy fluff that shows a bond. That said i do sort of…. wonder abt tess always minding erin, in tune with his needs, when we remember the context that she was bought as a “playmate” for him as a child and during those tender years had a condition where she fundamentally could not have thoughts and agency of her own. When tess says things like “mom always said there’s nothing stupider than leaving erin unsupervised!” I can’t help but wonder when she was told this, if this was a subtle order orsomething she internalized. Tess is a character of action and thus her love is exemplified through it, but her extremely loaded backstory does not make me think it unreasonable to wonder abt the implications of a former slave’s love language being acts of service–if these former authorities telling tess rules or responsibilities or things about anything minding the family and Erin is not a little bit. Something, especially if she STILL seems to follow them to some extent. What is her relationship to erin, to his mom who she also calls mother (despite finding the birth mother she was stolen from! How did that mother feel letting her baby go again?), and how does it read that she regards them still in the face of that history enough to keep in contact and chase erin down on a dime?
Last chapter even had tess saying she probably couldn’t get him to reconsider holding off on sailing into dangerous territory but that the others might have a shot, which implies that she did indeed HOPE he’d be persuaded, but even though she admitted her unsurety in private, when in front of the group she rather pushed that “time wasn’t on their side [to prepare].” Her going “me[persuade him]? He’d think i was sick or something,” i think is meant to be a sillyish reference abt how gungho and unconcerned with safety tess is that erin would think she’s sick (much in the way alinua is doing to erin now lol) but again this gains a strange tint when we consider that loaded backstory. Like, what does that suggest? And I’m uncertain if this weirdness is meant to be read as such bc tess’s tell all to alinua framed her past as all resolved with her on good terms with everyone in her own mind, and she doesn’t quite have the same indicators (yet?) of some sort of insecurity/Complex like the other members of the cast that would have me thinking her self-assessments are supposed to be unreliable. This past is not the conflict she seems to be set up for dealing with. She’s here to Help Erin, who feels very guilty abt tess’s treatment, but then, guilt does not center tess as much as it does erin himself, even moreso that it’s so misplaced.
Maybe this is an oversensitivity, especially when chattel slavery is actively being whitewashed in textbooks to frame african slaves as Benefitting from their enslavement, with Some slaveowners being Very Niceies to the Children They Owned. Certainly this is an unfortunate echo, and aurora is not morally obligated to consider real-world-anything or hold its audience’s hand on every possible reading while it portrays Fantasy World, but i’m more spitballing a consideration of this angle bc i think it’s something that could be developed? Or kept in mind as we read. In-universe explanations aside for why she may or may not have purposely chosen to care about erin (and i hope it was a choice, for a girl who had none), it’s a tricky navigation to make in a greater context as she’s insofar playing fiddle to erin.
(In general i find it interesting that we might be interrogating how everyone is sort of beholden to following erin’s plot. Like they definitely care abt him regardless and are invested on helping him out, but on a plot level all their plans are dependent or “maybe along the way” on his issues getting resolved FIRST. Paragon-typical, kendal is more the one who drew everyone in, but HE’S following erin. The initial deal they made was transactional in nature, even if kendal doesn’t see it that way and considered no one in charge bc he’s letting erin do what he needs to on purpose. So i do think something is cooking)
That poor ship’s deck
a lot of people are theorising that erin’s soul links might have been malformed but like…. as far as everything we’ve seen thus far has led us to believe, that’s not a discriminated class of people? like, there isn’t malformed link ableism outside of some microagressions against tarren, why would galen feel the need to hide that? that wouldn’t be a shifty secret. its proper medical attention
I just had a thought/question, is Tess’s name at all related to Tesla (like Nikolai Tesla, Tesla coils etc.) given her electricity powers?
why do i get the feeling the price for freeing erin from the dragon will involve him giving up his magic…
Tess is awesome, I appreciate that she was paying attention to the conversation for Erin’s sake but didn’t intervene until he showed signs of not wanting to continue in case he wanted tell the story, that she is there if he needed her and waited until he did need her.
I’ve been eating up these recent updates like cake 🎂. First little hints from Tarren about what he knows about Erin’s tattoos, having got them himself. Now an explanation of why the Glort was able to stop Erin’s casting when it covered his tattoos. Here’s Erin explaining something the rest of the gang didn’t know needed explaining till now–why couldn’t they just Seal the dragon? Why go to the Soul-Shaper monks and not Asera. He was able to pass off the “I don’t want to be an experiment” reason to Alinua and Kendal, but the full truth is… interestingly complicated.
I still haven’t abandoned my DIY elemental magus theory, but he’s saying that he had all elements, just no control. Huh. What happens to the soul when there’s an overload of such elemental energy? Corruption? Sounds like more, especially since Tess didn’t know of Erin as anything more than a “sickly kid.” I’m curious as all get out.
Tarren’s pronouns are they/them.
…and me without an edit button
I know I wish you could edit comments it’s so annoying especially when I post my Comic Writings and then a few minutes later I think of a better way to say something and can’t change it D,:
Tess doing the sibling thing of pulling her built in best friend out of the fire. bailing out Erin “just” as he ran out of room to mince words.
i’m only now remembering that in 1.22.53 (in erin’s trauma flashbacks with the glort) that many of the images were showing his arms/hands, so clearly SOMETHING happened with the soulshaper monks, hopefully we get more info in future chapters!