"...At first, I thought Miss Freya had come to the Theocracy to study abroad."
After a long silence, Sherlock spoke. "I never expected you to get yourself into such serious trouble."
Although Freya did not further explain the relationship between the Elixir of Immortality and the Tears of Time, everyone had clearly understood.
If the elves' immortality came from the blessing of the Amber Angel, then life-extending methods such as the Elixir of Immortality were, in essence, ways of obtaining part of the Amber Angel's power.
But all such methods of extending one's lifespan came at a price.
The life-extending potions from Astymbri had a side effect: they extended only the body's lifespan, not the soul's. Thus, living for too long caused the body and soul to fall out of sync, allowing a necromancer to kill the person with ease.
The elves' method of extending their lifespans clearly extended their souls as well.
—Its side effect was "amberization."
The elves had a history spanning thousands of years and several glorious civilizations. Yet Amberization Disease had never been cured.
The root cause was probably that... Amberization Disease was not a disease at all. Like treantification, it was a mutation caused by contamination from the power of a Path.
The elves were the descendants of the Giant Tree, and the Giant Tree's Blood flowed through their veins. For that very reason, the purer their bloodline, the more easily they became treants. Similarly, the more blessings they received from the Amber Angel, the more likely they were to become amberized.
That was why Half-Elves born elsewhere neither became treants nor suffered from Amberization Disease!
Their bloodlines were simply too impure for them to become treants. And because their lifespans had been shortened, they could not become amberized either!
"Therefore, if we want to