Alta had become aware of other types of damage. Until now she only knew about physical damage, mostly visible and always affecting the body. But as she spent more time with Icasondra, she learned that there were more types of damages she didn’t know of. In this case, psychological damage.
She couldn’t fully understand it, but she acknowledged that it was still damaged. A wound not visible that didn’t affect the body, but the mind. As more she thought about it, the more sense it made. The brain could be hurt after all.
The problem was that she didn’t know how it was possible to fix that kind of damage.
Considering how Icasondra didn’t want her to talk with Flrynwydl, Alta had to go with the second and last choice for her inquiries.
“So, you are saying that Icasondra has brain damage?” Aecansomdrys responded with an expression of bountiful doubt, her black wings flowed with brass as they flapped.
“Something along those lines, yes.” Alta nodded.
“What happened?” Even though the tailor didn’t fully believe the chimera, she was worried for her friend, nonetheless.
“Hmm...” The Blossomflame fairy pondered. “I don’t know exactly... Has she always been like this?”
“Icasondra has always been a bit gloom, but she’s equally as cheerful.” The Losttime fairy explained. “She’s not the most ‘fairy’ of the fairies, but I’ll admit she seemed a bit absentminded as of late. It began with your arrival...”
“I haven’t done anything,” Alta added.
“I have not said so.” Aecansomdrys slowly blinked.
“You have implied so.” The chimera stated. “And you believe it.”
“Alright, I may have implied that your presence has affected Icasondra, but I honestly feel it’s something else.” The tailor admitted. “She wouldn’t keep you as close as she’s doing if she felt you were a menace to her and actively hurting her. I even heard you sleep together!”
“What should that have to do with the issue at hand?”
“For starters, you don’t invite someone to your bed easily.” The Losttime fairy nodded, agreeing with herself.
“Yet you seem to do that,” Alta stated plainly. “You reek of mating, and with multiple partners at that.”
The dark-skinned fairy’s visage shifted to five shades of pink before opening her mouth.
“How?” The question was simple and filled with curiosity.
“I’m sensitive.” The chimera pointed at her nose. “I have detected the hormonal exchanges since the first time I met you.”
“You haven’t told Icasondra, have you?” Aecansomdrys tone turned borderline hostile.
“No,” Alta admitted, “should I have done so?”
“Elders, no!” The woman cursed. “You did well keeping your mouth shut. Icasondra doesn’t deal well with such... affairs. The only fairy in the village that isn’t well-versed in... well you know. I mean, just look at Flrynwydl, she’s the face of the village, and that isn’t certainly a decent sight to behold.”
The tailor sat on a stool, her wings slightly fluttering. The pattern on her wings constantly changed at vertiginous speeds, the brass sand flowing in a sea of black sludge.
“Where were we?” She asked after taking a deep breath.
“We were talking about Icasondra’s mental state.” Alta reminded her.
“Oh, right.” The fairy stretched her dark arms. “You shouldn’t worry about it. She’s stronger than she looks.”
“She looks feeble and brittle.” The chimera explained. “All fairies do.”
“I’m talking about her psyche, you silly!” Aecansomdrys approached Alta and nudged her arm. “Her mind is strong, I can assure you that. Even if she likes to think otherwise.”
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“Not so sure about that.” Alta stayed still, unphased by Aecansomdrys touches. “The festival organization seems to be taking a toll on her.”
“The Midsommar festival? She organizes that every year! It’s impossible that’s distressing her, at this point it must be an autopilot thing for her.” The Losttime fairy said as her finger circled up and down on the Blossomflame’s arm. “Either way, the distraction will do her better than worse. About that, I’m one hundred percent sure.”
“I see.” Alta stood out with a blank expression. “You haven’t been useful, but I’ll remember your words.” Then she walked toward the door.
“Wait!” Aecansomdrys stood up from her stool.
The chimera maintained her lacking visage, her face seemed to show even less emotions than before. “Your approaches are lacking and obvious, you should work on that.”
Alta closed the door behind her.
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By the time Icasondra woke up, Alta was already gone.
The Blossomflame fairy had helped her with some preparations before forcing her to go to bed. The only good outcome of this situation is that she didn’t cry herself to sleep and just passed out of exhaustion.
With an energetic jump and an active dissipation of her darkest thoughts, Icasondra went down to the village. A few fairies had already begun readying the simple details, but they lacked cohesion. A cohesion Icasondra could bring with her experience.
“There you are!” A voice called to her. It was Akorodei, the Rootweaver merchant. “We’ve started doing our things, but without you, we couldn’t move forward.”
“Yeah. Sorry, Akorodei. I had been a bit distracted as of late.” Icasondra responded with a smile. “I’ll try to get everything ready before noon so we can start the Midsommar celebration in the evening as always.”
“That’s the spirit, lad!” The Rootweaver pat her on the head, which got a furious pout out of her.
“Don’t do that!” The Moonlight fairy screamed and then sighed. “Are all the materials ready? I guess you have already gathered everything, no?”
“Em... about that,” Akorodei added with shame.
“Really? Bad news already?” That made Icasondra question why she even woke up today.
“I’m afraid so, yes.” The man nodded. “We have had problems with our stocks of dry wood and Stillwater fairies, so basically we don’t have wood for the campfire.”
“No.” She refused to believe it. “The campfire it’s the biggest event! Even bigger than the feast!”
“I know I know.” Akorodei sighed. “But we can’t do nothing, our reserves are completely botched.”
“The whole stockpile?” He nodded at Icasondra’s question. “How did that even happen?”
“You better not know, I got myself angry when I heard that. Better if you just let it slide.”
“I’ll follow your advice.” She said leading her hand to her forehead. “Can’t we use green wood or some Rootweaver magic?”
“Can’t do that, lad,” Akorodei explained. “Green wood burns badly, and even if we manage to make it burn for a campfire that large, we run the danger of a forest fire, as green wood is more violent than dried one. And as for our magic... I’m sorry, all Rootweaver wood is green, we cannot make something unalive.”
“What about Stillwater fairies?” Icasondra suggested. “Can’t they suck the moisture out of the wood?”
“They can, and I’ve already suggested that,”
“But.” The Moonlight fairy interjected, smelling the word a world away.
“But the process is rather intrusive and weakens the wood.” He continued. “The wood becomes too brittle, so it isn’t doable for a campfire. It’s too big and the thing will collapse on itself not even a minute in.”
“Can’t... can’t we do the campfire smaller?” Icasondra rubbed her temples, having run out of options.
“I guess that’s our only option, there’s still a bit of dry wood, it isn’t like ‘all all’ has been botched. But it will not be the same.”
“Yeah, it’s a shame.” I want to cry. The fairy thought, her façade intact. Why do I even try? Everything goes wrong. No matter what I do...
“What’s a shame?” A new voice added to the conversation, it was totally neutral and devoid of opinion. The Blossomflame fairy popped into her vision, her glorious flamboyant wings shining down on her.
“Hey, Akorodei.” The Moonlight fairy directed to the Rootweaver. “Would it be possible to dry them naturally?”
“What do you... Oh.” The merchant gasped in realization. “Yes, but of course, it should be a better job than those Stillwater may do.”
“Do what?” Alta asked, but before she could get her answers, Icasondra kidnapped her.
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Alta had not expected to be a glorified dry rack. She hadn’t expected it to work, for starters. But her increased comprehension of the magic of fairies allowed her to do things that weren’t possible before.
“That’s good! Keep at it!” Icasondra cheered her from her back. “At this pace, we will have the logs dried in a matter of hours.”
The chimera’s expression became petrified as she heard those words.
“Are you telling me that I have to be with my back at this pile of wood for hours?” Alta herself was surprised at the emotion in her voice.
“Well, duh!” The Moonlight fairy laughed. “Do you see any other fairy to dry this wood?”
“Can’t you set a fire to dry them?” The Blossomflame fairy suggested.
“With what wood? The one you are drying?” Alta couldn’t deny that Icasondra spoke hard facts. “And besides, if that were possible, which may or may not be, we would burn the wood. And burnt wood doesn’t burn very much.”
“And that’s why I’m the only one who can do it?” She inquired.
“Exactly!” Icasondra flew into her vision. “Your Blossomflame wings are made of fire, but they don’t burn, they only heat. That’s very good because you’ll dry the wood faster than the sun.”
“I see.” The chimera couldn’t protest, she saw the logic in the fairy’s words.
“Now, I’ll go,” Icasondra said as she flew higher, ready to take off. “I need to order more people around, you stay here until the wood is dry enough, then we’ll see each other at the festival!”
“But,” Alta’s words fell on deaf ears as the fairy had flown away. “I have to work.”