Everything was completely dark. Morrigan could barely see the shape of objects closest to her.

"Why is it so dark in here?" she asked somewhat nervously.

"You'll see," Galandir replied, then took her hand and guided her through the darkness. She had no idea how he could see anything in the darkness, so it was likely that the elf was relying on some other sense to guide him. They walked for about a minute until the boy stopped. The bright light appeared in the middle of the stables, and Morrigan had no choice but to shield her eyes from it.

"Tada!" Galandir announced proudly while she was still waiting for her eyes to adjust to the light. But as they did an incredible scene appeared before her. Instead of just regular dragon stables that she was so used to seeing, there was lush grass growing on the far side of it. And it wasn't just grass.

In fact, it was filled with various plants and flowers which undoubtedly came from the Overworld. There were delicate rose bushes, lilies and irises growing alongside the far wall of the stable. Along the sides grew large, red strawberries and raspberries.

"H-How did you manage to do this? Just a few days ago there was nothing here," she gaped in shock and walked up to one of the rose bushes. She touched its petals to make sure they were real. It felt real, so she carefully sniffed at the flower and it had a delicate aromatic smell that she would associate with a rose. Morrigan even poked at one of the thorns and that too felt sharp and very much real.

"Oh, this little garden has been here for a while. I've brought some soil here, and slowly planted some grass from the backyard here. You know – the one you created with your paint magic and the servants had to scrape away from the floor. Haku really loved it when it grew lusher," Galandir said with a chuckle. Looking down at the grass, Morrigan saw that there were indeed some draconic pawprints in it.

"Okay, I understand the grass then, but where'd you get all these roses and strawberries," Morrigan asked went to pick one of the strawberries. It looked beautiful, red and ripe. She couldn't resist the temptation and took a bite. A sweet, tangy taste exploded on her tongue and she nearly melted from the bliss of it. "This is so good! It's been such a long time since I've had a strawberry."

"I got the idea from Gunna actually. She was looking for a way to grow roses in the Underworld. I helped her out since I can actually create light that perfectly mimics sunlight which plants need. So I got the idea that I could expand on this little garden and asked her if she could get me some seedlings," he said and then suddenly his face fell. Morrigan cocked her head curiously as she continued munching on the strawberry.

"How did you get them? How did Gunna get them?" she wondered. Her nanny didn't really have any real pull in the Demon Castle and neither did Galandir. How could they have acquired them from the Overworld? Galandir's face fell even further as if he were remembering something traumatic.

"It was… It was your magic teacher that helped," he admitted with a heavy sigh, his face turning pale.

"Azrael helped willingly?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, no! It definitely wasn't willingly. I had to pay quite the price," the elf boy looked to the side, his face losing all its color completely.

"Wait, what did he do?" she asked. Knowing Azrael, he wouldn't do anyone a favor unless he got something worthwhile out of it. But what could Galandir even offer that Azrael didn't have or couldn't acquire on his own?

"Some things are better left unsaid. But enough about that. The point is that I got the seedlings and grew them here using my light magic," he said proudly, pointing at the small but beautiful garden.

"But that still doesn't explain how you grew it so fast. I come to visit Haku often and I never saw a single plant here," Morrigan said with a raised eyebrow.

"A simple masking spell. As long as you didn't cross that threshold over there, you'd never be able to see this," he explained and pointed towards the place where the grass ended. Curious, Morrigan walked beyond the threshold. As soon as she had crossed it, the garden disappeared from sight.

"That's amazing! I need to learn magic like this," she noted.

"It's rather simple magic. I'm surprised you don't know it already," the elf boy noted.

"In my defense, my magic teacher is eager to teach me flashy spells. Forcing him to teach him anything that he deems 'boring' is nearly impossible," Morrigan groaned, remembering the time when she had begged him to teach her to create wards that would prevent eavesdropping. He knew the magic well, but apparently teaching it was boring.

"I-I'm honestly not surprised. He does seem like that kind of guy," Galandir sighed but then waved with his hand as if to ward away any unpleasant thoughts. "But enough about him. Enjoy your sixteenth birthday, Morrigan"

"Thank you, Galandir! This is… This is just great. With the light and the plants, it feels like I am in the Overworld," she said and took a deep breath, smelling the fresh scent of grass and flowers and berries.

"Oh, right I forgot the most important thing," Galandir said and snapped his fingers. Little flower petals began falling down from the ceiling, slowly descending like snow. She reached out her hand and caught one of the pink petals, watching how it shimmered with magic.

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"I couldn't get any cherry blossom trees to grow in the Underworld, so this is the best I could do," he said sheepishly.

"That's beautiful," she said, watching the shimmering petals fall onto the beautiful garden and feeling the wind caress her hair. Then she turned to Galandir and smiled. "Thank you. Truly. It is a wonderful gift."

"Wait… why are you crying then?" the boy panicked, running up to her.

"I'm not–" she was about to object, but then felt a warm teardrop roll down her cheeks. "Oh… I am crying. How silly of me! I'm not really sad. In fact, I am happy. I just never realized how much I missed all of this."

"Don't cry, you silly princess! Smell the flowers, eat berries," Galandir said and pulled out a napkin from his pocket. "Just don't cry."

"Sorry. But I truly am happy. I'll just eat more strawberries now," she replied sheepishly and turned to get more strawberries. But Galandir beat her to it and presented a bunch of the red delicious berries for her.

"Seems like I made the right choice by getting those seedlings," Azrael suddenly appeared right next to Morrigan. She jumped up from the shock of his sudden appearance, clutching at her chest.

"Azrael! Do you always have to appear out of thin air like that?" she grumbled at him, but the white-haired demon just shrugged.

"It's more fun that way," he said and plucked one of the raspberries out of Galandir's hand, popping it into his mouth. "These are pretty good."

"Hey, these are for Morrigan, not you," the elf boy growled, pulling the berries a safe distance away from the demon.

"It was really difficult to get those saplings you know," Azrael said pitifully.

"Was it really?" Morrigan asked, raising her eyebrow at him.

"Yes, it was! Would I ever lie to you?"

"Yes," she stated flatly, and Azrael pretended to be wounded, making a dramatic circle around them. She couldn't help but chuckle at his shenanigans.

"In either case, I came here because I couldn't find you in the ballroom. I have also prepared a gift for you," he said and then pulled out a gem out of his pocket.

"A magic gem. What does this one contain?" she asked, taking the colorful gem from his hand. It was a translucent black color, and for a moment she wondered whether it was a diamond. But looking more closely at the structure of the gem she realized it was actually quartz.

"Shadow teleportation," Azrael said proudly.

"Teleportation?!" Morrigan exclaimed, looking at the little stone in her hands. Suddenly it seemed all the more precious.

"No. Shadow teleportation. There's a difference," Azrael said sagely.

"What's the difference and how does it involve shadows?" she raised her eyebrow at him suspiciously.

"The difference is simple. This version of teleportation magic allows you to teleport only through shadows. It's how I've been teleporting around this whole time," the white-haired demon explained.

"Why did you give me the inferior version then?" Morrigan grumbled.

"So you don't get any silly ideas like teleporting to Overworld or someplace like that," he said, crossing his hand over his chest. Morrigan shrunk back a bit. "Also this version uses less magic energy."

"I wouldn't do that," she said, but couldn't meet his eye.

"If you wouldn't do that, then I would be quite sure that the real Princess Morrigan had been replaced with someone else," Azrael retorted with a smirk, and even Galandir nodded his head at that.

"Not you too, Galandir," she huffed, and after taking two strawberries out of his hands, walked out of the stables. "I'm going back to the ballroom."

"I think you made her mad," she heard the elf whisper to Azrael as she left.

"It's alright. She doesn't hold a grudge," the demon said nonchalantly.

***

The birthday festivities finished when it was already close to morning. Morrigan was absolutely exhausted from all the dancing and socializing she had to do, but even so, it had been mostly fun. Being the center of attention didn't bother her as much as it did before, although there were moments where she wished could escape from some conversations.

The next day, she woke up way past noon, and even then, she didn't feel fully rested.

"Good morning, Lady Morrigan," Gunna chirped happily, as she helped Morrigan get out of bed. She was barely computing her own actions, just moving automatically with what Gunna told her to do.

"Morning, Gunna," she yawned sleepily.

"Did you see young Galandir's gift yesterday?" the nanny asked curiously.

"Oh, yes. It was really great. Did you help him, Gunna?" she asked.

"Oh, just a little bit. The boy is far more talented at growing things than I am. But even so, I was surprised to see that you could grow something like strawberries or roses in the Underworld. I was sure that they would wither and die without proper sunlight," the nanny said.

"His magic apparently can mimic the sun perfectly," she replied sleepily.

"It must be some really powerful magic indeed. Creating light is not a big deal, even I, who has never been trained in magic, can do it. But recreating sunlight is a completely different thing. That boy never fails to surprise me," she continued, but this once again made Morrigan think of Galandir's origin.

He had claimed that he grew up in Overworld together with his mother. They lived in a small community of elves where he learned all the various magics that he could use. Then one day, the fallen attacked his village, killing his mother and taking him along as a slave.

The tale had raised many questions, but she held off from asking them on account that the boy must have been quite traumatized by these events. But Morrigan always wondered why someone would just randomly attack a small elf settlement and take only one boy with them as a slave. If their goal was to get more slaves it would have made more sense for them to capture able-bodied adults. But they had only taken him.

Either he is not telling me something or there is something weird going on.

"Lady Morrigan," Gunna gently shook Morrigan's shoulder and she looked at the nanny.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking about something. Did you say something, Gunna?" she asked.

"Yes. Master Alphegor has summoned you to his office. I believe he is ready to approve your journey officially."