The next day, Ether guy came in with a very confused look on his face. “Hanim Asa ohm lati?” (What [happened to] Asa’s spirit energy?) He said, and looked between me and Tia as he chuckled nervously. “Mein silu dir Asa-ra u Tia-ra.” (I don’t know [which] is Asa and [which] is Tia now.)

I had my suspicions that was how he was always able to tell us apart without even looking at us. Now, the question is whether that just now was some kind of joke, or if he really is only able to tell with that energy sense method.

Tia suddenly got an absolutely evil grin on her face at this point, after which she stood up and did a fairly good impression of toddling toward him, making me rather glad I had spent so much time teaching her how to fake being clumsy and in the early stages of walking like that.

He stared down at her and visibly started to get more nervous. “Ahhh asu ma Tia. Catla, sanmah.” (Yeaah, I think that’s Tia. Catla, [can you] please…?)

Catla immediately rushed to his rescue and ran to secure Tia. As soon as she was safely in Catla’s arms, Tia immediately started giggling while still looking at Ether guy.

“Cacasilu-ra darun!” ([that] is not funny child!/not funny you child!) “Kagar ushra lu-ohm zillu dara!” (you can seriously hurt someone like that!) He had used the word “ra” a little strangely there. It was a word that had 2 meanings in the language I had heard, and he was using it in a way that made it hard to tell which one he meant. It was their word for “you,” but it can also be a stronger form of “is” depending on the context. Yes, their language also seemed to have 2 different words that roughly meant “is.”

On a more serious note, though, it sounded like this whole energy eating thing was taken a lot more seriously here than I’d realized before. At least when the target was an elf. Tia had explained that humans were the source of spirit energy, and the fey were made from the stuff. As such, it really might be doing more serious damage to the elves while for humans it’s more like licking the sweat off their arm. Creepy, but not actually harmful.

While giving Tia a wide berth, he approached and then knelt down in front of me with a serious face. Then, he suddenly picked me up . “Ecar mein kagilu su, lati-rin ma kesdar.” (I can’t tell here, [the] abundant spirit energy is disruptive.) “Mein eihar amar la-su, mein ii gensu.” (I [will] examine her at my house, I [will] bring [her there]) He said to Catla and then retrieved my hat, to make certain my hair was hidden, before walking down the stairs.

I was quite surprised by this sudden turn of events. The moment I figured out how to hide my spirit energy, I was going to be brought outside the very next day. Although, in this case, it seemed like it was out of some kind of concern on his part.

Once we were on the lower floor, I looked around and saw no external doors. Ether guy did not seem concerned at all about this, though. He just continued walking straight towards a solid wall. I had some suspicion about what was going to happen. Whenever we were left alone, they used their elven wood magic to make the floor close up and cover the stairs. But, although I had a good guess as to what was about to happen, it was still somewhat strange to see the wall simply opened up like an automatic door as we were approaching it.

“Tiikis-ud sik… uhh… Nymph,” (thank you sik[itii], uhh… Nymph.) he said, speaking over his shoulder and then looked back to me with a knowing smile. As for what he was thinking behind that face, I couldn’t really say. But, the next thing he said shed some light on things “Asu ama ra dardu,” (they must like you) he said.

They? Is he talking about Nymph? Argh! I couldn’t really make sense of this right now. I had other things on my mind. Namely, seeing what the world outside of this tree I’d spent the first year locked inside of looked like.

It looked a lot like one might imagine a tree-based fantasy elven village would look like.. There was barely any infrastructure. There were no roads, and what amounted to construction was nothing more or less than the area being dominated by a single variety of fairly broad tree. If it were not for the windows built into the sides of these trees, one might mistake this for just a perfectly average grove of alarmingly thick trees.

As I tried to look up toward the canopy, I was quickly assailed by the harsh glare of the direct sunlight. In this world, this was the first time I had ever been outdoors, and my eyes were really not used to handling this.

I squinted my eyes in annoyance. I really wanted to see what was around me, but my eyes… huh? My eyes? When I looked up again, my vision had gotten a shade darker, as though I had slipped on a pair of sunglasses. It wasn’t just that either, the darkening of my vision seemed especially effective at dampening the sun-glair through the trees. Whatever had happened, it was more effective than even the best sunglasses on the market back on Earth at making the light more tolerable without really harming my ability to see.

It was not a powerful enough effect to allow me to look directly at the sun, but if I looked up at the sky now I found that I didn’t even have to squint.

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My head snapped back around to look at Ether guy. Did he cast some kind of spell? He didn’t seem to be paying a lot of attention to me, though. His attention was on the other elves, and there was a tension in his body that suggested he was on his guard for something.

Everything about him suggested that this was no leisurely stroll through the village for him. He seemed like someone who saw this entire area as hostile, and the threat he was expecting came from the others.

He brought up a hand to cover my body and hold my hat down, and then sulked off through the grove of houses/trees. He pressed my face into his shoulder, blocking off my vision of the outside world I had finally managed to see. I found it annoying, but I was no idiot. I had picked up on how serious he was about all this. I did not understand why, all I knew was that it would be a bad thing if anyone got a good look at me.

I had already seen enough of how normal children in this world looked to realize the difference between myself and them. Like Tia, I had hair that was a strange matte grey color, and my skin was also a sickly looking shade of bluish grey like someone who had died of respiratory failure. I did not understand what kind of significance these things held for the elves, but it is very clear that Ether guy considered it to be a very bad thing if people came to know about these things.

I could probably find out more if I was to open up to him and let him know about my adult-level intelligence, but that could also backfire on me very easily. What if it caused me to lose the one true pillar of support that I had right now in this world?

It was definitely annoying. I could sense that there was something wrong, but I didn’t understand what. It was unnerving, and all I could do was trust this guy.

“Eirlathion uman,” (Master Eirlathion.) My thoughts were interrupted when I heard someone call out toward the quickly moving man who was carrying me.

“Idpa sigdu,” (Sick baby) he said in a gruff tone that shut down all conversation, and hurried on without missing a single step.

Well, that’s definitely one way to handle this kind of covert action. He was moving in a way that would absolutely attract attention, but that lie would cover it well.

In short order, we arrived at another tree. He placed his hand on the trunk of this one, and I was able to feel a change in the way his body’s energy moved. It somehow seemed a lot easier to sense after I started concealing my own energy, and right now I could sense his was flowing down his arm and into the trunk of the tree. Like that was the key, the tree opened up like thick locks of hair being parted and pushed aside, revealing the dark cave of the interior that, although lit by the same luminescent roof full of leaves as our room, seemed quite dark by comparison to the natural light outdoors.

He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he was inside, immediately revealing the lie he had just told to the elf outside. In the meantime, the magic effect I seemed to have subconsciously cast to darken my vision faded, so I could take in more of this inside light.

He held me a little further away from himself and looked me in the eyes. “Mana la-su ra lati dirsen,” (Now, let’s see your spirit energy.) he said, and then held up a hand, as his eyes became a little unfocused. After that, his face dropped into one of unpleasant surprise and deep confusion.

“Imas. La-ilu.” (Strange. [I] sense nothing.) He muttered, and then moved across the room and ascended the stairs, still with me in hand. He brought me up a flight of stairs and seemed to be going for a second set of stairs in order to ascend to a 3rd floor when he was held up by the voice of a woman. I had seen her when we came up. She was sitting in some kind of prayer position. She looked up when heard us, and seemed shocked when she saw me in Ether guy’s arms.

“Eirlathion Uman, ah Sigdu? (Master Eirlathion, that baby?) she said.

“Aya, Asaren ii. Amar enlasu, mein gensu imaki.” (Yes, it is Asaren. I [am] bringing her upstairs [to] examine [her]) He said. Unlike with the person who spotted him before, this time he actually stopped and turned to this woman, and then removed the cap from my head.

I was surprised at this action and panicked for a second, but when I saw the pained expression on the woman’s face, everything clicked into place in my mind.

She averted her eyes and was staring at the floor as though her eyes were trying to bore a hole in it.

“Mein gin gen su?” ([Would you like to] come with me [and] know [what happens?]) He asked.

“Amar idpa?” ([Is] she sick?) she asks.

“Su-ilu. Austen mein ii-ilu. In asu kalga-dara, main iksu.” ([I] don’t know. I don’t think so. It could possibly be a good thing, [but] I [have] to find out.) Ether guy told her.

“In asu?” (Could possibly?) the woman repeated the words as though she thought it was very strange to hear that particular combination, and then she shook her head. “Mein ekarra.” (I will stay.) She said.

Ether guy looked very disappointed to hear that, but then he just nodded. “Igasar,” ([I] see) he said, and then walked the rest of the way up the stairs.

So, that was my mother, huh? Well, I didn’t know that for sure, but it is a little hard to think otherwise after that exchange.

The third floor room he brought me to seemed like it might have felt rather magical if I had not just been party to that conversation on the lower floor. The entire room was completely covered from bottom to top in plants.

There was a huge diversity of plants, divided into what looked like fully cultivated miniature biomes. And instead of windows, he had an entire side of the tree opened up to allow light in. My guess would be it is the North or South facing wall, depending on what side of the equator we are on.

He set me up on a counter on the opposite side of the room, though, and then he extended a hand toward my chest, hovering it about 3 inches away from touching me. He immediately got a look of very deep concentration, and I could sense the flow of his energy again.

The slight fear that was on his face seemed to fade, but a look of utter bafflement replaced it. “Kalga, irtii ra deslada. Mara…” (Good, at least your spirit [is] stable. But...) “Ganim ma kana?” (How is this possible?) He said with a sigh. It is starting to look like my absence of detectable spirit energy is a bigger shock than I thought it would be.

After a little more poking and prodding and various comments expressing confusion, he finally wound up taking me back home.