With a blanket of stars hung above the great plain. Four figures emerged from between the tents onto a large open clearing made specifically for today’s feast. The barren land bore the marks of the tents which had been pulled out and their foundations flattened causing the elf to try to imagine humans from across Vita’s pulling down entire buildings just to make space for a festival.
At the edges of the newly open space, large pillows made for sitting lay on a blanket of animal hides shaped into a horse’s shoe. A large pyre made from bushels of dried grass stood in the centre of the horse’s shoe await for a spark to set it alight.
Nu herded the three toward the closest end furthest from the central peek where Iris spotted the distinct attire of Kasheng.
When the three took their seats Nu jogged to her teacher and kneeled beside her, leaning her body toward Kasheng who lifted her hand to cover her mouth while she spoke.
Iris watched the young shaman disappear between the tents before taking a peak at Kia sitting between her and Nu’s empty seats. The pale girl remained adamant about keeping her hood down to the elf’s displeasure evidently wanting to mirror the human custom.
Watching her mistress now, the elf noticed the wonder fuelled furnace inside Kia had been extinguished as she sat perfectly still with her hands laid flat on her knees radiating the aura of seriousness as she silently observed what was happening around her.
“Hey.” Ba leaned toward Kia. Not showing any hints of what happened previously today.
The girl remained still, showing no sign of noticing the boy until Iris nudged her lightly.
“Mmm?” Kia turned her head slightly toward the tall risen who pointed at the human behind her.
“Hey,” Ba’s freckled cheeks gained a bit of a reddish hue as the porcelain doll turned toward him. “This is for you, for saving my life.” He pulled out his hand from a pocket and presented Kia with a bracelet. The bracket resembled tree branches twisted together to create its crescent moon shape.
Kia carefully took the bracelet from the boy whose face lit up with joy and lifted it into the air against the full moon. Looking over the girl's shoulder, Iris saw the golden-blue light illuminate the wooden bracelet as she began to move it around trying to find something.
"Why is there no enchantment on this accessory?" The necromancer spoke aloud before turning toward the elf.
Kia's face furrowed into a familiar frown to Iris expression of total bewilderment she often made whenever she encounter something not conforming to her ridiculous norms especially if it came to magic. Behind the adorably expressive girl, Ba's bright eyes lost their spark as he looked down while his face solidified into a gloomy mask.
"I don't think shamans can enchant weapons or anything for that matter." The elf answered the necromancer's question feeling strangely happy and unable to control a small smile from appearing on her face.
"Wait, they can't?" The snow-white girl's face appeared even more confused. "What type of mage can't enchant items? It's so simple I can do it right now." She announced loudly which brought the attention of the surrounding humans alongside Ba who appeared to be cured of his gloomy affliction.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
As soon as the undead mage's words escaped her mouth the bracelet began to glow with pale light as she began to whisper to herself.
Snow-like particles resembling fireflies began to appear around Kia before being pulled into the bracelet glowing ever brighter with each of the white droplets entering it.
What the petite girl wearing a confident smile doing in front of Iris was amazing although the elf should have been used to Kia's jaw-dropping shenanigans. In actuality, very few people can pick up a random item and begin to enchant it. Seeing how Alicia took hours sitting with dozen of tools laid in front of her to enchant a single piece of equipment with a high-level enchantment describing it long, laborious and annoying task akin to trying to fit a square peg into a circular hole and seeing what works. To her knowledge, the only people who could enchant with their bare hands were people blessed with talent related to enchanting or highly experienced mages who specialise in enchanting.
Iris noticed that the humans began to approach them trying to get a better view of the spectacle the girl was creating. In the sea of sparkling eyes and amazed smiles Iris's brows furrowed as she spotted Kia's colourful eyes slowly diluting into a blank stare. In an instant, the air close to the girl seemed to jostle with energy as her eyes rolled backwards.
Iris was left with a green cloak in her hand as Kia's body hit the ground with a dull thump. She quickly picked up the mumbling girl and began lightly slapping her on her soft cheek which had gotten a little bit of dust on it.
"Nyu?" The risen let a heavy sigh of relief as her mistress grunted while staring at the elf above her before shifting her eyes away.
"?" Glancing in the same direction the dame star-raven was looking, Iris noticed that above the bracelet ever-changing images made out of colourful light hung still. She somehow felt that the fading blur of images was familiar to her. Focusing as hard as she could on the light show she could spot a mesh made out of light in which letters were stamped onto just like the girl had shown her back in Firmusa.
"Huray!"
"Wow!"
"Yay!"
Cheers erupted from the observing humans as the mirage pulsed with one final wave of energy before silently exploding into a cloud of beautiful white specks. The wind seemed to not have an effect on the hovering specks of light as they slowly drifted outward in all directions away from the centre of the explosion.
The camp turned quiet as the specks of pale light began to glimmer in the moon's light and began to turn colour slowly filling the square with rainbow colours.
"What did you do?" The risen asked as she looked away from the beautiful scenery.
"I-I don't know," Kia replied as the doubled blanket of stars reflected off her large eyes. "I got carried away and started to add more and more enchantments."
"Why were you even surprised that the bracelet didn't have an enchantment," Iris lifted the girl's cheek so her eyes could meet. "You never asked that question before."
"That accessory had mana stuck in it so I wondered if it had a single-use enchantment or rune on it." The petite undead replied as she tried to sit back up only to be pushed down by the elf.
"I can feel how tired you got, young lady." The older-looking undead stated to the ancient as she placed the girl's head between her thighs and began to stroke her hair while underneath the cloud of colours.
"What happened to it?" The elf heard Ba's voice and looked up and saw him holding the bracelet which had become like metal with the outside cords becoming black as Kia's hair with an opaque glass of pure white running in the middle.
"OooOoh! Can I see it?" The mage outstretched her hand and opened her palm. "Mmmm, it crystallised." She said, already disinterested in what she was holding as if the mystery was ruined while her slender finger ran on the bracelet's varnished surface.
"What do you say." Iris poked the mage on the forehead.
"Thank you...grumble, grumble." She pouted causing the elf's finger to come down again and poke her. "Au!"
"No, need for thanking me." The boy said as his foot began to dig a trench while he stood in front of the two undead.
"Here," Kia weaselled herself from under the elf's hands and offered the changed trinket to the boy. She turned her body around and saw the frowning elf causing her to turn back toward Ba. "Please... t-thank you..." She said before massaging her forehead, invoking the elf to sigh.
"Thank-k you but... I lack words to describe this. I can't accept your gift with an honest heart," Ba declined while he shook his hands in front of himself. His body was slightly slumped as he stared at previously his gift turned into a beautiful work of art by the mage's mistake. "Iris looks like she likes it though."
"You do?" Kia asked the elf in question. As she was about to open her mouth the girl grabbed her hand and put the magically transformed trinket onto her wrist. "Here you go, it fits your hair and skin." The girl happily complemented the elf while unknowingly leaving two people around her in an awkward position.
"I-it really does."
"Thank you very much." Iris couldn't bring herself to get annoyed at the girl and took the opportunity to hug the soft black-feathered raven and bring her back into her warm cage. "Both of you." She added.
The three fell into silence as the rest of the camp still wondered at the beautiful display of colours around them. The children ran between everyone in a quest to catch as much of the little wisps of light leaving giggly havoc in their wake. Some of them even ran with their little mouths open trying to taste the strange and exotic sources of light.
"What happened here?!”