I left my family to sleep away the night and made my way out of the tower. I deliberately decided to walk so I could meet the people. Since it was just after lunchtime, quite a few were around.

I greeted Bert, the guard posted at the southern gate right next to the watchtower. The man gave me a smile and a nod. A few houses later, I ran into a group of brats playing tag that stopped to shout my name. Gus, Pete, and Mini were circling me and blabbering about all kinds of nonsense before the smith, Rubeos, chased them off. We had stopped not far from his smithy and he wanted to concentrate. I promised the kids to play together later. I wanted to spend the night here, anyway. It was only a few hours to Gobburgh so I could probably leave late in the morning.

Rubeos gave me a nod and returned to his work as I walked down to the plaza. More villagers waved and greeted me, some even engaging in a bit of small talk. They were very happy to have my family here hunting all the vermin. Apparently, there were a few village cats that had problems finding enough food which was why my brothers were now exclusively hunting in the forest. The others still took out some rats in and around the buildings.

The plaza looked much the same as I remembered it. There was a crowd of people going about their lives, working and talking and playing. A pleasant feeling of autumn was in the air. I heard someone talking about the second harvest they would have in a month or two. Our growth accelerator was working, it seemed.

I nodded at smiling faces as I walked up to the chief’s house. Knocking with my shadows was not really a thing. They were too soft to produce a noise. But I could lift a pebble from the ground with them and bring it to the door. I heard shuffling inside as a chair was pushed aside. The distinct voices of Mira and Joanne laughed and a third, somewhat husky, joined them.

The door opened and the woman of the house looked confused for a moment before seeing me at her feet. Her puzzlement instantly turned into a smile.

“Fio! You made it! Come on in.”

She stepped aside to let me into the dining hall. As expected, Mira was sitting at the table. My mother was sitting on top of it. Literally sitting. She had crossed her legs. Herbert, the former [Village Head], rested in a rocking chair a bit off to the side and was paging through a book.

“Hello”, I said and added a hoot.

My mother answered with a hoot of her own while Mira waved. Herbert blinked, gave me a nod, and returned to his reading.

“Come, take a seat”, Joanne said, “Tell me everything. How is my baby girl doing?”

I hopped onto a chair, still tall enough to look above. I was only a few centimetres shorter than the sitting [Witch].

“Oh, she’s doing great. Though we did not get much time for witchcraft.”

Mira inclined her head.

“That’s expected. You’ve been mostly on the road, after all.”

I nodded.

“She did manage to find herself a familiar, though”, I said, “And it’s not me.”

“Oh?”, Joanne smirked, “What stole her fancy, then?”

“A raven”, I said with mock disgust.

My mother squawked in outrage.

“What? Stupid!”

Her voice was a husky, almost gravelly tone. There was something distinctly inhuman about it. Like gargling gravel and blistering blaze.

“I’m happy she found someone”, I grinned, “Even if it’s one of them.”

“Did it attack you?”

“No. It was smart enough to keep civil.”

She clicked her tongue.

“Fine.”

“Ravens make for great familiars”, Mira said, “They are the second best when it comes to birds.”

Mother glared at her.

“Second to owls, obviously. There is no big difference in Intelligence. Ravens mostly have a little less Wisdom, though. On average.”

“What’s its name?”, Joanne asked.

“Mex. His name is Mex. And he needs three more points for sapience.”

Mother clicked her tongue again.

“That was… three days ago. Yup.”

“You took three days to come here?”, Mira asked, “Wait, how far did you even make it? The Knight said you were going to the Cathedral.”

“Yup. We made it all the way there. Two weeks by cart plus a few days of rest in the Capital and then meeting the Clerics.”

“So, it takes you three days what takes a cart two weeks?”, Joanne asked.

“No. It takes me one day. I visited some friends in the Capital, first. There are some… things going on.”

“Things?”

Mother tilted her head.

“Sorry. It’s bad news. I'll just say that the Crimson Church wants to ally itself with the dwarves. And I’m going out to find more resources and potential help.”

“And you’re not going to give us the details?”, Joanne asked.

“Well… How about I just begin with the journey itself?”

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I told them the whole story. Slightly abbreviated, of course. I did not go into the full details but I talked about a great danger to the world that the Church was trying to prevent. They were a little confused at that. Not too much, though. The revelation that we had not only met the royal family of Eterios but befriended them had taken much of their attention before that.

I finished by handing over Circe’s letter.

“So, your daughter wants to go with Alex to see the dwarves.”

Joanne pressed her lips together. Despite the slight distress, she took the letter and opened it. I observed her eyes rushing over the lines. Slowly, her mien turned from confusion into shock and then into a soft smile. She put the paper down and carefully ran a finger over the writing. Finally, she looked up.

“Thank you Fio, for keeping Circe safe”, she said with sincerity.

I nodded.

“And for being her friend. I… would like her to visit before she travels to far-off lands.”

I blinked.

“Well… I could bring her an answer.”

“You have things to do”, my mother interjected, “I will deliver.”

“You’ll need to make it to the Capital in two days. It’s a long journey.”

“I will. Deliver.”

“Alright. Follow the road north and when you get to the first city, keep following it north to the next city. It has a large palace and church in the centre and is split by a wide road all the way through. You should wait for them on the road coming in from the west. They’ll travel by cart.”

Mother nodded.

“I leave today”, she said to Joanne.

“Thank you”, the woman smiled, “I’ll get to writing, then.”

“Add in that she needs to be level 25 in her Class when she comes back. Otherwise, Yuuna will be the local [Witch] after me.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Now”, Mira stretched her arms, “Why don’t we move to my hut, Fio? I have something I want you to take a look at.”

“Okay. Go ahead, I’ll be with you in a minute.”

The [Witch] moved to the door as I jumped on the table. I walked up to my mother and started preening her. She basked in the attention.

“It’s good to see you again”, I said.

“Yes. Come back.”

“Of course.”

I took my time fixing the feathers on her head. By the time I left, Mira was no longer visible so I took to the air. I spotted her almost at the hut, arriving on the porch just as she stepped onto the clearing.

“You’re late”, I said in my most raspy old-man voice.

“Oh? I am a [Witch]. I can not be late. Nor early. I will always be right where I want to be.”

I chuckled.

Mira opened the door with a smile and beckoned me inside.

“I am serious, little Fio. I have a very good sense of timing. It is one of my Skills.”

“I see. Does that have to do with what you want to show me?”

“No. Not quite. Rather, look here.”

She opened up one of the cupboards on ground level and I stared.

“Where did you get so many vis crystals?”

There was a cleanly built rack holding all kinds of colourful stones. I spotted at least ten aspects at first glance and at least thirty crystals. She opened the door next to it and the sight repeated itself. All of them were medium size. The third door she opened showed two major crystals. That… might be enough for one person. If they were careful.

“Your family has been very successful in scouting the mountains. Especially your father. I told them to bring back only medium or larger and only one crystal per node.”

“But he said they hadn’t found a major node, yet.”

“Well, not quite. This one”, she indicated the brown bestia crystal, “was something he traded from a [Node Guardian]. The beaver was happy to receive some crystals of other aspects, even if they were only medium. And the other one”, she pointed at the black tenebrae crystal, “was from a spider colony.”

“Selene?”, I asked.

“You know her?”

“I do. What did you trade for the crystal?”

“A few basic materials. Iron, wood, leather. We took a slight loss and she promised us to trade more once she could spare them.”

“That’s… Selene is a bit radical. Be careful when you deal with her. I only wanted to visit her again once I had some more info but I might have to go before leaving on my journey.”

“Is she that big of a risk?”

“She is unhinged and knows some thaumaturgy. She was a Cleric of the Crimson Church, about a century ago. They chased her out because she had some dangerous ideas.”

Mira sat down with a serious face.

“How dangerous, exactly?”

“That threat to the world… she wants to use taint to make it easier to deal with.”

“… taint? That vile virus that ends all life?”

“To be fair, the Church is considering it as a last resort. It’s just… that dangerous.”

“… Fio. Please tell me about the thing more dangerous than what the Church has condemned as the ultimate evil for centuries.”

“I… Okay.”

I gave her the full story and made her promise not to spread it. After all, rumours spreading could make the population panic. Mira agreed after she had learned about the node.

“So… it is corrupting ourselves to survive and possibly never being able to fix it or… simply disappearing?”

“Pretty much”, I said.

“I can see why that would be kept a secret.”

“We have some options. But we only have a few decades left to figure out what to do. And some resources, like silverwood, are very rare. That’s why I’m going out into the Deep Green. We need to make our better options more likely to work.”

Mira sighed.

“Very well. So this Selene might taint the world if we keep supplying resources to her?”

“It’s not impossible”, I said, “but I’ll talk to her. The people that threw her out are pretty much all dead so… We might have a chance.”

“Do that”, the [Witch] nodded, “In the meantime, let us enjoy some tea.”

I let out a deep breath and felt my body relax.

“Yes, let’s.”