MEETING ROOM, LUNA MONOLITH

Four days before the attack on Iolite

In the meeting room of the Luna Monolith, the fairy princess and the guru sat opposite each other. On the table, there was an antique tea set filled with Earl Grey tea.

“Have you brought him to a cleric? Amnesia shouldn’t be too hard to cure.”

“I would have if it worked. If you wish, you can try. His memories never came back to him, as if it was robbed of him.”

Lucia sipped her tea. This time was the truth. Robbed memories were intriguing.

“But how can the boy remember the artifact?” Lucia asked.

Guru Adrastos smiled with a twinkle in his eye. He placed his hands under his chin. “Fascinating, isn’t it, Princess? His memories were gone, but his knowledge remained. If I recall correctly, this trinket was made for a friend that had the curse. Sadly, now he doesn’t remember who he made it for or why. Only the details of what the artifacts were and the components remained.”

“How is that living? This is very inhumane,” Lucia commented, feeling sympathetic.

Half-truth and half-lie once more. Something was off. Guru Adrastos remained quiet for a while. With this quietness, she took a glance around the room. The window panels were a blur, unable to see the world outside as if she was trapped in a dream.

She let the tea travel down her throat, giving her time to process the scene. “Let’s talk business now, will we? What do you wish for in exchange for the artifact?” She asked.

“I don’t want gold or items. After you leave the Luna Monolith, I only ask of you to not spread or ask about Ian,” the elder said, sipping his cup of tea.

Her breath slowed down, mainly to calm her nerves. The longer she stayed in this room, the more she sensed something wrong. The bookshelves were filled with books she recognized. Wait. Was it all the books she recognized? Could it be a coincidence? Books of foreign languages, her favorite tales, and the list went on. Even the cloth on the table resembled the one she had at her study long ago, bearing similar cuttings and lace patterns. She closed her eyes and fought the strange nostalgia in her.

“May I ask why?” She asked defensively. She tasted the Earl Grey tea once more, strangely the taste of the tea diminished, like plain water. The usual fragrance of Earl Grey was no more.

“I understand your concern, Princess. With all due respect, these amnesiac periods occur randomly. It was hard to understand the cause of the trigger,” Guru Adrastos explained.

Lucia’s eyes caught a sudden wave in the air and a slight dissociation of his voice. She recognized the illusion. With that, she summoned her magic energy from within her.

“Considered it done, I don’t have much choice anyway. I’m amazed by your spell, Guru Adrastos, but it’s not nice to be the target of it. Utilizing the figments of my imagination is indeed impressive.” The princess said softly, the incantations in Elven, “Let me see the world for how it truly is.”

Her wings glittered light green.

Guru Adrastos raised an eyebrow and sighed. Like a mirror being smashed into a million pieces, the illusion broke. The room that was filled with items to her liking now disappeared. The royal chair and table with the intricate decorations were gone. Lucia found herself sitting on a wooden chair and table, drinking plain water from a wooden cup.

“Now, why would you do that?” The Guru Adrastos asked. “This spell was hard to conjure.”

The princess blinked a few times and held her head. “Guru Adrastos, I should be the one asking you that question,” Lucia said dreamily as if waking up from a dream. This illusion was different from the usual ones. It brought you to a dream, whispered to you with offers of comfort. If it weren’t for his half-lie, she would have never guessed.

“The tales of a strong fairy princess ring far and wide. Even the angels celebrated your birth. I wanted you to have the most comfortable experience. I never had the intention of harming you.”

Lucia’s eyes widened. That’s right. Her curse. What if it was all a lie? It didn’t disappear. She immediately checked her right hand. Not a speck of black flame was present. The trinket was resting on her palm, gleaming with joy.

“I prefer the harsh reality. That means I can face it head-on and move forward,” Lucia said stubbornly. She hesitated a little before speaking further. “Guru Adrastos, why wasn’t this available in the market? I’m sure someone would be willing to buy these. That way, won’t humans be respected? Even by a little.”

As soon as she finished her sentence, a chill crawled up her skin. She could sense anger behind the brow of the elderly, but she saw Guru Adrastos wearing a smile on his face.

“Perhaps they would be. But remember this, Princess. If a cure exists, more Creations would be tempted by the offers of devils and demons.”

Lucia gazed at her arm. The trinket was a marvelous invention. No one would ever suspect that the princess was once cursed by the Abyss. So many lives could have been saved.

“We wouldn’t want that, would we?” Guru Adrastos asked. “Especially if it was invented by a human.”

Lucia locked her eyes on him. She said, “Creations have never liked humans because they didn’t contribute to the Divine war. Because they never put any effort into building this world. Yes, they may not wield magic and are weak, but isn’t this a start?”

One of Guru Adrastos’s eyes widened. With a low and stern voice, he said, “Lucia, the humans never had a place in this world.”

Lucia went quiet and her eyes widened. The silence hung heavy in the air. Lucia’s mind was in turmoil, struggling to process the words that had been spoken. What does he mean?

Guru Adrastos said, “The trinket is yours to keep. We do have the blueprints available. If you ever wanted to reproduce this.”

“Ian will show you to your room. If you need anything, he will know what to do.”

Guru Adrastos disappeared away in a flash.

Princess Lucia did not mind sitting on a wooden chair in the middle of an empty room. It allowed her to sort her thoughts. The silence was broken by the sound of a knock on the door. “Princess, I can show you to your room.”

The fairy stood up, dusting away any dirt on her apparel. Out the door, a man almost twice her size greeted her. She was quite tall for a fairy, reaching about 110 centimeters. The human before her was taller, reaching about 180 centimeters.

Her wings fluttered gently, suspending her from the ground. After a moment of awkward silence, she said, “Guru Adrastos told me about your situation. I’m sorry to hear that.”

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Ian looked at her, surprised. “Why would you be?”

Lucia tried to read his facial expression. It was filled with a mixture of emptiness and curiosity. “It’s just a token of formality, human. I have no intentions of befriending you.”

“Not after Martha’s wish,” he commented.

The fairy’s body came to a stop. “How do you know about Martha’s wish?” A human boy who didn’t understand manners knew about the global phenomenon that shook the world. That didn’t make any sense.

‘Wish’ was a gift given by the Gods to the fairy kin. If it was within the power of the Gods, a wish can be granted to another Creation. For every wish granted by the fairy, his/her life span was removed. Of course, the duration depended on the strength of the wish. Fairies have a long life span of seven centuries. It wasn’t a huge issue granting a few wishes here and there those costs for days or weeks.

“I’m not sure,” Ian started. “Martha wanted to help the humans to build a nation of their own, but ended up spending her entire life force for a single wish.”

Princess Lucia grew solemn, her gaze turned fierce as she stared at the ground. “Martha was one of the most talented fairies alive. When she was an adventurer, she had accomplished a lot by clearing the chaos dungeons.”

“The chaos dungeons, are they dangerous?” Ian asked.

It’s common sense, isn’t it? A small thought dashed past Lucia’s mind. But she kept having to remind herself that Ian couldn’t leave the library. “Yes, human. The miasma of the Abyss seeps out from these dungeons, creating monsters.”

Ian nodded slightly, paying attention to every word she said.

“Martha,” Lucia sighed. “After her days of adventuring, she decided to live in a village full of humans. Then, it was known as the village of Enlil, Serenity Coast. There, she protected the humans from harm, but...”

Lucia stopped herself, looking back at Ian, hesitating to continue her sentence. If she had said this in public, she would most likely be slapped to oblivion. Ian understood the message immediately and finished the sentence. “The humans abused this opportunity to use up her entire life force with the power of fairy wishes.”

Lucia clicked her tongue, “As long as you’re aware of it, human. Life of a single Creation for a village of humans. In the end, I learned that the villagers killed each other. Ungrateful. That was pretty unfair, don’t you think?”

The boy gave a forced smile, shutting his eyes tight, trying his best to think. “I’m not sure about weighing the lives of a Creation with a village of humans, Princess. Things could have been different, but it wasn’t.”

Lucia rolled her eyes. What more could she expect of a human?

“I’m bored already. What else is there other than books?” Lucia asked, whizzing around the library, trying to catch the books that were floating around.

As Lucia carefully examined the old parchment before her. Ian’s attention was drawn to a faint shuffling sound emanating from the jumbled heap of books in the corner. His keen eyes narrowed as he tried to discern the source of the movement. Tip-toeing, he silently stalked toward the book pile.

Lucia looked up, curious at Ian’s sudden distraction. “What’s wrong?” she asked softly.

Ian’s voice was barely a whisper. “There’s something there,” he replied, his hand reaching out to grasp one of the books. But before he could touch it, the entire pile began to vibrate violently, as if shaken by an unseen force. And then, with a sudden burst of movement, a small, white creature leaped out of the books and into the air.

Ian gasped in amazement as he studied the strange creature before him. With its fangs and dragon horns, it looked more like a miniature wyrmling than a snake. But it was unlike any wyrmling he had ever seen, not that he saw any before this. It had white scales resembling paper and four tiny legs. Two wings made of paper grew out of its back.

“It’s a bookwyrm!” Ian exclaimed, his eyes shining with wonder. The bookwyrm was a legendary creature, known to dwell within ancient books. Because of that, it was highly sought after by wizards and sages in search of arcane knowledge.

Lucia, who wasn’t paying attention, asked, “A what?” When she looked up, her eyes widened in amazement as she gazed upon the creature.

Ian didn’t answer, taking a step forward and his hand outstretched. The bookwyrm darted away from him, gliding across the room in a blur of white scales. Ian’s eyes were fixated on the creature’s movement, chasing after it. The creature darted behind bookshelves, reappearing the next. When the creature escaped to the center of the library, it immediately dived the spiral staircase about three floors down.

Lucia watched in horror as Ian followed the bookwyrm, jumping three floors down through the center of the spiral stairs. Lucia’s wings fluttered harder, cursing under her breath and determined to heal the broken bones of an idiotic human. But to her surprise, he landed safely on his feet and continued to chase after a bookwyrm.

The bookwyrm led Ian to a wall between bookshelves and vanished. Ian’s running came to a stop as he gasped for breath, sweat trickling down his neck. “Where did it go?”

“Bookwyrms were generally known to be evasive. I don’t think you would be able to see anything,” Lucia said, following him from the back.

Ian was brimming with excitement, grinning from ear to ear as he searched for something interesting in the library. “No, there must be something, like a puzzle!” he exclaimed, looking around eagerly. Lucia was skeptical, but she joined in the search, nonetheless. They found themselves facing a wall made of bricks, about four meters high and twice Ian’s size. From a distance, the wall looked like any other part of the library, but upon closer inspection, there was an irregular pattern of bricks.

Ian muttered excitedly under his breath, “Bookwyrm, bookwyrm...” as he searched for an anomaly in the wall. Most bricks were neatly arranged, while some of the bricks had different sizes and were arranged in a geometrical pattern. Ian saw a large round brick surrounded by seven small ones near the top of the wall and whispered, “I think I see stars.” Like recognizing a constellation, Lucia joined the bricks together. She noticed a pattern at the bottom of the wall and pointed it out. “I see a woman pouring water from a jug.”

As they spoke, the creature materialized in thin air, carrying a dark leather-bound book. The cover of the book was pitch black, bordered with intricate patterns of swirling lines. There was no cover, but it was decorated with layers and layers of mystic clouds that seemed to swirl and dance before their eyes. The spine of the book was lined with gold and royal blue lines, which gave the impression of an ancient book.

The creature transformed into a leather belt and locked the book, sealing its secrets within. They found themselves drawn to the mystery of the book. A powerful and divine aura radiated from its golden encasing, filling the surrounding air with palpable energy. They knew that they had stumbled upon an ancient and precious book, one that was filled with untold secrets and mysteries waiting to be uncovered.

Ian was ecstatic and whispered, “I told you.”

“Shut up,” Lucia said, embarrassed. “Look, the title of the book is all muddled up. I think we need to guess the title of the book to continue.”

Ian took a deep breath and took a few steps back. He started to see the lady pouring water out of a jug from the different shapes and sizes of the bricks. “It’s based on tarot cards, I think,” Ian realized, looking at the bigger picture.

“Tarot cards?” She asked. Lucia had never heard of it before.

“It’s a pack of cards that were created by humans to predict the future,” Ian explained, trying to recall his knowledge.

Lucia arched her eyebrow. “Humans predicting the future? As if. Your kind doesn’t even have an ounce of magical energy.”

Ian sighed and took a glance at the shelves, which he recognized as the magical books department. “Say what you wish, Princess. I don’t see an issue in creating something to believe in.”

Ian stroked the spine of the books, tracing for a certain book until he found a book labeled ‘Book of Divine Tarots’ by an unknown author. The author’s name was originally on top, but it was forcefully scratched off the cover. He pulled it out and flipped it open.

“Seven small circles and a large one...” he muttered, flipping through the books. The tarot cards were ranked according to their power. Ian flipped through and memorized the description of each card intently.

Lucia watched as Ian flipped through the guidebook, his fingers tracing the delicate pages as he studied the intricate illustrations and mysterious symbols. While she was not particularly interested in the concept of human superstition and belief, she found herself captivated by the enigmatic nature of the book.

As her eyes wandered back to the dark leather book hovering before her, she touched its cover. It was as if the book was alive, shriveling upon her touch. Without warning, she heard Ian’s voice saying the magical words.

“The Star.”

A powerful aura emanated from the ancient book and the wall behind it, pulsing with energy. Lucia and Ian released a simultaneous gasp as the wall illuminated, revealing a detailed oil painting of the tarot card ‘The Star’. The belt unbuckled, transforming into the bookwyrm they once knew. But this time, the creature was huge and black, grabbing them by the waist and diving straight into the oil painting.