After the harvest festival things returned back to normal in the Liriath forest. Cobal and companions returned to Dionil’s place to continue training. Mana’s progress with magic slowed down significantly compared to the early stages but it didn’t seem to worry her. Dionil wondered if there was some sort of barrier due to her not being from this world. Might never managed to learn magic in his time here, so there really wasn’t any precedent. Cobal on the other hand showed very good progress in getting used to his new weapons. The rapier and dagger that Jerasi had given him were both excellent craftswork. Even compared to the weapons that they had access to as royals they were still really good. Jerasi had given him some practice drills to start off with and he’d instructed Dionil to help Cobal along with the rest of it. Cassandra made steady progress with her crafting and although she still had a long way to go before she actually invented something usable, Mana had been very positive about the work shows so far. Kimi decided that she’d earned a break after her wonderful performance during the festival and no one really argued with her on that point. It was now late winter and a lot of their training was confined to things possible indoors. Cobal did some drills outdoors when the weather allowed for it, but they spent a lot of time indoors. Dionil taught them a lot about his worldview. They’d all sit around the table, drink tea, and talk about abstract and concrete things for hours. It honestly was a very useful and calming time for all of them. Some days Dionil would go to town, and sometimes one of them, or all of them, would go with him. Cobal had quickly become friends with many of the villagers. Before the festival he still felt a bit distant towards them, but after sharing food, drink and merriment there was no such barrier anymore.
Some extra heavy snowfall today made it so they called it a day earlier than normal. Dionil brewed them all some fresh tea and they were just taking it easy now. Although this forest was technically not much further north than the capital city, there seemed to be more snowfall here. According to Dionil it was usually short lived though, and it wouldn’t take long before the weather would become more mild again.
“Either way, I think it’s best if we start focusing on teaching you the basics of different methodologies for magic. The way I teach magic and the way someone from the kingdoms up north might teach about magic are vastly different. It’s just like anything else in the world. There’s a base logic things work on and then different methods of applying that theory. Like I said before, using magic from a book like you’ve been practicing with, is one of the way to do so, but some people prefer to draw magic circles instead or use familiars to cast their magic through. It’s a complicated system, and although it’s up to the individual to find a style of magic that works for them, I fervently believe starting off with one of the more theoretical applications makes for a good base. So that’s what we’ve been doing here.”
Mana thought for a second after Dionil spoke. “So there’s a chance that another way of using magic would suit me better?”
Dionil nodded. “It’s very well possible. A person with the aptitude and training should be able to perform magic in different ways but there are always going to be ways that fit you better. There have even been some cases where very talented practitioners started out being unable to do more than the simplest things until they found out a very specific ritual that allowed them to become the powerful mages they ended up becoming.”
“Is that why my magic feels lackluster?” Mana asked.
Dionil laughed. “It might feel lackluster but you’re not one of those people. Your progress over a short time may feel like it’s not much, but going from a world without magic to being able to get the basics down in less than a year is practically unheard off.”
Cobal saw Mana’s expression and realized what she was thinking immediately. “But it’s not fast enough, is it?” he asked.
She nodded. “It may be fast enough for normal people, and I suppose I am just a normal person, but the things that might be required of me in the near future are far from normal. I’m supposed to be the hero, I can’t do everything at the average person’s pace. I’d be well into my forties before I’d even match up to the people that summoned me here in the first place, then what was the point in all of that?”
Dionil thought for a moment about what Mana said. “I think a hero is more than just the power they can show off. Maybe it’s because I watched Might as he grew into his role, but for not a single moment have I ever felt like you weren’t going at the right pace. No one knows what the future holds. People may call me a sage and some think that means I know everything, but the truth is that I’ve just read a lot of books and then a lot more books. I know a lot of things that happened, and I know about a lot of things that are likely to happen. But I don’t know more than anyone else can know. What I do know is that we all have a role to play and that everyone plays their role at a pace that’s right for them. If it takes you ten years to become the hero you feel they expect you to be, then the people who summoned you here should have summoned you ten years before your services are needed. Sometimes the truth is as simple as that. You’re not responsible for the lack of foresight on the Blueyerd Kingdom’s account.” He looked at Cobal who nodded in agreement. “My father might be a difficult man at times but he’s also a realist. He knows that you won’t be the most powerful person walking on this continent in a few moons. He knows that, and that’s why they’re letting us train here in peace without asking anything of us. It’d be silly of him to have high expectations of you already.”“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Dionil said with a smile.
There was a sudden knock on the door. “Who could that be?” Cobal asked.
Dionil got up to get to the door and a few moments passed before he called on Cobal to quickly come help him. On the porch were Mirgia and a human dressed in blue robes wearing a messenger’s brooch pinned on his chest. Cobal shot Mirgia a look when he saw the man who was on the verge of collapse.
“He insisted on being brought to you immediately so we obliged,” Mirgia said.
“Help me carry him inside,” Dionil asked. The two of them took the man from Mirgia who sounded like he was trying to say something but didn’t have the energy to do so. Mirgia himself looked fairly tired as well, the weather outside was still harrowing so even the short trek here from the village can’t have been pleasant. It took the man a moment to recover from the frostbite that had started taking hold on his body and it looked like it would leave some permanent damage. As soon as the man was able to speak he looked at Cobal with a worried look on his face.
“What’s wrong? Tell me!” Cobal said to the man.
“I bring news from the capital. The king has declared war on the Rilodar kingdom after your brother was kidnapped by them. He’s requested his son and the hero to return home as quickly as possible.”

“Good evening. My name is Mana. For those of you who I haven’t met yet, I’m the new hero summoned by the Blueyerd Kingdom. I came here with my companions, Cobal Blueyerd, Cassandra and Kimi’thania. I did not consent to being summoned to a foreign world, nor did I consent to being called a hero. But here I am anyway. I come from a world that’s very different from yours. We don’t have magic. We don’t have elves and forest villages. We don’t have unexplored wildlands like the Feral Wildlands. Instead we have modern technology like trains, planes and computers. We can talk to people on the other side of the world yet we often forget those around us. The way that our society has grown throughout the past few hundred years has often been detrimental to the mental health of our people. Living in this forest with Dionil, who so kindly welcomed us into his home, has been a healing experience for me. I came to this world filled with anxiety and fear. Some of those I experienced in my old world but a lot of those came from the change in environment. As I traveled through Blueyerd and eventually the Liriath forest I met people. I met good people, friendly people on my way here and over time I changed. There was still a worry in the back of my head though, even when we arrived here in Milinia. I mentioned earlier that I came here with Cobal, who I now consider a good friend. He’s the third prince of the Blueyerd Kingdom and for all I knew one of the people responsible for ripping me from my home and throwing me into the deep. We came here and learned a lot from Dionil about my predecessor, Might, which a lot of you are likely familiar with. We learned about his plight and the things that got the better of him. I started to better understand the complicated situation surrounding my companions. And now, on this evening of the harvest festival, I can truly say that for the first time since coming here I feel at ease. I’m sure my anxiety will end up returning, as it always does, but in this moment I feel truly happy. And I owe it all to the people gathered here tonight.” She paused for a moment, looking through the crowd at several familiar faces. “I’ve been made an honorary member of your council, which means a lot to me. I am still unsure what the future brings and on a level that definitely frightens me. I’m still supposed to be a hero and at some point the Blueyerd Kingdom will come calling for me to fulfill that task, whether I like it or not. I’m not a hero. I’m a young woman in a foreign land that’s trying her best.” Another pause followed and Cobal could see on Mana’s face that she struggled to find the right words. Their eyes met for a moment and he smiled at her. She smiled back at him. “But contrary to when I first got here, I now feel like I have things I value in this world. All of you, my companions and this village. There are things I would be willing to fight for. I’m no hero, and I will never be a hero, but I will defend those I care about. This festival has been wonderful and I’m forever grateful that you all have welcomed us so.” She paused once more and walked to a nearby table where she picked up her glass. “So let’s spend tonight celebrating the finer things in life. As they say where I’m from: cheers!” She raised her glass and everyone in the crowd did the same. 

After Mana left the stage and sat down near some of the other council members, Karnisal took the stage. “I would like to thank Mana for giving this speech. I know it’s not your favorite thing to do, and we appreciate you all the more for it.” They smiled and nodded at Mana. “As you all have probably noticed,” they continued, “we’ve had a security issue. That’s why there are more guards stationed around the village and I am pleased to say that we have everything under control. With that out of the way, let’s get to what today is all about. We are thankful for the harvest for blessing us with good food and prosperity. As a thanks to the gods, we celebrate by living our best life, as has been our tradition for a very long time. They’ve supported us for a long time and will hopefully continue to do so far into the future. They’ve brought us many friends this year from all walks of life. We’re grateful for their company and the wisdom they bring. With that said, I would like to ask Kimi’thania, spirit of music, to come up here to the stage and perform for us.” They smiled and bowed, before walking off of the stage. Kimi came up onto the stage. “Hello, my name is Kimi. I’ve been working on some new music and I want to show you all my latest song if that’s okay.”
A cheer erupted from the crowd followed by silence as everyone awaited what was about to come. She then began to sing.

From the shores to the shade,
From a prison to a glade.
From life on my own,
To call some place home.

Deep in the calm forest,
Hidden away.
Lays a village I love,
Where I want to always stay.

Let there be light,
Be peace, and be quiet.
Let there be laughter,
Joy and merriness.

Let there be people,
From young to old,
Let them all listen
To the story being told.

When the hero came,
To our world on that day.
So quiet and timid,
But she’s here to stay.

For her heart is brave,
Her eyes are so kind,
In the entire world,
A more worthy hero you won’t find.

Quiet once again filled the entire village. Not a single person made a noise, all were in awe of Kimi’s song, none more than Mana, who realized halfway through what the song was about. Slowly people started to clap. Cobal caught Kimi’s eye who smiled at him. He smiled back. The crowd erupted into cheer and asked for an encore.
Kimi’s smile grew even wider. “Now watch this,” she yelled out, with a smooth motion turning the harp that had accompanied her song into a drum set. Three elves jumped onto the stage to join her and they quickly formed a band. Music now filled the forest and everyone danced and laughed until deep into the night.

Cobal found Mana sitting on the edge of the crowd, talking with Mirock, the baker. Upon Cobal arriving the baker nodded and walked off to go talk to someone else.
“It’s all too much for me,” Mana said.
“The praise?” He asked.
She nodded. “I know you know this, but I’m just a girl. I’m not a hero, I don’t inspire people.”
Cobal laughed. “Well, these people sure look inspired to me. And if you don’t believe that, let it be known that you inspire me as well. You inspire me to become a better person, to learn more about the people living in my country. You inspire me to serve as opposed to ruling. You’re stronger than you admit, Mana.”
She smiled. “I’ll take your word for it then.”
“And mine,” Cassandra said from behind her.
Mana laughed.
“Did I say something funny?” Cassandra sat down next to them.
“You reminded me of a funny scene from one of my favorite stories growing up.”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s about a guy who just wants to live a quiet life but gets pulled into being a hero for his world.”
“Sounds like a good story.”
“It’s considered one of the best where I’m from. They even made very successful movies, games and many other things.”
“You’re going to have to explain what a movie is,” Cobal said, laughing.
“I’d love to learn about those too,” Kimi said. Apparently other people had taken over the music giving the young spirit time to enjoy the festivities as well.”
“Imagine a painting but it moves and it lasts several hours. Enough to fill an entire day, if you watch the extended editions.”
“Sounds like magic.”
“In a sense it is.” She let out a deep sigh. “I remember watching it with my friends. It would take so long that by the end of it we were barely paying attention to it. Of course, we’d all seen it so many times already that we knew what happened in the story.” Her eyes seemed to almost glaze over as she reminisced.
Cobal couldn’t help but smile. “Maybe one day you can tell me that story.”
“I wonder if it would be considered plagiarism if I wrote the story down in this world. That’s a complicated set of morals I never thought I needed to think about.” She laughed. “Not that I could write it half as eloquently as the person who wrote it in the first place, but it might be a good idea to do one day. For now, we have other things to worry about.”
Cobal interjected. “That’s a problem for tomorrow though, today we drink.” He walked over to a nearby table and grabbed all of them a glass. “To the harvest.”
They all clinked their glasses together and drank the rest of the evening away.

The banquet itself was a sight to behold. Large tables were put in the center of town with tree stumps serving as chairs. Everyone could sit wherever they wanted and move from table to table. There was a table with all sorts of prepared fish dishes as well as one with meat dishes. There were breads and salads and even foods that Cobal had never seen before. Looking around he already saw Dionil sitting somewhere next to Jerasi and his daughter deep in conversation about something. Karnisal was sitting next to some folks he didn’t know and several other members of the council of Milinia had spread out throughout the crowd. Cassandra was talking to a very strong looking elven man and they seemed to be exchanging ideas. He didn’t spot Kimi but he was sure she wouldn’t be far.
“Shall we start eating too then?” He asked Mana, only to realize she’d already slipped away towards one of the tables and started admiring the food. He smiled and went over to join her.
“You fit right in.”
“Do you think so?” Mana already had a bowl of fruit salad in her hands, ready to dig in. “I can’t deny that I’m having a great time.”
Cobal smiled. “I’m happy we visited this place. You know I’ve worried about you. At first because I didn’t know what this all would mean for me, of course, but eventually as a friend.”
“Well, I think you can worry a little bit less about me for the time being. We even managed to stave off that weird guy with the summons.”
Cobal nodded. “That still worries me to an extent, but I also have faith in the people here to defend themselves.” He laughed. “After all, they took care of more of this problem than we did, we just let the main bad guy escape and that’s all.”
“Well if you look at it that way we kind of messed up, didn’t we?”
“We’ll just not tell anyone at home.”
“Sounds like a plan.” They both laughed.
“I’m going to go talk with Mirgia over there,” Cobal said.
“Go for it, I have people I want to talk to as well.” She handed him a bowl of fruit salad.
“This stuff is really good, make sure you try it.”
“I think I will.” He took the bowl and started scooping pieces of fruit out on his way to where Mirgia and a few others were talking.
“How are you all, taking a break from patrolling?” Cobal asked.
“Cobal, good to see you’ve joined the festival.” Mirgia smiled. “Yeah, we’re doing short shifts so everyone can join in on each part of the festival without feeling left out. It’s a bit of a hassle but for today it’s fine.” He handed Cobal a drink from the table next to him. “And yourself? You and Mana were quite vital in keeping us safe from this threat,” he said.
“We also worry our presence is what might have drawn danger here, so it’s the least we can do.”
Another one of the elven guards that was standing next to Cobal slapped him on the back. “Don’t ever blame yourself for the evil others put upon you. Once you take responsibility for the indefensible actions of others, you’ll be playing right into their hands. We can handle ourselves.”
Some of the others nodded in agreement and Cobal smiled. “I appreciate that.”
They talked for a little while longer as the sun slowly started going down. Eventually Mirgia and his group had to go back to guarding the outskirts of town and shortly after they’d left the other guards came in and were immediately supplied with a surplus of food and drinks to make up for lost time. Cobal scanned the crowd and eventually spotted Cassandra talking with Karnisal. She was making large hand motions to the village chief. He decided to wander over.

“Good evening to you too, Cobal,” Karnisal responded, a polite smile on their face.
“How has the festival been going so far?” Cobal asked them. The fake politeness that he was so used to at home had no value here but that was not a problem. In their short stay with the elves, Cobal had gained a genuine respect for Karnisal and many of the other elves. Their way of thinking and conducting themselves was truly inspiring and the nobles at court could learn a lot from them.
“Things have gone smoothly. We’re keeping a close eye on the perimeter but it does seem like the threat has passed. As for the festival itself, it’s always an absolute joy to celebrate with the entire village. It brings us closer together and for elves like us, who live close to a thousand years sometimes, it’s important to create good bonds with the people around us. Festivals like this help us do that.”
Cobal nodded. “And have you been enjoying anything in particular?” He looked at the food in front of Karnisal.
They nodded. “I don’t eat a lot of meat normally, I don’t like killing animals so I avoid it, but whenever a festival comes around I make an exception. And on top of that it’s berry season and there are so many great fruits right now, but you’ve tried most of them already from the looks of it.”
Cobal laughed. “For sure, it’s been great so far.” He found himself looking at Mana.
“Worried?” Karnisal asked.
Cobal shook his head. “No, not anymore.”
“Then you’ve grown an admirable amount in a short time, young prince. I think you’ll make a great ruler one day.”
Cobal chuckled. “A lot of people would have to die for me to become a ruler. No, I’ll probably retire young or something, as a third prince there’s not much I’ll do that isn’t getting married to some noble daughter.”
“Destiny is a fickle thing, young one,” Karnisal said. Their eyes almost seemed to glaze over as if they were looking at something else completely. “I have a feeling it has more planned for you than you might think.”
“What do you mean by that?” Cobal asked.
Karnisal shook their head. “I don’t know more than that. Sometimes the winds whisper small things to me. They whispered that you were a man of great importance, days before you and your companions even arrived. But why and how the winds would not tell me and I think it is better this way.” They took a big bite from the piece of deer meat that had been sitting in front of them. “Destiny can push us in a direction for sure, but it’s up to us to take that push and turn it into something greater.”
“I’m sure that’s all very wise, but I’ve had some wine and I don’t know what was in that fruit punch, but I definitely am way too tired to properly process what you’re saying.”
Karnisal chuckled. “Don’t worry about it then, go enjoy yourself.” They held up their glass and Cobal replied in kind. The clinking sound that followed was tranquil.

Several drinks later, Cobal found himself alone on the edge of the crowd. He was watching the people mingle. He’d done so many times back at home, from a balcony or the head table of a giant banquet. There was no such thing here. Some people were sitting up on the walkways in the trees, but that was open to everyone, so it was different. Now he was there, with the people. He was different but the same as everyone else. Elves, humans, spirits and even an otherworlder. In his left hand he held a strange but extraordinary fruity drink that he’d been sipping on for the last half an hour. People had approached him and he’d approached people and as the sun was going down the energy was starting to shift. All the torches were lit at this point and the stage was ready and occupied. Someone was playing music earlier and after a small applause they left. While he was standing here, Kimi approached him.
“I haven’t seen you much lately,” he remarked.
“I’ve been busy, but I’ll show you the results of what I’ve been doing soon enough.”
“That sounds ominous.”
She laughed. “Perhaps it is.”
“I didn’t expect to travel to such a nice place, so soon after being locked in there for ages. It’s nice.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I could stay here for years, honestly.”
“If no one tells us to leave we might just do that,” Kimi added.
“We’ll live here for the rest of our days.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice.”
They both laughed. It was indeed an evening for joy and laughter, which felt well deserved after troubled travels and trouble at the village as well. As they were both waiting there, someone familiar stepped out onto the stage. They weren’t super far from the stage and had a good view of it from here.
“I know you’ve been busy with something, but so has Mana, let’s see how that’s going for her.” Cobal said, watching the hero take center stage at the harvest festival.

After a stay of several months at the woodland sage’s house near Milinia, it was finally time for the harvest festival. After patrolling the area had finished, everyone had gone back to preparing for the festival itself. Throughout the last day of preparation, numerous people had come up to Cobal and Mana and helped explain to them what the festival normally looks like. The mornings were a time off, where everyone put on their nice clothes, said their thank you to the gods for a good harvest that year, which was either done in one’s home or at the small temple near the town square. Then the festivities would start. Cobal and the others had just finished getting ready and were now headed towards town from Dionil’s place.
“It’s been a couple of years since I actively partook in the festival,” Dionil admitted. “I mostly just observe from a distance and maybe check in for a little bit during the banquet.”
“Not a big party person?” Mana asked.
Dionil nodded. “I much prefer peace and quiet, but you knew that already.”
“I was that way as well, back in the old world. I remember getting invited to a party where several of the teachers would bring their own food. They would each make something from their culture and then we’d eat all of it. It was a fun idea for sure, but I just preferred eating in front of the television. Sometimes your coworkers can be great friends but a lot of the time they’re just people that you get along with decently and that’s it. There does seem to be a different atmosphere here though. I’m very curious to see how this festival is. I would lie if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit excited.”
Cobal smiled. “We have massive balls at the castle where nobles from many houses are invited. Their daughters will then try and win favors with the princes or rich nobleman’s sons. It’s amusing to watch from a distance but my brother is way better at navigating those kinds of situations. I’d much rather stay on the sideline and just eat the food.”
“We have the ocean festival, which is like the harvest festival but we thank the ocean for all the fish it provides,” Cassandra added. “I hope it’s similar to our ocean festival because that’s always a lot of fun. We go to the beach and eat all sorts of fish until the sun rises.”
They all laughed.
“I’m just excited to go to a festival, I haven’t really ever been to one,” Kimi said.
Dionil smiled. “Well I’m sure it won’t disappoint.”
Lights started to slowly protrude through the shrubbery and it wasn’t long before they reached the outskirts of town and the sound of people enjoying their time washed over them. Because the forest’s canopy blocked out so much natural light, they started lighting the lantern lights early in the day. It really helped with the atmosphere.

Cobal saw some of the stands he helped build with the people just the previous day. They were now packed with all sorts of wares and vendors were standing behind them haggling with the people who wanted to buy their stuff. It was very different from the fancy platters at the castle. People did wear their nicest clothes and because elves already had an air of dignity surrounding them at all times they looked even more impressive when they dressed for the occasion. About four seconds passed before everyone who he arrived here with, except for Dionil, had run off in some direction. Kimi had found some children that wanted to play with her, Cassandra had seen a stand that was selling all sorts of tools and Mana was staring at a display of jewelry. Dionil laughed. “You kids go and have fun, I’m going to catch up with some old friends while I’m here,” and he walked off as well, leaving Cobal standing alone for a little while, unsure where to go or who to talk to.
“Excuse me, you’re the prince right?” Someone asked from behind him. It was a young elven woman, probably not even thirty years old, who was still more or less a child in elven age.
Cobal turned around to face the young woman, who had long hair on one side and a buzzcut on the other, a more rugged look compared to a lot of the elves who preferred to keep their haircut very symmetrical. “I am indeed and who are you?”
“My name is Masia, my father asked me to come get you.” She started walking before turning around again. “Follow me,” she said with a smile on her face. She led him through the small crowd that had already gathered this early on towards a familiar sight. They made their way to the forge, where only a little while earlier they’d all visited together. “So you’re Jerasi’s daughter?” Cobal asked.
She nodded.
“You know, now that I know it, I see the resemblance.”
Masia pouted. “I look nothing like him at all.”
Cobal laughed. “Sure, sure.” She laughed as well.
“Are you going to hold up the line and keep me from doing any business?” A voice sounded from behind the small stall that was in front of the forge.
“I’m sorry, it looks like you’re not really attracting many customers to begin with so I figured I wasn’t in anyone’s way.”
Jerasi looked at him annoyed before cracking a slight smile. “I finished your weapons.” He reached below the counter and pulled out two weapons. “I thought about it for a little bit and ended up deciding that the best way to go would be a rapier and a dagger. They’re pretty good work if I do say so myself.” He handed both of them over to Cobal. The rapier looked magnificent. The metal looked extremely supple and the handguard was shaped both intricately yet sturdy at the same time, giving it a comfortable grip with great protection. “The idea is your hands are safer so you can block attacks close to the hilt.”
Cobal laughed. “I do understand how a rapier works, but I appreciate the heads up.”
Jerasi nodded. “As for the dagger, I had Dionil assist me with it. It’s a magical focus that allows you to store magical power in it. I don’t know what that means for you, since you’re not a mage, but Dionil said it would help you out if you kept your training going.”
Cobal nodded. “I don’t see how that would help, seeing as my magic training has not been very successful, but Dionil is a sage I suppose, so he knows what he’s doing.”
Jerasi nodded. “Now these are a gift from me to you. I don’t want anything in return except  the promise that you won’t die when wielding these.”
“I’ll try my best.” Cobal put them on his belt. “Thank you so much Jerasi, if there’s ever something I can do for you in the future, you just let me know.”
“Of course, if I think of something I’ll come find you. Now go enjoy the festival.”
Cobal nodded. Looking around he saw that Jerasi’s daughter had already left, probably to go to some other stalls. He noticed Mana a little ways away and went over to go check on what she was doing and show off his new swords.

“I see you’ve already found a stall you like,” Karnisal said as they walked up behind Cobal and Mana, who both turned around. After Cobal met up with her they’d been going from stall to stall, looking at the different wares. Mana had already bought some tea mugs for Dionil that were handmade and carefully painted. The man who sold them said it was something he did after work to pass the time. He joked that his wife was always so happy when the festival rolled around because then the large pile of crafts would finally be gone and the house would be tidy again. On their way here they passed several other stalls, including some food stalls where both of them indulged. Karnisal found them at a jewelry stall where an elderly woman was selling all sorts of beautifully crafted rings, necklaces, bracelets and even some piercings. Cobal didn’t wear a lot of jewelry besides his signet ring as proof of his position. Mana had her necklace that she was given in Aquana and a ring that she was already wearing before coming to this world.
“Karnisal, good to see you here. I hope everything that went down yesterday has been resolved without issue?” Mana asked.
Karnisal nodded. “There were a few elves who unfortunately were wounded by the attack, but none of them were in danger of serious harm. There might be some scarring on a few, which is a shame, but we’re all very proud that such an unprecedented attack on our people was dealt with properly.”
“That’s good to hear,” Mana replied.
“Enough of that though, we can go back to important matters after the festival is over. Today we celebrate the harvest.”
“That sounds good to me,” Cobal said. They all laughed.
“Anything catch your eye?” Karnisal asked them.
Mana nodded. “There are so many skilled crafters here, And everything is unique. Coming from a world where mass production and efficiency are more important than craftsmanship, seeing a place that lacks these things is refreshing.”
“Did your world not have skilled crafters?” Karnisal asked.
“Oh, we had those too, for sure, but imagine if I can make one mug a day and Cobal can make ten thousand a day. My mug can look as beautiful as you can imagine, but how am I ever going to compete with Cobal if that’s the case.”
Karnisal thought about it for a moment. “I see, that is problematic.”
“Wouldn’t it mean there are way more things and you can help way more people?” Cobal asked.
Karnisal smiled. “You still have much to learn,” he said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“That’s for another day, for now let’s just enjoy ourselves without questioning the morality of societies.”
Cobal looked at Mana who seemed to give Karnisal a strange look before returning her attention back to the piece of jewelry she was holding when their conversation started. “I think I’ll buy this one please,” she said to the old woman behind the stall.
The woman grinned. “An excellent choice.”
Mana paid for the piece of jewelry and put it in her pocket for the time being. They continued strolling through the festival until they eventually found another stall that was selling clothing.
“You should buy this for sure,” Mana said, after browsing through the clothes on offer.” She held a button-up shirt with a flower petal print on it. Cobal mostly wore expensive but inoffensive clothing. Something this flowery and bright was definitely not what he would normally buy.“I don’t know if it’s really my style,” he protested, but Mana insisted.
“Just try it on, and if you really hate it we can put it back.” She pushed the shirt into his hands. “I’ll go look for something for myself.”
Cobal sighed and put on the shirts. Putting the floweriness aside, the shirt did fit really well and felt pretty comfortable.”
“Who are you and what did you do with Cobal?” Mirgia asked. Apparently he was standing on another side of the stall, looking through clothing himself as well.
“Don’t you think it suits me?” He asked with a grin.
Mirgia laughed. “I do and I don’t, if you know what I mean.”
The two talked for a moment before Mana returned. There was a house right behind the stall where you could go to try on the clothes and she’d gone in there with something she’d picked out. She showed up wearing a beautiful flowery dress that reached just to around her knees. It was a light blue color with green and white flowers on it. She had a matching hairpin tying her hair up as well and for a moment Cobal didn’t have the words to organize his thoughts.
“What do you think?” Mana asked, as she slowly spun around to show it off.
“It looks wonderful on you,” Cobal said, regaining his senses.
“I think it’ll be a good choice for my speech later today.”
“Definitely,” Mirgia said. A bell was rung in the distance.
“Looks like the banquet is starting soon, best make your way there,” Mirgia said as he waved the two goodbye.
Mana paid for her dress and Cobal’s shirt and after she put her regular clothes back on they both headed to where the banquet was being held.

Cobal and Mana hurriedly found their way to the source of the cry but where they expected someone cowering in distress, they instead found several of the townsfolk with weapons, fighting back what looked like another one of these fiery creatures. It seemed like the elves weren’t keeping their village safe by sheer luck, they were definitely capable enough to deal with an outside threat. Cobal helped out a little bit with Mana using her magic to subdue the creatures so they were easier to fight. After they were dealing with the final two creatures, there were a few wounded, but most people seemed to be fine. That’s when Cobal noticed something off in the distance. Mana seemed to notice it as well. They exchanged a quick look and both ran out towards it.
“Did you see that too?” Mana asked.
He nodded. “Someone was there for sure.” They both dashed in the direction and saw some more rustling off in the distance. “Do you think it’s whoever is behind this?” He asked Mana.
“No idea, but it’s not unlikely it’s related.” They kept running for what felt like several minutes, but was in reality probably only one or two. Eventually they came to a small clearing in the forest, with the figure standing on the opposite end. It looked like a tall, lanky human or elf. They were wearing a hooded cloak so their figure was hard to see.
“Who are you?” Cobal asked, taking out his sword. Mana seemed to take a guarded stance next to him, ready for whatever would come. Neither of them failed to notice the large circle drawn at the center of this clearing and the fact that the figure was standing on the edge of it with something in their hand, as if ready to activate it.
“Let’s not be hasty today, shall we?” A melodic voice came from underneath the hood. It almost sounded inhuman, perhaps because it was. “Let’s have a little talk, shall we?”
“I’m listening,” Cobal said.
The voice laughed. “Oh no, I don’t mean to talk with you. I mean to talk with her.” The figure nodded in Mana’s direction.
“I don’t know if I have anything to discuss with you, I don’t know you.”
“You don’t know me, but I know of you and that’s really that’s important right now.” The figure took a step to the side, Cobal kept his hand on his weapon and carefully looked at the figure’s every move. He couldn’t figure out much about them so far, but he was ready for whatever was going to come.
“Let’s talk then, what do you want? You’ve been attacking my friends so I doubt we’ll get along, but let’s hear it,” Mana said.
Cobal felt a moment of pride at how forward she’d become.
“My employer wishes to have people like you on his side. I’m here to figure out what that would take.”
“And your way of figuring this out is by attacking us?”
The figure laughed, a melodic sound. “See it as a greeting of sorts. No one was seriously hurt, were they? These kinds of things are necessary to show we mean business, I hope you understand.”
Mana shook her head. “No, I don’t understand. How do you expect me to now go and accept your offer?”

The figure took a few steps in the other direction, around the edge of the circle but never taking their eyes off of Mana. “You seem like a clever woman and you’re from a world much more developed than ours. I’ve heard stories, you’re not the only one who’s come here from your world. I’m sure you can figure out that bad things might start happening if you refuse to work with us.”
Cobal started to get worried. What if Mana bought into this talk? It wasn’t his place to speak up though. Not yet at least.
“I do think I’m reasonably clever. I can be dishonest and pretend I don’t, but I know what I’m capable of. I’m not the smartest person to ever live and it’s not even close, but I think I’m reasonably good at critical thinking. And putting it that way, you have to admit that accepting your offer is not an option.”
“How come?”
“Let’s assume I join you and go to your employer. What would you have me do? Work for someone willing to threaten people? Work for someone who thinks attacking an innocent village is a great way to greet someone? There is absolutely no way this would ever work out. I’d much rather take the risk and stay where I’m comfortable.”
The figure smiled. “That’s the kind of thinking my employer is looking for.” The figure dropped the strange thing they were holding and it touched the edge of the magical circle that started to light up. “Well then, I’m afraid I’ll have to return empty handed. You’ll hear from us again, after we’re done dealing with some other things.” They looked at Cobal. “Have you told her yet that your family murdered her predecessor?”
“A bit of a low blow, but unfortunately not a successful one. Yes, Mana is aware of what happened to Might, arguably more aware than I am. Are you done?” Cobal was starting to get nervous as the magical circle seemed to light up more and more.
“I am done. But we’ll see each other again. Goodbye.” And in a flash of light the figure vanished.

“What do we do now, that thing is lighting up fast,” Cobal said.
“I’ve got an idea,” Mana replied. She took her book from a satchel and quickly had it float next to her. She seemed to be going through pages quickly, as if looking for something in particular.
“Is there something in there that can work?”
“There might be, just give me a moment.”
Cobal looked at the center of the circle, where shadows seemed to be coalescing and turning into something. He got his weapon ready for whatever was coming next. It would be bad if the size of the circle was an indicator of how big this creature would be.
“There it is,” Mana proclaimed, opening a page and ripping it out. She chanted something that Cobal couldn’t quite hear, and then the paper touched the edge of the circle.
“Cover your ears,” Mana yelled at him, but the message didn’t come through quickly enough.
An earth shattering sound intruded deep into his head as the magical circle seemed to lift off of the ground and then shatter into a million pieces. As the chalk disappeared on the wind, all Cobal could think about was the noise in his head. Everything went dark in front of his eyes and he quickly lost consciousness.

Cobal woke up again on the forest floor. He saw the last remains of the magical circle float away. He must have only been out for a second. His hearing was still in shambles as all he could hear was what sounded like faraway shouting drowned out by intense ringing.
For a moment he was worried that Mana would be gone but when his eyesight focused again he saw that she was standing right next to him, worried about him.
“I’ll be fine, I just can’t hear you right now due to the ringing.” The ringing slowly subsided until he could once again hear what Mana was saying.
“I’m sorry I didn’t have enough time to pull off this magic and warn you.”
“It’s okay, the fact that you managed to prevent whatever disaster that was going to cause is already more than enough.” He massaged his temples for a moment and finally recovered from the shock. “Let’s head back to town, I’m sure we can still help out there.”
“That’s not necessary,” Dionil sounded from behind them. He had Mirgia walking with him and approached the two. “We saw you head off and figured something was going on, I’m glad to see you both safe.”
“How about the town, is everything safe? Is everyone okay?” Mana has a worried tone in her voice but Dionil’s smile seemed to quickly put her at ease. “Everyone is fine and the remaining circles are dealt with. We’re still having some people patrol the area just to be safe, but any danger seems to have passed.” He looked from Mana to Cobal. “And what happened here? We heard a loud sound as we were approaching and feared the worst.”
Cobal explained to Dionil and Mirgia that they saw a figure flee and then chased after them. He explained the following discussion as well.
Dionil thought to himself for a moment. “That’s a worrying thought. Someone is actively after you folks then.”
“I hope me saying no to them isn’t going to cause Milinia any trouble.”
Mirgia spoke up. “We’ve kept our village safe for a very long time, don’t you worry about us.”
Dionil laughed. “Big words for someone who hasn’t even been a part of the guard for a full century. I do agree with the boy, Milinia will be fine. I’ll inform Karnisal about all of this and we’ll set up a plan. We’ve faced dangerous threats before and many of our people are excellent at what they do. Unless we face the ire of an entire kingdom, we’ll probably do okay.” He took a step forward and grabbed Cobal’s arm. “You’re still looking a bit unstable, let me help you back to town.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

After collecting themselves they all found their way back to the city council, where Karnisal and the rest of the council had gathered. As opposed to the serious talk a while ago where Mana was made an honorary member, there was a much more casual atmosphere. Marsilar and Qritor were in armor while Haleya was wielding a strange looking staff. Karnisal himself had what looked to be a gnarled staff as well, and they all looked as if they’d been busy.
“Ah, Mana, Cobal, come in,” Karnisal greeted them.
They went inside and sat down on some pillows on the ground. “It seems like we owe you our thanks,” Marsilar said.
Cobal shook his head. “We helped out just like how everyone else sprung into action. It’s the very least we could have done to repay the hospitality you’ve shown us.”
“Either way,” Marsilar continued, “I’ve heard you dealt with a big threat that could have become a real problem if the two of you hadn’t been as observant.”
“I don’t know if it was really observant,” Mana interjected, “it almost felt as if the person wanted us to spot them.”
Cobal nodded. “They couldn’t invite you to join them if you never followed them.”
“We’re glad you’ve decided to stick with us instead,” Haleya said, putting her staff away.
“I’m just worried they’ll retaliate.”Qritor laughed. “I’d love to see them try.”
“What about the festival?” Mana asked. “Will you still hold it as normal?”
“We will,” Karnisal spoke. “Some of the guards might have to sit out the festivities or at least a bigger part of it, but we’re not going to be scared by some outside threat. Our celebration will go on just as we planned.”
Everyone in the room had a proud smile on their face. These elves were tough folk.
“Let’s call off preparations for the next hour and have everyone make extra sure there’s no more lingering threats and after we’ve confirmed all of that we’ll finish up preparations so that on the day of the festival everything is going to go smoothly,” Qritor said. They all agreed and after leaving the building split up to go and inform the people of the state of things.

Although life felt slower in Milinia than it did in the capital, days still passed just as quickly and before Cobal knew it the festival was only a day away. With only two days left to prepare the village for the event, Dionil sent all four of them to the town itself to help prepare the villagers. This was one of a few times a year where everyone came together and just worked on whatever needed to be done. The council generally assigned a group of volunteers to be in charge of operations and they would tell everyone what to do. It was with that in mind that Cobal arrived at the town square with the other three in tow. A small gathering of elves was already there and most of them were intrigued by their arrival. Kimi seemed to recognize someone and almost immediately left the three of them. 
The volunteers were led by an elderly woman named Sahar. Graying hair tied in a bun covered a wrinkly face that still looked distinctly elven. It seemed like even in old age, elves stayed graceful. Mana said it was probably thanks to their healthier lifestyle alongside their genetics. Any body can be ruined by fast food and bad habits. When he asked her what fast food was she just laughed at him and told him “you don’t want to know, it’s better this way,” before walking off. Sahar had taken him aside. “Listen, I know you’re a foreign diplomat, but here at the harvest festival we don’t look at someone’s past, we just find the right person for the right job, is that clear?”
Cobal nodded. It wasn’t even said in a hostile way, it just felt fair and he had no reason to say no.
“You’ve changed so much since you came here.” Dionil appeared from a nearby stack of crates, where he was helping.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Cobal replied.
Dionil laughed. “Imagine me telling you on day one that I didn’t care if you were a prince.”
“You literally did!”
“And how did that go over with you?” Dionil replied.
“Fair enough,” Cobal laughed as well. “How’s it going on your end?”
“Good, good, we’re setting up the stage over there for performances. It’s where Mana will hold her speech as well. A lot of the stalls and stage were in storage. Since we do a couple festivals a year we just store it instead of building it again.”
“Makes sense.” Cobal thought for a moment. “I think we’re much more wasteful normally. Lavish parties at the palace and noble mansions every week. I know several nobles who ruined their family fortune that way.”
“Well, it sounds silly to me.” Dionil paused. “Mana’s rubbing off on us, isn’t she?”
Cobal smiled. “Yeah, she definitely is. You say I’ve changed since I got here, but it’s more that I’ve changed since I met her. She’s changed as well in the short time I’ve known her, although she probably doesn’t realize it.”
Dionil nodded. He was about to speak again when they heard a loud yell.

“What’s going on here?” Dionil asked, making his way to the front of the group of onlookers. There in front of him were two of the guards, one covered in burn marks and the second one barely holding on, missing one of her arms. They had spears ready and a third person was shooting arrows from a bridge above. In front of them was a fiery hound. It looked similar to the kind of creature Cobal and Mana had encountered on their way here. Before either Cobal or Dionil could even take a step forward, a gust of wind pushed people to the side as Mana made her way through the crowd, immediately pushing the creature back. She held her book in her hand and Cobal watched as it started floating before flipping through pages without Mana touching it. A page tore loose and moved to Mana’s hand where it shredded into a million pieces on the wind. Mana’s hand seemed to glow for a moment before she unleashed a massive gust of wind towards the creature from above, pushing it down on the ground. “Quickly, subdue the beast now, or kill it. This magic is powerful but doesn’t last long.” She yelled out to the people around her. The guards seemed to hesitate but Cobal was quick on his feet. He took out his sword and immediately dove towards the creature, pushing through the heat and quickly stabbing it in the throat. With one last fiery burst of flames it turned to ash.
A moment of silence filled the area before everyone let out a sigh of relief. “I need a perimeter check immediately. Check every corner of the town and make sure there’s no more of these creatures.” Karnisal walked through the crowd with an air of leadership they hadn’t seen from them yet. They started barking orders to the different members of the guard and they quickly fell into line. A doctor came over to help with the two guards who were wounded by the creature. After a moment, Karnisal finally turned to Mana and Cobal. “My thanks for your quick reactions there, you might have saved some lives today.”
Cobal nodded. “We saw something we’ve dealt with once before and knew how to handle it, that luckily helped us out.” He looked at Mana. “And it seems like Dionil’s helped Mana out enough for her to get much stronger than the last time we dealt with one of these.”
Dionil smiled. “I’d love to take the credit for all of it, but most of it is her own strength.”
Mana nodded. “I think I’m slowly starting to figure things out.”
Dionil added. “On that note, after we’re done here I need you to tell me what you just did because that was not something I taught you.”
Karnisal gave him a look. “Later friend, we need to make sure everything is safe.” And with that the two of them wandered off, giving Cobal and Mana a moment alone. Not really know what more to say, Cobal just suggested; “we should go and check the vicinity too, maybe we’ll find something of interest.”
Mana seemed lost in thought.
“Are you listening?”
“What? Oh yes, I am. I was just thinking if we could maybe find another one of those circles we found before. I feel like that’s likely.”
“I hadn’t considered that, that’s a very good idea. Let’s tell people to look for them.”

It was indeed a very solid suggestion from Mana since not long after this several elves came up to them having spotted one. They quickly called for Dionil to have a look at one of them. Karnisal sent guards to each of the ones they’d found, making sure no one would disturb them, nor would anyone be harmed by what could possibly come out of them. In total they found five of these circles, all in the north-west corner of town. The creature that had attacked the guards strayed quite a bit if it came from one of those circles. With Dionil in tow, they made their way to the closest circle, which was behind one of the houses near the edge of town, hidden near some shrubbery. It was drawn with a similar chalk to the one they saw earlier on their journey, not long before they met Kimi, and had a similar sort of design to it although didn’t look exactly the same as the copy they’d made. Cobal also now realized they hadn’t really discussed the circle much with Dionil. They’d brought it up once but didn’t really delve into it after that.
“Have you ever seen anything like it?” Mana asked Dionil, who was crouched over the circle.
Dionil nodded. “Magic circles are fairly common. I’ve mainly been teaching you my way of magic, as you know, with some of my books having information on other ways of magic. Circles are far removed from my forte and not something I tend to learn much about. They’re mainly used for summoning and in extremely rare cases teleportation. When I say extremely rare cases I mean that there’s been stories of mages doing so and the theory seems to add up, but it’s such a difficult form of magic that it’s not really taught. If anyone ever gets to a level like that, it’s up to them to seek out this knowledge.”
Cobal nodded. “That makes sense.” Mana agreed.
“But putting that aside, I do have a little bit of knowledge on this. From what I know, the larger and more complicated the magic circle is, the more it can do. It’s kind of like writing a spell down and the more you write down the more specific and powerful you can make it. This circle is fairly small in comparison to a lot of what is possible. I think this is just someone summoning creatures, that’s an impressive feat already.”
“Do you think there’s a way to disable these things?”
Dionil nodded. “If you wipe away the outer circle first, and then the rest of it, it should dissolve the magic without anything happening. I’ve heard that if you start elsewhere in the magical circle it can do strange things. When there’s multiple layers to a magic circle you need to remove them one layer at a time without touching the next layer or it will put you at risk.”
“For someone who doesn’t know a lot about magic circles, you know a lot about magic circles.” Cobal said.
Dionil gave him a look. “This much is still considered to be the basics. If you want me to tell you how to make these things, that’s a whole different story, I am no help when it comes to that.” He looked at Mana. “I have a feeling your hero is going to be a more useful source of information for these things very soon.”
Mana laughed. “So you noticed?”
“I’m not quite that old yet. You can’t just cast magic like that and expect to slip it by me.”
Mana scratched the back of her head. “I’ve been thinking for a while about what would work for me. A lot of what you’ve been teaching me directly makes sense to me, and it’s been super helpful in my growth, but since magic is so unnatural to me still, I needed a proper way to guide it. Then I realized that it probably wasn’t a coincidence you gave us those books. Books are often used to cast magic as well, even in the stories back in my old world. So I put two and two together and figured out this would probably work well for me. I’m glad I was right because that really was my first test.” She looked at Cobal. “We should start looking at the other circles as well before something bad happens. I have a bad feeling that this first creature was just the beginning.”
She then looked at Dionil. “Did anyone see something strange? Someone must have put these circles here, right?”
Dionil nodded. “Yes, an important part about this kind of magic is that someone needs to physically put down circles for it to work. So someone must have made their way close to the village and drawn these circles. They were capable enough to slip past the guard.”
Cobal noted. “Wasn’t the guard light, because everyone was helping with the festival?”
Dionil thought for a moment. “Perhaps whoever did this was someone who knew about the harvest festival?”
“You think it could be someone from inside the village?” Cobal asked.
Dionil shook his head. “There’s simply no way that would ever happen. It would be a first in the history of Milinia if a villager caused an uproar like this. Every time we’ve had problems in the past it was from someone outside the village. Besides that, it’s not uncommon for outsiders to know about our festivals, we’re not secretive about these kinds of things.” He was about to add more before they heard another yell. “That can’t be good, let’s go look.”

After their visit to Milinia proper, the group had gone back to Oda’s clearing with Dionil to continue their training. Four days passed when Dionil collected everyone on a rainy day and asked them to each show their progress to the rest, as a way to make everyone see what the others were working on. It was supposed to motivate everyone. Mana had jokingly referred to it as show and tell, which she explained as something children did in school. Monday after the weekend they would go in a circle and talk about something they brought with them or something they did. Dionil approved of the concept and thought it was very smart they made children do such a thing in Mana’s world. Cobal was the first.
“Well, let me start this off then, since I probably made the least progress out of all of us.” He looked at everyone before continuing. “I’ve continued my sword training and improved. I’ve started working with lighter weapons as per Dionil’s suggestion and things have been going well so far. I’ve also joined Mana in her magic training but my success in that has been limited.” He smiled. “And that was really all of it for me.”
Dionil laughed. “Your training was arguably the most complete already, so to get to the next step in a short time would have been borderline impossible.” He crossed his arms. “I think you’ve done well, and if you keep up this path you’re going to go far.” He looked at Mana. “Moving on.”
“I think in my case instead of show and tell, “show, don’t tell” is more apt.” She took out her book, the same one that Cobal had on his person as well. She tossed it up in the air and a little ways up it just stopped. It flipped open to a page and then turned to face them all, floating towards Mana. Then it snapped shut and she grabbed it from the air. “That’s what I’ve managed to accomplish.”
Dionil smiled. “Excellent. You’re progressing rapidly.”
Mana smiled but her smile quickly faded. “Something’s been bothering me about that though, but let’s see what the rest has done first.”
“Very well.” Dionil looked at Kimi. “What about you?”
“I’ve not learned much if I’m honest. I’ve talked to a lot of the people in town and I’ve gotten to know them, but I haven’t really learned much. I’m working on a song though, but it’s slow progress.”
Dionil nodded. “Not all progress is at the same pace. Some people start slow and end strong, or the other way around. I can see that you’ve been working hard though and that is all I ask.” He looked at Cassandra. “Last but not least?” He asked.
Cassandra nodded. “Just like Mana, let me show you instead of telling you.”

They all followed Cassandra out back, to an even smaller clearing maybe a couple minutes away from the house. There she’d put up a workbench and some other things, with a large piece of woven leaves fashioned as a roof. Below it stood something alien to Cobal, but Mana seemed to have immediate recognition in her eyes. “I see, with wind magic that could certainly work.”
Cassandra had a wide smile. “That’s what I thought.”
“What is this?” Dionil asked. “It looks sensible enough, but I’ve never seen a boat quite this small.”
“It’s a,” Mana paused. “No, you tell me what it is, you invented it.”
Cassandra gave Mana a curious look. “Is it not something from your world?”
Mana nodded. “It is, but it doesn’t make sense for me to keep giving you names of things you’ve created out of scratch. It’s unfair to the effort you’ve put in.”
Cobal thought about this for a moment. That made a lot of sense.
“Hmm, what should I name it,” Cassandra thought out loud. “How about airship?”
Mana shook her head. “Although I’d love to see you make an airship one day, this isn’t it.”
“What’s an airship, is that something you have?”
“Not quite, we have something called airplanes. Don’t know why they’re called that, but they’re big metal tubes that fly through the sky at crazy high speeds. An airship is something from stories. It’s similar to our airplanes in a sense, but it’s basically just a flying ship held up by magic.”
“Do you really think I can make something like that?” Cassandra’s eyes widened with excitement.
Mana shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen one work because without magic their design can’t fly. They weren’t a thing in my world. But in some of the stories I’ve read and watched they had them and magic kept them in the air. That doesn’t mean something is possible, but if I can make a book float, there has to be a way to make an entire ship float, right?”
Cassandra nodded. “I think I want to make an airship.”
Everyone laughed. “Let’s start smaller. Let’s start by making this windsurfer work, shall we?” Mana said.
“You said you weren’t going to tell her what it’s named,” Kimi interrupted.
“Oops, slip of the tongue.”
“So it’s called a waverider in your world then?”
Mana nodded. “It’s a board with a sail on it, kind of like this. Of course, it’s not used for travel in our world because we have no real way of predictably guiding the wind, but it’s used for leisure on some beaches. If there’s a bit of wind, a skilled person can sail quite a bit with them. But there’s more convenient ways of travel in our world. I bet this will be great at seaside towns though, either with or without magic to guide the wind.”
“So I made something useful then?” Cassandra asked.
Mana nodded.
“Why did you make something like this, how did you think of it?” Cobal asked.
“Well, I made those air jugs for Mana a while back, remember?”
Cobal nodded.
“I was thinking about what else I could make and I really didn’t have any good ideas. So I just thought about something that would be nice to have in Ravadier. And then I thought a way to journey to and from boats so some of them could anchor off the coast or something would be nice. So that’s how I ended up getting this idea.”
“Makes sense,” Dionil said. “It’s best to think about something you can use when making something new as opposed to making something for the sake of making something new.” He smiled. “I think you’ve all done well in your progress. Now it’s time to refine what you need and have a bit of a break leading up to the harvest festival. I’m sure there’ll be ways you can help out the townsfolk as well if you’d like.” He turned around. “Shall we head back?” They followed the old sage back to the house in the clearing.

During their trip to Cassandra’s workplace the rain had slowly lessened in intensity and by the time the sun went under and they had all comfortably eaten dinner the rain had all but vanished. All that was left was a soft autumn wind and the smell of wet leaves. Mana and Cobal were sitting outside with some freshly brewed tea.
“How long do you think we’ll stay here?” Mana asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we can stay until after winter at the very least. There’s not much going on in the kingdom that requires haste, and I think even my father agrees that your training can be very valuable. He told me that Might spent quite some time on the road traveling and training. I reckon we should do the same.”
“That sounds nice, I like it here.”
Cobal smiled. “You know what, so do I. It’s peaceful in a way the capital never was. I understand why the elves don’t really visit our cities now. I wouldn’t either if I could spend my days in a place like this.”
“But unfortunately that’s not what we’ll do, we have to go back eventually, don’t we?” Mana asked.
“We do, but after we spend some time strengthening our borders with the Wildlands I see no reason why we couldn’t go back here. Especially not if Cassandra makes one of those flying ships, we could travel back and forth in no time with one of those.”
Mana laughed. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it.”
They both stared off for a while, Cobal considered the idea of living here forever longer than he liked to admit. As much as he felt a duty to protect his kingdom, even though he’d never be in charge, being the third son, he felt a sense of pride regardless. He would be lying if his pride hadn’t wavered after traveling though. The kingdom wasn’t as unified as he thought and now he learned his family was up to some shady things. But on the other hand, with this new knowledge he could go back to the capital and try to fix some of those problems. Perhaps his father and his older brother would be happy to get his input. Neither of them knew about these things, and now that he strengthened their relationship with the elves, that meant there was a buffer between them and their neighbors to the north-east. Things were looking pretty good right now. All that was left now was to head into town the next couple days and help out people with their preparations for the harvest festival. The soft rain had now completely vanished and it was getting a little bit chilly. Summer is definitely over now. “Let’s go inside before we catch a cold,” he said to Mana.
Mana nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.”
When they headed inside they found Dionil in the common room, writing something down.
“What are you doing?” Mana asked. He looked up from his writing. “Oh, just writing about magic, I have some thoughts I wanted to put down before I forget about them.” He laughed. “My memory isn’t as bright as it once was, and sometimes it’s easiest to forget the little things.” He put his utensil down and rolled up the piece of parchment. “This way if I forget about it I can always check it later.” He tied a small ribbon around it and put it on a shelf, next to some other rolled up pieces of parchment. “Tea?” He asked the two. They both nodded.

This wasn’t Cobal’s first time in a smithy, but the ones he used to visit in the capital catered to the rich and always looked very well kept. This place was an utter and absolute mess. There were unfinished and finished weapons strewn about the floor and occupying several tables. There was a barrel with what looked like spears. Yet one corner of the room was pristine and tidy, and looking at the shine on the weapons on display there, that was probably where this blacksmith kept their best work.
“Come one, Jerasi is out back working,” Dionil said as he motioned the other two to follow him.
They stepped over several piles of metal and had to duck a little bit to go through a small door with spider webs hanging from the frame. Compared to the rest of the village they’d seen here, it was almost like they’d stepped into another world. Cobal chuckled to himself when he realized the irony in that thought.
Once outside they saw a small backyard, fenced off with a lattice fence covered in the most beautiful flowers. The house was right next to a large tree and the base of this tree was home to tons of flowers and mosses as well, creating this magical atmosphere. To the right of the door was the forge area where an older elven man with impressive muscles was hammering away at a piece of metal. He looked up when he saw the three of them approaching, gave a nod of acknowledgement and continued working.
“Let’s sit over there and wait until he’s done,” Dionil suggested, pointing at a bunch of chairs strewn about the garden space. There were empty jugs and mugs as well and what looked like the remains of last night’s dinner. They each grabbed a chair and sat down. Mana seemed enthralled by the beautiful flowers here and wasn’t really paying any attention to him or Dionil. The latter had probably seen this place before and was less interested in it, instead turning to Dionil to talk.
“So, how was the meeting with the council?”
“It went well, I’d say. My part in it was almost embarrassingly small I think, but Mana joined the council and promised to say a few words at the harvest festival.”
Dionil nodded. “I don’t think she could have said no if she wanted to, but I think it’s good for her to do this. The people here are nice and will be respectful to her. It’ll be a boon for her in the long run.” Dionil stared up at the sun through the break in the canopy. “I worry for her health when she goes back to your part of the world. The forest can be very healing for people like her. It’ll be up to her to take that energy and keep it with her after she leaves.”
“I’m not sure I understand?”
“Mental health, as it’s called in Mana’s world, is something we elves know about as well. We call it “wellbeing” which seems like a more broad term after listening to some of Mana’s explanations about her world, but it’s similar in a sense. You humans seem to think physical health is the only thing that requires a healer, but someone’s state of mind sometimes needs help too. Think of people who become murderers and thieves. A lot of times these are people who are down on their luck and unwell mentally because of it. If your wellbeing is unstable, your actions become more and more irrational. The forest has a very healing effect on the mind. Us elves believe that the bigger the city, the weaker a person’s wellbeing can become. That’s why there’s more crime in big cities.” Dionil leaned forward and sighed. “At least that’s what we believe, but who knows what’s true.” He looked at the blacksmith. “Seems like Jerasi is finally done.”

“Dionil, to what do I owe this visit?” Jerasi’s voice was very comforting somehow and it took Cobal off guard. He expected a much rougher voice on someone who worked a forge all day.
“I’ve brought some friends along today that could use your services. I told them you’re the best blacksmith that ever lived and that you’d be honored to make them weapons.”
Jerasi looked Dionil up and down. “You telling innocent people lies again?”
“You sell yourself short, old friend.”
“Oh no, I know I’m good, but the best that ever lived? That’s crazy talk.” They both laughed and Jerasi turned his attention to Mana and Cobal.
“So you folks need custom made weapons, what are you looking for?”
“I’ve been trained with short swords and long swords for most of my life and I preferred a longer blade for many years. Recently I’ve been training with a thinner, lighter blade as per Dionil’s suggestion. I don’t know yet if that’s better or not, but it’s something to keep in mind.” Cobal said.
Jerasi looked at Dionil. “What are you trying to teach the kid?”
“I’m thinking Might’s fighting style might be a better fit for him. The heavy handed fighting of the human kingdom is outdated if you’d ask me, and a quicker fighter can outpace them with the right amount of training.”
Jerasi nodded. “I see, makes sense. So you want me to make one of those thin blades, right?”
Dionil shook his head. “No, Might’s fighting style was perfectly suited for those, but to try and copy that recklessly would be folly.”
Jerasi smiled. “And I was worried I’d have to give you a lesson on this.”
Dionil looked at Jerasi. “I have an idea of what could work for him, but I’d like to hear your thoughts first.”
Jerasi thought for a moment. “I suppose a rapier would be best for what you’re suggesting, but it doesn’t always work.”
Dionil nodded. “I was thinking, if we’re working with lighter blades than he’s used to, could we not have him learn to fight with multiple blades?”
Jerasi shook his head. “He’d have to keep up training in two different styles and get confused in the heat of battle. It’s best for someone to focus on a single fighting style.” Jerasi stood up and walked into his workshop, leaving the three of them waiting for a moment before returning. “Here, hold this.” He threw Cobal a rapier. It looked like a functional weapon, nothing special but decent craftswork.”
“This is a decent blade.”
“Good, now parry this,” and with almost no time for Cobal to think the longsword Jerasi was also holding was moving towards him.
With haste and straining to do so, Cobal blocked the sword, almost snapping his own in half.
“You block close to the hilt, else you’re going to lose.” Jerasi pulled back the sword and struck again. This time Cobal was more ready for it and properly blocked the attack, pushing the blade to the side and stepping in. Jerasi jumped back and put the sword away. “I think a rapier will do just fine.” He waved at Cobal. “Use that while I work on a nicer blade.” He turned his attention to Mana. “And a dagger for you?”
Mana shrugged. “I don’t really fight with weapons so I don’t know what would work.”
“Probably a dagger. In elven culture it’s common for mages to have a dagger on hand as well. Sometimes an enemy will get too close and it’s just more efficient to stab them with something pointy than to use fancy magic.”
“I’ll take a dagger then.”
Jerasi smiled. “Excellent, now get out of my workplace, I gotta work.”

Having been shoved away from the blacksmith, the group decided to make a quick visit by a couple other small shops in town. Life in Milinia seemed to have a different pace from any city they’d been to before. No one was hurried to do anything, there were no deadlines. People were just existing peacefully.
“If people didn’t have expectations of me that they’d probably come collect on I could just stay here for the rest of my days,” Mana said. “It’s like the polar opposite of where I’m from.”
Dionil spoke up. “I’ve seen your human cities as well, although it’s been a little while, and they definitely have a more busy atmosphere.”
Mana shook her head. “I don’t think either of you could grasp how different my homeworld is from yours. There’s sounds and lights everywhere, buildings as tall as the sky and trains, trams, buses and cars all around you all of the time. There’s not a quiet moment at all. Even the short time I was in the capital of Blueyerd it already felt calmer than where I’m from.”
Unprompted and as a complete surprise to both Dionil and Cobal, Mana started softly humming a song before stopping herself.
“Old habit, it’s a song I used to listen to.”
“What’s it about, it sounds interesting,” Dionil asked.
Mana thought for a moment. “I don’t know what the singers meant to say with it, but I always saw it as a song for the lonely wanderer. The hopeful ones in a world filled with monotony and sadness. An ode to never giving up, if you will. To never stop believing.”
“Was it your favorite song?” Cobal asked.
Mana shook her head. ‘It’s just one of many wonderful songs, but it seemed apt at the moment. It’s nostalgic.”
Cobal saw a tear stream down Mana’s face. “It’s still not quite dawned on me that I’m never going back there.” Cobal wasn’t sure how to reply to that.
Dionil stepped in and gave Mana a hug. “It’s okay to feel that way, Might had many a night where he felt the weight of his situation more than normal. But he found his place in this world and so will you. Just give it some time.”
They stood there for a moment before Dionil stepped back.
“Thanks,” Mana said sheepishly. “I feel a bit better now.” She looked up. “I’d like to go visit that jewelry store over there before we go back if that’s alright?”
Dionil nodded. “Of course, there’s no rush to go back, enjoy your time here.”
Mana headed off into the jeweler leaving Cobal and Dionil alone in the center of the village. Some of the people living here would walk by and nod respectfully or wave at Dionil, recognizing the old sage. It was a quiet place though.
“You know, I’d kind of like to see this place she’s from after hearing her talk about it a few times,’ Cobal said.
Dionil smiled. “Curiosity is a very strong feeling, but a lot of what she says about her homeland makes it seem like it wouldn’t be a good place for me. It sounds very constricting and loud and that’s the opposite of what I enjoy.” He chuckled. “There’s a reason I live out in the woods, I like my peace and quiet.”
Cobal nodded. “I’m not surprised that I’m more curious about it than you are, it seems like such a different world from ours that I just can’t properly imagine it without seeing it for myself.”
“Maybe one day your mages will find a way to do so. I hope not though. Summoning a person once every so often is already more than enough. Who knows how other worlds would treat us if they could freely come and go.”
“That’s right, that probably wouldn’t go very well. We’re barely able to keep peace with our regular neighbors after all,” Cobal said.
“So relations still aren’t good between Blueyerd and Rilodar?”
Cobal shook his head. His father had never liked their north-western neighbors and peace had been strenuous since before he was born. “Maybe one day we’ll set aside our differences.”
“I hope so,” Dionil said, looking off towards the jewelry store that Mana just exited. Having done what they came to do, the three made their way back home. 

Come morning, all four of them took a break from their training for a day to go and visit the town. Mana and Cobal hadn’t returned to the village since they originally stayed there overnight. Now they were going there to talk to the council and maybe visit some of the shops in town. With Mana speaking there soon, it would be a good idea to get to know some of the people first. Their meeting was early in the morning and then after they could do what they wanted. Dionil accompanied them to town but he said he wanted to visit some places so he wouldn’t go with them to the council. Now they were sitting in the hallway leading up to the council room, waiting to be let in.
“Nervous?” Cobal asked Mana.
She nodded. “Like I said yesterday, I don’t like speaking with strangers too much. As a teacher it was fine, which is strange, but that was just the way it was. I never really questioned it too much. But I’m confident it will be okay, right?”
Cobal nodded. “I’ve talked with diplomats many times and although it can get pretty boring sometimes, it should be perfectly fine.”
Right as they were discussing this, the door opened and out stepped Marsilar, dressed in more formal attire than the previous day. “The council will see you now.” He had a polite smile on his face.
They followed him into a surprisingly small room. A table in the form of a half circle was set up, with six elves sitting around the round half. There was room to stand in front of it. 
“Allow me to introduce you to the council,” Marsilar said. From left to right he pointed at each of them, starting with an elderly elven woman with white hair tied in a bun. “This is Grilia.”
Next to Grilia sat a young man with a shaved head and a long thin beard. “This is Jirit.” 
Next to Jirit was a young woman with blond hair and a shock of green hair. She had a bright smile on her face. “This is Haleya.”
In the middle seat sat a middle aged man built like a bodybuilder. He was wearing a tanktop and had black hair tied into a bun. “This is Qritor.”
The remaining two seats were filled by people who looked very similar. Both had one green eye and one eye of a different color. One had short blue hair, the other had long purple hair. They both nodded politely. “This is Mas and Vas.”
And on the end of the table, Marsilar sat down. “I know it’s a lot of people all at once, but you’ll get to know us if you stay here for a while.”
Cobal nodded. “My name is Cobal Blueyerd, third prince of the Blueyerd kingdom and companion of the Hero Mana.”
“I’m Mana, the hero summoned by the Blueyerd royal family. A pleasure to meet you.”
“The council of Milinia is honored to have both of you as guests in our small kingdom,” Qritor spoke, his voice being surprisingly high-pitched. “I know apologies have been made, but as the head of this council I would like to formally apologize for how the woodland sage treated you,” he said looking at Cobal.
Cobal nodded. “All has been forgiven.”
Mas spoke up, their voice being almost musical in a strange way. “We wouldn’t want relations with our neighbors to go sour because of this, so I’m happy it was resolved.” They looked at Mana. “And we would like to welcome you as an honorary member of this council.” Mas looked at Vas, who pushed a piece of paper forward towards Mana. “If you sign this, you will become a member of this council. You will have the right to cast a vote in matters regarding Milinia and the surrounding woods.” Their voice was similarly musical to that of Mas to the point where Cobal assumed the two were related.
“I’m assuming I can choose to abstain while I’m not in Milinia.”
“That is perfectly acceptable and what we expect.”
Mana signed the paper after looking it through for a little while. “Is this magical or anything?”
Marsilar shook his head. “It’s just a normal contract. All it asks, as you’ve probably read, is that you become a member of the council and will vote for what you believe is best for the village. It’s a formality, we tend to agree on most things here.”
Mana nodded. “I’ll be in your care then.”
“Excellent.” Qritor took the parchment and put it in a small box, then put it on a shelf behind him, where several other similar looking boxes were already standing. “Let us move on to the next point of order then, the festival.”

“The harvest festival is a yearly festival. Every fall we celebrate the good that nature brings us and thank the gods for their hand in our prosperity. It was once a very serious prayer event but over time turned into a more celebratory thing.” Qritor looked at Cobal, “I’m sure your human kingdom has something similar.”
Cobal nodded. “As far as I know harvest festivals are very common in most countries. Are they common in your world?” He looked at Mana.
Mana thought about it for a moment. “You know what, we have a lot of celebrations in our world, lots of them based in religion in some way, but I don’t know if we have one specifically for the harvest where I’m from. Everything’s so modernized that it’s not really a thing we think about a lot.”
“That sounds somewhat sad,” Marsilar offered.
Mana shrugged. “We have other celebrations. We do this thing where people dress up as monsters and go trick or treating, that’s pretty fun.”
“What is trick or treating?” Mas asked, having a curious look on their face.
“It’s something where kids go door to door, asking people for tricks or treats. If you give them candy, they’ll be happy, if not, they’ll pull a trick on you, like throwing eggs at your house or something.”
“What a weird festival.” Mas said.
Mana laughed. “Explaining it does make it sound strange, but I promise you it’s a fun time for everyone involved most of the time.”
“Either way, we’re getting distracted,” Qritor interjected. “The festival will take place on the last day of this month. We were hoping you could hold a small speech for the people to motivate them.”
Mana nodded. “I was worried for this, since Marsilar already brought it up when he visited Dionil.” She sighed. “I’ll do it, as I said to him as well, but I don’t promise I’ll be good at it.”
Qritor’s so far serious look turned into a big smile. “That’s all we ask from you, it’s much appreciated.” He stood up. “Well then, unless you have any other questions for us, this meeting is over.”
They all stood up and Mana and Cobal left the office.
“That went well, right?” Cobal asked her.
“It went as well as I expected. Reminded me of a teachers meeting at the school in a sense. Not too formal but should have been an email.”
“E-mail?”
“That’s a lot to explain all at once, it’s like a letter you send to a bunch of people, but they receive it immediately and can reply quickly to it as well.”
“That makes sense, it’s like magic.”
“Sure, good enough.”
“Want to have a look at some of the stores in town?” Mana asked, changing the subject. 
“Let’s,” Cobal replied, as they made their way towards the center of the small town.

The town of Milinia was partially built on high ridges in the trees and partially on the ground. Most of the houses and some of the more luxurious stores were higher up while most of the shops, craftsmen and farmers were on the ground level. Stairways weaving around trees were in several places and bridges connected most of the places so it wasn’t a journey to get from one place to another. The buildings were made almost exclusively out of wood and logs, just like Dionil’s house was. Where some of the cities they came through in the Blueyerd Kingdom had a stone foundation and bricks for walls, the elves seemed to prefer wood and planks. With the safety of the forest protecting them from wind and water, these buildings were more than sturdy enough to suffice for their living standard. Cobal and Mana strolled along the forest ground, leaves mostly lining the dirt roads. “How many years were you a teacher for?” Cobal asked Mana.
“Why are you asking that suddenly?” Mana sounded surprised.
“We’ve talked a lot over the past few months, but you rarely talk about your old world unless prompted. I guess I’m just a bit curious about it. It’s a completely different world from mine, after all and it’s really hard to comprehend sometimes.”
Mana stopped walking and Cobal followed suit.
“I was a teacher for a little more than three years. If you count internships it was about seven years, but the first two or so years of those I barely taught, I was just observing.”
“Kind of like when a young man or woman is sent to a craftsman, first they just sweep the floor and observe.”
“You could say that. We used to say that interns were there to get everyone coffee or tea. There were internships where this happened for real and it’s not a good sight. You learn so much more by actually doing, so observing is fine for a while, but shouldn’t be too long.”
Cobal nodded. “You can learn a lot from watching the best sword fighters but if you’re not putting in practice it doesn’t matter how well you know their movements, your body won’t be able to keep up with those movements.”
“Yeah, that’s similar, I suppose.” She continued walking. “I taught mostly young kids and it was a pretty nice job, although tiring at times.”
“So is sword fighting.”
Mana laughed. “Probably for different reasons, but I can imagine that to be true.” She looked up at the sky. “You know, even though training is going well so far and my magic is steadily improving, I feel like something’s wrong about it.”
“What do you mean?” Cobal asked.
“I don’t want to say this around Dionil, because he’s very wise and probably knows what he’s doing, but there’s something about the way he’s teaching us how magic works that feels unintuitive. It feels as if there’s something important that we’re missing.”
Cobal thought about this for a moment. “As far as I’m aware, Dionil’s teachings line up with what most scholars believe about magic. If there’s something missing, that is not a fault of Dionil’s, but more so a fault of magic studies as a whole.” He chuckled. “It would be very funny if an outsider found something wrong with their studies after a few weeks of trying.”
“Maybe I’m completely wrong, I’m not super confident about this at all, but I’m thinking I should bring it up with him.”
“You should, I’m sure he’s willing to humor the idea. He seems fairly open minded on most things.”
“Perhaps that’s a good idea.” They continued walking for a little while. There were several shops and eventually they found what looked to be a weaponsmith. Standing outside the store was a familiar face.
“I expected you two to eventually wander your way towards this place,” Dionil said with a smile. He motioned them over. “Follow me, the owner of this place is an old friend of mine.”
Looking at the building, this was the only building they’d seen in town so far that had stonework in it. There was a furnace made out of stone and the sound of metal being worked came from the open workplace out back. Following Dionil, they both went inside.

Several days went by and Mana quickly got the hang of the assignment that Dionil set for them. After the third day she could lift the book up and open it to a random page. More precision than that was still beyond her, but it was a lot more than Cobal could say. He’d been focusing pretty hard but without success. He did feel relaxed when he tried though, so he was going to continue trying for the foreseeable future. Kimi and Cassandra had been off on their own paths still, so they mainly talked during dinner.
Kimi was very vocal about her progress, talking about learning new songs to play, slowly mastering the harp, which one of the elves in town was very talented with, and learning some new magics along the way. Cassandra was a bit more reserved. She said she was working on a project, and would pull Mana aside from time to time, but didn’t say much about it to Cobal and Dionil. Mana and Cobal were talking a lot through the past few days and Cobal felt like they were growing a bit closer for the first time in their journey.
After food, Cobal went back outside to do some practice swings. With Dionil’s advice his sword style was slowly changing to something different. Where he counted on powerful swings before, he was now paying more attention to fast footwork and accurate jabs. It did cost a lot more power, so he’d have to keep training for a while longer. And to Dionil’s credit, the practices with the book made him feel more relaxed and able to focus on his swings without being distracted quickly. Tonight he did find his mind wandering a little bit to home. He wondered how his family was doing. His opinion of his father had been in question ever since the reveal of what happened to Might, but his father had always been good to him. He thought of his mother, who was the kindest woman he knew, always supporting his father in the throne room. He thought of his brothers who were all so very different, and his little sister, only sixteen. No, she would be seventeen now, he’d been away for a little while. It wouldn’t be long before she turned eighteen and a suitable marriage candidate would be chosen for her. Perhaps they should go back after their training for a little while. He’d want to introduce Mana to his family a bit more, maybe they could gain an understanding for her complex situation. While there they could also see if they could find out about what exactly happened to Might and who in the capital is aware of what happened. Cobal worried that his father had to be in the loop, it would be weird if even the king wasn’t aware of this. As he was lost in thought, figures approached the clearing.
“Ah, sorry to bother you,” a somewhat familiar voice rang.
“Karnisal, Mirgia, good to see you both again,” Cobal said. He put his sword away and used a towel to wipe most of the sweat from his face. He didn’t recognize the third figure with them, who looked quite young compared to the other two.
“This is my son, Malan,” Karnisal said, gesturing to the unfamiliar man who smiled.
“My name is Marsilar and I’m a member of Milinia’s Council. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m Cobal Blueyerd, third prince of the Blueyerd Kingdom and companion to the hero.” He looked back to Karnisal. “Are you here to speak with Mana?” He asked them.
“We’d like to speak with all of you here, if that’s alright?” Karnisal replied.
“Of course, if you’d please follow me inside.”

After bringing them inside, Dionil set up the pillows for the guests and gathered everyone around. He made some tea and eventually they were all sitting in a circle. It was sort of strangely informal, but not in a bad way.
“How have things been here for you so far?” Marsilar asked Cobal.
Cobal laughed. “Well, upon arrival I was yelled at and knocked unconscious so things could have been better.”
“It’s rare to see someone who is royalty be treated so poorly by foreign diplomats,” Mirgia added.
Dionil awkwardly scratched his head while Marsilar’s eyes went wide. “You did what?”
Cobal waved his hands in front of them, seeing the worry in Marsilar’s face. “We got off on the wrong food, but things have been resolved since.”
Marsilar shook his head while Karnisal laughed. “Dionil, you haven’t changed a wink in the past hundred years.”
“Father, this is a foreign prince we’re talking about, if we don’t treat him well we could be looking at a war with our neighbors.” Marsilar explained, glaring angrily at Dionil.
Dionil crossed his arms. “Cobal and I may have solved our differences, but I stand by what I did at that moment. I had my reasons, after all.”
Cobal looked around the room. The tension seemed to be rising and Karnisal was the only one who didn’t seem to be worried in the slightest. Mirgia was mostly disinterested, it wasn’t his job to worry about  these kinds of things.
“Well, let’s put that aside for now,” Karnisal said, “Marsilar came here to talk with you all.”
Marsilar fidgeted with his hands for a while before looking at Mana. “Yes, I’ve come here to ask a favor of the hero.”
Mana looked at him. “It depends, but I’ll see what I can do.”
Marsilar looked down at the table in front of them. “There’s two things actually. I would like to ask permission to come train here with you. An opportunity to train with the woodland sage would be invaluable.” He looked at Dionil who shrugged. “As long as you’re not in the way of Mana’s training that should be fine.”
Karnisal laughed again. “I’ve missed you, old friend.”
“I live a short walk away, if you missed me you should have come by.”
They both laughed. Dionil then looked at Marsilar. “And what is your second question?”
“The fall festival of Bokrinoa is coming up in a little over a week. There will be performers from up north and food stalls and all sorts of folks will be selling their wares. At the center of it all will be a podium and I was wondering if you could give a short speech as the new hero of these lands.”
Cobal looked over at Mana who looked mortified at the idea.
“I’m not really a public speaker if I’m honest with you. Do you even think people would be interested in that?”
Marsilar nodded, “Very much so, the people would love to see a hero talk, a lot of them still remember Might.”
“That definitely didn’t make it worse,” Mana mumbled to herself. She sighed. “I’ll do my best, but it won’t be a long speech and probably not a particularly good one.”
“All I ask is that you say a few words, that would be much appreciated on its own,” Marsilar said, smiling.
“I’ll do my best.”
“That is more than we could ask for.”
“If you don’t mind, I have something to ask as well,” Karnisal added.
Mana nodded.
“I would like to offer you a spot on the council of Milinia.”
“Excuse me, what?”
“If you become a member of our court, that means other countries will think twice before hurting you,” he added.
Cobal smiled. “That’s very clever of you to offer. Not only is it a good offer in general, you’re also ensuring that Mana becomes one of your own, binding her to this place.”
Karnisal laughed. “Is it that obvious?”
“I’ve been in the royal palace long enough to notice something like that.” Cobal shrugged. “It’s still a good deal though, I can’t even be mad about it.”
Karnisal turned to Mana. “So, what do you say?”
“I would be honored.” She smiled. “It would make me feel a lot more at ease, actually.”
“Excellent, if you come into town tomorrow we can make everything official. You can meet the rest of the council as well while you’re at it.”
Karnisal stood up. “Well, I trust you to take good care of my boy, and I hope to see you in town in the morning,” he said from Mana to Cobal. “Feel free to come along as well, it could be good to speak with a prince from our neighboring kingdom for some of our council members.”
Cobal nodded. “I’ll be there too.”
Marsilar turned to Dionil. “I look forward to your tutelage.”
Dionil smiled and nodded. And with that, the three of them left again, going home to the village.
“Well then, training is over for the day folks, go relax for the evening.” Dionil stood up. “I got some things to take care of as well, I’ll be back later.” And with a wave he left.

After cleaning the dishes and putting away the guest pillows again, Cobal and Mana both sat outside as the sun slowly went under. “I’m getting used to life here,” Mana said.
“I’m glad to hear that, you’ve changed since we’ve gotten here.”
“In a good way?” Mana asked.
Cobal smiled. “Who am I to decide that?”
They stared off into the distance, the sounds of the forest being the only thing around.
“You know, there’s a quiet here in the world that didn’t exist where I came from. At least not in my part of the world.”
“Why not?”
“I lived in a big city, hundreds of thousands of people lived there, all living their lives. We had cars and planes and trains, those are vehicles that made sounds. Streetlights, which are like lanterns but different, riddled the landscape and the sky was broken up by skyscrapers, buildings taller than your tallest towers. Compared to life in the city, this is so much nicer.”
“Well, if it’s better here, then that’s all that matters.”
Mana smiled. “For the first time since I got here, I’m starting to feel at ease. Maybe it wasn’t all bad, being summoned here.” Her smile vanished. “I do worry about the future though. I don’t feel particularly heroic yet, and I worry at some point I’ll be asked to fill that role while I’m not ready for it.”
Cobal thought about it for a little while before replying. “When that happens, you’ll have people around you ready to help you.”
“I appreciate that.” As the sun slowly went under and the light of a lantern on the porch was all that was left, they both sat there for a while, in silence, living only there and in that moment.