Chapter 19 — Orlisi and the Mystery of the Moon Elves

Somehow, with Faris and Zena alongside her to deter ill-considered acts, Ria had safely met up with Keira and Iselyn for lunch at the library, and thanks to the communication stones, Keira and Arthur were already sitting at a reading table with Iselyn by the time Ria and her group arrived—a book in front of each.

Keira seemed to know who Zena was from her mantle and was curious how they met, which led to her friend finding out about the encounter with Phaelys.

“Hemse save us! Are you trying to bring my House down in ruin, Ria?!” Keira groaned in dismay. “Dare I even ask what you were thinking?!”

“I thought if Iselyn was debuting with Faris, that I’d need someone who could compare…” Ria trailed off her admission at Keira’s increasing exasperation.

Faris glanced over at Iselyn but the girl was hiding behind her long bangs as she continued to pore over a dense tome jotting notes and pretending to ignore them.

Keira turned back to Zena. “Thank you for safely bringing her here. Cousin Faris, you have my thanks as well.”

“I would say it is fine, but…,” Faris hedged.

Zena laughed. “You worry too much, Faris. Seeing so many distraught faces among the social-climbing daughters of means was hilarious.”

Keira’s paling face only made Zena laugh harder.

Introductions out of the way, they made use of the library’s ‘lunch courier’ service to arrange their meals. The Order of Culinary Magic provided the service as a way of generating revenue to fund research, giving students in the Order an opportunity to trial new ideas, and earn coin as first- and second-year students. Or so contended the girl handling their purchase, a girl who Ria was fairly sure was in her morning class on elemental magic.

That such a frivolous Order even existed was eye-opening to Ria, but she readily purchased a meal same as the others even though the price was exorbitant—though maybe it was actually cheap when the cost of energy and energy-infused ingredients were accounted for, particularly if coin-challenged Iselyn didn’t bat an eye.

“Guess your Novidus connections make sense when you are backed by House Vorshan,” Zena was saying to Ria with a touch of amusement in her voice as she lounged with her legs across an adjacent chair. “Honestly, this little lunch group is quite the diverse support you’ve managed for yourself as a foreign mage. An enchanter, a light affinity healer, a water elementalist, a mind mage, and I’m guessing you’re the primary attacker. I’d almost believe you were preparing a team for the arena or for field missions with one of the guilds.”

Ria laughed. “Keira and I are members of the Adventurers Guild, and Iselyn and I are part of our Order’s team for the Grand Games, so you’re not entirely wrong...”

“Oh! That’s a bit different than I was expecting, but I suppose it doesn’t really change things.” Zena gave a sinister smile. “I was thinking that joining together for team battles at the arena’s weekly Divinesday Games might be fun.”

“Careful there, Ria,” a familiar Elven voice cautioned. “Zena’s with the Flaming Dragons, an arena Order. And likely a member of their team for the Grand Games, if I had to guess.” Orlisi directed a competitive smile Zena’s way as she approached the table and added a book to Iselyn’s pile of books. The silver script of the book’s title was in a language Ria wasn’t familiar with, and several sheets of note-paper stuck out from between the pages. “Iselyn, I’ve translated some sections of this one that I think you’ll find interesting.”

Iselyn nodded and mumbled her thanks but continued to move her hand down the page pausing occasionally to add a line to her current page of notes.

Ria glanced at Zena, who gave her a smirk and a shrug, before turning back as the elf girl took a seat opposite Zena and lazily stretched her sinewy arms over her head.

Did Iselyn ask Orlisi to help because the elf girl was a diviner?

“Um, Iselyn, are you taking a history class?” Faris asked, trying not to sound nervous.

Ria couldn’t help a faint smile at Faris’ attempt to start a conversation with Iselyn. Keira apparently felt the same way.

Iselyn shook her head, and hesitated for a moment before admitting, “It’s for personal research.”

“What are you researching?” Faris asked, curious, then seemed to realize that Iselyn didn’t want to talk about it. “Ah-! If I’m not prying by asking...”

After finishing a few jotted notes, Iselyn looked up and drew her bangs back on one side to better meet Faris’ gaze. “Elven clans with lunar affinity. Something Shopkeeper Tyrilenil said… made me curious.”

The name didn’t bring any signs of recognition for Faris. “Shopkeeper Tyrilenil?”

“He’s an Elven spirit-mage that owns a familiar shop in the merchant district around the academy,” Ria offered.

Faris nodded in understanding, his gaze staying on Iselyn. “It’s something related to empowering your familiar then. Elves certainly have the best techniques for improving the strength of nature spirits but are quite secretive about methods developed for mages with Elven bloodlines.”

Iselyn looked up sharply and her moonlit irises narrowed as she evaluated Faris.

“It’s not uncommon for families with bloodlines to trace back to Elven or other special heritages,” Faris offered with a conciliatory gesture. “In House Novidus, our histories contend that we acquired our Ice bloodline through a powerful Frost Elf ancestor, and the legends say the Vesali are descended from a land god with a domain resembling a deep amethyst-filled cavern with an iridescent pool fed by a large waterfall, as examples.”

“True enough, but you see, Faris, Iselyn’s situation is a bit different. The Elven clan known for their lunar affinity and illusions has been all but wiped from the public record,” Orlisi ominously revealed, but her eyes glimmered with excitement as she leaned in and stage-whispered, “A clan known as Moon Elves.”

“Moon Elves?” Keira and Ria blurted out at the same time and shared a look. Making her voice low, Ria continued, “Aren’t they just fiction?”

Orlisi grinned a toothy grin. “Or so the High Council wants people to believe. It’s all pretty hush-hush, but from what I’ve been able to uncover, there was an incident that resulted in the entire clan becoming the target of the Inquisitors and scattered, with all members disappearing to only be heard of in rumor.”

Ria’s eyes couldn’t get any wider. The main character in her favorite series, Lady Hawthorn’s Epic of Heroism and Betrayal, was a Moon Elf witch forced to travel foreign lands after her clan was betrayed and destroyed…

“It gets even better,” Orlisi drawled with a finger held up and paused for dramatic effect, the huge grin still splitting her face. “Supposedly, the Moon Elves had a secret garden somewhere inside the Tower of Dreams.”

“Lunch is served!” the Culinary Magic girl announced, causing them all to jump.

Zena laughed at their sudden embarrassment. “I knew there was no way lunch with Ria’s friends would be boring, and I was right!”

Ria giggled at the silliness of being spooked by the food delivery—like they were doing something secret and got found out. Surely, Orlisi was just messing with them to cover for Iselyn’s secret and because she was a second-year. It was a common event in the stories Ria read; one of the older girls would tell the new first-years about a mystery at the school, and the mystery would lead to an adventure where the girls would happen upon a real secret that the mystery was designed to distract from.

Still, with her next class in Serenity Hall, the sister building that formed a ring around the Tower of Dreams… there was no way that she wouldn’t be distracted thinking about it. Orlisi had really gotten her good.

Judging by Faris’ contemplative stare at Iselyn’s pile of books as he ate, he was still considering the story himself.

While she was chewing on savory vegetables full of nature energy, Ria felt an odd surge of earth energy followed by a sudden draining of her reserves.

At first, she eyed her meal, suspecting something had gone wrong with the magic, but thanks to her recent practice detecting her familiar bond, she quickly realized that her energy was being greedily drawn through the bond.

Ranger’s transformation!

She wanted to make use of Ranger’s senses to see what was happening but resisted the temptation and instead took out her staff, using the stored energy to bolster her reserves so she could continuously send Ranger as much as he needed.

“You okay, Ria?” Keira suddenly asked, and Ria realized that all her friends were staring at her.

“Yes?” Ria tried. Was it because she took out her staff while eating? Before finishing the thought, scents of smoldering ash, verdant forest, a winter stream, and others she wasn’t sure how to describe began to tickle her nose.

She blinked her eyes, and glows of light began to form disorienting trails in her view, surrounding her friends, the food, Iselyn’s books…

“Ria?” Keira queried again, starting to sound concerned.

Ria closed her eyes and cycled her energy to make sure she really was okay.

“I’ve heard that some bloodline awakenings can suddenly drain a person’s energy reserves,” Zena offered as an explanation.

“It’s not me. It’s Ranger,” Ria clarified.

When she opened her eyes, her vision was back to normal. Weird.

“Ranger? The energy loss… He’s undergoing a Magic Beast transformation?!” Keira blurted out, jolting to her feet, her voice rising in pitch and her eyes comically wide. “Where is he now?”

“He’s with Researcher Shadwich. I’m sure he’s fine,” Ria assured her friend.

Keira sighed and sat back down.

“How strong is your familiar bond for the transformation to resonate that clearly and draw directly from your reserves like that?” Faris asked in a bit of disbelief.

Ria laughed nervously and caught sight of Orlisi and Zena’s raised eyebrows. “...my spirit attunement is surprisingly high, you could say.”

The distant gong of a large bell announced the end of lunch, and the Culinary Magic girl showed up to collect the plates—saving her from having to further explain.

Though it was a bit rude, Ria dumped her remaining food into a wood container and stored it for later. There was no way she’d let a meal that expensive go to waste!

In the process of her friends deciding who would make sure she made it to her next class okay, Ria learned that Orlisi and Arthur were also heading to Serenity Hall for the same mathematics class. When Ria asked Orlisi about it, she explained that Geometry and Trigonometry of Purpose was usually a second-year class.

Prior to Keira and Faris heading off to their Alteration class, Keira anxiously made Ria promise to contact her right away if anything happened, and when Zena took her leave, the girl reiterated her offer to fight in the arena together, saying that it was open anytime Ria’s group wanted to take her up on it.

If not for Hulle’s intervention, Ria probably would have been strongly interested in Zena’s offer. But after seeing first-hand how much faster second-years were at forming their spells, Ria knew she wasn’t ready yet.

After helping Iselyn borrow the books she was using for research and seeing her off, a quick divination by Orlisi and a winding route involving a few bridges between buildings allowed Ria, Orlisi, and Arthur to arrive at their classroom on Serenity Hall’s second floor without incident.

Ria recognized a certain pink-robed and curly haired girl with a gold-rimmed insignia already seated and, with a smile and a bounce in her step, readily claimed the empty desk next to the girl.

“Hey, Phoebe.”