The First Law of Magic States that a spell cast will run its course until such a time its intended effect is realized. However, whether that realization comes to pass hinges on two factors. Firstly, is the degree of fluency of the mana from the originator of the spell. Secondly, Is the intent with which the mana has been supplied. -Wysterl Weisermann. The Fundamentals of Magic.

“Are you sure he’s not angry at me?” Szephia asked the other girl. Nora looked up from her mountain of pancakes, dripping with copious amounts of honey and shrugged as she took another bite from a wooden fork.

Nonetheless, her eyes never left Arthur’s broad back as he bustled in the kitchen. He was wearing a Sylvani style kimonoesque shirt with a leaf and silver embellishments around its short sleeves. The shirt was tied around his waist with a sash.

Yesternight’s misunderstanding had shredded his shirt in a clash of magic. Given that his magical knapsack was held back somewhere, he had to improvise; the lady of the arbor got him one of her former husband’s clothing. Arthur looked happier. No, he looked flustered as Szephia’s aunt clung to his elbow as he flipped another pancake into the air.

The older sylvani woman was laughing as Arthur failed to catch the pancake in time and she stepped in to correct its fall using her own magic.

Nora frowned and shook her head; that woman was getting overly touchy. Her gaze returned to the other girl. Szephia was staring through the space between her fingers. She looked as if she wanted to hurl.

“ What are you doing?” Nora asked with quirked eyebrows.

“ What? Don’t you find that …I don't know…just bleurgh?!”

Nora shook her head at her acquaintance's antics. “ How old are you? Never seen a woman fawn over someone?” she grinned, showing one of her vampiric teeth. Szephia flinched, Nora hastily hid away her smile with the back of her hand.

Szephia realized her reaction must have dismayed the dhampir and hastily moved to respond. “ I’m only 25…how old are you even?”

‘ Haah, sylvania tweenager. ‘

“ Forty,” she mumbled under her breath.

“ Ah—”

Arthur had woken up to strange ceilings one too many times he’d accepted he might as well go along with it. Even after yesternight’s debacle where he got away with a shredded shirt, he was happy to have woken up in the healer’s arbor this time.

Nothing beat good breakfast, feathery owlcats preening against your ankles as you walked barefoot on pristine wooden floors, the aroma of batter turning into that delicious pancake, a woman clinging onto your elbow—a centenarian woman clinging to a boy a quarter of her age was what was wrong with that picture.

Arthur smiled thinly as he tried to flip the pancake, then forgetting that his hand was restricted, he fumbled, unable to pass the pan onto his off hand. Arthur was ambidextrous.

The woman laughed at his expense as she arrested the pancake’s momentum before it went splattering over the wooden countertop. Marble oak; oak that looked like marble but instead of striations, it had whorls. How much would an Earth aesthete have paid for such wood?

Far removed from the scullery at Sturm’s Keep, this kitchen had a minimalist, modernist feel to it. Everything , from ingredients to kitchen implements that were not in use were shut behind compartments. It was truly instagram worthy. Even with the wooden jars that had a ceramic sheen. The motif was just woody accents everywhere.

For ingredients and utensils, all you had to do was reach towards the compartment you wanted and the living wood of the arbor would recede and reveal what you wanted. Like a smart home. An organic sentient home? Even the water spigots worked the same way. Lights? You just had to clap your hands and the room slowly took on brightness, you barely noticed where it came from.

The best part of it all was that everything ingredient Arthur asked for was available. They even had sugar! And loads of the stuff; trust the sylvani to know there stuff where plants were concerned.

Arthur felt a rush just from thinking about the sugar. He barely gave the jars of honey a look; no, he’d already had too much of the stuff to last him months. Who wanted honey when there was berry jam, both known flavors and unknown. And even fruity pickled marmalade.

Not distracted by the sylvani woman’s bell chime like laughter, Arthur sighed as he looked outside the kitchen window. They were on the hundredth floor. Beyond the kitchen porch, a platform the size of a helipad overlooked a steep drop. Beyond the hitching rail, were other behemoths of trees, so big—’ So big the empire state building looks like… like what? What’s the adjective?

The arbors were grander than any Giant Redwood Arthur had ever seen; he felt his megalophobia peeking out from a corner like a shy child. Tall trees that he could scant believe existed soared skywards; leaves the size of a paddleboat waved in an unseen breeze as exotic critters and birds flitted hither and thither.

The main canopy was still leagues away, shrouded by morning mist yet there, dawn light illuminated the space. Arthur wondered if he’d dropped into a world within a world. He would’ve seen the large from the approach over the Hunchback Ranges but he didn't. Either they were too deep in the forest or reality was wonky hereabouts.

The sea of lights he’d seen from his temporary residence the night before were walkways and scaffoldings hugging their girth. They formed aerial streets, which had ornamental lamps, in the shape of bellflowers towering over them.

Some of them were bedecked in botanical ornamentation and garlands of flowers whose arrangements seemed too deliberate to be natural despite the metal on them. He barely saw where the metallic features began and where the woody parts ended.

Also jostling for his attention were sylvani homes arrayed in and around each tree like small mini vertical villages. Some protruded from the tree like a bulbous outgrowth or a swallow nest with smooth walls while trellises of ivies and other herbaceous crawling plants clung to their walls.

Small waterfalls cascaded, dropping their volume into the air, as their water misted and formed rainbows. It would have made any green architect’s eyes well with tears.

It was still too early in the morning but he was rather anxious he had yet to experience what a vibrant sylvani town was like. That and an appointment with the [Winter Keeper] Volemhir Wintersheart. Arthur shook his head wistfully

“ Young sprite?” the woman nudged him. The smell of a burnt pancake wafted up his nostrils. Panicking he came back to himself just in time to see a sylvani rider zoom past. on a Swallowtail Faerie Wyvern. The varicoloured blur was so fast Arthur almost missed it. Selessia saw the youth torn between the pancake and the wyvern, and snatched the spatula from him.

“ Why does the [Warden] want to see me?” Arthur broke the awkward silence pervading over the breakfast table. Selessia was occupied with her pancake, dissecting the pieces, and picking out the berries before she put them into her mouth as if she wanted to give an opinion on his cooking.

Nora was demolishing another tower of the things, the pitcher of honey halfway to the bottom. Szephia was trying very hard not to meet his gaze as she hid behind a cup of tea. Arthur felt lost.

He sighed…way too loudly and the spell broke.

“Ah? Oh…” the eldest sylvani roused from her scrutiny of the crepe. “ Szephia, be a dear and tell our young sprite why the warden wants to have a word with him.”

“ I think I heard interrogation yesterday…”

“ Ah, that? Pshaw! you needn’t be on edge… with my niece there you have nothing to fear.” Selessia said. Arthur didn't seem very convinced. He recalled a tall sylvani man a head taller than he was with a grim countenance and the posture of a predator and gulped.

“ Auntie! Why do I have to be the one to do it?” Szephia sulked

“ Hmm, you’re part of the Arbor Watch aren’t you?” Selessia furrowed her brows. The first time Arthur had seen the ethereal woman frown. “ Besides, you owe him after that spell of yours hurt him. Now he can’t perform magic for a while.”

‘Haha, guilt tripping much? I already healed overnight,’ Arthur left unspoken.

Szephia gave Arthur a furtive glance and deflated, shoulders visibly drooping. She looked like a cornered child. To her aunt, she might as well have been one.

Arthur peered over the railing. The drop was dizzying; the ground was so far away. Yet the sylvani town had come alive in a buzz of activity. There must have been like two hundred residents in one tree alone.

The skies were full of fliers on faerie wyverns; a motley of prismatic colors that seemed unthinkable on creatures the size of a large horse With their quad fore wings and lunate tail wings, he would've thought them butterflies were it not for the size and the riders straddling across their backs as they wove between the trees.

Creatures that would’ve been too heavy conveyed their riders with grace in the air to rival that of a goshawk. The aerial acrobatics of a wing of the wyverns doing the equivalent of an air force exercise made Arthur itch to get out there and fly.

‘Huh? With what?’ his train of thought came to a grinding stop. He realized that some memory must’ve bled through and let another sigh. ‘ All this sighing, as if I have an existential crisis…quarter-life crisis and whatever crisis I haven’t encountered yet.

He continued to eyeball the wing as it veered past, zigzagging around then flying close to the bark of the trees much to the elation of young starry eyed sylvanis. The walkways above and below were also full of the onlookers, sylvani having a tea at an outdoor bistro, guardsmen from the Watch patrolling. If they were fazed by a human in their midst, they didn't show it.

Maybe it was the sylvani dressing he’d worn. A kimono shirt made from sylphid silk. It was airy and smooth like silk, yet had the weight of cotton and didn't flutter about in the breeze. There was a leaf badge made from amber pinned on his collar cuff. There were also airy trousers but he didn't like those, they were too loose. He’d have rather slept in them.

“ Are you ready?” Szephia called from behind him. She was dressed to the nines in a form fitting uniform. The blouse peeking from between the breastplate screamed qipao vibes while her latte brown leather breeches were tucked into a pair of calf length boots. She also had a badge, silver, inlaid with the amber gem in the middle. Her cyan hair was in a braided updo.

“What? I was off duty when they called me last time,” Szephia protested. She was referring to their first encounter where she’d appeared wearing a dress. Nora also seemed to have worn some of her clothing because they were close in height.

‘ How are we going to get around this place?’ Arthur almost wanted to ask. As if on cue, the sylvani girl tapped her amber badge. It blinked on and then let out a steady glow.

“ [Mage-Scout] first class Szephia,” she winced when Arthur stared at her. “ Requesting pickup; Arbor Watch Headquarters.”

The gem blinked off immediately after that as Szephia shifted on her feet.

“ Arthur,” Nora knocked him on the forehead. Arthur Startled. “ You’re staring…”

“ Ah?” Arthur sputtered. “ Sorry, It's just…”

“ The gem? Huh…remind you of something?”

“ Huh? Yea…it does. I wonder what it’ll cost to get one of those around here.”

“ Ten Crowns, “ Szephia muttered.

“ Wha—” Nora blustered.

Arthur whispered, “ Is that a lot of money?” But the sylvani girl was the one to answer, “ Worked my keister off for five months just to get this,” Szephia sniffed proudly. Before Nora could ask how much a Mage-Scout was being paid, the sounds of wing beats reached the trio.

Wind gusted as a large, red and black shape rose up from beneath the platform, with a rider on a saddle skillfully guiding the beast. Ruby eyes with pupils the dark of night regarded them from alongside a wedge-like visage while twin back curving nubs that could’ve been growing horns sat atop its flaring nostrils.

A red crest undulated, shuddering with every beat of its powerful quad wings; muscles rippled across its body, proclaiming the veracity of the beast’s power.

While its prominent colors were a subdued shade of the two aforementioned hues, there were also striations flowing from the tip of its snout to the end of its fin-like tail. However, that is not the only thing that caught his attention.

On its breast, were front facing spiracles that opened and closed like gills. Arthur was so entranced he barely noticed the gondola suspended by harnesses make its way up.

“ First time seeing a Red Admirilis ?” a voice called from atop the flying mount as Arthur shielded his face from the gusts.

“ Uhm, yea…” Arthur said, as he moistened his lips. That thing was even larger than the ones he’d seen fly earlier on. If the swallowtail faerie wyverns could be compared to a chopper, they were the size of a—

‘The size of a Eurocopter’ Arthur thought. ‘If those things bother aerships when feral,’ he shuddered. ‘I have to revise my plans for the aership. Stronger glass,’ he gulped. ‘Stronger hull…Iron wood. Weapons…ballistas and magic cannons.’ He clenched his fists. His blood pumped. It wasn’t from anxiety, nor fear; it was plain unbridled excitement .

No, the power in the flier stoked an innovative spirit like a forge fire. He would make the best damn aership to grace the Erythian skies. A grin split his face from ear to ear. The wyvern trilled, unnerved by the way Arthur was looking at it.

“ Welcome to Lysfall!” the Sylvani rider called out. He wore a leather cap, crystal goggles and his pointy ears peeked out from the holes on the side of his headgear. His garb was a motley of mostly browns. On his breast was the insignia of the Arbor Wing division.

The gondola flew; and it flew fast without jostling its passengers. It was the size of a carriage and Arthur had a front seat view because of the glass pane in front of him. It was enchanted glass; which was good in his books.

With that level of technology available, he stopped worrying about one of the items on his checklist. The old blueprints from the keep did not show the glass portholes on the sides of a dwarven aership and Arthur half-thought that magic was used to keep out the elements. Perhaps they were outdated. Alongside them, was a wing of wyvern escorts, eight in total; two ahead of them two behind and two to either side.

“You’re not a first time flier are you?” Szephia frowned as she regarded him. Her mien was far removed from the girl he’d been briefly acquainted with at Selessia’s house. Maybe the olive green uniform sporting Lysfall’s livery gave her some sort of professional confidence?

‘How to answer this? How much to reveal about my craft?’ “ I have flown a lot,” Arthur grinned. “ I think I’ve never had such a smooth ride.” he added, looking at Nora who stared wide-eyed at the scenery zooming by and their escorts doing aerial maneuvers.

“Hmph,” Szephia snorted. “Unlike those monstrosities called aerships, there is grace in faerie wyverns and gondolas.”

“ What’s this I hear, air rivalry?” Arthur prodded with raised eyebrows. The sylvani girl just shrugged a non-answer. Arthur gazed outside the side windows as the trees blurred past.

“ How far are we flying?” Nora asked.

“ Eh, Watch headquarters is thirty par’quarts out.” A voice came through Szephia’s little communication crystal.

“ Hey!” the sylvani girl started. “ Who gave you permission to intrude?”

“ Telecrys work in two ways, you know. Also, its Watch protocol to keep telecry hails open for unverified guests,” their rider said.

“ Since when?” Szephia retorted.

“ As of last Oons’day, Watch surveillance and transit protocols have been updated. Can’t say more because of our guests, I’m afraid.” the rider replied.

“ Telecrys is short for?” Arthur enquired.

“Why should I tell you?” “ Telepsychic crystal” Szephia and the yet unnamed rider spoke over one another. Afterwards, their ride towards the Watch headquarters was largely punctuated by conversations from their rider. If there was a ride hailing app, Arthur would have definitely given him five stars.

Their talkative rider gave Arthur a lot of tidbits about the sylvani people and the Aesylvani free city states at large. Their polities used the term Aesylvani to mean the collective polities of their cities.

However each administrative unit was self-governing on its own but deferred to a higher authority, the Sylvani queen. Nonetheless, they had a capital somewhere in the Great Vale that even they weren't allowed to disclose its location called Verdensvar.

Contrary to what Arthur believed, the sylvani were not that reclusive. They had smaller outposts scattered across the Great Vale’s Shallows where they interacted with other races.

The same outposts also offered services and sylvani goods to the Adventurers Guild, the Merchant Guild and the dwarves. Some of the more outgoing sylvani were also innkeepers and guides for those adventurers that wanted to get to unexplored dungeons.

The Great Vale was also about one third of Alkerd in terms of land covered. That and more facts continued to keep Arthur interested until finally their rider announced that they were close to the Watch headquarters.

However, there was no warning as the Gondola lurched as though going through turbulence and when it ended, the scenery had changed. They had passed through the canopy without Arthur even noticing.

And the time was all wrong, It looked as if they’d crossed from one day to the next. When they’d left, it had been morning, and out here, it seemed like a whole day had passed.

Ahead, was one other tree to put all to shame. Eik’hjerte, old aesylvani for Oak Heart, also known as the Over Watch. It was the sylvani Arbor Watch headquarters; self professed guardians of all that was green under the Erythean sun.