The midday sun burned brightly at the peek of a busy day. The Schorlwood Forest stood tranquil in its luminosity, a peaceful abode filled with nature’s bounty.

“Awesome!” Srynihxaezhiyl of the Maexiqhezyhr family closed her book after having completed her reading of its contents. The book was titled ‘Crystalline Blossoms’, and was a record left from the beginning of the Instrumentation Era. Srynie personally loved so many of the books that came from that period, stories that spoke of myths and legends called the Terran Mythos. She held a strong fascination for the complete Terran Mythos, stories of another world called Earth and the wonders it beheld. Sure, she knew it was just fantasy stories, nothing like that could really exist because it defied all sense of logic. But it was such fanciful ideas that had begun the Instrumentation Era, and a large number of existing creations had been discovered simply because of the Mythos. She was certain that there was still much more fact beneath fiction to be discovered from the collection, given the opportunity.

The problem for her was just how much of an opportunity she could muster. In the little village she called home, she had found plenty of free time to commit to her reading of such stories, but getting access to such books out here had proven challenging at best. No one here cared for such books nearly as much as she did, so convincing people to have new books found and brought to the village was proving more and more impossible every day. The book she had just finished, the latest addition to her collection, she had actually been given for her seventeenth birthday last spring. She had hoped for another book for her upcoming birthday this year, but as spring approached she was coming to terms with the idea that she might not be so fortunate.

After the passing moment of awe in having finished her book concluded, she began to calm down once again. She had really almost committed the book to memory already, much like all of the others, so reading it wasn’t even much of an accomplishment. Her excitement was almost simply artificial optimism in the reality of her circumstances. What inspired her the most in this book was its professional outlook on its circumstances, making a business from a presented opportunity. Most of it wasn’t as fictional as most of the Terran Mythos, it spoke of the inspiration behind the Instrumentation Era, and the Tomes that came from it. Such Tomes included the Terran Mythos, in addition to tomes that inspired a dramatic growth of the gift in all corners of the world. It was said that the gift was dependent on a person’s ability to imagine a desired result, so maybe emulating fiction and using it to empower a sense of imagination caused new and unexpected discoveries. Certainly, from there, business opportunities blossomed endlessly as new advancements were made with the gift, so the book made sense.

However, just as the Terran Mythos was tales of another world, so was any concept of being a part of discoveries and businesses invested upon it and the gift. Such a thing might happen in the big cities, but nothing like that even brought passing grace to her little village, the same village she should probably return to. She wasn’t that far away, and she didn’t have any actual responsibilities, but she wanted to make sure her precious books were kept safe. Having completed this one, she planned to have it put away safely as she goes to occupy her thoughts with something else. As the daughter of the village chief, she was at least expected to be around, even if she did little else. Her older brother held most of the responsibilities that weren’t already completed by her parents, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to be helpful. It’s just that very few people were willing to ever make a request of her ever, that did do a lot in preventing her from being helpful.

Making her way back to the village, Srynie took the opportunity to watch the trees begin to bud their springtime blossoms. Schorlwood Trees blossom with azure leaves in the spring, which often makes for a beautiful sight to behold. Such a sight wasn’t even possible beyond the forest, where such trees didn’t grow as frequently and even replanting the trees elsewhere resulted in the leaves blossoming in a lime colour instead. Even this novelty was passing, it was that same lime-tone that the leaves adopted after spring passed on, as if it was the color they were always supposed to hold. Everyone thought that the azure leaves were beautiful, but Srynie thought they looked sad. To her, it was almost as if the trees did not want to blossom here, the azure a protest to the undesired conditions, and the adoption of their true color only a submission to the inevitable. She understood those thoughts all too personally, she herself was living in the same cycle of captivity.

Once back at the village, she walked past the mansion at the edge of the village. Like everyone else, she had found its recent addition to be creepy and undesired, yet here it inevitably was. Srynie had no idea why someone would want to move here, it made no sense to her at all. Maybe they were lured here by tales of the azure leaves, and were eager to be a part of the experience. If so, she could imagine they would grow tired of it around the same time as the leaves took up their regular lime, to then either move back to the city they came from or to otherwise find themselves trapped like everyone else. However, from here, she could see a large tower in the distance beyond the mansion, a sight she could not recall ever seeing before. It stood atop the crest of a hill in the distance beyond the mansion, otherwise obscured by the trees.

Considering the family here had produced the mansion from nothing over the span of four days, she couldn’t imagine the tower in the distance would have been much more trouble. What baffled her was wondering why it was there at all. The mansion was already secluded from the village it was in, the village itself already secluded from the rest of civilization. To have a tower further secluded from such a village, further beset into the midst of nothing, it just seemed far too redundant. Srynie remained cautious and concerned about what level of insanity would be necessary for such seclusion as she continued on her way. It wasn’t her place to pry into such matters anyway, none of it influenced her in the slightest. If they desired so much seclusion, her time would be better spent elsewhere, such as bringing her book back home.

Returning to the center of the village, she found her home quiet and abandoned. Everyone else was still out and about, doing their due diligence in looking after the village. Her father would probably be pressing his authority in any of a variety of matters, pushing order in the village so as to ensure its productivity. Her mother she could imagine would be attending any of a variety of community gatherings, leading a multitude of efforts to the betterment of their society. Her brother was probably at one of either location, being further trained to take over as chief of the family, as her mother had once before. It was always the eldest that attained this responsibility, no matter which gender they were. Given a few more years, she would probably find herself joined to another family of the village, to learn whatever pursuits that family took interest in. Her father had spoken to her in earnest of this in the past, making sure she was aware of her responsibility to her community.

It was a future she did not look forward to. The problem was not in being helpful to others, only in that she did not want to become another azure leaf. Finding a true way to bring value to others, that was something she cherished. To that end, she left her home and went into the town square, almost simply across from her home. Finding a good place to sit, she began focusing upon a spot above the pond there. She imagined a scene from one of her stories, of a mechanical marvel called a computer monitor, a thing capable of itself showing a dazzling display of interesting pictures and wild adventures. Such a device appeared translucently above the pond, itself only an illusion. She was really good with illusions, having so heavily invested herself in the imaginary. She wasn’t capable of anything further, and she doubted she got all the details correct from simply the words alone, but being able to see such a thing before her allowed her to further investigate her ideas.

A young boy walked up to her in curiosity, wondering at the illusion above the pond. Perfect, she had an audience. She rotated the monitor for the boy and used its display to show a more realistic image, a young woman enacting a pyrotechnic display of a gift at a music concert. It was a scene reported in the book she had just finished. Unlike the monitor itself, the music concert was considerably more realistic, using the gift to throw around flashes and sparkles wasn’t anything unlike what she herself was doing. Sure, without any sound, it didn’t really feel like much of a music concert, but the boy seemed entertained enough by the visuals alone. Soon after, the boy's mother arrived and pulled him away, bowing out an apology silently for having gotten in her way. Sryine frowned, having lost her audience all too suddenly. It was always like this. Between avoiding her because she was too important and avoiding her because she was a bad influence due to her strange ideas, she was finding her secluded village to be far too quiet.

As she dismissed the illusion and started pondering an alternative idea, an unfamiliar older woman approached her, looking distraught. “Young lady, I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m running out of options. My husband had requisitioned a bookshelf made for him, but I have no idea where to pick it up from. Do you know where the Bhyiqiexhaez family workshop is?” The woman posed a good question. Sryine recognized the family name, but she wasn’t exactly certain where they lived. Sure, everyone else in her family could provide directions in an instant, but she had been so withdrawn from her own community that she was at a bit of a loss. Even so, it was someone who was actually honestly asking for her help, she didn’t want to let them down.

“Sure! I’ll need to look it up, but I’ll be right back!” Sryine dashed into her home and poked into her mother’s office. She knew there was a community map there, with plenty of labels. After a quick scan, she found the name she was looking for, and dashed right back out. The woman was still waiting for her, looking hopeful as Sryine returned. “Okay, this way, follow me.” Sryine led the way to the destination memorized from the map. Soon after, they arrived at the desired workshop, as long as she had read the map correctly. Sryine spotted them being watched by a shy young girl from around a corner. Starting after the girl made the girl pull away slightly. Sryine however was not unaccustomed to having people scared of her.

A small blue ball bounced its way towards the little girl. Surprised, the girl tried to catch the ball, only to find it pass through her hand and keep going. The girl stumbled after the ball, the ball bouncing through her as a result. “Hey! This ball is mean, that’s not fair.” The girl was obviously upset at not being able to interact with the ball. Sryine made the ball stop, and when the girl tried to grab it again, Sryine manipulated the image to move with the girl’s hand as best as she could. The girl tried to feel for the ball she held, but obviously felt nothing. She threw the ball up, which Sryine emulated, and the girl caught the ball on the way down.

“This is a really weird ball, you know that. Your gift did this?” “It did. Sorry, that it wasn’t up to your expectations.” “You’re a Maexiqhezyhr, right? That means you’re really important. Why did you come here?” “Oh, we’re trying to track down a missing bookshelf, we heard it was being made here and had come to get it picked up.” “Oh, the one Sis finished earlier? If you were sent to pick it up, you’re far too late. She finished it early and was already delivering it herself. She should actually be arriving there pretty soon actually.” The little girl looked at Sryine with a subtle pity, for having been tasked with such a role. Sryine however thanked the girl and went on her way, the other woman having heard the exchange as well.

Sryine was left ignorant of the reason for the girl’s pity until the other woman guided her towards the mansion she called home. Sryine let pass a moment of dread as they approached from the distance, putting everything together far too late. The unfamiliar woman was actually the wife of the strange couple that had arrived in their village just a lunar cycle ago, and they had requested a bookshelf from the village for one reason or the other. Still, she had endeavoured to help with this task, turning back at this point would be rude. They didn’t even know if the bookshelf had arrived safely, and even if it had, she herself wasn’t ignorant to the feeling of having someone flee from her at the first convience. Doing so for the first honest request given to her in such a long time just didn’t feel right. This however was despite feelings that the place of solitude was creepy and that she was certain to regret everything were she to keep going.

It didn’t matter, she would be making the most of her circumstances either way. She arrived at the front gate of the creepy mansion as the sun reached into the horizon.