“take here sweetie, a treat for you,"

Old lady Vanna extended her hand, letting Lan know what laid concealed inside the old, wrinkled woman’s hands, a small sweet looking pastry that was covered in honey.

Warm to the touch, it had probably been baked not long ago by her daughter Sylvia who owned the village’s bakery.

Vanna was born long, long, ago, back when the village was built on the side of the hill instead of all over the hill, when they didn’t have a village guardian and lived in terror waiting for the creatures to end their life’s.

She was summer-born and had seven other siblings, three brothers, Faddei, Kester, and Maynor. Four sisters Faiz and Kallen, the other two, had been stillborn.

By the time the title of village chief changed hands from Phillip to Amos, there were only three left, her, Faiz, and Kester, the latter left the village and never came back, the former married, led a happy life but died without leaving any children behind.

Fortunately, she survived these hard times to witness the growth of her birthplace, from a few scattered moldy homes and small wheat fields to a bustling coastal town. She also managed to marry Mervin, the most handsome of hillside’s available bachelors.

Despite her hard infancy, Vanna gave birth to 3 children who were now upstanding adults, all alive, all healthy, and all safe.

Now at the sunset of her life, Vannie goes every month for a visit to Freesia’s clinic. She was told she could probably live for another ten or twenty years with magical help.

“Your magic is wonderful sweetie” She patted Sofia on the head “as is this one too” the young Elven eared girl with dark blue short hair was small at around 1.25m, just short enough to fit snuggly under Vanna’s hand while she delightfully ate her sweet treat, even if her face didn’t show it, Vanna knew the kid was happy.

“Thank you for your words Vanna, but you may want to rethink about that one. She’s already a handful, nothing but trouble, you’re spoiling her rotten,”

The one who spoke was a beautiful elf, she stood at 1.74M with long silky blonde hair that cascaded down a lean back almost reaching her hips, her body was thin but voluptuous, she had curves in all the places Vanna wished she had been graced with on her younger days.

The old lady was sure, completely convinced, it must be illegal for a single woman to be that beautiful despite already been a mother of two.

The effects of the elven seed, eternal beauty, how jealous!

"a sweet won’t do nothing to little Lan, right? Side’s, she’s a growing girl, food is a priority or she won’t develop to be as beautiful as her mother,"

“Yes mom, I’m fine, see?” Lan spoke, stopping for air on her relentless attack on the honey-covered bread.

“Yes, I can see you are, but I also remember that someone came to my office fleeing from Madi for painting the walls of the kitchen with mold,"

“Don’t know who that was…” Lan replied in total deadpan, then continued eating.

“I’m sure you don’t…” Freesia then turned to Vanna “anyway I don’t see anything wrong with you, I casted a spell for your back pain, apart from that you’re good to go, just don’t try to do anything strenuous,"

“I won’t deary, my husband doesn’t seem to be in the mood anymore, it seems I lost my touch,"

Freesia cracked a smile at that

“Well, I’m not a monster. If you manage to find it, you have my blessing to get some exercise,”

“I’ll remember that then this old lady will get out of your hair. How much I owe ya?”

“How funny, just keep the spoiling of my daughter to a minimum,"

“Can’t make any promises sweetie, I’m a grandma, spoiling children is just what we do, especially the cute ones,” She winked at Lan, the kid gave her a look that seemed to say “well that’s obvious”

Both mother and child saw the old white-haired lady leave through the only door that leading out of the study and into the edge of the property. They waved goodbye as they lost sight of her in the distance.

“Now momma…” Lan cleaned the breadcrumbs off her mouth and clothes. “I want to learn magic,” she said as she straightened herself.

“So, this is what you were after? All right. Can I ask what brought your new interest in mommy’s work?”

Could this be about Raanan? Maybe she wants to learn magic too since they’re so close. It can’t hurt to teach her. At worst she just gives up and at best I get an assistant.

“You know what? It doesn’t matter, but I’ll have you know that the magic I do is quite hard. We will start from the basics, yes?”