The two boys and two girls once again paced toward the throne, facing the Ruler’s vain gaze.

Acrus was, of course, unchanged. The coldness in their eyes and the aloofness of their posture were all the same as when they’d last met. Their kingdom and capital have all gone through a terrible battle, but they alone were unaffected—as if they were above everything.

Niu gulped without thinking. After the first impression of beauty, she started liking this extravagant wooden palace less and less. Even living in its chambers for quite a few days now, she was still unaccustomed to their grandness. She had been living in a very small room for years, after all.

But most of all she was afraid of their summoning. All things considered, they made a job well done—or so she thought, even if she knew she herself had nothing to do with it. Gen, however, nearly paid for it with his life. She’d also heard that Shaya and Roah had their own difficulties.

She, alone, did nothing… and would the Ruler of Kalden hold that against her? She could almost imagine, with great horror, Acrus ordering the return to Plainland of all her friends except for her. Would she be thrown into the dungeon, worked again to prove herself worthy, or simply executed on the spot?

No, that was silly. What was it about the Ruler that led to her having such dark thoughts? She had to believe that somehow everything was going to turn out alright. She just prayed for them to get it over with, whatever it was.

It was then that Acrus finally began to speak. Still unable to understand the language, Niu could do nothing but wait, clenching her fists. Only once Acrus finished talking would Seele translate any relevant thing to them. And they spoke a lot, glancing from time to time at their audience, as if daring anyone to contradict them.

Niu snuck just a quick glance at her companions. Even Roah, who’d already demonstrated a basic understanding of the language, showed no signs other than impatience. Was the Ruler simply making some eloquent speech? It certainly sounded that way from their tone.

Acrus suddenly raised a finger toward the ceiling and there was a sudden general murmur of surprise. Even Aisbroom, ever calm and collected, cast a somewhat confused glance at their leader. Seele looked positively shocked, and then the Ruler said something while looking at them.

Seele froze for a while, but then turned to Niu and the rest and began to talk. “The Ruler, ah, thanks you for your service. He heard about everything you did, and is grateful for it, so… apparently, he already sent a message to the land of light. Uh, that’s your world.”

“What?” Roah was the first to blurt out.

“Message to our… they actually…?” mumbled Gen in disbelief.

Niu and Shaya exchanged equally shocked glances for a split moment, but then hurriedly averted them; they still weren’t quite back on speaking terms.

A message had already been sent? Niu was sure that the Ruler of Kalden was merely playing with them, ready to engage in countless conditions and negotiations—with success in the second wave being one of them—but it had already been done? Perhaps they weren’t as cruel as Niu thought they were. Seele never seemed happy when talking about Acrus, but perhaps they were a fair Ruler after all.

Acrus then shouted something. All of them flinched, looking back at Acrus’s furious blue eyes staring at them as they began to speak. Seele immediately bowed their head, their lips mumbling a voiceless apology, perhaps.

Acrus waited for a few moments and then continued for a while, finally letting Seele translate it again.

“Ah, he says that a message was sent, but the thing used to send it was a bit, ah, what’s the word? Defective? Anyway, it is something very old, but we did manage to get in contact with your side. He wants to… well, use you to get their cooperation, I’m sorry… but the other side’s interested in you! There’s talks right now, so you don’t need to worry. Just stay quiet, this time.”

They were, again, quite surprised by this speech’s contents, but heeded to Seele’s warning to not make the Ruler angry again.

Niu knew that the Ruler was still treating them as pawns for whatever they had in mind. All previous positive thoughts were gone from her at that point. Were all these politics simply way over her head, was the fairies’ thinking too alien to hers, or was Acrus just a bad person? She definitely couldn’t reach an answer. She could only lightly bite her lips while waiting for them to resume.

Seemingly pleased with their response, the Ruler started speaking again and then waved a hand. “We’ve been dismissed,” explained Seele and turned away, starting to walk. Niu followed them toward the exit. Only Roah turned back for a moment, perhaps to gaze at the king, but quickly came as well. “Acrus said that you have, ah, you are worthy of rest, and…”

“Be blunt, now that Aisbroom isn’t with us,” muttered Roah.

Seele hesitated for a second. “Well, he just said to wait until he summons us again.”

“You’re still using ‘he’ for everyone, huh?” Roah asked.

“Look, it’s not her native language,” said Gen, “I mean, it’s already strange that—”

“You just made the same mistake,” Roah quickly interjected. “Remember, they’re not like us. You should treat them differently, because they are different. …No offense, Seele.”

“That’s fine, I suppose,” answered Seele hesitatingly. They seemed to be unable to follow the flow of the conversation. “Oh, and I forgot to mention you’re summoned to tonight’s planting… party? No, I don’t think that's the right word…”

“Planting party?” asked Shaya, contemplative. “Is that for, I don’t know, planting new trees after the battle or something?”

“Yes, you understand. But that’s not all.” Seele’s smile vanished. “It’s more a… event meant to honor the dead. You’ll see.”

As usual, after everyone left the throne room, only a few guards and Aisbroom remained behind. Acrus turned their head, a smug smile on their face. “Were you upset to hear about the message I have sent without consulting you?” they asked.

“Upset?” replied Aisbroom, their face unyielding, as they paced in front of the throne. “No. Surprised, yes. Also confused as to why this was kept a secret from me. Was there any particular reason?”

“Not really," Acrus readily admitted, lazily waving a hand. “I just wanted to see your face during the announcement. Your reaction was too subdued, though. I was disappointed. Oh well, perhaps next time.”

“And was what you told them was the truth?” Aisbroom asked, completely ignoring the Ruler’s provocations.

“Oh, so you dare suggest I would lie?” Acrus asked back, yet his tone contained no indignation or anger, merely amusement. “But yes, I was truthful. I have indeed sent a message, and I have received a reply, and we are working on fixing that old Faerie Transmitter. Never thought I’d use that piece of junk, but we have come to this. And, speaking of the truth…” Acrus paused for a moment, surveying the surroundings as if to ascertain no guard was listening in on their conversation. Acrus then asked softly. “Any reports about the fairies?”

“You mean the ones who just left?” Aisbroom replied just as softly, drawing closer.

“No, I am referring to the new faeries found.”

“Ah, yes. There were less, this time, but some were indeed found again—all of them as mangled corpses, just like last time.”

The relevant mechanism was still under investigation, but there was one thing for certain. The four faerie children coming to this world was no fluke; only their survival itself was, perhaps, miraculous. Once they were found, Kalden also received reports from all over the kingdom about other such fairies found, albeit dead.

And that was just as well. Four was enough as is. They were creating enough of a stir by their mere existence, let alone if one took in account some of them, such as Roah.

Aisbroom heard even Ariboh, of all people, praising the boy’s actions during the wave. Aisbroom had obviously also spoken with the people that helped him back then, and most of them were just as impressed. They felt that Roah’s actions were praiseworthy and that he’d truly helped protect Kalden.

That child definitely had a hand in the fire… but why? Aisbroom sought answers fervently, combing through all possible sources that weren’t asking Roah himself. They simply had to know what that faerie was scheming.

Even so, Aisbroom did not share any of their suspicions with the Ruler.

While the great fire had been extinguished rather quickly, it still led to some damage. The great old Twintree with its sturdy, thick trunk was mostly unaffected, but there were many bald patches of ground all around it, with the remains of smaller trees having already been cleared away. Around each area was a small gathering of perhaps a couple dozen fairies—and some others among them, as well.

“So this is war,” Gen mumbled dejectedly, looking more at the ground below his feet than at the coffins laid on the ground in the center of each circle.

His hand was slightly shaking. He hadn’t mentioned anything about it, but Niu assumed that the situation had been quite traumatic for him. He’d not only seen the death of fairies right in front of his eyes, but even caused the death of a few of his enemies. That was probably weighing on his mind.

“But what are they going to…” started Shaya, but Seele tapped on her shoulder.

“I will explain later. Just watch for now,” they instructed.

Niu could almost feel tears rising to her eyes, too. She’d probably seen at least a few of these people during the battle, after all. Watching from above as they all died, and being able to save only one of them… even if this wasn’t her world or her people, death was still sad.

Back home, they would sometimes pray for the soul of the deceased to be accepted by the Gods; here, though, the fairies abhorred the Gods, so what would they do? As if to answer the question, a tall fairy clad in a brilliant white dress went to the center of the gathering.

They began a speech, and Niu was surprised to find herself already somewhat recognizing some words here and there, though of course even its general meaning still alluded her. It was not hard to guess, however, based on the solemn tone and the stern expression of everyone around, that this was more or less the sort of speech expected for the occasion. And completely different from Acrus’s long-winded provocations.

Next, the dress-wearing fairy held up what appeared to be a rock. Or so Niu thought, but she realized with a start that it was actually a seed. Seele had called it (after a quick consulting to find the proper vocabulary) a Planting Ceremony, after all… the fairy lowered to the ground gently, covering the seed with ground and patting it flat. They then nodded, rose to their feet and began talking again with hands raised in the air. Upon being finished they lowered their hands again, and, as if taking it as a signal, a few fairies stepped forward from the crowd, armed with shovels. They began piling dirt on top of the wooden coffins.

Niu turned around to check her friends’ reaction to all this, when she noticed someone unexpected—Aisbroom had snuck behind them at some point. Specifically, they were behind Roah at the moment, and Niu could hear a sudden whisper.

“I know you did it.”

Roah startled and turned around, but by that time Aisbroom had already turned back, slipping into the crowd. Niu approached him, tilting her head as she caught his eye.

“What was that about? I have no idea,” he said plainly. The fact that he was slightly averting his eyes was suspicious, but other than that he seemed only confused.

“Yeah right,” interjected Gen. “What’s the deal with you, anyway?”

“There’s no deal whatsoever.”

“Ah, let’s move…” whispered Seele, seeing that a few eyes were focusing on their small conversation. The two boys said nothing more and went away with the rest of the crowd.

“Anyway,” said Shaya, “wasn’t that touching? Well, not the speech, I didn't understand it of course,” she hurriedly said, “but it feels… right for them to bury the dead like this.”

Gen scratched his head. “I guess so. It is a nice ceremony… er, not that I mean to diminish the meaning of all this, or anything.” He glanced at Seele, who was smiling.

“It’s fine, I understand what you mean,” they said. “We focus on the trees and plants that come from… ah, you know, death creates life, and all that. So don’t feel bad. How do you fairies do it, then?”

“Oh, it’s not too different, actually. We also bury them in the ground like this. We have graveyards and sometimes even tombstones… err, it’s a piece of stone with some written description of the person buried inside,” explained Gen.

“There are also places where they burn the dead and put their ashes inside boxes,” added Roah. If Niu remembered correctly, those were the customs of Sacrona.

“Ah, I see. Different customs in different places.”

“Do you always bury your dead like this, then?” asked Shaya.

“Most of the time. But sometime we do other… like creating laborers, for example.”

Hearing that, everyone stopped in place, shocked. They glanced first at Seele, and then sent apprehensive gazes at the silent TriX who stood nearby. Seele raised their eyebrows.

“Oh, did I not explain this before?”

“Nope, you haven’t,” said Gen, furrowing his brows.

“TriX only told us a bit about laborers,” added Roah. With everything they had on their minds ever since coming to Kalden, it was no wonder that some information about this culture was still missing. Perhaps they were never going to find out everything.

“Do you actually… I mean…” Shaya stared a bit frightfully at TriX. “You’re not actually a-a corpse, are you?”

“A corpse? Oh, no,” said Seele, shaking their head.

“I was created using, organic remnants,” TriX itself explained in response. “I was told that this, is the only way to create, life such as myself.”

“Creating artificial life… using the dead?” said Roah, widening his eye. “How interesting.”

“I-I think it’s kinda…” Gen started, but bit back his words with a pause. “Hmm, no, I guess I shouldn’t judge a different culture too harshly.”

“Huh, you’re finally learning something,” quipped Roah.

“I don’t wanna hear that from you.”

Meanwhile, Niu pulled out her slate and scribbled a question, jutting it out just in time to stop one of the boys’ usual squabbles with great timing as usual. How do laborers produce energy, then? Do they need food or anything like that? She asked that while recalling that TriX had never actually eaten with them.

Seele smiled. “Oh, yes. They get everything they need from there,” they then pointed upwards to the treetops.

“The trees?” asked Gen, confused.

“Seele probably means the sky—more precisely, the sun,” explained Roah.

Niu naturally looked up the sky as well. While the luscious forest hid most of the rays of the sun, plenty of sunlight still came through, otherwise Kalden would be under constant darkness. In fact, it was much brighter than she would have expected it to be.

“We have places to charge,” explained TriX. “They absorb the powers, of the sun and feed, them to us.”

Thinking about it, plants harnessed the energy of the sun as well, and they’d already known that TriX’s body was made of some sort of unique fungus. There was some sort of process—Niu forgot the name—with which plants converted sunlight to energy, so it was probably related to that.

“Photosynthesis? Pretty useful,” said Roah, complementing her thoughts.

“Fotosin…” mumbled Seele. “Is that what it is?”

“Well, that’s what our people call it,” said Roah with a shrug. “Anyway, so was that the purpose of the sun room back in your base?”

“Oh right, I forgot about that,” said Gen. Despite his obvious dislike of the other boy, he seemed impressed at that conclusion.

“Yeah!” said Seele, impressed as well. “Nothing escapes you, huh?” they giggled. "But now, I think we should go back—or maybe you can watch them cover the ground. I think that would be fine.”

For a while all of them stood there, almost in silence, watching as all the coffins were buried and the ground flattened. The blood of the fallen would serve to sprout new seeds—seeing that felt sad, but also full of strange hope, Niu felt.

Far, far away—literally a world apart—the Queen of Rumdon and two other men sat for yet another meeting. They had come to the palace as soon as they heard the news; Salom had retired to his house to rest immediately after the wave had been confirmed over, while Stard had obviously been busy with finishing up some army business. Now it was the following late afternoon, and while the both of them were still fatigued and lacked sleep, it was an urgent summon.

Keeping everything as confidential as possible, Levia had only just then told them the nature of the meeting. This elicited the expected response.

“I can’t believe,” muttered Salom, his eyes wide, “that this is actually happening.”

“I would have asked why that message came just now… but the answer should be obvious,” said Stard, crossing his arms. “Just like us, they are faced with an unprecedented crisis, after all.”

“Yes. Such a crisis that, after all these years, they yet again reach out to us,” added Levia. “Not to forget their claim that they have some of our countrymen in custody, to boot.”

“…That is the part I find difficult to believe, truth be told,” admitted Salom. “It simply does not sound possible. How could they have gone all the way over there?” he raised an arm as if to point at the great distances through the ceiling. “Have they provided any proof?”

“Not yet—they claim that they wish to prepare for a full conversation, first. But would they use such a method, abandoned for a long time, and seek us, just to throw an easily discernible lie at us?” Levia asked back. “Furthermore, is that really as impossible as it sounds? These monsters also came here from far, far away.”

“The tentacles,” Salom said in sudden understanding, nodding, “but is it really possible? The journey should be too long, judging by our observations.”

Stard’s forehead creased as he began to speak. “Actually, I have seen some things. When I struck the tentacles down, they would sometimes squirm, taking people along with them… I have watched my soldiers get thrown into the skies, or into a…” at this he stopped, lowering his face with visible regret and frustration and shook his head.

“That still does not explain much. I mean, in that situation they wouldn’t…” Salom trailed off, but then shook his head as well. “I suppose there is still much we don’t know about these monsters, so perhaps it is too early to say what’s impossible or not.”

“Speaking of monsters,” said Levia, “I have heard that only one has been successfully caught alive… what a pity. I expected more.” There was the tone of a well-calculated disappointment in her voice, but both men already knew her too much to be affected by that.

“I have not gone through all the reports, yet, but it was apparently a very difficult capture indeed. It seems like regular cages don’t work well on these monsters; only one icon-enhanced trap was able to do the trick, and it was still very risky.”

Salom recalled, then, how easily the monster had broken into the shelter’s reinforced doors; that matter would have to be checked as part of this investigation as well. Already a few hypotheses simmered in his mind.

Levia started drumming with her fingers on the table before speaking again. “Well, better one than none. To be honest, Saburn, I am unsure where to send you first—to study that dreadful beast, or work on establishing communication with the old equipment.”

“If I may,” he said in reply, “I suggest we get Miss Mallew to work on the latter. True, it means getting another person into our conspiracy, but she will definitely be able to handle it.”

“Oh? Quite the big compliment coming from someone who knew her only very recently,” said Levia with a smile.

“Then take that as a sign of her competency and trustworthiness.”

“You needn’t worry about her,” added Stard. “She is a tad overexcited, perhaps, but not the sort to spill state secrets. I guarantee this. She’s been working with the military for a while now, after all.”

“Ah, how rare to hear such words of praise from you, and for a woman as well,” said Levia, snickering. “Very well, then; if you believe she is both reliable and mission-critical, I shall add her to our plan. Which brings us to another point.” Levia straightened her back and leaned back in her chair, as if mulling over something unpleasant. “Assuming those fairies are telling are the truth… do we really need our alleged citizens back?”

These were cold words, but not unexpected ones. In fact, Salom himself wondered about the same issue and had the feeling that the Queen would raise it at some point.

“That depends on their identity,” Salom said carefully.

“True. But they are probably no one truly important. For example, there aren’t any missing people among the nobles—else dear Lord Qumisson would have rubbed it in my face.”

“They might be soldiers, then,” said Stard. “There were many missing in action, so if what we hypothesized just now is true—some of them might have been whisked away during the first wave.”

“Could be citizens as well. It is hard to say what happened in all of the countless villages and towns around.” Salom slightly winced.

“Well, never mind their identity, this whole business is suspicious; those fairies intend to dangle them in front of us as bait, I am sure. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have made contact with us at such timing. Especially not when they’d ended it so suddenly before—but, well, none of us had been part of this project at the time, so let us not judge that based on second-hand details. Still. If nothing else, they are scheming something… so we need to be prepared for that.” Levia moved her eyes from Salom to Stard and back. Both were clearly anxious.

“Yes. Now that you mention it, I cannot shake the feeling that something bad is going on,” Salom said. “But first, we need more information. Only then will we be able to ascertain what they need from us.”

Salom clenched his fists. As if an otherworldly invasion wasn’t trouble enough, there were still more to come. This really shouldn’t have happened like this.

“Now, explain—how, exactly, does the Faerie Transmitter work?”

The third greatest tree of Kalden, Armonia—also known as the Beacon. It was given that name because, despite not being quite as tall as the other great trees, it was much more conspicuous. The reason being that it was the most suitable for gathering solar energy from the sun during the day, which it then used to cast a guiding light at night. Losing sight of the capital of Kalden was impossible as long as Armonia operated.

This gathering of solar energy had, of course, many other uses, including a charging station for the city’s robots, as well as some secret ones, such as the room Aisbroom was now scrutinizing.

Aisbroom had actually never been there; they were still too young and inexperienced during the time it was used, but now Acrus decided to restart the project. It was finally time for Aisbroom to check this place.

“I-it, umm,” said the person sitting in front of what looked like a large bulb, twice their size, and quite obviously nervous at the presence of Aisbroom, “both receives—and sends—signals of light. There is a certain, code, shall we call it—”

“How does it send it?” Aisbroom interjected.

“There are light runes.” The person pointed to a series of complex runes tattooed to the surface of the pulsating, green bulb. “They’re connected to the solar leaves so that we can control—”

“Do they see this all the way from the other world?” Aisbroom demanded.

“They… yes, they do. Of course, that only works during certain hours of the day, and… and as for receiving their correspondence, they apparently use some sort of message magic to transmit it directly to… here.” They pointed at yet another bulb pulsating nearby, this one green and with a different set of runes on it. “They can apparently, uh, transmit messages to this approximate location, and we use this to capture them—”

“You don’t seem very confident about the workings of this,” noted Aisbroom.

The other person gulped. “I’m… none of us have ever used this before. We’re still learning, so… the messages are still a bit lacking…”

Aisbroom sighed. Perhaps they were expecting too much from a device that hadn’t been used for so long. Looking at it like that, it was actually admirable that they managed to get it to work at all. No use being so stingy about it.

“Keep up the good work,” said Aisbroom with a smile to the complete bafflement and shock of the other person.

In one of the secret rooms beneath the castle, a certain young woman was speaking to a small team of researchers, Salom being among them.

“The Queen should be here any minute, right?” asked Mallew. Her voice was both excited and anxious. There were dark circles under her eyes—those had developed even before the second wave, but with her current work they grew even deeper—but she still seemed peppy and full of energy.

In fact, she still seemed just as thrilled as when she had been first been brought to work on this communication device. There was really nothing that slowed Mallew down.

“Yes. And thanks to you everything seems to be in order,” said Salom, still gazing at the apparatus known as the Heavenly Board, or Boards rather. The pair looked very much like ancient stone tablets, except that they were made of metal and raised on a pedestal. As expected, there were many icons etched all over their length—all of them new, in fact. These last few days were hectic as Salom, Mallew and a handful of other people all worked around the clock to renew the equipment based on old records and new innovations.

“I didn’t do much,” Mallew said while smiling.

It was then that a voice came from the door. “Announcing the arrival of Her Majesty!”

All the people present except for Salom stood up and straightened their backs. Inside came Levia, accompanied by Stard. Usually, she would have been with several guards at her side, but since the entire room was heavily classified, they settled for the General’s presence.

“Greeting,” said the Queen, lightly smiling. “Be at ease.” She then scanned the Heavenly Boards with her eyes. “My, these look interesting. Yes, I can even understand some of the icons, there… superb work.”

“T-thank you, Your Majesty!” blurted Mallew without thinking. It took everything Salom had to not sigh at that moment.

Levia stepped forward toward the dais, with Stard gliding after her.

“How does this system work, exactly?” she asked. “How about you explain it, young lady?” Her lips curled. She definitely did this on purpose.

“Gladly, Your Majesty,” said Mallew, a bit more subdued this time. She wet her lips with her tongue. “The right Board is the sender—it is connected to a certain tablet embedded in one of the castle’s top spires, made to launch signals to above the sphere, and—”

“I wonder, does it not take too long?” the Queen interrupted her. “If those monsters take many days to reach here, then how can we communicate like that?”

“There is a trick to that… Your Majesty,” now said Salom. “You see, the information we send doesn’t get sent all the way over there, but lingers in the edge of the world. However, the technology on their side—their Heavenly Board, so to speak—can perceive these signals and translate them.”

Levia seemed to consider this. “Huh. Very interesting—but I have not asked you to explain, Lord Saburn.”

“…My apologizes, Your Majesty,” he said, slightly lowering his head.

At this point the conversation was put on hold due to what happened next. One of the Boards began faintly glowing.

“Aah, they're sending a message!” called someone. “Copy it down!”

A rather complex array of intermittent yellow lights began appearing and vanishing all over the right Board. Mallew followed them with her eyes while two other researchers frantically scribbled on pieces of paper.

“Hmm… how was that code developed, by the way?” wondered Levia aloud.

“I hear it had been created during your father’s time, Your Majesty.” This time the one to address her was Stard. “It is a military cipher of some sort; I also have rudimentary knowledge of it.”

The lightshow finally stopped and all personnel poured into the gathered notes, comparing and mumbling among themselves in an attempt to decipher it. The Queen watched them expressionlessly, neither curious nor impatient. As long as they were not looking at her, she didn’t have to act any part. So she merely waited.

At length Salom turned to face her, upon which she wore a slightly expectant smile. “…I shall now read the message, Your Majesty. Well, there were a few blanks and possible errors, but the main gist of the message should be intact. The information, as shocking as it is, seems to be—”

“Get on with it,” she ordered him lazily. She could sense that he was greatly disturbed by something—but what could it be?

“Very well: ‘To negotiate, we first send the names of the persons in our possession: N-I-U. R-O-A-H. G-E-N-R-O. S-H-A-Y-A. They claim to be citizens of your kingdom’.” Finishing his report, Salom gulped.

“Who are they, Lord Saburn?” asked Levia.

“They are… they were… my students,” he said, unable to keep his voice and hands from shaking.

In the other world, Niu was currently wrapped in total darkness.

She couldn’t see anything and couldn’t even yell for help… but it was probably unneeded. It was just that her and the other three all wore blindfolds and were led around Kalden.

According to what Seele had explained to them before they underwent this bizarre outing, this was just a precaution. As they were being taken to a classified place under heavy guard, they weren’t allowed to even know where it was. Even so, as someone who lived in Kalden for so little and almost never went around, Niu wouldn’t ever be able to trace her way there, so was that really necessary?

This being early nighttime, she was already tired, and then she had been made to walk for what seemed like hours, led by an invisible hand in an invisible world. TriX was there at least when they left, so couldn’t they let it carry them? Unfortunately it was too late by the time she thought of that question, and the others were silenced whenever they attempted to speak.

This unique form of torture ended quite abruptly. They all stopped in place for longer than before, and then a voice spoke.

“You can take them off,” said Aisbroom.

When Niu timidly reached for her blindfold and finally removed it, she thought she turned blind for a moment, but then realized they were simply inside a dark room and their eyes still needed to adjust. It was a wide, circular room with a small dais at the center. Surrounding this dais were about half a dozen fairies.

“Although I’ve allowed you to remove your blindfold, you must not look at our technology. Am I clear?”

“Are you that afraid we’ll steal it?” asked Roah, gazing directly at Aisbroom.

“Yes,” the fairy answered plainly. They then ordered a few of the guards to huddle around them, probably to restrict their view even further. “You are here just in case we will need you to provide some information. We have actually already started the correspondence for today.”

“The correspondence… with our Queen, that is?” asked Gen.

“We shall shortly see if they really have a need for you,” said Aisbroom, causing Gen to frown.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” added Seele from the side.

Meanwhile, Niu noticed a flash coming from the direction of the dais. She couldn’t see what was going there due to the obstructing guards and hurriedly averted her gaze anyway, recalling that they were forbidden looking there.

There was a rustle of papers and Aisbroom stepped forward, making their way from between the guards.

“Feels like we’re being put up on auction or something…” mumbled Gen indignantly.

“…I just hope they’ll work out something,” said Shaya, looking at the floor with her fingers intertwined.

Niu could somewhat hear the hushed discussion among the fairies, but couldn’t really understand it. Instead she looked at Roah who seemed just as focused on it as she were; perhaps he did understand something? He was already actually learning the language.

In a short while Aisbroom came back, an undecipherable expression on their face. “Congratulations; it seems you are wanted over there.”

Niu widened her eyes in surprise. “What do you mean by that?” asked Gen, confused.

“Just what you think I mean. Well, first they are inquiring after a certain detail, just to know if it’s really you. Would you mind answering it?”

“What did they ask?” Roah said.

“Ask for the name of their teacher?” Salom mumbled in confusion.

“Indeed. And why not? That should be easy enough to confirm, right? I doubt these fairies could somehow fake exactly four names of people you know… but even so. Also, wouldn’t hearing this question put your dear students at ease?” Levia explained her choice, wearing her usual smile.

“I… suppose so. I still find this hard to believe, but if it’s really them…”

As rational and professional Salom usually was, even he had his limits; hearing that his missing students, whose death he had already accepted, were not just alive but had been somehow transported into another world was obviously quite a shock for him. He even forgot to properly address the Queen, not that she minded.

“Okay, so I’m sending that question,” Mallew took command in the meanwhile.

It didn’t take long before the Board started flashing again with an answer.

Mallew smiled and turned to Salom. “Some letters are missing, but it seems to be your name, Professor.”

“Superb,” said the Queen, lightly clasping her hands. “Now, we do not have a lot of time… let us see what their demands are. Ask them what they want in return for our citizens. It is important to first find out what the other side wants, before we make any offers of our own.”

“We should be careful not to be too brash, Your Majesty. Remember that, strictly speaking, they have hostages,” said Stard from the side.

Levia sighed. “True. It is a pity we cannot negotiate face to face.” Because then I could read their intentions, she thought before continuing. “However, those children appear, currently, to be their one and only card—so I assume they will not throw it away so readily.”

“…This still feels like a dream,” mumbled Salom with a strange smile as they finished configuring the latest message. “The very fact they somehow arrived there proves that there’s actually a way to pass between the worlds. This is, perhaps, the single greatest discovery in history. I can only hope they respond in kind.”

The color of hope was apparent on the faces of the four faeries; while they were different from humans in many other ways, of that Aisbroom was sure. And it was natural. They have, after all, taken a huge step toward returning to their distant homeland. Even if they were still only negotiating, it was better than doing and knowing nothing at all.

But that negotiation was the exact problem. The next message that came from Plainland asked for their demands.

Acrus knew it was likely that the faeries would ask this, but I’d still rather let them handle this negotiation directly, thought Aisbroom. The Ruler relegated this very important task to Aisbroom, for some reason.

Was it a test? Acrus was surprisingly a charismatic leader, but one that often took some incomprehensible actions as if they treated their status like some sort of a game. Perhaps Acrus just didn’t want to bother with it.

It wasn’t that Aisbroom came there unprepared, though. They had actually received a precise list of demands to be made to the other world. These were only preliminary, of course, but Acrus’s orders were still utterly ridiculous. Aisbroom simply relayed them.

“Write back the following message. And the wording must be precise on that, no matter how long it takes you to send it,” Aisbroom ordered the researchers gathered around the bulb.

While they all waited, Aisbroom glanced for just a moment at the other group on the other side of the room. What would the faeries think of such a ridiculous offer?

“Our demands in exchange for your citizens are the following,” Aisbroom finally began to dictate, reading from a page. “First, reveal any and all information you possess about the attacks by the Beasts. Second, you must promise to work on better methods of communication, and to work on a theoretical method of transportation. Third, you must pass us such quantities of materials that we see fit, including, but not limited to, wood, stone, and especially metal. Fourth…”

At this point Aisbroom paused for a moment. None of them would say anything, but even those measly conditions already caused all the people to look at Aisbroom, eyes wide. Aisbroom couldn’t even imagine their reaction to the one, final request.

“You must offer us half of your kingdom. The last item is non-negotiable.”

We fly, though unaware

Through the fire waiting there