Episode 009: ‘Big Sister’ is Really Pretty

The young elve didn’t reply right away, seemingly distracted by my dark hair and pale face. I guess they don’t really get a lot of humans in their part of the woods. Either that or my coloring was different from the humans of this world.

… I hope there were humans nearby. Eti had called me by race, so I knew humans are in this world somewhere. Either the elves were isolated or human settlements weren’t close.

Nothing against elves even though they threw me into a root ball prison, but no one likes to be treated like a lower life-form when we can communicate with each other. We’re all sentient beings; it’s not a matter of who is superior—because that’s irrelevant. Everyone is equal with our own idiosyncrasies no matter how different we may look outside, so why don’t we all just respect each other as fellow sentient beings, alright?

“Big Sister is really pretty,” Ing blinked at me with large cornflower-blue eyes. She kind of reminded me of Captain Grine in coloration and slant of her eyes.

“Call me Nori.”

Ing shook her head and looked a little embarrassed as she refocused, straightening herself out like she didn’t just do something childish. “Ahem, my master disappeared because of a cosmic phenomenon so, of course, a mortal could not be responsible for her being missing.”

“‘Cosmic phenomenon?’” I parroted, not having expected that reply. Then again, the whole magic being real in this world, Gaellia, still was a new concept for me to process. It’s going to take awhile for it to neatly slot itself into my brain alongside my knowledge of hard sciences.

Fictional theory read from books is different from experiencing it in the flesh, after all.

“Around this time last Spring, something in Our Mother Earth, Jorth, changed. Though Master did not notice anything amiss until the harvest moon. It was only during the last full-moon that we realized the increased number and activity of magical beasts and monsters during the cold season was related.

“Master sent letters and missives to other scholars as soon as she realized there was a shift in the weave that foretells a lot of potential death everywhere. A gathering in Crown City, the knowledge hub of the Western Region, was to happen in two weeks to address this. It was the fastest time for everyone to gather.

“But… the planet’s heart did something last night. I could see the trails of mana-flow seep from the ground and pervade everything. I was breathing mana in and out, the air was so thick with it.”

Looking as Ing’s eyes lose focus in recollection, I took this information seriously. I mean, a planet going active was basically a natural disaster for us tiny creatures, after all. And while I’m still coming to terms with the concept of magic existing outside of fiction and am still not sure how I ended up here, I am aware that I’m in Gaellia and would be just as affected by this as the natives.

“I went to bed uneasily last night, sent home to mother by Master. Master Verk looked preoccupied with figuring out the magical flare and how it may affect us who live by the Grace of Jorth. It was also the last I saw her. In the morning, when I went back, I saw…”

“Yes?” I prompted after Ing trailed off and scrunched her little face up.

After a long moment, she just huffed. “I’m sorry, I can’t really describe what I saw in words,” she then spoke a line of gibberish that sounded like the chant from earlier. “Do you understand?”

“Nope.”

“I suppose that would be too much to ask and it’s another mark against you being the culprit,” she huffed again. “Basically, I just saw signs no mortal could have done it. And it wasn’t Master’s signature either.”