The entourage was prepared for every obstacle Jei foresaw they'd encounter plus more. As was predicted, they traversed the great unknown with ease and little trouble. Pola took note of everything she'd come to see for the first time in her life. These were fairies of different colored skin and hair. They had similar magic based on Solum, Anima, Unda, and Ignis magic, but they were stronger and more creative. Some could fly without wings or breathe beneath the surface of water. They could walk through fire and melt with muddy lands.

   "They are such curious things!" She once exclaimed. "Imagine what our people could do with this knowledge!"

   However, the journey to the tree was, by far, made possible by the prowess granted to Zhen by the Lighting Tree- light magic.

   Jei shakes her head.

   "I doubt we will have the chance to tell them."

   "Did you not see our return?" Pola asked.

   "Not as if I'd go back," Cini huffed, crossing his arms. "They don't think we'd come back alive either."

   "In the off chance, Cini. Jei tell him."

   "I cannot see our return, Pola."

   "When Zhen's rested-"

   "You never understood, did you?" Cini scoffed.

   Pola frowned at him. She did understand but hoped it would not turn out as predicted. Sure, no Gärd had ever returned with their Seed. She thought, maybe they had chosen to stay by the Lighting Tree, to nurture it.

   Her eyes gazed up at the virile tree.

   "Does it even really need you?"

   They turned to Zhen.

   "It would not have called out if it didn't."

   "And you believe the same, Jei?"

   Jei nodded in corroboration.

   The Lighting Tree shone brilliantly against the darkened sky and surroundings. The light showed no struggle.

   "Rœθ nüxat gäm͡h," a fairy briefly peeked out from its bloom and spoke in an accent Cini could barely pick up.

   "Light doesn't need us? Then why are we even here?" He asked back.

   The fairy shook her head. "Gü at ðaŋ."

   "She doesn't know..." Zhen clarified.

   This time the fairy stepped out from its bloom completely, wearing the petals of her bloom and the color of the stem. She flew to Zhen and held up his hand with two of her tinier ones.

   Light burst between them.

   She cleared her throat and said, "Maybe this is better for you?"

   They all agreed. Her pronunciation of their shared language were clearer now as they shared accents.

   "Light doesn't ask for you, but you are here anyway. Like us, you must return what it has given you. It is the only reason you are here, yes?"

   Zhen confirmed her theory.

   "Then, return it you all must."

   "All of us? No, just Zhen has light magic."

   The fairy raised a brow, but nodded. She let Zhen go.

   "Ʊð, ner ðyäaya na͡ʊ rœθ."

   She gestured toward the tree, placing her hand on its trunk. A small glow released from her hands and it entered into the tree.

   Zhen did the same, but the glow was much brighter, stronger, and blinding.

   "Aðat!" The fairy wildly called out, swatting the air, but keeping her distance from Zhen. She could only repeat herself. "Aðat! Aðat! Aðat!"

   Jei seized Zhen's wrist and pulled him towards her. She tried to replenish the strength he'd lost, but his heartbeat remained slow, practically undetectable. Tears rolled down her cheeks, while her expression remained as they had been since they left their home.

   "I knew I would lose you," she whispered only for her to hear. "But you were supposed to say goodbye first."

   Zhen remained unresponsive, his body stiffening as time passed.

   Cini remained as livid as he'd been since the beginning of their journey, and Pola stared off into the nothingness they'd come from together.

   Home was not in sight. It hadn't been since the darkness enveloped them. And as Zhen's life slipped every moment, Pola's grasp on reality slipped too, shrouded by the same darkness.

   What happened next was different for each of them.

   Jei remained by the tree. She hung on to the thin thread that kept Zhen with her.

   Cini wandered the darkness and what became of him, who knows.

   Pola lost her sight as the darkness ate at her soul. She got lost in the abyss, found only when the Fae returned. Vyr took her in, a child who welcomed the darkness, as Vyr had never seen a child of Light turn into a Creature of the Night.

   As for the end of them, well, one could only guess.

   Some say Jei lived with the Fae until her last days. Others believed death had no place in the land of the light. Therefore, she lived forevermore.

   However, no one really knew.

footnote.

1. It would be interesting if fairies spoke in a different accent but the same language. I wondered how that would make interacting with them difficult.