Teto and I were lazing around in our mansion when we suddenly noticed a flutter of mana near us, drawing our attention.
“Lady Witch, something is coming,” Teto said.
I nodded. “Probably a spirit, judging by its mana,” I muttered.
The next second, a spirit in the shape of a wolf appeared from the shadows, a letter in its mouth. It stretched its neck towards us as if it were inviting me to take the letter.
“They’re using a spirit as their messenger, huh? Yup, that letter’s from the elves’ kingdom for sure,” I said, taking the envelope from the wolf spirit, examining the seal on the wax, and looking for the sender’s name.
“Thanks for the letter! Want some magic stones?” Teto asked the wolf spirit, holding out a handful of magic stones under its nose.
Spirits fed on mana, and magic stones were one of their favorite sources thereof. The wolf spirit chomped on the treats and swallowed them, licking its chops in contentment. As I watched Teto petting the wolf spirit with a soft smile on my lips, I reached for a letter opener and broke the seal on the envelope.
“Lady Witch? What’s it say?” Teto asked me, carrying the wolf spirit in her arms.
“Apparently they found something that I forgot there ages ago,” I explained, showing her the letter. “And they’re inviting us to stay over for a bit, since I need to go retrieve it anyway.”
Teto looked at me with stars in her eyes. “Lady Witch, Teto wants to go! Teto hasn’t eaten the elves’ sweets in sooo long!”
“Sure, why not? I’d like to go visit their workshops. It’s been a while.”
The elves’ kingdom was in the middle of a forest that boasted several large world trees and was plentiful in resources: timber, mushrooms, edible plants, medicinal herbs, the works. All sorts of monsters and mythical beasts resided there as well. All of these allowed the elves to live comfortably, which, in turn, meant that they had time to focus on other things and develop their own culture, research, and artwork. Of course, they owed a fair bit of their success to their long lifespans too. They would gratefully accept the cultural influence of outside nations as grist for the mill of their own art scenes, among other things, whose products they’d feed back out to the rest of the world. Furthermore, many spirits lived in the elves’ forest and granted it their protection, meaning that it housed many spiritual hot spots.
Many years ago, the elves’ forest used to be an elusive place where outsiders were seldom let in. But now, it was brimming with tourists year-round, attracting people interested in the arts or those who wanted to visit the spiritual hot spots.
“Magic and spirituality are much more prevalent in this world than in my past life, so these hot spots are a lot more effective than the ones from my old world,” I mused out loud.
For instance, if one went to drink from a spring blessed by water spirits, their wounds would heal faster, or if they took a walk through a forest blessed by dark spirits, their minds would become clearer. However, if one were to disrespect the spirits in one of their hot spots, they might get cursed.
As Teto and I smiled excitedly thinking about all of the things we’d do in the elves’ kingdom, I couldn’t help but wonder about the thing I supposedly forgot there. The sender of the letter was one of my good friends, and we had known each other for several centuries so I had traveled to the elves’ kingdom many times over the years. What could I have forgotten there that was important enough to send me a letter about it?
“I have no idea what it is I forgot there, but I should thank them for letting me know,” I said, reaching for my letter set and writing a quick reply. I also included the time and date of our next visit to the elves’ kingdom. “All done. Can you give this to your master?” I asked the wolf spirit.
It let out an enthusiastic “Woof,” grabbed the letter in its jaws, and jumped from Teto’s arms. Then it disappeared as if sinking into the shadows.
I carefully put my friend’s letter away and stood up from the sofa. “All righty, if we’re going to the elves’ kingdom, we’d better do some research beforehand.”
“Teto’s going to grab the guidebook! We should pick the places we’d like to visit in advance.”
I nodded and the two of us made for the forest’s library to borrow the guidebook. We noted down all of the places that we were interested in visiting, and I decided to ask my elven friends about any hidden gems worth exploring during our visit.
This is the story of how Teto and I found ourselves in the elves’ forest, despite it being strictly forbidden to outsiders, and of the friends we met along the way. It is also the story of how one book created an irreparable generational rift in all elvenkind, and why that was kinda my fault.