“I’m Chise the witch. Nice to meet you.”
“And Teto is Teto! Nice to meet you!”
“It will take a minute to get everything ready, so let us wait in here for the time being, shall we?” she said as she led us to a drawing room.
As we were walking down the hallway, I noticed that the other elves were bustling about, most likely to “get everything ready,” as Althea had said.
We took a seat on one of the sofas in the drawing room; Althea sat opposite us.
“Please feel free to return to your true form,” she told me.
I smiled. “You noticed, huh?”
I lifted my transformation spell, turning back into my twelve-year-old appearance. Althea seemed shocked by how young my real body was, but I paid her no mind.
“Miss Althea, how much do you—no, how much does the Eltar Forest Kingdom know about us?” I asked.
My question snapped her out of her surprise. “Quite a few things,” she replied with a smile. “Spirit magic is quite prevalent in our forest, and several of us are quite adept at intelligence gathering.”
As she said that, a spirit in the shape of a black lizard appeared from her shadow, a letter in its mouth.
“You have dark spirits helping you?” Fauzard said, sounding impressed.
Dark spirits used shadows to travel from one place to the other.
“Shadow Teleportation, huh?” I commented. “That sounds convenient.”
I could use Dark Magic to manipulate shadows as well, but what these spirits were doing was a lot more impressive than anything in my repertoire.
“The lizard is so cute!” Teto exclaimed, extending a hand to the small lizard, which climbed onto the palm of Althea’s hand.
I had to admit, it was pretty cute.
As a sidenote, from what I was told, there were basically no differences between elves and dark elves except for the type of spirits they originated from—light, water, and wind for elves, and darkness, fire, and earth for dark elves. They usually tended to have an easier time with magic aligned with their respective spirits, but it wasn’t a strict rule. There were elves proficient in Dark Magic and dark elves specialized in Light Magic. Individual aptitudes played a more important role than their lineage.
“We can send each other letters and messages by having dark spirits deliver them,” Althea explained.
“I see. This allows you to receive information from all over the continent; that’s how you learned about us.”
“Exactly. Our deep-cover scouts send us regular reports from our settlements beyond the forest. We analyze them and do our own research afterwards. For all you’ve done—the impression you’ve left on the world—it’s no surprise that word of you would find its way to us. As for the rest, Her Majesty the Queen learned it directly from the spirits,” Althea explained to us.
I nodded. “I’m impressed. You have a better picture of our whole deal than I’m used to people getting from a first impression.”
So they learned about us through spirits, huh? While it did seem a bit unfair and sneaky, I wasn’t exactly in any position to blame them; after all, I often got juicy gossip from Liriel and the other goddesses about what was going on in other parts of the continent whenever I had a dream oracle. However, it seemed that spirits didn’t share their information with just anyone.
“Using spirits to gather information is basically the same as asking spirits to share their knowledge,” Fauzard explained. “One would have to pay them in kind for that knowledge. Most could never afford what they ask.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“For spirits and mortals alike, the more dearly kept the secret is, the bigger the price tag grows. Most mortals would wither to dust offering as much mana as the spirits would demand for your secrets. It seems that the elven queen can bear it handily.”
Apparently the elven queen and I were a lot alike. I glanced at Althea, who was still smiling.
“To answer your earlier question, Miss Chise, we know that you are the prophet of the goddesses, and that Miss Teto is a demon descended from spirits.”
I hadn’t expected the elves to know that much. I hung my head down, feeling a bit ashamed. Teto, on the other hand, was musing about how “amazing” I was as she petted the lizard spirit, completely oblivious to my inner turmoil.
“Her Majesty has been interested in you for a very long time, Miss Chise. Per her words, this is hardly the first time she’s considered inviting you to Eltar. She has requested that I personally guide you to the forest this time around,” Althea said.
So they did have plans for me to meet up with the elves’ bigwigs.
There was one question that was weighing on my mind.
“What kind of person is the elves’ queen?”
“Her Majesty is a high elf,” Althea replied, brimming with pride.
“A high elf...”
High elves were considered to be the superior subrace among elves. As soon as I heard Althea’s response, I instantly knew that the elves’ queen must have been a fellow immortal.
“Her Majesty is truly exceptional,” Althea continued, a faraway look on her face. “Her mana pool is almost bottomless, she has many spirits under her command, and everyone in Eltar holds her in high regard. Although, she can be a bit free-spirited—but no, that’s not quite right. I should say her curiosity overcomes her at times.”
Her face contorted in a bit of a grimace on that last part. Still, judging by the way Althea was talking about her, the elven queen probably wasn’t a bad person.
“I see. Well, thank you once again for choosing to be our guide to Eltar.”
“Thank you!”
Not too long after, an elf came into the room to let us know that everything was ready for our departure. The three of us were led to the basement, where I ended up face-to-face with a very familiar-looking magic circle.
“Lady Witch, Teto has seen this before!”
“Is that a teleportation circle? Like the ones in dungeons?” I asked.
All dungeons had magic circles like these to travel from one layer to the other.
“It’s a bit similar, yes. Once it is activated, it’ll take us to Eltar. Are you ready?”
I nodded. I had already assumed that we probably wouldn’t get to come back to Liefe for a while, so I had put our caravan and golem horse in my magic bag beforehand and told the guild that we wouldn’t renew the lease on the plot of land we had been renting from them. And so, with nothing holding us back, we stepped into the magic circle.
“We’re ready, everyone,” Althea told the other elves in the room.
“Yes, Miss Althea!”
They poured some of their own mana into the circle, which started glowing brighter and brighter. Then, when it was at its brightest, I felt a floating sensation take over my body.