I can’t let that happen.
Suddenly, Challe heard a voice from within himself. It startled him.
Up until that moment, he had considered it best for Anne and Keith to be wed. But now he wondered if that was really true.
It was no simple matter for fairies and humans to live together.
However, despite that, the fairies downstairs were training hard to one day become silver sugar fairies. They were fully aware there would be hardship and frustration and sorrow to come, but for the sake of their hopes for the distant future, they had cast aside fear and uncertainty and embarked on their chosen path.
Challe also needed to reconsider his own feelings and position. As he watched Anne out in the sunlight, a possibility occurred to him.
Could we live together, without fear…?
Challe felt the desire to keep Anne close to him burn brightly in his chest.
I don’t want to let her go. I don’t want to hand her over. I will hold fast to her and never waver. So that whatever sorrow she feels…I can give her twice as much joy.
He wondered why that hadn’t occurred to him before.
He feared making Anne unhappy because he treasured her and wanted to protect her. But there was also a path that they could brave together, one that the other fairies’ determination had revealed to him.
When Anne reached the front porch, she seemed to notice Challe’s gaze and looked up. She met his eyes and waved.
“Challe! Hey, is Mithril Lid Pod with you?”
“No. Wasn’t he working with you?”
“He was until a little before the break, but then he suddenly disappeared…” Anne looked concerned. “I’ll go look for him. Thanks.”
With that, she went back inside. Her uneasy expression had made Challe’s own worry resurface.
Something had been off about Mithril’s behavior all summer. Even now, Challe still felt that way at times. But no matter what he asked, Mithril would always change the subject. It was infuriating.
“Ah, Mithril Lid Pod.”
When Anne had gone back into the workshop, Mithril still wasn’t there. At that point, she’d asked Keith for some time and walked all around the castle, looking for the little fairy.
She had decided that she would finally make him explain himself.
She went around to the back of the building and spotted him tucked into a gap between the vines growing thickly over the castle walls. It was like a little hideaway made of leaves. Mithril was lying there idly, perhaps enjoying the cool air.
“Mithril Lid Pod.” She called his name, but he remained still. “What’s the matter?”
When she pushed the leaves out of the way and peered into the gap, Mithril finally batted his eyes.
“Anne, what is it?” he asked. “Are you slacking off?”
“How rude. I came to look for you.”
“For me? Ha-ha, what’s this? Not only are you lonely without the great Mithril Lid Pod, but you need him to help you keep up with your work, too, eh?”
Mithril chuckled smugly and rose to his feet, then leaped nimbly onto Anne’s shoulder.
Sensing a change, Anne turned to the small fairy.
“You’ve gotten lighter…haven’t you?” she asked. “And you’ve been acting strange ever since the beginning of summer. Come on, won’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m just on a diet.”
“Are you now? Really? You’re not lying?”
“You’re awfully suspicious, Anne. I’m a rising star, you know? I’ve got to get slimmer and more agile so I can help you all out. There are important jobs waiting for the great Mithril Lid Pod in the future.”
His overblown objection was amusing, and it was a bit of a relief to see him acting like his usual self. Mithril’s energetic attitude made Anne feel like she’d been worrying over nothing.
She smiled and started walking.
“And? What jobs are those?” she asked.
“Well… Keith said I’ve got the makings of a color fairy and invited me to start working toward becoming one once our work settles down here. He said he’s never seen someone as capable as me before.”
“A color fairy?!”
Sure enough, Mithril’s movements when he was helping the crafters were prudent and precise. It was like he could tell what would be needed next by simply looking at the silver sugar. The job of caring for the sugar apple trees and giving them colored water was probably a perfect fit for Mithril.
“That’s amazing! What great news. You’ve got to do it.”
“So then when I become a color fairy, I’ll build a house near a sugar apple grove with you and Challe Fenn Challe, and we’ll all live there, yeah? You’ll take the colored sugar apples that I grow and refine silver sugar from them to make candy. Challe Fenn Challe can— Well, he can do odd jobs. He probably won’t be very useful, but if you two are together, Anne, we can’t exclude him. We’ll take pity on him and let him join.”
“How wonderful it would be if we could do something like that. But it might not work for Challe. He’s…not someone who can stay by my side, you know. Probably.”
“Why are you getting fainthearted now?!” Mithril demanded, poking Anne’s cheek in irritation. “Who cares what kind of person he is? Don’t dwell on that kind of stuff!”
“I wish I didn’t have to, but…”
With a bitter smile, Anne turned and headed toward the workshop in the east wing.
Upon stepping into the sweet-smelling room, she saw fairies kneading silver sugar and working spindles. Kat was moving about and talking to everyone.
One of the men Hugh had sent was speaking to each of the fairies while taking notes. He seemed to be asking them if they had everything they needed for their stay.
Keith was almost certainly in the west wing, diligently evaluating the skills of the fairies who had come from the fairy market.
Fairies and humans were occupying the same spaces without issue.
I wish every place in Highland could be like this.
Anne rolled up her sleeves. “All right, let’s add some color. Noah, Allele, come here!”
Trying to shake off her doubts, Anne strode into the workshop.
Summer was over. The breeze began to chill, and all at once, autumn came in from the north. With startling speed, summer had passed them by. Anyone who didn’t cover themselves with a blanket in the evenings would be roused in the morning by the cold.
With the change in season, their working environment improved remarkably.
Two days earlier, they had sent a group of fairies back to the fairy market. Normally, the next group would have arrived soon after. However, since the crafters from the factions were coming in three days’ time, they were holding off on bringing in new fairies until the visit was over.
There were nineteen fairies in total at Hollyleaf Castle, including the latest three, who had been chosen just two days earlier. That was enough to constitute a midsized workshop.
The fairies were calm. What they needed to do was simple, and they had absolute confidence in the plan.
And then at last, it was time.
Not long after Anne and the others finished breakfast, the visiting crafters showed up in droves, riding carriages big and small, and gathered in the courtyard. Anne, Keith, Kat, and the fairies watched the whole procession, peering out of the workshop windows.
“Whoa, there are so many of them!” Noah said, his eyes wide.
“There’s more of them than there are of us! Can they all fit in here?” Allele asked, astonished, and everyone laughed.
Among the crowd were many familiar faces.
There was John Killean, the proxy maestro of the Mercury Workshop, and his head crafter, Grant. Killean seemed nervous and kept wiping off his monocle. He would exchange glances with his subordinate crafters and speak to them from time to time.
There was also Marcus Radcliffe, the maestro of the Radcliffe Workshop, and his head crafter.
Stella Knox, one of the final pupils of the silver sugar fairy, was there too. Stella looked as poorly as ever. He leaned sluggishly against the side of his wagon, his eyes closed. Seeing him reminded Anne that Stella had once said his health always failed right around the time of the Royal Candy Fair. The fair was about a month and a half away, so it was probably about time for his condition to change for the worse.
Jonas was also there, standing among the candy crafters grouped up in twos and threes.
“Oh, Jonas.”
Anne leaned forward and pressed her face against the window glass. It seemed to her like Jonas’s characteristic dourness had softened somewhat, which was a relief. She hoped he was continuing to do fine work.
Hugh had ordered them to show off the fairies’ skills. Anne turned around to face Keith and Kat, who were standing behind her. She met their eyes, and they nodded.
With perfect timing, the Silver Sugar Viscount drove up to the courtyard of Hollyleaf Castle. His carriage stopped near the front door, and Hugh stepped out in front of the crowd, clad in the less formal costume of the Silver Sugar Viscount. Upon his arrival, the candy crafters clustered in the garden stopped their individual conversations and gazed at him.
“I did say that anyone who wanted to come was welcome to swing by, but this is quite the crowd,” Hugh said with a wry smile. “However, there’s always value in seeing something for yourself. I’m not going to tell you what to examine or how. Do as you please and feel free to look around. The residents of Hollyleaf Castle will be going about their usual work.”
Hugh’s speech to the crafters was distressingly lax, and Anne grumbled. “Looks like Hugh’s not going to explain anything or defend what we’re doing here.”
“That’s very like the Viscount,” Keith said. He sounded a little exasperated himself.
Kat shook his head. “Say the dimwit did explain and he defended our work as hard as he could—some folks would find that fishy, don’t ya think? He’s not wrong here. We’ve just gotta give ’em the best show we can.”
The fairies nodded at his words.
“Great, let’s pick up where we left off,” Anne said.
With practiced ease, the fairies approached the barrels of silver sugar.
At the same time, Hugh led the crowd of candy crafters into the castle.