And so I chose Sirius, even if it meant leaving the spirits behind.
As I muttered a farewell in my heart, I felt something like a gentle breeze rustling inside me. How soothing—I knew I’d made the right choice. Something told me that the time had come to “graduate” from this forest. This place was for children; the reason only young spirits lived here was because they all left when they grew up. In the three years I’d gotten to know them, many had already left the forest behind.
And now, it was my turn…
Tears pricked my eyes—it hit me that I was going to have to say goodbye to Seven.
But at that exact moment, Seven appeared out of nowhere in front of me. He floated up to my eye level and grinned when he saw how high I was above the ground. “Congrats again, Fi! I’m glad your vision was restored! Oh, and if you’re going to the capital, then you can bet on me coming with you.”
“Oh, wow! R-really?!” I shouted in surprise.
Seven nodded as if it was totally obvious. “I’m your contracted spirit, Fi. Of course I’m going with you. Besides, if I let you go off by yourself, everyone in the forest would worry themselves sick over you. I’m doing this so our friends can sleep easy too.”
My face broke out into a smile. Although I was still sad, some of these new tears came out of joy. “Yay! Thank you, Seven!”
“You’re welcome!”
As Seven and I grinned at each other, Sirius spoke up. “Serafina, is that child your spirit?”
“Oh, you can see Seven?” I asked back, startled.
He nodded firmly. “I can. I’ve never seen a spirit child before, but… I see… So he must be an ‘unseen blessing.’ They were spirits all this time, weren’t they?”
“Um…”
“I’m guessing that your spirit used a strong force to conceal himself. He must have purposefully lifted the veil, which is why I’m able to see him now too.”
“Is that what you did, Seven?” I asked, wondering if he was capable of something so fancy.
My spirit shrugged. The fact that he didn’t deny it meant that Sirius was probably right.
“It’s generally accepted that spirits don’t speak… Serafina, can you hear your spirit’s voice?”
“Hm? Um, yes.”
“I see,” Sirius said thoughtfully. “You’re an odd case in more ways than one. I wonder if I’ll be able to protect someone as out of the ordinary as you.”
Anyone could tell from Sirius’s tone that he was joking, but Seven didn’t seem to like the punch line. He let Sirius know his feelings by giving him a big kick to the shoulder.
“S-Seven!” I chided him, shocked. But Seven merely turned away, not looking the least bit sorry.
Sirius tried to smooth things over. “Serafina, don’t be too harsh on your spirit. I’m in the wrong for making a joke in bad taste. He was willing to leave his birthplace to be with you, so of course he would be mad at me for making light of your safety.”
As I eyed Sirius, I got to thinking… I still didn’t know him very well, but I wondered if he was testing Seven in some way. Maybe he said something to make him mad on purpose so that he could see just how much my friend cared about me.
I squinted at Sirius, trying to work out what he was really thinking, but he just smiled cheerfully, pretending not to notice. “All right, let’s all get ready for the return trip! I suppose everyone, including the knights, ladies-in-waiting, chefs, stable hands, and tutors in the villa will come along. There’s no use in them being here without the princess around, after all. Oh, and we’ll take anything they want to bring along. Doesn’t matter if it’s furniture or trees from the garden, it’s in for the ride!”
“By ‘furniture,’ you’re not talking about beds, are you?!” one knight cried in dismay.
“Trees?! Please say you’re joking!” moaned another.
They knew they would get stuck with carrying everything anyone requested.
It truly was an eventful day. When we made it back to the villa, everyone cried tears of joy at how my eyes could now see. And at the end of it all, we started packing our bags for the capital.