On the second and third days after the incident, I didn't leave the house. I didn't even go down the stairs. Shirley brought my meals up to the attic, and we spent our time talking about the Central Continent. That's when I realized Shirley wasn't an ordinary person—green hair wasn't something everyone had.
Only one family had it: the sealer family.
Suddenly, Riam's words started making more sense. I wasn't the child of commoners. Maybe Alton wasn't so ordinary either.
Shirley told me that Alton was special, but he hadn't been able to tell me yet.
And, being the mature child I was… I didn't like to push.
On the fourth day, I could walk again, though with a bit of pain.
I decided to go out at six in the morning.
When I stepped outside, I found Riam waiting at the door. Her purple hair cascaded over her shoulders in soft waves. Her thin face was almost cheekless, and her wide eyes stared at me with a strange longing, as if she had intentions no one could ever know.
"How about a walk today?" Riam smiled—an exhausted smile, as if she didn't have the energy to do much more. "Running and training won't help you much. You're building a body you won't even need."
I stayed silent for a few moments.
By now, I knew Riam wasn't ordinary. Not even an ordinary mage. Mages usually couldn't read thoughts- right?-, but she could. And she was trusted in the village—at least by my parents.
"Are we going to the forest?" I asked.
"Yes. To your favorite clearing," Riam said.
"And what will we do there?" I asked again.
"We'll talk. Maybe… things that build trust between us."
A soft breeze passed between us. The suzan flowers swayed with it, and so did our hair.
But our eyes didn't move. They were fixed—locked onto each other.
I had a question. And Riam knew it.
What did this woman want from me? Why was she trying to get close?
"You'll find out. In the forest. In the clearing."
So, in the end, we walked.
At six in the morning, even the Thialis market wasn't fully open. The forest only held the chirping of a few birds.
And the whining of some.
"The crying bird is a rare kind," Riam said as we walked between the oak trees. "Its cry sounds like the sob of a little girl."
"It's also a huge, carnivorous bird. It eats humans."
"Really?" I asked, my eyes locking onto Riam's for the first time.
"Did I spark your curiosity?" Riam smiled. "Truth is, Thialis Forest isn't exactly safe. But the part near the village is far from the Lady of the Forest."
The Lady of the Forest?
Well, another stran ge thing beside The Fae
"Every forest has a lord. Every continent, has a lord. Every species of animal hace a lord. And every element, have a lord. Zalerto said that the Lords are what move the world. That if it weren't for the Lord of Wind, Kias would fall silent. If it weren't for the Lady of Water, the ocean would stop. Without the Lord of Earth, night and day would freeze. And without the Lord of Fire, we'd all live in endless cold."
"Aren't these things just part of magic? Then what about mana?" I asked.
If mana was the energy source of the world, then everything should move by it. Aren't mages just people who manipulate mana? Which meant that water and fire just forms of mana in this world?
"Exactly," Riam said. "Zalerto said water is mana, and that everything contains mana. Mana can rise from the depths of the ocean and flow in waves. Mana can become fire, or earth, or anything. So the Lords are just mages. And mages are either humans, or—" Riam stopped.
Then she looked at me—and saw me completely focused, listening like never before, my eyes glimmering with attention. Even I knew I had dropped some of my usual guard in that moment. But my eyes sparkled against my will.
There was a giant question in my mind.
"Animals use mana too. And spirits," Riam said. Her gaze was steady, her intent unwavering. Then she smiled.
"Reopard, Kias is an ancient and vast world. You might be surprised by what you see."
Riam pointed to the roots of one of the oak trees.
They were tangled, half of them jutting above ground. She pointed into a narrow gap between the roots.
"Focus," she said.
I stared into the gap. A small green hat jumped out—no larger than a fingernail. It dashed across a fallen leaf, and after examining it for a few moments, the hat lifted off the ground. Under it was a trunk, arms, and legs.
Then it started to walk…
That's when I understood. That wasn't a hat—it was a mushroom. A mushroom with a body, walking.
My face twisted in disgust.
"Don't tell me… the mushroom soup we eat is made from that thing?"
"Of course not," Riam said instantly. "Not all fungi are like that. In fact, there's only one family of mushrooms that walks in this world. That family is Thialis—the family of the Lady of the Forest."
When I looked back, the mushroom was gone. Vanished. As if it had never been there.
"It's nearly impossible to spot a Thialis mushroom. What just happened—I only noticed it was coming, and showed you before it slipped away."
My ears twitched when I heard that.
"Do you want to know how I sensed it?" Riam asked, reading my thoughts again.
"We'll talk about everything... in the clearing."