《Willow the wisp》 Prologue - Bed time story Prologue "Once upon a time there was a nation of people who called themselves the Lumini or the children of enlightenment. They lived in a large country called Elysium, the largest country that ever existed. Now what made the Lumini extra special was that they were very smart. In fact their whole country was based on knowledge, the smarter you are, the higher your position and nobody in the country was smarter than the king. King Darius was a brilliant king, a renowned tactician in battle, an effective leader but above all he was the greatest mage to ever live. Under his rule, the Lumini prospered and Elysium expanded to cover the entire world but Darius didn''t stop there. He gathered all of the smartest people in the world and created a giant city where these people would try to solve all the problems in the world. Slowly, his ambitious plan bore fruit. One by one, all the major problems in the world disappeared. Hunger became a thing of the past, all diseases were eradicated, all conflict abolished. The country was prosperous, the people were happy but when Darius should have been enjoying his success, tragedy struck. The person that he loved the most in the world, his mother, died of old age. Darius was heartbroken. He had helped so many people and solved so many problems but in the end even the great magus king Darius couldn''t stop the march of time. His mother''s death devastated Darius. He was unable to accept the fact that there was something he was powerless to stop. At this point, Darius had created a government that could practically run itself so he threw himself into his research. People told him that it was impossible but Darius had been hearing that since he was a teenager and he didn''t listen then and he sure wasn''t going to listen now. For twenty five years Darius worked on a way to make sure what happened to his mother never happened to anyone else, for twenty five years he searched for a method to cheat death itself until finally he found it. After countless sleepless nights he figured out the key to immortality and immediately he created a massive magic spell to make all the people in the world immortal. Incredibly enough Darius actually succeeded. Almost all the people in Elysium became immortal but that was against the will of the gods, against the will of heaven itself so the people of Elysium paid an incredibly steep price for their immortality, they lost their bodies. The Kingdom of Elysium vanished overnight and the only people that remained were the nomads that roamed the deserts." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. "Mommy, what happened to the illuminus?" "It''s the Lumini honey and you see them every day." "Really?" "Yes. Whenever you go out to play in the forest and pester those poor wisps." "How did you know I play in the forest?" "There is nothing your mommy doesn''t know. Now be a good little girl and go to sleep Willow." Chapter one - fateful meeting Chapter one I floated around listlessly in the outer perimeters of the enchanted forest. I didn''t know if it had been years, decades or centuries. Time had no meaning to me.... Life had no meaning to me. My people had found refuge with the fay. The kingdom of fairy let them join with open arms and they lived among the glittering throng, not the worst of fates but that didn''t absolve me of my sin. They said that they have forgiven me, that they didn''t blame me to begin with but could I forgive myself? Could I stop blaming myself? And so here I was in a self imposed exile, floating around the edges of the enchanted forest, keeping myself in the border between the land of the humans and the forest of the fay. The sun would rise in the east only to fall in the west. The moon waxed and waned. The leaves on the trees turned brown and fell only to grow again as the seasons passed. I remained oblivious to everything. I would have ended my meaningless existence if only I knew how but I was immortal, suicide wasn''t an option for me. Over time I became numb. Everyday was the same as the previous day but one day the monotony of my life was suddenly shattered by a little human girl. She couldn''t have been any more that ten years old. She had large brown eyes and brown ringlets of hair wreathing her cute little face. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. When she first came crashing through the thicket of bushes, I was shocked. What was a little human girl doing in the no man''s land between the fay''s enchanted forest and the human kingdoms? I just froze there in the air. I hadn''t interacted with anything for such a long time that I didn''t know how to react. The little girl didn''t seem to have the same problem as me, she giggled in pure glee when she saw me and tried to touch me with her adorable little hands but since I was just a disembodied ball of light, her hands just passed through me or that is what I thought would happen. Instead of passing through me, the moment her hands came into contact with me I felt resistance like I had somehow become solid again. A couple of seconds later, I found myself being bounced around while the little girl squealed in pure joy. What was happening? I was a being of pure mana, how can this girl touch me let alone play with me as if I was a normal ball or balloon? Before I knew what was happening, the little girl tucked me under her armpit and skipped out of the forest while humming a cheery tune. Chapter two - the cottage Chapter two The little girl carried me to a hidden glen just outside of the no man''s land. The little valley was hidden between two mountains and unless someone knew where to look, it would be extremely difficult to find and in this secluded little valley was a surprisingly scenic scene. A small charming little cottage was built on the banks an equally small sparkling stream that leisurely meandered through a field of multicolored flowers. Most people would have been enchanted by the picturesque setting which was complete with butterflies and small birds singing their little bird heart''s out in obvious joy, but if anything, this scene actually made me suspicious and perplexed. This glen was nestled in between two large mountains in such a way that there was no way that there would be enough sunlight for the field of flowers to grow meaning that a powerful human mage took the time to create this field of flowers or one of the fay had decided to bless this area but neither option seemed very likely. I might not know much about the humans and the fay because of my self imposed exile but since I lived in the no man''s land for so long, it was inevitable for me to come across numerous battles between the two. I know their strength and their weaknesses. I knew that if the field was the work of a human mage, then it would severely sap his strength just to maintain this small field. Human mages have very little understanding of life magic and instead focused on the flashy and more destructive branches such as elemental magic. I highly doubt that there was a human mage who would dedicate his entire life to a field of flowers. The second option seemed even less likely. If a fay truly gave their blessing to create this field, then that fay would have been forever linked with this land, their life force inextricably linked with the land, nourishing it and being nourished by it in return. The problem with this theory is that the fay are a cohesive bunch. A solitary fay would literally die out of loneliness so how could one of the fay leave the enchanted forest to bond with a piece of land here? Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. This pretty little landscape was a mystery that I couldn''t solve and it only got worse when the little girl merrily skipped to the little cottage. The cottage was a very simple structure made from smooth rock that could be commonly found on river banks, just common rock that has been worn smooth by the passage of water. The simple thatched roof was made out of carefully arranged straw. There was absolutely nothing strange or conspicuous about the cottage, at least on the outside. When we entered, I felt a slight shift and before I knew what had caused it, I was distracted by what I was seeing. Instead of a small room to match the exterior of the cottage, we were in an endlessly vast room with white marble floors with golden veins, endless rows of columns that were actually statues of humans, monsters, fay, and even things I didn''t recognize made from the same white marble and the roof being held up by these columns was a strange starry sky with three moons and brilliant rainbows of color randomly flashing in and out of existence. The place was so vast that there were no walls as far as I could see and the door we had just entered through was just standing there, alone and unattached to anything else. I finally realized what had caused that little shift I had felt; it was dimensional magic, the second most difficult and obscure branch of magic in the world. I was wondering who could be responsible for all of this when a hoarse voice suddenly came from the darkness, "What did I tell you about leaving this cottage when I am away? Have you started ignoring your poor old grandmother? Do you want your frail old grandmother to die of worry?"