Chapter 33 — Luna’s Family

Editors: PROCRASTINATOR & GREETER

 

[Terra’s POV] (A/N: Luna’s sister, in case you forgot.)

 

When I got back home, I ran up to Mom and gave her a letter.

 

“Mom! Luna responded! She says she’ll be here soon!” (Terra)

 

“That’s great! How far away is she though? Didn’t she go all the way to the Astraeus Kingdom?” (Mom)

 

“I dunno.” (Terra)

 

**bang**

 

The door flies open.

 

“I’M HOME!!!” (Luna)

 

“LUNA!!” (Terra + Mom)

 

“Ei!! Why did you kick the door?! You could have broken it!!” (Luna)

 

Eh? Who’s this Ei person?

 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

 

A bit before…

 

[Ei’s POV]

 

*bzt*

 

“This is your captain speaking. We will be arriving at the Polymatheia Archives in Anai momentarily. Please begin packing your things—passengers are required to disembark within ten minutes of landing.” (Captain)

 

Looks like we’re here! And just in time too! I barely finished re-reading the quantum physics book.

 

Well, we had practically nothing to pack. I’ve been carrying all of it. Well, time to wake up Luna, Nadia, and Kurui.

 

I walk up to Luna and shake her awake. She finally seems to be getting enough sleep again. Then again, there was nothing else to do on the airship…

 

“Good morning, Ei…” (Luna)

 

“Hmmm… Time to wake up Kurui. This is my revenge!!” (Ei)

 

I summoned a large ball of water and threw Kurui into it.

 

“Ha. Ya thought that would work? Nah, not happenin’.” (Kurui)

 

DAMN IT! IT WAS AN ILLUSION. Well then, I’ll just have to shoot water at you this time!

 

“Blehg!” (Kurui)

 

“Ha. Don’t speak when I still have the water around.” (Ei)

 

“That tasted like rotten eggs…” (Kurui)

 

“It’s revenge. That’s the point. Next time I’ll throw in some fish.” (Ei)

 

How am I going to bring fish along though? Oh well. Time to wake up Nadia.

 

To start, I poked her forehead.

 

She’s still asleep. Sleeping like a dragon, I guess. Well, I have a funny idea. Let’s see if it works. I whisper to Nadia…

 

“I stole your gold coin…” (Ei)

 

…

 

Nothing happens. Man, I thought something would. That would have been funny.

 

“Well, guess we’re doing this the hard way. Wakey, wakey, Nadia!” (Ei)

 

And then I slapped her face so hard she went flying out of the bed and into the wall.

 

“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….” (Nadia)

 

HOW ARE YOU STILL ASLEEP?!

 

“Ajfkasjfasklf!! Kurui! Bend reality so she wakes up or something!” (Ei)

 

“Nah, I’ll just drop her in the ocean, like you.” (Kurui)

 

Nadia disappears then reappears a few seconds later. Some fish are flopping around too.

 

“GAH! I WAS IN A WARZONE!” (Nadia)

 

“Eh? What happened?” (Ei)

 

“Kurui, why did you teleport me into a war between a family of megalodons and krakens?” (Nadia)

 

“They had CHILDREN!?” (Ei)

 

“Eh? You got dumped in the ocean too?” (Nadia)

 

“Wasn’t fun. Help me get revenge on Kurui some time.” (Ei)

 

“Hey! Ya asked me to put her in the ocean!” (Kurui)

 

“No… I only said to wake her up by bending reality!” (Ei)

 

“Are ya sure about that?” (Kurui)

 

“YES! Now let’s head up to the deck.” (Ei)   

 

The airship is in the process of descending revealing a massive canopy of trees. When I say massive, I mean it was like an ocean of them. They were so tall that the clouds were intermingled with the trees.

 

The airship continued down through what I presume was a hole in the canopy, revealing an entire new area. The previous sea of green had been replaced with intricate lattices of branches the sizes of trees, bits of spider web, and oversized leaves. There were some mushrooms here and there too.

 

“Wow… this place is amazing.” (Ei)

 

“Just wait until you see the floor level!” (Luna)

 

“Huh. The trees barely changed in 15,000 years. Well, I guess they got a bit bigger…” (Kurui)

 

“How old must these trees be?” (Nadia)

 

“Vadina said they’ve been here since the beginning of time!” (Luna)

 

“I haveth memories from when the trees wert the size of a small child.” (Vadina)

 

“That must have been a long time ago…” (Ei)

 

The ship continued descending, leading to the next layer of the forest. This layer looks more like what you would think of a normal forest canopy. Though it was quite dark, there were branches running around the sky. Most were only shadows, but a few had some glowing mushrooms on them.

 

Underneath this layer was the forest floor. It was almost pitch black down here… The only thing preventing it from being that were thousands of glowing bugs in the sky, several giant mushrooms (and some smaller ones) all over the floor, and giant currents of mana. Their colors varied. I presume they matched people’s imaginations of elements?

 

*bzt*

 

“Welcome to Anai Airport. We have arrived in Polymatheia.” (Captain)

 

“This place is insane…” (Ei)

 

“Glad you like it!” (Luna)

 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

 

After disembarking, we followed a path lit by glowing mushrooms and mana currents towards the main city. 

 

We passed by a tree and a massive clearing with the city came into view. The mana currents around all of us flew into the air and gathered in a large orb, floating above the city. Like moths to a flame, hundreds of thousands of glowing bugs surrounded the orb, bringing light across the entire city. While staring at it directly was not as strong as the sun—I mean Möjlnir—it was still quite a strong light. 

 

Once I got over the brightness, I could see that the mana currents wrapping around the orb formed a massive tree. Is it supposed to be the World Tree? At this point I wouldn’t be surprised. The “world tree” was taller than all the trees that we had seen so far, and yet it somehow wasn’t visible through the canopy.

 

The city itself was made out of only quartz, having an architectural style similar to that of ancient Rome. The lights from above caused the quartz to take on all sorts of interesting colors, ranging from purple to blue to red to green.

 

It looks like a disco party… Still, it is a very interesting design. The entire city is built around several mana currents, then using those branches as side roads. The currents sometimes fly above the roads, and others below, only seeable through cracks in the wooden roads.

 

“Ha… it hasn’t changed in all 15,000 years since I was last here.” (Kurui)

 

“I would not expect it to. 15,000 years is only a small amount more than two Forest Elf lifespans.” (Nadia)

 

Forest Elves live that long?! That’s a long time… Well, I guess Elves are sometimes portrayed to live forever… 

 

Luna led us to her house. Huh… That door looks really kickable…

 

“We’re here! So anyways… I want to surprise my sister! She should be home. Any ideas how?”

 

Hmmmm…

 

“LEEEERROOOOYYY-” (Ei)

 

“That won’t work. Ya aren’t charging to your death.” (Kurui)

 

““???”” (Nadia + Luna)

 

“Fine. FBI OPEN UP!” 

 

**bang**

 

“I’M HOME!!” (Luna)

 

“LUNA!!” (Terra + Mom)

 

“Ei!! Why did you kick the door?! You could have broken it!!” (Luna)

 

“But kicking down the door is fun…” (Ei)

 

Inside the house were two other Elves, looking almost exactly the same as Luna: Dark brown hair and amber eyes. 

 

“Luna… who’s this Ei person?” (Terra)

 

“That’d be me.” (Ei)

 

I reply, hood still up. 

 

“Hey! Don’t forget about me!” (Kurui)

 

“I would rather not be left out as well.” (Nadia)

 

“My, my… You seem to have many more friends now. Much more than just that spirit friend of yours. Is she still around? I haven’t seen her in the forest for a while… Oh, and I’m Hydra.” (Mom/Hydra)

 

“I ameth right here. Luna is mine friend, and I wouldst never leave her. Even if I hadeth the chance, I wouldst be unable as we are contracted.” (Vadina)

 

“Woah! Big sis is amazing! Though, wouldn't your Spirit friend be rather angry about that? Also, I’m Terra!” (Terra)

 

“Ehehehe…” (Luna)

 

After that we entered the house. It was pretty nice considering it was made of solid quartz. There was some wooden furniture and carpets here and there. The most interesting thing was the lighting: Mana currents. Similar to those that float around the city, they glowed. These ones however, were kept in a bottle.

 

We kept conversing for a while when there was a sudden knock at the door.

 

“Who is it?” (Hydra)

 

“A messenger.” (Messenger)

 

Huh. Why’s there a messenger here?

 

“This letter was addressed to a ‘Vadina’. Are they present?” (Messenger)

 

“I don’t thin-” (Hydra)

 

“That wouldst be me.” (Vadina)

 

“O Great Spirit, please accept this letter. It comes from the Grand Sage herself.” (Messenger)

 

Vadina takes the letter and reads it over. By the time she finishes, the messenger is long gone.

 

“What was the letter for? And why was it addressed to you?” (Luna)

 

“An old friend of mine wishes to see me. We shalt goeth tomorrow.” (Vadina)

 

“Oh? Okay! I wanna meet them!” (Luna)

 

“Me too!” (Terra)

 

“I ameth sorry little one, the invite wast only extended to the ‘Great Spirit Vadina, her contracted, the Sealed God, the Dragon, and the Vampire’.” (Vadina)

 

“Eh? Where’d you get all those fancy titles from… And why is Luna the contracted?!?” (Terra)

 

“It’s an equal partners contract… just that it was Vadina’s idea.” (Luna)

 

“Oho? Well that’s a new one…” (Hydra)

 

“Well, do you know where an inn is?” (Ei)

 

“You’re not staying? I’m sure our house can accommodate everyone. We have a pretty large house, you know?” (Hydra)

 

“Stay with us Big Sis!” (Terra)

 

“Hmm… Sure! Everyone?” (Luna)

 

“Sounds good to me.” (Kurui)

 

“Sure.” (Ei)

 

“I have no objections.” (Nadia)

 

And thus we decided to stay the night. Well, what semblance there was of night down here. The orb just… turned off. The World Tree around it was still glowing, but the orb itself went out.

 

For dinner, we were served a variety of mushrooms and some leaves mixed in. There was also some rice and some… creepy looking beetles. Luna burnt them to ashes, which surprised her family as normally Forest Elves don’t use fire magic…

 

Explaining how magic worked over again was pretty tedious… Either way, it tasted good. So did the beetles. Well, before they got incinerated.