Alyssa opened her eyes. “We are here! Finally!”

  Lady Evelyn chuckled. “Yes, I suppose it is the best time of the year for it, isn’t it?”

  I looked at both of them, seeing if either would understand my ignorance of whatever they were referring to.

  “Is this your first time in Ahornrot?” Kelly asked.

  I nodded. “So are they having a festival or something?”

  “Yes!” Alyssa said, I could see her retraining herself. “I mean, yeah, the town of Ahornrot! It has one of the most beautiful sights in all of Anlage!”

  I raised an eyebrow, looking at Lady Evelyn. A town was too large to be a village but still rather small compared to cities or the royal capital.

  “Well, perhaps most beautiful is a bit charitable, but it isn’t exactly wrong either. You’d be right to think that a town shouldn’t be impressive compared to anything you have already seen. But Ahornrot’s beauty lies in the natural, not the man-made aspects. I suppose it may be too late to ask, but do you dislike insects?”

  “I do not like the way in which you presented that question,” I said as I looked up. What was this place? Bug town or something? “To your question, I would not consider myself any more afraid than the average person.”

  “Good,” she said with a smile. “I do hope you enjoy the view. Hmm, is this your first time, Kelly?”

  Kelly nodded. “I never had a reason to venture this far on my own. I am quite excited.”

  The carriage came to a stop, and with the wheels no longer making noise, I could hear lots of laughter more clearly. I suppose it was no longer needed to ask questions, since I would see the town for myself in a moment.

  “Kelly, Alyssa. Fetch the Wind Maiden’s veil, it seems I forgot to grab it earlier,” Lady Evelyn said, looking around in her bag.

  They both nodded and left. Well, that was a lie. As if Lady Evelyn would forget anything. The outside fell silent as she did that, becoming a very familiar spell of silence.

  “So, I passed?” I asked.

  She smiled. “You did. I am proud of you. Though, do not rest easy yet. I don’t have the time to explain the full context, but consider Kelly your current long-term goal. Manipulating an over-eager humble orphan should be quiet the simplistic task.”

  “It feels kind of mean if you ask me, she never had a chance,” I said as I pursed my lips.

  She laughed. “Yes, I suppose so. Our first meeting wasn’t that different. I expected your inner villager would feel conflicted, but this situation isn’t much different than a mother and her children.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “A parent will act to push the child to where they need to be. Indifferent to whether the child enjoys the situation,” she said. “To not do so is abuse, plain and simple.”

  “Yes, but the aim in that situation is to help the child! Not the parent!” I retorted.

  She smiled. “So you accept the method, but not the aim? Have you never attempted to persuade your siblings towards your own goal?”

  I clenched my cheek. Of course I have, but like. That was different. “Comparing something like what to eat for breakfast with whatever the protection of the wind means is a scale too vast to consider a comparison made in good faith.”

  “The scale now? First, you fault the method, then the aim, and now the scale? So what you're saying is, it is complicated,” she added. “And how do you decide on these matters when they are in the blurry zone?”

  I looked down. “I have at least never done this on purpose.”

  She laughed much louder this time, almost mockingly so. “So you say it isn’t awful if you are bad at it? Is that the defense?”

  “I…” I just looked at the shut carriage window. I was just barely an adult. How was I supposed to know how to answer this?

  “Julia, I respect your goal. It is admirable, and I think I have good advice for you. Will they be angry?” she asked.

  “Will they be angry?” I asked.

  “Do you think that if you admit to those you manipulated, they will be angry? How about me? I was hard on you in front of the Malatise child and sent you both to the punishment room so that you would become friends. I planned that, and it was easy to push you both towards it. Does that make you angry?”

  She was trying to rile me at this point. I closed my eyes to think. Honestly, was I angry? I didn’t really mind the punishment. If anything, becoming friends with Alexandra was tremendously helpful. As a result, her use of Alexandra as a threat was much more emotionally charged. She pushed me to the line, and even further. I remember the anger at wanting to stab her.

  And yet, just two days ago, I cried into her arms as if she were my mother. “Enemy at the beginning of the week, and best friends by the end, right?”

  She smiled. “You remembered. Kelly can’t make a truly informed choice, and if we presented her with the options, she would feel intense pressure and have no idea who to turn to. And unlike you, what would be the point? She isn’t the one who is being called to save the world. But you saw how she acted. Do you really think she would hate you for showing her the world?”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I let out a sigh. “Okay, fine. What do I need to do?”

  The carriage door opened, and Kelly climbed in with the veil. “It was so difficult to find! Sorry to have taken so long.”

  Lady Evelyn smiled and accepted it. “It is fine, but leave it to me. I shall put it on her. You can return to the others. We will be along shortly.”

  And once again, the door was closed. It was easy enough to realize that the silence spell covered only the carriage; she probably never even noticed. It was almost perfect timing to. Just a few more seconds and Lady Evelyn would have completed our secret… oh damn! I squinted at her.

  “You knew exactly how long it would take to convince me! You had this set up perfectly, didn’t you?” I asked.

  She snickered. “And yet, look at you now, able to see through it with just a bit of context and a moment to think. I will make a Queen out of you yet.”

  A queen? That seemed a bit ridiculous, but I had no way to retort, and with the veil, we had lost our excuse to stay in here much longer. The thing looked like a hat with a sheet tied to it; it was super thin and see-through, and I had no idea what its function was. No one else seemed to be putting one on either, so I didn’t see why I would be the exception.

  “So, what is with this veil thing?”

  “Before that, with Kelly, tonight, after the service. I’m going to tell her that you requested.”

  “Are you crazy! We both know I won’t be able to handle that! Is the aim to torture me after my fourth day of this?”

  She shook her head. “It is the reverse. I want you to cry in front of her. As a religious figure, she already holds you in high respect, if she sees you break down. It will entice her to be on your side.”

  She paused for a moment and gestured for me to lean forward. I could feel her strapping the veil in place. “Plus, I have been a bit unfair in this regard. It has been needed to get you ready so quickly. But no noble holds their mask to everyone forever. You’d turn your hair white for sure.”

  “White hair doesn’t seem so bad on you,” I said. With the veil in place, everything looked just a bit different.

  “Hey, be nice!” she giggled. “Kelly and Alyssa are people you can show your weakness to. It is something you need, and something we can benefit from. So you can trust me to help you get the chance. Oh, and the veil is to stop bugs flying at you.”

  Laughter returned as I realized she had ended the spell. “Why is it only me?”

  She giggled. “In Anlage, a veil is only for the leader of a group.”

  I sighed, so worthless and dumb status again. Got it. We finally stepped outside, and I was caught off guard by all the colors: yellows, oranges, reds, and browns. The winds seemed to carry them up unnaturally high and… oh wow! They rushed by me with a gentle buzzing. It was so beautiful. The way they moved up and down and all around.

  “Aren’t the maple moths just beautiful!” Kelly said.

  “They really are,” I said. One landed on my veil, and I could see its eyes looking at me with curiosity.

  The veil made it hard to see my own feet, and I was worried I might step on any moths resting on the ground, but I quickly realized they looked identical to the fallen leaves. This was a town, so I expected it to be bigger, and it was, but what shocked me was how crowded the area was. Beladone was already brooding, but that was hardly new.

  There didn’t seem to be enough homes for this many people; it made me wonder how they got by. “This place looks ridiculously small for this many people,” I said.

  “Many of the buildings are just for visitors, plus, people in nearby villages, like those from Trent, will come only for a day. But yeah, it is always this busy during the feasting of the maple moths,” Lady Evelyn said.

  “Feasting?” I asked.

  “They are magical beasts,” the female knight who served Beladone said. “It is also why they match the leaves perfectly; it is one of their magical powers.”

  Interesting, so it doesn’t matter where they were, they would always blend in with the falling leaves.

  “Only lame thing is that they don’t serve food outside,” Alyssa said.

  I chuckled at the thought. It made sense, I didn’t wanna eat a magical beast moth.

  A short, fat man came walking aggressively towards us, but Beladone stopped him in his tracks. It was hard to hear what he was saying, but before I could even suggest it, Marine already walked over. She nodded to him before walking over to us.

  “He is the mayor of this town and wishes to ask the Maiden of Wind a question.”

  Lady Evelyn stood closer to me. “Allow it.”

  Marie gesutred and I could see Beladone roll his eyes from here, but he let the man come over. Once before me, he bowed, even if it didn’t provide much difference. “Maiden of Wind, chosen of Luft. I wish to ask for an honor, if I may. We were planning to perform the feasting ritual tonight. And it seemed like a slight unimanagible to not at least offer you the leading role.”

  I glanced at Lady Evelyn, but she closed her eyes in response. Got it, no pressure then. She was saying I could skip this. I was tempted to, but doing so would just get me to the next set of marriages. I suppose at the very least I could ask.

  “I am as of now unfamiliar with this ritual,” I said, trying to up my noble fancy words. From what I gathered, not too many nobles spoke that formally, but I did need to practice it at least enough to feel comfortable. “Please provide the details and what my part would be.”

  “Well, the ritual is to honor a battle that happened on this very spot. It was about five hundred years, with the previous Maiden of Wind and the Maiden of Lightning working in harmony against the great Abyss,” he said as he waved his hands around. “It was then that the maple moths sprang into existence. So we have two actors fill in the roles. But since our very own Maiden of Wind is here, and at the time of the feasting! It is kismet, isn't it? Goddess Karia has smiled upon us!”

  Lady Evelyn still kept her eyes closed, so again she had no preference for me here. It sounded kind of fun, and some normalcy of just a village festival sounded perfect to me. They wanted to start it right away. We were led to the town’s center, where they had a stone stage with Luft’s sigil carved into the rock. The sigil next to it had a flat line at the top and sort of criss-crossed its way down. I hadn’t seen her sigil before; it looked hard to draw, but I suppose I didn’t need to do anything like that.

  Wow, I realized another woman was on stage. She held a staff, and her ears were elongated, almost like a rabbit's, but with no fur. Her skin seemed to glisten with the same beauty as Princess Catherine. Her hair was long, brown, and flowy, with a gentle wavy curve.

  She knelt down. “It is an honor to meet you, Maiden of Wind. I am Bria, and I am an elf walking with the protection of the storms. It is my greatest honor to meet you.”

  “You may rise, Bria, of the storms,” I said. She held out her hand, and I gently accepted it.

  The mayor got up, and everyone quieted down as they watched the three of us up on the stage. “It is my pleasure to announce that the Anlage Wind Maiden shall now engage in the feast of the maple moths! Let us commit what we shall see to our eyes forever!”

  I looked to Bria and tried to whisper. “He did not inform me what I am meant to do.”

  She smiled ans squeeze my hand a bit more. “We offer mana to the maple moths so that they will surely survive another generation. Basically, we just need to launch glow calls into the air, and if we can do it in unique matters, then the show will be even more beautiful.”

  That didn’t sound too hard. I may not have practiced it in a bit, but glow call was simple enough. I was getting excited to see what these maple moths would do with my mana.