Sara shouted:
“No way! I am half-Fairy? For real? But I don’t have wings like you, Milady!”
“Well, it’s unusual, but it can happen if the Fairy blood is diluted over generations. I can’t believe I found the Human family of Tyly! My family went mad with her when she abandoned everything to live a simpler life with the Human man that she fell in love with, and she was not mentioned ever again for several years. She never returned to our family, but she always sent messages on special occasions, like birthdays and marriages. She was once considered the most powerful High Fairy in the World! She is a legend amongst my kind! Oh, the stories I could tell you about her!”
Sara was holding Wenammy’s hands and spoke with tears running down her face:
“Please, tell me more about her! I want to know everything about the Fairy that gave me my Magic!”
“She was not a simple Fairy, Sara, she was a High Fairy, a Noble of our kind, the Human equivalent of a Duchess, because she was the sister of our Queen. I suppose you will also inherit a title and some wealth if you ever go to the High Fairies territory and show that pendant. Perhaps they will test your Magic and blood to be sure. You need to keep on training because for you to be acknowledged as one of the heirs of Tyly, you will need to prove to them that you are worthy.”
Sara vigorously nodded:
“I will train lots and lots, I can promise you that!”
She then remembered something and looked at Alex:
“Sir… If the High Fairies consider me as an heir, can I still work for you?”
“You can do whatever you want, Sara, don’t worry about that now. What you should worry, is to go change to your new dress, so that I can introduce you to the King. Shinatobe, would you be so kind as to guide Sara to a room?”
Kagu-tsuchi joined them, carrying the bag with the new clothes and said while holding Sara’s right hand:
“We will take care of her, Alex, don’t worry. Let’s go, Sara, I also want to change to my new clothes to be a hunk again!”
Shinatobe asked while they were running with Sara towards the main door:
“Since when you are a hunk, Kagu-tsuchi?”
Sara and Kagu-tsuchi shared an accomplice smile and laughed with Shinatobe’s puzzled face.
Alex made a slight smile and said:
“What are the odds… Not only I found a very powerful little Mage, but she is also the descendent of a Fairy.”
Wenammy slowly nodded with a big smile:
“And not a simple Fairy, she was the most powerful of all. When I tell my mother that I found Sara, she won’t believe me! A lot of Fairies will be amazed by that, I am sure of it! And she can even use Earth Magic like Tyly! I was told that when Tyly was about Sara’s age, she was extremely powerful, much like Sara already is. It’s like… if Tyly was reborn… Amazing…”
Alex noticed that Viscount Tom seemed very pleased:
“I know a certain Rabbit-kind that will be very proud to teach her… So, where is the King and the others, Viscount?”
“In the dining room, drinking some wine and waiting for you. Shall we go join them? I believe diner is almost ready.”
Alex and the three women followed the Viscount and joined the King, the Princess and the others. The King spoke with a big smile:
“So here you are! Had fun at least? Because we sure did! I never get tired of that amazing hot spring.”
“We had fun, at least until two men tried to kill me. They were arrested and perhaps tomorrow the City Guards tell me who sent them because they didn’t seem like the type to orchestrate all that on their own.”
The Princess gasped and the King frowned, wondering what happened because the carefree way that Alex was speaking was weird:
“You sound too relaxed for someone that suffered an assassination attempt.”
“I don’t know if we can call that an attempt. It was more a stupidity, considering who was with me. At least I was able to find a very powerful Earth Mage. She will arrive shortly, she went to change her clothes because she duelled against Pearl on the patio and her clothes were dirty.”
“Why did Pearl duel that Earth Mage?”
Alex shrugged while taking a sip of his cup of wine:
“It was a demonstration for Viscount Tom because he didn’t seem to believe me when I told him that she was very powerful, considering her age. We found out only moments ago that she is the descendant of a very powerful High Fairy, an ancestor of Wenammy. It seems she married a Human man and got a family of her own, that originated that particular Earth Mage.”
While the King was wondering who that Mage was, the dining room doors were opened, and Sara entered, holding hands with Shinatobe on one side, and Kagu-tsuchi on the other. She looked at the King with a worried expression, but Shinatobe gently squeezed her hand and whispered:
“Go ahead, he will like you for sure.”
Sara Perry slowly nodded and approached the table. She made a deep bow, and Shinatobe together with Kagu-tsuchi, imitated her. She spoke while looking down:
“My King… I am Sara Perry… It is an honour to meet you… And you as well, Princess…”
The King raised one eyebrow and faced Alex that remained serious and heard him saying:
“This is the Earth Mage I was talking about, my King.”
King Otto looked at Sara again and spoke:
“It is nice to meet you, Sara. Earl Alex was just telling me that you are a very powerful Earth Mage, but looking at you, you are very young. How old are you, anyway?
“I am almost ten years old, my King… The Earl keeps on telling me that I am powerful, but… I don’t feel different…”
Pearl Pearson spoke with a slight smile:
“She held her ground against me, King Otto, and that’s not an easy thing to do. I know a few older Mages that if they duel her, they will lose, and lose badly.”
As the King was staring at Sara, Alex told her to take a seat, because she was becoming pale with nervousness. The King then looked at Sara’s two companions and asked:
“I know Shinatobe, but who is the little boy?
Shinatobe tilted her head and said:
“I know he looks cute like this, but you can recognize him if you look carefully. Maybe imagining him with red armour and a spear?”
The King gasped:
“Kagu-tsuchi? It is really him? But… he looks so harmless…”
Shinatobe pushed Kagu-tsuchi to the table and said:
“I also look harmless, but you won’t pick a fight with me, would you? He normally looks like this, he only uses his bigger form when fighting. Just like me. Okami and Suijin are the only ones that like to be grownups all the time. I suppose he doesn’t frighten you as much if he stays like this, right?”
King Otto looked at Kagu-tsuchi that had a big smile while munching a cube of cheese:
“Indeed… he looks like a normal boy. I don’t see him as a threat, in fact, I am more interested in knowing a bit more about this little Earth Mage.”
Sara kept on staring at her hands over the table in complete silence, and Alex told how he first met her and what happened in the Market, together with the description of her duel against Pearl. In the end, the King was smiling, and the Princess looked genuinely impressed. She asked while glancing at Wenammy that had a shine in her eyes and a big smile:
“Earl Alex… She is really the descendant of a High Fairy? How is that possible?”
“It seems that one of Wenammy’s ancestors fell in love with a Human man and abandoned their lands to live with him. Her name was Tyly, and she was Sara’s great-great-grandmother. Strangely, her grandmother and her mother didn’t inherit Tyly’s Magic, but Sara did. That’s probably the reason why Sara doesn’t have Fairy wings because the Fairy blood in her family got diluted over the generations.”
The Princess bit her lower lip and said while looking at Sara:
“But she is so young… If she is indeed that powerful as you said, shouldn’t she be already the disciple of an older Mage?”
“I thought the same, but it seems that not even Sara knew how powerful she was. It was Pearl that sensed her Magic on our first encounter at the exit of the Chamber of Lords. After that, Sara got more confident and practised even more. That’s why she came here today, I wanted to introduce her to Viscount Tom so that he could teach her like he did with me.”
The Princess slowly nodded and the King almost shouted:
“I hope he doesn’t teach her the same way he taught you because he was very nasty!”
Viscount Tom spoke with a big smile:
“I don’t need to be so mean with her, because she is already very good. I just need to guide her and make sure she controls her Magic at all times. Earl Alex was different because he had no idea what to do with Shinatobe’s Wind Magic! He was so dumb that I gave up a couple of times! He was so useless!”
The King noticed that Sara was biting her lower lip and trembling as if she was fighting with something. He looked at her and asked:
“What’s the matter, Sara? You look worried. You want to say something?”
Sara glanced at Alex and stared at her hands again:
“It’s that… I always knew that I could use a lot of Earth Magic, but I did my best to use just a little. Some years ago, when my little brother was just a baby, he was playing in a blanket in the garden at the back of our house. I was using my Magic to make the flowers grow faster, but he kept on making baby noises… and I got irritated… and… I lost control and made a tree to grow underneath him. I barely had time to catch him when he fell from the high branch that took him up to the air. I… never used so much Magic again, until recently… because I was afraid of losing control again…”
The King made a slight frown and said:
“That’s understandable, something like that would make anyone fear their own Magic. Your parents didn’t find it strange to see a new tree at the back of your house?”
“They did… but they didn’t believe at that time that it was me. They always thought it was some random Magic that made that tree grow there or a Mage that did it as a joke. I stopped trying to convince them because I was so worried and so frightened about what I did.”
Pearl choked with her wine and asked:
“Sara, how old were you when you did that?”
“I… was six… I had nightmares about it for several months. I still do…”
Pearl gulped:
“Just like Tyly… I was only able to make a tree grow when I was fifteen… You really need a Magic teacher, Sara, I bet you are having a hard time controlling your Magic as you grow up.”
Sara slowly nodded:
“Yes… it’s getting difficult… sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because I feel something is wrong, and a new flower or a plant is growing in my bedroom. I fear that one day I will destroy my house with a new tree that suddenly sprouts in my bedroom while I sleep…”
Viscount Tom spoke with a serious look:
“Sara, after diner, we are going to start your training. There are a few exercises that I want you to learn and tomorrow morning we are going to practice them. We will see tomorrow if you can keep on practising them, or if I need to teach you more exercises.”
Sara raised her head and spoke with tears in her eyes:
“Thank you so much, Viscount Tom!”
“The proper way is Master. Or Amazing Teacher, that also works.”
“Yes, Master! I will practice lots and lots and make you proud of me!”
The Viscount faced Alex with an angry look while pointing at Sara:
“See? That’s the proper way to talk to a Magic Teacher! Not calling me stupid Rabbit or threatening to roast me!”
Alex raised both open palms:
“Hey, don’t get mad at me because of something you made me say! You were terrible with me! You tortured me, you hurt me, and more than once, you almost killed me!”
The Viscount slowly changed his angry look to a slight smile:
“Yeah, funny times those ones… Remember when I threw you from the northern tower of this Castle for you to learn how to use your Wind Magic to stop your fall? You screamed for the entire way down, and Shinatobe had to save you! It was so funny! You even pissed yourself!”
“I was only ten! Anyone would scream if someone threw them from a tower!”
The entire diner was continuous laughter with Viscount Tom telling a few stories about Alex’s training while he turned bright red at every shameful memory.