Glass or Diamond: Fairy's Wish

Episode 38: A Fairy Desperate Enough

Fairies; beings of small stature granted one of the most potent and mystical gifts the world has ever known, are also burdened by that very gift in many ways. The singular wish they are each born with is a priceless treasure to everyone a fairy might encounter, save themselves. A fairy cannot grant their own wish, and granting a wish for others takes away treasures that the fairy can grant themselves of their own will.

As birds chirp and insects buzz and hum all around, Lykha ponders the recent events where she offered -begged- to use her wish to save her first non-fairy friend, Murtoa of Lakia. Such an act, especially unprovoked, is not only frowned upon, but forbidden by fairy elders, as fairies are highly emotional and prone to making rash decisions. And, nothing is more irresponsible than making a rash decision with the most powerful gift in the world.

She feels a little guilty having been so reckless. If Mury survived, she would have traded her own future for a human warrior who is regularly rather reckless with his own life. She would no longer be able to perform magic -which is the only thing that makes her useful to her friends-, and she would no longer be able to have children, which makes her useful to fairies as a whole. And, she dreams of someday having a family with several children, whom she can tell stories to and teach values she's learned not only from her fairy elders, but from her new friends in the world at large.

Grandmother Galla always preaches that a wish is not worth a single fairy life, let alone a non-fairy. For, a wish's cost exceeds potentially several, if not many, fairy lives that could have been. The penalty for using one's wish is steep; the fairy who does so is excommunicated from the fairy villages and abandoned to the world beyond the safety of the village.

But then,... If she COULD save Mury's life... What is his life worth to her? What he's done for her doesn't compare in the same way, because the only thing he gambles is his physical life, which he does anyways.

And yet...

Lykha groans as she sits in midair next to the strange fairy elder named Yanari, who hasn't said a word since Lykha joined her.

"Come closer, child," states the elder fairy without looking. Surprised, Lykha asks, "Me?"

She looks over her shoulder, finding no one else there. The sage says nothing, and Lykha sighs. "I know you're just doing that now because you told me you do that."

"Am I?" asks the elder fairy with an enigmatic smirk.

Lykha glares at her elder, asking sharply, "I'm sure there's some greater lesson you want to teach me, but are you even going to talk?"

Yanari, who is reaching the eldest years a fairy can reach, by her appearance, still possesses her wish, in spite of residing in the world of non-fairies. She seems almost ethereal and mystical as stones, leaves, and even her hair float weightlessly around her being, touched by the vast magical power radiating from her.

"In due time, child." The fairy continues to meditate.

Lykha clenches her fists. "I can't stand this silence! Mury doesn't have forever! And, you don't know him. He's too pragmatic for his own good! If I don't hurry back... I don't want to think of what foolish way he'll try to unburden us, okay!?"

The fairy sage opens one eye to look at Lykha, and then closes it again. "Very well, then. Do you know what the difference between humans, drakyks, 'demons', and the other races of the world is?"

Caught off-guard, Lykha snaps a little more sharply than she means to, "What does that have to do with anything!?" She instantly regrets her wording, if nothing else.

"Well, lots of things, actually. Humans, drakyks, demons,..."

"I got it! I got it... I meant... I just want to know about the plague and how to cure it. If you don't know, just tell me."