CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Twelve

[KINDLE'S PoV]

I could count on one hand the number of things I truly hated. One of those things was seeing Faye cry. And when I relayed the results of Blondie's tea with Lydia, Faye sobbed.

I comforted her to the best of my ability, but my ability was limited and it didn't achieve much. Carlyle floated at my side. He had always been better at the comforting thing, but Faye obviously couldn't hear him now. I tried not to think how much easier this all would be if he were still alive.

"Poor Magpie, all alone in the forest—the Wildlands." Faye shuddered, wringing her hands and sniffling. "It won't be long before a shifter finds her, you know that's why Lydia sent her out there."

I nodded, my jaw clenching reflexively.

Carlyle cleared his throat. "...Maggie had goodbye messages... She wanted to thank Faye for all she's done, and how kind she's been."

"Maggie said to thank you for everything you've done for her, and how kind you were while she was here," I echoed for Faye to hear, then added, "Inari told me."

There was only silence from Faye, until she whirled on me with a furious glint in her eyes. She reached up and crushed the collar of my shirt into her fists, dragging my face to eye level. "You need to go get her. Now."

"Faye." I carefully loosened her fingers and squeezed her hands in mine as I straightened. "We can't bring her back here, you know that. And it's been hours, who knows where she is now?"

"...Maggie had a message for you too, Kindle. She said 'it was nice'..."

"Emrys would know, just ask her." Faye's eyes were pleading. "And you don't have to bring Magpie back here, Carmen's been needing an assistant, and at least in Loftwood I can visit her."

"...And you can keep the sketch..."

I swallowed the lump that rose in my throat and sighed. "Alright, you win," I said to both of them.

It took me longer than I expected to find Emrys, but at least when I happened upon her she was alone. Inari wasn't the biggest fan of Blondie to begin with, and I doubted she would be happy with me roping her girlfriend into a plot to bring her back.

Emrys was tending to her garden just outside the manor, and seemed to be deep in conversation with a patch of blue flowers. Dryads were an interesting bunch, to say the least.

"Em, could I get your help with something?"

She glanced up from where she knelt in the mud. "Oh, good afternoon Kindle. What do you need?"

"Can you um," I paused, searching for the right words. "Can you speak to the trees or whatever it is you do and find out if they saw a blonde human girl recently? I need to know what direction she went."

"You're looking for a human?" Emrys echoed, her voice barely more than a gentle murmur. Her mossy freckles darkened slightly against her bark brown skin as she smiled. "My friend, you are quite odd."

I rolled my eyes, fighting a growl. "Yeah, and I know you'll tell Nar, and I'll never hear the end of it, but can you help? I'll, I don't know, help you kill some weeds ore something."

"Thank you for the offer, but there is no need. The weeds can be rude at times, but generally they mind their own business." Emrys rose to her feet. She didn't bother wiping the mud from her legs, but then again what was a little mud going to do to someone who was essentially a living, girl-shaped tree. She walked barefoot into the forest at a leisurely pace, gesturing for me to follow her.