After a short trip by boat from one of the nearby towns, the gates of Ilmaréth welcomed Felix home like a long-lost friend.

  “How long has it been? Nearly two years since we last visited? Think they missed us, buddy?”

  Menium chirped in excitement, no doubt just looking forward to playing with Vaelis.

  Ilmaréth served as a minor port town, exporting resources gathered in the forest and surrounding villages to a major trade hub. From there, the resources would flow into the rest of the Alliance. Most of it was destined for the various workshops across the Alliance, while merchants would pick up specialty goods like teas, rare herbs and unique beasts to sell to more specialised shops.

  It wasn’t uncommon to see merchants in minor port towns trying to pick up good deals before goods reached the major trade hubs. This industry shaped the town. Near the golden grove, workers gathered sap, leaves and branches before they were packaged and carried with cart-sized ships to the floating island that served as a warehouse district.

  Goods from the surrounding towns and forest would be sold at market, either to merchants or wholesalers, before being carried up to the floating island. From there, merchants would depart on smaller schooners and corvettes while larger galleons would empty the stores of less valuable goods, usually accompanied by a few frigates for protection along their journey.

  The port was only half of what made Ilmaréth what it was, though. The port needed goods, and while a lot of the wholesale goods and a few specialty goods were produced or harvested from surrounding towns, the truly rare and valuable stock came from Explorers who braved the forest in search of fortune.

  The presence of Explorers meant there needed to be an Explorer’s guild, and where the guild went, inns and a lively entertainment district would inevitably follow. Of course, that meant you needed people to staff those establishments, and those people would want families of their own. Those families would, in turn, need libraries, schools, clothes, housing, and food. This combination formed the heart of not only Ilmaréth but many smaller port cities and towns just like it.

  Since Ilmaréth was an elven town, all of it, every single building, boat, streetlight, cart and more, all of it was shaped from living wood. It took a while for Felix to get used to having streetlights that were simply trees with bioluminescent leaves, but after spending half his life in the Feywild, the astonishment had long since passed. Now it was just the way things were.

  As soon as they passed through the gate, Menium started pulling the cart towards Vaelis’ estate.

  “Menium, hold up. We need to stop by the Explorer’s guild first. I need to get my mail from Uncle Valenther first. Besides, we don’t know where Vaelis is. Uncle will be able to tell us.”

  Menium chirped in indignation.

  “It wasn’t for nothing, buddy, we’d have spent another night camping if it weren’t for you pushing yourself. We’ll still see him today thanks to your effort.”

  It took a lot of coaxing, and Felix had to push the cart by himself while Menium rested in the back, but eventually he got them moving to the Explorer’s guild. Returning to it wasn’t nearly as pleasant as returning to the town. Felix’s rough start in the guild still haunted him, and as soon as he saw the first party of elves, memories rushed back.

  He’d hardly stepped into the guild before he could feel a wave of discomfort washing over him. Most Explorers were elves, and most elves didn’t like him. While Felix would always have struggled in the start, the subtle hostility definitely didn’t help. Not to mention that when he first got to the town, he had no idea what caused it.

  Leaving home with no friends, missing an arm, and having no useful magic. Only to end up in a place where everyone hated your guts for no apparent reason… Needless to say, Felix didn’t like thinking too much about that time. Though it was hard not to when he stepped into the guild hall.

  Menium, beside him, squeezed his arm in reassurance before glaring at the room of people strong enough to squash them like bugs.

  “Thanks, Meni, I’m fine.”

  Felix quickly pulled him along before his friend started scolding every elf in the room. It was bad enough facing their hostility when they didn’t know why they hated him. If Menium gave them an excuse, then even his brief stay in town could become a lot less pleasant.

  Felix quickly walked over to one of the friendlier receptionists whom he recognised.

  “Hey, is Uncle Valenther in?”

  “Oh, it’s you.” Felix could see that while she struggled against it, she still found him unpleasant.

  “Let me check for you.”

  Quickly scribbling a note, she folded it into a little paper boat before throwing it. The boat zipped through the air, heading to the back where he knew Uncle Valenther’s office was.

  A few seconds later, a bell on her desk lifted slightly into the air before ringing itself with a soft chime.

  Looking at the bell, then back up at Felix, the receptionist spoke.

  “He’s waiting for you in his office. Do you need me to show you the way?”

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  Felix was already walking away, not wanting to spend any more time than necessary in the hall. Raising his voice, he answered over his shoulder.

  “That’s fine, I know the way. Thanks.”

  Before long, he opened the office door with a smile plastered on his face. Like most elven buildings, it didn’t really feel like he’d stepped into a room. The wood curved to form large arched windows that stretched from the floor almost to the ceiling. Instead of glass, a small barrier kept the worst of the weather and noise out while still allowing fresh air in.

  The rest of the room was covered in plants, some of them branches that grew from the room itself. The floor was covered in a soft moss with tiny white and yellow wildflowers growing wherever they pleased.

  “Felix! It’s you, is everything alright? Why are you back so soon?”

  Felix stared at Uncle Valenther, the response not being what he expected.

  “Uhm, it’s been almost two years, Uncle.”

  Uncle Valenther stared at Felix with a blank look before he seemed to remember something. With a sigh, he plopped back down into his chair.

  “You’re still thinking like a human boy. When you said you’d be gone for a while, we thought you meant a couple of decades, not a year or two.”

  Felix felt tempted to remind him that he was, in fact, human. As such, thinking like one would be perfectly natural, but they’d had the argument so many times that he knew he was unlikely to convince the man. He didn’t want to spend his reunion arguing, so he let it go.

  “Sorry, Uncle, I should have clarified. Though I wasn’t sure how long I’d be gone.”

  “Did you manage to find what you were looking for? You were quite excited to visit Starfarer Willow’s grove. No, wait. Where are my manners? We should talk over tea.”

  Standing up, Uncle Valenther walked towards the sitting area to the side of his office with an eager Menium following in tow. Felix quickly walked to the side of the room where he removed his shoes, letting his feet sink into the soft mossy ground.

  It would be incredibly rude to sit down with shoes on. According to elven tradition, it indicated that the guest was eager to leave and found the company bothersome.

  When Felix turned around, he caught Uncle Valenther smiling at him.

  “You’ve learned a lot in the short time you’ve been here.”

  Again, Felix had to bite back the response that six years were by no means short. But he took the compliment for what it was.

  ”I’d not have learned half as much if it weren’t for you and Aunty Eirlys.”

  Uncle Valenther just shook his head.

  “Cloud heart blossoms or Asure king’s treasure?”

  Felix bit his lip.

  “Why don’t you choose Uncle?”

  “Don’t make me take back what I said about how much you’ve learned now. You’re the guest.”

  With a sigh, Felix relented.

  “Fine, fine. Saddle me with the hard decisions. Cloud Heart is one of my favourites, but I haven’t tried the other one. I can’t say no to trying something new.”

  Nodding his head, Uncle Valenther walked up to a stone plinth in the corner that looked like a bird bath while Felix took a seat on the mossy ground next to his Uncle’s prized tea table.

  Uncle Valenther stuck his arm up into the shallow pool of water, somehow having it sink in up to his elbow. He pulled out a few light-blue sprouts and gently shook off the excess water before placing the leaves in a flat wooden tray. Turning to the side, he dried his arm before joining Felix at the table.

  Uncle Valenther’s tea table was a marvel. It was a miniature version of the town adapted to serve tea. The floating island held the pot, cups and other tea-making equipment. Uncle Valenther added the fresh sprouts to the teapot and activated the table. From the golden grove, little golden leaves blew to the warehouse district, where they turned into water and filled a glass. Little wooden elves ran around casting spells around the water to bring it to a boil. With another team of elves checking the water’s temperature.

  As soon as they were satisfied, a team of tiny tugboats carried the now-boiling water to the floating island, where it was emptied into the teapot.

  Uncle Valenther took the teapot and placed it in the tea table’s representation of the market square. As soon as he placed it down, a team of wooden elves climbed up the bell tower. Another team kept the teapot at the right temperature, waiting for it to steep.

  After waiting for the tea to steep, the elves in the bell tower took out mallets and started rhythmically hitting the bell, signalling that the tea was ready. Uncle Valenther placed a strainer on the sharing cup before pouring the tea through it.

  “This tea is only good for one steep.”

  He mentioned offhandedly before a few teams of tiny wooden elves moved in to clean the teapot while Uncle Valenther served the tea. He gestured for Felix to try it after he served Menium and himself a cup.

  “So tell me about Starfarer Willow’s grove. Is that the reason you came back so soon?”

  Felix bobbed his head from side to side to indicate that that’s neither right nor wrong. Taking a sip of his tea, he appreciated the flavour before answering. While steeping in boiling water, the resulting tea was strange. He felt like he was drinking from a stream at the start of spring, when the snow on the mountains had just started melting and flowing into the forest. It was like the tea carried the concept of cold while actually being warm. The sensation was so surprising that Felix didn’t even register the taste of the tea on the first sip.

  “That’s part of it. It made travelling from village to village to visit their libraries a little useless. There’s precious little to learn that I don’t already know about after visiting her grove. Aside from that, my other training has also slowed down. I’m not really sure how to progress my path from here.”

  Uncle Valenther raised an eyebrow.

  “I can understand not being able to find any useful books, but I find it hard to believe that you’ve finished that ridiculous project of yours. You’re basically trying to do on a smaller scale what takes Travellers a lifetime. While they try to understand every type of mana they can grow an affinity for, to glimpse the origin. You’re trying to understand a lot of the same plant so you can understand what makes it what it is. How many plants could you have studied in this time? How many stresses and growing conditions?”

  Felix scratched his chin. He’d never even managed to grow as much as a stubble, but the gesture had become ingrained somehow.

  “I stopped counting at around fifty thousand. That was quite a while ago, though, so I’m not really sure.”

  Uncle Valenther stared at Felix blankly.

  Felix took another sip of tea.

  “You can’t be serious? Have you been doing nothing but studying those plants since you left?”

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