Tonelico entered her mother's office without knowing what was going on.
Why had her brother collapsed to the floor the moment he saw her?
Why had he pushed her into the office without answering her questions?
Tonelico sought answers from her mother.
Inside, she found her mother with a gaunt expression, and,
"Mother. I think brother has become a little strange…."
"Welcome, 'Fairy of Paradise'."
another clan member who knew her identity.
"You, what is your identity?"
"Oh, my apologies. I did not mean to startle you. I offer my apology."
Tonelico's mood plummeted.
It wasn't enough that a stranger had invaded her family's home; he was also deeply unsettling her brother and mother.
'What is this liar.'
Tonelico did not like this fairy she was meeting for the first time.
The inside hidden behind the fairy's glittering wings was pitch black.
There was a cloying filthiness hidden within him, something she had never seen in Orkney.
Tonelico scowled and was about to rebuke the fairy. Or more precisely, she tried to.
"An apology is something you give while looking the other person in the eye…"
"Vivian. That's enough. Come here."
Tonelico's eyebrows trembled.
Vivian was not her name.
But her mother was clearly calling to her.
In a situation that could have easily become confusing, Tonelico saw through her mother's intentions perfectly.
"…Yes, Mother."
This was an act. A way to avoid revealing the true identity of the 'Fairy of Paradise' by faking a name.
But at the same time, Tonelico sensed something strange in the depths of this shallow performance.
A fake name was no problem.
But showing her face was a fatal mistake. You couldn't change a face.
Although Tonelico knew magic that could alter one's body, it was still dangerous.
Tonelico meekly obeyed her mother's command and calmed her heart.
She must have a plan. A plan she herself could not conceive of.
"Oh-ho. Vivian, is it? You have a lovely name."
"Is this enough for you? The 'Fairy of Paradise' is here. I would like you to prove that what you said was not a lie."
"...…Is there any doubt?"
He drew out his words for an unusually long time.
What was he planning? Tonelico, who was watching him intently, almost forgot where she was and had to suppress the urge to vomit.
He actually knelt before Tonelico and began to beg for forgiveness.
"O, 'Fairy of Paradise'. Please forgive the sins of our ancestors. Please turn a blind eye to the original sin that has taken root in us. I beg of you. Please…"
Her grip on her staff tightened.
What in the world is this creature? Is he truly a fairy, like me and my family? Really?
Disgusting.
Right now, he was imagining cutting off her head—the head of the 'Fairy of Paradise'—salting it, and mounting it on a pike.
He was concocting a scene where he would shout that he, a fairy of the Wind Clan, had killed the greatest witch the world had ever known.
"Ugh…!"
But he was prostrating himself and begging.
He was asking for forgiveness.
Tonelico wanted to make him stand up right now and say this:
'That's not it. You want to kill me. You want to spit on my corpse!'
But an even greater fear assailed her.
How can he say such things?
How can he tell such a horrific lie so calmly?
Her mother's voice pulled Tonelico back from her shock.
"Vivian?"
Tonelico blinked.
Her mother and the prostrated fairy were looking at her.
The fairy's inner self was so vile that for a moment, she had forgotten even where she was.
What if there isn't just one or two of them?
What if all fairies are like him?
The world went dark before Tonelico's eyes.
"Uh… th-that… I…"
Her voice trembled.
It wasn't that she was frightened of the fairy before her.
She was shuddering at the filth he possessed.
The queen grabbed Vivian's shoulder and pushed her towards the door.
"It seems my daughter is moved. We have done what was necessary, so I will send her out. I trust you will bring a favorable response from the mainland."
"Is there any doubt? Haha."
When Tonelico came to her senses, she was back in her room.
In a state of unspeakable shock, she couldn't get her bearings.
She hugged her pillow.
And for a long time, she recited her dream.
"A happy country. Where everyone understands each other…."
Perhaps, she thought, that was something that would be forever impossible.
******
Mother didn't tell me everything.
"So you showed them Tonelico? Do you really think they will truly abandon the war?"
"Do not raise your voice, Kyle."
Mother wouldn't meet my eyes.
She just stared endlessly out the window.
She watched the fairies of the 'Clan of Rain' as they dismantled the wooden barricades and used the wooden spears as firewood.
"This is madness."
"…A fairy who returned from trading on the mainland told me. He said they are all clad in iron weapons and armor."
Mother looked like a fairy on the verge of death.
"He said they know how to wield Mystery like a sharp spear, and how to shoot it like a pointed arrow. Can we possibly stand against them?"
Mother pointed a finger at a fairy outside the window.
"Look at that fairy. His Mystery can, at best, move a rock by a hand's breadth. Spears? Swords? He can't even dream of it. We are a clan with no talent for fighting."
I was angry.
How could the leader of a clan be so weak?
Because I had, at least, respected my mother, my disappointment was twofold.
"In that case, I should tell you what I heard from another fairy. Do you know how they treat the surviving members of a clan they've defeated in war?"
"I know. They grind them up and eat them, or flay their skin to make books."
Mother already knew.
"Then… why? Why?"
"I am sorry, Kyle."
Mother suddenly apologized. A single tear trickled down her cheek.
"To you… and to Tonelico."
I couldn't understand what she meant.
My chest felt tight at the sight of her tears, and I only remember storming out of the room.
Exactly one week after the Wind Clan fairy returned to the mainland.
And on Tonelico's 16th birthday.
"…That's a damn big crowd."
An allied army of fairies filled the coast.