Two more months pass, during which I grow my strength and drink loads of intelligence elixir. I have now gone from quite a bit underweight to just underweight and as a reward for improving my health, I am now allowed to be set on the floor and crawl!

Feeling the fuzzy feeling of the red carpet under me, I finally know what freedom feels like!

"Bum bum bum~ Ba bam! Don don don don don. Bum bum bum~ Ba bam! Gi i buh ma be fo maind bu one gia lep fo mi!" (Hums the theme of space odyssey. This is one small step for mankind but one giant leap for me!)

Using my full strength, I balance on one arm and move the other forward, then again and again. I am finally moving!

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From an outside view, Ellaine, Almenor and Lila are sitting on a big red carpet with a deer motif and have a little indoor picnic while watching Elleanor and conversing in Feyspeak.

"Oh my gosh…She is so damn cute…" Lila swoons while trying to not make it too obvious she is talking about Elleanor.

"Hohoho! She sure is!" turning around, he looks at the three royal painters, "Make sure you catch her magnificent cuteness in all its angles! Hohoho."

"As you wish your Majesty."

Giving him the side eye, Ellaine groans, "Was this really necessary, darling?"

"This is the least I can do! I wanted to get the poets and songwriters in here as well to get inspiration but you said I wasn't allowed to."

"Yeah…Because it's too much."

Poking her side, Almenor says teasingly, "Oh~ If you're so convinced that it is too much, you surely won't need to see the finished works~"

Grabbing his finger, she answers in an intimidating way, "I will look at every single one."

"He grins, so you do like them~"

Ellaine ignores him.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Huff…Huff…" Moving around like this…Is really exhausting. It takes all my strength just to do anything and yet…It feels liberating!

Suddenly the White Queen's voice talks in my head, "Oh~ If it's hard to crawl, why don't you just fly?"

"Eh!?"

How are you in my head!?

She sighs, "That is one of your recurring problems, Elleanor…You just don't listen. Didn't I tell you before that the only reason I couldn't reach you before was because of that necklace?"

Right…I vaguely remember that…

It's almost like I can hear her rolling her eyes, "Well…It has been thirteen years, I'm not surprised you don't remember."

Either way though, get out of my mind. I'm not supposed to talk with you.

"So I heard but since when do you follow rules?"

Hey! I try to follow rules!

"Oh? And how often does you trying, lead to you succeeding?"

…

Fair point, what do you want?

"Me? I simply want to be part of your life as you grow up and guide you in your training."

Sus…I don't believe you. What's your ulterior motive?

She sounds exasperated, "You already know my motive. I want you to get strong and capable so you can summon me here and entertain me."

Is that all though? You told something to Maggie that's making her really scared of you.

"I did. But that is between me and her. Scaring people entertains me, if I tell you what I told her it would take away the suspense."

Okay but it had to be really bad and related to me, right? If she is that scared you must want something bad for me.

"Well…I do intend to kidnap you someday~"

What!? Why!?

"To protect and train you. You see Elleanor, you have quite the abnormal amount of mana, this makes you a target. Your direct family might want to protect you but eventually, you will be sent to war as a weapon. My goal is simply to either prevent that all together or at least give you enough power and training for you to survive."

Huh…But isn't the war currently at a standstill?

"Sure, for now. But you saw what YHWH and the Archlich tried to do, didn't you? The war is only at a stand still because no one is currently at an advantage large enough to break that unstable harmony. What do you think will happen once the information about you leaks? Fey will want to use you and others will want to destroy you."

But…What for? Why is this war even going on? What's the goal?

"Hmm…Let me ask you this. Do you want to live?"

Well…Yeah.

"Do you want others to live as well?"

Yeah.

"Why?"

Well obviously because no one should need to die.

"Why is it obvious?"

I…Well…Because living is good?

"Why?"

Because without it you can't experience anything. Without living you don't exist.

"Right and why is that desirable to you?"

I…Well…I dunno…

"It's because you are Fey. The desire to live is born into you. For the Archlich, existence is suffering and no one should have to experience it. It's as obvious to him as it is to you wanting to live and the same goes for Order and Chaos. The existences are oppositional. That is what keeps this war going."

Okay…But you are part death too, right? What do you think about life and death? Is that really the only way?"

There is a bit of a pause before she answers in a giddy sounding voice, "I will tell you about it in the future but first, I want to know how you think this eternal war can be ended."

Hmm…The Archlich has people too, right?

"Yes. There are undead beings that follow him."

Do they want to live or do they want to die too?

"Good question. Usually there is a self preservation instinct in them. Most of the time, the Archlich's sentient minions are people who willingly came to his side in hope to spread death. Usually out of revenge, hatred, etc. but there are also those that the Archlich and his followers can create from dead material who are servants similar to what you would call a robot. They just follow orders, aren't sentient and unless told to have no self preservation instincts."

So some of his followers do want to live, they just want to kill others more efficiently?

"Yes, essentially."

So if the Archlich were to disappear, that side of the war would be over, right?

"Sure."

Can the Archlich die?

"For him to die would imply that he was alive in the first place. It's quite possible he is just nothingness that has reached sentience against its will."

So…In the end, the Archlich is potentially unkillable but wants to die and give everyone death as well because he suffers and thinks everyone else does as well, right?

"That's an apt summary."

So in the end, don't we just…Need to convince him that living can be good?

She pauses for a bit, then starts to laugh, "Hahahahahaha, Sure! If you can convince him to enjoy life, that would end the war. It does go against his entire existence though, so that will be hard to do."

Hmm…I don't really need to make him enjoy life... I guess if I just at least make it bearable and then have some way for people to purposefully get themselves killed to fulfill his wish of helping people through death he should be satisfied. If death is voluntary it should satisfy both life and death, right?

Suddenly sounding serious, she answers, "That is a genuinely very intelligent observation, Elleanor."

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Hehe, I have been drinking a lot of intelligence elixir after all!

"Right…Let's stay on topic, how would you propose we achieve that?"

By asking him.

"..."

"You wish to talk to him?"

Yeah. he talked to that priest without killing him, that means he is able to hold back and you already told me he can be reasoned with. You also have connections with him, right?

"..."

"No. You are too young. Let's discuss this again when you are older. For now, let's focus on you growing up well. Your mother was never great at flying and your father has predominantly been walking on the ground for a while now, so how about we start by teaching you how to fly?"

I can fly?

"Of course you can. Even I can fly."

You can?

"Of course but enough about me. To fly, I want you to imagine the sensation of falling, it will lift you in the air but not allow for movement yet."

Okay!

Following her advice, I imagine falling which actually does lift me off the carpet, making me now actually feel like I'm going to fall the higher I go.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elaine is the first to notice her float and giddily lets out a sequel of happiness, "Look! She's flying!"

"Already!?" Almenor asks in disbelief before looking over to her, "You're so talented, my little snowflake!"

They then both put their hands under her in case she falls while giving her compliments with Lila sitting right between them and just gawking in awe.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Woah! Look! I'm doing it!

"Yes, very good Elleanor. Now, to move, you need to imagine yourself falling in the direction you wish to move in, it will take some prac-"

Woah! It's working!

Slowly but steadily, I fly towards mama, who catches me and gives me a big kiss on the forehead.

Giggle

"Maikaʻi kāu hana ʻana, e Eleanor!" (You're doing so well, Elleanor!)

"She's right, you did a good job. Let's train like this in secret more in the future."

Only if I want to though.

"Sure~"

A few weeks later, I am now able to fly quite well. I'm not very fast yet but I'm slowly getting it! I even did a loop yesterday! Though I did have to throw up after and mama scolded me…

Recently, I've made it a habit to fly around mama or papa when I'm bored and then rest in their arms when I get exhausted. That doesn't really matter right now though because today is the day that I'm allowed to join in the big bath instead of the baby bath! I do have to wear floaters though which is kind of humiliating but hey! At least I get to swim!

Getting carried down the hall by Maggie this time, mama, daddy and us enter into the changing room. It looks pretty normal and similar to one of those Onsen changing rooms you see in anime. There is a wooden bench to sit down on in the middle, a few stools to rinse yourself on, wardrobes and loads of towels and nice smelling soaps. The only weird thing is that there are a bunch of servants here as well who are apparently in charge of cleaning us. Even Maggie is getting undressed by them and doesn't seem bothered by it at all… I guess the royal experience is pretty different.

When mama is done getting cleaned, she undresses me out of my pajamas and washes me down as well.

Looking into the mirror, it seems my hair is finally starting to grow in well. I have light icy blue hair with stars in them. I still have some bald spots but I'll probably have a full set of hair soon.

I'm looking forward to it!

Getting carried toward the bath, it is the first time that I see mama, daddy and Maggie naked. Well…I've seen Maggie naked before but like, not after she changed into a Fey. It's kinda weird. Her entire body is covered in scales. She is completely censored by them, there are no visible nipples or vagina. She is just smooth everywhere…

I'm pretty sure that Maggie, unlike me, needs to use the toilet so where does she pee out of? Does she pee out of her butt? Hmm…I can't really see between her cheeks so I don't know if she has scales over them too but it seems like the most likely answer. Or maybe her tail functions like that! Maybe there is a hole at the end she can pee out of!

Suddenly feeling water around me, I look around and we're already in the bath. It's REALLY big. It's basically the size of a full on pool and it has decorative rocks, little grassy islands and colorful water features in it. The water for the bath seems to be coming out of deer and fish shaped stone statues and surrounding us are multiple servants with little refreshments and bath towels.

The water itself feels really nice and cool and paddling around the bath with my legs is both fun and exhausting. Honestly, the entire bath just feels like a pool in a fantasy themed waterpark. The only thing that sucks is that I can't understand anyone… I am slowly starting to understand more and more but I only get bits of conversations, which is super annoying…Especially since I have the feeling that they're talking about me!

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suppressing her laughter, Lila says, "Try not to make it too obvious but 'you know who' is so adorable right now. I think she's pouting but it's just…It's just so adorable."

Subtly looking over, both Almenor and Ellaine let out a chuckle as they look at Elleanor who is staring at them with her huge snow pupil eyes, seemingly really annoyed making her cheeks all puffy from pouting while her floaties keep her above water.

"Oh my~ Our little snowflake really does look a bit grumpy. Perhaps telling her that we have something special planned for her today without explaining was a bit mean."

Almenor shakes his head, "No, she obviously doesn't realize what day today is so we needed to prepare her without ruining the surprise, hohoho."

"It's just pfft Just look at her, darling. If she pouts even more her head will look like a berry."

"Hohoho, she'll be fine but you're right, let's not drag the bath out too long today."

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After some more time in the bath, I'm starting to get sleepy but before I can fall asleep in the water, mama picks me up, dries me off and…

Waking up, I find myself with mama, daddy and Maggie in our bedroom. Weirdly enough though, I'm still buck naked while everyone else is clothed. Noticing me being awake, mama feeds me some more intelligence elixir and then puts the necklace around my neck.

"Good morning, my little snowflake~ Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah! Why am I naked though?"

She smirks at me, "You'll see!"

Daddy then yells, "You can come in!" and multiple maids come inside with multiple super cute looking dresses and outfits as well as some more masculine and gender neutral ones.

Mama then carries me over to the clothes and says, "You can choose as many as you like, Sammy. If you don't like any or you want some alterations made, just tell your mama and we will change them~"

"Okay!"

Flying out of her arms, I fly past the dresses, "Woah…There are so many I like!"

Daddy answers, "Just make sure to show us which ones you like and they are yours~"

I then fly around and point at all the dresses I like, ignoring the more boyish clothes and also picking a few of the cute looking more gender neutral ones.

Looking at the clothes I chose, mama asks, "Would you like to wear any of them right now?"

"Don't they need to be cleaned first?"

Mama chuckles, "Of course not, they're not like the sort of clothes you used to have."

"Oh, okay. Then I wanna wear that one!" I say pointing at a beige-white colored summer dress with a dark purple ribbon sash around the belt and some lavender chiffon at the bottom.

"Sure~ Let me help you put it on~ Alright, there we go! Now, how about some accessories~"

"Okay!"

The servants then take the clothes away again and come back with tons of jewelry, hats, scarfs and other accessories.

Flying by, the only thing that catches my interest is a silver diadem with a gem in the middle that has a kind of ghostly green color that slowly fades into red, blue and purple and yellow and pink before going green again. It looks really stunning.

"I want that one!"

Mama sounds kind of disinterested, "Eh~ Are you sure? What about the other ones?"

"I only like that one."

"Hmm~ Did someone tell you to pick that?"

"What? No, you just showed me this."

Mama and Daddy then start to grin widely as they look at one of the servants, a quaint looking woman with black hair, a pair of glasses and some freckles, "That should be enough, right?"

The servant pushes up their glasses and answers, "Yes, it is clear she holds the mandate of winter. We shall inform the nobles."

She then disappears into darkness while another servant disappears as well leaving snow behind her.

"What was that about mama?"

Daddy suddenly gives me a hug and a big kiss, he seems extremely happy, "Nothing you need to worry about yet, my little snowflake~ Here, let your daddy put the diadem on for you~"

"Okay!"

Daddy then puts the diadem on and carries me towards a covered mirror standing right next to Maggie.

Maggie then asks in a giddy voice, "Do you want to see yourself?"

"Yeah!"

"Then get ready~ Three, two, one…Tadah!"

Taking the cloth off, I get to look at myself.

I look super cute! I really like these clothes and…Look! My hair looks similar to the jewel in the crown! So cool!

Giddily kicking my feet around, I ask, "Do I look cute, Maggie!?"

She chuckles, "Yes, very."

Hearing that makes me feel really happy!

"Hey mama, daddy do I look cute?"

Daddy answers, "Yes, very much so and your clothes suit you as well, hohoho."

Mama agrees, "You are very cute and the clothes suit you well~"

Giggle

Maggie now starts laughing and brushes over my cheek, "This is the first time I've seen you so happy."

"Well I-I'm really cute, right!?"

"Pfft Yeah, you are."

"Then of course I'm happy if I'm cute! That's just common sense, right!?"

"Hahahahahaha, I guess! Hahahaha."

Mama now lets out a chuckle as well, "Now~ Let's go downstairs my pretty little snowflake."

"Okay! Oh! Wait, before we go. What are you going to do with the jewelry?"

"Hmm…Some of these will return to the treasury and others were just merchant displays that we will give back to them."

"Ah, are you going to put my ring back into the treasury?"

She cogs her head, "Which ring?"

"My old bone ring."

"Bone ring? What are you talking about, Sammy?"

Flying out of her arms, I pick up the bone ring that Dave gave me, "This one."

Looking at my hand, mama looks very concerned and twists one of her rings, causing Dalan to appear, "You called, your Majesty?"

"Bring me the grand magus immediately."

"As you wish!" he then disappears and about ten seconds later reappears with what looks like a very big fairy, he seems to be about the size of a Human child and has large rainbow colored dragonfly wings on his back as well as a more Asian looking appearance. He is wearing a black kimono and has his purple hair tied up in a bun, "How may I assist your Majesties?"

"My daughter is saying she is holding a ring but I can not see anything in her hand."

Looking at my hand, the magician answers, "Yes, it would appear that way at first glance,"

He pulls out a jar, "Your Highness, please release the ring into the glass."

A bit confused by the situation, I put the ring in the glass.

The grand magus looks at me, "Has the ring entered the jar, your Highness?"

"Yeah."

"Great," he puts his hands towards the glass, causing it to float and Dalan puts himself between us and the glass while Maggie turns her tail into a shield and puts it in front of me, "I beseech ye grand tortoise, break off a scale of your shell and envelop this vessel so nothing may escape it. Eternal seal!"

A translucent shell then forms around the glass before disappearing.

"I shall research this thoroughly your Majesties."

Daddy then whispers something into his ear, he nods and disappears with Dalan again.

"Uhm…What's going on daddy?"

Giving me a nice cool hug, he answers, "We don't know yet but it is probably some sort of spy device. I'm unsure why you were able to see it though. How did you get it?"

"I bought it from a kid I saved in the black market a day before I got my magic aptitudes tested by Thunderbird. He said it keeps demons away."

Daddy looks at mama, "It couldn't be, right…"

Mama smiles at me and asks, "Could you describe 'Dave' for us?"

"Uhh…He's like a little girly looking boy, with white hair. Oh! And he had a skull on top of his head."

Mama then takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, "I see. Darling, go take a walk with Sammy and Maggie, I'll join you soon."

"Of course."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.