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“Dee! The party’s starting,” Zilphy said. She was in the form of a green rock, tugging on a brown rock which was resting on Vur’s chest. “Let’s go!”
“We’re contracted elementals now,” Diamant said with a sigh. “Act like one, please. When our owner is defenseless in his sleep like he is now, we can’t leave.”
“It’ll be fine,” Zilphy said, tugging harder. The two rocks tumbled off of Vur and bounced on the bed, landing next to Tafel. She was sleeping next to Vur, the rune on her forehead flashing with red and black lights. Vur’s rune was doing the same. “Sheryl’s still there. And that stupid fairy.”
“I’m not stupid!” Stella said as she stuck her head out of the tattoo on Vur’s chest. “You’re stupid!”
“No, I’m not,” Zilphy said. “You are!”
“No, you!”
“I’m—”
“Stop bickering, you two,” Sheryl said from the yellow runes on Vur’s shoulder. “Go have fun at the party, Zilphy. Watch over her, Deedee. Stella and I will take care of Vur.”
“But,” Diamant said and scratched his rocky head.
“You heard her,” Zilphy said, lifting Diamant with her stick-thin arms. “We got permission to party!” She hopped over Tafel and landed on the ground with a cracking noise. Like the wind, she blew past the door with a whistling noise, taking Diamant with her. The door slammed with a bang, rattling the frame.
Sheryl sighed as Vur stirred. “Why do you become so immature when dealing with Zilphy?” she asked Stella.
“I’m practically a baby,” Stella said, fully crawling out of Vur’s body. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m allowed to be immature. Being grown up is no fun: too much stress and too little play.”
Before Sheryl could respond, the door flew open, flying off its hinges and landed on the ground. “Found her!” a high-pitched voice said.
“Eh? You found her? We found her!” another high-pitched voice said, coming from further away.
“We found her!”
“Mom’s been found!”
“Hey, hey! Listen! We found her!”
“We…”
The voices echoed throughout the whole building and beyond until they were coming from outside the windows in the room as well. The windows shattered as dozens of fairies pushed and shoved their way inside. Sheryl emerged from Vur’s body with wide eyes. She summoned a dome of flames to cover Vur and Tafel, causing the fairies to scream and shout.
“W-what’s going on?” Sheryl asked, peering outside the flames. “Why are there so many fairies?”
“Mom! It’s us,” a voice said from right next to the crackling dome. “Rella and Bella. You’re in there, right? Someone turn the fire off!”
“Do you—” Sheryl’s words stopped mid-question when she saw tears rolling down Stella’s face. She pursed her rocky lips. “Should I stop the flames?”
Stella wiped away her tears with the backs of her hands. “Yes,” she said and nodded, straightening her back. She fixed her hair and rubbed her eyes one more time as the dome dispersed. She smiled at the fairies hovering in the air. “Children.”
“Mom came back!” Rella said. She was the first to flying tackle Stella, but not the last. Hundreds of fairies piled on top of them, causing Vur and Tafel’s bodies to disappear underneath the writhing, winged mass. As this was happening, E stepped inside the room. He took one glance at the pile of fairies before turning around and leaving.
“You’re smothering me,” Stella said as she crawled out of the bodies and stuck her head out of the top. Rella’s and Bella’s heads appeared next to hers, and the pile of fairies untangled itself. “What are all of you doing here?”
“The skeletons brought us to play a game of war,” Rella said. “It was super fun! And they’re hosting a celebration outside right now. C’mon, let’s go play!”
Stella didn’t have a chance to respond as Rella and Bella grabbed her arms and flew out the window. The fairies disappeared just as quickly as they came, leaving behind messy blankets, broken glass, and the fallen door. Sheryl looked around and sighed. “I guess I’ll watch over them by myself.”
Sheryl hopped off of Vur’s body and landed on the ground. She picked up the fragments of the windows and stacked them into a neat pile. Her rocky body expanded as she took in a deep breath and exhaled a breath of blood-red flames onto the pile, melting it into an orange puddle. Luckily, the floor didn’t catch fire in the process. A moment later, the puddle cooled and solidified. Sheryl nodded as she lifted the glass slab and propped it up against the wall. “Now what do I do about the door…?”
“Excuse me,” a voice said. Sheryl blinked and faced the doorway. A small pebble with white dots for eyes was standing on two hair-like legs. “Is Diamant, the ex-guild master here?”
“No,” Sheryl said. “He went to the party.”
The pebble sighed as its body tilted forward, its gaze lowering to the ground. “I see.”
Sheryl stared as the pebble turned around and trudged away. Before it took three steps, Sheryl called out, “Would you like to leave a message for him?”
“Can I?” the pebble asked, its eyes lighting up.
Sheryl nodded.
The pebble coughed a few times and patted its chest. “This message is from Mistle. She said she wishes Diamant a life of happiness with his wife, and that she’s disappointed, but she’ll get over him in time. Out of heartbreak, she gathered all the water elementals and left the continent. She was also afraid of being contracted to a single person after hearing about what happened to him, Zilphy, and Az. And a shadow ate one of her contractors and destroyed the contract, which played a part in her decision to leave as well. In short, she hopes that they’ll meet again one day in the future, preferably after Zilphy leaves him because she knows she will. Wind elementals are flaky.” The pebble nodded. “That was it.”
“I received the message,” Sheryl said. The pebble nodded again before running away. Sheryl sighed as she lifted the wooden door and placed it against the wall. “Why’s Deedee so popular?” She shook her head before climbing back onto the bed and onto Vur’s chest. “Well, he won’t have to deal with Mistle for a long time, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”