. The forest became completely alive with small flying life of every form. Birds, bats and insects were all competing to harass me and blind me as I struggled through the woods. I figured if I just kept running, I would get somewhere that wasn’t her territory eventually. It was a foolish and naive idea, as it turned out. After …

. I really, really didn’t like the direction of this conversation. “Miss Möemnen, I do not wish to feed on a mortal who doesn’t agree willingly. That’s why I normally pay professional courtesans to provide blood for me.” The girl Becca that my grandmother bewitched still haunted me.  I knew, no matter how long she lived, Becca would never feel …

. I already understood that unidentified magics were messing with navigation and senses in this country, but I hadn’t received any detailed information on it. My senses were only telling me that Light and Dark magics were involved, but they couldn’t decode anything. It was the result of a single spell? I doubted that, but still, I was all ears …

. My palm had been on Durandal’s pommel this entire time. That voice intimidated me enough to lift my hand off him, and raise my other hand to match. As soon as I did, the mass of butterflies suddenly imploded. I found myself lifting off my feet, born up into the air on Wind mana in the same way I …

. I wanted to return to the experiment that had sidetracked me while I was in the river gorge. The mystery tricks that the ball of condensed blood, or what the angels had been calling a ‘core’, had been playing when I wasn’t looking were bugging me and I had to study them. But I had already come close to …

. I flew at my top speed down the river gorge. For the first few miles, the villas continued, but then gave way to terraces filled with orchards and farms, cut into craggy palisades that rose to amazing heights. I was also flying above, and once below, incredible bridges, slender fantasy-art structures that stretched amazing distances across the river, and …

. Feraen’s ‘concern’ for mortals made me remember Grandmother’s cold view of them, and fairy views of humans in general. I also recalled Serera’s almost mocking reply to my concerns about Cullen. In response, a bubble of classic fairy laughter burst out of me. As I dashed in to trade sword blows with her once again, I mocked, “Protecting the …

. The Legate had lost every ounce of the polite indifference he had been feigning.  He glowered at the fairy captain and maintained only the thinnest veneer of civility as he gave his reply. “Lady Serera, please return to the courtyard. There are excellent arbors in several locations around the perimeter where you can wait. I will have the mortals …

. Under normal circumstances, I would have woke up with my head whirling, considering what I had been told by the two angels. I mean, basically, they were planning to make me some kind of trainee angel, right? But I didn’t get the opportunity to think about such things upon waking up, because of the tongue in my ear. It …

. The HR manager and the IT lady sat at the little table near the window. The HR manager once again had a book in her hand, but I couldn’t tell anything about it due to the very plain cover. The IT lady, despite being the very picture of a yamato nadeshiko, dressed in her flower pattern long-sleeved kimono, was …