FOURTH BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF FANTASILIA SERIES
𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭. 𝘈 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘈 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘈 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦.
Xanthiene Vivenca, a fairy with a bounty for her soul, is caught between...
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Xanthy collapsed to her knees and retched. Well, there goes her bread. The world spun around her as she braced her arms against a tree with a hand. Her stomach turned. A few steps away, Cirasa hunkered in the grass and was doing the same.
"Damn, that's nasty," Cirasa frowned as he wiped his mouth.
Xanthy grunted as she pushed herself up and swayed. "Tell me about it," her knees seemed to have turned into beeo.
Cirasa groaned as he, too, straightened. He tousled his hair as he looked around. "Gods, what did you do?"
"Nothing," Xanthy closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. The oncoming nausea swirled in her gut. "I just lit the tube thing."
"Yeah, okay," Cirasa nodded. "Whatever."
Xanthy looked around. Like all of the forests she's been in, this one was just trees, grass, rocks, soil, and sky. It's hot, humid, and the air has a sticky feel to it. The smell of oil burning and something metallic filled the air. A stray breeze rustled the canopies and the undergrowth, the chorus of chitters and other animal calls joining the atmosphere. "Where are we?" she swatted at the insects flitting in the air beside her ear and in front of her eyes. "Why are there so many bugs?"
"Bugs?" Cirasa tapped his chin as he started walking forward. Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. Where was he going? Then, Cirasa snapped his fingers. "Akaron!" he turned to Xanthy and jabbed a finger in her direction. "Avalora."
"Are we saying random names now?" Xanthy kicked at the soil. The smell of upturned dirt replaced the burning oil smell for a while. "Did the leap mush your brain?"
Cirasa shook his head. "No," he moved closer to her and laid his arms forward like he was measuring something. "We're in Avalora, the Earth Sprite territory. Akaron is its mining city."
"Mining?" Xanthy craned her neck at the sky crowded with leaves of all shapes and sizes.
Cirasa fixed the collar of his tunic. "Yeah, they mine jewels, rocks, even precious metals here. The bugs are here because all the mining activities pushed them out of their homes," he dusted his sleeves and swatted at the air before a bug made it into his ear. "I noticed the sweepers and Akaron is the only one who uses them, so..."
"Sweepers?"
Cirasa gestured like he was compressing something. "Small contraptions that encases a fairy with mud until they suffocate if triggered," he tapped his foot against the soil. "Akaron uses them to keep jewel thieves out."
"Uh...what do they look like?" Xanthy looked down at her feet, suddenly aware of the ground she was standing on.
"Smiths make them look different," Cirasa joined Xanthy in turning to different directions. "So that they couldn't easily be spotted."
A series of metallic whirrs and clicks resounded in the air. That couldn't be an animal, right? Xanthy locked eyes with Cirasa. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing or..."
