[Liora] "Are you planning to invite anyone else to the festival?"
The question catches me slightly off guard. I thought we had finished the guest list.
[Wright] "Who else would I invite?"
[Eldrin] "The Goddess."
He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
I sit with that for a moment. He's not wrong.
I look up at the ceiling.
[Wright] "Jyne. You're invited to the festival."
The room warms. A swirl of flame opens near the center and Aethra steps through, already grinning.
[Aethra] "Wright! Can the Spirit Kings and Queens come as well? We've been working without pause and we deserve a break and there is absolutely no reason we should be left out of a festival!"
She says it all in one breath.
Then she goes still. Her expression shifts, the grin fading by degrees as her head tilts slightly to one side. She blinks. Then straightens fully, hands clasped in front of her, posture suddenly very composed.
[Aethra] "Yes. I understand. Volume."
She clears her throat, which produces a small plume of smoke.
[Aethra] "May we attend as well?"
[Wright] "All of you are more than welcome."
The grin comes back immediately, twice the size.
Then just as quickly she goes still again. Head tilting, listening to something none of us can hear. She ducks her head slightly and nods twice, slowly.
[Aethra] "Goddess Jyne accepts your invitation."
The smile stays. Her eyes drift slightly upward.
[Aethra] "She also has notes on how I delivered the initial request."
She clears her throat.
[Aethra] "She will be attending. And she has asked that no one make a production of it. She would like to simply be there. No ceremony. No reverence. She wants to experience the festival as everyone else does."
The table is quiet for a moment.
[Wright] "She deserves that. To just be somewhere and have it be normal."
I look at Eldrin.
[Wright] "The leaders coming to the festival, could you send word ahead? Let them know about the Goddess's attendance and that she's asked to be treated normally. No ceremonies, no formal acknowledgments."
[Eldrin] "I'll do my best. Though I can't make any promises."
He pauses.
[Eldrin] "Especially with the Pope."
I think about the Pope. The image that surfaces is him driving both knees into cobblestone the moment he caught sight of Jyne, bowing so deeply and with such conviction that he couldn't get back up for the better part of a day.
[Wright] "Hopefully he's had time to adjust."
[Eldrin] "I wouldn't count on it."
[Wright] "Right."
I move on before I think about it too hard.
[Wright] "It's a two-day event. I can build an additional inn to house everyone."
[Aethra] "Oh, we don't need that. We can move through the world freely. Walls don't really apply to us."
[Wright] "Right. Of course."
They are beings who can walk through solid matter. How silly of me.
They don't sleep. They probably don't need to eat either, though that never seems to stop them. Every time food comes up they're the first ones interested. Sylphaeris alone has tried everything put in front of her without hesitation.
[Aethra] "But."
She leans forward slightly, and the temperature in the room ticks up a degree.
[Aethra] "If you were going to build anything, it would be really great to have somewhere we could all just hang out and have fun!"
A place to have fun. I turn that over. Not somewhere to sleep or store things. Somewhere to actually be, where no one is managing anything or being called upon for anything. Just a room for that.
A recreation room.
The thought arrives and immediately starts filling itself in. Games. Snacks. Things to watch, things to read. I know exactly what to put in it.
[Wright] "Consider it done. I know just what to build."
Aethra claps her hands together. The resulting sound is somewhere between applause and a small thunderclap.
I turn to Vesper.
[Wright] "Vesper. I'm going to show you some things you've never seen before. I want to see what you make of them."
[Vesper] "What kind of things?"
[Wright] "Complicated ones. More complicated than anything you've seen so far in my cabin."
[Vesper] "How complicated?"
[Wright] "Complicated enough that I'm not going to explain it now. I want to see your face when you see it."
[Vesper] "That's either exciting or deeply concerning."
[Wright] "Probably both."
[Vesper] "...good."
[Aethra] "I can't wait to see it!"
[Liora] "Forgive me, Spirit Queen. Before we continue, is there anyone else we should be inviting to the festival?"
This time she's looking at Eldrin.
[Eldrin] "Who else is there to invite?"
[Liora] "Kyvari."
Eldrin's face freezes. I haven't seen anything that can cause him to pause so far.
[Wright] "Who's Kyvari?"
[Liora] "Eldrin's wife."
[Wright] "Wife? Eldrin, you're married?"
[Eldrin] "...I am."
His usual composure starts to settle back in.
[Eldrin] "We've been apart leading our own people, but we keep in contact every now and then."
[Liora] "Sending a message every decade isn't every now and then. The festival would be a good opportunity to catch up properly."
[Wright] "Decade!? Eldrin…"
[Eldrin] "I will send her an invitation."
[Liora] "Good."
---
The path back to the cabin cuts along the edge of the fields. The afternoon sun sits comfortably above the treeline, casting long shadows across the crops. It's the kind of walk that doesn't feel like it needs to go anywhere fast.
I'm nearly home when movement at the treeline catches my eye.
Rhevan emerges from the forest with a small group of high elf hunters behind him. Just ahead of them is Donny.
He spots me before I properly spot him. By the time I register that he's coming he's already covered most of the distance between us. He stops at my feet, looks up, and lets out a long cheerful churr.
[Wright] "Good to see you too. You did a great job looking after things while I was away."
I scratch the top of his head. He leans into it with his eyes half closed, perfectly content.
Rhevan reaches me a moment later, the hunters fanning out toward the barracks.
[Rhevan] "Wright."
He takes a moment before saying anything else.
[Rhevan] "Good to have you back. How was the trip?"
[Wright] "Eventful, but good. I'm glad to be home. How did the hunt go?"
[Rhevan] "We have a solid stockpile set aside for the festival."
He glances over at Donny.
[Rhevan] "He took us straight to a nest we would have walked past. Happens every time. I still don't fully understand how he knows."
[Wright] "He just knows?"
[Rhevan] "Always. And when we got there he didn't wait. Launched himself shell-first into the largest one before any of us had moved. The others scattered."
[Wright] "And then?"
[Rhevan] "The earth answered him. He brought the ground up beneath them with clean, controlled magic. My team just had to finish what he started."
[Wright] "That's incredible."
[Rhevan] "It was the third time this week."
I picture it. A turtle, launching himself shell-first at full speed into something considerably larger than himself. I look at Donny. He looks back at me with an expression that communicates nothing and everything simultaneously.
He churrs once, proudly.
[Wright] "You're incredible, you know that?"
He seems to already know.
[Wright] "Thank you for keeping the hunts going. Seriously. You and the whole team."
[Rhevan] "That's what we're here for."
Donny churrs from somewhere near my feet.
[Wright] "And you."
He churrs again, satisfied.
[Wright] "Have things been busy with the festival preparations while we were away?"
[Rhevan] "Kara sent word earlier. We've already started gathering materials for the offering ceremony on our way back. Should have everything ready well before the festival."
[Wright] "I'm really looking forward to seeing it."
Rhevan nods and heads off toward the barracks. Donny nudges my hand with the top of his head.
[Wright] "Yeah."
I scratch behind his horn as we head back toward the cabin.
---
Dinner with the high elves runs long in the easy way that good dinners do. Midway through, Eldrin surprised Rhevan and Nym with the items he won for them at the auction. Rhevan went quiet when he saw the daggers. Nym held the Tempest Crown for a long moment before setting it down. Neither of them said much. Neither of them needed to.
I showed the group the Merchant's Scale and tried appraising the Liquid Mana Concentrate with it. Nothing happened. I'm choosing to believe it just needs adjusting and not that I bought a decorative plate.
By the time Donny and I are heading back to the cabin the sky is properly dark, stars visible through the gaps in the canopy above the path.
The village is quiet. Somewhere in the trees a night bird calls once and then stops.
A notification sound rings in my head.
I open it. A message, but the sender list is long. Takeshi, Aiko, Yuki, and then Liora, Eldrin, Nym, Rhevan, Vesper, Kara, Seraphina, Lucien.
[Takeshi] "So it turns out if you picture everyone together as a group when you send a message, rather than thinking of each person individually, it reaches all of them at once. Everyone should be getting this."
A moment passes.
[Eldrin] "...this worked. I did not know this was possible."
[Aiko] "It's a group chat! We have a group chat!"
[Nym] "I've received a message from multiple people simultaneously. Is this intentional."
[Takeshi] "Yes! You can message everyone at once!"
[Nym] "I see. I'm going to need a moment."
[Kara] "So I can message everyone at the same time right now and everyone will see it."
[Aiko] "Yes!"
[Kara] "And everyone can see each other's responses."
[Aiko] "Yes!"
[Kara] "Remarkable."
[Seraphina] "I have questions about the etiquette of this."
[Lucien] "As do I."
[Rhevan] "I just sent a message to my hunting party by accident."
[Aiko] "Oh no."
[Rhevan] "They seem confused."
I wonder for a moment what else this magic can do. In manga, text messaging had emojis, gifs, stickers, all kinds of ways to express things beyond words. Does communication magic have any of that? I make a note to try it later.
I'm tempted to try it right now. But I look at the group chat and decide that introducing new functions to people who are still processing the existence of the group chat itself is probably not the right move.
[Wright] "How's everyone doing at the academy?"
[Yuki] "It's been wonderful. We've been learning a lot and made so many friends."
[Takeshi] "Liora told us about the festival. We're all really excited. Can we invite some of our friends from the academy?"
[Yuki] "I want to invite Elowen."
[Wright] "The more the better."
[Aiko] "One more thing. Would it be possible for us to run a food stall? I want to make sushi for everyone."
I stop walking for a second.
[Wright] "Yes. Absolutely yes."
[Eldrin] "What is sushi?"
[Kara] "I was going to ask the same thing."
[Seraphina] "As was I."
[Lucien] "Seconded."
[Takeshi] "You'll have to wait and see."
[Liora] "I'm already looking forward to it."
[Takeshi] "You won't be disappointed."
I smile and keep walking. Donny glances up at me.
He churrs quietly.
[Wright] "Nothing. Just. Things are coming together."
---
The cabin is warm from the small fire I lit before dinner. Donny settles into his spot near the hearth.
I sit at the table and think about the recreation room.
Electronics. Games. Movies. Snacks. Manga. Anime. Things I like, things I want to share. I can introduce them here.
I open the Online Shopping skill and navigate to electronics. I need a full solar power setup: panels, battery bank, inverter, charge controller, all the wiring to connect it. Enough capacity to run screens, speakers, and whatever else I end up filling the room with through the night. I search, compare, and build out a configuration until the total sits just shy of my full mana pool.
I check out.
The drain hits immediately. A deep pull from somewhere central, the kind of tired that doesn't live in your muscles but somewhere underneath them. I brace against the table for a moment.
It passes. Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix.
Several large cardboard boxes materialize and drop to the floor with a heavy thump. Donny opens one eye, looks at it, and closes it again.
This is going to take more than one night of shopping. But it's a start.
I load it into storage and look at the bed. I blow out the lamp and lie down. Donny's slow breathing fills the quiet.