8.
PRESENT DAY

Lotte knew that to reach Serades she had first to travel inland, out of the peninsula and then head east to Port Kelt to take the ferry across the Mirksea.

On foot it would take weeks, but after her success with the vellum, she just needed to obtain more and then she'd be flying.

By noon they reached...somewhere. Maloru claimed he knew where they were going, that he was going to meet some friends of his and they could help Lotte get to Serades.

He wouldn't say more about these friends, or where exactly they lived.
The woods ended sooner than she expected.

It looked like some sort of town made out of warehouses. Rows upon rows of neat structures incased in a barb wire fence that hummed with electricity.

They could see it all from within the safety of the trees. "So many..." Maloru said darkly. "You know what these hangers contain?"

Lotte shook her head.

"Bombs."

Lotte's jaw dropped, and then she looked more closely at her companion. Something was decidedly off with him. He gazed at the warehouses intently, fists bunched. "You did know where we're going..." she said. "Maloru..."

"Those bombs are nothing but death," he said. "They mowed down the woods to build this place. I watched them do it all."

"And?"

He turned to her, suddenly wearing an amicable smile. "There's a reason we met, Lotte. You knew who I am, didn't you? Then you're meant to help me get home, right? It's fate."

"You're of nowhere. You're of nothing. You belong to no one and thus free to make your own destiny." Poe's words from months ago, on the night he came to bid her farewell, were the kind Lotte stored inside her heart. It was the kind of thing Poe used to say that made her know he actually did care.

"How will this help you?" Lotte asked, trying her best not to judge.

"I can destroy these bombs, and I can prove to them...I can prove to them that I'm not compromised. I'm loyal to my own kind."

Lotte closed her eyes. She didn't want to say what she was about to say, but she had to. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Maloru, you're a Yomi."

He blinked at her without a shred of understanding.

"I don't know as much about your kind as I do about the Leilan," she continued. "But Yomi magic is based on creation, protection, on healing and love. Why do you think there are so many Yomi Lotte?"

Maloru shook his head.

"Because Yomi are extremely capable of loving, Maloru. They're the embodiment of kindness. Even if destroying bombs will help the course of the elven war, it will only prove one thing to the Yomi elves..."

Maloru paled to a ghastly grey and began trembling. He moved away from her touch, shaking his head from side to side.

But Lotte had to finish, even though she really didn't want to. "It will only prove to them that you're...different."

Maloru all but collapsed onto the ground, face falling into his hands.
Lotte clasped her hand over her mouth. She felt very close to tears herself. She shouldn't have said what she said. It was too harsh.
She thought Maloru was crying again, but when she finally gathered the courage to approach him, he looked up at her with dry eyes.

"If you know so much," he said cooly. "Then tell me... what else am I supposed to do? How the hell am I supposed to convince them to take me? How am I even going to exist if there's nowhere that will let me?" With every question, his voice rose in pitch and the tears brimmed in his eyes.

She could feel his pain. It had a familiar shape. She knew that type of anger as well as she knew the lines on the palm of her hand.

She crouched down beside him, looking at the ground. "Maybe I am meant to help you," she said, trying to sound calm. She didn't like talk about fates and destiny, it gave her a headache. But she was trying her best to choose the right words. "I don't really know much about helping others. I can barely take care of myself. But..." She paused.

Maloru stared at her, clearly anxious to hear her continue.

"Maybe what I'm meant to help you with is to find the answers to your questions."

He blinked. She wasn't sure she was getting to him.

"We won't find answers here," she went on. "But you could come with me, to Serades."

"To Serades?" he echoed. "But I heard crime lords murder people on the streets of Serade city in broad daylight and that the country is run by a cutthroat leadership of half-dragons and..."

"And that every creature has a place there," Lotte cut in. "No one will try to kill you for just being an elf. It's a melting pot of all species in the world. We won't be safe, but at least we'll be as equally unsafe as everyone else is."

Maloru cocked his head to the side. "And how exactly do you think we'll accomplish the getting into Serades."

"I have a visa."

"You?" He didn't have to sound that doubtful.

"I've been invited to serve as court Leilan enchantress for the dragon king," she said.

"What!" It wasn't a question. "You?"

Lotte rolled her eyes. "No, not me. My elderly neighbour Emmi."

"How could you be an enchant—"

"I just am." She could understand his outrage. All elves could do magic, but even among them, enchanters were rare. "And the point is, I'm allowed to bring with me an entourage."

"And ento-what?"

She straightened, feeling oddly self-important. "People that will help me like...like assistants and... I don't really know. My visa can include you too."

Maloru was staring with his mouth ajar. Finally, he said, "That's... oddly convenient, don't you think?"

"You were the one who said we were meant to meet."

"I did." He looked up, considering. "And...I've heard stories about these half-dragons. That they curse people and are obsessed with decorum and ranks."

Lotte didn't want to know what he meant by that.

"Fine!" Maloru announced. "Let's go to Serades."

Fintan popped out of her pocket, as if he was waiting for this to happen so he could finally stretch his winds. He circled Lotte's head a few times before settling on her shoulder.

Maloru gasped and pointed. "What is that?"

"Maloru, meet Fintan," Lotte said, gesturing between the minuscule dragon and elf boy. "Our visa to Serades."

***

They successfully bypassed the human military base—that elf knew his way around human dwellings without ever coming out into the open. They met no one in these parts. Humans had a lot of superstitions about going in among trees.

Lotte wondered how a creature like Maloru had come about, why wasn't he returned to the elves before he reached this way? Things hadn't always been this bad between elves and humans.

By twilight, Maloru was dragging his feet and sighing dramatically every few minutes, so Lotte eventually folded and announced that they would stop for the night.

"What? Here?"

She nodded.

Maloru examined the ground. "Not enough space."

"It's fine, I don't really feel the cold, so..."

"I need more space," Maloru said, stifling a yawn.

Lotte tilted her head, looking at him sceptically. If she had enough room to sleep on the ground, the this little drumstick of a boy had more space than he'd ever need.

But Maloru was looking around, scanning the paths between the trees. "Up there, I think I see a nice place." He began climbing at once.

"Didn't you say you were tired?" Lotte said, surprised how fast he suddenly was.

"I'm sure I'll grow tonight, but I need a nice spot to do it," he said.

Lotte shook her head.

They broke out through the trees into a small clearing. Maloru was already circling it, kicking up dirt and wrinkling his nose. "Soils pretty hard," he said. "This is gonna be a rough night."

"Eh...the ground was softer down there?" Lotte said.

"Stand back!" Maloru cried, drawing in a deep breath and closing his eyes.

He spread out his arms, as if holding up the sky.

And began to stretch.

His body grew wider, thicker and longer, his arms shot out and from under them, several more arms emerged. He was growing more legs on the bottom of his barrel-like elongated torso.

His head turned green, his hair sprouting more arms and green tufts began appearing on the palms of his many hands right as his legs dug into the ground with such force that the whole hill shook.

And just like that, Maloru turned into a Solles tree.

The same little Solles tree that Lotte had slept underneath last night. The same kind of tree that formed the moving forest through which elves waged war against the humans.

It all made sense now, and it didn't in the least. People turning into trees at night? How absurd.

Absurd and wonderful.

Lotte cheered and clapped. "Maloru, this is amazing!" she cried. "You make a magnificent tree."

He had no mouth to speak with, of course, but she had no doubt that he could hear her and was pleased to be complimented.

She found a bit of softer ground nearby for her own bed. All the walking and running, she felt completely ready to sleep.

But the moment she drifted off, she was at the tower again.

She looked around herself. The lone hill-top with nothing in all directions, the flowers growing on the stone walls of the tower, it was all exactly the same.

This was a dream.

She went inside and began climbing. "I'm here now," she said. "What do you want."

"Well," said the voice. "You see. I'm alone here."

"I don't see," Lotte said with a sigh. "I'd appreciate sleeping in peace."

"But being alone is lonely."

She didn't even know why she was climbing, she had no intention of reaching the top—even if she was curious about what she would find there. Many dangers awaited enchanters, this kind of thing sounded exactly like one of those dangers.

"Are you even a real person?" she asked.

"Of course I am," he said. "Are you?"

"You summoned me here, you should know."

"I can prove to you I'm real."

"How?" Lotte chose a wide stair to sit on. She wasn't tired here because she wasn't actually here, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop herself from climbing the tower if she didn't sit down.

"I can talk to you, tell you things. I can talk about everything except that thing that I can't talk about."

"Your curse?" Lotte guessed it was a curse. Curses were said to be impossible to talk about.

"Mmmhmmmmummm..." he said.
Yes, that definitely sounded like a curse. He couldn't even agree with or refute her claim. But curses could be placed on bad people as well as innocent ones. She had no way of knowing who this person was and if he had malicious intent. He was powerful enough to summon her here and he knew a little bit about her, which was more than she did about him.

"What kind of things can I ask you?"

"I know a lot of things. I can tell you about Serades, or war machines, even Solles trees..."

Lotte got up, heart trembling. He knew more than a little bit about her. "What..."

"I can tell you about other things too!"

Lotte rushed down the stairs three at a time.

"No. Please, Lotte, please. I mean you no harm."

She was near the exit to the tower. His voice was more distant now. "Please don't leave me..."

She paused.

For a malicious stalker spirit, he knew how to sound vulnerable. "How do you know so much about me?"

"I can't—"

"Talk about it."

"But," he said. "I'm hoping you'll figure it out. I've got a lot of hope when it comes to you."

"Then...if I come all the way up the tower, what will happen to me?"

"Nothing. If you come up here, if you don't, that doesn't change anything."

She really didn't want the sadness in his voice to affect her. "Then, there's nothing at the top?"

"No, I'm up here. We'll be able to speak face to face. I just meant that, you know, nothing will change other than that."

"Fine," Lotte said.

"Fine...Fine? Are you...are you coming up here?"

There was a gasp from upstairs and then a series crashes.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Fine. I just fell over. I need to...uh, clean."

She tried to hold back a laugh, but that was fruitless. "I'm not coming up right away," she said. "Not today. How about next time?"

"Oh."

She could feel his disappointment so acutely, her skin itched.

"The thing is..." he said. "I'm not sure I'll be able to summon you again. It's not easy for me, as I am. I'm just a fraction of myself."

"A fraction of yourself?" Lotte shook her head.

"I can't—"

"I'll come back," she said with a confidence she really shouldn't have felt because she had no idea what she was talking about.

"Oh... in that case..."

"I'll see you tomorrow night, then?"

"Wait!"

Now she could feel his yearning for her to stay like a corkscrew twisting in her heart. She wasn't really in the tower, she was inside this creature's head. Or somewhere very intimate. Up or down the tower, this was a dangerous place to be for very long.
"Just stay a little more. Just a little bit. I'll tell you a story," he promised. "A nice one about unicorns, fairies and magic. It'll have a happy ending and give you good dreams."

She should go, Lotte knew she should, but it was hard not to get swept away. "Fine," she said again, climbing a few steps and settling down. "Tell me a story about fairies and magic and..."

She stopped speaking abruptly. No, she wouldn't say it, that'd be too embarrassing.

"And what?" he asked.

Lotte shook her head, hoping that he couldn't see her blushing. "Nothing, just that."

"Romance? You were going to ask for romance."

"Now, why would I ask about that?"

"Who knows..." he said, and launched into his story.

Her tower friend didn't lie, he knew how to spin a good tale. She didn't notice when the tower became a real dream. Nor did she remember what the dream was about. All she remembered was the sweet sensation of a fluttering heart.