After that came a season of happiness, like sunlight pooling warm and golden on a forest glade.
The two little girls played house and stacked blocks, building tiny citadels like mushrooms after rain.
In laughter and play, Tisinate learned the quirks that made Ailuna unique, like dew beading on different leaves.
She spaced out like a drifting cloud, slept like a cat in a sunbeam, and adored little cookies like stars in a jar.
And under that pink hair, she was softly contrary—when she looked up pitifully, she was begging Tisinate to tease her, like a fish flicking its tail to be caught.
“Eek, Ailuna will play baby today!”
“Eh? B-but Ailuna still has flowers to water!”
“Babies don’t water flowers. Mommy will water them.”
“Mm…”
She pouted on the surface like a raindrop trembling on a petal, yet she loved playing the child—though she was a child already.
Time flowed like a river through moss, and they drifted along together.
But as moons waxed and waned, Tisinate slowly grew taller like a sapling, while Ailuna stayed small, a bud that never opened. The elf girl felt a curl of strangeness, like wind against the grain.
So she went to her mother.
“By ‘Little Ti,’ you mean Ailuna? She isn’t an elf. She’s a World Tree Maiden.”
“Eh? A World Tree Maiden… what’s that?”
“A little loli who never grows up. You can hug her tight and use her as a pillow forever.”
“Oh…”
Young Tisinate couldn’t grasp the roots of those words, nor sense what kind of being a World Tree Maiden was.
But nothing stopped the elf loli from seeking Ailuna. After lessons each day, she ran to Ailuna’s room like a swallow to its nest, and they played.
Then regret fell like unseasonal frost.
The accidental murder of an elf girl sparked war.
Human warships darkened the skies over the Elven Kingdom, iron shadows spreading like blight over quiet green forest.
As the elven princess, Tisinate had to lead by example, like a torch before a line of marchers. Not only to rouse hearts, but to learn how to guard their home.
“Ailuna, I’m leaving now…”
“Mhm…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon…”
“Mhm…”
She never expected the war to swell like a storm tide. Tisinate and her mother remained at the front for months.
When she finally returned to the Elven Royal Palace, half a year had fallen like leaves.
And Ailuna…
“Ailuna-chan? I’m back!”
“Big sis is back…?”
Even seeing Tisinate, Ailuna sat in her room like a doll in a glass case, not moving at all.
The pink room had sunk into dusk. The dolls once neatly arranged lay scattered on the floor, staring up at the ceiling like fallen stars.
“Mm! Ailuna, I brought back enemy rations for you. Cookies—super tasty!”
“Tisinate-sis, don’t mind me anymore…”
“Eh?”
“Just let me stay here alone…”
“Ailuna?”
Something had shifted like a river changing course. No matter what Tisinate said, Ailuna gave no answer, an empty shell on the shore.
Tisinate rushed to her mother, but the Elven Queen burned with fury over failing battles, like a crown of thorns aflame.
“What, here too… Don’t mind her! She’s just tired. Let her sleep.”
“Sleep?”
“If you have questions, ask the grand scholar. Don’t bother me!”
“Oh…”
Despite her mother’s words, Tisinate felt the roots ran deeper than that.
She searched the palace for books, asked the beautiful elf sisters like a bee visiting flowers, and finally went to the grand scholar.
In that library of green and leaf, Tisinate learned what a World Tree Maiden was—and how exalted she was to elves, like moon over lake.
“So… the World Tree Maiden is our god?”
“For us elves, the World Tree Maiden is our god.”
The elven grand scholar stroked his beard like ripples in a pond and spoke kindly to Tisinate.
Her shock lodged in her chest like swallowing a whole melon; who would think that such a soft, small girl was the elves’ divinity?
“Then… has the World Tree Maiden lived a very long time?”
“In theory, the World Tree Maiden’s life is eternal, but…”
From the scholar’s tale, new branches of knowledge spread in Tisinate’s mind.
From the first life on the planet, the World Tree Maiden existed like dawn at the beginning of days.
Newborn, she was bewildered and alone, and she slept and dreamed most of the time, like winter under snow. The primal world changed little, step by steady step.
At last, intelligent life appeared like fire catching tinder.
The World Tree Maiden should have felt joy, yet soon, she died like a candle in wind.
“Eh!? Why! With companions at last, the Ailuna from before should’ve been happy!”
“Your Highness, these aren’t matters you must know now…”
“Why! Why! I must know… That’s an order!”
“Ah…”
The old elf sighed like wind through pines and opened a book of ancient history, its pages like dry leaves.
From first to last, it recorded eleven World Tree Maidens.
Almost every one died a violent death.
To stop wars between races, one took her own life in the beastkin wastes, like rain snuffing fire.
Facing the chaos invaders, one fell on the borderlands, like a star shot from the sky.
One was betrayed by a rebel elven royal line and poisoned at a little dining table, like honey tainted with nightshade.
And…
“D-died for love!?”
Amid their many tragedies, five of the eleven died for love, following their lovers like paired birds falling together.
“Yes… With a life that long, everyone around a World Tree Maiden dies before her, one by one, like flowers withering out of season—even the one she loves.”
“Eh—eh!?”
“Unable to bear the loss, the World Tree Maiden chooses to die for love…”
“I see… so that’s it…”
From that moment, Tisinate truly understood Ailuna.
What that girl had to shoulder, like mountains on delicate wings.
What that girl had to face, like nights without dawn.
And herself—
The mission she would carry her whole life, like a vow carved into bone.
…
…
…
Forcing herself past weakness like fog, Tisinate rose with a girl’s support.
“Big Sis Ti!”
“I’m fine, Ailuna!”
She stroked the pink-haired girl’s head like smoothing a restless sparrow. Then she grew serious, and nodded to Yue Liuyi, gratitude clear as spring water.
“Thank you, World Tree Maiden from another star.”
“You’re welcome. Your Majesty, is your body all right? BlackJack topped up your nutrient solution, but you should rest for now.”
BlackJack was the emergency drone that healed Tisinate’s wounds, a hidden card aboard the Skyship like a knife under velvet.
“It’s fine… There’s something I must do.”
Tisinate gripped her longsword. Step by steady step, she walked forward like a blade of grass pushing through frost.
Elsewhere, with help from the Silverwing Elves, Dixue finished suppressing the dark elves, like snow blanketing ash.
The Canary Queen was bound tight by silver threads, a moth caught in a web, unable to move.
“So there’s another World Tree Maiden? Let me go, you peacocking bullies!”
“Canary! Why did you betray your mission!”
Tisinate set her gemstone sword against the dark elf’s throat like a cold moonbeam and asked in fury.
The dark elf did not flinch. She glared at Ailuna with eyes full of hate, like coals under ice.
“Betray? I never betrayed! Ailuna betrayed me!”
“You’re spouting nonsense. A World Tree Maiden would never do that!”
“Then why do you think I’m here? She tricked me into this formation as its warden, turned me into this!”
The dark elf shook her head like a trapped beast. There was no despair of a cornered rat, only the bitterness of the deceived.
“What are you saying!?”
“She kept saying that once the formation was complete, I could leave. But…”
Canary looked down at her body. A tear welled in her eye like a pearl. “She never woke up again! I waited over a thousand years!”
“Eh!?”
The girls were stunned. From any angle, Canary’s words didn’t sound like a lie. Even Dixue, who could see through lies, fell silent at the queen’s fevered honesty.
Tisinate frowned, the crease on her brow a folded leaf. A thousand years ago hid too many roots and shadows.
“Even if that’s true, it has nothing to do with the Ailuna now. The face is similar, but today’s Ailuna is a new soul, not the last World Tree Maiden.”
She was angry, but her tone softened like rain after thunder.
Canary only sneered and spat toward Ailuna, venom like gall.
“Hmph! Sooner or later, she’ll betray you too… All World Tree Maidens must be wiped out!”
“If that’s really what you believe, then I can only kill you.”
“Heh! Good. I’ll be waiting for you in hell, to welcome you down.”
Canary smiled and closed her eyes, embracing death like a final sleep.
“That won’t happen… Because even if Ailuna kills me, I’ll never regret it.”
Tisinate raised her gemstone sword. Under the girls’ shocked gazes, she brought it down toward Canary’s throat like a falling star.
