“Aer?!”

At the name, Lian flared like a spark in dry grass. The village chief flinched, shrinking back like a startled turtle.

“Uh… easy, kid. Breathe. Don’t get worked up.”

How could she? She’d waited like winter waits for spring; news of Aer felt like sun on frost. She lunged and clamped the elder’s shoulders, knuckles pale as bone.

“Tell me now! Where is Aer?!”

Pain bit him. His lips trembled like leaves in cold wind as he forced the words out.

“W-we… ah, it hurts… we don’t know!”

Hope snapped; Lian’s hands loosened and fell like wilted vines. The elder exhaled deep, like a man ferried back from the Underworld.

He escaped death’s shore, but Lian stood hollow, strings cut, a puppet with dead-branch arms. One touch might topple her to the floor.

Alicia couldn’t watch her crumble. Heart tight like a drawn bow, she steadied Lian and poured in what comfort she could.

“Lian, breathe first. Don’t throw yourself away like driftwood.”

“Mm… mm…”

Her reply was mechanical, a wind-up echo in an empty room, not a heart returning to color.

“Lian, didn’t you say there’s a statue? Let’s see it. It might hold what you want.”

A bystander sees the river’s bend. Her words struck like a bell. Color rushed back into Lian’s world, grief to hope, ink to sunrise.

“Right—right! The statue Aer left! I have to see it!” She yanked the elder up like a storm pulling a tree. “Take me there!” Then she bolted for the door like an arrow.

Watching that fleeing silhouette, Alicia’s mind rippled with the school festival night. So… the name “Aer” wasn’t a mishearing. The air tasted of trouble brewing, thunder beyond the hills.

Smack, smack, smack!

She patted her cheeks, dragging herself from the eddy of thoughts, then sprinted after Lian, feet drumming like rain.

Lian stood before a two-meter statue, stone towering like a pine. It was Aer, carved in cold grain, yet the thread between them tugged like a red string.

“Aer…”

She breathed the name like fog and lifted a hand toward the stone. Another hand reached first and brushed the statue.

“So this is… Aer?”

Alicia had caught up and laid fingers on rock. The girl called Aer stirred a strange current in her, like moonlight in a still pond.

Thud!

An unheard mallet struck inside Alicia’s skull. Her sight blew out like a lamp in wind. Night poured in, thick as ink.

“Lian! Remi! Flan!”

No answer. Her voice fell like pebbles into a bottomless well. The world held its breath.

She steadied herself, calm coiling like a cat. No one could hear her; she’d stepped into something odd, a net woven of shadows.

She let instinct lead, feet moving like reeds in a current. Even if it changed nothing, she had to try the path.

After a while, hope flared.

Whoosh! A streak of light cut the dark, small as a firefly, bright as a promise.

She surged toward it, speed spiking like a loosed arrow. The closer she came, the brighter it burned, a dawn pressed through a slit.

Stomp!

She hammered the ground, stole the rebound, and leapt. She pierced the glow like a swallow through mist.

For a heartbeat, her eyes filled with white, snow-sky and blank sea. Then shapes bled in. Flowers nodded. Grass breathed. A river murmured like silk.

She looked down and saw a girl lying on the earth—no, a loli, a jewel on moss. Golden hair fanned like spilled sunlight. Eyes slept. A smile curved, sweet as a dream. A strange-covered book rested on her chest. Her arms were crossed, hugging it tight, as if the book were warmth and shelter.

Yes, it was Lian—or, perhaps, Ling.

Alicia bent, tenderness rising like tide. She meant to lift this treasure from the ground. Sleeping on dirt courts cold, even for someone as strong as Lian. Besides, to cherish a loli is everyone’s duty.

She stacked reasons like pebbles, and her hand slid—no, crept—toward the loli. At her lips, a bead of shine trembled like dew.

Whoosh—

Her fingers met the girl’s outline, yet felt no flesh. Her hand sank through Lian, ripples blooming like a stone striking water. She could only watch her arm vanish into the phantom.

Damn it! Who designed this? I can’t even touch the loli? Is heaven itself out to get me?!

Her angry outburst echoed, a thwarted deviant’s rant tossed at empty air.

In a place without people, no one should answer such madness.

“Ling…”

Take that back. Someone did. The voice rose behind her like a breeze at nape. Alicia jolted and ducked, scuttling for cover. Guilty hearts hide like thieves; after all, she’d tried to sneak a touch.

She tucked behind a rock and peeked like a fox from brush.

The girl who had called for Ling walked closer, step by step, swaying like willow shade. She was maybe ten centimeters shorter than Alicia; even minus ten, Alicia stayed long-limbed. The newcomer wore silver-white, a dress fine as frost. Beauty fell off her like starlight, a celestial maiden on earth.

That fairy-like elder sister stood by Ling. In her eyes, tenderness pooled without shore, a lake holding the moon.