Still Too Early
Sylvia had come over to us without warning, and before the surprise of it could even settle, Robette was already sidling toward me.
"...Lady Sylvia, might we begin with a tour of the village? We're all quite worn out, you see."
"Certainly. That can be arranged."
Perhaps pleased that her words had been met with agreement, Robette stole a subtle half-step closer, narrowing the distance between them — only for Sylvia to step back a pace of her own, restoring it.
"Follow me, please. The village lies this way."
"...Haha. Thank you for your, ah, boundless hospitality."
The last syllables of Robette's words came out faintly mangled, but Sylvia paid it no mind and set off toward the village. And so, without losing our way even once, we arrived at the elf village.
It was a beautiful place — beautiful almost past describing. Colossal trees stretched high into the sky, houses hanging from each and every trunk like ornaments, and the fragrance of flowers and grass that filled the village seemed to rinse my head clean. The elves we glimpsed here and there only set off the beauty of the forest all the more, and whether or not it was a scene visible to my eyes alone, even the spirits looked almost feverishly alive.
The one pity was that the hour had grown late, and we could not linger to take it all in properly.
"First, I will show you to your lodgings. This way, please."
Sylvia's crisp tone roused us from our sightseeing, and with Robette at their head, the party began to follow her at an unhurried pace.
The lodgings were not bad. No — they were wonderful.
A bed with the plush give of soft cotton, a room steeped in the mellow scent of wood, and beneath it all the faint perfume of a hundred flowers rising from dried petals. Perhaps because the rooms and facilities were fine enough that any respectable inn would have been ashamed to show its face beside them, the knights and the rest of our party seemed to be in the highest of spirits.
"First — you arrived late today, so I believe it best that you simply rest and recover from your fatigue."
"Ah — would that truly be acceptable?"
"Yes. I will give you a thorough tour of the village tomorrow. Please rest well."
I couldn't speak for someone like me, who had been shut up in the carriage the whole way, but for the knights it was the best news imaginable. They had spent the entire day guarding the carriage, and beyond even that, they had taken no rest on the march itself. What complaint could a man have, when he was finally being offered a place to lay down a body steeped in weariness and fatigue?
"I'll go in first and unpack, Young Master."
"...Right."
Perhaps because of the eyes around us, Ella's manner of speech had changed; she and the knights all scattered at once to their own rooms to wash away their fatigue, while Robette, trading words with Sylvia right up until the moment she took her leave, drifted slowly into his own room.
In the end, the last one left standing in the corridor was me, having missed my timing to slip away — and just as I moved to enter my own room at last, someone's hand closed around my shoulder.
I twisted around on reflex and pulled myself free — and long hair, scented with perfume, swung into me.
"...Who is it?"
"If I have been rude, I apologize."
In the dark corridor, the silhouette of a single figure wavered. A black robe had been pulled down past the crown of her head, leaving her features impossible to make out, but her voice at least told me she was a woman.
At the wariness thick in my voice, she withdrew a step and bowed her head — and only once my guard had eased did she state her purpose in coming.
"I bear a message from Lady Sylvia Restonil. Come at dawn, when all are asleep, to the place where the wind rests."
"...The place where the wind rests?"
"The message is delivered. Then—"
"...Wait."
Apparently convinced her task was done, she had turned to slip away; I caught her by the wrist.
Startled, the woman tried to tug her hand free, and when it refused to come loose, she panicked in earnest.
"Th-this — let go of me!!"
"Calm down. Just hear me out—"
"Just as I thought — the nature of humans cannot be trusted...!"
The misunderstanding seemed to be snowballing into something serious, so I hurriedly clapped a hand over her mouth and continued, slowly.
"Unless you tell me where this place of yours is, I can't exactly find it."
"...Ah."
Only after hearing me out did she seem to grasp this, drawing a map from inside her robe and pointing out the spot.
Even shrouded in that robe, I could see the red creeping across her face — but I decided to write it off as the corridor's lamplight.
"You go here, and then... are you listening?"
"Ah... I'm listening."
"And if you follow that path straight on, she will be waiting for you."
With that, this time she truly vanished, without a trace.
Why summon me in the dead of night, when everyone was asleep — and why did she want to meet me at all? I had a mountain of questions, but I saw no need to press her for answers. I would be meeting the person herself soon enough.
"You came?"
"...What is the reason you called for me?"
Moonlight. Beneath the softly glowing moon, jade hair shimmered a brilliant blue.
The moonlight brought out that blue all the more, and for a moment the sight stole my gaze — but I collected myself and closed the distance, step by careful step.
"So. What is the reason you called me here?"
"...If this is not a matter to be discussed from afar, I would have you come a little closer."
"Ten paces to your left. Seven paces on the diagonal. And, Princess — three paces directly behind you."
Bewildered by the sudden, cryptic words, she tilted her head — but I went on without letting my expression change.
"If you have the people hiding in those spots withdraw, I will come closer."
"...Impressive."
The moment my words ended, a single gesture of her hand — and three elves materialized at her side. Two men, one woman. They stood in plain view right before my eyes, yet I could sense no presence from them whatsoever; clearly, these were no ordinary fighters.
"Is this satisfactory?"
"...Yes."
"If it offended you, I apologize. I was attempting to keep my escort as small as I could."
I accepted her apology with equanimity and moved slowly forward. I did not, of course, drop my guard — but she seemed satisfied with even that much.
"The reason I called you here... is that I have a favor to ask of you."
"...A favor?"
"Indeed. A favor you are free to refuse, as many times over as you wish, should it not please you."
When she finished speaking, she seemed to draw one steadying breath — and then, without warning, she began to sing.
A song whose words I couldn't begin to parse. A song with no accompaniment, nothing but a voice adrift on the night air.
The instant it reached my ears, what ran through me was a shudder of awe. Every time the song's syllables rang out, the nature around us stirred. The wind cried out, the leaves danced, the earth itself heaved — as though the world had been moved to its core by her song.
And in the same breath, a staggering number of spirits came flocking to her. Spirits of every shape and hue began to dance at her side, and even after the song had ended, that dance showed no sign of stopping.
At last the song drew to its close — and in the same moment she gave a small cough, came straight to me, and gripped both my shoulders.
"What did you feel?"
...?
"What did you feel, what did you see, and what did you accept?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow, Princess."
"...You felt nothing at all?"
"I did think it extraordinary, certainly."
Something about my answer must have been a problem, for she raised the hands still holding my shoulders and covered her own mouth with them.
I caught a scrap of unintelligible muttering — What...? A problem...? — but paid it no mind.
"Well then, I'll be returning to my—"
"Wait. Stay."
...
"Well... there does seem to be some difficulty. But in any case, there is no one who meets the conditions save you."
"I still don't understand what you've been saying this whole—"
"A favor. I am asking it of you."
At the sight of her bowing her head with those words, not only I but the elves behind her could not hide their consternation.
"P-Princess — raise your head at once...!"
"Quite so! Even if he is the one She spoke of, how could the Princess bow to a human...!"
"Silence."
Sylvia shook off the male elves scrambling to help her upright, and in the same breath fixed them with a stare, her voice low and cold as ice.
"What of it, if he is human?"
"......"
"Our hope rests upon the very human you hold in such contempt."
"B-but...!"
"Have you still failed to grasp it?"
Cutting off whatever rebuttal the elf had been trying to muster, she advanced one step at a time. By the time she stood before them, not one of the elves dared so much as lift their head. Her eyes were simply too cold, too fierce.
"The preservation of the bloodline and the traditions we so proudly boast — all of it now hangs upon a single human."
"......"
"It would not be enough, even were we to grovel at his feet and beg him to hear this request. What is there to regret in bowing one's head?"
Her reasoning was flawless and irrefutably clear — and perhaps they were not so foolish as to argue with it, for chastened apology after chastened apology kept spilling from their mouths.
But even that failed to satisfy her; scowling anew, she pointed at me.
"The one you owe your apology to is not me. It is him."
"P-Princess...?!"
"B-bow to a h-human...!"
"No more words. Apologize."
Her expression, and the air about her, made it plain there would be no second warning — and they could say nothing more. They simply offered me their apologies, meek and unadorned.
"Now — might I hear what this favor is?"
"Mm... as you are at present, I fear it would be rather difficult."
"I beg your pardon?"
"My apologies. If what my mother told me is true, then it seems it was still too early for you."
......
"And so I will ask something else of you."
With that, Sylvia bowed her head to me once more — but this time, there was no one to stop her.
There was only her, a shade more earnest, a shade more solemn than she had been but moments before.
"I would have you meet my mother — the present Priestess of the elves, and their Queen."
...?
And the words that left her lips were fitting for an atmosphere that had grown heavier still.