So may call Lumi’s assessnt exaggeration. Those were the arrogant ones who had never stepped foot in Elenora.
Elenora held countless floors, and so existed only in certain sections of the forest, cutting off abruptly where the vegetation changed. So paths looped back on themselves through hollow trunks or obscure passageways that erged sowhere entirely different in elevation. So branches ford roads that held for a hundred ters before dissipating into leafy vegetation.
Even Lumi only knew certain important paths. No matter how long one spent in Elenora, you could not know them all.
He descended through the layers with the airship, it led him back toward a place he had visited when Masteria first opened, near where Alton’s old ho was hidden in the forest. Not that he was going there. He simply passed by that pocketspace on the way.
He followed the bridges and vines below, lowering himself until he was above a pit so deep, it seed endless. Most players who reached this point assud it was a void with nothing in it. Even the few that bothered to make the jump found nothing of value. They fell in, hit nothing interesting, and eventually climbed back out.
They were going about it wrong.
Lumi found the right elevation. It consisted of a specific point in the air above the drop with absolutely no indication of it being special. Then he moved forward, into apparently empty space.
After three seconds, the scene changed. The colors shifted gradually, and a new scenario blurred into existence.
Teth.
The secret entrance had been designed for fliers. Fairies, specifically, though anything that could fly could enter. A human who tried to simply fall into the drop would find nothing because the entrance wasn’t below. It was in the middle of the air at a specific horizontal point. Without the ability to hold altitude at will, you would never find it by accident.
Which explained why so few humans ever had.
The vegetation here was entirely different. The greens he had been navigating through above were bright and vibrant.
Here, the lighting was dim, the green leaves were much darker, and so of the vegetation was a shade that leaned toward blue.
The vegetation did not stretch upward for thousands of feet as it outside. Here, it was much more similar to a regular deep forest, the canopy only perhaps a hundred feet overhead.
Behind him, there was a path that stretched to an unknown location. Likewise, in front of him, a path stretched forward. In between where he was and where that path continued, there was a large gap. Part of a lake interrupted the path. The average human that ca across such a thing would try to swim across.
They would find themselves entirely unable to make any progress. The lake was not what it appeared to be, and the answer was not in the water.
The answer was to fly across, which Lumi did without slowing down.
It was not a sophisticated puzzle. It was, if anything, a symbolic one.
A way of further ensuring that anything without wings never reached what was on the other side. It wasn’t exactly a security asure, given that to get to Teth, one already had to fly.
It was more of a statent that humans were not welco here. They had not been designed into the solution.
Lumi crossed it in monts. He continued along the path, and the academy ca into view shortly after.
It was Elenora Fairy Academy. The structure was almost entirely made of natural materials, from various woods, leaves, and vines. Though, it did contain glass windows and cut stone slabs in so necessary parts.
Standing at the entrance was an aged male fairy. Lumi had never seen him before, but context clues instantly confird his identity before he verified it with the scan.
[Headmaster Ney - Level 32]
Age had made him large by fairy standards, approximately human-sized, which was not the norm for his kind. He seed particularly still, keeping a close eye on Lumi.
He gave Lumi a small nod. "I am Ney. Headmaster of this academy. You are...?"
Lumi gave him a small nod back. "I am Lumi."
Ney gestured inward. "Please, co inside."
They moved through the entrance together, and as they did, Ney asked. "Why did you co to help us?"
Lumi already knew about Ney. He knew his history with humans, knew where his trust had co from and what it had cost him to extend it.
Lena, alongside various humans native to Masteria, had done plenty of work to bridge the gap between fairies and humans. It wouldn’t do for him to subtract from their work by giving Ney a bad impression.
Luckily, he already knew how to deal with a man like Ney.
He could say it was the right thing to do. Ney would nod politely and believe none of it. That kind of answer ca from the mouth of every human who had ever wanted sothing from the fairies.
He could give a longer explanation involving the broader importance of human-fairy relations and the future of Masteria. It would also be politely received. Also not believed.
Lumi gave him a simple smile. "I’m here because Lena is my girlfriend and she asked to co. That is all."
Ney looked at him for a mont.
"I understand." Sothing in the headmaster’s expression shifted slightly. It wasn’t quite warmth, but the tension eased as he figured the answer was too uncaring and direct to be manipulation. "Thank you for coming."
The mont they stepped inside the academy, Lumi was aware of several pairs of eyes staring in his direction. There were fairies across the open space of the entrance hall pausing in whatever they were doing, looking at him with open curiosity. Many of them held conflicting expressions, given that their views on humans had just recently drastically changed.
None of the gazes mattered.
What mattered was that he spotted Lena, and she spotted him at the sa ti.
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