Forever Fall

The pair headed out of the villa and out on the lawn. Elaeah pulled out her phone and dialed the number from the website. It rang a few times before— “Hello?” A male voice came from the other end. “This is Fendrick of the Crafty Sparrow. What can I do for you today?” Elaeah looked at Raftina and handed the phone over to her. Raftina spooked a little, not used to speaking on the phone anymore, especially in the context of stuff like this. “Er, hello. I’m calling because my…associate and I saw you were advertising Tenno feather oil and your website?” She wasn’t really sure what to call Elaeah at this point. They were practically strangers despite the fact that they had once been lovers. If Elaeah got her memories back, maybe she had a chance with her, but right now, they were strangers. Associates. Elaeah felt comfortable around her, but she still didn’t want to potentially overstep bounds and say that they were friends. And good goddess, speaking on the phone for something like this wasn’t something she’d done in so long… “Eh? You’re actually interested in it? I’ve been making it for millennia and I was highly popular back in the day as an independent oil salesman. Tennoravedabout my stuff back in the day. Why would an Elw be interested in it? I’ve kept up my formula despite it being useless…” “Actually…I’m a Tenno. I have some from my reserves in the heavens, but it’ll run out in time and I need a new source.” She had never heard of Fendrick before, but there were justso manypeople on Filgaia at one point… And she spentso muchtime away from the planet. Someone making it for millennia was definitely good in her mind. He would know what he was doing. “All I have left are some commercial oils that were cheap and easy to buy back before the War.” There was silence for a moment. “…Who am I speaking to? You don’t sound like you’re yanking my chain. It’s been centuries since anybody’s prank called me about it.” “Raftina. Lady Raftina.” There was no real way around hiding who she was unfortunately. He remained silent for severallongminutes. “But you were sealed away over a millennium ago.” “A lot has happened on Filgaia in the past several years. My mother was revived a while ago and things are beginning to look up for the planet.” She sighed. “The other Guardians bullied me into taking a vacation. So here I am. I might be here for several decades and I need to preen a few times a dayespeciallyif I go into the water and get my wings wet.” Waterwasan important part of feather health. Hers were so dull and limp. She’d been neglecting preening becauseshe just didn’t have the time.Her next molt was gonna be hellacious for her. It would hurt so much because she hadn’t been taking care of her feathers as she should’ve. “Well, why don’t you come down to my workshop and I can do a personal assessment for you? I do have a stock recipe that was what I mostly sold, but I can also make personal batches for people. Just know that it’d take longer than if it was my stock recipe, but you said you had some oil in reserve? That would help bridge the gap of time between now and when I can get it done.” “All right. That…would definitely help because my feathers have seen better days.” Though she wasn’t particularly happy about it. It would show him just how much she left herself in a state of disrepair. Her feathers were brittle and dull right now. But she really did need to get them in order again. Most people looking at them wouldn’t know they were in bad shape, butsheknew. She didn’t want to spread knowledge of this to others, but she needed someone that could produce feather oil for her. She really,reallyneeded to take better care of herself and this was going to be part of it… “Come on over as soon as you can.” He gave them the address and the city. “See you soon then!” The call clicked off and she looked at Elaeah. “Well… Do you know where this is?” “I know the city, but I’ll need help locating the exact workshop is all. But most Elw will be willing to help especially since it’syou,Lady Raftina.” Elaeah smiled warmly and Raftina felt the back of her neck prickle. She missed that warmth that Elaeah had offered herso much.She missed it. She really did. She knew she should’ve moved on by now, but that didn’t mean shecould.It was just…so hard when her biological programming told her to be loyal to her one and only partner. She was a mess of conflicting programming, biology, and magic. “All right, then; lead the way.” Raftina nodded to Elaeah and they headed into town where they headed for the teleportation pad and ended up in a different building. Elaeah went to the clerk to ask where the workshop specifically was and they were pointed in the right direction. They stepped out of the building into a very typical Elw town which was built into nature, almost looking concealed. However, it seemed much smaller than the one they’d been in beforehand. Elaeah smiled at Raftina. “Let’s go.” She took Raftina’s hand and the Guardian flushed a little bit, but she didn’t say anything. It’d been a long time since she’d been dragged along like this by somebody, let alone someone she knew. Most people weren’t willing to touch her because of who she was. It was…kind of nice to have someone not pay that any heed. It had to be unconscious on Elaeah’s part…possibly from her past life. She couldn’t entirely be certain, though. Elaeah did seem to be half and half. There was definitely reverence on her part, but she also wasn’t willing to accept any of Raftina’s bullshit. It was a strange dichotomy to be faced with, but she was happy that Elaeah wasn’t treating her poorly. Raftina followed along willingly, keeping up with Elaeah easily enough. For a Fast Draw user, anything below Accelerator was slow. She was thankfully still in plenty good shape as well, keeping up her training despite the Second Demon War being over. She never knew when another threat could pop up. Filgaia was incredibly unstable right now and there was no telling if another war would pop up or not. But right now…she definitely didn’t need to worry about threats. The Elw dimension seemed fairly quiet and she had heard there were no wars in it… The Elw were an inherently peaceful people, but it didn’t mean they weren’t capable of bigotry… They definitely were. She’d seen it. It seemed to just be part of sapient nature to be possible of discrimination. After a while, they arrived at a building with a sign that said The Crafty Sparrow. Above it stood a few apartments that she could see. They entered the building and a little bell dinged. She hadn’t heardthatsound in quite a long time. A man stood behind the counter, a big, bushy beard on his face. Unusual for Elw who usually preferred to be clean shaven. “Hello and welcome to The Crafty Sparrow. I’m Fendrick; how can I help you?” “We spoke on the phone a little while ago,” Raftina said. He blinked. “Lady Raftina then? Please, come behind the counter. I can give you a personal assessment in back.” For some reason, she felt her anxiety spike, but she pushed it down. She nodded and he lifted the counter, and she followed him into a back room. It was a well-lit workshop, but she could definitely smell the feather oil simmering in the back. She’d made it herself before, but she was a novice; it was better to trust someone with experience rather than try to do it herself. “Please, sit down.” He offered her a stool from his workbench. She would have preferred a chair, but yeah, this was better so he could fully see her wings. She sat down a bit reluctantly and extended her wings. “Justbe careful.You ought to know how sensitive Tenno wings and backs are.” She couldn’t help but feel nervous about it. It wasn’t everyday she let someone else touch her in this sort of way. She really needed to update her skincare as well; she was fully out of her old products. But, for right now, she had to focus on her wings. They were just soincrediblysensitive and she hadn’t been touched like this by anybody butdoctorsin a long time. She hadn’t gotten a personal wing oil assessment in alongtime simply because she didn’tliketo be touched on the wings or back by anybody that wasn’t a significant other or a certified medical doctor. “I will; don’t worry.” He smiled at her and approached. His touch was thankfully gentle as he examined her wings all over. She winced a little as it didn’t help she’d mostly stayed grounded the past several years. There were so many knots in her wings from not being properly used either… But it burned more energy than she could afford on Filgaia. She still didn’t get anywhere enough calories the past few years, but it was better than burning calories unnecessarily. Filgaia justcould notsupport someone like her… She was glad her mother was back and was able to turn the desert back to green, lucious land. After a while, Fendrick spoke. “Your wings are in pretty bad shape due to the neglect. I haven’t seen wings this bad shape… Well. I haven’t seenanywings in a long time, but when I was doing personal consults, it tookextremecircumstances to let things getthisbad. You’ve really been neglecting yourself, haven’t you?” Raftina sighed. She really didn’t want to admit to it, but there was no way around it unfortunately. “Yes. But, for context, I went straight from the First Demon War into the Second Demon War, then a politicalnightmareof a kingdom that was attempting to keep its rightful queen fromactuallyexercising her power.” She didn’t want to get into all the details, but she figured that was enough of a description to understand her stress. She had gone from stressful situation to stressful situation to stressful situation. She justdidn’thave any down time. Shehadto keep pushing herself because there was no way to easily stop without there beingsevereconsequences. Adlehyde would definitely had fallen to those awful men had she tried to take any rest after the Second Demon War. “I see… You always have been known for keeping yourself busy. Humans have fallen so far that kingdoms are back?” Raftina nodded. “Filgaia is in abadstate. You haveno idea.It’s only because some other Guardians revived my mother that I’m able to be here and start to take care of myself. That’s why I came here: to start to take care of my feathers again. I know the mass-produced oil I have in reserves isn’t as good as stuff made by artisans, but it’s what I have for the time being. And, well, it workedgood enoughuntil now.” “You need a better diet too. Diet is a major contributor to feather health.” “I know. I’m working on that.” “For now, though… I do have a formula in mind. Give me a few days to make a batch for you. I’ll get it to you as soon as possible. But it’ll take a few days.” “A few days is better than I expected. Whydo youkeep making Tenno feather oil when it’s not necessary?” He shrugged. “Just wanted to keep my skills up. I knew it’d probably never be used again, but I’m glad I did. Only make small batches, too. I don’t want to abuse the natural resources that go into it. It is wasted, but it’s only one pot at a time. Once I get this to you, though, you should probably switch over to it instead of continuing to use the mass-produced stuff. It’ll be far,farbetter for your wings than the mass-produced stuff for the time being.” Raftina nodded. “All right.” She flexed her wings and retracted them. They felt stiff from being held out like that so long. She was used to keeping them against her back, but not outstretched for long periods. She was pretty sure she had some muscle atrophy in them because of the lack of use since her reawakening… But she justdidn’thave the energy or caloric support to be able to fly and soar long distances like she used to be able to. “I’d also suggest actually flying as well. I’m no doctor, but I know what healthy Tenno wings look like. Yours…are definitely not in good shape. I think there’s a fair bit of atrophy in the muscle mass.” Raftina nodded and sighed. “I’m well aware… But when I’m only gettingmaybe1500 calories a day…” Fendrick winced. “That, for you? Don’t you need like ten thousand or something? You have normal magicandFast Draw magic on top of being a Tenno…” Raftina sighed again. “Yeah, I’ve had to be grounded for the past several years because of that. I’m not surprised there’s atrophy. But, since I’m here, I can remedy that.” Shedesperatelymissed flying because it was just a natural part ofwho she was.She was used to just being able to take to the skies and soar as much as she wanted to, at least as her schedule dictated. If she needed to go a longer distance, she walked or rode on Moonspark. She justcould notjustify the fact that flying was so calorically intensive and constant flying multiplied the amount of calories she needed. She could definitely fly here, but right now, she didn’t know the various areas so she couldn’t go from place to place in the sky. Plus, things lookedverydifferent form the sky than they did on the ground. She needed Elaeah to show her where to go. “Well, you can definitely deal with that. For now, I’ll get started on this batch of feather oil.” “How much will I owe you?” Fendrick waved his hand. “I’ll make you a big batch. It’ll come out of my own pocket. I just want to see you get well sooner rather than later.” Raftina looked down a bit. “Are you sure? I don’t want to bite into your profits… I’mmorethan willing to pay you. I got access to a debit account when I arrived because the elders were kind enough to have set up something for me just in case I ever came here. It’s been untouched and I won’t have a lot of overhead costs. I’m staying with Elaeah at one of her villas, so I don’t have to foot the bill for much…” He was being kind just by making her the feather oil in the first place. She really didn’t want him to feel like hehadto give it to her for free. He was buying supplies, making it for her, and he should be compensated for his time and effort. Shehatedfeeling like she hadn’t compensated someone fairly just because she was a Guardian. “Well… Considering the small-batch nature of it, it’ll be pretty expensive.” “I’ll be willing to pay.” “Well, a whole batch would cost about seven hundred celestials, but that comes for the whole batch.” Raftina scrunched up her face. The economy had basically crashed when the Metal Demons had arrived, so she couldn’t remember how much an individual celestial was worth. Plus, the use of gold, silver, and bronze coins had taken over her psyche the past several years. “Elaeah, is that worth it in your opinion?” She had pretty much an unlimited bank account, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be extorted out of money. “It’s definitely expensive, but it’s handmade and small batch, made by an expert. You need to cover the costs of his ingredients as well as his labor. So on the high end of things, but when you count everything in, it makes sense.” Elaeah paused. “Have…you seriously forgotten how much a celestial is worth?” Raftina sighed. “I spent 1200 years locked away. The economy had crashed when the Metal Demon started the warandI’ve been using coins made of precious metals for the past several years. It’s been over a century since I used celestials at their full worth, not to mention the inflation that’s probably happened since the time of the First Demon War here…” There was so much that she needed to learn to readapt to. She wasn’t used to fully digital currency anymore really… She was used to physical coins. She adapted to the physical currency pretty quickly again, but shifting back to digital was going to be a headache. Not knowing when and how much she had on her without checking a device was going to be hard. “Entirely fair. Well, if you’re willing to pay the price…” “I am.” She looked at Fendrick. “I’ll pay your asking price. Obviously, the price will fluctuate with ingredients and how big a batch you make.” He nodded. “That it definitely will. Since you need it so badly, I’ll put this at the top of my priority list. I’ll feel bad for letting other customers down, but I think one of theGuardiansisfarmore important than other Elw.” He paused. “Would you mind a picture so I can prove to my customers why I’ve had to put their orders on hold?” Raftina shook her head. “Go ahead.” She tucked her wings up against her back but smiled as he took a phone out. He snapped a picture. She doubted there wereanydigital likenesses of her here in the Elw dimension, so it would be hard to fake… The style of dress she wore wasn’t evenmadeanymore either. Honestly, she wouldn’t be surprised if the news picked up the story sooner rather than later. Guardian of Love returned… She wasn’t sure if she’d get hounded or not. She just wanted a few decades to try to recover from what she’d been through. Of course, a few decades compared to a century-long conflict that felt like it had happened yesterday to her wouldn’t let her heal fully, but it would hopefully let her get back on her feet. Though with Elaeah having reincarnated…there was notellingwhat would happen. She just… Her heart wanted Elaeah back, but mentally, she knew that pushing it was a bad idea forbothof them. “Thanks, Lady Raftina.” He paused. “This probably sounds silly, but if I printed this out, would you autograph it?” Raftina blinked. “I mean… I don’t see any reasonnotto. Even if you wanted to sell it, that’s your choice.” It was just…odd to be asked for an autograph. She was so used to just being treated like anybody else to some extent. People didn’t jump her or anything. She walked among the population of Filgaia without any issues. But now… She supposed it did make sense. The Elw hadn’t seen her in a long time. Modern-day Filgaians had no real idea of what an autograph was, but the Elw… The Elw remembered. If he did sell it, then that was his choice. But he may legitimately just want her signature to hang on to. Either way, no skin off her back. “Thank you; I would appreciate it. I’ll have it printed by time you come back.” “Anyway, I should leave you to your work. Thank you, Fendrick.” “It’s no trouble, Lady Raftina.” With that, she and Elaeah left. “So what do you want to do now?” Elaeah asked. “That’s…a good question.” Raftina sighed. “I’m not used to having free time like this.At all.I’m used to waking up, getting breakfast, taking a shower, then getting straight into politics. I’m not used to just…being able to do whatever I want to. And it doesn’t help I really don’tknowwhat thereisto do, or where anything is.” This was so frustrating. She didn’t know everything that went on on Filgaia in the later years, but she was used to having a general, rough idea of where things were happening. Concerts, art displays, museums, workshops, wine tastings, and more. She had a general idea of where all of that had happened on Filgaia before the First Demon War, but now… She was in the Elw dimension and she had no idea where any of this was. “And I can’t ask you if things here are where they used to be on Filgaia.” The Elw dimension was a recreation of Filgaia before the First war, but the Elw treated things far,fardifferently than if they were humans or Tenno… It was frustrating to not know where things were. “Well, almost anything youcoulddo on Filgaia pre-Wars is something you can do here. Were there any arts and crafts or anything you might be interested in? Obviously, we don’t have access to a lot of alien materials here, but if there are any crafts native to Filgaia, we almost definitely have those sorts of materials here, be they manmade or natural. We have all sorts of different crafts we can choose from.” “Honestly, I never have really dabble in crafts since my childhood…” She and Elaeah had done some crafts when they’d been children, but after the entire march to claim rights for LGBTQ+ people in Filgaia’s early history, she had been embroiled in politics and had basically just never stopped. She had never stopped being in politics since she had started. The exception was following Elaeah’s death for a few months she took to grieve. She had fallen intosucha deep depression that it took her a goodmonthto shower. “I’m not sure what all there is to do at the villa either…” “Well, there’s swimming, horseback riding, or pegasus-back riding, whichever you prefer. Cooking out, cooking in general, setting up parties, evengoingto parties at other villas, we have a hologram room, all sorts of general water sports, jet skis, tubing, zip lines, and other stuff… Then there’s always shopping if you want. You said it yourself: you’ll probably be here for severaldecadeswhile you recover from the Demon Wars.” “I’m not sure how useful sports would be to me… It doesn’t seem like it, but I can actually beinsanelycompetitive… So I tend to avoid them.” “It’d just be you and me, Lady Raftina. Though if you did want my family to come and have more people to play with, we could always invite them. I have cousins and siblings and aunts and uncles… They’d probably be happy to see you as well.” Rafitna rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not really sure aboutthat…I really do get quite competitive.” “Maybe we could play some card games or something?” “That might be fun. Just something low stress and low stakes.” She might still get competitive, but by the same token, it was Elaeah. She couldneverget overly competitive with Elaeah if it were just the two of them. Elaeah had been so soft, sweet, and gentle and being harsh on her tended to make her cry or withdraw. She hadlongsince learned that being hard to the sweet Elw would only strain their relationship. It did make conflict in the relationship hard, but Raftina tried her absolute best to not overwhelm her. Relationships were all about give and take and she was trying… She really was. She was just not used to sitting on her laurels like this whatsoever. Having free timewasn’tsomething she was used toat all.She just…had no idea what to do with herself. “Still, I think you could benefit from hobbies. We have plenty of arts and crafts here… Be they traditional from before the First Demon War or even farther back.” Blake nodded. “I know; the Elw were always quite the crafty people, in the more literal sense.” In this case, crafty just meant…penchant to crafts. She didn’t want it to sound like she was calling the Elw anything negative. Of course, their society had its own downsides but she wasn’t going to speak to those. If anything, the Elw weretoopacifistic for their own good. They weren’t martial much at all, though many Elw had taken up arms in the First Demon War. She pushed the thoughts back, not wanting to dive back into unpleasant memories. Shedesperatelyneeded help, but she thought that getting her physical health back into place before her mental health was important. She’d see about a therapist in maybe a month or so unless shereallystarted suffering more than she already was. Oddly, seeing a pre-War Filgaiawasn’tsetting her off. She was just counting her lucky stars that was the case. This was really the best place for her since it wascompletelycut off from modern-day Filgaia and she couldn’t allow herself to get wrapped up in Adlehyde’s politics. She knew she could definitely still become a workaholic here, but it felt like Elaeah wasn’t going to allow that. Plus, with the amount of interest the account that had been set up for her had accrued, she was basically endlessly wealthy. It’d just been sitting there for 1200 years. And the interest rate was decently high… As long as she didn’t go crazy with the spending, she’d have money to lastcenturies. Elaeah nodded and smiled warmly. “Well, if you want to try anything out, just let me know; there are plenty of videos on VoxMote.” “Eh? You guys kept that up?” “Yeah, we did. Granted, we lost alotof data during the First Demon War it sounds like, but we’ve still been creating videos on VoxMote since the pocket dimension infrastructure would allow it.” “Well, that definitely does make things a lot easier…” Raftina rubbed her chin. “I remember using it for all sorts of things back in the day. I have a lot of knowledge on a lot of topics, but I don’t knoweverything.It wassouseful for keeping up with politics in different areas of Filgaia.” Even for as embroiled in politics as she usually was, she wasn’t infallible or omniscient. She didn’t know everything that was happening everywhere on Filgaia. The short-form videos (about ten to fifteen minutes) kept her abreast of the basics of a lot of issues before everything had gone to hell. Of course, she still researched laws that were being passed because the wording wasincrediblyimportant and lay people that weren’t actual politicians could get things wrong. Still…it had been an invaluable resource for her. She would have to resist the urge to go to the political side of VoxMote so she didn’t end up doing what she was trying toavoid. Elaeah nodded. “I mean we have in-person classes for a lot of things, but yeah, there’s really no better resource for at-home study than VoxMote, barring academic databases. But if you’re just looking for a hobby, be it mainstream or more niche, you can’t do better. Unless it’s something like learning an instrument… Then a teacher would be best.” “Of course. I’m not sure what I want to do yet… Honestly, I have all the free time in the world and I could use more than one hobby.” “Was there anything you everwantedto do, but couldn’t do it?” Raftina sighed. “Not really. I didn’t evenallowmyself to entertain thoughts of not spending time working on things. Filgaia needed me. I didn’t have time for frivolity.” It was also what had caused so much friction in her relationship with Elaeah… She didn’t take enough time with Elaeah quite often. She had to be reminded more than once to slow down and make time for the woman she loved. She was smart enough she shouldn’t haveneededthat, but she just had such a strong sense of duty to Filgaia that she had a hard time holding back. It was hard to swing from one extreme to the other now… Giving her all, and then swinging to having all the free time in theworldfor at least a couple ofdecades.She just had no idea how to fill her time. And she couldn’t take up a job because she justknewshe’d become a workaholic there as well. Elaeah sighed. “You’re really inflexible… Maybe you could start with an instrument of some kind? Do you like music?” “Ilovemusic… I just haven’t had the ability to listen to any because Filgaia only has very primitive recording mediums and nothing that’s portable… Nothing like MP3 players or even CDs. It’s all like phonographs and stuff. Super primitive.” That and she was attached to Tenno music… It was the music of her people. “Radio is starting to become a thing at least in Adlehyde City, but not so much outside of it. The monsters keep long-range infrastructure from being adopted.” “Hopefully that’ll all change by time you get back. But for now, why don’t you look at instruments then we can see about getting you into lessons? I’ve never played…so maybe we could learn together! Doesn’t that sound fun?” Elaeah clapped her hands together, smile wide and eyes bright. Raftina’s heart constricted in her chest. That was the Elaeah she had known and loved; always willing to try new things and always dragging Raftina into them. “Would you prefer something simple or a challenge? And ooh we could also always learn multiple!” “Honestly, the more challenging, the better. Keep in mind how old I am and how knowledgeable I am. Granted, I’d have to learn music theory from scratch, but that wouldn’t be too hard for me. I know how to study and to take in information. Though, at this point, I’ve probably forgotten more than I remember. So much has changed and I’ve learned so much.” She shook her head. Being immortal really wasn’t something she enjoyed. It was droll and so dull. She kept herself busy because it passed time as well. And it also kept out the unwanted emotions. She was probably going to collapse sooner or later mentally and emotionally here. Her mind and body were very much still in fight or flight mode…and she was a fighter. Once it realised she wastrulysafe…she had no idea what was going to happen. “Maybe we could learn something simple and more complex at the same time?” “That might not be a bad idea.” Something simple to get them started then something more complex to challenge them. Granted she had no idea what instruments would be simple or easy to learn. She had no idea what instruments were available outside of basic ones like piano, violin, and various types of guitar. Instruments were something she just hadn’t made time for due to how busy she was. She had no work/life balance… It was allwork.No life because life meant she could collapse and grieve over Elaeah’s loss as well as a lot of other things. She had no idea when that would happen, but she knew it was coming. The crash was inevitable, and she had no idea how bad it would be… “Well, I’ve heard violin is pretty difficult since it’s an unfretted instrument. Youreallyneed to practice to be able to do the right notes at the right placement. I’m not sure about an easy instrument though… We’d have to do some research. Though probably nothing crazy in depth; I’m sure a simple Queryn search would suffice!” Elaeah smiled bright, clasping her hands in front of her. “How about we go do that now?” Raftina nodded. “All right then.” With that, they headed back to the house.