“Today the council will meet and decide.” Eleandir had joined us for breakfast today.

“What day is it?” I looked at Tilly.

“Uhmm.” She started to stare into space.

“It’s still summer.” Milly smiled at me.

“We’ve been here some time though.” Loraline played with a strand of her hair.

“We have prepared much in barely no time.” Caroline sipped from her cup of tea.

“It’s not a bad thing to finish early.” Milly prepared herself a sandwich.

“Loraline has found her place in our group and is much fitter.” I nodded at Loraline.

“I’m still totally spent after the workout.” She sighed.

“That’s the point.” I grinned at her.

“It’s not that different with us. Lilly does this on purpose.” Milly frowned at me.

“We should use our time here to improve. There is no danger around.” I chuckled at Milly.

“It’s the High Suns. We spent a year here!” Tilly looked at us with wide eyes.

“That’s correct. The decision is forced because the ring started to come closer lately.” Enleadir winked at Tilly.

“What?” Milly looked at Tilly with wide eyes, mouth agape.

“I totally lost track on time!” I shook my head in disbelieve.

Another chunk of magic drained away into rebind of my maid outfit. The enchantment still wasn’t usable. My mana pool hadn’t been full all the time.

“They discussed much on the last council meetings, but shelved it because there was still time.” Enleadir looked at Milly with a wry smile.

“This is ...” Milly shook her head and propped her chin on her hand.

“I totally stopped counting the days!” Tilly shook her head.

“In the fairy tales humans often stay their whole life with the elves when they sought them out in their homes.” Loraline looked at Enleadir with wide eyes.

“There may be something to these stories. Mortals tend to lose track of time when visiting. Scholars propose the flow of time is changed while staying at our homes, but no elf really cared enough about this to investigate. We are magically connected to the land and maybe there is an influence on others.” Enleadir leaned back on his chair.

“It’s weird.” Milly pouted.

“It is, but there’s no real harm done for us.” I smiled at the elf.

“We had our own interests in this case.” He nodded at me with a wink.

“The time somehow passed in a blur, but I still remember many things.” Milly smiled at me and winked.

We were back to normal teasing at least. And after that first night we spent quite some night together to have fun.

“What you learn in the time isn’t affected. You get careless about how time goes by, that’s all.” Enleadir poured himself another cup of tea.

“It’s weird nonetheless.” Milly frowned.

“I’m going attend the council, which will start later in the morning.” Enleadir smile at me.

“Then we have just to wait again?” Milly frowned at Enleadir.

“One last time.” He winked at Milly.

“We’ve been waiting quite some time, Enleadir, and we don’t life like forever.” I chuckled.

“Humans are always so impatient, which leads to bad decisions along the way. They haste along even if there is time for a decent solution which won’t fall on their feet a few decades later.” He shrugged and laughed.

“There might be some truth in this, but elves seem to take like forever to come to a conclusion.” Milly crossed her arms below her chest.

“We learned to tune down taking our time quite a bit since humans came around a while ago.” He rubbed his chin.

“So it was worse before?” Milly looked at him with wide eyes.

“It was, once.” He drank another sip of tea.

“How old are you Enleadir? I’ve never dared to ask til now.” I tilted my head and gave him a sweet smile.

“Old enough.” He winked at me with a smile.

“I wonder how it would be to live that long.” I got myself another piece of bread.

“Well. It’s normal, isn’t it?” He chuckled.

“Normal is absolutely relative.” Tilly shook her head.

“It’s simply hard to explain to humans. I tried a few times, and especially with young ones it is difficult to bring across. It’s just different. I wouldn’t say better, as see much bad things as well over the time.” He looked me deep into the eyes.

“It may be helpful, especially with setbacks, to let the bad things behind. It leads trying the same idiocies again and again though. Like wars or environmental damage.” I sighed and looked down at my feet.

“That is a problem, yes. Learning from history is not a strength of your kind.” He nodded solemnly.

“I think having it written down somewhere keeps us from taking it seriously, don’t now. There are efforts to learn from the past, but the further away it is the less impact it has on the present.” I looked up at him.

“Memories from the past can be haunting, preventing you from following way you had bad experiences with. Elves have some serious problems in such cases. It takes a lot of courage to keep on course then.” He shook his head. A sad smile played around his lips.

We felt silent for a while, everyone occupied with his own thoughts.

Having a lifespan as an elf certainly was daunting. Seeing the world change around was disconcerting, but it was intriguing as well to see how things work out in the long terms.

“I’m leaving for the council now.” Enleadir got to his feet.

“Drop by to give us a heads up later” Tilly smiled at him.

“That would be nice.” Milly nodded.

“I check after I leave, but won’t wake you up. I’ll come early tomorrow in that case.” He waved while leaving the room.

“Let’s relax today, maybe it’s the last day for a while.” I looked at Milly.

“Just waiting all day long will drive me crazy!” Milly furrowed her brows.

“Let’s prepare to leave at a moments notice. Now we’ve got time to do that properly. We can make something special for lunch and dinner as well, that will keep us occupied, at least for a while.” Loraline started to clear the table.

“Packing is pointless without knowing what they decide.” Milly frowned.

“All things we forget in a haste will be hard to replace in the wilderness.” Caroline vanished into the kitchen with some plates.

“It won’t hurt to be prepared. Deciding what to leave behind on a moments notice may bite us later.” Tilly got up from her chair and patted Milly’s head.

“Let’s do that. The worst thing that can happen is that we had spent some time on it. The chances are good that they want to get rid of us sooner or later. Let’s prepare for sooner and hope it’s alive.” I nodded at Milly.

Later in the evening, we were all sitting in the central room, someone knocked at the door.

Caroline jumped up and went for the door. It was Enleadir. He was carrying two bags, one was Tilly’s magical one.

“Good evening!” He smiled at Caroline

“Come in!” she waved him in.

“The council had decided on your case.” Enleadir nodded in our direction.

Then he sat down on an armchair next to us.

“So what did they decide?” Tilly looked at Enleadir with wide eyes.

Loraline and Caroline had tensed up visibly.

“You all will be leaving soon. Together. I am going to accompany you for a few days to get you to a distance more quickly.” Eleandir chuckled.

“Yay!” Loraline jumped to her feet.

“That’s great!” Caroline stretched her arms over her head with a wide smile.

“We are going to need supplies.” Milly scratched her head, smiling at Enleadir.

“Since the bag conserves food, I’ve filled it with plenty of food. Most of it are normal provisions, but I added some treats as well.” He put the bag on the floor.

“What about our other magical trinkets?” I smiled at Enleadir.

“Here you are.” He got the mirror, the amber and the ring from the other bag and put it on a small table beside the armchair.

“What about the armor and the weapons?” Caroline bit down on her lower lip.

“You can get them back of course, but we offer you to get something similar from our armory instead. I understood that you used them because you found them by chance. In addition I add this magical mace, which I have no use for and was quite dusty after all these years. Having a real enchanted weapon is really useful at times.” He put a mace on the table.

“We do have some more space in our backpacks for provision.” Loraline got up and took the ring of seeking to put it back on her finger.

“More traveling provisions will be available by the morning.” Enleadir folded his hands on his belly.

“Armor?” I took the Amber from the table an pocketed it.

“There will be a good quality gambeson for each of you. They are lighter and provide a decent amount of protection.” He paused for a moment.

“The Lord and the Lady will wish you farewell before you leave.” He nodded solemnly.

“As the the wearer of that ring closes in night and day he is supposed to be on a ship back here. It would be wise to leave as soon as possible.” Enleadir looked me right in the eyes. I blushed as felt my heart flutter a bit.

“We had packed the day, so we are as ready as we could be.” Milly pointed at our backpacks leaning against the far wall.

“Then let’s call it a day. We will leave tomorrow morning then.” Enleadir got back to his feet.

“Thanks for dropping by this late.” Milly pocketed the mirror.

“See you early tomorrow. I’ve got some things to prepare.” Enleadir waved and left us with a curt bow.

We waved as he left.

“The time of luxury and decadence is coming to an end.” I got to my feet.

“I won’t miss all those decadent workouts.” Loraline smirked at me.

“You will after a while. Who wants to take the mace?” I winked at her.

“I would take it.” Caroline picked it up, checking the balance.

“Anyone else?” I looked at Milly and Tilly.

They shook their heads.

“We will stay together!” Loraline smiled happily.

“I’m relieved as well.” Caroline swung the mace at some imagined foe.

“This rebinding of the outfits is still going on though.” Tilly furrowed her brows.

“There’s nothing we can do about that. Our magic will be crippled as long as that lasts.” I nodded at Tilly.

“It’s not the end of the world. Our magic had been quite convenient once in a while though.” Milly rubbed her chin.

“Definitely. The healing is a boon, but at least we all get some armor. Injuries won’t be that bad anymore.” I grinned at Milly.

“Don’t get reckless, Lilly!” Milly gave me a stern look.

“We’re heading in the wilderness. There are some pretty nasty creatures we have to cope with. We should avoid fights though as they will slow us down, especially when we’re hurt seriously.” I gave Milly a hug.

“I’ll remind you!” She gently pulled at my left ear.

“Let’s enjoy the last night in a bed.” Tilly yawned.

“Let’s go upstairs!.” Milly commanded.

We got ready for night and fooled around for a while, as this would be the last save night for a while.

It took some time to fall asleep thereafter, but eventually I fell asleep.