The snow has almost melted and there were first signs of spring. Ursu was going back from school. That day she wanted to just study in her room. She really thought she had to study because a test season was approaching.

  When Ursu got to her house however she found something in the mailbox. A letter addressed to her. It was a strange finding. Ursu never had that many letters. Well… Except letters from one person. Ursu gnced over the sender’s address. She recognised their name.

  Lily Dickens, Ursu’s sister. Lily always wanted to become a fairy and once she did she found herself free. She decided to move to the Fairy Realm to connect with the fairy community. Living with Lily after her transformation was an unforgettable experience for Ursu. She seemed truly happy and more energetic. And Ursu was always ready to help her learn the fairy nguage.

  Ever since Lily moved to the Fairy Realm, letters were the only method for the sisters to stay in contact. They promised each other to write every Friday. One Friday it was Ursu who was writing, the next one it was Lily. The letters were usually arriving on Mondays.

  But this time the letter arrived on Thursday. What’s more, it was Ursu’s time to write. That was unusual. It looked as if something important had happened.

  Ursu read the letter in her room. Its contents didn’t cheer her up at all.

  Dear sister

  This may be the st time I am writing to you for now. And I have to ask you to stop writing to me too.

  Kanimfelli Omiāk made the decision to control every letter sent between the realms. If the censors find something suspicious I may risk severe punishment. And Omiāk is someone that might have a grudge on me if he finds something.

  Please, do not worry about me. I will try to emigrate to East Moonwing Isnd. From what I know the situation is far better there. When I finally move I will write to you. Until then, please, don’t write to me.

  Sincerely

  Lily

  Reading the letter, Ursu was frightened and worried. What was going on around Lily that she needed to stay silent? Why did she tell her not to write anymore? Was Lily safe?

  Ursu was overstressing over what she should do. She needed to know whether or not Lily was safe. And if she was not, she needed to help her. She needed to go to the Fairy Realm.

  Ursu grabbed everything she could need and packed it in her backpack. Then she grabbed all her savings. she would need them to buy a usable portion of food. She knew that the food from the Fairy Realm shouldn’t be eaten if one doesn’t want to get transformed into a fairy. Ursu was ready to embark on the journey.

  And then she thought that maybe she should first know what is going on. She should get a fuller picture. And since she couldn’t write anything to Lily…

  “I have to visit Giovanna.”

  Giovanna was surprised to see the guest at her house, but the surprise was not pleasant at all.

  “I hope you have a good reason not to study today,” said Giovanna. “And for pulling me back from studying.”

  “I believe I do,” said Ursu. “I want you to make a tarot reading for me.

  “What about?” said Giovanna. “I’d like to make this quick.”

  Ursu gave Giovanna the letter from her sister.

  “Read this,” said Ursu.

  When Giovanna read the letter she got worried. She understood that something bad was going on. And she found the letter just as mysterious as Ursu did.

  “Could you try doing a reading that could tell us what is going on?” asked Ursu.

  Giovanna gnced at the letter once more and understood why her friend was so concerned.

  “Alright, I’ll read for you,” said Giovanna. “Let me just find my cards.”

  Giovanna’s desk was a little cluttered, but she always kept her cards in the same corner. She took the cards and shuffled them a few times. Then she gave them to Ursu.

  “Cut the deck,” said Giovanna.

  Ursu took a handful of cards from the top and moved them to the bottom of the deck. Giovanna then shuffled the cards once again and took three of them. She made a basic spread of Past, Present and Future. Maybe some more eborate spread would be better, but Giovanna had no idea on what such spread should be.

  Giovanna revealed the cards one by one. In the Past space there was the reversed Justice. The Present had the reversed Power. And the Future space had the Hanged Man.

  “Something or someone is… imprisoning her,” said Giovanna.

  “What? For real?” Ursu was shocked. Her own sister in prison? “Where? How? Why?”

  “No, don’t worry. That was a metaphor,” said Giovanna. “I simply didn’t really know what else to call that.”

  “Ah… I understand now,” said Ursu. “But what else do the cards say?”

  “It seems like she can do something about it,” said Giovanna. “But she might need something to show her how to. Or to give her strength.”

  Ursu understood what Giovanna meant. Lily indeed was in trouble. But maybe Ursu could help her. Her decision was quick.

  “I am going to the Fairy Realm,” said Ursu. “Would you like to join me?”

  Giovanna was pondering over what she should do. But she decided she wanted to help her friend.

  “I hope I won’t regret this,” said Giovanna. “Let’s prepare.”

  Sarah was still building her collection of the magical tags. She has gotten to the point where she could write the whole alphabet without looking at the sheet in her grimoire. She had a lot of tags prepared. So much in fact that she needed something to hold them on. So she decided to go to the mall.

  Sarah found the trip very fruitful. She found a nice red yarn that she could turn into a bracelet or a neckce. She also visited the bookstore and looked for some manga. And there has been a new volume of Five Piece released, so she bought it. It was a nice hunt.

  Sarah was about to leave the mall when she passed by the sports store. She saw Angelo looking through backpacks.

  “Oh, hi, Angelo!” Sarah called him.

  “Oh! Hi!” Angelo noticed Sarah. “Shopping day?”

  “Yeah, I thought of buying something to keep my tags on,” said Sarah. “And what are you shopping for?”

  “Ah, you know, a new gig from Mr. Ovid and suddenly I have to go to the Fairy Realm,” said Angelo. “For now I’m looking for a backpack and then I’ll try completing the equipment.”

  “Like what?” asked Sarah.

  “Maybe some bolts for the crossbow. These could come in handy,” said Angelo. “But for sure I gotta stock up on food. It’s better not to eat anything there. Remember what we saw in Kafka’s b?”

  Sarah remembered that all too well. She remembered the horror of seeing the victims of Kafka’s experiments. To think a single bite of the Fairy Realm food could turn you into a fairy was terrifying. No wonder Angelo wanted to bring a lot of food with him.

  “I remember,” said Sarah. “You don’t have to remind me.”

  “Yeah, so I’m gonna collect some equipment and I will go this evening,” said Angelo.

  Suddenly Sarah thought about something. How does the Fairy Realm look? What would it be like to go visit it? How would a fairy city look? Would it match her imaginings built by years of consuming fairy reted media?

  Yes, Sarah wanted to visit the Fairy Realm. So why shouldn’t she ask Angelo to take her with him?

  “Hey, can I go with you?” asked Sarah.

  “Where? To the Fairy Realm?” Angelo hoped that Sarah’s answer would be negative.

  “Yes!” said Sarah, crushing Angelo’s hopes.

  It’s not that Angelo would prefer to go alone. He just knew how dangerous the Fairy Realm really is. It’s not an easy or necessarily safe pce to go sightseeing. At least the West Moonwing Isnd where Angelo was going.

  But for some reason Angelo couldn’t refuse Sarah.

  “Alright, but just remember that you have to watch out there,” said Angelo. “And take something to defend yourself with you. You know what kind of business Mr. Ovid usually gets me into.”

  “Thank you!” said Sarah. “I’ll do my best to prepare!”

  “Alright, give me a sec,” said Angelo and took his phone. He typed something and sent it to Sarah. “I’ve sent a list of everything you’re gonna need on Discuss. If you can prepare everything today then I’ll take you with me.”

  “Thank you!” said Sarah. “I’ll do it quickly!”

  “Then let’s meet on Mt. Corvus at 6 PM,” said Angelo.

  He smiled at Sarah, but he didn’t know at all whether she’d be fine.

  Climbing Mt. Corvus with a full backpack is not an easy task. Especially with one where you carry a rope, a notebook, a pen, a barrelful of cy, a truckful of food and a passport. But that was the necessary equipment for Sarah to go to the Fairy Realm. That’s what Angelo recommended to her and she trusted Angelo to be experienced with the Fairy Realm.

  From the summit of Mt. Corvus Sarah saw Angelo standing in a circle of mushrooms. His backpack was next to him ying in the grass and he was holding a passport.

  “You’re te!” Angelo said. “Quickly, to the circle!”

  Sarah rushed and stepped into the circle. She took her passport put of her backpack.

  “What now?” said Sarah.

  “Now we wait for the energy impulse,” said Angelo.

  “How long will we wait?” Sarah asked.

  “Not long,” said Angelo. “Usually they happen every five minutes.”

  Suddenly Sarah felt something. As if a thousand mosquitoes bit her at the same time. To add to it she saw a blue fsh. And when it all went away Sarah and Angelo found themselves inside a dirty grey room with a gss roof and grass and mushrooms on the floor.

  “What was that?” said Sarah

  “That was the energy impulse,” said Angelo.

  “Horrible!” shouted Sarah.

  Angelo noticed two more persons waiting in the corner of the room.

  “Oh, hi, gals!” Angelo said.

  Sarah turned to see who Angelo was talking to and saw Ursu and Giovanna.

  “Angelo! Sarah! What are you doing here?” asked Giovanna.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Sarah.

  “We are waiting for the passport control,” said Ursu.

  “Ah, funny story,” said Angelo. “I have a new gig to do for Mr. Ovid around here and Sarah wanted to tag along.”

  “You could’ve written to me,” said Giovanna.

  “Yeah, sorry,” said Angelo. “I guess I’m a crappy boyfriend, huh?”

  “I never said that,” said Giovanna.

  “I love you too,” said Angelo.

  “Now, what brings you two here?” asked Sarah.

  “Ursu came here because her sister is in trouble,” said Giovanna. “And I decided to help them a little.”

  “What? What happened?” Sarah asked Ursu.

  “I do not know what she is going through,” said Ursu. “Lily will expin when we meet her.”

  Just then a tall and muscur person wearing a uniform entered the room. Sarah noticed they had big dragonfly-like wings growing out of their back. She recognised they were a fairy. They were speaking a nguage she did not understand. For some reason Sarah was terrified. Should fairies be so tall? And why did they seem so ominous?

  Then the fairy stood in front of the group and waved their fingers.

  “Inankyejā,” said the fairy.

  “Passports,” said Angelo.

  The girls gave their passports to Angelo and he gave them all to the customs official. They were reading them for a long time, likely thanks to the difficulties in reading English. Sarah grew bored.

  “Hey, have you ever caught Ursu using contractions?” Sarah said.

  “They are just very hard for me,” said Ursu.

  “Contractions? Hard?” said Sarah.

  “Akkalime?i!” said the official.

  “Quit talking,” said Angelo.

  Sarah and Ursu turned silent in an instant.

  Finally the official looked through all the passports and put some papers in them. They gave the passports back while shooting out incomprehensible words. They then opened a massive gate in the back of the room.

  “Amni?i em Salik Falsalām Anpesnāk!” said the official.

  Sarah looked at Angelo and asked him “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know that nguage that much, but I understand that much,” said Angelo and smiled. “Welcome to West Moonwing Isnd!”