In the icy heights of the Himalayas, where the wind cut like blades, Yusha, an elven woman with golden hair and pale skin, savored the rare hours of warmth to climb the valley. Her eyes, weary from centuries, sparkled as they gazed upon the herbs glistening under the pale sun. Each plant seemed to pulse with life, a vivid contrast against the gray rock and ice that dominated the landscape.
As she walked, her fingers brushed the leaves with silent reverence. Further ahead, a massive rock loomed, tilted like a sleeping giant covered in moss. It was a natural presence, almost comforting in its solidity. Yusha circled the boulder, her hand gliding over the damp moss, until her fingers touched something… wrong. Cold, rigid, but not stone. She froze.
Her eyes drifted down to the rock's surface, and a scream tore from her throat. A human arm, pale and motionless, was embedded in the stone, as if the valley itself had swallowed it. Yusha's heart raced, but centuries of life had taught her to tame panic. She approached, examining the surrounding rock formation. It was ancient, older than anything she had ever seen, yet the arm showed no signs of decay. How?
A possibility struck her like lightning: it's alive. Her mind, sharp despite her age, recalled her youth when she learned to shape mana. She was no master, far from an expert, but she knew enough. With a trembling breath, she channeled the energy, feeling the stone yield under her fingers like clay. She pulled, slowly and carefully, until a body slid out, collapsing among the flowers with a dull thud.
A young girl. No more than fourteen, with hair white as the snow blanketing the valley and delicate, almost elven ears adorned with three strange earrings. Her skin was pale, untouched by time or corruption. A red tail, glass-like in appearance, sprouted from the base of her spine. Yusha knelt, pressing her ear to the girl's chest. A faint but steady heartbeat confirmed: she was alive. Without hesitation, Yusha wrapped the girl in her cloak and carried her home as the first snowflakes began to fall, swallowing the valley in white.
In the cabin, the crackling of the fireplace was the only sound besides the wind outside. Yusha laid the girl on the couch near the fire, watching her with a mix of fascination and unease. How had a child ended up buried in that place? Years of solitude hadn't prepared her for this. Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight tremor in the girl's body. Eyes opened—red, deep, like glowing embers. Yusha felt a chill. This was no ordinary child.
"Little girl, what's your name?" she asked, her voice firm but gentle.
No response. The girl merely stared at the fire, her face expressionless. Yusha tried again, but the girl closed her eyes, sinking into a deep sleep. With a sigh, the elf adjusted the girl's head on a pillow and stood, driven by a curiosity she hadn't felt in decades.
In the dusty cabinets, she found what she sought: a yellowed scroll of [Detect Magic], a simple first-circle spell. It wasn't much, but it would suffice. She pointed the scroll at the girl and murmured the arcane words. Her vision tinged red, as it always did, with colored auras highlighting any trace of mana. But the girl… nothing. It was as if she were a stone, an inanimate object. Yusha frowned, her heart gripped by a mix of fascination and unease.
Hours passed. Night fell, dense and frigid, the wind howling like a starving wolf. Yusha returned to the fireplace room, expecting to find the girl still sleeping. But the space was empty. Her stomach twisted. Rushing to the door, she flung it open, facing a blinding snowstorm. No one could survive out there. Then, a movement behind her made her spin.
The girl was there, holding a book. Not just any book—one of Yusha's hidden magazines, filled with illustrations that made her cheeks burn. It was an old vice, a secret she had buried with her former life. Blushing fiercely, Yusha snatched the book from the girl's hands, almost reflexively.
"This isn't for children," she muttered, trying to sound stern.
The girl merely stared, her red eyes devoid of judgment, locked on Yusha's. With a sigh, Yusha felt a pang of pity. In the end, she was just a child, wasn't she? Hesitantly, she picked up the magazine again and sat beside the girl.
"Alright… maybe a little won't hurt."
Yusha sank into the worn sofa, the rough fabric brushing against her skin. With a hesitant gesture, she beckoned the girl to sit beside her. The young girl obeyed, her red eyes fixed on the magazine Yusha held with trembling hands. The elf opened the book, its illustrated pages revealing images that made her face burn with shame. Still, she began showing them, her voice choked with reluctance.
As she turned the pages, Yusha watched the girl in silence. The girl, once expressionless as the stone that had encased her, now seemed… captivated. Her eyes followed each line of the illustrations with a quiet, almost ravenous curiosity. But something in those deep, blood-red eyes unsettled her. Was it wrong to show this to such a young girl?
Her thoughts turned to the mystery of the girl. Who was she? How had a child, so fragile, so small, ended up buried in that forgotten valley? The Himalayas were unkind to the living. Was she the victim of some cruel spell? An abandoned experiment? Yusha felt a tightness in her chest, a mix of pity and unease. Centuries of life, and still, she couldn't even begin to guess the answers.
"Astrid," Yusha said, the word slipping out before she could stop it.
The girl raised her gaze, her red eyes meeting Yusha's for a brief moment, as if questioning the sound. But she soon returned to the magazine, her fingers tracing the pages with a delicacy that clashed with the emptiness of her expression.
"Astrid," Yusha repeated, more firmly, improvising. "That's what I'll call you. Until we figure out who you really are."
Astrid didn't respond, engrossed in the illustrations, as if the name were just another sound amidst the crackling of the fireplace.
The girl—Astrid—returned her attention to the magazine, turning the pages with delicate fingers. Yusha leaned closer, and the two spent the night there, wrapped in the warmth of the fireplace, immersed in a book that was anything but conventional.
Six Years Later
The valley, bathed in pale sunlight, seemed untouched by time. Astrid ran ahead, her light feet kicking loose pebbles, her white hair fluttering like a snow banner. "Don't fall behind, ma'am Yusha" she shouted, her voice echoing among the rocks.
"Ma'am?!" Yusha shot back, her tone laced with mock indignation. Her fingers, calloused by decades, clutched a basket brimming with herbs, their earthy scent filling the air. Once a cunning negotiator driven by profit and pleasures that consumed her, she had abandoned it all to isolate herself in the Himalayan. Until Astrid. The girl had awakened something Yusha, despite her centuries, had never known: the feeling of being a mother.
Watching Astrid dance through the valley, Yusha frowned. Six years, and the girl hadn't changed. Her body remained the same—those almost elven ears, the ember-red eyes—everything stayed identical, except for her hair, which grew as if mocking time. A variant of elf, perhaps, Yusha thought, but even so, six years should have left some mark.
She approached, her steps heavy against the verdant ground. "Astrid," she called, pointing to the tilted rock where she had found her. "That's where I first found you. Don't you feel anything? Not even a faint memory?"
Astrid shook her head, her eyes distant. "Nothing until I saw you standing in front of me. Just… darkness."
Yusha laughed, the hoarse sound cutting through the cold wind. "How tragic, huh? Maybe they abandoned you here for being unbearable?"
"Unbearable?" Astrid pointed to her own face, a smug smile on her lips. "I'm amazing. And no one would abandon someone as beautiful as me."
"Alright, Miss Beauty," Yusha rolled her eyes, adjusting the basket on her back. "Now let's get to work."
Yusha's hands moved with precision, plucking unique herbs from the soil, their leaves shimmering with a faint pulse of mana. The valley, saturated with dense magic, was an untouched treasure. No industry could establish extraction nodes there—the mana was too dense, too wild. Instead, every three months, a silent android appeared, trading the harvested plants for supplies or whatever Yusha requested.
With their baskets full, Astrid grumbled, the weight dragging her shoulders down. "This is so heavy. Wouldn't it be easier to use magic to carry this? I've seen you use it a few times, don't you have some handy trick for this?"
Yusha laughed, the sound muffled by the wind. "Maybe. But the little I learned about mana doesn't help with baskets." She paused, her fingers hesitating over a thorny herb. "You know, years ago, I tried to like magic. Even attended an academy for a while. But… I chose another path."
Astrid raised an eyebrow, her gaze mischievous. "I know… the slutty path, right? You naughty little elf."
"You respect me!" Yusha exclaimed, her face flushing as she yanked another herb with more force than necessary.
Astrid laughed, but her eyes gleamed with curiosity. "I want to learn magic. At least the basics."
Yusha sighed, wiping the dirt from her hands. "I'm not sure I'm the best for that… But fine, I can teach you another day. For now, let's head back. My skin's burning in this cold."
In the cabin, the air smelled of fresh herbs and burning wood. Yusha and Astrid worked in silence, sorting and storing the plants. Astrid, holding a glowing leaf in her hand, frowning. "We've been collecting these for a while, but I've never seen you use them. Not for cooking, nothing. You give it all to that weird robot that comes here. What are these plants for?"
Yusha smiled, her fingers tracing the outline of an herb with care. "They have many uses. Healing potions, cosmetics, alchemy. Even protective spells and rituals. The mana in this valley is so dense that these plants are more potent than any others."
Astrid stared at the herb in her hands, her eyes wide with a mix of fascination and disbelief. "These little plants are that useful?" She paused, tilting her head. "So… why didn't you ever dive into magic? It seems so fun. And with this valley, wouldn't you have a huge advantage?"
Yusha sighed, stacking a crate of herbs with precision. "You don't get it. If I were a mage, I wouldn't even be able to set foot here. The mana's too strong." She pulled another crate, her fingers delicately untangling useless herbs mixed with the magical ones. "Besides, like I said earlier, I chose a different path. In my childhood…" She hesitated, her gaze lost for a moment. "I had issues with magic. It led me down another road. It's powerful, it transforms the world, people, but it's not for me. Besides, there's no harm in living simply."
Astrid tilted her head, her red eyes glinting with a spark of curiosity. "Hmm… But I wouldn't mind learning just the basics."
Yusha shrugged, her fingers still dirty from the herbs. "If that's what you want, we can start tomorrow."
Astrid pressed on, her eyes shining. "And this path you chose? Is it as interesting as magic? Is isolating yourself here part of it?"
Yusha laughed, the sound warm against the cold seeping through the cracks. "No, I came here recently. Before, I lived a lot, got things no spell could give me. Luxury, flavors, warmth…" Her voice grew distant, a blush creeping up her face as she repeated, "Warmth…"
"Warmth, I see," Astrid teased, rolling her eyes.
With the sorting done, Astrid yawned, her shoulders drooping with exhaustion. "I'm beat. I think I'll sleep early. Goodnight, Yusha." She waved, walking to her room with light steps.
Yusha narrowed her eyes, waving back. Alone, she rose and went to the window. Her arms rested on the sill, the cold wood biting her skin. Outside, nightfall swallowed the mountains, and a snowstorm began, slow and relentless, like the one six years ago. Yusha knew such storms transformed certain herbs, hardening them until they glowed like stones of light. Tomorrow we'll have even more work, she thought, her eyes fixed on the falling snow, dense and hypnotic.
As she watched, her mind drifted to the past six years. Time had flown by, she reflected. Astrid was an absolute enigma. When Yusha used the [Detect Magic] scroll, nothing happened—except for that strange tail, a detail that haunted her thoughts. That tail… it's completely unlike anything I've ever seen, she mused, the image etched in her memory. Despite her blank past, Astrid recognized the language, knew relatively recent things, but nothing of her origins. It was as if her history had been erased. Yusha had lived in that valley for thirty years, and for three decades, she hadn't encountered a single living soul. How had Astrid appeared, embedded in that rock? It was as if magic had spat her out, an unsolvable mystery. Yusha had mentioned the girl to an old contact several times, but he never believed her—a girl with such a peculiar description appearing in such a remote place? Even Yusha hadn't believed it at first. In the end, she simply accepted it.
Astrid was part of her life now, and that was enough.
A muffled moan echoed through the room, cutting through Yusha's thoughts. She frowned, glancing back suspiciously, her bare feet gliding over the cold floorboards as she approached Astrid's bed. Under the dim glow of the lamp, the blanket shifted, accompanied by soft, suspicious sounds.
With a swift motion, Yusha grabbed the blanket and flung it upward, the fabric billowing like a scattered cloud.
"Going to bed early, huh? Naughty girl!" she shouted, a mischievous grin on her lips.
Astrid let out a shrill scream, her face red as glowing embers. In a panic, she clutched the magazine she was holding and used it to cover her body, her eyes wide with shock.
"W-what are you doing?!" she stammered, her voice trembling with embarrassment. "I was just... I was reading!"
Yusha rolled her eyes, snatching the magazine from Astrid's hands and tossing it onto the shelf with an exaggerated gesture.
"Reading, my ass!" she retorted, pointing an accusing finger. "You always leave my magazines all sticky."
"Aaah! What?! I never did that!" Astrid yelled, pulling the blanket to hide herself, her face now an impossible shade of red.
Yusha laughed, shaking her head.
"Alright, enough of that. Go to sleep. There's a storm outside, and tomorrow we'll have double the work."
Astrid grumbled, turning over in bed and wrapping herself in the blanket like a cocoon. The howling wind outside seemed to echo her frustration. Yusha, still with a half-smile, walked to her own bed.
I can't really judge her. That's just how young people are, she thought as she lay down, feeling the mattress sink under her weight, the scent of clean linen mingling with the cold air seeping through the crack in the window. Her eyes fixed on the ceiling, but her mind was already on the next day.