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Vur followed the Recordkeeper down a dark corridor. Somehow, even though they were walking through a tunnel in the ground, there were holes in the ceiling that emitted sunlight. Stella couldn’t help but stare up at the little holes of light, trying to figure out how the sun was shining so deep underground. With her sensitivity to mana as a fairy queen, she was sure there wasn’t any mana involved.

“Those are sun tunnels,” the Recordkeeper said, speaking as if she could see what was going on behind her head. “They’re lined with a reflective material, so when sunlight hits certain spots above the ground, the sunrays are bounced around and brought here. It’s a great alternative to save on mana consumption. Are you thinking of installing some in your lairs? I noticed you were still using the most primitive of light sources, glowing rocks, during that whole apocalyptic worm event.”

Stella’s eyes narrowed. If it weren’t for the fact the Recordkeeper had what Vur needed, Stella would’ve taught that birdbrained woman a lesson.

Prika cleared her throat. It was much higher-pitch than usual. Although the tunnels were too large for her to traverse through, that didn’t mean Vur couldn’t polymorph her. She was now a tiny red dragon; she looked exactly the same except for her size. “Where are you taking us? I don’t think you’ve ever led me down this path before.”

“Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?” the Recordkeeper asked. “You’ve only ever visited me to ask about civilizations writing romantic fiction.” She gestured towards the right. “The romantic fiction authors are recorded thirty-seven tunnels to the right. Also, you were never able to shrink before.”

Prika snorted. She was just voicing her thoughts out loud. They weren’t questions she actually wanted answered. “So, what are you going to do after finding out about those places you want to go, Vur? Are you going to interfere? Just watch? Turn a desperate situation into a soul-shattering one?”

Vur shrugged and glanced down at Stella. “What do you think?”

Stella blinked. “It’s up to you,” she said. “Follow your heart! You can do whatever you want.” She raised one finger in front of Vur’s mouth. “Anything you want except sleep!”

“This is it,” the Recordkeeper said before Vur could reply. She stopped in front of a door and pushed it open, revealing a domelike room carved out of the earth. Dozens of images were projected on the walls of the room all the way up to the ceiling. There was a long earthen walkway spiraling up the wall, allowing people to view each individual image up close. The Recordkeeper pointed at the start of the walkway. “Each and every situation involving something that’ll only last a few human generations. You can begin browsing over there.”

Vur went up the first image and furrowed his brow. It depicted a man eating a fruit that looked much like a small monkey. “I guess you send some mana into it?” Stella asked and flew down from Vur’s shoulder. She pressed her hand against the image and sent her mana into it. The image lit up, and the depicted man chomped down on the fruit. A line of text filled with unknown characters appeared above the man as his belly swelled up.

“Oops.” The Recordkeeper stepped forward and placed her hand on the wall. “Let me change the language to something all of you can read.”

Stella blinked as the language on the screen changed. “What? There’s a village of only male elves in the world?”

“The Kingdom of Men,” the Recordkeeper said. “Everyone in their kingdom is a male. When they eat the fruit of the Leben Tree, they produce an offspring—which will also be male. However, the Leben Trees are dying off, and no one can figure out a solution. Within three hundred years, all the Leben Trees will be gone, and the Kingdom of Men will cease to exist.”

“What do you think, Vur?” Stella asked, turning her head to look behind herself. She blinked when she found Vur wasn’t there. He was already walking up the ramp, glancing at each image before moving on. Stella zipped her mouth shut and flew after him, carefully observing his facial expressions whenever he chose to move on.

Vur furrowed his brow. Although these places were supposed to be gone soon, he didn’t think he’d have any fun visiting them. None of them seemed appealing to him; they looked too much places he could go or had already gone to. However, his eyes lit up, and he stopped walking upon seeing a certain picture. “What’s this?”

Stella flew forward and placed her hand on the image. It was that of an orange cloud. She inserted her mana, and the cloud glowed with a golden light. The scenery flashed by as if it were the view of a passing bird. It flew past some clouds, and a village came into view. “There’s a village in the sky!” Stella said, her mouth dropping open. “People can live in the sky?”

“Let’s go there,” Vur said. “The clouds look comfy.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Stella asked, turning her head towards the Recordkeeper.

The Recordkeeper pointed at the image. “If you were a little more patient, you would naturally find out. However, I won’t keep you in suspense. The clouds they live on are special, and they can only exist at a certain elevation at a certain temperature. There’s only one zone that’s capable of supporting a village of cloud people. There’s also only a finite amount of weight the cloud can hold. Life expectancy as a cloud person has been increasing with every generation, and soon, the population will grow too large. Unless something drastic happens to cull their population, the whole village will collapse.”

Stella nodded. “You can polymorph yourself into one of those clouds,” she said to Vur. “We’ll be able to blend in, and if you’re feeling up for it, you can solve their problem and prevent the future from coming true.”

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