Auden’s Blessing
He murmured, almost to himself, “When crafting a wand, you usually obtain the wood for the shaft first, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I replied absentmindedly.
He nodded. His long fingers traced across the map; wherever they moved, a red halo gathered around his fingertips. At last, his finger stopped over the elven realm—Alfheim—and he tapped it lightly.
The pages flipped rapidly.
Soon the red glow faded, replaced by a radiant emerald light. The magic book now displayed an enormous tree growing from a spring. Winged elves fluttered gracefully above the water, their crystalline bodies shining so brightly that, at a glance, they resembled drifting fireflies. The tree itself was the largest I had ever se