Wisps in the Woods

As the month of Sun begins, so does the height of summer – the most pleasant time of the year – in Iadlain. This year is unusually warm, to the surprise of locals and delight of visitors, and on the 5th of the month it suddenly takes an even stranger turn.

At dusk, tiny ghost-like specks of light begin to float up from the earth, and do not cease. They emerge anywhere and everywhere – from the streets outside, the floors of homes, the soil of the forest, even the rocks beneath rivers. Residents are alarmed at first, but the motes quickly prove to have no effect and no substance. They pass right through everything, living and inanimate alike, and after a few days gather densely enough above the clouds to form a brilliant, green-gold aurora that stretches over the woods between Iadlain and Reluir.

It’s a breathtaking sight, and yet disconcerting. For all the strange magical phenomena of Iadlain, nothing like this has ever happened before and no one is sure what to make of it. Mages are quick to examine the light wisps, devising enchanted jars and crystals to capture them in, but aside from glowing they seem to do little. And so, instead, people take the strangeness in stride and gather the lights into tiny novelty lanterns and pendants, which soon prove popular as souvenirs and decorations. For however long this lasts, Iadlain becomes a town of ghostly fairy lights.