The Misty Marsh.
Gray-white fog shrouded the place year-round, limiting visibility to less than ten zhang.
The ground was not soil but a bottomless layer of bubbling black mud. Now and then, a few twisted dead trees rose from it, their branches draped in slimy moss. The sight alone was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
Yet deep in this lifeless swamp, things were lively just then.
"Princess! Princess, slow down!"
Seven or eight maids in silvery-white feathered robes lifted their skirts and struggled through the mud after the golden figure ahead.
The one they were chasing was Ailiya, the Little Princess of the Winged Human Race.
Ailiya had just turned eighteen.
She had long, brilliant golden hair adorned with a few white feathers. Her skin was almost luminous, and her features were as delicate as a porcelain doll's.
Most striking were the snow-white wings on her back. Though still only three feet long because of her youth, they already let her glide short distances close to the ground.
At that moment, she stood on tiptoe atop a patch of slightly drier earth, looking around with a palm-sized Crystal Compass in her hand.
"Have you found it?"
An older maid caught up, panting, her face full of worry.
"Princess, we've been searching for three days. Why don't we... go back for now? If the King learns you snuck out, he'll be angry..."
"Father King won't be angry."
Ailiya did not look back.
"His old injury has flared up. It hurts so much he can't sleep at night. If we find the Seven-Colored Ganoderma, it could ease the pain. It might even cure him... This is important!"
She looked down at the compass again.
Its needle turned slowly in the fog, pointing deeper into the swamp.
"But..."
The maid tried to