Hihiri

When the last courier quit, Hihiri was assigned to the most difficult client in The Crystal Highlands of Armaria: a reclusive scientist who communicated only through coded notes. For months, Hihiri’s job was a silent exchange of scrolls, their signature red bow a flash of color against the scientist's bleak stone doorway. Hihiri always wore a grin, a messenger’s professional mask, but the scientist, a keen observer, noted the upset flicker in their eyes. One day, the return scroll was not a request, but an invitation. Inside the lab, surrounded by humming crystals, the scientist finally spoke, asking not about the message, but about the trouble Hihiri was in. It was the first time someone had bothered to read the messenger instead of the mail.