Day 226
We make excellent time returning to camp, just me, Alder, Alrudian, and Crag. When Alrudian and Zidi crash into each other's arms I can almost hear my name spilling out with the breathless laughter. It takes Zidi some time to adjust to Crag but soon they are flying together happily. I’m thankful for her child’s resilience.
When I tell our gathered apprentices that Bran intends to remain in the Armed Nation and Dreamfall for a few weeks to get people settled, Nina asks if she can stay behind as well. Dawn and Hella both seem to be holding back their feelings as she explains, “The more I think about what it means to protect others, the more I realize I don’t have a place here. You don’t need protection. But I can stay and take care of people who aren’t strong right now and who really need a shield.”
First Bran, now Nina. They really do move fast. Later in the evening after she and Kadia have had some internal conversation she settles down next to me.
“I’m next, aren’t I?” she asks softly. It has been less than a year since she came chasing after us in the woods and only a few months since the Empress summoned her beyond the Barrier. I had my own small breakdown at the time thinking about her leaving. I’ve had all that time to privately prepare myself and consider what life will be like when we’re finally able to send her across the mountains. Now I can see those feelings and fears welling up in her too, as if for the first time. Even if she knows she’s capable (“My magic is fierce,” she tells me), she doesn’t feel ready. The secret is that it’s actually extraordinarily rare to feel ready before you do it. Bran is unusual in this, but that’s no surprise.
Days 227-229
The ride away from our camp is sombre as we leave behind Caravel, Nina, Alrudian, Zidi, and Crag. I spend the next few days sprinkling in stories of Alwen, Doraal, and Mistress. I hope Hella will feel like she is stepping from one home to another when she finally moves across the Barrier.
Day 230
On our third day of travel the land around us grows more lush and I see extraordinarily wide-canopied trees up ahead of us. They are so tall but nearly double their height in width, growing up to 100m tall and 300m wide. Camella tells us that these are eldritch trees, cousins to the trees of the Grove. Stories say that the eldest troll used seeds from these trees to create the first grove trees. It’s just a few more days before we reach the Grove itself.
As we reach the treeline we are greeted by a dozen fae, all autumn and winter and resplendent in full shining armour. They welcome Camellia happily and are pleased to see so many of us escorting her home. But when she says that she is here to petition for us to come all the way into the Grove, they grow a little colder. She agrees to make her petition to Seekers or Lorekeepers (but not to Heralds or Champions, which seems to surprise them).
As we discuss this, their eldest (a winter fae) asks what I am. She seems unconvinced when I tell her that I’m an elf.
“There’s something more to it. That one lurking in your shadow feels like an elf. You feel like something else,”
I agree that I am something of a special elf, unfurling the wings from my cloak. They react with surprise, hands going to weapons, but the youngest of them comes forward to speak. She is young, maybe only four years old, but she has age in her eyes.
“A sworn friend returns? You come to watch while we sleep and keep us safe?”
Something like that...not quite to watch over them not, but something similar. She nods and turns to the others, speaking with authority that they seem to heed,
“We can trust her. She wouldn’t be able to unfurl those wings and she wouldn’t know seasons if she meant to harm us,”
And so they lead us into the forest to their camp where several other fae are resting. As we walk, Lesili asks if I’ve come to wander the ancient halls (what a question…) and remarks that even if that’s not why I’m here, it is a place I should visit. Ghosts of the place remain and sing ancient songs from when elves did guard the fae while they slept.
We take some time to rest and refresh ourselves before we’ll have to tell our story to the knights. Camellia launches into a brief explanation of the politics we are observing:
- The House of Knights : All the knights here are servants of the court. Right now we are witnessing a changing of the guard as newly wakened autumn knights replace the winter knights who are about to sleep.
- The House of Seekers : Fae who look to expand what is currently known. Many are not nobles but still seek out the service of the House.
The House of Keepers : She served this House once. They collect lost songs and preserve those that would be otherwise lost. They piece together a lost fae’s song from fragments of other songs and piece together a life from the shards that remain.- The House of Champions : Once they were the point of a sword, riding out against the Great Darkness. For a long while there have not been many new champions but recently more are waking.
- The House of Heralds : A collection of custodians, caretakers, and ‘spies’ some call them. They maintain the continuity of the court’s orders.
Usually outsiders aren’t permitted past the eldritch trees, and many outsiders believe the eldritch trees themselves to be the Grove. This is a mistake I can understand. The fantastically wide trees look magical and grand compared to normal trees but not compared to the ones at Dreamfall or the Tree of Refuge at Wellspring.
And then Camellia speaks aloud what has been implicit for many moons now. Now and until she wakes for the last time she will return to this family.
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