Tessia Eralith
The Hallowed Hollow, or, as I learnt, the Index of Gaia... whatever that tmeant.
The Insight I had recently gained through the Woods Wide Web, thanks to that flowered Elderwood Guardian I met with Aya, had peeled back layers of reality I had never known existed, revealing secrets about my homeland that had been hidden in plain sight for centuries.
The Hallowed Trees elvenkind considered almost like gods, the silent guardians that had watched over our people since before recorded history, were not simply ancient plants (the most ancient of the Forest).
They were the fingers of Gaia herself, reaching up from the earth to touch the sky.
And the Hallowed Hollow, largest of the Watchful Willows, was the Index.
The Hallowed Bountiful of Azellio, near the Grand Mountains, was the Thumb. The Hallowed Vigilant of the City of Flowers, Eidelholm, was the Twiggy, the little finger of the hand, as we elves called it, the smallest but no less significant.
And fnally, the undiscovered Hallowed Spruce near Asyphin became known to me as the Annulary (it was named after the ring finger—the traditional digit for wedding rings and bands—due to a critical mana vein and channel running through it).
Gaia, it seemed, only had four fingers; she lacked the middle one.
I now stood, having just dismounted Hoofy, in the large chamber that gave the largest of the Watchful Willows its name—the adorned room where Lances had been trained by House Eralith for centuries, as Dad had explained to me.
The walls were smooth, polished by ages of magic and use, their surface glowing faintly with the residual mana of countless mages who had stood where I now stood.
I had been here a few times before, when I still thought of Aya as just a very competent instructor from Sister House Grephin, and not a white-core mage and deadly hidden blade in the service of my family.
I had trained here, practiced here, pushed my limits in this sacred space without ever truly understanding what it was. What it meant.
In hindsight... how didn't I understand that something was wrong with Aya and Alea earlier?
I had always been quite suspicious of the maid before—since I knew her, actually—and of my instructor later. There had been moments, small inconsistencies, glances that lingered too long, skills that seemed too refined for their supposed stations.
But them being Lances? The thought still sent a shiver down my spine, a cold realization of just how deep the layers of secrecy ran in my own family.
I crossed my arms over the chestplate of my armor, staring up at the giant crystal hanging high above in the hollowed space inside the tree.
The "core," as many had theorized, cast a soft greenish glow on the floor, humming with plant mana as it had done for centuries. The light was gentle, almost hypnotic, painting everything in shades of emerald and jade.
But that usual humming, now that I had the Woods Wide Web, was a roar.
The Acquire Phase of the Forest's Will always had the peculiarity of making plant mana resound in my head, honing my natural mana senses tenfold for that rare deviance.
The gentle thrum that had once been a comforting background presence was now a symphony of voices, a chorus of the Forest itself singing in a language I was only beginning to understand.
"Let the mana crystal down!" I shouted at the Hollow, trying to order the tree to let go of its fake mana core.
The Insight I had gained told me that it was just a giant mana crystal that had taken a spherical shape through the centuries, but it wasn't actually bonded to the Hollow in any sort of form.
It was a guest, a visitor, a stranger that had made its home in the heart of the tree but shared no true connection with it.
In truth, that mana crystal was just a casket, a tomb.
I didn't know what I actually expected—maybe that the tree would magically gain consciousness and the ability to move?—but the Hallowed Hollow did nothing to obey my order.
The silence stretched, broken only by the distant whisper of leaves and the ever-present hum of the crystal above. I might as well have been speaking to the wind.
I withdrew my wand-sword and did the next thing that came to my mind: asking help from the Forest's very own special gardeners—the Elderwood Guardians.
"Sprout!" I commanded, sinking my weapon into the floor of the Hollow and feeling dozens of little roots make contact with the tip of the sword.
The Woods Wide Web immediately connected with my consciousness as I began to feel everything the Forest herself felt. It was like being plunged into a green ocean of sensation, every nerve in my body suddenly alive with the presence of something vast and ancient and utterly beyond my comprehension.
I gritted my teeth through the sensory overload, typical of the Woods Wide Web, but amplified now that I was so close to something Gaia cherished—whatever was kept inside that mana crystal. I had to earn it. I had to prove myself worthy of whatever secret it held.
I suffered through the ringing in my leaves-ears as I heard the wind howling above the highest canopies of the trees surrounding us. The sound was deafening, a symphony of rustling and creaking and whispering that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
I resisted the feeling of my bark/skin being used by so many of Gaia's children—from us elves building our homes with them to the smallest mana beasts making their nests and dens. Every living thing in the Forest was connected, woven together in a tapestry of life that I was starting to see.
I searched far and wide around me for an Elderwood Guardian, calling out with the voice of the Forest itself, but no such mana beast was nearby. .
I finally withdrew my wand-sword, and the Woods Wide Web stopped its relentless sensory assault. The sudden silence was almost as overwhelming as the noise had been, a hollow emptiness that pressed against my ears.
I clicked my fingers and summoned a circular gust of wind to dry off the sweat drenching me as I took a breath. The air was cool against my skin, a welcome relief after the intensity of my connection.
"Let's try another way..." I decided, sheathing my wand-sword and wielding my grassword in its place.
The blade of grass always rolled around my wrist transformed into a classical Courtblade, but made of green fibers instead of metal. It was lighter than steel, more alive, and it hummed in my hand with the same energy that pulsed through the Forest herself.
I wanted to reach the crystal by flight, but seeing as I was not a white-core mage, I had to get a little bit more creative. Thankfully, the Woods Wide Web and the Hollow itself provided me with as much mana as I needed... I was going to use lots of it.
I started the casting of a Galeshot, a small vortex of wind magic forming around me. The air swirled and twisted, pulling at my gunmetal hair and at my white mantle as if they were both banners of Elenoir.
Pointing my grassword toward the huge crystal hanging above, I bent my knees slightly and concentrated on my plant magic.
Accompanied by the circular currents of wind, small roots sprouted from the floor, twisting in the air like verdant serpents reaching for the sky.
"A little more..." I asked, feeling my mana being drained as I started to rely on the mana of the Forest.
The power surged through me, not my own but borrowed, a loan from something far greater than myself, but that would still give it willingly as she was kind to her children. I became one with these dozens of tiny germinations, feeling their growth as if it were my own.
And then, all at once—I commanded them to grow.
I jumped at the same time as the propulsive force of wind magic and plants growing propelled me toward the crystal high above. The world fell away beneath me, the floor of the Hollow shrinking to a distant circle of green light.
Like a bird I soared, my wings being the twisting, serpentine vines that accompanied my ascent in a turbine of green. The wind rushed past my face, cold and sharp, and I felt my heart hammering in my chest as I climbed higher and higher.
The crystal grew larger in my vision, its greenish glow intensifying until it filled my entire world. I reached out, my fingers stretching toward its surface.
With the palm of my offhand, I touched the mana core of the Hallowed Hollow.
And Insight crashed on my senses.
???
Between the foliage of a large tree, I held a meeting with my sisters-in-battle as we decided the future moves of our people.
The willow's branches cradled us like the hands of a mother, its leaves whispering secrets only the wind could understand.
Below, the new city sprawled along the banks of the Arnocue, a testament to our people's resilience and hope; but hope was a fragile thing in this age, since we decided to venture outside Azellio and the shadows gathering on the horizon threatened to snuff it out entirely.
"My Queen," my sister-in-battle Sèrafin, to whom I gave the sapname of Chaffer, said, kneeling in front of me. Her voice was steady, but I could hear the tremor beneath it—the fear she was trying so hard to hide. "The horde of belves will come to the new city soon. We should run back to Azellio now that we still can."
I pondered the suggestion of Sèrafin. The belves, the monsters able to use mana like the Goddess herself. I was the only one that could defend my people from so many of them, because I was the only one able to use mana.
Mage, my people called me. An elf able to use mana.
I could do so only because I was the vessel of the Goddess Gaia, her Willgrower, as Asuryan had taught me. What a fraud my people's deity was, to have her Will taken by one of her own.
I had not asked for this burden. I had not sought this power. It had been thrust upon me like a crown of thorns, beautiful and terrible and utterly inescapable.
"The Crenne Montheins will shield us, and the trees will disperse the horde in time," Eilyne said, her voice calm but edged with desperation.
Another of my sisters-in-battle: Eilyne, to whom I had given the sapname Auddyr. She had always been the optimist among us, the one who saw hope where others saw only despair. I admired her for it, even as I knew her hope was misplaced.
"The Crenne Montheins are far," Afiora countered, her voice sharp as a blade. "We will never reach Azellio in time."
Sister-in-battle Afiora, given the sapname Grephin. She was the pragmatist, the one who saw the world as it was, not as she wished it to be. Her words cut through Eilyne's hope like a knife through leaves, leaving only the cold truth behind.
My sisters-in-battle continued to discuss, their voices rising and falling like the tide, as my eyes went beyond the platform between the branches where we held our meetings.
The willow that cradled us was ancient, its bark rough and scarred, its roots reaching deep into the earth. It had seen centuries of change, had witnessed the lives of many creatures, and yet it remained, steadfast and silent.
I graced one leaf from a nearby branch of the willow—a single, perfect leaf, its surface smooth and green, and connected my mind with Gaia through her Will.
The world dissolved around me. I was a leaf, carried by the wind as I soared above the new city. The sensation was intoxicating, dizzying, a freedom I could never truly know in my own body. I drifted on currents of air, watching the world unfold beneath me.
Many of my people were working hard to settle their homes, to fish in the Arnocue, to harvest the bounty of their Goddess. They moved with purpose, their hands calloused and their faces lined with the effort of survival. They had come so far, sacrificed so much, and still, they did not falter.
There were many willow trees in this new city, as many as we had never seen in a single place and they were enormous: tall and imperious, their branches reaching toward the sky like grasping fingers. They were the bones of the land, the markers of our new home.
I felt the sun of spring on my "skin"—a warmth that seeped into my very being, a promise of renewal and growth. The world was alive, vibrant, pulsing with the energy of a million tiny lives.
And through it all, I heard the lament of Gaia's body.
The belves were coming, and I was the only one able to fight them.
I have tried to teach my sisters-in-battle magic, but I failed. Asuryan explained it would take generations still before the elves would be able to use mana naturally, centuries.
That insufferable, talking macaw... he was a good belf, a friend of us elves, but he was also alien. He spoke of things I could not understand, of powers and principles that lay beyond the reach of my comprehension.
The Will of Gaia always recognized the belves of the Forest and beyond, but it did not do the same with Asuryan.
I never asked him specifics because he helped me survive through the initial stages of the Beast Will—assimilation, he called it—and I was not so stupid as to risk the greatest ally of us elves to become an enemy.
There were lines I would not cross, questions I would not ask, secrets I would not pry into. The bond between us was fragile, built on... I didn't know what, but I would not shatter it with my curiosity.
My consciousness left the leaf, returning to my body with a jolt that left me breathless. The world snapped back into focus, sharp and vivid, and I felt the weight of my sisters' gazes upon me.
"No," I said, my voice steady, final. "You will remain here to defend."
I looked at Sèrafin, Eilyne, Afiora, and my other sisters-in-battle. Their faces were drawn, their eyes filled with the fear they tried so hard to hide. They were warriors, all of them, but they were also mothers, sisters, daughters. They had seen too much loss, too much grief, and yet they still stood.
"I will take down the belves' horde myself," I continued, my voice carrying the weight of a promise I could not guarantee. "We will not run away. We will not hide, nor will we cower. We are elves. We are the Forest's people."
Silence followed my declaration, my sisters-in-battle elaborating my words. I saw the flicker of doubt in Sèrafin's eyes, the hope in Eilyne's, the resignation in Afiora's. They trusted me, even when they could not understand me; they trusted me, even when I did not trust myself.
I was the vessel of Gaia's Will, the instrument of her power, and yet I felt more powerless than I had ever been. The Goddess had given me her gift, but she had not given me her guidance. She had placed her trust in me, but she had not told me how to carry its weight.
I turned my gaze toward the horizon, where the shadows of the belves were beginning to gather through the woods. They would come soon, and I would meet them as I had met every threat that had come before: with a blade of grass in my hand and amberfire in my heart.
I was the Queen of All Elves and I would not fail my people.
Not today. Not ever.