That was all she remembered before she woke.
It was a long while of walking between countless trees before she realized she had just come out of the Faraway Forests, a place none had ever been able to find without a chosen magi.
She travelled with a few things that were kept from her until she completed enough of her stay and the tests that came with it.
The Awakening was the first part. The Enlightening, the last.
She had quickly discovered the mapping of the Faraway Forests, thanks to the painted gift Magi Inio had given her. It was one of the few things she was allowed to keep on arrival.
The land stretched out like a roll of parchment bordered with forest.
Beyond it was the teal ocean, and within the gaps of the forest were rips in the parchment, filled with bodies of water. Yet deeper in the smaller crevices were the sacred wakening waters, best for healing and revelations.
Short slopes of mountainous hills crowned around the living areas, and within it was stretches of grass and a beautiful bloom of plants and aromatic herbs which wafted past her on her walks.
There were large brick living quarters with wooden frames. Within Salīa's room was a lowly bed, just barely above the ground, wide windows, and a small fireplace with freshly cut and dried slender wood placed there each morning.
She had a small desk, about four hands up in length, where she inked her letters and lit her ylang-ylang incense. And above it was a small window that woke her with each rise of the sun.
There was a larger room beside her, a forest of sorts, where Hawking slept. Outside the quarter lay a temple that stretched far, where they could connect with truth.
A short shuffle away was an open and quiet grassland where she learned combative and swaying arts.
There was also a small camp close to one corner of the forest where visitors who were not meant for the main quarters would rest, usually for no more than a day or night.
Although those of noble birth and magi would reside in the main quarters, Salīa would often sneak out to hear what those at the camp might say. They were often traders on a long journey or helping hands learning from the magi.
When found, she was kept in the temple to meditate without meals for a full day, nearly two.
The three magi elders on the council said it wasn't to punish her, yet to help her seek clarity for what she seeks in others.
To her, it was plainly punishment disguised in flattering words that made it seem fitting. There were all these rules in a place meant to free her, as it was said.
Her letters, for one, were always received with broken seals, but the ones she wrote were released fully sealed.
It seemed it didn't matter to them what she sent out, just what she received.
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