20

Deh Leccend asked nothing further of her. He would take her back to hidden Addl’laen, but only after ensuring her injuries were tended properly. She watched him work with his nimble, gentle hands. His soft, cool touches, she realized, were wrought of compassion. No longer was it merely his duty, her safe-keeping and well-being.

Deh Leccend was feeling. It left her silent, trying to decipher him all over again, and she could have fully marveled at his abilities and behavior had she not been so eager to be underway.

Soon enough she was fit as could be, marred not by bruise or tenderness. There were no sore spots, nor the slightest of aches, and she gratefully accepted his offered hand as he rose up before her.

Pulled to her feet, Shannon dusted off her posterior, and waited for him to lead her away to the Elvine.

Deh Leccend’s features were slightly contorted with worry.

“Do you feel well again?” He asked softly, brow and lips matching his voice.

“Yes. Thank you, Deh.” She laid a gentle hand of her own to his cheek, fleeting and quick to retreat.

“One day, you’ll have to show me how to do that trick.” Shannon smiled lightly upon him, prompting a swift reply.

“It is no trick, milady.” He smiled in response.

“Well, trick or no, you’ll have to teach me some day.” She insisted, prompting him to smile a bit further.

“As you wish, milady.” Deh Leccend answered her with a light bow, turning her westward.

“I can teach you as we go.” He added, gesturing for her to walk with him, and she did, watching as they ascended to the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge. The visual residue of her world peeled back like wisps of silver silk and light morning sun-steam in a breeze. It was replaced by the everlasting twilight and the unending trees, ancient beyond time.

Shannon was vaguely aware that it had taken them seven real days to reach this location in the east after their first walk, and she feared it would take seven more to return. However, Deh Leccend held no such worries. He led her briskly ahead into the trees, aiming for what she could only assume was Addl’laen.

“You remember the Great Tree spoke to you of your kinship, yes?” He asked, arching a black brow as he pulled her along.

“Yes.” She answered.

“And that Dunesil clarified: you have our gift to give things life and growth, as well as to tear things down?” He asked another, and again Shannon nodded. She remembered well indeed. Such was the very reason why she was going back to Addl’laen.

“Well, the ability to heal the flesh, comes inherent with these gifts.” He informed. “However, there is no training. Nor are there technical skills involved with learning to use your gifts.” He smiled lightly, dark eyes growing fey, as if revealing the most wondrous of childhood toys to his fellow children.

“These gifts stem from the heart and the emotions you possess. And they take it upon your desires to do well or bad to manifest in the physical.” He frequently gestured into space as he spoke, a peculiar behavior she’d not really picked up on until now. But now that she thought about it, Deh Leccend spoke often with his hands. He must have perceived that it helped to explain difficult subjects, like many humans often did.

Perhaps, they weren’t so different after all.

“Do you remember what you did to myself, when I had come to you in that awful place of death where there should have been nothing but healing?” He asked, and Shannon did indeed remember it. She’d put him through a wall just by denying his assault with that dangerous sword.

“Do you remember it?” He asked, catching her lost in memories, for she’d not responded a whit of indication that she indeed recalled.

“Yes, Deh.” She answered with a slight grin.

“I hurt you.” The grin vanished, and her tone went swiftly apologetic.

“I am sorry.” She added, lowering her eyes, but Deh Leccend chuckled, a sound she’d never heard from him before his unleashing. It oddly suited him.

“Do not be sorry, milady!” He smiled.

“You did not hurt me, and you did not assault me! You merely defended yourself. I came too close. The fault is mine.” His brows arched highly with his ear-to-ear grin, pulling his stately tips aloft as well.

“But I saw you go through the wall!” She was incredulous. It had to have hurt. She’d seen it.

“Haha!” He belted a triumphant chuckle. “I am a Black Leaf, dear Firea’csweise’! It would take a lot more than a simple tumble to hurt me.” He was quite certain.

“So relieve yourself of that guilt, and listen when I tell you that you’ve already used your kin gifts by that denial of my assault.” And suddenly Shannon understood the point of bringing up that memory.

“It is your heart, your will and desires that bring your gift to the surface. To heal or to harm, to bring growth or decay, to protect or assault.” He trailed off, hesitating.

“To give life, or to kill.” He declared, voice gone low, higher emotions gone in trade for darker.

“It is your desire that makes it work, not your knowledge of how it all comes together.” He finished softly, matter-of-factly, and Shannon now knew how to use these gifts without having many questions answered. It was all still vague and uncertain, but apparently it was the concept that was important -not the skill levels that were inherently going to be involved with such things as supernatural power.

“You did as much in the defense of your president against Athaem, but he was too great for you, and twisted free of you ignorance.” The Black Leaf confirmed what she’d not quite understood at the moment in question, but had seen nonetheless.

“So, if I want a flower to grow, there grows a flower?” She asked uncertainly.

“Yes.” He smiled softly. “If your heart really wants that flower to grow, then there shall it grow.”

“And this works with anything that you spoke of?” She asked another, and again he answered affirmatively, nodding his dark dome.

“Yes, milady.” His smile never left, and it was infectious, for now getting the picture Shannon smiled as well.

Shannon bent then to snare a twig from the forest floor, grown thick with its perpetual leaf-litter and decay in never-ending growth. She studied it, a leafless, gray, broken thing. It was so utterly devoid of life for so long Shannon couldn’t even begin to imagine how long it had laid there. She considered plucking a newer stem from elsewhere, but stuck with her random selection.

Set she about trying to visualize what she wanted. A bright yellow daylily. She pictured it sprouting from her twig for many long minutes as Deh led her through the forest, and when it failed to happen, she tried closing her eyes for brief moments, urging the stick to sprout new life. Each time, she came up futile. Inevitably it frustrated her. Deh Leccend seemed to sense it, for his voice startled her at her side.

“You must not want a flower.” He said, suspiciously as if he knew what she was about. She studied the look in his unreadable eyes, trying to gauge the likelihood of his having read her mind. But Deh Leccend gave her nothing.

So she focused again, and decided she knew exactly what she really wanted. It was the very same reason he was taking her to Addl’laen again. She closed her eyes and pictured it, then opened them and witnessed a miracle. The cold dead twig seemed to quiver in her touch, and all at once it flushed with green. The tip of one of its three stems surged to life, and at once began to sprout a long simple leaf. It uncoiled before her eyes, and immediately started to pale.

Deh Leccend glanced to her efforts, and instantly he swatted her hand.

“Firea’csweise! No!” He hissed.

“That is blasphemy!” He warned.

Shannon recoiled sharply, fingers stinging from his slap. She withdrew into herself immediately. Deh had never struck her. She wasn’t beginning to actually like him, but his fervent tone and cross looks were suddenly reminiscent of how she’d seen him when she’d first met him. She didn’t trust him back then, and now it was difficult to overcome her own foolishness. Not only for attempting something the Black Leaf called blaspheme, but for having trusted him as much as she had thus far.

“I’m sorry.” She managed, suddenly wondering what she was doing. Ever since she’d been pulled into this mess of a new world, she’d been swept up in it all, and now that she was taking an active step in it all, even on a whim of foolish hope, she ended up scolded. She began to wonder if what she was trying to do could even be done. Would the Elves even allow it? Deh Leccend didn’t obviously think it was a good idea.

“Do not be sorry.” He answered her, his demeanor completely upended.

“Just come, milady, you wished to see Addl’laen again.” He gestured, pulling her to the foot of a massive pine, so aged and great in girth it was a wonder it was still standing. It likely should have toppled ages ago and died, having fulfilled its life-cycle, but within the Veil it stood undying like everything else. Deh Leccend touched the mammoth pine, gentle upon the ancient bark.

The tree then bloomed. At least, that was the only way Shannon could have explained it. Its bark peeled back like flower petals before the sun, and dim luminescence existed within, swirling ever-so-slightly with a gentle mist. Deh Leccend turned to her with a light grin, and pulled her along, striding straight into what should have been the core of an impenetrably solid old tree.

Shannon registered only a slight shifting feeling in her belly, like the lurch of an elevator as it began to rise, but then there was nothing. The Black Leaf missed not a stride, so neither could she, and together they passed out the other side of the pine, stepping back into the Veil’s twilight.

Shannon found herself looking westward from the hill beyond the Great Tree and the Elvine city. It all splayed out below and above her, showing her once again the shining lake beneath the Addl’laen’s silver trunk, and the shimmering of her boughs and foliage on high. She didn’t even care to ask Deh Leccend how he’d accomplished this newest trick, nor why they’d not used it on their passage east, for the answer to the latter was fairly obvious. More importantly, she failed to voice her question because silver Elvine horns were blowing through the streets.

Something was happening here in this undying tranquility. Shannon didn’t need to hear the vehement rustling of the Great Tree’s foliage, nor see the movements of her mighty boughs to know something was amiss. But seeing what she could see from the hill helped to bring the matters of Elvine events into perspective with an eerily frightful sensation.

“What’s happening here, Deh?” She asked as he pulled her along, but the Black Leaf didn’t have a definitive answer to give her. Such would be the first time he failed to answer solidly of anything she’d ever asked, at least to her recollection.

“I do not know, milady, but I expect we’ll find out soon enough.” He said, tones speculative but dreadful.

Descending through the city of the branch of the Elvine they received many looks, but voices stayed silent until they reached the grand opening into the Palace of Llaerth. There, they were confronted by a quintet of armed Elvine, standing defiantly with great longbows poised in the dirt before them and quivers of brightly plumed arrows of white vane strapped to their backs.

“The Vanguard of Llaerth.” Deh Leccend informed under his breath, identifying the wholly white clad Elves before the entryway. However, the five were not alone as the duo drew nigh, for out from the palace gates stormed Dunesil Llaerth with his fey queen, Qaiyi, on his arm.

“You cannot enter, Black Leaf.” The central figure of the five informed, drawing the duo to a halt as he stood stiffly at the foot of the stair, readying his great bow -though he did not lift it from the earth. The others did exactly as the first.

“On order of Dunesil, you and the Firea’csweise are forbidden.” The Elf’s voice was solid and stern.

“Forbidden!?” Shannon couldn’t contain her tongue.

“Why?!” She asked, ignoring both the look Deh Leccend shot her and the feel of his hand on her arm, restraining her emotions.

“You must calm down.” He urged her softly, but Shannon couldn’t calm down. She had come to see the Great Tree, and that’s exactly what she was going to do. She had to talk to it again, and more.

“Because you are in the company of a murderer!” Dunesil’s voice came strong and passionate as he descended to his vanguard, but that fine tongue was marred by spite.

“Deh Leccend the Black Leaf is treacherous and vile now, Firea’csweise, and your relation with him is cause enough to withhold your entrance. We know of your love. We know of your plans to poison the Addl’laen.” He snapped, accusing her of being a danger to the Great Tree, and of something else.

“Love?!” Shannon spoke confusion, but the shadow at her side was stronger in tongue and threat to the Elvine.

“Poison!?” It was Deh Leccend’s turn to lose himself to offense. “It is you who is now grown venomous, Llaerthir!” He retorted bitterly.

“You would be one to know, Black Leaf!” Dunesil defied him like a bickering, but brilliant child. “You have slain an Elvine! Your hands cannot pass! I shall kill you if you try.”

“That’s not fair!” Shannon shot back swiftly, drawing the Elvine Lord’s bright gaze. It was a gaze marred by hatred.

“Deh acted as he did because your son was killing innocents! Athaem defied your order to remain emissary in his journey to the White House!” She tried to reason with the Elvine Lord, but Dunesil was having none of it.

“Innocents!?” He snorted in disbelief.

“Even you, Firea’csweise, as kin to humankind cannot say that such creatures exist! In fact, you know in your heart better than you let on! You spite Men as well as any Elvine, for there are no innocents!” He was heated about his features, ignoring Qaiyi’s delicate fingers on his arm. Shannon was stumped. She didn’t know what to say in response to that. For it was true, there were no innocents, especially not in her eyes. She bit back her tongue, trying to think clearly.

“Enough!” Deh Leccend started in immediately.

“I may not be free of the blood on my hands, Dunesil, but the Firea’csweise is unspoiled! She has come to speak with the Addl’laen, and you will let her pass, or I will spill more blood this day, on this hallowed ground.” The Black Leaf turned to threats.

“No!” Dunesil denied him. “I will do no such thing. I cannot allow her to poison the Great Tree.” He snapped, turning his gaze down upon Shannon once more.

“I see your plans to defy the end of your kin, Firea’csweise. Your dissociation with humans proved your salvation by the Great Tree’s word once already, but now, the return of your association with men has proven you incapable of being kin to us. As with the Tolq Uen!” He snorted contemptuously.

“As with the liar and teller of secrets not his to reveal, you should never have been brought to the Great Tree to begin with! You shall not see her again!” Dunesil defied her wishes.

“I see Poison and lies on your tongue, Dunesil!” Deh Leccend snapped bitterly. “How do they taste?”

“You have never seen one of your kin feed of such treacherous fruit! And yet now you spew such seeds! Liar, stand way and let the Firea’csweise see Her!” Deh Leccend took a step forward, but was swiftly restrained by Shannon’s hand.

“Deh.” She warned, for she did not want to see a fight erupt here on the doorstep to the palace of the most wondrous, tranquil place she’d ever known. On high, the Great Tree’s limbs were moving, descending beyond the Palace’s tower, drawing her dark eyes. Deh Leccend saw it as well.

“The Addl’laen moves, Dunesil!” The Black Leaf challenged. “She will tell you, the Firea’csweise may pass!” He snorted contemptuously as Dunesil turned about in tune with the sudden throwing wide of the interior palace doors far out to the other side of the structure. The force with which the bright barriers were thrown wide was enough to let the halls resonate with great clanging echoes of silver on stone.

The Elvine were stunned to the man, each wheeling about, and set to gaping as the limbs of the Great Tree waited beyond the palace halls. For a long moment, everyone just stared into the palace. Dunesil, most of all, was fearful.

“Very well!” He eventually snapped, glancing back to the Black Leaf after a long pause. “I shall see what Addl’laen would tell, and you shall take the Firea’csweise back to her kin and leave her to die.” He was furious and bitter, striding away through the great halls.

At length, the lord of the Elvine reached the waiting limbs of the Great Tree, poised all about the far portal. His queen, Qaiyi, turned back to the waiting duo and the five vanguard of Llaerth, who abruptly renewed their poised resistance beneath her gaze. Qaiyi utterly ignored the soldiers.

“Firea’csweise!” The Queen spoke urgent whispers, sad and soft.

“I fear what your coming may bring.” She admitted, lowering her eyes, letting them stand in silence as Dunesil reached out to touch the Great Tree’s delicate leaves. His contact and talk with her was quite short-lived, and his shoulders slumped dismally as he wheeled slowly about. His spiteful gaze was cast back down through the halls, and there would be no mistake.

It was clear.

Shannon would be permitted to see the Great Tree once more, as the Great Tree had predicted once before.

The five of the vanguard stood down, letting her move forth. She did so promptly, ignoring them all. Deh Leccend, however, passed amidst them with sharp dangerous looks to each and kept hot on her heels, trotting to catch up. He offer his arm for her to take, but Shannon didn’t need his hand. She was determined and strong in her advance.

As she passed into the court of the Great Tree, Addl’laen withdrew her limbs, admitting passage into the grand lawn that lead up to her mammoth trunk. Shannon did not cast a bitter glance, nor a look of any sort upon the dark, shrunken stance of Dunesil, who eyed her hatefully.

The Elvine Lord did not try to stop her, but dangerously eyed Deh Leccend as the Black Leaf tailed her dutifully into the court. Thereafter, Dunesil followed at a distance, head downturned and dwelling on all that this could mean. The Great Tree would speak again with the human kin, and such a fact left him even further within hate.

Shannon marched toward the Great Tree’s massive trunk until a new bough came descending for her, blocking her path with a sighing creak. She let the leaves come to surround her, not exactly sure how to go about enacting her plan, but intent on using the gifts Dunesil had said she would possess as Elvine kin -the very gifts Deh Leccend had told her how to use.

She stood strong before glorious Addl’laen, ignoring its initial hesitation to touch her. Her strength unabashed before its mighty existence then prompted it to do as she wished. Addl’laen was helpless. It wished in return to know what she was thinking, feeling, and all that she would say or ask. It wanted to touch her choices and know the prediction that would come in her wake. Thus, gently, a single leaf brushed her shoulder.

Shannon was prepared.

Before the Great Tree’s voice even had the chance to come, she spoke a thought against it.

‘Show me.’ She urged as she aimed to prompt the Great Tree to show her the White Leaves. It recoiled slightly at her firmness and demands. Here was no humble girl any longer. No more was she disconnected from her fellow humans and attached to the Elvine. Yet, still was she connected to the kin of the Veil. She was attached to both now, and the Great Tree drew near to her once again, hesitant to touch her and speak what it would. It seemed the tree feared Shannon would be the one doing all the talking with harsh demands she had not the right to place upon one so mighty as Addl’laen. She waited a long time, but the tree steadfastly refused to buckle to her a second time.

When it became obvious what was happening, Shannon slowly dropped to her knees, hands raised, beseeching gently. Addl’laen required submission. Shannon could acquiesce, but she could not allow Addl’laen to do all the talking this time. She needed her say.

At this sign of her subservience, the Great Tree knew her as worthy still, and it reached down with its limb to rest a barren set of eight, leafless twigs within the cupping of her palms. They touched her, and Shannon could hear the Addl’laen’s voice rushing into her.

‘I can see the choices have come before you, young Firea’csweise.’ The Great Tree began immediately. ‘As I have said, so have you made those choices, and even now, I can see your purpose. All of your fate is understood below me now, and I would tell you if you would but ask.’

‘No need my lady.’ Shannon’s response could have been less rude, but she didn’t need to know her purpose any more. Her fate was irrelevant now, for she was here to do something about it, or at least attempt to, and that was all that mattered. She laid her fingers upon the bare twigs and gently pulled them close.

She closed her eyes and prayed her idea would work. She bent her thoughts to the talk of the White Leaves that Deh Leccend had been gracious enough to share at her request. The keys to the locking away of the Powers of Elseworlds. It was no doubt, no simple matter. She fully expected to fail to fully grasp all that might be required in the weaving of the lives of eight otherworldly, extra-dimensional juggernauts with tiny frail leaves. Truly, she didn’t think she had it in her to bind such mammoth entities of powers she couldn’t comprehend to a sort of stasis and wrap that magic into the life of the lost White Leaves granted new life. But she had to try. It had to work. Blasphemy or not, there was no other way to stem the coming of the Powers.

‘Please. Please.’ With this pleading, Shannon breathed a breath upon the limbs, blowing lightly upon them as she gestured for the White Leaves to regrow.

As thus, her heart’s desire became nothing short of the power Deh Leccend had insisted it to be. Her breath took on light and power like steam in a winter’s chill, forcing the limbs to growth. At once, eight little bright green buds appeared upon the twigs. They then swiftly swelled beneath her wonder and will, and the green was vanquished in exchange for paled pearlescent silvers. Within moments, the buds were lengthening, unfurling like long calla lily coils. Before they’d even uncoiled, they’d grown ivory against her skin. Within moments overall, eight white leaves, long, thin and individually like knifing sharp feathers had grown before her delighted brown gaze and her heart was uplifted.

A smile, bright and joyous came to her features, and she giggled of her delight. Her heart burst of happiness in her newfound gift, and within little time she cupped a tight little cluster, a wildly unkempt blossom of pale luminance. To the wonder of those who bore witness, the White Leaves had regrown beneath the bidding of the Firea’csweise, a mere humyn girl, and they gasped in awe and disbelief. Dunesil stepped back as if terror stricken, but Shannon’s delight would not let her notice. Against all probability, Shannon had won.