Chapter 8

Prince Athaem touched the bare skin of her slim shoulder through the split in her hospital gown’s sleeves, drawing her away from awe of the dark beauty of the world of the Elves, the world that earth was, fully beyond the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge, the world earth either was supposed to be or had once been. Shannon didn’t have any idea which, however, now she understood why fantasy stories always depicted Elves as moon-loving creatures. This place was so beautifully alien. It was all forest and darkness and blue toned as if twilit at midnight.

Slowly she turned about. Athaem beckoned her to proceed back the way she’d come, where Deh Leccend was already leading way up a forest trail as it rose amidst the massive trunks. Beyond the rise was brilliant cool light, fanning out and jumping up in wide rays through the wood, framing and darkly silhouetting Deh Leccend’s already black-cloaked frame.

Topping the rise, the little elf paused to wait.

Miraculously, there was no doorway back to her world any longer. Athaem had closed it, and only empty space remained.

“What is this place?” She asked, breathless. Her voice echoed softly and she touched her lips in surprise. Her tongue felt changed, hung, as though it had a mind of its own, and that mind was steadfastly refusing to break the silence of this tranquil forest’s sounds.

“This is Addl’laen” Athaem answered. “This is our world.”

“Is it always like this?” She asked softly.

“Yes.” He answered simply after a moment’s study of her face. “Addl’laen is eternal twilight, between your world and the void of dimensions you cannot fathom beyond the third.”

“It’s beautiful.” She admitted helplessly. She could find no other words in her considerable vocabulary, but despite her life’s knowledge, she felt quite stupid by comparison to these Elves whose grace she was only just beginning to realize she could not truly fathom.

“Where is Addle Lane in relation to earth?” She asked.

“Addl’laen is the great mother, Earth as you call her, beyond the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge. This is she as she once and always has been, in truth.” He smiled, gesturing again for her to lead away and follow Deh Leccend.

“The Veil of the Leaf’s Edge?” She asked. Naturally, she’d never heard of such a thing.

“Yes, child.” Athaem answered, beginning to grow impatient. “I’ll answer more if you would but walk with me.” He offered his hand, and she surprised herself as she took it without hesitation.
Shannon followed, waiting expectantly for his talk as they walked this well worn pathway up the hill to where Deh Leccend had continued on and disappeared.

“Try to think of the earth you know as the center or core of a sphere, though not in the physical sense. Try to imagine beyond three dimensions into four and more.” He paused.

“The Veil is a creation of my father, Lord Dunesil of the Elvine. We call this state of being of the mother’s existence, Addl’laen. Around earth, separated, but co-existing in the same space and time. There exists the Veil. It is what your physicists and greatest mathematical minds might call a fourth dimension, a different plane of existence. My father, Dunesil Llaerth, separated us from the world you know to protect the great tree from the wrath of the Wyrms and worse, millions of years ago. We named it after Her.” He trailed off, eyes lost immediately upon touching the topic.

Shannon studied his ever-youthful features in wonder. What on earth he could see with those old, ever young eyes, Shannon could only fail to imagine. But she tried to picture some sort of cataclysmic confrontation between wyrms and this great tree.

“Beyond the Veil lie yet more dimensions, more layers to the sphere, many that even we cannot comprehend. And the outermost plane, you might consider as a void, a loophole back to the beginning again and a doorway into other places. Inside the center, thereby, in the other direction from the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge, is the stasis of the Powers of the White Leaves.” His explanation was very concise for all the complexity of the concept it presented. Shannon found herself understanding implicitly all that he said, but for what certain things were named to be without being described. She was more fascinated for now with his eternal youth than what he had to say.

“How old are you, Athaem?” She asked.

“We do not age, child.” He answered simply. “But if you were to count the revolutions around our sun that I have been alive, as your kin doth, as I am one of the seven princes of Lord Llaerth, then you might call it sixty-four million, one-hundred-two thousand and ten years.” Shannon was taken aback. Not only did she feel dumb by comparison to these grand people, but minuscule as well. She was literally a speck of dust in the scheme of Prince Athaem’s life alone. She could only imagine how old his father, Dunesil, must be.

“And what about Deh Leccend, the Black Leaf?” She then asked, nodding ahead to the vanished little elf. “How old is he?”

“Oh, he is very old.” Athaem answered emphatically. “They all are.” He added thoughtfully. Shannon could only then imagine what it meant for one so old as Athaem to say someone else was very old by compare.

“Like, how old?” She asked quixotically, dark exotic eyes wide with wonder.

“He has been since the beginning. They all have.” He answered again, looking down with highly arched brows to see if that explained it. It clearly didn’t. Shannon wanted to know in terms of years, but then, since the beginning sounded quite a deal more than a matter of revolutions around the sun.

“The Black Leaves were the first leaves to grow from the great tree when it first sprouted from the great mother.” He went on to sate her curiosity. “There are no number of years to count before the branch called the Elvine came along with the birth of my father and my mother, three hundred million years before I was even conceived. Does that answer your question?” He asked plainly.

“So, he’s old.” Shannon said glumly, for while it answered her question, it wasn’t all that she’d expected it to be. “The tree must have been pretty old to begin with, I imagine.” She added thoughtfully, lowering her eyes to their path as the crest of the rise drew nigh.

“Must have been?!” He asked bewilderedly. “She still is.” Athaem emphasized his final word on the matter. Shannon’s next question died on her lips as the land descended away before her in the most glorious vision ever described by a muted gasp of awe. Before her, Athaem beckoned.

“Behold, Shannon Hunter of humyn kind, Addl’laen, the Great Tree of Life, and all of Addl’laen, home of the Elvine.”

She could only stare and gape. The land fell away in a steeped hillside only to rise slightly anew where there towered the greatest of all trees in this magical world.

Its bark gleamed purely of silver light, marred only by the gargantuan shadows of its ruts and creases. Its roots ran sprawling away in every direction like white rivers before disappearing into the earth. It dominated the entirety of the subtle rise below, which sprawled over an area that must have been anywhere between five and ten square miles. The thickness of its trunk was easily more than a thousand feet. It very well could have been more than half a mile in diameter, and its height was unparalleled. It seemed to become the very sky of the world with is sheer scope, as it dwarfed skyscrapers and made minuscule of the Elvine city in its entire sprawl below, situated just to the left.

The great tree stretched on high, grand gleaming boughs splaying wide to envelope all Shannon could see, trapping its own inner light and sheltering all of her smaller companions who were still greater than the most massive of trees Shannon had ever seen. All about her base, but kept well back from her rise was a gleaming silver gate, which held at bay the innumerable silver towers and white buildings of the Elvine. To tshe right lay a body of water, a lake that danced and shone complacently of silver sparkles from the radiance of her glory as she leaned far out over it in a lightly twisted fashion.

Shannon made another subtle sound, flabbergasted. It was all she could muster. Where before she thought she’d seen beauty upon arrival within the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge, now she knew true loveliness. Simply seeing gorgeous tree called, Addl’laen, stirred something within Shannon, like she’d felt when touched by Deh Leccend’s gaze at first, only this time it was radiant with warmth and a loving sensation she couldn’t describe with any word other than nurturing.

“Come, child.” Athaem beckoned. “My mother and father wait.” Without hesitation, she slowly offered her hand to his sure guidance, unable to take her eyes from all that existed here until it was necessary to watch her footing as they descended.

Ahead she could see Deh Leccend’s dark figure, ambling smoothly down the hill, escorting them where there was no need. Down through endless tree-lanes they passed, and there were many of the Elvine who stopped to stare back at her in as much wonder as she felt for them. The looks forced her to realize her appearances. She looked like a dirty little wretch by comparison to the kin of Athaem. They were all so beautiful, if a bit alien, and all of them wore blonde hair like silk and were of pale skin, just like in stories. Shannon clung to herself, trying desperately to cover her simple ugly hospital gown and preen her messy head of ratty, dirty-looking dreadlocks.

“Do not fear your appearances, humyn.” Athaem chided. “You will be given chance to cleanse yourself and garments shall be brought for you to choose from.”

Shannon only blushed further. She tried her best not to worry for her looks, and fumbled at focusing on following Athaem who followed Deh Leccend at length, weaving his way through the gleaming buildings toward the tallest among them. It stood nearest to the Addl’laen, resting atop the crest at the edge of the great tree’s subtle, sprawling rise, and opposite its leafy bulk from the waters of the pristine lake. It was capped by a tremendous razor-thin spire, a single great spike, and descending from either side of it ran the towering silver fence that ringed the great tree with its protective light.

Into the halls of the palace of Llaerth she was led distantly by Deh Leccend, who had disappeared from sight, only to be given witness to yet more nature. The high, thinly arched doors stood ajar, guarded by only a pair of perfectly rendered statues of Elvine sentries, and within the palatial spire she bore witness to springs and fountains and all manner of beautiful landscape. The ceiling was incredibly high, the interior almost entirely open, and its light sheltered full glens and glades. So massive, but so empty, it made her wonder if there was anything else to it.

“Where do you sleep?” She asked dumbfounded.

“Why, are you tired?” The Prince asked.

“No.” She responded. “I was just asking.”

“Oh. We do not have need of sleep.” He revealed. “We sleep only to dream, if and when we choose.”

Shannon went quiet again, realizing it would have to have been an obvious answer, and that it was therefore a dumb question. The prince had brought her to the left, and after a fair stroll down the far side of the rise, to a spring which steamed, and spilled over its beginnings like an infinity pool into many others. Little falls and streams ran away on this far side of the palace’s rise, feeding the pools and down to the brief country below and a greater body of water that wafted up to the high ground with the scents of salt and sea. It all rested within a towering succession of knot-wrought, and knotted together, white gazebo-like structures open to the ever-night sky.

A breeze came in upon her through the great openings of archways and high glassless windows, but it did not leave her breathless any longer. Somehow, Shannon felt as though she’d caught up to the moment and all that continually unfolded before her. She had a sense there was no point in being continually dumbstruck, for there was sure to be yet evermore to see. She was about to start asking questions, but Athaem gestured to the waters.

“Bathe, Shannon Hunter. I shall return.” Before she could even turn to speak, he was already walking away. She thought to hold him here with those questions that began edging into thought, but held her tongue and let him go. She needed a moment for rest and considering her newfound sense of understanding for her world. Time to herself would give her that, and the warm waters might ease her into readiness for the next surprises.

She thought she’d been left alone, but when she started to remove her hospital gown, she caught sight of the shadow out of the corner of her eye. At the entrance to this place, stood Deh Leccend like a guardian. Where he’d come from was unknown. She’d lost sight of him when he’d entered the palace far ahead of the prince and herself, but that he was there like a ghost disturbed her.

Deh Leccend, the Black Leaf, didn’t do much of anything. He simply stood where he was while she eyed him. He did not watch her so much as he generally regarded her presence. He was like a machine, always. He blinked only occasionally, and spoke only when spoken to. She studied him back for a long moment before it was apparent he wasn’t doing anything other than what she saw. Harmless enough, but certainly unwelcome were his eyes.

“Excuse me.” She said when it became clear he was not going to let her out of his sight, and she immediately presumed he was ensuring she could do no harm to this place.

“Is there something wrong, milady?” He asked flatly from his comfortable distance.

“Are you just going to watch me?” She shot back incredulously, challenging him.

“Would you rather I didn’t?” He asked a stupid question. But even as she felt the notion to question his idiocy, she caught herself. He was ancient as the great tree. She analyzed his question, and under a new light it suddenly seemed as if he was just ignorant to such social convention as her need for privacy. She thought better of herself.

It wasn’t as if there wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before, especially at his age.

“Nevermind.” She brushed it off. “I understand it is your duty to protect the tree.”

Deh’Leccend promptly looked confused.

“I do not understand.” He said. “I protect you.”

And it was Shannon’s turn to be confused. First he’d tried to kill her, and now he was protecting her? It didn’t make sense. There had to be a reason for what he’d said though, and she would find out before she was done with him here.

“Why were the Black Leaves created?” She abruptly asked, abandoning her prior desire to rest and think on the whirlwind that had become of her life. Instead, she pressed certainty filled questions at him. “Athaem told me you were the first leaves to be created by the great tree. Surely wasn’t it to be her protectors?”

“Oh.” Deh Leccend answered as if enlightened, but his tones didn’t rise much. “No one knows why we were created. It is not for us to know our purpose. The great tree does not speak to any but Dunesil Llaerth, first leaf on the Elvine.”

“Why?” She asked, beckoning him forth and gesturing for him to sit as she did so herself, dipping her feet and dangling her legs into the water. It was intoxicatingly warm.

“No one knows that either.” His dark eyes didn’t leave her for a moment and he didn’t need to speculate. Answers came quite quickly for him. She noted it easily. There were no gears to turn beyond his black gaze. All things just were or were not. She liked that sort of thinking in humans, but within Deh Leccend, the Black Leaf, it just seemed like he was a child himself.

“It is just her way.” He explained upon arriving at her side.

“Oh.” Shannon finally looked away, casting her dark eyes to the waters to see little glittering fishes collecting around her toes. Her eyes grew apprehensive. She didn’t like to be touched much by little critters she wasn’t expecting to be there.

“They are quite harmless.” He anticipated her fears. “In fact, they love you like the water they breathe.” His wisdom came back to her attention, making him feel like the ancient creature that he was. Shannon steadied herself, drew a breath and slipped into the waters before daring to remove her hospital gown. Even then, she made it a point to cover herself, hugging bosom one handedly and keeping low as she moved for a nearby rock jutting flatly from the surface, that she might hide behind it whilst she spoke with him.

“How old are you?” She asked curiously. “Athaem told me your kin were the first to be born from the great tree, and if you would not know for what reasons, then I would like to know for how long you’ve lived.”

“I have lived for longer than there have been ages.” He answered easily, without a whit of hesitation.

“And how many years is that?” Shannon smiled, slowly beginning to learn how to speak to one like him.

“It is exactly one billion, three hundred sixty five million, one-hundred two thousand, ten and three quarters of the mother’s revolutions around the sun.” He said it so matter-of-factly, as if such an unfathomable span of time was truly nothing to balk at, but blanch Shannon did indeed. She couldn’t help it. She’d thought Athaem was old, but now she truly was less than a speck of dust. She wasn’t even molecular by comparison.

“You’re a god?!” She asked wildly, using a figment of speech that only confused him.

“Your gods do not exist. I would have met them by now. All of them.” Deh Leccend explained in the only way he knew how, truthfully to his experience.

“That’s not what I meant.” She tried, confusing him further. “Wait. Was Jesus real?” She smiled excitedly, but then thought better of her questioning. Shannon was forced to blow the matter off with a light smile and a shaking of her head. “I just meant, I feel… small. Oh, nevermind.”

“No, always mind.” He corrected her, having clearly understood exactly what she’d meant by the term small. “One should never feel minuscule or worthless. Even a child can alter the flow of the great mother’s history in the making.”

“I’m sorry.” Shannon couldn’t help but feel stupid again, though she did feel better with his revelation of the possibility of her importance and purpose in life. She had once thought she’d known her purpose, acting up and out against the status quo and the rape and pillaging of nature and all things helpless. But now, what exactly was her purpose? It was certainly not so small as that which she’d originally believed before the attack on Murton and Norton had irrevocably altered her existence. If it was, she’d still be there, not here in the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge being granted privy to something no one had any idea even existed.

“What else can you tell me, Dayless End, Black Leaf?” She asked with a smile, trying to turn around her stupidity and tiny existence. “Can I just call you Day? It’s easier. How do you spell it anyway?”

“You may call me whatever you wish, milady. You might spell it –D. E. H. What else would you have me tell you?” He answered and questioned of her desires in all simplicity.

“I don’t know.” She said, grown comfortable enough now to actually begin to bathe herself, rubbing her skin clean with the heat of the waters and the protection of the rock. “Anything while we’re here. Can you tell me about the history of the world?”

“You would die millions of years before I finished that story, milady.” He responded, and Shannon just had to laugh. She couldn’t help it. Maybe he really was stupid.

“Obviously!” Came slipping out, rushed off her tongue as she giggled. Deh Leccend regarded her in general confusion.

“Why do you laugh?”

“Are you kidding?!” She couldn’t believe her ears. “What are you, emotionless? Your response was funny, that’s why I’m laughing!” She giggled some more.

“Yes.” He said evenly, looking down to the waters and turning aside his features, outright killing her laughter with pity. Awkward and confused, Shannon stared blankly at him before she realized what he’d said.

“You’re serious?!” Her voice came, but Deh Leccend merely stared at himself in the water’s reflection. She drew close to her concealing rock and folded her arms upon it, resting her chin to smell her clean flesh so close.

“You are serious.” Her lips pouted, and her tone leveled off as her brow crumpled smoothly as anyone would suffer with pity-filled eyes. Deh Leccend nodded to answer her with silence.

“How can that be?” Almost afraid to ask, her tongue came on a whisper.

“Because the fury of the Black Leaves has not been unleashed.” He answered.

“Explain.” Shannon practically demanded it of him.

“The great tree granted us freedom from emotions, want, desire, and fear with the creation of the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge at the spirit and will of Dunesil Llaerth -that we could be clear and strong enough to withstand all of time. Thus is as Dunesil has said it was told by Addl’laen when he petitioned the concept of the Veil in the dire times it was required.
We have been gifted freedom of those weaknesses that we also could put back the Powers in the event of their release.
We have been granted emotions in life, but until our furies are unleashed at the proper times of reclamation of all the wrongs of lesser beings, we are dulled.” The Black Leaf answered quite plainly, immediately once again.

No wonder he was not abashed to see her nudity, not that he had, but if he had. He had made no move to give her privacy when she’d prepared to bathe, and it all made sense now. Shannon couldn’t believe it. She had to test it.

“What would you say if I told you I wanted the tree to die?” She asked.

“Why would you want it do die?” His voice was even, marred only by confusion as he answered with a question. Intrigued, Shannon swam back to him, walking along the bottom and being careful to keep herself covered, that she might look at him closely.

“And what would you say if I said the great tree was beautiful?” She tried another on her way to him.

“You are correct. She is.” He answered.

“What then would you say if I asked you if I was beautiful?” Her tone came thick, as if on a drowsy tongue.

“You are.” He said, watching as she drew nigh, climbing from the waters to stand before him. She moved so close she could feel the soft fabric of his cloak beneath her skin.

“What would you do if I kissed you?” It was but only a whisper, and being no taller than he, her lips nearly brushed at his own. Deh Leccend didn’t even move, and then only to answer the question.

“I would let you, and ask you why.” He was utterly hopeless, Shannon discerned, and she stepped back slightly, looking into his dark eyes and sharp features. He was a machine, and there had to be a reason for it beyond what he’d explained. Sure, he’d given a ‘why’ to how it was that the Black Leaves felt nothing of emotions, but there had to be more to it. Shannon realized that none knew, because the great tree had never given away their full purpose. She wanted to press her questioning but was forced to let it slip away unanswered as a voice called out softly through the bathing house.

“Your garments, child.” Athaem spoke, eyes down-turned respectively of her privacy as several ladies of the Elvine set many garments out for her on a table-like white length of stone near the entrance. Their eyes were also down-cast, and the group quickly retreated at Athaem’s bidding.

“Be quick and choose, child, my parents await your council. I shall be waiting with them. Deh Leccend shall bring you when you are ready.” And then he too was gone. Shannon let them go, gave one last lingering look into Deh Leccend’s blank staring black eyes, and then moved to the table stone’s length.

There were so many garments in so many styles and textures she didn’t even know where to begin. They were all so beautiful, and much too fine for someone like herself. But, oh how she wanted them all. It took a lip-biting effort to overcome the realization of her human greed.

“Deh.” She finally said. “Can you help me choose?” He broke his gaze from the ponds of steaming bathwater, unfazed by their talk of his pitiful existence.

“I can.” He said simply, coming to her side, black eyes studying her as he walked. Shannon studied him as he moved, noting how languid every stride he made was. He certainly wasn’t a machine. He was more like a finely tuned liquid smooth feline, not at all as awkward as his emotional lacking would make him seem.

“You will choose the pale beige suede-leathers, the silken halter, and legging sandals.” He pointed simply, looking from her to the table. “And you will wear a silver circlet and chain after Dunesil’s Qaiyi sees you.” He revealed, causing her a peculiar sensation. It was as if she’d been there before, asked him that once already and remembered it like deja’vu.

“How do you know that?” She asked, believing she wouldn’t be surprised by the answer.

“Because, I can see it.” He revealed.

“You can see the future too!?” She asked excitedly. “Can you see my fate?!”

“Yes and no.” Deh Leccend answered flatly. “I can see what will come to pass, when confronted with a choice, for I have seen every result to every choice to have come to pass upon the face of time’s ages. It is what you call, a prediction, which has become such second nature for we Black Leaves, that it is nearly divination. But, no, I cannot see your reason for existing. No one but the great tree can tell you why you are here, and even then, there is doubt, for there is still choice. And, she has never told us why we exist, not in all the ages we have survived, not even as we slew the Wyrms for their treachery and greed, nor after we lost great numbers in locking away the Powers when they were freed to reclaim the earth from Mankind’s ruin thousands of years ago.”

“How many of you are left?” Shannon was left to ask after a long pause and study of all that he said.

“There are three of us on each continent, not including the Elvine’s Lord Dunesil Llaerth’s seven sons, who were trained to be like us and supervise us, for he believes we need emotion to guide us and let us judge more properly when dealing with the lives of the world’s creatures, the most prominent of which possess the ability to think, reason and feel. We are now Twenty-One.” He explained smoothly at length.

Shannon accepted what she was told, and she did select the suede-leather pale garments, discovering that they weren’t all leather, but rather that the bodice was such. It came with a lightweight halter, of drawstrings at neck and low. High on the bosom were little grommet fastenings, where there hung intricate silver figments to either side, thereby attaching flowing, full length sleeves of white, which exposed her slim shoulders. Accompanying such a top was a long sort of skirt, the bulk of which was also lightweight and suede, a pair of leggings under, and a pair of decidedly moccasin-like flexible boots that tied up in an intricate fashion to roughly half the height of her calf.

Dressed, she sighed, unable to hide her anxiety at meeting the Lord of these Elves.

“Well, I suppose I’m ready.”