Author's note

Hey everyone, I just finished my finals, this is why my release is a little late today. In fact, I actually STILL am in the middle of writing the next chapter for the subscribers, but since the writing is taking a little longer than I had hopped I figured I would just go ahead and drop the next chapter for the regular readers. (Don't worry subscribers, I'm hard at work as we speak and won't be giving myself much of a break till you have your chapter as well.)

On the subject of subscribers, I have been neglecting to announce and thank the new subscribers. We've had 3 since the last time I made an announcement, so I would like to thank Akreli, Duvet, and ExorcistJoker for joining my SubscribeStar as subscribers. (Now I have enough subscribers to cover for eating out 2 times in a month. Still nowhere near allowing for future reduced work hours to increase writing hours once I get off school, but it's a good start.)

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Eirlathion’s POV

 

Eirlathion truly had no idea at all what was going on with Aerien right now. He had never known enough about her since she was born. Ever since he first discovered something was different about her, he has not been able to feel even close to understanding it even once.

 

Now, something was very very wrong. He was relieved to discover the blood he had seen on her was not her own. He could only guess at what might have happened with whoever had infiltrated his home. Even if it was not her blood though, the fact still remained that this child was laying limp on the counter top of his lab right now, and did not even show the slightest sign of reacting to the rough handling she had been getting as she was passed from one person to the other and ran all over the place.

 

He was relieved to find the slightest hint of some form of mana circulating deep inside of her, but to even detect it had required him to actually use some of his spirit energy to create a temporary spell effect. This pseudo-spell managed to detect internal mana instead of only mana that was radiated off. This was a sign her spirit was still alive. Well, the mere fact she had not lost her physical form was proof enough of that.

 

This did leave the question though as to exactly what had happened and how. This is why he asked the one other person who had some first-hand exposure to something strange that had happened in the past hour, lining up almost perfectly with Aerien being reduced to this state. If anyone had some clues to what might have happened, it would be Dryad. And, after having explained his reasoning to his apprentice, who also happened to be the understandably distressed mother of the child laying comatose on his lab counter, it was time to finally hear what had really happened here.

 

“Anyway, Dryad, please tell me about how it was that you were able to suddenly evolve to your current state. It is related to Aerien, isn’t it?”

 

“Yes, that is correct master.” Dryad replies before their spirit form hugs themself, looking visibly shaken. This was a normal enough gesture for any intelligent being, but it was rather unusual to see a tree spirit reacting this way. “Her voice,” Dryad says, “It was.. so loud. I could feel the energy in it just pouring into me, and… there was also so much pain.”

 

So much pain… is Dryad saying..? “You mean Aerien used the green word?” Eirlathion asked, to which Dryad nodded.

 

“She kept saying ‘help me, it hurts.’” Dryad’s projection suddenly vanished. It seemed the memory of what they had received from Aerien was too much for them. Canceling the spirit projection for a tree spirit would be something similar to a physical creature having to sit down. For this to have happened to Dryad in the middle of recounting something difficult, it really spoke to how intense what they must have felt was.

 

Eirlathion felt his hand brushed and looked down to see Levin had crawled past him. He was now holding Aerien’s hand tenderly in his own as he looked down at her. Something bothered him about how the boy was acting, but he couldn’t quite place why. It seemed like a natural enough reaction. Túeth was having a reaction of her own. As he looked over at her, her hand was tightly clamped over her mouth and the tears could be seen trickling from her eyes as she was looking down at her daughter.

 

“I’m sorry.” Dryad’s voice suddenly came from the wall. Eirlathion looked up to the direction the voice had come from, seeing a wooden face roughly in the form of Dryad’s spirit projection looking back at him with a downcast expression. “I know it’s rude for me to talk with you like this.”

 

“It’s alright.” Eirlathion hardly even misses a beat, being used to interacting with Dryad, or rather Nymph at the time. “Please, go on. I would like to hear any details you can give me around this. Why did Aerien try to use the green word?” The question of how she knew how to use it also surfaced in Eirlathion’s mind, but he quickly pushed it out. Of course, this would not be the first time Aerien would have surprised him by demonstrating her frighteningly fast ability to learn and reason through things.

 

“Ok, well. I warned the children to all run away to the stairs when I saw the man climbing outside of my body. After he broke the window and came inside, Aerien..” A sudden frown appeared on Dryad’s face and they paused. This was not normal behavior for them, but then again this was not a normal situation at all. “Ah! The man grabbed Aerien.” Dryad seemed to suddenly recover from whatever was affecting them.

 

It was somewhat weird, it certainly felt like Dryad was uncomfortable talking about the subject, but something else seemed off about it. But then, he had just thought there was something off about Levin worrying about Aerien a second ago. Maybe it was just him who had his nerves frayed. This had all been a very stressful situation for everyone.

 

“Anyway!” Dryad continued. “When Túeth came up and saw him, she went and shoved him. He knocked her down, but he also fell against the wall, and then Aerien escaped and started using the green word to ask me for help. I used her mana to take care of that guy, and then... it didn’t stop. She just kept overflowing with more and more mana and so much spirit energy. I couldn’t do anything with all the energy she kept pouring into me, and with the pain... it completely overwhelmed me.”

 

Dryad paused, and then their spirit projection returned, sitting on top of the counter next to Aerien, sitting on the other side from Levin. The projection had its hands on the edge of the counter, and was sitting perfectly still looking down at the floor.

 

“It was more than just Aerien.” They suddenly said.

 

“What do you mean?” Eirlathion asked. He couldn’t quite make sense of what Dryad was saying, but something about the way they said it told him this was a very important key point.

 

“When I felt Aerien pouring her energies into me, I heard her pain and her fear, but there was also more. I also felt... something else. There was... a LOT of intelligence behind her energy. It... was way more than a little girl like her could possibly have. It was not even just one other intelligence. It was... it was memories and knowledge from what felt like thousands of different sources. I.. All of that information. I still can’t sort through it all... there was just so much.”

 

Dryad looked up at him as he took in the significance of this information. Thousands of sources of intelligence. This really did sound very important. In fact, this sounded like it held the key to so much about Aerien he didn’t know.

 

“Hmm... thousands of sources... thousands of voices. All of them, you could only hear them when Aerien used the green word... but her voice crying for help was the most dominant, right?”

 

“Yes.” Dryad responds and then hugs themself again at the memory of hearing Aerien’s spiritual voice in pain.

 

“What does that mean?” Túeth asks. Levin, who Eirlathion had almost forgotten about, also seemed to be looking up in anticipation of his answer.

 

“Hmm... that’s exactly the question we’re trying to find the answer to. Dryad. Was it only intelligence and memories that you felt? Were there any actual spirit voices aside from Aerien?”

 

“No, it was just memories, there was no actual voice attached to the other spirit energy.”

 

“Alright then. I know you said you were still sorting through it all, but is there anything you can tell me about the knowledge and memories you received?”

 

“That... ah! Yes!” Dryad responded. They suddenly looked a lot more confident. “It was disjointed and completely random” They say, “There is no rhyme nor reason to any of it, it seems like it is just a mess of the random thoughts of all the people in a very very large crowd.”

 

“Hmm...” Eirlathion nods his head at this information. Judging by the sharp look on Dryad’s face, it seems they may have arrived at the same conclusion he did. Not only does they know how Eirlathion thinks, but they also seem to genuinely be smarter now as well after this transformation. They have probably arrived at the exact same conclusion.

 

(Author note: “does they = artifact of gender neutral speech”)

 

“What’s going on?” Túeth demands, looking between him and Dryad’s spirit projection. Eirlathion has a sensitive look on his face about the topic as he looks back to Dryad.

 

“Well, you’re the one who experienced it yourself.” He says, “I think we are probably thinking the same thing, but I would rather hear your impression first.”

 

Dryad gives a nod at this and then looks up at Túeth. “Those were not Aerien’s knowledge or memories I felt when she was using the green word. They came from somewhere else. I think... Aerien somehow summoned energy to use, and then she poured it directly into me.”

 

“Summoning?” Eirlathion’s eyebrow raised at Dryad’s use of terminology. Indeed, he was thinking along the same vein, but that was an interesting interpretation. “I don’t think summoning is quite right though.” Eirlathion says. “This is probably similar to summoning, but I think... Dryad, how much do you know about human magic?”

 

“I.. wait! There is something about it in the information I just got from Aerien! Yes, what I felt is definitely most similar to summoning. If you were thinking it might be evocation master, then that’s wrong.”

 

“Summoning of pure energy, huh?” Eirlathion responded. “Well, this would explain a lot. I suppose she must have had something in her spirit that allowed her to automatically summon energy. This would explain so much of what I’ve been feeling from Aerien for a long time now.”

 

After reasoning things out this far, Eirlathion turns to look back to Aerien with a harsh look on his face. “If that’s the case, then I think I know what may have happened to Aerien.” His face darkened. If what he was thinking was true, then there really was nothing he could do to help the situation himself.

 

“What!? What is going on!?”Túeth demands in a weak voice, looking afraid of the answer.

 

Eirlathion steps forward and gently brushes the side of Aerien’s head. “This is my fault.” He says. “Aerien, she must have gotten scared when that man attacked. She got scared and summoned too much energy in order to try to get Nymph to protect her..”

 

“Master, how is any of that your fault?” Dryad asks him in a stern tone.

 

“I.. I knew that Aerien had something wrong with her, that she could do things to manipulate her energies in ways beyond what any child her age should have been capable of. Everything makes sense now. She must have somehow always had the ability to do this. This would explain how she was always so smart and so advanced. She probably learned things from consuming the spirit energy she summoned since it had all that intelligence attached to it, but it couldn’t teach her how to properly control her own energies.”

 

Eirlathion let out a sigh. He withdrew his hand from the side of Aerien’s head, allowing it to drop to his side. “I knew it. I could see that she needed to be taught how to control those energies, but I was never able to get the time to give her the training she needed. Maybe... maybe if she was trained better... maybe if she had better discipline and knew her limits then...”

 

“Master! That’s not your fault.” Dryad cut him off. “Aerien got scared! Even if you DID teach her how to handle it, that wouldn’t have made a difference! It wasn’t your fault, it was...” Dryad suddenly cast a look out toward one of the walls. No, they were looking straight through the walls toward the location where a certain fey dragon would still likely be suspended in the vines. “It was HIS fault! If he hadn’t been so stuck on tradition as to make a big deal about grey elves even in the current situation, none of this would have happened! Aerien would not have gotten scared enough to do that if that man hadn’t bust through the window and grabbed her!”

 

Eirlathion didn’t know how to respond to that. Dryad was right, but more importantly, regardless of that, Eirlathion couldn’t help the growing sense of crisis he was feeling at Dryad’s words. They had already done critical damage to Everon over this whole thing, if they went on to kill him now, that would be a very serious matter. No matter what he did, he was still an envoy of the queen.

 

“Wait, Dryad! We’re going to need him!” He cut them off before they could do anything rash. “I’ve got an idea that might be able to heal Aerien, but we are going to need him for it!”

 

Dryad’s projection turned back and glared at him. This behavior... along with becoming a dryad, their will had grown to become as strong as a normal sentient creature, and they seemed to have picked up quite a bit of will and rage along with that. It was strange dealing with Dryad as they were now. As a nymph, they would never have shown him such a defiant face. They still called him master, but he had to keep in mind, dryads were the true rulers of the forest, and only the fey dragons had even a hope of challenging them. He should just consider himself fortunate now if Dryad would afford him the good will and listen to him for having grown up with him for 700 years.

 

“Fine then!” Dryad angrily bites. “He’s been annoyingly calling on me to offer his apologies anyway, I’m sure he’ll be receptive to whatever master has in mind.” Dryad turns to cast a brief glance at Túeth, giving a nod and looking back at him. “What exactly do you have in mind anyway?” 

 

Dryad look back at Túeth after saying this, directing Eirlathion’s gaze toward her to see she was looking at him with a sea of conflicting emotions on her face. Hope and interest were pretty close to the front though. Did Dryad just ask this question for Túeth’s benefit? He had heard tree spirits gain a far greater awareness of the world when they become Dryads, but this kind of subtle perception is a bit beyond what he was expecting. It had to be from the intelligence they had said they got from the energy Aerien gave them.

 

“Well, really, I just need him to give us an introduction to the queen. Aerien’s spirit has degraded from the energy that has passed through her. This is far beyond my abilities to fix. Her majesty, however, ought to have the ability to do something. She also ought to have plenty of reason to help us, given what Aerien would be able to do for the great tree using her power. The only problem is... the price she’s almost certain to demand.”

 

Eirlathion turned and looked to Túeth and fixed her with a heavy look, gazing directly into her eyes as she began to squirm under his heavy expression. Realizing that something was wrong, she stiffens up and begins to have a look of fear in her eyes as she meets his gaze for just a second before glancing away. “Wh.. what?” She asks.

 

Eirlathion lets out a heavy sigh. He was going to have to just say it. “The price that she will demand... is Aerien. If we ask her to repair her spirit, she will take Aerien once she is done.” He places a hand on Túeth’s shoulder and lets out a sigh. “Aerien can live, but... we have lost her. One way or another, she’s as good as gone to us right now. The only thing we can do now is take her to the queen so at the very least she will be alive.”

 

A flicker of loss appears on Túeth’s face for a moment, and then it is replaced by a hard determined expression. “Well, if that’s how it is, I guess that’s probably for the best.” She says the words with a slight hint of bitterness, but they were said with so much conviction that Eirlathion could tell that she really did mean it. He was shocked at how fully willing she sounded to give Aerien up like that, he wanted to say something to her, but what would he really be doing if he said something in these circumstances? All he would be doing is trying hard to make her feel worse about the situation. This really was how it had to be, so, maybe it was better if she had a mind-set that allowed her to accept it better.

 

“There’s really nothing that you can do master?”Dryad asks in a pleading tone that only just barely managed to hide the slight edge of desperation.

 

“I wish there was,” he says. “I’m afraid this is our only choice.”

 

Dryad casts a hard glance over toward Aerien. No, wait... toward Levin? What was she looking at him for!? He had been perfectly quiet to the point Eirlathion had almost forgotten he was there, but for some reason Dryad was looking straight at him. A second later, Dryad’s projection descended into the floor, and there was the sound of the stairs leading down to the children’s room being closed off.

 

1st Arc: Infancy

 

End.

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Additional author's note

Next chapter will be an epilogue, a small extension of the story in a bit of a different format. After that will be a lore chapter, and then the start of the next arc will be coming out a week from today.

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Edit: Added author's note

Because I keep getting asked about Gaerien, keep in mind, this right here is from Eirlathion's perspective.