Rise of the Elder

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You can’t keep me from this, either.”

  “Yes, I can. You’re my sister, Alyse. I can just choose not to Slide you with me.”

  “And I’m his betrothed!”

  Rsiran blinked. “You’re his what?”

  Alyse fingered the fabric of her dress and looked at the ground. “We didn’t get a chance to tell you together. We wanted to. When you came to the tavern that night… that was when we were going to, but you came with word of his mother, and… and it changed everything.”

  “How? When?”

  Alyse looked up. “You don’t think he should marry me?”

  Rsiran smiled and hugged his sister, trying not to think of how long it had been since she’d let him get close. She stiffened with the hug, but relaxed the longer he held her. “I think it’s wonderful,” he whispered. “Brusus is… well, he’s Brusus. He will treat you well, and I can see the way he looks at you, so I know how much he cares. Does Father know?” he asked, releasing the hug.

  “That was the other reason I came today.”

  Rsiran nodded and reached for her hand. “I’m sure he’ll be proud of you.”

  “Are you? Even knowing Brusus’s past? It doesn’t matter to me, but—”

  “Any more, I don’t think it will matter to him. I think he’s only wanted you happy, too. And if he can’t see that you are happy, then you’ll just have to ignore him.” He released her hand and stepped away. Alyse smiled and looked around the clearing, searching the smiths for signs of their father. He was one of the smiths who had remained here in the Aisl when others had returned to the city. Rsiran didn’t know why, but it was a question he hadn’t yet asked. “You haven’t told me how he asked you.”

  She smiled. “He took me to the top of the Barth. There’s a balcony there where we stood, looking out at the city, and he asked me. It was… lovely.” She finished in a whisper.

  Rsiran smiled, thinking of Brusus asking his sister. Once, it would have seemed impossible to believe that his sister would marry a former thief like Brusus, or even that she would be such a part of Rsiran’s life, but he was thankful she had come back to him.

  “I’m sure it was.”

  She met his eyes. “You see why I have to go with him? I need to be there. I’ve seen too much already… more than enough to know something could happen to him. I can’t say my being there would protect him, but you have to let me come.”

  Rsiran glanced at the knives lined up along the ground. If Alyse came with them, it would be another person he’d have to worry about, one more person’s safety he’d have to worry about, but wouldn’t one more person help? If they encountered Venass, wouldn’t it be useful to have others with him who he trusted?

  And maybe there was another way for her to help. “If I do this, if I let you come, there’s something that I will have to do first.”

  Alyse nodded quickly. “Whatever it takes.”

  “And there is something you will have to do.”

  She frowned as he told her what he needed, but the frown faded, and a resolute expression crossed her face. “Whatever it takes,” she repeated.

  After Alyse shared her news with their father—Rsiran had left Alyse alone with their father to share the news privately—she rejoined him near the Aisl smithy. He couldn’t tell from her expression how their father had received the news of her engagement. The determined lines around her eyes could just as well be due to what they planned to do now, rather than anything that their father might have said to her.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  Alyse nodded. “Do you think this will work?”

  “You’re my sister, which means you share the blood of the smiths and that of the Elvraeth. There’s a reason that Danis thought you were the one that he could use.” It was why Rsiran had to see if taking her to the crystals would work as well. The more people who held them, the more likely it was that they would succeed.

  “I’ll never let him use me,” she said with intensity.

  “I know that.” There had been a time when he thought that Alyse would side with their mother, a time when he had feared that she worked with her willingly. But Rsiran had learned that their father had attempted to protect her by giving her the gift of a lorcith charm that would provide protection. “You’ll want these,” he said, handing her a pair of bracelets that he’d forged while she spoke with their father.

  The forging of the bracelets came more easily for him now that he’d made several of them. As he had with Jessa, Brusus, and Haern, he had focused on the connection to the metal, and tried to keep the desire at the forefront of his mind as he worked. Rsiran wasn’t surprised that Alyse’s bracelets were much like his, the band of heartstone running through them almost matching the ones that he wore. Even when he held them—they were too tight for his wrists to wear—they gave an echoing sort of sense.

  Her eyes glanced toward his wrists as she pulled them on. “I thought you said the necklace Father made would protect me.” She pulled that necklace from beneath the collar of her dress. It caught the light, but had a soft glow to it as well.

  “It will protect you to a certain extent, but these will keep powerful Readers and Compellers from reaching you.”

  Alyse nodded.

  “Are you ready?”

  “I think I have to be.”

  “You don’t have to do this, Alyse. You could choose to stay here. The forest will protect you, and Brusus wouldn’t be upset.” He’d probably be happier if Alyse stayed behind. Rsiran didn’t look forward to telling Brusus what he’d done, but then, Alyse was her own woman—she had always been strong—and if Brusus didn’t understand that, then they had other issues to work through.

  “I don’t have to. I want to.”

  Rsiran Slid with her, emerging in a place somewhere beneath them.

  The four crystals glowed with a soft bluish light, slightly dimmer than it had been before.

  That realization worried him. Did it mean that the crystals were tied to the trees, and with the loss of one of the Elder Trees, the others failed… or did the crystals need to remain together in order to maintain their strength?

  That was a question for another time. For now, he needed to learn if Alyse could hold one of the crystals.

  “They’re beautiful,” she said.

  “They are. The first time I came here, I didn’t know what I would find. I knew that Venass and the Forgotten were after something, but I couldn’t learn what it was. The second time I came, I nearly died.” He walked with her as she made a steady circuit around the crystals. The fifth location, where the missing crystal should be, had only a twisted platform of dark wood. Rsiran didn’t know if it was the root of one of the Elder Trees, or if a long ago craftsman had created the platforms. “You might not be able to hold any of them,” he reminded her. “The Elvraeth, during their ceremony, don’t all get the chance to hold one of the crystals. Most will never reach them.”

  “I understand. But even to be given this chance…”

  “I’ve said I think everyone should be given the chance,” Rsiran said.

  “You’re not afraid of what will happen if the wrong person reaches them?”

  Rsiran shrugged. “The Elvraeth have had control over the crystals for generations. Centuries. Have all of those they sent here been the right people?”

  “The Elvraeth were given the crystals by the Great Watcher,” Alyse said.

  “You’re falling into the trap they want you to believe. They need for the rest of Elaeavn to believe they were destined to rule, but that wasn’t the case at all. The ancient clans found the crystals, even if they couldn’t use them at the time. That’s why the guilds have protected them all these years.”

  “Maybe I shouldn’t be here, then,” Alyse said. “If this is supposed to be a place of the Elvraeth—”

  Rsiran touched her arm. “You’re descended from the Elvraeth, Alyse. You cannot forget that. And I’m the guildlord. So I guess even in bringing you here, we’re st
ill satisfying the conventions set all those years ago.”

  Alyse smiled. She continued to make a steady circuit around the crystals. “How will I know if there will be one that I can hold?”

  “It calls to you,” he said. “When I first held one, it was like… it was like the crystal wanted me to hold it.”

  “What happened then?”

  “I sat by the Great Watcher.”

  Alyse shot him a frown. “Don’t play games with me, Rsiran. Not here, and not when I’m risking myself like this.”

  “No games. When I held the crystal, it felt like I was sitting next to the Great Watcher.”

  “And then you became more powerful?”

  “Has Brusus?”

  Alyse tipped her head to the side as she frowned. “Well… no.”

  “I don’t know when the change takes place. Mine was gradual. I didn’t realize at the time, but I was able to see the potential in lorcith and then heartstone. I’m not Sighted, but that ability has provided me with more protection than Sight ever could, and it suited me better than Sight. With it, I can go to the mines, and I can see where the lorcith is, where before I could hear it, and feel it. That potential is the same as what the alchemists possess, but in some ways, what I’m able to do is even more powerful than that.”

  “I thought you said the crystals unlocked the gifts of the Great Watcher? Elvraeth gifts?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “I don’t have any abilities like that. I never have. Mine are all descended from the earliest clans. Smith, sliding, alchemist, miner, and even thenar.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” Alyse said. “I thought you said the ancient clans couldn’t hold the crystals?”

  “From what Della told me, they couldn’t.”

  “But you’re basically like one of the ancient clans, aren’t you? If you have no abilities of the Great Watcher, that means you’re like… like the Elders. How is it that you’ve been able to hold the crystals?”

  Rsiran had given it some thought but still didn’t have an answer. Alyse was right—he shouldn’t be able to hold the crystals. Mostly because he was more like one of the ancient clan leaders than like the Elvraeth. “I think that it has to do with Danis. We’re descended not only from the smiths, but from the Elvraeth. That bloodline gave me the ability, I think. Without it, I don’t know if I would be able to hold the crystals.”

  “Have you tried it with others of the guilds?”

  “Not yet. Jessa and Brusus were the first. And now you.”

  Alyse stopped in front of one of the crystals. “I don’t feel called to any of them. This isn’t working for me.” She didn’t keep the disappointment from her voice, and Rsiran couldn’t blame her. He felt the same disappointment. He had wanted her to be able to reach one of the crystals, if only to see whether it would unlock something inside her, the same way that it unlocked something for him. “There’s nothing like what you describe, only the way this one seems to pulse a little brighter.”

  Rsiran Slid next to her. When he emerged, he saw it pulsing as well.

  Why should he see it again?

  “Reach for it,” he said.

  “Rsiran?”

  “That’s the call from the crystal. You need to reach for it.”

  Alyse started to, but then pulled her hand back. As she did, the pulsing started to fade.

  Rsiran grabbed her hand, and stretched with her. “You need to do this, Alyse. Let me help.”

  Then together, they touched the crystal.

  Chapter 30

  Darkness surged around them. Rsiran was aware of his sister, but in more of a spiritual sense, not physical. In some ways, it was like he Traveled, carried along with her.

  They seemed to float, hovering above everything. Rsiran felt power all around him, but it was weakened in some way, incomplete. It took him a moment to realize he detected the missing Elder Tree, and that was the reason the power was not what it should be.

  Rsiran turned to his sister and found her as nothing more than an insubstantial form, like a wisp of light, similar to what he detected from the Elder Trees. He glanced at his hands, and noted that he appeared in the same way, nothing more than his spirit, his body left with the crystals.

  Had it been like this the last time he’d held one of the crystals?

  Rsiran hadn’t been aware of his body any of the other times, but didn’t think that it had.

  “What happened?” Alyse’s question came without sound, but somehow he heard it. “What is this?”

  “This is like Traveling. This is the crystal.”

  “What happened to us? How are you here?”

  “I don’t know. I shouldn’t be able to touch the crystal a fourth time.” Which one had he yet to touch? The missing one? Had he touched each of the four crystals that remain? What might it mean if he had?

  “This doesn’t feel like we’re sitting next to the Great Watcher,” she said.

  “This is different from the other times that I’ve reached the crystal.”

  “How?”

  “The other times, I was alone.”

  They continued to move, drawn away from the sense of the Elder Trees, leaving the brightness of the light glowing from them behind as they stretched higher into the darkness. Rsiran felt the pull of power from the Elder Trees, and wished that he could restore the damaged tree, but even Della didn’t know if that were possible.

  The farther that he drifted, the more everything seemed like a distant glow far below. After a while, even the sense of his sister began to fade into nothingness.

  He was alone. Blackness surrounded him, a darkness so absolute that it terrified him.

  Rsiran tried pulling on the sense of the Elder Trees, wanting to draw himself back toward his body, but he had never been in control while holding the crystals.

  Where was the sense of the Great Watcher?

  There was no answer.

  Had something happened?

  Rsiran could imagine Venass coming up with a way to destroy the Great Watcher, finding some way to sap that ancient power, but how could you capture and destroy a god?

  Then, slowly, there came a presence.

  At first, it was faint, but the presence came nearer. As it approached, Rsiran felt it as an overwhelming power. Had he a body, he would have shivered, though had he a body, he would have cowered in fear from it.

  A vision flashed in his mind.

  Rsiran saw the crystal returned, and the Elder Tree restored. In that vision, the people of Elaeavn lived in the city or the forest, a part of the same, connected in ways that the ancients had not been. Then there had been the clans, and later the Elvraeth. In this vision, there were both.

  The vision faded, leaving him in darkness again.

  The presence remained, heavy and overwhelming.

  Another vision followed. This was different, a surge of darkness, even blacker than before. In this vision, Rsiran knew the Elder Trees were gone and the crystals had flickered out. There was no power that he knew remaining, everything had disappeared in this vision. Other powers appeared, almost as if battling to overwhelm each other.

  In many ways, it was more terrifying than the presence that he detected.

  The vision faded.

  “Is that what will happen if Venass succeeds?”

  He asked the question in the same way he had spoken to his sister, using the connection that felt as if it shouldn’t exist, almost a question within his mind.

  There was no answer.

  Had he expected the Great Watcher to answer him?

  “What of the others?” Rsiran asked. He formed an image in his mind, that of the woman he’d thought he’d killed who had used the power of fire to escape. “How do she and her kind fit in with what you have created?”

  There came no answer.

  “Help me to understand!”

  The presence pulled on him.

  Rsiran had no other way to describe it. The darkness parted, and flashes of light flickered into e
xistence below him. He saw white—that of lorcith, he suspected—and blue—heartstone—mixed with green and silver and gold and orange. Countless splashes of light below him. He still felt the presence near him, but it didn’t frighten him in the same way. This was a reassuring sense, one that left him feeling as if he and his people were looked after.

  As he stood above everything, an even greater presence throbbed against him, this time distantly.

  Rsiran tried to turn, but he was restrained, as if the Great Watcher didn’t want him to move.

  He tried to focus on the greater presence that he detected, and another vision appeared, nothing more than a flash.

  This one was difficult to put words to. A man—or perhaps, something more than a man—watching over the land, guiding it when needed, but mostly observing. Five other beings—some greater than the others—were arrayed behind the nearest. The Great Watcher, Rsiran suspected. Somehow, the Great Watcher oversaw the others.

  The vision faded.

  As it did, Rsiran thought that he understood.

  There were others like the Great Watcher.

  He wanted to return, to get away from the sense of power, the presence he felt behind him, but the Great Watcher held him in place.

  “Why show this to me?” Rsiran asked.

  He didn’t expect any answer.

  Rsiran remained, and the colors below shifted, growing brighter, slowly melding together, like metals in an alloy. He felt that he neared the ground, the presence—the Great Watcher—slowly pushing him back until the bright light of the Elder Trees surrounded him.

  Now as he stood among them, he felt the discord, the disconnect, that came from the missing Elder Tree. He felt an urgency to restore it, and realized that he had to restore it.

  “How?”

  Rsiran was pushed deeper, back toward the crystals, but still not into his body. He floated, almost as if Traveling, and saw the crystals beneath him. They flashed, each of them pulsing, and the steady pulsing of light gradually grew stronger until he felt almost as if he were pulsing with it. As he did, he realized he had, indeed, touched each of the crystals here. The only one that he hadn’t held was the crystal that wasn’t here.