Sheltered Roots

by Jeanne Allen

  I take a deep breath. At least there’s oxygen, back-of-my-mind reasons. But then again, there’s no scent in the air. I can’t even smell the grass when I pick some and bring it to my nose.

  “Oh, ew.” I look at the grass I picked.

  It was green when I ripped it from the hill, but now in my hand, it turns a sickly brown, rapidly deteriorating until all I hold is a small pile of ash. I shake my hand, hastily flinging the particles onto the ground and wiping my palm on my leg.

  My naked leg. To go along with my naked breasts and thighs. I’m surprised it took this long to realize I’m not wearing any clothes. The grass here is not any softer than its earthly cousin.

  That’s what happens when you do magic stuff after sex, back-of-my-mind voice chides, like magic stuff or sex are things I do often.

  Rolling my eyes at myself, I manage to scramble up to take a better look around. Behind the hill I’m on, more hills and valleys like on the other side, but there’s also a small lake directly at the bottom from where I stand. Three trees stand beside the lake.

  One is huge, bigger than any tree I’ve ever seen. The leaves are full and green, as vibrant as the grass surrounding it but a darker in hue. The tree next to it is smaller, but just as bright. The leaves on this tree are multi-colored, fire station red mixed with sunset orange and the brightest golden yellow. The effect is like looking at the sun in tree form, brilliant and a little blinding. I look quickly at the next tree.

  Unlike the first two, this one is not full of life and energy. There are no leaves, just blackened branches. Scraggly sticks scatter around the tree like they fell there. The tree looks one good, windy day away from falling over. Squinting, I see that bits of bark are peeling away to show the decay underneath. Looking at it makes me sad for some reason, like I’m looking at the death of an old friend. Tears gather at the corners of my eyes before I can stop them.

  “Do not be in despair, child. Everything must have its season. There is no pain in death, only in leaving behind the living.” The voice is sweet and soft, with a strange musical quality that’s both beautiful and terrifying.

  Jumping a little, I quickly turn toward it, trying to keep my surprise and fear hidden. It doesn’t help that I’m naked. I feel too vulnerable to face anything.

  The owner of the voice smiles at me, her face so serene and peaceful that my heart immediately quiets, and my hands stop shaking behind my back. She turns to look back at the trees, allowing me to discreetly step back as I try to take in the creature in front of me. I only know she is a “she” because I recognize the soft curves and form of a female. Other than that, there’s nothing human about her.

  She looks like she grew from the ground we stand on. Grass the same color as the hills that surround us cover her form, but it looks softer somehow. It lays flat against her curves so I can make out the limbs, toes, fingers, and other humanoid features. Leaves the same shade as the sun tree below us cover her in a sort of natural dress, flowing around her hips and flaring out to about mid-thigh. Small branches make for what looks like hair. They emit a soft crackling sound as she moves her head back toward me.

  I let out a small gasp, quickly covering my mouth with my hands to prevent further outbursts.

  Her face is as humanoid as a plant-creature can be, with her nose and lips covered in the same grassy skin. But her eyes are the stuff of nightmares.

  Dear almighty Cheese Lord, those eyes.

  Her eyes are nothing but black holes, slanted almond sockets filled with a darkness so complete I cannot look away. I lose the ground I gained, and drawn by what I find in that darkness, I step back into her space.

  Death, whispers the back-of-my-mind voice, confirming what I already knew.

  Those are the eyes of Death. Driven more by pure animal instinct than logic, my fight-or-flight response kicks in, and I stumble backward in a blind effort to escape. But I can’t seem to force my weakening knees to bend or move. In fact, all of my limbs lock up, like a deer caught in the headlights and just as doomed.

  Death’s eyes widen in surprise before green eyelids close over them. In their absence, I’m able to regain my senses somewhat before she opens them again.

  The air gets knocked out of me once again at the new pair of eyes facing in my direction. They’re still a solid hue, so I can’t tell where she’s looking, but this time, they’re a pleasant, sunny yellow color, allowing me to tear my eyes away to look at the ground, the trees, anywhere but this terrible creature.

  I’m so preoccupied with calming my breath and loosening my limbs that I don’t realize how close she is until she brushes a soft hand over my elbow. In an instant, she moves to stand nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with me, but I’m not as afraid as I was a moment ago.

  Somehow, she’s calmed me. My soul is at peace. It feels oddly similar to when Lucas uses his Gift, though there’s no telltale glow of Gifted power coming from her hands.

  “Do not fear me, little one.” The ethereal quality of her voice washes over me like silk, stroking my insides into further submission.

  I smile at her.

  She returns the favor with more brilliance.

  I’m able to access my thoughts, but they’re slower to form, like I’ve taken a relaxing bath or woken up from a particularly restive sleep.

  “Where am I?” I ask.

  “You are in the Land. There are no names here, no titles. You are in what has always been and will always be. Before the Worlds and after them.”

  I blink at the plant-lady, not sure what to make of her speech. She technically answered my question but left me more confused than I was before. “How did I get here? I was in—”

  “The Mists. I know. It was the only way I could bring you here. I apologize that I could not take you directly. I hoped you would find the way here.”

  “Hoped? You mean you brought me to the Mists and didn’t know if I would be able to… come here?” An ache forms at the base of my neck, and I rub at it in agitation.

  I’m pretty sure the plant-lady looks guilty, but it’s hard to tell. Her face is human-like, but her features don’t move like I’m used to. There’s a stillness to them, much like the stillness of the Land we’re in.

  “There was no other way, Rose. If I brought you directly, He would know.”

  I rub the back of my neck more vigorously as the ache spikes into a fully-grown pain. “He? He who?”

  Plant-lady sighs and motions for me to sit. “Let’s start with the beginning; I have much to tell you and not much time. Please, save your questions for later.”

  I frown at the feeling of déjà vu. Then, I remember I’d been in the same situation with the guys when they told me about the Phósopoi. I hadn’t done well with the silence thing then, but now I vow to do better, so I obediently sit beside my companion. She angles her body toward the lake, the corners of her eyes flickering toward the trees every so often.

  The grass is soft, but still prickles at my naked flesh. I look over at her leaf dress in envy. I’d take one of those over my current state of undress.

  Plant-lady notices my attention and smirks. Seconds later, a shift of the softest cotton I’ve ever felt folds around my body. It fits me perfectly, not too tight or too baggy, and the color is a rich gold just as brilliant as the leaves on the plant-lady’s dress and the sun tree in the valley below.

  I look over at her, curious as to why she wears leaves if she could make herself clothes. The leaf dress is pretty but doesn’t look very comfortable.

  “First of all, please stop referring to me as plant-lady. You may call me Kin. Secondly, you may find the cloth comfortable, but I much prefer the covering I am wearing.” She says the last part with another smirk, smoothing her dress as she crosses her legs and turns to face me more directly.

  I snort. This whole situation is so weird that I’m not even surprised Kin can read my mind. At this point, it’d be weird if she couldn’t. The lethargy that took over before dissipates, leaving me with a barrage of observations
and speculations.

  Whatever Kin did to take away my fear seems to still be working. Either that or I’m braver than I thought, since I only feel curiosity at sitting down to chat with this strange creature. I have so many questions but clamp down on my inner scholar. I sense that Kin will tell me what she wants and nothing more.

  She affirms my thought with a small smile and a slight dip of her chin before she starts speaking.

  Chapter 10

  “I am Kin. That is what you may call me, but it is also what I am. I am one of the Kin. My brother and I, twins are we, were born from the same star. We came to your world from the Land when the Mists in your galaxy were still young. The people of your world, the humans, would call us gods, but we are not all-powerful like your religious deities.”

  My eyes widen. This was more complicated than I imagined. Not that I could have ever imagined anything close to chatting with some sort of demi-goddess.

  “No, as I said, we are not gods. I know nothing of the gods. We Kin are World-Changers, not Creators. We are simply as we are, nothing less and nothing more. There is no end to our power, but we cannot control what we do not possess. My twin and I were born as two halves of a whole. The star that bore us split in two and gave us the power to control more than other Kin. From destruction breeds Chaos, and Chaos is a powerful element in all the Worlds.

  “My brother, who long ago chose the name for himself Velus, is Pain and Darkness, and all things Wanted and Wished. I was blessed with domain of Light and Love, things Unseen, and that which is Protected.”

  “Life and Death,” I whisper.

  “You are correct in both your spoken and unspoken thoughts. My brother and I do represent Life and Death, but not as symbols of one or the other. Creation and Destruction are prevalent in both Love and Pain, Light and Darkness. We are the Balance. All Kin are the Balance of the Worlds, and the Land is the Balance of the Kin.”

  The pain at the back of my neck begins again. I resist the urge to rub at it, frustrated with Kin’s roundabout way of speaking. I like facts and information. Too late, I remember she can read my unflattering thoughts.

  Thankfully, she gives me an indulgent smile. “Patience. There is much you must learn before you can have your answers.”

  I sigh and settle back into the grass, thankful for the soft fabric that protects me from the blades poking in places they have no business being.

  “Velus and I came to your world, as I said, long, long ago. Beyond the measure of your time, before your world was even fully formed. It was an ugly place, full of fire and dirt. But we saw the potential. We decided to wait, to see what would become of this new world. And we were rewarded.

  “Humans are similar to others of many worlds, but different in one unique way. You are susceptible to the seed of the Kin.”

  My confusion must be pretty obvious because Kin stops to explain.

  “The Kin are born of stars, not of womb. But we can produce seeds in certain circumstances, not easily but it is possible. Until the humans of Earth, there had been no beings who could carry our seed. None who could birth our children.”

  My eyes widen until they nearly pop out of my head. “You mean the Phósopoi…”

  Kin smiles. “You are a clever one. Yes, the Phósopoi, as they named themselves when I first planted them on Earth, are the children of my seeds. I planted my seed into human women, and they birthed my children together with human men.”

  “How come I don’t know of you? We don’t know of you?” Surely, if the Phósopoi had such extensive records of their genesis, wouldn’t they know of the Not-Quite-Goddess who created them?

  Kin shakes her head ruefully. “I neither needed nor wanted the praise and recognition of my children. It was enough for me to watch them grow. A few knew of me, the faithful and the wise. But I asked them to keep it a secret, and they did.”

  I can’t think. I can’t even breathe. This is all too surreal. Kin. The Land. The Mists. Everything. I feel like I’m in a dream. A quick pinch proves I’m not. But still, I have to wonder if this isn’t some weird effect of the Awakening, some kind of hallucination involved.

  Kin chuckles. “You are more astute than you even realize, little one. Yes, your arrival here was made possible with your Awakening, but not in the way you think. I assure you, you are not seeing visions. Though your physical body is still on Earth, your mind and your spirit have joined me in the Land.”

  I shake my head, still not able to wrap my head around it all, but I don’t want her to stop talking, so I hold back my questions, for now.

  “The first of my children had all aspects of me. They were powerful, too powerful. They needed a way to channel the power of their heritage through their weaker human bodies. So, I created the Agora. There were just a few at first, so I created the Bonds so that the Agora could help many of my children.”

  This time, her explanation makes sense. At least the Phósopoi had gotten the purpose of the Agora, even if they got everything else wrong.

  “As my legacy continued, I watched it grow and develop, and the strains of my power grew weaker and yet more powerful. My children could no longer access all of the Gifts I had given them, but in accepting just one or two, they were able to hone their small power into a sharper blade than even my firstborn had wielded.

  “Eventually, my brother grew jealous. He had been delighted, at first, with my creation. But when he failed at growing seeds for his own offspring, he grew bitter. As is his nature, he envied all that he could not have, and he grew violent in his greed.” The yellow of Kin’s eyes swirls, darkening to a burnt orange color.

  She turns from me to look at the trees in the valley. “He tested his might against mine, and in this way, he won. He cursed my trees to bear no more seeds. No more seeds, but for three.

  “Three seeds left, three to protect. I knew I could not send them to Earth. I protected them here, watched over them diligently, hoping to hide the knowledge of them from my twin. I was so happy that I had saved them that I didn’t notice what he was doing. Not until it was too late.”

  Burnt orange swirls again, darkening again to a sienna hue. The palms of my hands sweat as I move to clutch them together in my lap.

  “In my foolishness, I forgot the greatest purpose of the Kin. That of Balance. I had let my brother go unchecked while I recovered from my loss. And in his new-found freedom, he created monstrosities, experimenting with creatures of his own creation.”

  My mouth grows dry. Kin’s pursed lips worry me more than the rest of her tale combined. Though she has no irises, I can tell Kin is lost in memory. The Darkening swirls in her eyes send shudders down my back. When she doesn’t say anything more, I turn back to look at the Land around us. Absolute stillness reigns supreme, not even a soft breeze to tilt the blades of grass. Silence is supposed to be peaceful, and certainly such idyllic surroundings should inspire rest, but instead, I feel suffocated, nearly burning with a desire to escape.

  After a few minutes, Kin shakes her head, pulling herself out from whatever place she had gone.

  She turns to me, eyes once more golden and serene. She reaches out carefully to finger my shoulder-length hair. The fine threads of yellow look like gold on her dark-green skin. When she speaks, she doesn’t look at me; rather, she continues to study my hair, as if marveled by it.

  “I was glad, then, that I had saved three seeds. I knew that I needed to create a powerful warrior to right my wrong. One who had not one generation of my power like the others, but more. I sent a seed to a woman, already a powerful Agora, and then in her child, I sent another seed, doubling the power of her line.

  “My brother tried to block the woman from fecundating my seed. Thanks to his meddling, I had to search for another to help bring my child to life. Finally, the two seeds bore fruit. Twins.”

  I want to run. I don’t want to hear the rest of her tale, but I force myself to stay still and listen to what Kin will say of this final history.

  “Because of their
split Seed, like our split star, the twins of the two Seeds were born of Chaos and could not both live. While outside forces conspired to take the mother, I took the child. She was not for this world.”

  I nearly pull away when Kin drops my hair and takes hold of my hands, her skin rough and dry against my own.

  “You killed my sister?” I whisper, too overwhelmed to even decipher what I feel at the moment.

  Kin holds my hands gently, her eyes softening into a warm peach color, the corners of her mouth dip into concern. She wraps me in the warmth of motherly love, like when Lucas calms me with his Gift.

  I have never felt a mother’s love before, so I don’t know how I recognize it, but somehow, I know.

  Softly, her musical voice answers my question. “Born of Chaos, like Velus, she would have destroyed you. I saw it. There would be no Balance if she were to live.”

  “How can you know that? People change, people can…”

  “Not my children. Not those with two generations of my seed. There was too much power in her to leave to chance.”

  “A-and me? Am I this warrior? Am I supposed to, what, fight some kind of doomsday monster?” The calm I was encased in breaks with the force of my hysteria. All of the worry, fear, and panic that had been trying to surface, rises to choke me. I have to focus in order to pull in oxygen.

  “Peace, child. All will be well.” Kin places her hand over my heart, calming it. She waits to speak until after I’m able to take in a few great breaths. “You are not to be my champion. That is not your destiny.”

  I can’t help but feel relieved. I don’t know if I could have handled that kind of pressure. I’m barely surviving keeping up with the guys and their reputations, much less the fate-of-the-world.

  But then Kin continues. “You are not my champion, but your child will be.”

  With that, she places her hand over my stomach, her smile as tender as any mother.