by Andi Van
“You have a point,” Kelwin agreed. “Maker knows we’ve all been living on gut feelings for some time now. Okay, then, let’s go. But please, let’s all be careful. Never mind what Tasis would do to me if something happened to any of you, I’d rather not have my friends getting hurt.”
Zaree grinned and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You’re so cute,” she said, laughing when he rolled his eyes. “Lead the way, Em. Your mission is to keep me from falling to my death.”
Emlynn smiled and gave her a nod. “With pleasure.”
Emlynn had moved the boulder just enough so she could squeeze through, but it was no problem for Zaree, much to her gratitude. She’d had some horrible claustrophobic mental image of getting stuck between the boulder and the entrance, only to have to pry herself out and somehow stumbling over the edge once she managed to yank herself free. She really needed to do something about her propensity for immediately considering worst-case scenarios. It was disturbing. Almost as disturbing as the fact she really couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her own face, which made her rethink the whole thing. “Em, are you sure it’s safe? Walking through this, we may as well be blind.”
She knows the way, Bahz said. I know it even better. And if I didn’t, Daro can follow the trail with his nose.
I’m not a dog, the wolf huffed.
“Could you, though?” Kelwin asked.
That’s beside the point.
That was a yes if Zaree had ever heard one, but she wasn’t going to press the issue and stir up trouble. Maybe when they were inside again, and she wasn’t possibly putting her life in the familiar’s hands. Or paws.
“Come,” Emlynn said. “It’s this way.”
Zaree cautiously followed behind the giantess in silence, keeping so close to her that she almost ran into her more than once, but Emlynn either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Zaree was practically on top of her.
“Your memory is amazing,” Jorget said after a few minutes. “I know we’re within the trees, but I certainly can’t see them. The fact you can remember where they all are is amazing.”
“It’s nothing,” Emlynn responded, though Zaree thought she detected a hint of embarrassment in the words. “It just is.”
“You should really give yourself more credit,” Jorget argued.
Zaree reached ahead and touched Emlynn’s arm. At least, she hoped it was her arm, or knowing her luck she’d end up accidentally groping Emlynn and making the whole thing awkward.
“He’s right,” Zaree said. “Don’t discount yourself like that. I couldn’t remember the location of every tree like you’ve done. Neither could Kelwin or Tasis. And Jorget….” She paused, trying to think of a diplomatic way to finish that sentence, then shrugged and decided to go for honesty. “Jorget’s a great guy, but I’m amazed he can remember his own name some days.”
“You’re so rude sometimes,” Jorget huffed.
“Did you not hear the part where I said you’re a great guy?” Zaree asked. “Because, seriously, I’m well aware you’ve got my back. But you’ve got the attention span of a flea.”
“How do you even know what a flea’s attention span is like?” Jorget demanded.
Emlynn stopped, cutting off the argument. “Hush,” she warned in a quiet voice. “We’re here.”
Zaree tilted her head and listened as they went silent. She could hear the leaves behind them rustling, a few birds chirping, and… a distant cry of a gryphon. Without stopping to think, Zaree put her fingers to her mouth and whistled loudly.
Her whistle was answered by the sharp tip of what felt like a spear at her throat. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Chapter 8
“WHAT ARE you doing?”
Tasis jumped at the question and looked up from the window to see his mother looking at him. “Just staring,” he answered. “It’s beautiful.”
The window, Nirena had explained, didn’t really look out into one place. It looked out into every one of them. It was how she kept an eye on the worlds she’d created. So many worlds, all nothing more to his eyes than pinpricks of light out the Maker’s window. It probably should have seemed strange. Instead, as he sat on the chair and stroked Rin, he just felt calm. Well, mostly calm. There was still a part of him that couldn’t relax.
Evina sat next to him and reached over to join in stroking Rin’s soft fur, and she smiled warmly when he rolled over in Tasis’s lap and presented his belly for her to rub. “He suits you,” she said. “Such a darling creature.”
She thinks I’m cute, Rin told Tasis smugly.
“And you just know you are,” Tasis said, giving Rin a gentle tap on the nose.
“Talk to me,” Evina said. “Tell me about your young man. I can’t see onto the worlds like Nirena can, so I’ve had only her stories to go by.”
“He’s….” Tasis paused, shaking his head with a chuckle. “I don’t think I can even find the words. I think you’d like him. Zaree thinks you would too. We’ve talked about what your opinion of him might be.”
“High praise, if Zaree likes him,” Evina noted. “She doesn’t like anyone getting too close to you.”
“She’s a tiny bit protective,” Tasis agreed. “He… kind of accidentally walked in on her while she was bathing. And immediately apologized for being so rude to a lady. There was never any question in his mind as to who Zaree really was. I think that’s when I started to fall in love with him. When he accepted my sister as is.” He sighed and turned to face his mother, a wry smile on his face. “Do you remember how we used to go visit the Gyrn for my birthday when I was young?”
Evina nodded. “Of course I do. It was your favorite time of the year.”
“Do you remember how I used to go to bed very early the day before we set out, so the time to leave would get there sooner?”
“If only I could have gotten you to go to bed that early every night,” Evina lamented. “It would have made my life so much easier.” She let out a laugh when Tasis poked her in the side. “I’m only teasing, love.”
Tasis stuck his tongue out at his mother, dodging the playful smack she tried to give him in retaliation. “I feel kind of like that,” he said when they’d stopped laughing. “If it weren’t for the fact you’re here, I’d wish I could sleep so I could wake up and it would be time to return to my reality. It hurts to be away from him, Mother. I think I have some glimmer of an idea now why it was so hard on you after Father died. I never did understand why you wouldn’t let yourself love again. I used to think your good friendship with Daro would turn into more, and then Zaree would officially be my sister.”
Evina stopped petting Rin to take his hand and give it a gentle squeeze. “Daro is a good man, and a good friend. If I hadn’t had some idea that I’d be seeing your father again, and that Daro would be seeing Zizi again, I’d have been tempted. But I did know. So I shared what your father had told me with Daro, and we used to get together and drink and talk about things we’d like to do once we’d rejoined our loved ones. Did you know Zizi is afraid of the ocean?”
Tasis nodded. “She wanted to be buried on the hill overlooking their lands, so that she could rest eternal on land but have her soul be able to see the ocean that Daro loved so much. Zaree told me once when I helped her lay flowers at their graves. But I suppose her soul isn’t at her gravesite after all.”
“No. Instead, it’s here, same as the rest of us.”
“So it’s my soul that’s here?” Tasis asked. “Nirena never really explained, and I’ve been understandably hesitant to ask.”
Evina nodded. “What she told me is that Gisik has separated your soul from your body. Originally, he’d had it locked away in that room he’d built without Nirena knowing.”
“But this is her realm,” Tasis protested. “How could she not know?”
“She knew when it was time for her to know,” his mother said, reaching up to brush a stray lock of hair from his face. “I’m not certain if I understand the rules of
this strange game of chess they seem to be playing, but there are things they cannot be made aware of before it’s time. If too many rules are broken, they forfeit the game.”
“Hasn’t Gisik done that already?”
“He has,” Nirena said from the doorway, and Tasis looked up to see her smiling. “And while the game has not been called off completely, there are some things I’ve been allowed to do in order to keep things fair. The chair I left you, for instance. Or the message I’m having delivered to your sister as we speak.”
“What message?” Tasis asked immediately, desperate to know anything of those he’d left worried in his own reality. He needed to hear they were okay or he was going to go as mad as Archai already was.
Nirena sat across from them, though she was still so close that Tasis could have reached out and touched her if he was brave enough. “Some of those who keep watch over my physical form on your world have gone to meet her, to tell her that she needs to come to me. I have things I need to speak with her about. Things that might help win the battle. She’ll be told I’m watching over you.”
Tasis let out a sigh of relief, the feeling so strong it surprised him. “Good,” he said. “I know they’ve got to be worried. Are… are they okay? Do you know?”
“They’re fine,” Nirena assured him. “Worried for you, of course, but fine. They’re in the process of righting a wrong.”
“Falcon,” Tasis guessed. It was the only wrong he could think of off the top of his head that didn’t involve going into battle with the king.
Nirena nodded. “Yes, among other things. They’ll be rescuing your other friends soon. And then they will come to me.”
“Can I see them?” It was a long shot, but if there was any chance he could look at them, just for a moment, it would soothe a good many of his worries. He wanted to see for himself that they were okay.
“No,” Nirena said, and while it was the answer Tasis had predicted, that didn’t make the sting any less painful. “It’s not time yet. You’ll see them again, child, but there are things we need to do before that happens.”
“Like what?”
“Like teach you to get a handle on your magic,” Nirena said bluntly. “You have a huge amount of power, and every time you use it, you go overboard with it. You seem to have this mind frame that it’s like a door, either open or closed. But in truth, it’s more like….” She paused, giving him a speculative look. “There’s plumbing and running water in your buildings now, yes? I can never remember whether your people have made that much progress or not.”
“There is,” Tasis said slowly. “But what does that have to do with magic?”
“Magic is like water from a faucet,” she said. Which still made no sense to Tasis, but he kept quiet and let her explain. “You can turn it on a little, allowing only a trickle of water to flow, or you can turn it on a lot, allowing a large amount to pour through. Magic is much the same way. It is not either on or off, open or closed. There are levels to it.”
Tasis leaned back in his seat and stared at her as he mulled over her words. “I think that makes sense,” he said after a while. “But how do I keep from using it all at once?”
“Practice,” Nirena said calmly. “Just as you would while learning any other new skill. But you’re a bit of a special case, so your practice will be in sparring. With me.”
Tasis looked at her in horror. “You? I’m just an elf. You’re… well, you may not see yourself as any kind of a god, but I’m not sure what else to call a creator of entire worlds. You’ll have me flattened or charred to a crisp before I can even blink. That’s not exactly a fair fight.”
Nirena began to laugh, and Tasis had to remind himself that sulking would just make him look childish. He wanted to, though. He thought he’d made a rather valid point.
“Oh, child,” she said when she’d finally calmed down and had begun to wipe tears of mirth from her eyes. “Even your friends have already figured it out to some degree. The person who had been my daughter may have been human when she gave birth, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t still some dragon in her.”
“Are you seriously suggesting that I’m a god?” Tasis asked, completely flabbergasted. What Nirena was implying was insane. He was just Tasis. There was nothing special about him, possibly save for the fact he was speaking to a dead person and the creator of their world.
Nirena sighed, rolled her eyes, and looked at Evina. “Has he always had a problem listening to what people are saying?”
This just made his mother laugh, and she shook her head. “You’ll have to forgive him. I think he’s probably a little overwhelmed. Eventually it’ll sink in.”
“Are we done talking about me like I’m not here?”
“Are you done ignoring what I say?” Nirena asked, raising one eyebrow at him.
It was much like talking to a child, and Tasis wanted to scream in frustration. Which, he realized, probably made him the one acting like a child. He took a deep breath, counted to ten, and tried again. “Explain what you mean, please. About Triv, and about how it applies to me.”
“That’s much better,” Nirena said. “See? No need to lose your wits.”
What Tasis was about to lose was his temper, not his wits, but he didn’t think it would be wise to point that out.
“It’s my impression that you’ve witnessed Onai’s—Triv’s—rebirth, correct? Her second one, when she defeated the king.”
Tasis shuddered at Nirena’s words. He would never forget the things he’d seen when they started this journey, not even if he lived as long as Vashk. The enormous wave bearing down on Triv as she welcomed death, and the acceptance on her face as her body attempted to breathe its last and filled her lungs with seawater instead. Tasis thought the eerie calm about her had disturbed him the most. Even knowing that she had to die, that it was part of Qelmar’s Rule, Tasis didn’t think he would have been able to embrace his fate with such strength of character. He would have fought it every step.
“Yes,” he said softly, answering Nirena’s question. “May I never witness such a thing again.”
“Life is met with death, young Tasis,” Nirena said as she took hold of his chin, forcing him to look up at her face. “But death is no monster. She does only the job given to her and welcomes those who she leads to their next life. Even Gisik. She will feel sorrow every time he meets a painful end, because that’s how she is. Diondi may be the best of all of us, and I am honored to call her my sister.”
“Your sister?” But it made sense, even as the question left Tasis’s lips. Nirena was life, so her sister being death was… appropriate, somehow. The discussion on death reminded him of a talk he’d had with Josephina a long time ago, however. “May I ask you something?”
“Of course you may,” Nirena answered, letting go of his chin to pat his cheek fondly. “Though I may not be allowed to answer it.”
Tasis nodded in understanding. He couldn’t comprehend whatever rules she was following, or even who had set the rules, but he’d respect them. To do otherwise seemed foolhardy, given whom he was dealing with. “Someone once told me magic is what keeps the world together,” he said. “What happens if magic dies out?”
Nirena’s entire body stiffened as if she’d become a block of ice, and Tasis immediately regretted asking the question. Except he was fairly certain he had a right to know the outcome if he lost. He needed to know the consequences. Nirena must have come to the same conclusion, because she turned to the window and waved a hand.
Tasis let out a startled yelp as the scenery on the other side of the glass shifted, and the stars soared past as the scene centered on a small, brown world. It grew closer at an astounding rate, and when it stopped Tasis wanted to cry at the vision that burned into his eyes. The world was barren. There were no trees, no grass, no water. He saw not a single living creature, not even the smallest of insects.
The world was dead. He’d seen this before, in the nightmares he’d been having before Jorget had joined t
hem. When he’d wondered if he was going mad too.
He turned to look at Nirena, his eyes prickling at the surprising amount of emotion he felt. “What happened?”
“At first, the people flourished,” Nirena said softly, her voice so drenched in sorrow that Tasis wanted to cry out in pain. “It was a beautiful place. The people fought, but they were also skilled in compromising. And then Gisik came.” She looked at Tasis, shaking her head slowly. “Gisik tries to kill whatever I make, as punishment for not loving him the way he thinks I should. He brings chaos to peace. As the people multiplied, grew, and discovered new things, they also had Gisik whispering hate and disorder and prejudice in their ears. My daughter was sacrificed like some kind of monster to be vanquished. Ultimately, the people began to fight. Not just disagreements, but wars. Eventually those turned into mighty wars that spared no one, with horrifying weapons that should never have been built. They began to take the gift of their world for granted, poisoning its water, draining it of what it provided for them, and killing its animals with no thought to the consequences. Magic was relegated to a joke, and the people began to worship hate, greed, and cruelty above love and compassion. The few who were left who believed in magic, who knew it to be a real, powerful, good thing? They stood no chance, and eventually those hideous weapons were unleashed on every civilization. They killed themselves, and in turn killed the world.” She gave him a weak smile and wiped at his face. He was surprised when her hand came away wet. When had the tears started? “My beautiful, precious child,” she said. “Don’t cry. All is not lost.”
She waved her hand again, and the view changed, moving away from the desolation and back to the stars. A different world came into view this time, one far more green and lush. When it drew close enough for the landscape to be seen, there were huge villages, the likes of which Tasis had never seen, among all the green, tucked in as though to coexist with the plant life.