Chapter 16 #2
Thalia led the way, using her staff to twist and rip aside the vines and briars.
Aleks summoned a floating orb of light, trying to guide our movements as the day grew increasingly darker underneath a thickening canopy of overarching trees.
I moved methodically between them both, unsheathing Grimnor.
Despite it being weaker here than in Noctaris, merely tapping the blade against the foliage caused it to recoil, and occasionally to shrivel up entirely.
The deeper we pressed, though, the less this trick seemed to work. The air was growing thicker with every step. Resisting us, wrapping around and settling like a too-tight embrace around our bodies…
Almost like it was trying to trap us.
But the thought of turning around and fighting our way back to the world outside seemed even more uncomfortable. So we pressed on, eventually reaching a clearing that looked strangely manicured compared to everything else around it.
At the back of this clearing, several trees bent and twisted together in a way that resembled an arched doorway.
“Is it just me, or is that terribly suspicious looking?” asked Zayn.
“Does it look familiar?” Thalia asked me.
A throbbing pain struck between my eyes as I tried to reply.
Did I know this place?
And, if so, why couldn’t I clearly remember anything about it?
“Nova?”
“I’ve been here before, I think. But it’s slightly…wrong, again. Like it’s all been rearranged somehow…”
A branch creaked above us, slow and deliberate, as if the forest was craning closer to hear.
Thalia gripped her staff tightly in both hands. “It feels oddly aware of us, doesn’t it?”
“A sentient forest.” Zayn let out a cough. “That’s a horror I wasn’t entirely prepared for,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “And I was prepared for a lot of different horrors the moment I agreed to come on this little adventure.”
Cautiously, we approached the arched trees. A strange glimmer pulsed just beyond them, bright but obscured, like moonlight viewed from underwater.
A short distance away, Aleks had stopped in his tracks. The magic he’d been using to light our way grew dim, and the forest fell silent, save for our tense breathing.
Then, it started: A song. At first, I thought it was merely the wind scraping branches together and rattling pinecones in a strangely rhythmic way…until I heard a soft, sparkling voice joining in.
I fell into a trance, listening to it.
I don’t know how much time passed before I managed to break free, my eyes finding and focusing on the faint orb of light still hovering next to Aleks.
“…Do you hear that?” I whispered, inching closer to him.
He didn’t answer right away. He didn’t have to; he was looking in the exact direction the song seemed to be echoing from, his fists clenching and unclenching, his entire body rigid.
Zayn and Thalia didn’t seem to hear anything; they’d moved on to exploring the area on the far side of the clearing.
Aleks gave his head a little shake and walked toward them. I started to follow, until I was distracted by a different sound: Footsteps shuffling through the brush, somewhere off in the opposite direction. The movements sounded heavy. Weary.
Phantom poked his head out of my pocket and let out a hiss as the noise drew closer; he was so small, so weak, that I felt him more than I heard him. I urged him deeper into my pocket and squeezed Grimnor’s handle, preparing to spin and strike if necessary.
“Late for your lesson, as per usual,” said a familiar voice.
I turned to see Orin standing less than a dozen feet away, leaning against a walking stick that barely seemed to be keeping him upright.
He looked…awful.
There was no other word for it. His skin was waxy and drawn tight over sharp bones, his lips pale as milk, and his eyes—once bright amethyst and constantly shining with curiosity—were clouded and rimmed with dark lines.
His voice wavered with a bit of uncharacteristic emotion as he said, “I expected I’d be seeing you much sooner; Bastian wrote to me a few days ago, telling me you intended to return. The vaekin that carried his message into this realm barely arrived in one piece.”
I stepped toward him, torn between embracing him and shaking him, demanding answers.
“I had hoped we’d meet again,” he said, quietly.
Despite my irritation with him, I couldn’t help but say, “Me too.”
“Our worlds are in quite a perilous state, aren’t they?” he mused. “What exactly have you been up to these past months?”
“I think you could probably guess.” I failed to keep the hurt and venom from my voice as I added, “And you could probably explain all that’s been happening better than I could. If you cared enough to, that is.”
“…We do have a lot to talk about, I suppose.” He sighed. “Though I think that conversation is going to have to wait. The trees are restless; your mere presence has woken them up, reminding this grove of its purpose.”
“Its purpose?”
“Mm.”
Speaking in riddles again.
Typical.
Before I could voice my annoyance, I followed his gaze to the arched trees, and my breath caught as I realized Aleks was making his way underneath them without hesitation.
I took a step toward him, but Orin snatched my arm and held me back. “Don’t be reckless.”
I looked to the others for help, only to see that Zayn and Thalia both seemed to be in a trance; Zayn’s head was tucked against his chest, as if he’d fallen asleep on his feet, while Thalia leaned on her staff and massaged her temples, grimacing as though fighting some invisible pressure.
I watched Aleks disappear, the light he’d summoned growing fainter and fainter. Frantically, I called his name. The only answer was a brief pulse of his light…
And then it was gone, too.
“What is going on?” I demanded of Orin, jerking free of his grip. “Why isn’t he answering me? And that…that song we both heard…”
“So you both heard it?” He didn’t seem entirely surprised by this, though his tired eyes did flash with that familiar gleam of curiosity, if only for an instant.
“Explain,” I snapped. “You know more about this place than what you’ve told me in the past. I believe there’s something buried here that we need to find, and I need to know how to navigate this grove before it’s too late.”
He hesitated.
“Orin. Please. I need your help.”
The trees creaked and groaned, as if moving closer to the conversation once again.
Orin shook his head sadly and said, “If you believe nothing else before this is day is over, believe that I only wanted to help you.”
My heart thundered in my throat. His words carried a heaviness I didn’t understand—didn’t want to understand.
“Explain,” I said again, quieter this time. “Quickly,” I added, with a harried look at the last place I’d seen Aleks.
He took a deep breath, like the sort he usually took before preparing to lecture me about something that he knew I would only halfway pay attention to. Only, this time, my attention was absolute.
“This wood serves a great purpose,” he said, walking toward the arched trees and beckoning me to follow. “It’s a place where divinely magical things can be safely contained. Buried, in some cases. Forgotten entirely, in others.”
“…A graveyard?”
“Something like that. But not just for divine-touched creatures. All sorts of magical things, living or not. They don’t break down here, though; mostly, they go into stasis.
Time stands still in the deepest parts of these woods, and the air and soil throughout the forest nullifies all but the strongest divine magic.
The Hollow Grove was created as a sanctuary by those who feared that the Vaelora—and the things they could create—might grow too powerful.
They also used it as a meeting place that they believed was relatively safe from divine eyes. ”
The place where gods forget.
“They…who are they?” I asked.
“Figures who once served the gods and their chosen Vaelora, but who later began to question their power—who outright rejected and sought the destruction of them, in the most extreme cases.”
My mind went back to the sentier, locked away and left to die, taking any chance of Lorien’s revival and return to power with it. The symbols that had marked its prison…
“Figures connected to the Void Order, by chance?” I asked.
Orin stiffened and glanced over his shoulder, as though he expected members of that order to come crashing through the trees at any moment.
“You’ve been doing your research for once.
Very good.” He cast another wary look around the trees before continuing.
“We used to practice your magic on the outskirts of these woods because I knew the spells here would intervene if your power ever raged beyond what I could channel into safer outlets. But it seems we’ve come to the point where that power can no longer be chained.
” His gaze briefly went to my wrists, now free of all the bracelets he’d made for me.
“The Order you mentioned…they’re organizing and moving in greater numbers than they have in some time, stirred into action by what you’ve done these past months.
They’re hunting you, Nova. And Aleks, too. ”
The words didn’t come as much of a shock; I’d already feared the worst where this veiled organization was concerned.
I eyed my weary mentor. He knew so much…and there was no way he was safe with the knowledge. And again, as angry as I was with him, I couldn’t help but worry, wondering if that was why he looked so tired, so ragged.
“They’re hunting you, too, aren’t they?”
He gave me a sad smile. “It’s complicated.”
I winced as the strange voice sang out from the wood once more, briefly making me forget all the questions I had for Orin.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“That song, it’s getting louder. It’s…”
“A spell meant to lure divine beings into a state of confusion,” he explained.
“Most people can’t hear it. Or, they don’t notice it, at least—though it can have a calming effect on normal beings who haven’t taken precautions.
” He nodded toward Thalia and Zayn, who I was now almost certain had fallen asleep standing up.
“You should be powerful enough to shake it off, at this point,” he added, “even if you venture deeper. You just need to brace yourself.”
“What about Aleks?” A second question got caught on the tip of my tongue: Why did he hear a song meant for divine beings, if Lorien was truly exorcised from him?
Orin didn’t answer, shaking his head. “There’s a lot concerning him that we can discuss later, if…” He trailed off.
I was afraid I already knew what he’d been about to say.
If he makes it back out again
Panic bubbled in my chest, but Orin had that stern look in his eye that he always did when I started to stray from his intended lesson—a look that demanded focus.
“I know what you came here for.” He lifted his tired gaze to the tiny patch of blue sky visible through the thick trees.
“The forest knows, too. But it won’t let it go without a fight; that sacred piece you seek is deeply entwined with the spells here, now.
It’s too powerful to have been extinguished, so it’s likely the grove has been feeding off it instead, while dispersing and redirecting it into something relatively less dangerous.
Cutting it free will have consequences.”
“…Consequences?”
“Destabilizing ones.”
I swept a gaze over our surroundings. Though I couldn’t see Rose Point any longer, it was the only image I had in my mind. My stomach clenched. “How far will that destabilization reach?”
Quietly, Orin said, “You can’t turn back now, either way.”
Again, an evasive non-answer.
But I didn’t press for more. There was no time. And it had just struck me, again, how awful he looked. Like he hadn’t slept in weeks. Like he’d been clinging to life just long enough to meet me here for one final lesson, to point me onward and say, Go, before it’s too late.
Phantom streaked out of my pocket as I walked closer to the spot where Aleks had disappeared.
His spectral figure wavered like smoke caught in a vortex, twisting this way and that.
Clearly struggling to hold his form. I could only imagine it would get worse if I dragged him deeper into the unpredictable maelstrom of magic and strange spells that lay ahead.
“Stay here,” I ordered. “I’ll be back soon.”
I hurried forward before he could protest.
As I stepped under the archway into the deeper, darker part of the forest, branches shifted and roots lifted in my wake, snapping violently at my heels. Once I was inside, it all twisted and snarled together, cutting off my exit.
I inhaled, tasting a strange mixture of pine and rot and ash on my tongue, and the world went utterly silent.