Chapter 28
DREAMLAND ETHER
Isit at the base of an old willow by a lake long lost to time. In a distant life. Or maybe this life. It’s hard to know when you’ve had so many, for they each bleed into the next.
It is no wonder human lives are so short in retrospect, for they would never hold the memories of what really mattered together if they lived beyond one hundred. They would jumble them all, much like keeping track of a grain of sand on a beach full of a million others.
However, there is a memory that never fades. Not for me at least. It is the memory of my mother. The way she smells like softness and comfort, like her newly made bed that as a child I would dive into until I got lost amongst the mounds of pillows and blankets.
The creases of her eyes when she smiles, permanently etched there from all the times she held a smile so long just looking at me as if I were her whole world. Her hands. Long, slender fingers like the boughs of a willow tree. And her hugs. Hugs that would hold me forever until I decided to let go.
And she is here now. I can feel her as I skim my feet against the water. With one hand planted behind me on the earth and the other on the smooth root of the willow, I feel the vibration pulsating through. It's been alive all this time. She has been alive all along.
She enters my mind effortlessly, and it makes me wonder if the ring was the answer to bring her closer all along.
‘It was never the ring, my beautiful girl—it was always you. I’ve never been apart from you; you’ve only just awakened.’
Her voice drifts into me like a mourning dove’s song, and I wait calmly to hear it again.
‘I know this must be hard to accept. Every life, I’d hope would get easier to keep him away, but the memories only got messier.
I am so sorry. Sorry too that there is no way to break this spell.
If I had known that then, maybe I would have done it differently.
But fear took over. Fear of losing you.’
In this dreamland ether, I cannot speak, although I want to. My questions don’t come out, and I have so many. Why did you leave? I try to say, but the words don’t form. I can listen only. So, I do.
‘When you were created, you were born from me. It is only out of true love and hope that one can be created. But right away the realms knew, because being a tree sprite meant you were bound to provide power to another. It was the way of the realm, having been that way for as long as I can remember.’
I try to reach for her voice, but my fingers are only greeted by the mist her words leave behind.
‘You were bound to the Rooted Realm of Hickory and Heart before you were even fully formed. Dark earth magic has its ways of getting what it wants, and his heart was the darkest. And it yearned for you.’
Ry’s hungry look is all I can see. Her words are truer than she knows.
‘But I knew your worth wasn’t meant to feed some godlike hunger. You see, the realm I oversee is the Rooted Realm of Willow and Worth. And I was going to make sure you saw yours.’
There is nothing from her for so long, I almost think she won’t continue. I can feel sadness fill the void. It is hers.
‘At least while time was on my side, I wanted you to live without being someone else’s means to power. Hiding you so that one day you could find your own power. Find out how worthy you really are.’
Of course, Willow and Worth. My finger trailed its origin from that fragile but enchanting book. The comfort of finding her name amongst the endpapers wasn’t just a silly vice—it was true. She was rooting for me all along.
‘I wanted you to discover your soul on your own. Because I know your soul, honey. I am of your soul. But unfortunately, so is he.’