4. Chapter 4
THEN
Malik watched, engrossed yet guarded, his knees pressed to mine as we sat on our heels across from each other while vines twisted and rose around us, moving between one another in a practiced dance.
I was making a show of their movements, intertwining them in and out of one another, each of my hands guiding them on where to go from my lap.
"What does it feel like to control them?" he asked as he watched.
He seemed to be more intrigued than wary that day, which I had hoped for.
Ever since my powers manifested in front of the Astaros tree, I had worked to make him more comfortable with my abilities as I learned them, bringing Malik along whenever I could, letting him watch as I found familiarity with Yllsora.
Our connection with the roots beneath Rida had to be built up, much like gaining trust. Every day I came to the temple, sitting for hours on end, strengthening my connection with them little by little.
And as the days passed, my connection with not only the roots but all parts of Yllsora became second nature, something I didn't have to think about.
As time went on, I could see the change, for roots slithered under my feet no matter where I walked, and flowers bloomed out of season when I passed.
"It's like having extra limbs," I said, the vines curling through the air, mimicking my hand's movements.
I watched as one wrapped itself up and over Malik's shoulder, curving down and around his bicep before crawling along his chest. He scrambled away as I guided the vine up his throat, laughter bubbling over my lips at his overreaction.
"Extra limbs I have total control over," I teased.
Even years after my connection with Yllsora had manifested, Malik was still unsure of the roots.
Yet, every time we sat in this temple together, the roots slithered over our thighs and intertwined with one another, pulling Malik and I together, as if they knew something about us that we didn't. Yllsora always had more insight into the people who walked her surface than the Mother Blessed did, everything from the breeze to the sway of the grass showing us the truth of things.
I learned much in those early days by observing Yllsora, like how the moon flowers open just before it rains, or how the leaves of the trees turn upside down on days where the sun is just a fraction closer to the earth, ready to soak up all the light they can.
Even to this day, Yllsora shows me how she lives and breathes, moving in a constant and instinctual dance, ever learning and always taking care of herself in a way I am envious of.
It wasn't too far into my training before I discovered that I was much more connected with the roots than other Mother Blessed.
While other Mother Blessed coaxed the earth, I felt it.
I felt the movement of the roots beneath the surface, felt the crops as they pushed up through the soil, felt when a storm was brewing, and felt the turn of the seasons.
I was not confined to just one line of work like most Mother Blessed—I could tend to crops, knew the ways of herbs and medicines, and could heal with my powers where so many could not.
It was something elder Mother Blessed had never seen before, and this connection with Yllsora solidified me as the first Guide, a keeper of the patterns of our village, something Sorrel quickly became dependent on for its survival.
But it was not without its challenges. The more I leaned into this connection, the more Yllsora showed me, and the more I started to recognize the patterns around me, both the good and the bad.
There were days when my connection with Yllsora felt as easy as breathing, and others when it felt like power was dripping from my pores, frantic for a way out. That's the thing about being connected to the earth—it is so powerful that we found ourselves seduced by it, unable to deny its pull.
At the time, we were still learning the depths of Yllsora's power, and I was forced to tune it out, to learn how to live alongside it and hone the power running through my veins so that it did not take over. I had done so eventually, even with how difficult it was.
Malik was by my side many of those days when it all felt like too much, holding me through the pain. Those were the only moments when he tried to convince me to leave it behind and not burden myself with such responsibility, that I did not have to follow this path as a Mother Blessed.
But when I told him of how I could feel Yllsora, how I had been afflicted with the ability all my life, and how I was on the precipice of walking alongside it and not letting it control me, Malik became my closest confidant and biggest supporter.
Thus continued my grueling journey in unraveling the connection I had with Yllsora and the Mother.
I spent most of my days when not training traveling around Sorrel, deepening my knowledge of the village and its surrounding flora and fauna.
The land was wild and untouched, shy in what it was willing to show me, but I was patient, coaxing Yllsora day in and day out before she revealed herself to me.
I learned her cadence and soon was able to predict weather patterns before they happened, when the soil was most fertile, and when storms would be upon us.
Every day was a new discovery, my journals overflowing with my findings before I employed other Mother Blessed to accompany me on my treks, all of us working together to create what would become the compendiums of Yllsora, for our world was new, and we had a duty to document it thoroughly.
This work kept me busy and it was the first time in either of Malik and I's lives that we were apart from one another for such long periods of time, my days filled from sunup to sundown.
Malik's days became busier alongside mine, yet he still managed to sneak away when he could, finding me wherever in Sorrel I might have been, hiding from meetings his father scheduled for him to instead bring me meals I so often forgot to take.
It was a much-needed reprieve, as fleeting as they were, as Malik's men would quickly find him, pulling him away to whatever duties that day had in store as his father primed him to be his successor when we wed.
Yet no matter how busy either of us became, we always found the time to meet at the temple as we did that day, basking in a rare moment where we weren't the future leaders of Sorrel, but two childhood friends, desperate for a moment of normalcy.
I dropped the vines from around Malik, lying back on the dirt under the Astaros tree, letting the setting sun that cast the temple in an orange glow warm my skin.
Exhaustion sat deep in my bones as I closed my eyes, letting the stillness that comes with the end of each day wash over me, when I suddenly felt the soft caress of Malik's fingers moving my hair from my face. I cracked my eyes open to find him studying me, a small smile playing on his mouth.
"Tell me what you learned today," Malik asked, the question the same as always, yet one I always found myself excited to answer.
The Mother Blessed did not divulge the details of their connection with Yllsora with the common folk, as it was our burden alone to hold, and we—the Mother Blessed and the commoners—each had our role to play.
Those without a connection to the Mother only learned of Yllsora through what we shared with them when it was time; everything else was kept to the compendiums to be referenced by future Mother Blessed.
Malik was my one exception to this rule.
So much had changed in the seven years since the day my powers manifested, each day full of so much discovery that my mind was often spinning by the time I saw him, the knowledge of what I had learned leaving my mouth before I could make sense of it.
Malik would often let me talk until my racing thoughts had emptied from my mind, smiling as he took it all in.
Even with his hesitation towards the roots, Malik had started to see the solace I found in my work with each day that passed.
And when the wind blew through the temple at his question, and I saw the reverence on Malik's face as he looked up at the Astaros tree—still powerful and sovereign in the wind's blustering presence—I knew that there was nothing I wouldn't share with him in my journey as a Mother Blessed.
He knew of every new discovery as it came, every mystery of Yllsora I unfolded each day, as our planet changed with each rise and set of the sun.
"Did you know everyone can feel Yllsora?" I began.
Malik tore his gaze from the Astaros and looked back at me, a skeptical look on his face. "I don't believe that."
I nodded, sitting up and grabbing his hand, my fingers stained with dirt and ink from the day's work, and pressed it to my heart.
"There's a rhythm to the world, much like there is one to all of us. I think everyone could feel it if they just tried hard enough. Even you."
"I don't know, Lyra—"
I moved his hand from my chest and pressed it to the trunk of the Astaros, the warmth of his hand sinking into mine. We sat there for a moment, my hand on top of his, and willed him to feel the thump of Yllsora beneath us, its beat in tune with my own heart.
I knew Malik wouldn't be able to feel the thrum of the earth as intensely as I could, but I saw the moment he felt everything become one under his hand. I saw when he felt Yllsora as the Mother Blessed did, his eyes widening and fingers flexing on the trunk underneath my own.
I laced my fingers through his as the breath whooshed out of him, offering him an anchor as the beat of Yllsora coursed through him.
"Is that what you feel all the time?" he asked, his eyes studying where his hand was pressed to the Astaros.
I nodded. "I've learned to tune it out, but yes."
Malik shook his head in wonder. "It's just as you said, like a heartbeat, but one that I can feel throughout my entire body. A constant thrum."