16. Chapter 16
As we continued our journey, the nimids seemed to be more alight with awareness, more sensitive to our presence and reactive in their movements, as if they were on edge because of the reveler's presence, too.
The nimids grew more densely the further south we traveled; their trunks tightly packed and spindly limbs reaching in every direction, brushing our shoulders as we walked.
"The closer to Rida we get, the more nimid trees," Malik observed.
"The closer we get to Rida, the more nimid trees that are needed to protect her."
I could feel them in every step I took, more sensitive to their presence than I had ever been before, their attention pressing in on me from all sides as we walked through the forest, as if they were waiting to protect us from the revelers and mainland men that now lurked in the Alesi's shadows.
"Do you ever wonder what the mainland is like? If they have any Astaros or nimid trees? Or something completely different?" Malik asked.
It was something I often thought of while Malik was gone, wondering where he was, what he was experiencing, wondering just how different the world was off Wellea.
"You are the one who has interacted with so many mainland men. What did they say?"
"From my interactions with them, I don't think they have any idea about anything concerning the Mother. All they believe is that the Mother Blessed are slowly siphoning power from the king."
"And that is why they came to Wellea."
"That, and because they are disconnected from the truth of this world. They are angry because they don't understand what it is the Mother Blessed do, what Rida means for our planet. So rather than try to learn, they want to destroy."
Malik's words held everything I feared about the mainland.
The sole task of the Mother Blessed was to spread word about the Mother, to bring continued peace to Yllsora, yet on the mainland, something had gone wrong.
We had failed in our task, and now we were paying for it.
I could only hope that once this was all over, we would be able to make it right.
Each day as we traveled, we woke to a new group of men walking along the river that lined the Alesi, their scouts looking into trees and through low-lying shrubs, trying to spot us.
I had no doubt that the mainland men we had run into would send for others once they found the bodies of the others in the forest, but never did I think they would catch up to us as fast as they did, even with the benefit of horses.
Though now, they kept to the edge of the forest, not daring to step foot inside.
We first noticed just one man, a possible lone messenger making his way to their next destination, but then one man turned into three, turned into six, turned into nine, all of them headed the same direction we were, their gazes shooting into the Alesi, often in our direction until it was obvious that it was us they were hunting.
Even with the men's presence constantly looming, we had no choice but to keep the river in sight as we traveled, even in the denser parts of the forest, for without it, even I could get lost in the depths the Alesi.
A snowstorm made its way over Wellea over the next few days, blanketing the mountain and forest so heavily that we were forced to move closer to the river that night, the torchlight of the men in our view, the rush of the water keeping me awake.
We were quiet, watching the colors of the Caelium dance above us, the moon high in the sky when I heard the cracking of wood around us.
I sat up quickly, fearful of another reveler having found us.
Instead, I turned my head to find the forest lit with a red glow, yet this time, it was the dry heat of the fire that let me know that this was real.
Its heat threatened to swallow the forest whole, the smoke billowing, choking me as began to stand.
I squinted through the sting of the smoke, trying to find the source of the fire, and found that it grew from the riverbank, right where the mainland men had made camp below us, a path burning right to where we were camped.
It took but a moment for the men to make their way into the opening, the now-burned nimids unable to fight back against their advances.
It was clever, burning the forest in order to get to us, something I had never considered until that moment, now a detrimental reality we had to contend with.
I must have hesitated for too long, as Malik grabbed my arm, hauling me up from the ground, and together we ran deeper into the Alesi, the flames licking at our heels, the clank of swords and armor never too far behind.
We made our way up the steep mountainside, clawing our way through the snow that slowed our escape, rocks and dips hidden beneath its piles, tripping us as we ran, giving the mainland men an opportunity to gain on us that we could not afford.
I did not know what to make of what happened next. The skies gave no sign of rain, yet in an instant, the world was drenched, as if the Caelium opened, pouring all it had below to stop the mainland men from reaching us. The fire extinguished as water met the flame, soaking us to the bone.
Malik and I raced against the rain, our clothes and coats soaked and weighing us down, causing us to stumble and grapple for anything we could find.
Cracks sounded behind us, the sound of what I thought were nimids and nydles continuing to fall under the fire.
We dove under an overhang as the downpour continued, and I turned to find the nimids springing back as the rain poured.
Their trunks emerged from the ground, reborn and strong, branches sprouting and arching over one another, as they were before the men set fire to them.
The mainland men found themselves in the middle of this regeneration, having chased us into the forest, now surrounded on all sides by the nimids they so desperately wanted to destroy.
You must get to Rida…I heard, the voice indistinguishable but undeniably Divine. Do not let them stop you.
We watched in morbid fascination as the nimid trees turned towards the mainland men, bending their limbs down to caress their faces, the men's armor trembling as they did so. It wasn't long before the screams of men were echoing off the stone of the mountain.
~~
Smoke still dusted the sky the next morning when the sun arose. And now that the river was out of sight, Malik and I traveled blind through the Alesi, nothing to tell us where we or the mainland men who stalked us were.
Still, we had to keep moving.
We trudged up the mountain pass, my movements slow, the physical effort of this journey beginning to wear on me. The rain had left us damp, with no way to get warm as the chill of the snow had sunk into my very bones, not allowing us even a moment of reprieve as we continued south.
And the further south we traveled, the power of Rida only intensified, the constant thrum of life shooting up through my body, tempting me to pull from the roots, the power I held threatening to force its way out if I did not expel it soon.
There had always been talks of Mother Blessed that succumbed to the powers of Rida the closer to her they got, but being sequestered to Sorrel my whole life, I had never been able to wrap my mind around such a thing.
I had always prided myself on my ability to act rationally, to not feel like I needed take more than Yllsora offered.
But now, as Rida loomed larger and larger, her magnetism affecting me more with every step, I understood how this power of ours could eat us from the inside out if we let it.
"After that night in the temple, you said that this was bigger than the both of us. What did you mean?" Malik asked suddenly as we walked.
I looked off into the distance at snowcapped mountains and sighed. It was only fair that I finally told Malik the truth of everything I had been experiencing, even if I still didn't know what to make of it myself.
"Ever since the Shroud, I haven't been able to hear the Mother, but that night in Sorrel when you returned, I did. But she wasn't the only voice I heard. There's this other voice, darker than the Mother's. And ever since that night in Sorrel, it hasn't stopped speaking to me."
Malik tensed slightly at my words, no doubt the mention of the Shroud setting him on edge.
"Is that where the nightmare came from?" Malik asked.
"Yes," I whispered. "I believe so."
"And that thing that chased us, you saw those in your dream?"
I nodded. “Yes. In my dream they could control the roots and the rot that has been spreading. And the roots they…they listened to them. Better than they have listened to me in years. I don’t know what they are, or why they are here, but whoever that other voice is, the revelers have to be its creation. ”
Malik looked out over the sea of trees in front of us, deep in thought at my words.
"Could such a thing even be possible?" he asked. "How do you know they are the creation of another Divine?"
"If the Mother could create the Mother Blessed, I don't see why another Divine couldn't create beings in their light as well. And in my dream, I heard that same voice, the voice that is not the Mother. And I heard it again when the reveler found us in the forest."
Malik nodded, studying the forest floor.
"The only thing that I am sure of," I continued, "is that something must be happening in the Caelium that we are not aware of. Something that is causing the Divine to act this way, and it has made its way to Yllsora."
"And we are just pawns in the Divine's game," Malik said.
I didn't want to agree, but I knew Malik was right. As a Mother Blessed, I had allowed myself to be an acolyte of the Divine, but never did I think it would be at the detriment of Yllsora, this world their collateral.
We continued walking along the mountain until we crested a ledge to settle on for the night, sitting and looking over the sprawling landscape of endless trees and mountains with Rida in the distance, the sound of the river reaching us even all the way up here.