Chapter 159: Root Guardian

"What's next?" Graeme asked Zoe as he came to loom dangerously over her.

"What do you mean?" Zoe asked sweetly.

"Andreas wanted August to have no alyko ability. And then what? Was that it?"

"Quite possibly," she shrugged. "She would no longer be a threat."

August was able to see that Zoe was lying by the way her unusual aura threaded with a streak of deception, and she was about to comment on it. But then her vision became blurred and she stumbled before catching herself against the stone wall.

Graeme rushed over to steady her. "What is it, darling? What's wrong?"

Zoe clicked her tongue. "As you said, she lit up on the map again. What did she do before I arrived?" The young girl had her hands clasped behind her back as leaned forward to study August like a specimen. August's eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped against Graeme.

Before Zoe could get any closer, Sam shoved her in an open cell and closed the door behind her.

"Hey! I'm just trying to help!" she called.

"Greta?" Graeme found his sister hovering over them, checking August's vitals.

"I don't know," she mumbled. "It could very well just be exhaustion."

"A fair possibility if she healed you like I am assuming she did," Zoe called again. The young girl looked around her at the cell. "Did she walk through the cell door?" The realization just occurred to her, and she almost exploded with joy. This was also something she had never seen documented or reported before.

"Yep," Zoe sighed happily. "It is exhaustion or… perhaps…" her head tilted in thought "whatever she healed the sister from is beginning to corrupt her as well. I am assuming she has no practice in it… it takes a long time for alyko to develop their abilities to the point of something extreme like that. So many impressive things today…" she continued rambling to herself.

"Shut up, girl!" Sam finally roared from the other side of the door.

"Nothing can ever just be easy, can it?" Greta mumbled to herself. "Nor simple." She looked back up at her brother. "Let's take her to mom and dad's. It's closest."

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When her vision collapsed around her, August found herself back sitting on the large lichen-covered tree root from earlier in the day. This time there were small white and purple blooms from the other two trees rising from the ground weightlessly into the air and spiraling toward the sky. She looked up to follow their paths, but the sun was so bright that she had to shield her eyes.

"You are back," the tree seemed to hum beneath her.

"It would appear so," she replied. "This is beautiful."

She looked around at the ground beneath her feet. It was greener than when she was here earlier, covered now with a thick, fuzzy moss where the petals lay before rising from the ground.

"But… may I return? I miss him. He has only just gotten back."

"The mate," the root spoke in reply.

"My mate," she smiled softly. "Yes."

"He can't help you there right now. You must stay awhile longer."

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August's eyebrows threaded together. "What is wrong with me that he cannot help?"

The root rumbled beneath her but did not answer.

At that moment a familiar crow alighted at her feet, and the petals made way for him. It tilted its head, its blue iridescent feathers catching the light.

"You again?" August smiled, and the crow hopped toward her before fluttering up and landing on her shoulder.

She giggled, and the sound was different here. Like the tinkling of chimes. What a strange, pleasant space.

With her new friend remaining perched on her shoulder, August rose from the tree root. She looked down to find that she was in a long white dress with bare feet. It reminded her vaguely of when she awoke in the bed at the outpost before Marius arrived.

"Have a look around," the root rumbled behind her.

August walked through the three trees to peer down the other side of the hill. The white and purple petals were rising, spiraling up between the trees all around the whole wooded expanse below. Rather than the fall weather that she knew was the reality in Hallows Forest currently, all of the trees here were bright green and full. There were birds chirping happily in the distance, and the crow on her shoulder clucked a few times as if commenting on it.

And right at the bottom of the hill there was a spring of bright blue water with steam rising from its surface.

"Wow," August whispered to herself before breaking into a grin.

Behind her, the wise old root she had been sitting on crawled behind her, cracking open the earth in its path to follow August. Once it arrived by her side, it rose up to take the form of a woman.

Initially the woman appeared to be made from the same woody pulp as the root she rose from, but then her form became smoother. The lichens that graced her surface shimmered to become a green and yellow lace dress that swept behind her before disappearing into the ground. Her hair grew out behind her in black, gentle waves, and she turned to smile at August with the most crystal clear blue eyes August had ever seen.

"Hi," August said awkwardly.

"Hi, August. I'm one of your guardians."

"Guardians?"

The woman nodded and gestured with one arm down to the hot spring. "It is very relaxing if you would like to give it a try."

"It looks relaxing," August nodded. The crow on her shoulder clucked before taking flight and landing at the edge of the spring below.

August smiled, but then her eyes drifted back up to the sky where so many petals were disappearing into the bright sunlight.

The woman next to her hummed. "The mate."

August laughed softly and looked back down at her bare feet. "The mate," she repeated.

"I suppose that is what mate bonds do. You can not fully relax while you are here and he is not."

August looked up at her guardian guiltily. The woman laughed—the same pleasant tinkling of chimes that seemed to clone themselves and hang delightfully in the air.

"Well you are mates after all.. You can call him to join you."

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