Chapter 24: 22 – [The Duty of the High Fey]

We found ourselves back where we had been after our out of body experience ended, I glanced over at Gwaelwen to see that she looked just as confused as I felt. We heard a light giggling behind us and turned to find the fairy twins with mischievous grins on their faces, they obviously knew this would happen and wanted to see our reactions given that they didn't mention what we just experienced. I narrowed my eyes at them slightly before the male twin coughed slightly and gestured to a nearby building.

"Let us reconvene in the hall, the rest of our brothers and sisters still have to introduce themselves and then we can discuss what are most assuredly the questions you will have after that experience."

He and his sister flew at the head of the group on our way to the hall his mentioned. Gwaelwen and I fell in behind the High Dryad who was carrying a small flowering bush in a pot, the High Ent I assumed. Once we all entered and took our places around a table covered in vines the High Dryad waved her hand which caused the doors to close as I felt the space around us seal off from the real world. The Dryad was the first to speak.

"I am Rainlily Seele, High Dyrad of the Fey. My brother and I were previously the youngest of the High Fey, as that honor now passes to you. I shall endeavor to answer any questions regarding your new duties as you get used to them."

She puffed up her chest as she introduced herself before gesturing to the potted bush she had placed next to her, which appeared to have worked its roots through the clay pot it was growing in so it could merge with the vines growing all over the table. The speech that followed her gesture spoke directly into my head and sounded like hundreds of individuals voicing their assigned part of each word in order to form a flowing sentence. I could sense the vines all over the room pulsing with spiritual energies in complete harmony to the voices that were forming words in my head.

"And I am Ashbud Seele, High Ent of the Fey. Pardon my lack of physical presence as I cannot leave the glade in which I am rooted, so as is my custom I have sent a seedling to allow myself access to the nexus of greenery within the Hall of the High Fey. Like my sister I am also accessible should you have concerns over your new duties."

I bowed slightly to the two once they finished their introductions, and thanked them for their future support as fellow High Fey, I saw and heard Gwaelwen do the same to my left. I gestured for her to ask her questions regarding the ceremony we just completed with the Soul Tree. She tilted her head in my direction in thanks before clearing her throat and addressing the rest.

"My first question then, what are our duties in regards to the soul system we had granted to us?"

I nodded at the question as I turned towards Rainlily who looked ready to answer.

"Simply put, we High Fey serve to provide maintenance regarding the Soul Tree's duties of recycling the souls of the departed back into the world. Should our Mother Tree run into issues with the processing of a soul or souls, usually in the event of mass death or the death of a powerful member of the mortal races, we step in to manually process the soul or souls in question. All of those born in this world, even including us Fey, are granted access to assistance from the world itself. The mortal races refer to this as their status, we refer to it as their soul. In the rare cases that a soul has been stripped from someone while they still live they will lose all access to the assistance provided by our world, meaning they become far weaker than the fellows of their race no matter their original status. They will also lose the ability to feel and interact with the energies of nature. Essentially they have been deemed unworthy by our world. Usually this occurs as a result of killing numerous mortals or, even more rarely, the murder of a High Fey such as ourselves. Of which has only occurred once in all of history."

She glanced at the male fairy as she said the last bit, who smiled wryly as he recalled what I assumed to be the memories of the event she mentioned.

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"As such, we High Fey are immortal in a different way from the rest of the Fey. We are reborn again from the trunk of the Mother Tree at the moment of our death and retain our High Fey status and memories. Meanwhile our Fey brethren will only retain their memories and clan but must be born again in a pair as a normal Fairy from a branch of their clan, regardless of their previous Fey racial status. This used to lead to some Fey residing within Mother for centuries as they waited for another of their clan of the opposing gender to return to Mother and allow a pair birth. More recently most of the clans have adopted the practice of volunteering to return to Mother in order to allow their clanmate to be reborn much sooner, but I am getting off-topic."

She cleared her throat, uttering sounds not unlike birdsong as she did so, before continuing.

"Before your arrival we would share this duty evenly between ourselves. Each of us would take turns when handling souls that Mother was unable to process. Unless you have a suggestion for a different method we will likely elect to continue this method as is."

The Dryad finished her explanation with a satisfied hum before looking back to us for further questions. Her explanation regarding the duties matched many of my preconceptions but the news about what souls did and how they were handled was interesting to know. I glanced at Gwaelwen to see that she was deep in thought before I voiced my question.

"I suspect that Lady Gwaelwen likely experienced much of the same events as I did upon my evolution. Correct me if I am wrong, but we are the only High Fey to have been born with a Dungeon attached to us?"

The vines all around the room took up a slight shine as spiritual energies surged from the potted High Ent in response to my question.

"This is a correct assumption, we were notified of your evolutions at the time they occurred as our Soul Cycle system advised us of the permissions that had been granted to your dungeons at the time of your births. We do not know all about the systems that govern our world, but we suspect that these permissions were granted as a stop-gap in response to the birth of new Fey that had already left our Mother's boughs. We are aware due to the energies released at your births, and our conversations with Gwaelwen, that you two evolved in a way most unusual to the Fey."

The High Ent paused in his telepathic speech to give us a few moments to process his answer so far.

"Elementals may be considered a member of the Fey by the mortal races, but they are merely the remnants of Fairies that reached their limit after hoarding the Ether energies of the world. An Elemental is born from the consciousness and soul of a Fey leaving to return to Mother after their demise upon losing control of the Ether within them. The being that remains is just the power that they lost control over wrapped within a fragmented will of the Fairy that caused its birth. It is truly marvelous that you two managed to evolve back into Fey from mere instinctive pools of energy, which we suspect lead to the creation of Dungeons from your excess power and as an extension to Mother's control over the Fey races. Our world likely needed a way to connect yourselves and your kin with Mother until you could present yourselves before her to manually rejoin the cycle of Fey rebirth that is part of her duty."

Marvelous indeed, given that it was caused by interference from the outside that forced it to happen in order to grant our wishes. I glanced at Gwaelwen again and noticed she was also looking my way with a rather pleased grin on her face.

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