Chapter 13: Chapter 13

“Again, sorry for forcing you out of The Rift, I didn’t want to wait to see if you were friendly or not.” I took a step back and lifted my palms. “You are friendly, right?”

“That truly depends on if you are friendly, good sir.”

The Elf before me was no taller than me and wore a similar outfit to the rest of the group—tattered green shirts with embroidered patterns throughout the seams and what looked like to be the remains of scarves wrapped around their necks. The only difference was that his pants weren’t made of the same off-white material, but instead a light brown.

Each of them had their silver hair tied in braids that were wrapped around their heads, taking away from their icy blue eyes, but giving their soft ivory skin a darker complexion.

“Fair, well I’m Zero.” I stuck out my hand. “And we are in Vol, not Sidra.” I took back my hand and crossed my arms. “Indumiso enyangeni nakunina wonke.”

“I thank you, Zero, I can tell just by your greeting you are an old ally to Amara.”

“I am and I don’t suppose she too is also secretly still alive like the rest of you?”

“I’m afraid not, Queen Amara died alongside Queen Liananda decades ago, during The Fall of Hajaar Haath.”

*

The Fall of Hajaar Haath took place in an instant and would be the starting point for The Dryad Empire’s conquest of Vol—millions would die and amongst those millions were Alinanda and Varin’s mothers.

The city had become far beyond anything Queen Amara could have imagined—with the help of the Ents, she was able to move the forest and divert the river around the city, separating it into four circular sections. The outer ring was mostly forest and Ents, with some Shroomers having set up villages around the Eastern perimeters.

Moving inward you will find yourself in the residential circle—faces of all life can be found here, all living in a plethora of different style homes. Many of them had built treehouses while others learned to carve impressive homes out of marble and stone. 

The third section was the Trade District. A large section of farmland and shops where inhabitants of Vol would come for their needs and wants. Even without the use of currency like Onyx, the district thrived solely on trading.

The innermost circle is where The Castle of Connection sits and where Queen Liananda rules. She was making her way to the Trade District when she found Amara. “Mother’s Moon, what has come of you?” She asked.

Amara’s body was cut, bruised, and beaten, with one of her arms completely missing.

“From the South…thousands of Dryads are on their way here.” Her breathing was labored and half her words were accompanied by blood. 

Liananda ran to her side, allowing Amara to collapse into her arms. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you on your feet again.” She placed her hand on her chest and a magic circle etched itself over Amara. “I can’t repair the arm, but I can—.” Liananda stopped, the presence of dark mana had stirred her attention above—a silhouette was floating in the sky with arms outstretched above their head. 

Liananda pulled her hand back. “You should be able to stand?”

Amara nodded. Liananda helped her to her feet then turned back to the silhouette.

“That’s not a Dryad.” Amara stated.

“No, it is not.” Liananda lifted her arms, aiming her palms toward the silhouette. “What has come of The Land of Poppies?”

“Gone.”

“And my daughter?”

“Safe.”

Liananda summoned another magic circle, this one much larger. “And yours?”

“Safe, she is still in Sidra.”

The magic circle expanded in size and its orange huge turned to black.

Amara stepped behind Liananda and placed her remaining hand on her back. She summoned a magic circle. “I won’t be alive long enough to use all of my mana, take half.”

“Thank you.” Liananda adjusted her arms slightly. Her magic circle expanded once more, now casting a visible shadow over the city.

Amara’s circle dissipated into a display of tiny shards that funneled into the back of Liananda’s neck—this caused her circle to double in size, completely blocking the city with its frame.

Day turned to night as the circle stretched over the city, creating a magic dome around it—closing the silhouette on the outside.

Liananda dropped to her knees, coughing blood onto the grass.

“My Queen!” Amara stated, grabbing ahold of her.

Liananda knocked her away and pulled herself up. “You act as if you too aren’t a Queen of Vol, treat yourself as my equal Amara.”

“We are far from equals, you are more than—.” Amara was cut short by an unfathomably large explosion.

Liananda pushed her away, using the last bit of her mana to coat her in a protective shield. She turned around as a fireball that was nearly four times larger than the city dropped down upon her and The City of a Thousand Hands was turned into a flattened circle of nothing but ash and dirt in an instant.

Varin dropped to her knees as the smoke and fire of the memory parted—she watched as her mother struggled to stand, not realizing her legs were gone.

“Liananda.” She said weakly. 

She crawled forward. Liananda was only about two meters in front of her, but it felt like several kilometers. She stopped several times, almost giving up twice as much.

Liananda’s body was unrecognizable—looking like nothing more than a blank silhouette of white. Amara stuck her hand onto her chest, using Liananda’s body to roll herself onto her back—resting her head on Liananda she looked up at the silhouette from before.

“What…” Her breathing was beginning to slow. “What did we do to deserve this?”

The silhouette vanished and appeared beside Liananda’s body. Amara weakly turned her head.

“You’re…you’re a Higher.”

“I am.” It turned toward Amara, giving her a better view, even if it was blurry.

It looked to be male, but she wasn’t truly sure and the voice didn’t give her enough to go off of. At first, she thought they were wearing robes but it was much more of a caped gown. The color was either dark blue or black, but she also couldn’t mark a darker purple off the board. Their skin was a dark complexion with eyes that were a mix of silver and blue.

“If it’s all the same to you, I didn’t want to do this, I wanted to be assigned elsewhere, but we all can’t get what we want.”

Amara pinned them as male and went to speak, but realized just how weak she was.

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“Shhh, I’m talking now little one, you didn’t do anything, you just happened to have a large number of bodies we could use, but I guess that is doing something, a dilemma for another day.” They moved to Liananda, they went to touch her, but Amara’s grunts stirred them away. “Feisty as ever I see, it’s too bad you never listened to your daughter when she was feisty, all those sacrifices to Nix…she tried to warn you.”

“I…I was right?” Varin asked herself.

“You were my dear.”

The Higher’s voice echoed at Varin and just like that, she was back in the forest, standing before the Higher. 

Varin was frozen in fear—the MoonShadow Elves were nowhere to be seen.

“Where is Alinanda?” She asked.

“Oh sweetie, you figured out that the sacrifices were nonsense but haven’t figured this out?” He leaned in, positioning his face in front of Varin’s. “There are no more MoonShadow Elves.”

*

“WAIT?! ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT I GAVE VARIN TO THE DRYADS NOT ONCE BUT TWICE?!”

Yes, I know.

“Zero.”

I turned to Maeve. “What?”

“You mean to tell me, that you weren’t just going along with them this entire time to get closer to their leader?”

If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now—we ARE NOT continuing to the next island without Maeve.

“Yeah, totally, you know me, doing all that thinking ahead.”

“He’s an idiot isn’t he?” Lyren stated.

“Impressively so,” Maeve replied.

“I’m…I’m right here?”

“We know,” Lyren said with a smile.

Lyren is the leader of what remains of Vol’s so-called resistance and the last remaining full-blooded Jólu Elf—the other eight in his party are a mix of Nymphs.

Lyren believes he has most of what has unfolded on Vol figured out, sparring over a few details. He felt that there was no pattern, it was all random, always another twist, but when he was able to pinpoint one of The Highers responsible, it all made sense.

Koko'o'yo, the Jólu Elves Goddess of Nature was a lie—Varin was right.

*

Koko’o’yo is actually a Higher by the name Yoo’ko’ko, Master of Illusions and Tricks.

While Baruu was very much sealed inside the sun by House Raiju, they never once woke. Ko had put on the grandest display of his skills—a display beyond anything he had ever done before or will ever do again.

“Wait, you’re trying to tell me that a whole ass sun is fake?” Lyren nodded at me. I sat down on the ground and tossed up my arms. “What even is real life anymore?”

Maeve and Lyren both let out a small laugh and then began discussing what the next steps should be, with Maeve taking charge.

“Ko has tricked all of Arrithia into thinking that Vol held balance to all life, when this illusion shatters, it’s going to cause a lot of problems, not only amongst Arrithians but also Highers, they will start to question their ranks.”

“I hadn’t thought about that, but you are right Miss Maeve.”

“I got a question,” I interjected before either of them could continue. “If Ko and Nix aren’t working together, then why do they both need Varin and use Mhetymorfs?”

“That’s one of the last details I have yet to figure out,” Lyren replied, turning to his party, he waved his hand at one of them to come.

“Farlos here believes that Ko unleashed the Changelings, which drew Nix’s attention since she uses them as a food source, and from there, it just grew out of control.”

Before Maeve could reply, the ground began to shake, followed by roots emerging from within. They wrapped around our legs and pulled us all into the air, dangling us upside down. 

“WHO.” The ground shook more, cracking open to reveal even larger roots. “ARE.” They parted, revealing the thick trunk of a tree. “YOU.” The bark began to shimmer as eyes cracked open from a seemingly petrified state. “Who dares traverse my tunnels without permission.”

“Huh,” I exclaimed. “That answers two questions we had previously.”

“That voice…” The tree spoke softly, pulling its booming voice down to almost a whisper. “...I’ve heard it before.” They pulled me close to their face—their eyes examined me up and down. “...you smell familiar, you…” It pulled me closer to his face, cracking open its mouth to lick my mask. “...now, he was a human, long dead, but…” it licked my mask again. “Taste much like his aura.”

“Uh, maybe, you, uh, misremembering?”

“HA!” They pulled me back to the ceiling and began lifting more of their body from beneath the dirt. “Ents don’t misremember tastes my boy, ‘Are tastes buds are like—.”

“...leaves of the vines, always growing, always changing…” I began speaking with the Ent, reciting the same little poem with them in unison.

“...but they never forget their way, even if they forget your name.” We both stated.

“AHH HAHAHAHA!” The Ent lowered us back onto the ground as it bellowed its laugh across the tunnels. “ZERO MY BOY!”

It took me a moment before it hit me. “HUORNOS?!” I exclaimed, teleporting myself to his face. “You’re still kicking, even after the fire?”

“Oh, that did a number on me, but after a long rest and a little help from Mother Vol, I was just fine. What brings you back to the island ladie, especially during times like this? I can smell ‘er on ya, you took the Princess’ Soul didn’cha, gonna restore Mother Vol and ge’the island back in tip top shape, aren’cha, yeah, I expect nothing less from the legend himself. mhm.”

I turned back to Maeve and Lyren. They couldn’t see my face, but Maeve knew my posture enough to tell I was distraught.

“Wait…to save Vol, Varin…Varin has to die?”

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