Chapter 4 — Lovely Yillian, Girl of Xyn’s Dreams

Yillian walked near the trees that lined the road, observing the foliage. A brief glance down at the herb-gathering basket (and the pitiful amount foraged thus far) was enough to make the young half-elf groan in frustration. The sought herbs tended to prefer the better light and soil conditions that the roadway provided, so there had been reason to be optimistic, but the day’s luck had been miserable thus far.

Ahead, the road was becoming more treacherous with pools of brackish water visible to either side. The distant trees were increasingly blackened with mold, and hair-like plants draped from the branches spookily imitating cobwebs.

With a sigh, Yillian pressed on. Heading this far out was dangerous. The rangers and hunters mostly kept to the drier areas closer to the village—with the exception of the deep fen expeditions, which were the primary reason this village existed. For hundreds of years the Elven Council had taken responsibility for monitoring the taint that still corrupts the plants and animals of the mire.

Ah! A silverbell.

A little way off the road, a patch of silverbells clustered not far from the first one. Yillian tested the soggy ground with a boot before stepping out onto the strip of land that extended into the water.

Maybe the day’s luck was turning for the better?

With a sense of relief, Yillian knelt down and started harvesting the herbs. There were enough flowers to leave some behind for future foragings—though hopefully Master Arienos wouldn't be staying too much longer.

A slushing of water brought Yillian’s thoughts worriedly back to the present. The forest was suddenly way too quiet, and without the buzzing and chirping of insects, the sounds of the disturbed water lapping against the mossy and muddy strips of land echoed clearly. Several clumps of foliage forming small islands in the water seemed oddly closer than before.

Another bloop sounded, and Yillian frantically rolled to the side just in time to dodge a thick vine of some kind stabbing through where the basket had been. More bloops and sloshes sounded from all around, and Yillian ran for the road, barely keeping the basket’s contents from spilling out. A glance back showed the islands having become tentacled horrors whipping about their algae-draped branches and vines as they rose from the water. Ahead, a horror shambled onto the road blocking the way back to the outpost.

Rattled and heart beating furiously, Yillian focused on visualizing the glyphs, gathering nature’s energy from the surrounding marsh and forming the spell mandala as quickly as possible. A ball of fire shot out and struck the nearest of the horrors, singeing its foliage and withering it’s limbs. Yillian retreated and launched another fireball as another horror propelled itself forward past its withered and steaming companion. Nature energy had a poor efficiency with fire, and the wet environs limited the effectiveness of the magic, but what else could stop these things?

Yillian’s foot slipped into the brackish mud upon backing up to the edge of the road while preparing a third fireball. Spinning around, Yillian launched the fireball at a new horror sloshing from the water behind. The situation was bad, but not yet insurmountable. In the swampy soundings, nature energy was still plentiful enough to quickly form the spell even with the corruption making it difficult to control.

“Looks like you could use a helping claw, pretty.”

Catching an illusion of fluttering flower petals, Yillian spun around in time to see a clan-robed cat-kin make circular motions with his bare muscled arms, causing a horror’s barbed vines to bend harmlessly off-course as they shot past. His hands made rapid light strikes against the vines, and bulges pulsed back toward the horror’s tangle of foliage before it convulsed and exploded in a spattering of sap and swamp goo.

With a further flutter of petals and fabric, the cat-kin flickered from view, leaving light ripples in the water before reappearing in front of another horror to repeat the display.

As the shock of the stranger’s arrival wore off, resentment at the condescending greeting bubbled up.

“Who’re you calling pretty?!” Yillian shouted out and launched a fireball at the horror rapidly approaching down the road like a nest of snakes, vines slithering and writhing to drive it eagerly closer before the rush of flame boiled away its vigor. Pretty? Even if the cat-kin was some clan’s young master, it was too much!

Xyn had no idea why the elf girl was upset. Hadn’t he just saved her from certain death?

Sharpening his aura around his retractable claws, he repeatedly slashed through the tangleweed that the girl had just cooked.

Once the over-aggressive swamp bush was quickly reduced to a quivering root maw, he turned toward the girl. Her cheeks were puffed up with irritation as she unleashed her fire magic at the remaining tangleweeds. Was it an elf thing? Didn’t all girls like to be called pretty?

He tilted his head in confusion. “Was I wrong? You are, aren’t you? Pretty, I mean.”

The girl with attractive ears, glittery platinum locks, delicate features, and emerald-green eyes gaped at him before turning and launching the largest ball of fire yet. Maybe she didn’t think she was pretty because she didn’t have prominent mammaries?

Xyn shrugged and Petal-stepped to a tangleweed the elf hadn’t noticed approaching from behind and used his new technique to explode it. Quickly finding another hidden nearby, he dealt with that one as well.

Just how many tangleweeds had gathered here? Over the past week, Xyn had fought way too many of these things, but this was ridiculous.

The new technique wasn’t from the scroll, but rather something he had developed on his own. A lot of damage was required to kill the abominable plants, and hacking them to death with his sword was a tedious pain. Thankfully, he had discovered that the tangleweeds flowed aura along their sap to drive their surprisingly quick movements. That allowed him to use the intermediate technique Love’s Blossom from the Path of Dancing Petals to subsume the aura and redirect the flows.

At first, he used the technique just to deflect the long attacking vines to create openings for assaulting the core, but after noticing the sap-flow effects caused the redirections, he came up with an idea to violently reverse the sap flows and was completely surprised at how effective the results were. Maybe, that was because of his Water affinity, but he felt that he had stumbled upon something that he could make a part of his own Path. If it was this effective on plants, what would happen if a monster’s blood was reversed and sent back to its heart? Or a person’s?

If only he could be so lucky making progress on the forbidden technique. Not that it would help him much right now, since it was an Air-element illusion technique that used aura to disperse unwanted memories in the target, such that the affected memories became faint and difficult to recall and were eventually forgotten. Definitely something that would be useful for his mission, but now was not the time to worry about that.

Xyn Petal-stepped back to where the elf youth was collecting samples from the tangleweeds.

“Sorry, if I said something offensive,” he offered. “I was passing by and thought you could use some help.”

The girl shot him a glare. “I can take care of myself. I would have been fine.”

Okay…

“Well, anyway, I’m glad to have come upon an elf,” Xyn tried again. “I’m headed for Shir`lyn and would really appreciate someone showing me the way.”

“I’m not an elf,” the girl huffed. “I’m a half-elf.”

Oh? Did that mean she counted as human for purposes of his mission? Xyn had to admit that he found her rather attractive for a non-Kyrren. More attractive than the humans his grandmother kept introducing him to. Could he have found his mate already?

“I’d be thrilled to share the company of such a cute mage as yourself.” Xyn winked at her like he had seen his grandmother do when she teased him.

The girl pulled her shoulders in and shivered then started walking off.

Wondering if he did the wink right, Xyn caught up and leisurely followed alongside the girl. “So, what’s your name?”

The girl shot him an incredulous look before pretending to ignore him. “…Yillian.”

Xyn nodded. “That’s a pr-” At the sharp warning look from the girl, he amended what he was going to say. “…um… nice name. Is it a type of flower or tree?”

“No.”

“You sure? A lovely name like that must surely have a meaning comparable to the sense of beauty that it evokes, right?”

The girl started walking more quickly.

“I’m Xyn by the way,” he offered and tried to make small talk about what living in the Mirewood was like.

“This is Shir`lyn.” Yillian waved at the palisade that spread out to either side of the road. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I’ll be on my way.”

“Ah, wait up, Yillian-” Xyn started to say but was blocked by the two elves on guard duty.

“Yillian, this guy with you and Master Arienos?” one of the gate guards asked the girl, who answered with a “No, I have no idea who he is.” and stormed off.

What?! She didn’t say she knew Master Arienos! And why’d she ditch him so suddenly? So rude!

“So, what’s your business in Shir`lyn, cat-kin?” the other guard asked with a bored expression.

Xyn turned his attention back to the guards. Showing them the letter for Arienos led to questions about why Yillian said she didn’t know him. Eventually, after explaining about the encounter with the tangleweeds, the guards let him in.

The guards had shared some private amusement at his story. Maybe Yillian was known for her churlishness or something? The Elven language wasn’t among Xyn’s best. He knew enough to have caught Yillian’s interaction with the guards and to ask for directions, but he was certainly much more fluent with the shared Beastkin language and the language of the nearby Human kingdom.

He wasted no time searching for Yillian, and the directions from the elves inside the garden-like outpost led him to a large tree-wrought building with smells of cooking drifting down from above. The tree-building was different from Kyrren treehouses. The elves had apparently used their magic to shape the tree as it grew, causing the rooms and windows to form naturally. Xyn marveled at the elven craft before shaking his head and dashing up the walkway that circled the tree’s hugely broad, if squat, twisted trunk.

Parting a sap-beaded curtain, Xyn entered what could only be an elven inn. Tables and booths were grown out of the floor to create intimate settings that provided semi-private views of the sky through the woven canopy that made up the ceiling of the large room.

A dark-haired elven girl, waved him over. “Oh! A young master from the cat-kin clans. Will you be staying with us?”

Xyn glanced down at his flowing clothes. His family certainly wasn’t poor, but for him to be mistaken for a young master… He shook his head. “Maybe later? I’m looking for Yillian and Master Arienos and was told I could find them here?”

The girl smiled at him. “They are indeed. It’s exciting having such a well-respected mage staying at our inn. Though, I hope that doesn’t mean there’s something troublesome happening with the mire of late… should I send for them?”

“Ah, no.” Xyn again shook his head. “The letter I have for Master Arienos, it is likely a private matter.”

“Of course that would be the case.” The inn girl nodded sagely and directed him to one of the room’s arched exits. “His room is at the end of the branch. You can’t miss it.”

Taking his leave, Xyn followed the sloped branchway past a three-way split, each leading to a room grown out of the massive limb. When he drew close to the room at the end, voices speaking in the Human language could be heard inside.

“You did well, Yillian. These should work nicely.”

“How long will we be staying here, Master Arienos?”

“Unfortunately, the situation is more concerning than expected and an expedition into the deep fens will need to be organized. So, it’ll be some time yet.” The man chuckled. “Why? The swamp air getting to you, Yillian? I thought you’d be happy to leave the stink of human towns behind?”

“Ugh. Why do we have to trade one foulness for another?” Yillian complained.

“We go were we’re needed.”

A cord with a silver handle hung down next to the room’s beaded entry curtain, and not wanting to get caught eavesdropping, Xyn gently pulled it, resulting in tinkling bell sound inside the room.

The conversation stopped, and shortly afterward, Yillian parted the entry curtain, her eyes dilating in surprise and her face cramping up in annoyance at the sight of him. “…what?”

Rude!

What had he done to fail at winning this girl over? Kerra had said his current form was cute. Why was she being so difficult when he was doing his best to be charming?

Rather than respond in kind, Xyn gave her a put-upon smile and held up the letter. “I have a letter for Master Arienos.”

“…Fine.” Yillian held out her hand. “Hand it over and go find someone else to bother.”

Maintaining his put-upon smile, Xyn shook his head. “I was told to deliver it in person.”

Yillian’s eyes narrowed before grudgingly holding the enchanted curtain open for him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Ducking, Xyn passed through into a reception alcove and was led into the room proper.

Near a window on the far side, a robed man stood at a table manipulating a complicated alchemy assembly that was actively bubbling away. Judging from the feeling of power coiling the man’s every breath and motion, the man was without a doubt Master Arienos. Xyn felt a surge of excitement at meeting such a person. Surely, this master would have knowledge that could help him grow more powerful.

“Oh? Do you have some reason to dislike this fine-dressed cat-kin youth who has come all this way, Yillian?” Master Arienos inquired with an amused eyebrow raise as he finished a few adjustments on the apparatus and turned his attention toward his apprentice and Xyn.

“…” Yillian‘s cheeks flushed as she bit back her complaints.

“I see, I see.” The stylish elder mage chuckled and held out his hand. “I hear you have a delivery for me.”

“Ah, yes, Master Arienos.” Xyn humbly approached and handed over the sealed letter. “Master Kaylie tasked me to bring this letter to you.”

Yillian shot him a look of surprise before her attention snapped back to her master.

“This should be interesting,” the wisened half-elf master drawled as he deftly drew a glyph over the letter and it unfolded itself to reveal its contents, which elicited another chuckle and an amused mutter as the mage’s eyes scanned over the flower pressed paper. “So, that’s your plan to shirk your responsibilities, is it, Kaylie?”

Folding the letter up and storing it in his robes, Master Arienos looked him over with an evaluating gaze. “Young disciple Xyn, I presume?”

“Yes, Master Arienos.”

“It appears that your master desires for me to sponsor your initiation into the Society, just like I’m doing for young Yillian here. To that end, you’ll be assisting me in my current investigations.” The elder half-elf paused to let his words sink in, giving a gentle smile. “Assuming you are willing, of course.”

“I am, Master Arienos!” Xyn didn’t hesitate. A chance to study under such a powerful master and possibly meet other masters! There was no way he would turn it down! Thank you, Grandma Kaylie!!

Master Arienos caught sight of Yillian’s dismay and a faint smirk tugged upward. “As a fellow initiate-in-training, Yillian would be thrilled to teach you what you need to know. There’s an extra hammock in his room that you can use while we’re here in Shir`lyn. He’s been bored of late and, I’m sure, would enjoy the company.”

The sneer of victory that Xyn was beginning to direct Yillian’s way froze half-formed.

He?!