Excerpt from Alexan’s Seventh Journal, Tour of the Small and the Strange.

The acquisition of an elemental seed came with difficulty in my early teenage years, but I would soon discover that this timing created in me a prodigy. My time amongst the Goblins and Gnomes has shown me how unusual such an early adoption of an element truly is. Truly, my headstart in being able to cast elemental magics has contributed much to my success.

But I must admit I had a difficult time coming to terms with my early adaption of my seed in comparison to others, it seemed to me that others must somehow be lazy or foolish. It took me time to learn that not all younglings are given the strict hand that made my development possible or that such treatment was even necessary. Perhaps more importantly, not all youths are so desperate to simply survive their early years. I envy no one the upbringing that brought me to where I am.

Years prior, Unnamed Tal

“Again, Yekchetal. Start with the breath.”

Carefully holding his expression, Tal took a long moment to relax. Piece by piece, he released, his chest, his arms, his hands, muscle by muscle Tal let it go.

“Good, now breathe in,” she too took in a long breath of concentration, letting out in time with Tal, “and out.”

He didn’t let the voice get to him, not yet. Tal slowly and carefully took another deep breath. Carefully maintaining his state of relaxation, Tal kept his mouth closed. Carefully he pulled in a deep breath through his nose, letting his awareness settle on the feeling of the air rushing in. Carefully.

But it wasn’t the air he was actually concentrating on.

“Feel it spread through you Yekchetal.”

His eye twitched, but he didn't lose it. And it was so easy to lose it, every lesson was a struggle against this feeling just… sinking away to nothing.

Tal took another breath. The feeling of the mossy air stopped behind the arch of his nose. The intake of breath filled his chest, but he could still feel a cool rush of power drawing down to his belly and expanding further. The feeling was faint, resembling the jolt of jamming the soft spot of his elbow, yet much lighter. This was almost the feeling he was looking for, almost, but it wasn’t what she was looking for. There was something… more, that he couldn’t find.

“Now pull it gently, draw down to your core.”

His lips tightened to a thin line. Always here, this was the point. He tried. He clawed, he pulled, he pushed, he gritted his teeth, tendons standing out on his neck.

“No, gently Yekchetal, carefully, pull. Do not force.”

As always, her voice was enduringly, endlessly patient. Distantly Tal forced his hands to relax as he tried, tried to just pull.

“Yekchetal-”

It melted away from him. Tal’s hands slapped onto the desk hard enough to hurt, his jaw clenched with tension. His eyes flew open and he only just restrained himself from glaring at his teacher. It wasn’t her fault. He knew that. But.

“There’s no core to pull it to!” He spit out past clenched teeth.

His teacher sat before him, the only other resident of the classroom that often held anywhere from twenty to thirty students. Most of them were gnomes, of course. They took up much less space with their desks located on wall mounted balconies.

On the primary floor there were nine desks for students and the desk of his teacher. At the start of this lesson, after the departure of the rest, Tal had started by pushing all the desks to the back of the room. This made it so he could sit in the middle with Nolsa across from him.

Nolsa was achingly beautiful and endlessly patient. And she was Erlkin.

Twisting black horns sprouted from her temple and framed her porcelain white face. Two long ebony black braids rested on her chest, traces of smoke seeping from her hair, obscuring her head and robe. Nolsa’s clothes were simple and plain, nothing more than a brown cotton tunic and similar dress, She wore a colourful vest over her tunic, dyed with yellows and greens to give it colour.

Nolsa stood, her hooves clacking on the carved wooden floor.

“No child of this world is born without a seed,” Nolsa replied, her voice still patient and calm, pleasant on his ears. “But I will concede it seems yours remains fallow, which is unfortunate when...”

She paused mid sentence. He looked up as Nolsa moved to her desk.

“The records hold that Humans and their seeds are greatly variable, but the most common result is a fallow, unsown seed, such as yours. You can circulate and refine aether, but that is the limit of what your seed will allow. That may change in time, but clearly this will not be an opportunity given to you now.” She stopped and sighed with sympathy.

“This will limit you greatly, in truth, I had hoped for your sake that you would have an inborn aspect.” Nolsa said, picking a small twisted branch from the desk and turning back to him. “But you can feel the flow of aether in your blood. You have met the condition for the transformation of raw aether into mana.”

“Oh,” Tal muttered dumbly, his annoyance at having to hear his full name blunted by Nolsa’s disappointment. “So… we are trying something different?”

She returned and turned his small hand over, placing the focus of hollow-wood in his hand. Shadow wafted slowly from the wood like smoke from a candle. “We are! Sadly, it is much, much easier to learn how to transform aether by use of one’s natural seed. While you can learn how to use this wand in its stead, the effort will be more difficult.”

His hand closed around the wand. Her disappointment made sense now, he was going to have to do things the hard way. Tal was perfectly fine not having to learn, but she wouldn't hear it. “But I can learn it,” Tal offered, resigned to his fate.

“Yes… but not today!” Nolsa’s solid black eyes smiled at him, the corners of her eyes crinkling with amusement. “You will have to wear that on your person for some time, allow it to become an extension of you and to absorb your natural aether. Not fully necessary, but I expect you to be spending time on the aetheric sharing technique with Easil. So for now and thirty days, you are free from my lessons!”

Tal jerked in place. A whole month free of lessons! Nolsa tapped him on the nose to bring his attention back to her.

"You can’t hide your excitement from me, enjoy your extra time,” Nolsa laughed, her voice tinkling despite the whispering quality at the edges of the sound. “Hide your spare time from Easil while you can, I expect you can snatch at least one free day. Be aware that I will have you working hard when you return!”

“I will!” Tal stuffed the wand into a loop hanging from his corded belt. Jumping to his feet he ran from the room, Nolsa’s cheerful giggle following him through the door.

Present day

Tal would much rather be anywhere than here, even in Nolsa’s class. Not that he minded the beautiful Erlkin teacher, he just wasn’t fond of his classmates. But he’d still take them over the thing thumping around in the tunnels.

Easil’s voice was the barest whisper as they huddled in the dark. “Quiet, quieter, quietest~” Easil whispered, his words reinforcing the concepts forming the spell of silence. Controlling the very air, Tal’s adoptive father stilled every sound they made. It’s not like the whole bubble in which they hid was silent.

Tal concentrated as well, much larger hands holding the familiar and now decorated old wand of twisted wood from the heart of the Hollow. The great old tree was aspected not to wind. Wind was the natural element of Easil’s inborn seed. No, the Hollow tree was a thing of darkness, natural home to the likes of Tal’s teacher.

The area about them dimmed, their sheltered corner fading further into shadows as Tal protected them both from the illumination of the glow fungus from within the dense tangle of roots. With both sound and sight locked away, they were as well hidden as they could be. But It wasn’t the glow fungus that threatened their lives.

“Quiet, quieter, qui-”

THUMP

It shook them, the feel of it transmitted by the very wood underneath. Neither Tal nor Easil broke, holding the spells of silence and darkness close.

Thump, Thump, thump.

The steps moved with a slow cadence, stopping from time to time. It suspected they were there, but Tal was accustomed to moving carefully through the wood without disturbing the foliage that might give them away, and Easil had swept their lingering scent away.

This wasn’t the first time they had played this dangerous game.

"Easy Tal…” Easil whispered quietly.

If there was one blessing, it was that Easil’s spell of silence did not require they actually be silent within the barrier. Tal’s breath rasped with tension and effort as he channelled the thinning aether through his wand. The twist of root seeped shadow from the carved swirls and decorative knots of Tal’s whittling.

When the thumping of its gait had receded into the distance, small Easil nodded at Tal above him. Tal released the thin barrier of shadow, smoke dissipating away from them in an instant. Easil’s breath may have come quieter than the much larger boy, but his breathing was still harsh. Tal reached down to place his hand on Easil’s back and carefully channelled aether to the old gnome.

He had been doing this since the day after Nolsa had give Tal his wand, first with a trickle and then months later with all he had. The simple act of holding and circulating aether lent it an aspect of cleanliness, making it easier for others to convert. Training was needed to share between individuals without trouble, of course, but they’d had plenty of time.

Easil’s breath smoothed out as he found himself benefiting from Tal’s much greater supply of aether. Now he could concentrate wholly on transforming circulated aether to wind mana and maintaining his spell.

Several minutes later, there was no more sign of the beast, no more deep thumping or eddies of disturbed aether. Several minutes more and Easil let the spell dissipate. They waited some time, the damp rotting smell of old wood and plantlife their only companion in the dim glow.

“Maybe you were right,” Easil said as he panted with the long run of exertion. “The stores are pretty full, it’s not terribly pressing that we go foraging any further.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like we’re really finding what we actually want today,” Tal quipped in return.

Easil looked up at his adopted son, waved his hand about and pointed.

“Ow!” Tal flinched as a hard ball of air smacked him in the forehead. “Okay, okay, let’s go.”

“Ahhh, good to see the light again,” Easil sighed with relief from his perch on Tal’s shoulder as Tal stepped out from the wooden tunnel.

“Yeah,” Tal agreed, all quipped out now. Easil had exhausted himself holding the barrier of silence. Tal’s darkness spell wasn’t necessarily easier, but he did have an advantage of endurance over his tiny parent.

Unless it was talking. Easil won that contest every time.

But in truth, the quiet return from the depths of the hollow wood had sapped any remaining energy Tal had to spare. He was happy to come out to the light.

Tal climbed the incline of wood, following the spiral of shaped wood up the gigantic branch of the tree. Giant except when compared to the hollow home itself. The further up they rose the brighter the light. Tal closed his eyes for a moment when he felt a brush of wind against his face.

“Ah, the elders are spreading seeds,” Easil sighed, also enjoying the moment, "soon will be the rain."

They turned the corner to arrive at the village of Lisnail. Many more branches large enough to house families Tal’s size and more spread out before them, all of it wreathed in the greenery of leaf, moss and more. The living village spread before them, the alleys filled with murmurs of residents and the clunking, thunking working of life moving on and all of it built upon one single branch of the great tree.

While the great branch had been hollowed out in places to help make traversal easy, the homes and buildings were just as likely to be built as they were to be grown in place. Some buildings were thick branches jutting up enough to carve a house into, or use as a spine to support a building as the main support beam or wall. In other places, frames had been placed to encourage the tree to slowly fill in with fresh growth. Everything looked carved from the great tree to some extent and all of it was covered with vines and greenery.

A rough but friendly voice called out. “You’re back early!”

Tal turned to his left so his head didn’t block Easil’s view from his right shoulder. Easil would want to do the talking, and Tal was fine with that.

“Indeed!” Easil replied to the Erlkin guard.

The man wore only a loincloth and brown jerkin and stood with an unstrung darkwood bow. He was an old man, old enough for the fur on his legs and his cloven hooves to turn jet black. Old enough for his horns to seep enough shadow to hide his baldness, the forward pointing horns ending with blunted wooden caps covering the spikes.

“I assume then that there was trouble Easil?” he laughed, “I hope Yek didn’t get you into trouble.”

Tal didn’t rise to the bait, many residents of the village liked to poke him with words like that.

“Enough of that Mountsik. No, we were forced to hide from a beast in the upper levels. Judging by the sound of it, I think we’ve got a far wandering dusk bear.”

“That far? Ah… yes, that is serious. Headed to the Reach then?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll pass on the word to anyone who comes this way, Later then Easil, Yek.”

Easil nodded, Tal pressed his lips together upon hearing the nickname, and they moved on.

It was nice to breathe the relatively clean air outside the innards of the hollow. Especially when the elders had gathered on the top of the hollow to spin the wind. Casting anything outside would be difficult with all the ambient aether being used to maintain the large spell, but if there was no wind, then the seeds that spread the crops wouldn’t travel about the dome. They had their farms, but that would only go so far and every resource was needed.

Tal and Easil moved in companionable silence, stepping past a gaggle of gnomes working through the small laundry with a handful of young porcelain-skinned and white-furred Erlkin maids cleaning the larger clothing. The maids giggled and pointed at Tal as he walked past the large hollow basin in which they worked. He could just hear them whispering in hushed tones.

Tal stiffened his back, determined to ignore them, even when they burst out in cold laughter.

It wasn’t long until they were in the bustling portion of the village. Of course they saw more Erlkin, white-haired youths, jet-black smoke-haired elders and everything in between carving and crafting on woodcrafts, preparing the evening meal and working their trades.

Lisnail produced the best woodcrafts, and many of the buildings on the main path sported multiple workshops that made simple wooden tools from common woods and two shops of interest were wreathed in black smoke.

Not the smoke of a fire, but the concentrated smoke of Erlkin craftsmagi. In these places, the best craftsmen focused pure darkness aspected mana into tools and weapons of wood. It would make them as hard or even harder than metal, but also add weight according to the mana infused into the project.

It took a careful hand to get the balance right. It was much easier to add weight to dark wood creations than it was to give them the strength of metal.

The shops along the way were also completely pitch-dark. An Erlkin could see fine, but gnomes like Easil and a person, a Human, like Tal had no chance of seeing a thing.

He especially longed to go into the shop with a sign of a black-tooth four legged beast, the weapons carving shop "Blackfang Wolf." Before his classes had revealed Tal had no inborn seed of his own, he’d dreamed to being able to work here or as a craftsmagi in any of the workshops in the village.

A pack of tiny gnome kids toddled about further along, chasing a weasel kit, all of them giggling with joy at the game as the beast bounced around in play. Tal stopped and waited for the group to move past him, respectful of how easy it was to miss seeing one of them from his vantage. He nodded with respect when an elder gnome matron called out to him from her vantage at his shoulder height, watching from one of the countless high railed walkways installed on most every house and walkway in the village. A moment later another gnome rode by on his dog, comfortable in the saddle mounted on the ratter-mutt.

The stern-looking gnome pulled the reins, stopping and looked up. “Ho Tal, ho Easil! Any news?”

Tal politely dropped to one knee so his father could talk to the head rat-guard. He appreciated that the gnomes never treated him badly.

“Sadly yes, the danger has moved higher again.”

“Ah… that is not good. That’ll scare more rats out of the depths, and I can’t increase the patrols further…”

“Indeed, with the rot getting worse…” Easil drifted off. “I go to the reach. I’m sure elder Pearsiv won’t welcome the news, but he’ll want to know.”

“Right, off with you then Bulbcutter, I’ll have to check on the mink litters,” the man nodded respectfully, cracking a friendly smile as he did so. Tal stood and they both moved off. Everyone was also so much friendlier with Easil on his shoulder.

A few more buildings and they could see it. The highest of the massive branches that made up the branches of the village Lisnail. One single branch stood out by itself, twisting in an odd almost horizontal spiral.

Through the spiral hung a long bridge of planks and rope, leading up to a giant closed flower bulb. It looked soft like true flower petals yet to unfurl, but whether it had petrified in place or had simply been carved, the building known as the reach was solid wood. From deep in the wood of the hollow out to the very tip of the bulb, it all glittered like the shard of obsidian Easil kept at home. The wood had been infused with powerful dark mana long ago and even now held strong despite the gravity-defying spiral.

Tal sighed. It was a bit of a climb and he was already tired.

“Nothing for it my boy,” Easil sympathized. “You do the walking and I’ll do the talking, let us go see cranky old Pearsiv."

End Chapter