Chapter 26: The Lady of the Forest (Kai)

~Kai

What is the most dishonest feature in a person, you ask?

The eyes would be my answer.

Do not trust them, for with practice, the eyes can easily mislead others.

Kind eyes, especially.

My mother had kind eyes.

I trusted them. And look where that trust has led me.

-Kai Bloodseeker, on the subject of eyes

I licked my lips as a feeling I had not felt in years come over me. It made my chest hurt. Excitement? Anxiety? “So the Lady of the Forest truly exists?” I asked.

“She does, though I have no clue as to why she wishes to meet with you,” Golden Ears said. “You are not suitable to meet with her.”

“And you are?” I asked. It’s curious how some choose to put themselves onto a pedestal above others. Me? I choose to put myself onto the lowest pedestal only so that I can knock the ones above over. And I would laugh from my lowest position, watching them fall down from such heights.

“Far more worthy than you, White Reaper,” he replied with an air of assurance that held not one single doubt. “There is far more blood on your hands than on mine.”

The itching hurt within my chest grew stronger. “So it is,” I admitted. Even in the whole of the Tribal Alliance, I would be hard pressed to find someone as bloodstained as me. “Still, I will have to ask this Lady of yours if she has blood on her hands. Or somewhere else.” I paused for a moment. “Somewhere lower perhaps.”

His golden sunken eyes bulged at that, and he made to move but stopped after a step. In that brief second, Jenna had trained her white bow upon him, a black tipped arrow nocked. Another step toward me, and she would shoot.

“My, Golden Ears. I never would have figured you to be a fool in love. You must hold your Lady in high regards.” I smiled. “All these years I have known you, I figured you to be a smart fool, only in love with yourself.”

I could sense the hidden presences around me move closer. Nuala, with her white longsword, her yellow eyes stalking the shadows of the woods. Kass, twitching her fingers, the nails on them elongating. Zan, looking there like a hefty rock. And Magus Sabria, looking confused, standing prettily and out of place.

With a hand, I patted his shoulders. “Why don’t you lead on to this Lady of the Forest, old friend. I would like to meet her.”

I was curious to say the least. It would be a first for me. I had never met a goddess before. And I had heard tall tales of The Lady of the Forest. Tales even which I would find myself hard pressed to replicate.

“Only you, White Reaper, can meet with her,” Golden Ears said.

“Are you sure she cannot make a few exceptions?” I didn’t like the thoughts of going off by myself to meet this mysterious Lady of the Forest.

“No exceptions,” he confirmed, then showed the yellow of his teeth. “Unless you daren’t follow. Perhaps the Lady can make a few exceptions then.”

“Very well.” I knew that was a cheap provocation, but in the end, it didn’t matter. I had a few tricks up my sleeves. “Stay here with Nox and kill anyone that shows his face,” I said toward my group. I smiled and raised my voice to another notch, just enough for the surroundings to hear too. “And anyone that shows their presences.”

I could feel the hidden presences flicker further away at my words. You see, it all boils down to a game of intimidation with Golden Ears, a game which I played best among many, many other games.

“What! That is simple idiocy,” Magus Sabria called out. “You would meet with someone unknown in a foreign place all by yourself? Who knows how many of them there are.”

“Have to agree with her on this one, Commander Kai,” Jenna said.

Zan nodded alongside her. Despite having been here with me a few times, Zan still didn’t trust Golden Ears. It was a good decision. I didn’t trust Old Ears either.

“At least let me come along, Kai?” Nuala asked sweetly. Other than Bane, she was the only one that I allowed to break formalities.

“It’s fine,” I replied. And that was the end of it. They knew better than to object to my decision twice. Once, I allowed, simply so that I could get a second opinion. Twice, it became a matter of life and death.

So I followed, trudging behind Golden Ears and leaving the rest of my group behind to guard the mounts.

For a long while, Old Ears led me merrily around the twisted paths of these ancient woods. And all around me, I could sense the hidden presences following along. But I let the shadowed figures follow.

I left a wide opening too, hoping that they would take advantage of it. I smiled. It looks like they had better discipline now. On one of my visit some odd years ago, a few of them had attempted to attack me after I had thrown a dagger at Old Ears. I had missed purposefully, but they still attacked me.

A shame most of them didn’t listen to Old Ears’ shouts of withdrawal. It was the last words they ever heard again. I pitied them, for I wouldn’t have liked to die with only Old Ears’ decrepit voice to accompany me.

I didn’t accept any thanks afterward too even though I helped them with their population—they had less mouths to feed.

“I am impressed,” I said, a casualness in me. “Their discipline is better now.”

Old Ears turned back to glare at me before moving on. It looks like the years had not been kind to his memories. The incident was still fresh on his mind.

After a few more twists and turns, going through the gnarled roots and crossing a small clearing, we arrived at Old Ears’ abode. Well, rather than an abode, I suppose it was more of a small village.

There were a few more tree domes than I could recognize structured around the bases of the trees and further above. “Looks like your village has prospered some more.”

Old Ears led me further in, ignoring my words. I didn’t blame him for it.

Small children of various different beast tribes ran across the grounds, chasing each other around trees. On the wooden suspension bridges that connected the tree domes to different trees, there were older beastllings passing through. The bridges were three persons wide and held up by thick green vines, along with an assortment of other plants.

Most of the ones on the bridges turned to wave at Old Ears before shirking back away after they had glanced at me. The children on the ground halted their games, gawking at me curiously, at the unfamiliar sight that I made. They gawked until their mothers hurried out of the tree domes and pulled them backward into their embraces.

“White Reaper.”

I could hear the small whispers that ran across their mouths, their tongues rolling around the two words in their various languages. I ignored them all, silently following Old Ears as he made his way through.

A beastling, wolven by the looks of him, bowed deeply toward me until I almost thought his head would roll off. The beastling was faceless to me. I didn’t recognize him and I didn’t care.

“He was one whom you freed fifteen years ago, White Reaper,” Old Ears quietly said.

Fifteen years ago? I let my silence answer Old Ears. I didn’t remember much. Just faceless beastlings, the mottled black and grey skin of the Dreads, and as always, the rivers of blood.

Golden Ears walked on further until the village was out of sight. Finally, he stopped before an enormous tree. I recognized the tree for what it was. An Evermore Tree, rarer than Ever Trees and far more ancient. To an Evermore Tree, the Ever Trees would be like its children.

The Evermore Tree wasn’t particularly colorful, nor was it particularly tall. In fact, its height was even shorter compared to the other trees. No, what was strange about the Evermore Tree was its base. Without a doubt, it was the widest tree in the whole of the Cruorus Lands. It could have easily accommodate a hundred people living inside its base.

There were new sights to the Evermore Tree that hadn’t been there on my last visit. Then again, seven years was a long time, plenty of time for changes.

An elegant flight of stairs, the bottom the widest and the top the narrowest. A scattering of ebony leaves on every other step. Golden Ears climbed first. And I followed, taking my first step onto the first rung. Soft brown wood, wide enough for eight people.

Ten. Twenty. Thirty. I counted the rungs of the stairs as it led me to newer heights. When I reached the top, standing on the narrowest step barely wide enough for two individuals, Golden Ears had already passed through the hollowed entrance where no doors guarded.

A hundred steps, I had counted. Not one more. Not one less. A perfect hundred steps.

How fascinating. The Lady of the Forest must have a preference for such a number, I figured. It spoke of a meticulousness, a trait I quite admired in a person. I looked down at the far away floor of the forest. And a love for heights too, it seems.

Entering through the entrance whose width was hollowed out just enough for two people to walk hand in hand, but with a height far greater, reaching twenty feet, a stray thought entered my mind. The entrance looked as if it was made for a thin giant.

The hollowed room inside the Evermore Tree was plain, with only the walls’ lighter soft brown to speak of. The ceiling looked far away, possibly more than forty feet above. The room was unfurnished, just a circular expanse of wood. The floor was patterned with circular lines that seemed to band together in a mass of confusion.

Up ahead, in the center of the room, behind a dais, Golden Ears stood kneeling on one knee, his face lowered.

In front of him, standing on that dais, that raised circular platform made of the strange black metal that was found on the black pillar landmarks, the Lady of the Forest stood with her back turned.

Like the flicker of dawn’s first light, curiosity was lit inside me. I moved further, until I stood just beside the kneeling form of Golden Ears, just two arms’ length away from the Lady of the Forest.

Despite fighting hard to suppress the urge, my eyes widened at her form. Two alabaster wings were spread wide open, sprouting beside her pale white shoulder blades which were left seen from the tantalizing cut of her full bodice dress. Her thin apparel of a dress was the color of burgeoning green, held up only by the two thin straps that encircled her shoulders. The bottom of her dress rippled down from the black dais, almost touching the floor.

As she made to turn around, her two alabaster wings, frosted by the purer white of her feathers, rippled along with the movement.

An immaculate face, unblemished, unmarred by nothing and framed by a cascade of melancholic nightly curls. Her mouth glistening like dew on leaves after a spring rain, the heaving of her breasts.

Then everything fell apart as I met her eyes.

Her eyes, just like her face, were unmarred by nothing. A silvery white pool of nothingness. They were blank, not a trace of pupils anywhere to be seen. Untouched. A barren white that devoured me, that sank me into the depths of their silvery pools, drowning me.

Images, recollections, remembrances, and memories of the past flashed through my mind, blazing through it like the whites of flames, too hot and too fast for me to dwell upon.

Then blood dyed the whites of the flames.

My older sister lying in a pool of her own blood, and my own mother standing before her with distaste in her kind, kind eyes.

My little brother lying in a pool of his own blood, and my mother standing before her with that same distaste in her kind, kind eyes.

The whites of the flames turned scarlet, forever marred by the red of blood.

Then. Another flash of image.

My mother lying in a pool of her own blood as I slit a dagger across her white throat, her eyes that had been in ecstasy but a moment ago now widening in surprise. The question that was raised in her eyes, and the choked question that never came.

My father too, whom had ran from me like a small prey. I hunted him down too, watching as he lay bleeding. Broken like a trinket.

More and more bodies, each looking more comical than the next in their own red sheens.

The bodies which belonged to my Incretio tribe. All of them dead by my own hands.

And finally, of her beautiful familiar figure, all shattered like a bird whose wings had been torn apart. Her hair like the color of the blood that pooled down from her forehead. Her eyes like the black of dull Xeonite, the light leaving from them. Then frozen forever in that eternal moment.

A gasp, almost like the choking of the dying. Then a cold came over me like the chill of the dying.

My mouth curled into a smile. A smile that belonged to only me. So the Lady of the Forest wanted to play games?

If so, I would show her I could play games as well as her.

So I opened the walls of my mind, letting them fall into rubbles. Of my own accord, I broke all of them down. So many walls fell to pieces. The many walls I had built up in the years instantly destroyed. I showed her all of it. And she showed me the same.

A gasp. Not my own, but hers.

The blood-dyed white flames winked out. And a silence fell. A smile wrapped her perfect lips. And mirroring it was my own smile.

The Lady of the Forest extended her snow-fallen hand. It felt slim and cool in my own hand. I knew the custom she wanted me to play. A kiss on the hand as a greeting. I had seen and heard it many times in some of the tribes. But I didn’t play her game.

I played my own. I simply shook her snow-fallen hand before releasing it. An ache in my heart at releasing her hand. A bloody Enchantress too? Her powers were formidable, much more than I had ever experienced from the many Enchantresses of the Delectare tribes.

“So fragile you are. So beautiful you are.” Her voice was soft and cool, leaving you with a wanting, a thirst that could not be sated. And her fluency in the languages could not be doubted. “I have been wanting to meet with you, Kai.” My name was said with a slow grace, as if she was tasting the feel of it around her tongue.

The Lady of the Forest turned toward Golden Ears. “Leave us,” she said.

Golden Ears made to protest, but her blank white eyes shut him enough quickly. Old Ears left then, his footsteps softly thudding every second or so as he made his way down the flight of stairs.

I wasn’t one to kneel, not even to a supposed Goddess. So I stood, patiently waiting for the footfalls to recede. “What do you want with me?” I asked.

“I wish to ask of you a favor, child of the Incretio tribe,” she said.

Already, the Lady of the Forest had started off on the wrong side of me. Calling me a child only made it worse. “It has been many years since I was last called a child,” I said.

“And it’s been many years, far more than you could imagine, since I was last a child,” the Lady replied.

“You don’t look half as old as you suggest,” I said, feeling an itching on my shoulder, the place where my strapped broadsword laid.

She smiled. A forgiving smile that felt as if all the sins could be washed away from my hands. “I can save her,” she whispered softly. “Sonara.”

My breath, along with my body, froze at that single word.

A moment. My breath returned. “What do you mean?” I acted as if I didn’t know what she was speaking of.

“The dying body which you froze in the Glacius Mountains more than a century ago. I can breathe life back into her, into Sonara,” she whispered. Another forgiving smile, turned seductive at the last second. “And all you have to do is bring me an object from the Guardians. From the Wastelands.”

I drew my sword, faster than I had ever drawn it. And in the instant the sword was freed, I swung into a rising arc that cut across. Her head separated from her body. It came off cleanly. Then I pivoted, bringing the sword back down again, cutting deep into her chest. Blood flowered from her chest and when her body finally knew how to fall down, her stump of a neck knew how to bleed.

“I have never been inclined to believe in bedtime stories. Not even as a child,” I said, sheathing my broadsword again in one quick motion. “And I have never liked anyone telling me what to do. Not even my mother. My future is my own, not for anyone else.”

As I made to leave, her blank white eyes blinked. Once. Twice. And her lips moved. “You will regret this, White Reaper.”

“Then I will just add another thing to my list of regrets,” I said, my voice still calm, but my mind shaken by the fact that she still moved.

Her melancholic midnight hair changed into a deep red, and her eyes became the black of Xeonite metal, but shining instead of dull. Her face rippled, the bones of her face molding into something else. A face so familiar I still dreamt of it—Sonara.

“You will regret this, Kai,” she said. Her voice was familiar too. Sonara’s voice.

I ran at that. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. Across the room and out the hollowed entrance of the Evermore Tree. All the while, a coldness burned in me. And a feeling I had not felt in many years. Dread.

Then I jumped off the flight of stairs. Of the top of its perfect hundred steps.

“Incretio!” I screamed as the air rushed around me and the ground rushed toward me. A pair of wings, its feathers like the dull black of Xeonite, exploded outward from my back. Then I felt the black scales cover the sides of my face, my arms, my legs, and my whole body. All of them heritage from my Incretio tribe.

I felt my body slowing down, then I was hovering in midair, near the upper half of the flight of stairs. Not even looking back, I shot upward into the air, faster and faster. The branches and black leaves of the Evermore Tree became a blur.

And not once did I felt the scrape of the branches on my skin as I broke through all of them. Finally, I broke through the canopies of the forest. High up in the air, I rushed toward the black pillar landmark.

Then I shot back down toward the ground, landing near where Nox was, startling all the Vulcans and the five in my group.

“What happened? Why are you in that form, Commander?” Zan shouted, his voice somewhat panicky. He had only seen me in this form once before and that had been in a dire situation.

As for the rest, none of them had ever seen me in this form. They grouped around me, their mouths still gaping, wanting to ask questions.

“No time for discussions, Zan. We are leaving here and heading back to the fortress.”

He nodded, and prepared himself to jump atop the Vulcan.

“Well, I for once want to know what happened,” Magus Sabria said.

I kept my voice cheerful, not at all like the coldness that was burning inside me. I climbed atop Nox who was the only happy to see me. “Plans change,” I said. “We are no longer going to scout out the Dread borders. We are going back to the fortress.”

The moment I was settled on the saddle, I urged Nox to leave the forests. The others scrambled to catch up as Nox shot forward up into the air.

“Ah right, could you please topple this black pillar, Zan?” I asked politely.

He nodded, not even bother to ask the reason why. See? I told you there were reasons why I liked Zan.

Opening up his Surge, Zan closed his eyes, channeling for a long moment. A while later as I yawned out a sigh, he opened his eyes. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then a rumbling noise beneath us. The noise grew steadily and steadily until it stopped with one last rumbling.

The black pillar toppled down, crashing down onto a few trees. But it didn’t crash down into the direction of the small village.

Zan was just too friendly sometimes.

“I have a Tribal Alliance meeting to attend to,” I said out of nowhere. Well, in the air actually.

Behind Kassina and atop her Vulcan, Magus Sabria started muttering curses. She had been bothering me to attend the meetings for the whole of the month. And now that I finally agreed, she was uttering death threats below her breath.

Some people. They just do not know what they want.

“Let’s go home,” I said with an air of finality after giving one final glance in the direction of the village, at the place where the Evermore Tree grew.

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AN: Perspective will switch back to MC next chapter.