With time, the gifts changed, just as our children had changed. They became the people of land and water, of tree and mountain. They used the land to grow strong. And still our children raged.

- Chapter 27, The Unwritten History of Neah-Reath

The trees around her towered above her, blocking out all vision of the sky. The forest itself was spacious, as the huge tree trunks must have forced out all lesser trees, leaving wide spaces between them, yet still limiting her vision. The forest was oppressive, seeming to block out all light and sound. She shivered with fear but kept walking.

A flash, and suddenly she was reaching down into a river, lifting water to her mouth to drink. A sound in the distance made her look around wildly, then she quickly started walking again. A flash of colour in the distance and she turned, veering off into a different direction. She sped up, hoping that she would reach the edge of this eternal forest.

Another flash, and she was running desperately, sprinting from huge trunk to huge trunk and pressing her back against it. She looked around wildly, seeking any sort of shelter, but she found nothing. She started sprinting again, as she heard a horn blowing to her right. She turned left, trying to get away from it.

A final flash, and she felt her exhausted body pressing against one of the enormous trunks, as she felt her heart racing. A horn sounded again, seemingly right behind her. She froze, then started edging her way around the trunk, trying to find the source of the sound. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned just in time to see the ball of fire hitting her chest. She dropped and rolled, screaming as the fire burnt her, then saw another fireball hitting her face. Then all was darkness.

Teah woke up screaming, desperately patting her body to put out the non-existent fire.

“Stop, child! Stop! It is over! It was merely a dream!” Cornelious’ voice rang out, and she felt his hands grasping hers.

“I was burning! I felt it! I felt my skin dripping off me!”

“A dream, child. That is all. A dream, nothing more.” Cornelius’ voice was oddly soothing, almost hypnotic. Slowly, Teah calmed down. Finally, she looked around, seeing that she was back in the rough wooden bed in his hut.

“What happened to me? I remember, like, a gigantic frog, then there was all these lights and sounds, and then I passed out. What was it?”

“That,” Cornelius said with a stern voice, “was an Orken Toad. While it can be aggressive, it is virtually harmless.”

“Harmless?!” Teah almost shouted. “It attacked me!”

Cornelious answered wearily “yes, they can be quite territorial, but it is the lowest of all monsters, barely even a pest ranked problem. It eats insects, nothing more.”

His gaze unfocused, as he frowned.

“But this is not a good thing.”

“Of course not, it attacked me!” Teah almost shouted.

“Oh, you were never in any danger. At most, it would have pushed you away from its territory. Which is almost never more that a small bunch of trees, maybe a pond. What is worrying, is why you didn’t know how to handle it.” He said as he frowned again.

“What do you mean?” Teah said, puzzled.

“Orken frogs are pests, they breed fast and spread quickly. They also seem to have an almost magical awareness of their territory, as they seem to know as soon as some one enters it. In fact, they are used in several types of awareness and sense potions. However, all you had to do was look at it and back away until it stopped staring at you, and it would never have attacked you.”

“So what does that mean? Why is that a problem? I didn’t know.”

“That is the problem. I know of no part of this land that these frogs do not exist in, and how to deal with them is learnt almost as soon as you learn to walk and talk. I cannot imagine any way in which you would not know this, nor any way that you could forget it.”

Teah stared at him, uncomprehendingly.

“So, what?”

“What that means, is that you must be from a lot further away than I had guessed. This is not a good sign.”

Teah’s heart dropped, as she realised what he was implying.

“You’re saying that it might be impossible for me to get home. That I might be stuck here.”

“Well, it definitely is likely to be harder. However, don’t give up hope. All is not lost.”

“What?”

“The capital is a place of strong magic. The magic of the royal court can transport someone virtually anywhere in this land, and spells strong enough to break any enchantment.’

“So let’s go there now!” Teah shouted excitedly.

“Slow, child. I do not know what you think a royal court is, but they are not in the habit of using their magic to help strangers without good reason.”

Teah’s face fell in disappointment. Then she had an idea.

“You’re a wizard. You told me yourself that that is rare. You must know someone who can help us. A friend, or an acquaintance that can convince them to help!”

“No, that is not likely. You forget, I am old. The people I knew in my prime are all dead or retired to small villages. And I am not exactly popular with the royal court, due to an accident with a spell many years ago.” Cornelius said with a sigh.

“So,” Teah summarized sadly, “the ones who know you wouldn’t help, and the ones who don’t know won’t help anyway.”

“Indeed.”

They both sat quietly for a while, until Cornelius shook his head and started talking again.

“Enough moping. Let’s do your magic and see what we can find out.”

With that, he pushed himself to his feet and slowly hobbled over to the table.

“Now, child, please get the map down from the wall and bring it here.” He said, pointing at the map that Teah had examined earlier.

Teah did so, as he cleared a space on the table for her to place the map. It was oddly thick, as though it was made of leather, although it looked like parchment.

“Now,” continued Cornelius, “I hope you managed to find some items. Otherwise, you will need to go back out and try again.”

“Don’t worry, I got some!” she replied, opening the pouch and showing the items to Cornelius.

“This leaf, for some reason the bush felt right. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“No, that’s right. It is how the magic works. That will represent your home.” He said, as he took it from her.

“What else do you have?” Cornelius seemed more alive somehow, as he opened various jars and shook out a number of items into a stone bowl.

“This stick, it seemed different to the trees around. It seemed like it was a different colour then, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Ahh, uncertainty. Perfect.”

He started grinding the items in the bowl together, then added some water.

“Any thing else?”

Teah looked down sadly.

“No, that’s all. That was when the orc toad got me.”

“Orken Toad, child, but that was close.”

He frowned and said “no, this will not do. You need another item.”

Teah frowned and then remembered.

“Wait, as the Orken Toad hit me, I grabbed a stone off the ground. Do you know where it is?”

“Ahh, yes, indeed. It was still in your hand when I brought you in. It’s on that shelf just there.”

Teah looked to the shelf and saw her stone. She hurried over to it and examined it as she took it back to the table.

“It feels like me somehow. What does it mean?” she asked as she handed it to Cornelius.

“Magic child. It is magic. Magic infuses this world. It is in the ground, the air, the water, the food that we eat. Everyone has consumed huge amounts of magic throughout their lives, but except in rare cases, our bodies can not hold it in that form. Rather, our bodies process magic in a way that helps strengthen our bodies, help with healing, that sort of thing. Those who live near higher concentrations of magic typically benefit from this more, but everyone does to an extent. This magic is what is resonating with the items you found.”

Teah tried to process this then replied “so, I’m a stone?”

Cornelius chuckled as he replied “no, the resonance is not as literal as that. Of course, some scholars of magic have spent years trying to sort out and classify different items, with the idea that this would somehow help them understand the people who resonate with them.”

“Oh, like star signs! That makes sense.” Teah interrupted.

“Star-signs?” he replied blankly.

“Yeah, different stars are stronger at different times of the year, so depending on when you were born, you will have a different personality.”

He stared at her a bit longer then laughed.

“Quite. That is exactly the sort of idea that the scholars have been working on.”

Teah looked happy until he added “weak-minded fools that they are.”

“What do you mean?” she retorted angrily.

“The resonance is a well understood phenomenon, and it is inherently personal. Two people may resonate with the same item and share nothing in common, or they be virtual twins and yet have completely different resonances. After all, you yourself found three things that you resonated with in a short walk in a relatively small forest. You will resonate with hundreds, if not thousands of things throughout the world.”

“So why do I resonate with those things?”

“Why do some trees have green leaves while other trees are almost yellow? Why are some dogs brown, while others are black, or white?”

She stared blankly at him then said “I don’t know. Well, trees do photosynthesis and they have chloroform or something. And dogs are breeds, so they get colours from their parents, right?”

He stared at her for a moment then seemed to just ignore her.

“You were right with the first thing. I don’t know. I’m not sure you understand the other things you were trying to say, but it doesn’t matter. The point is that no one knows how the resonance works. Maybe the wind that blew on those things also blew near you. Or maybe the flows of magic throughout the world connected you somehow. Or perhaps, we should listen to the blasted Naturists, who say that everything has a resonance, so it is only when a pairing is formed that a resonance is formed.” Cornelius seemed to get more agitated as he talked, finally calming himself down when he finished.

“Regardless, that is not important. The point is that while we may not understand how the resonance works fully, nor has anyone ever proven a way to affect it, we do know how to use it. Now, first the stone.”

He peered at the map for a few moments then carefully placed and aligned the stone. Teah peered at it but couldn’t figure out the significance of his actions. Noticing this, Cornelius started explaining.

“This rock, which represents you, goes where we currently are. Then we take the leaf, which represents your home, and adds it to this bowl and we mix them together. Now, we need to add some of your blood.”

“Wait, what?” she said, startled.

“Come now, child. Magic can do many things, but if you want a personal result, some of you must be included in it. Otherwise, we would simply find where the stone is from.”

“But what about the whole resonance thing? Why doesn’t it work like that?”

“Again, child, you might as well ask why fish swim instead of fly. The answer is just that this is the way it works. Now, it is just a drop, so calm yourself.” He replied as he held up a pin.

Teah couldn’t think of anymore arguments, so she just sighed and put her finger out, waiting for him to do it. He took her finger and dipped it in the concoction, then held it above the bowl and pricked it quickly, making her wince.

“There, there, child. It is almost finished.” He said to her supportively.

He mixed the concoction again and then placed one end of the stick into the bowl, stirring and muttering softly to himself as she watched.

“Now, we take the home, move it with the uncertainty, and drop it onto the you,” he explained, as he dropped some of the mixture off the stick and onto the stone. The stone started moving gently and then stopped. The mixture started drying up, almost as though it was boiling. It quickly flaked off the stone and crumbled into dust.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Teah asked as they both stared at it.

“No, that is not the result I was hoping for. Let us try again.”

He stirred the mixture with the stick again and then dropped a rather larger amount onto the stone, which seemed to almost vibrate. Cornelius stared at it then said in a worried tone “perhaps we should both move back a bit.”

They both stepped back as the stone started vibrating harder, as the mixture boiled off rapidly. Suddenly the stone exploded with a small bang and crumbled into dust.