Father in the Forest, #1

by R. K. Gold

  Yael took his hand in hers. He moved her knuckles to his lips and patted the back of her hand. “I never saw you. Had I known you were alive, I never would’ve left. I swear to you, your mother became an orb of white light, even our doula left. Then she was nothing. I swept through all the light; if another person was there, I would've found you." He looked to Miya, who returned from the edge of the clearing. "When the light brought Miya into the world, I saw your mother in her. She was made from her light, and every month, she brings the flowers to the Three from your mother's shrine. Your mom deserves to be brought to the sky. All she wanted to do was love and grow. She never wanted to take, only to give and, most importantly, give back to the world.” He approached his daughter and squatted in front of her, carrying the same jasmine scent Miya had. Yael took his hand in hers and squeezed.

  "Losing you both made me realize how small my empire was a thousand years ago. It showed me what I lost and even worse, what I turned my back on when I had the chance as a mortal.”

  “If she disappeared, where did I come from?” Yael asked.

  “I’m not sure. When I left, I only saw a pile of starlight shrinking into the ground. The earth beneath it sizzled, and the grass grew shin high by the time I walked away. I didn’t think there was anything under the pile. Eselwayne thought the Mother herself came. They spoke of the phenomenon, but no one saw. By the time they found you, all the light must’ve disappeared.”

  “What am I?” He rubbed his chin as a smirk etched across his face. “Curious question, no? How am I alive in the northern forest? The same reason you and Miya aren’t falling sick from the pollen in the air. We aren’t mortal, at least not entirely.”

  "Not mortal?" Yael rubbed her wrist. She looked back to Miya, who turned to the forest. She raised her chin, and her eyes shifted all around the clearing. Yael always noticed a similarity between herself and Miya but never moved beyond the eyes. Maybe it was how she styled her hair in coils that distracted Yael from their similar build and identical hooked noses.

  “So, the immortal in the forest. It’s true—it’s—it’s you.” She kept her eyes on her sister.

  Her father nodded. "This has been my first full cycle in the forest. A thousand years of loneliness. Only Miya to keep me company for the last twelve. A thousand years of watching the world forget I ever existed. A thousand years of my name disappearing and my legend growing. The talk of Izkobak reduced to whispers before finally disappearing, as the whispers of the immortal in the forest kept just soft enough to ward others away."

  Yael had just heard that name. She tried to remember where. It had something to do with the Three, that much she remembered. Her father spoke of it with longing though. The immortal in the forest was touched by the Mother herself; how great could any mortal's name be compared to that. "So, it’s true. The star gave you immortality.”

  “It’s true, the Mother, the great northern spirit, even the one true god of Emerlia, whatever you would like to call the star and the heaven, it’s all true. I was, well, I was—well, I was ambitious in my youth. At least I thought I was. Until I saw what true power is and realized how tiny that ambition truly was.” He rubbed his hands together and looked around the forest. “I once ruled all three continents. Over a thousand years ago, before—”

  “Before the Mother separated the continents into the three they are today,” Yael finished his sentence. The memory flooded back. It was the priest in Wydser who told her. “You came to the forest to take the Mother’s immortality.”

  "That was a part of it, yes, but even more important was her starlight. Only those who are directly touched by the Mother are granted immortality. Still, her starlight gives the wielder the power to shape the world, and only those touched by her can handle the light.” His voice dropped the more he spoke, and he pinched his nose when he commented on who can touch the light. “Otherwise, they suffer your mother’s fate.” He looked back to Miya, who approached the father and daughter. She kept her eyes along the edge of the clearing. "The day the Mother returned to the world was the day I saw what true power was. I spent my entire life finishing the work my father started before me. It took multiple lifetimes to unite the world under a single banner. In a fraction of a moment, the Mother was able to separate the land.” He snapped his fingers together.

  That was where they stood now. The home of the Mother. The place she returned every thousand years to rebalance the world. "I learned that day just what the Mother meant by restoring the world's balance. Just how little control we had over our lives and the moment we believe the world is here to serve us and not the other way around is the moment we lose our home. I thought I made the world my home by force, all I did was create a shell." He turned around and looked at the giant tree in the center of the clearing. Its branches reached out to the woodlands surrounding them. Telegraph wires connecting the entire forest through its limbs. "I had to learn that I have more of a home here, living in a single tree than I ever had out in the world as King Izkobak."

  “So, who is she?” Yael looked at Miya. The starborn finally broke her gaze from the surrounding forest.

  “When the Mother descends, she isn’t like the statues you see. She isn’t human or anything close to it. She’s starlight, and everything she touches glows white, and its shine lingers. That’s the power that changes the world. The power that was able to slice through the land and split the continents into three. The power that turned a single tree into an entire forest. The power that sculpted your sister from the land of the Brother and gave her a body.”

  Yael remained silent. So her sister was truly born from the sky, a genuine immortal with no blood or organs but the proper skin and hair to pass. She walked around in a costume. "Am I the same?" She pushed her two fingers to her neck to feel her pulse.

  “No, no. I only took up a permanent residence here in the last twelve years. I realized the last of my humanity was truly gone, and all that was left for me to do was service the forest for the Mother for when she eventually returns.” He rubbed his chin, and shavings sprinkled off his skin. They hit the ground and glistened.

  Though the sky turned from blue to black, the light from the Mother’s star kept the clearing illuminated. They were under a spotlight, and Miya once again looked to the edge.

  “What day is it?” she asked.

  Izkobak looked to the sky and rubbed the back of his neck. “Two days before the solstice,” he replied.

  20

  The Mother’s light carved through the trees like a shovel, scooping all other light in the world up with it, only leaving the darkest shadows behind. Specs of white pollen floated through the air, landing on Armstrong and Pace’s blue suits. Pace moved in the colonel’s wake, flinching as the flakes covered his goggles. He swatted them away while Armstrong hacked through branches and vines with a thick blade.

  Armstrong had planned this day since Emerlia came to Lansing. The day he knew some evil could never change. Bringing Pace with him was never a part of that plan. The boy had found them on the outskirts of Hizen.

  “We saw the soldiers,” Pace insisted and told the colonel what happened to the girl. When he first saw the child, he felt a warmth flood his chest. He and his friends had not tried to escape west to Krate; they were safe and far away from Izor and Benny. As he held him in his arms, he wondered what Pace was doing so far north. Just because the west wasn’t safe didn’t make the north any better.

  “Were you there for the attack?” His nostrils flared. Pace backed away. His dirty-blonde hair was matted on the sides and stuck to his face. He wiped his nose and nodded. His knuckles were coated in dirt, and his nails were jagged at the corners. Still, the reds of his eyes softened Armstrong’s stance. He was just a boy running for his life. When was the last time he had a good night’s sleep on a proper bed? Emerlia would pay for this war. They would pay for keeping the continent on edge after all these years, with everyone holding their breaths for the next time Benny decided to collect a country like a rare
coin.

  “They weren’t loyalists. They were soldiers. We recognized the uniforms.” Pace kept his eyes on the ground. His right toe pivoted in the soft dirt, and Armstrong’s chest tensed. He could feel his muscles pushing his ribs together like bony fingers grasping a beating heart.

  "Of course, they were." The soldier to the right of Armstrong grit his teeth. He turned to the colonel, who held a single hand up, silencing whatever rage the man was about to unleash. At once, the soldier’s posture stiffened, and his mouth closed.

  “What happened?” His mind clouded as he imagined the boy running for his life with an angry mob at his back.

  Pace recounted the night in full while his friends stood quietly behind him. Even the twins didn’t interject with their own remarks, which only showed Armstrong the worst of the story was yet to come. When he finished, he moved his hands to his front and slouched his shoulders. His knees wobbled, and Armstrong grabbed a chair from the desk to give to him. The rest of the kids sat at once, with the twins leaning on Dean’s thighs and the giant boy keeping himself up with his hands behind him.

  A runner entered the tent and saluted the colonel then looked to the kids. His face stretched, holding in whatever message he had been sent with, and his mustache wiggled. “Out with it.”

  “Dracar is marching through Krate, sir.” He pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and held it out for the colonel to take. His hand trembled as he stretched it through the air. Their only hope was still days away. They just had to make it to the solstice. Emerlia and Dracar had made it clear to all that the continent wasn’t big enough for any other nations. It was a race for who could seize the most control before Benny and Izor shifted their focus on each other.

  "What're the orders?" Armstrong took the message and read through. All men were pulling back to Wydser. "We're not leaving the border. Benny wants us to react to Izor." He crumpled the paper and looked around to Pace. Where would they be able to hide now? And the stomach of leadership made his skin crawl. Benny probably expected their forces to march west to meet Izor. Now, they could both concentrate their full forces on Wydser.

  “We’re not moving until I’m told directly. Gather the men and head west,” Armstrong said to the man on his right who had remained stiff as a board since he was first waved off. “And keep an eye on them.” He looked to the boys who all went pale to the face. The twins’ eyes scanned the tent vacantly. Even if he snapped his fingers by their ears, they’d be dazed. Dean fell back on the ground; his eyes twitched, fighting to stay open. Pace took two steps closer to the colonel, and he felt a cable between them, latching onto his stomach and tugging as the child moved.

  As the messenger left the tent, Pace asked, “And where are you heading?”

  He couldn’t have this talk now. Not with so much ground to cover and so many risks to measure. How could he protect Pace and catch a star? No one alive truly knew what to expect when the Mother returned. She could return the world to balance through wraith as easily as compassion.

  “You know where I’m heading.”

  “I have to go with you,” Pace replied before the electricity between them could clap. Armstrong looked back to the boys, but Pace cut in, “She took Yael, okay." New confidence filled his voice.

  “The girl you just met. That’s not worth risking your life over. My orders haven’t changed. Why did you not head west to Krate? Our men inside were instructed to meet you at the border and give you safe passage to the western continent.” A hook dug into Armstrong’s side, and the more he tried to shake it off, the deeper its tooth sank.

  "It's not just losing Yael. It's how. It was the starborn betraying her and taking her away. The same starborn we've been chasing for years. I'm not letting her get away. I'm coming with you, and you need me," Pace said. They had gone too far together, and she risked herself to save Brody.

  "Not even a little," Armstrong replied, but a doubt gnawed at the vacant space of his mind. Any crack doubt could slip through it would, and who better to watch the boy than he? Even marching into the forest, what motivation would Emerlia have to attack Lansing again? The boys could protect each other on the forest edge as he entered. As if he could read Armstrong’s mind, Pace grabbed his bag.

  The ground was uneven with roots. Poisonous leaves that would burn exposed flesh brushed their baggy blue pants. Armstrong designed the suits. They had high turtlenecks that came up to their chins and hoods covering the rest of their faces. Two eye holes were cut out and protected by goggles. The knees and elbows were padded, and they each had a round metal breathing apparatus around their mouths. Since most of the toxins in the air came from the pollen, it filtered enough clean air to keep them conscious. Armstrong warned before they entered the forest that the suits would allow them to survive up to twenty hours, assuming no damage was done to them. Maybe a day if they remained perfectly intact.

  "I still don't think you should come. Not for a girl you don't know," he told the boy outside the remains of Lansing as Dean, and the twins made themselves comfortable in the tall grass. It didn't feel like Armstrong's place to tell Pace to stay back now that they stood outside the ruins of the life robbed from both of them. He had lost so much, and now Armstrong had to prepare him to lose even more. It was why Emerlia had to be destroyed once and for all. King Benny, like his father and grandfather, was too ambitious for their continent.

  A single tree was planted where the town once stood, and the shrine the baker’s wife had in her yard rested in front of it.

  “And miss the chance to catch the starborn,” Pace said. Armstrong sliced through a low-hanging branch. It may have been a trick of the light, but Pace swore he saw it wiggle off the path the moment it hit the ground. Where the branch fell was filled with sparkling white. Though it floated like the pollen, it glowed like something else. When it hit the ground, it dissolved, and patches of grass sprouted at their feet.

  It was difficult to tell when the sunset or the evening began. The Mother’s star would touch down by noon the following day. It almost felt brighter at night without the two light sources competing against one another. A reminder that the one source watching over them was returning to the world.

  He was foolish to let his guard down around the starborn. She had always found a way to escape, but what did she want with Yael? Yael who only wanted to learn more about her family. He clenched his hands into fists. They had only just met, but she had spent more time with him, Dean, Lewis, and Brody than the family she was looking for. They welcomed her into their home and traveled to the northern states with her. They trusted her, and she put her trust in the starborn.

  “Careful,” Armstrong said through his mask. The words came out muffled, but the warning was enough for Pace to pay attention. He stepped over a puddle surrounded by purple flowers with five yellow bulbs on their face. He recognized them.

  “Tell your parents to stop by tomorrow, and I should have fresh sourdough,” the baker said. She wrapped the day-old loaf in brown paper and tied the purple flower on the side. It was one of Pace’s only memories from Lansing, and it wasn’t even of his parents.

  If only he could remember her name. Not that it mattered. The entire village of Lansing was behind him now. Both on the trail and in life. Maybe when the Mother returned to earth, she could cleanse the land and bless those who fell. Perhaps she could even bring them back to the sky with her so they could rest as stars for the next cycle.

  “We’re getting close.” Armstrong pointed to the sky. The star became clearer. Even as the trees wove tighter, and the branches made a web over them, the light sliced through the forest. The forest hummed. Through the darkness, Pace felt eyes watching them. The pollen glowed brighter the deeper they wandered. Where the light from the Mother didn’t touch was pitch black.

  "What if the Mother doesn't come?" Pace asked. Armstrong had always been so sure of the Mother's descent. Her star would return, and the world would be reshaped by her as it was every thousand years. To him, it wasn't even
a remote possibility that she didn't return and that the immortal in the forest guarded its power against outsiders.

  “It has to,” Armstrong replied. He turned around and put a hand on Pace’s shoulder. The pollen dropped around them like ashes from home. The buildings they ate and slept in now hovering in the sky, one step closer to the Mother. “We have no other choice. Emerlia is coming from the north and Dracar from the south and west. They could reach Wydser by the end of the week if we don’t stop them.”

  “And you’re sure the Mother can?”

  “She can shape the entire world, split continents, and extend forests. Her daughter is the oceans and her son all the land. They are here to serve us.”

  “Aren’t we to serve them?” Pace thought of the shrine outside the baker’s home once more. The purple flowers glowed along the forest floor, illuminating their path.

  "If we are, then how could she possibly let Dracar and Emerlia get away with the things they've done. The Mother has been gone a thousand years, and with her power, we will be able to help her protect her world once she’s gone.” He squeezed Pace’s shoulder and looked to the sky. “Not much longer now.”

  He trampled the flowers as he stepped forward while Pace avoided them. A single yellow flower was inches from the starlight. Its petals drooped. Armstrong slashed through the forest, but it wasn’t until Pace pulled back a branch, careful not to snap it, that light was able to reach it. Instantly, its petals stiffened, and white dust vibrated off its face. It rose into the air, and despite having on a breathing mask, Pace held his breath. The substance looked too close to the pollen. It was easy to forget everything in the forest was trying to kill him.

  The trees ahead grew so tightly together, they almost looked like a wall. When Armstrong slashed it with his blade, it bounced back, and he rubbed his wrist. “We’re not breaking through there,” he said.