by Simon Archer
6
“Come on,” Petra urged as she waved her hand, and the trees responded, swaying out of our path without cracking or breaking. “We will make our way out of the Treison Forest and onto Kaulda.” She smiled as she turned to lead the way. “It’s only a short hike from the edge of the woods. It may be a small village, but that is to our advantage as it should have escaped the notice of the Black Runes. We can decide on a course of action safely there, I think.”
I nodded as Reggie nudged me in the side. “Well, my boy, though our situation may be dire in many ways, you at least happened upon the best guide we could hope for in Etria.” He had one of the orc warrior’s packs over his shoulders, filled with as many useful supplies as we could salvage. He had even cleaned and properly sharpened one of the orcs’ hook swords which now hung at his side.
“You’re absolutely right about that,” I said with a nod because Reg was right in more ways than one. Starting with the pragmatic reasons, Petra was not only a native of the region, but the dryad’s power over the strange fauna of the forest made our travel through the untamed wilderness easy. Food, as long as it was fruits and vegetables, was plentiful with her hand, and the path was swept clear for easy hiking.
On a more personal level, well, I could certainly enjoy following the curvy dryad. The sway of her hips as she walked and the subtle, heated smiles she flashed me as she told us about the flora and fauna of Etria were entrancing. Her unearthly beauty beat out any woman I had been with back on Earth, and her seemingly total lack of body consciousness certainly helped… but there was something more to it than that.
“You’re thinking of her resilience, William,” Libritas said softly in my head. Her strangely familiar weight now hung at my hip courtesy of an orc’s weapon belt I rigged to fit her. “Our young dryad blames herself for the failure of her people, and yet, despite that, now that we have offered her hope, she has sprung back, ready to fight for her world. It is a noble trait.”
“Just like nature itself,” I agreed out loud. Lib was right, I admired that inner strength… and seeing just how strong Petra was inside, it made me even more determined to do what I could about the Black Runes. If they were powerful enough to bind her spirit, their insidious reach could be anywhere and everywhere.
My words had been loud enough to get Petra’s attention, and she looked back at me over her shoulder curiously.
“I was admiring the view,” I told her as I adjusted the strap of my own purloined pack. I had my own share of supplies, as well as a fair amount of what had to be the local currency. That consisted of roughly minted octagonal copper pieces.
“I’m glad to hear that.” The dryad’s green eyes flashed at my bit of double entendre, and I was sure I caught a bit of red in her brown cheeks. “While your first steps here in Etria have been fraught with peril, there is much to love in our world… if one can look past what the Runes have done to it.”
“Speaking of this world,” Reggie cut in with a raised finger, “I still have many questions for you, Ms. Petra.” He picked up his pace to come up alongside her as she shaped a cotton-candy colored bush from our path. “For example, why is it that we understand you? You surely have your own languages here, yes?”
“I really don’t know,” she mused. “Every Uplander who has ever come to Etria seems able to speak all our languages.” Her leafy hair rippled as she shrugged. “Perhaps the portals have some special magic to them?”
That only seemed to incite Sir Thorpe’s curiosity, and I smiled as the old explorer asked Petra all sorts of little questions about what she knew on the subject. With him occupied with the academics of the situation, I kept my eyes peeled for any more danger. After all, Petra seemed certain that more of the Black Rune’s cronies would be coming, and while she was leading us to civilization, there was no guarantee that it would be much safer. It’s not like their agents couldn’t hide in plain sight. It was certainly possible to hide one of their twisted brands under clothing, after all.
“That, dear William, you need not fear as long as I am at hand,” Libritas purred in my ear. “My power may be diminished from my long sleep, but I can sense the marks left behind by my dark cousins… at least within proximity.”
Her words got me to thinking that I could best use my time during this relative calm to try to find out more of what was going on here. Not with the Black Runes, I had heard and seen enough to know that they had to go down, or with Petra, though I did want to learn everything I could about the dryad whose heart I had touched. No, this was a chance to talk to the weapon I carried at my side. From what I had gathered, she had been around since the beginning of all this… and more importantly, she had to have known Dad.
“Lib, I’ve taken a lot on faith up until now,” I sent to her, “and that’s served me well so far, but before we have, I don’t know, a dragon or a chimera or something trying to kill us again, I need to know what all is going on here.” The whole mental communication thing was getting easier now, and it didn’t take any more concentration than actual speech… maybe less with how fast it went.
“I will gladly tell you everything I know,” the brand said solemnly. “Still, I have to preface my words to remind you that I have been trapped for, as best as I can tell, for thirty cycles… years by your reckoning… or more.” She pulsed in what I could only call an apologetic way against my thigh.
“Thirty years? Sorry, but that just doesn’t add up.” Dad obviously knew Libritas, and she knew him, but I wasn’t even thirty yet, not to mention that Dad took at least three ‘sabbaticals’ during my lifetime.
“Ah, yes, I sense the problem, William.” Now, the brand’s sultry voice took on an almost professorial tone, much like Reggie had right now as he asked Petra about what she called earthfruit, something that seemed an awful lot like a sweet potato to me. “Our worlds, Earth and Etria, exist in the same place in space but are dimensionally out of synch. It creates certain strange ripples and warps in time between us. It is much like the waves in a pond caused by two thrown pebbles. The ripples stretch, distort, and intercept in odd places.”
I let that idea roll around in my head. Libritas’ words were poetic, but it still made some real sense. If the temporal connection between the two worlds were something like a waveform, it would have moments when the two timelines were one for one, but other times when an hour on Earth could be a year here and vice versa. Then that made me think about our own rough transportation to Etria, and what kind of effect that distortion of time and space could have on someone.
Were all of Dad’s trips between the worlds the reason he wasn’t… all there in the end? Why he couldn’t clearly recount what happened here?
“How many times did Dad come here that you know of?” Maybe I should have let my past on Earth lie. Sir Thorpe and I weren’t going back even if we found another working portal, that much I was already certain of. Still, I had to know more about my father, to put him to rest in my heart.
“Richard wielded me six times over the years, his father four times before that, and so on,” Lib mused, the nostalgia plain in her tone, and the Brand warmed just a little as she continued. “It seemed as though every time the Black Runes would spread their foul mark on the land, an Uplander of your blood would come to us to take me up once more and quell the threat…” Her mental voice trailed off as that warmth cooled.
“Until thirty years… cycles ago, when we stopped coming.” I didn’t say it as a question because it wasn’t one. It was obvious. “Why did Dad take me away from here? Why didn’t he stay here, raise me to take his place?”
I thought I already knew the answer, at least to some degree, but I had to know. It would help me make sense of it all, I was certain.
“He intended to… at first.” Sadness mixed with regret tinged the brand’s beautiful voice as she sighed, her physical form vibrating as she did so. “But your mother… she died while giving birth to you. It was so… mundane. No great battle, no assassin in the night, she simply ex
pired from complications that the midwife could not foresee. Richard was heartbroken, especially burdened with the knowledge that if Laurelin had given birth in one of your Earth hospitals, she would have lived.”
I couldn’t imagine my father’s pain, but I felt a little swell of pride in him as well. “But Dad kept coming back, didn’t he?” I grinned a bit. “And he tried to prepare me as best he could to take up his mantle.”
“Indeed, William.” Libritas’ warmth returned as she pulsed in her sheath. “For while Etria held great grief for your father, he knew his duty and would never shirk it.” She let out a solemn sigh. “For his many sacrifices, we shall honor him and make things right in Etria once more.”
The rainbow forest was starting to thin now, and Petra had to shape fewer trees out of our way to make progress. I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of day and night cycle Etria had, but the twin suns were starting to drift as one toward the far horizon after these few hours of hiking. Still, if the dryad was right, we should reach Kaulda before suns-down.
“You’ve mentioned the other Brands a few times,” I sent to Lib, even as my ears began to pick up on the sounds of nature that had been closed off from us deeper in the forest. Alien birdsongs mingled with what sounded like high-pitched crickets chirping, and while it was all foreign to me, it was also comforting to feel like nature was still, you know, natural. I shook my head to refocus on my questions. “What are they? I mean, they’re something like you, I’m sure, but there’s got to be more to it.”
Petra glanced back at me then with a smile and a curious look. I noticed then that her lips were the darkest shade of green, hard to see against her bark brown skin, but the soft splash of color made them all the more inviting. As I returned that smile, I patted the hilt of Libritas as some means of explanation of what I was doing.
“Dryads are a very… primal race,” Lib noted, almost sounding amused. “My rune upon her will only amplify those aspects, as it strengthens the elemental nature of all it touches. My power is Freedom in all ways, you see. Freedom of mind, freedom of body, the freedom to be the best one can be… and certain freedoms from inhibitions.”
I blinked at that, a bit confused but not at all disappointed. “Not exactly the answer to my questions, but duly noted.”
“I figured I should get that out of the way now, seeing how you and Petra are looking at each other.” Libritas laughed happily, an almost musical sound in my ear. “I think you would be perfect for each other… but on to more serious business, yes?”
“Thanks for the endorsement, but yeah,” I sent back, unable to avoid a chuckle of my own. Even with his general wonderment at our new world, Reggie still noticed that and gave me a curious look of his own. I dismissed it with an ‘I’ll tell you later’ wave before the brand began her explanation.
It was kind of like being that one guy with the Bluetooth headset out in public with the critical business call on the line. I couldn’t afford to break it off, but I still felt like I was being just a little bit rude.
“I cannot tell you who created us, for yes, the corrupted Brands the Black Runes wield are my former brothers and sisters.” There was wavering in Lib’s voice as if to even think of them hurt her in some elemental way. “Perhaps it was some ancient runesmith or some long-forgotten demigod, but whatever our forger, they created each of us to embody a single virtue or principle, be it great or small.”
“Like you’re the Brand of Freedom, right?” I nodded. “I can get that… but, maybe it’s odd for me to ask, but where I’m from, branding irons aren’t really a representation of anything save for slavery and ownership.”
Libritas giggled at that, almost girlishly. “Your father asked me that very same question, but I think you already know part of the answer after seeing my power at work. My rune empowers, it does not enslave, and such as it was for the pure Brands before their corruption. Their runes brought their virtues and principles, causing only the best traits to bloom in the people of Etria.”
“And this is where the Black Runes come in, I’m guessing?”
“Indeed, Will.” At that moment, Libritas sounded… tired and as ancient as her mystical steel form was. “Even in a world where one could live to their highest virtues, there are always those that want to be in control, that want all things to be theirs. As to how the Runes corrupted the first of us, I do not know… but even my power has proven insufficient to purify my brothers and sisters.”
Strength returned to her tone as she continued, “Still, even once the Black Runes began their machinations, Etria stood strong against them for thousands of cycles, aided by the remaining pure Brands, the good people here, and brave Uplanders such as your family. Our power has always been stronger when wielded by those from your world… maybe we were actually crafted by Uplanders--”
“And that’s why the Runes started shutting down the portals!” I couldn’t contain myself, that revelation came out of my lips as well as through my link to Lib. “If they could keep people like me from getting back here, they would get a big edge on corrupting the last of you and, well, taking over the world.”
Sir Thorpe and Petra both stopped at my eureka moment, Reggie with a look of confusion and Petra with a more understanding tilt of her head. “I don’t know what all you were talking with Libritas about, but what you say makes sense,” the dryad said as she tapped her chin with a vine. “My mother always told me that our duty was so important because you Uplanders were important, after all, so you must be a threat to the Black Runes.”
“Then why, pray tell, did Professor Tyler wish us to close the portal from Earth?” Reggie asked as he put his hands on his hips. “If we’re so bloody important, we could have found a way back to get more of us, right?”
Libritas didn’t need to answer this one for me, because I already had it figured out. “Because the reason we’re so important, Reg, is because we can make Brands like Lib here,” I patted her grip affectionately, “more powerful… and there’s only one good one left. If the Black Runes could recruit… or enslave… people from Earth, they’d only grow stronger. It’s probably why he didn’t want you to come with me either.”
Reggie snorted a bit at that, but he did grow just a bit paler at the implication. “Perhaps, but fear not, my boy. No monster will burn one of those horrible brands into my flesh!” He thumped his thin chest, adjusted his gun belt, and turned back to the trail.
“Of course, good sir knight,” Petra soothed as she patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll make sure that won’t happen.”
I flashed the dryad a smile at that as we kept moving. “So, Lib, the big question is how do we stop the Runes ultimately?” I sent, keeping my expression pleasant despite the rather grim situation. “If they have all the other Brands, and I am a bit scared to ask how many there are, they can pump out mindfucked slaves at a pretty scary rate.”
“I don’t know, not for certain,” she admitted, “but the Runes are assured of their own victory.” There was an infectious confidence in her tone now. “What do you think would happen to a cabal of power-hungry sorcerers with corrupted Brands when there is no more good folk to steal power from?”
A broad grin came to my lips. “They’ll start fighting each other… and that we can take advantage of, once we get a foothold.” Yeah, there were so many variables left to deal with that it wasn’t funny, but still… it was a way to beat them, and that was enough for me to start with.
The next half-hour or so went by in companionable silence. As we walked, the rays of what I guessed were the afternoon suns turned the sky a pale green in defiance of everything I knew about physics. Finally, we broke through the edge of the Treison Forest and out onto the rolling plains that surrounded it.
In what was something of a running theme for the day, my eyes widened in wonder at what we saw there, Reggie gasping beside me. Low hills spread out before us like ocean waves, a comparison made all the easier by the tall, sea-blue grass that carpeted the ground. Even the hilltops were made
to resemble cresting waves by fluffy white tufts that grew from the tallest of the grasses.
As beautiful as that was, the grass wasn’t what really grabbed my attention, though. Instead, my gaze was drawn to the clear crystalline shards that jutted out of the grass across the plains. Some were small chunks that barely peeked out of the dirt while others rose up as tall as trees, catching the rays of the twin suns and turning them into rainbow radiance.
“Sola crystals,” Petra whispered softly, a smile on her lips. “Solanna is named for them, though I have heard travelers say that they exist in some other far reaches of Etria.”
“Truly astonishing, Ms. Petra,” Reggie gasped as he tried to regain his composure. Every time the suns shifted, a new dazzling light show played out for us, but I also noticed something else. With each pass of the suns, the Sola growths seemed to take on a faint internal glow all their own.
“Are they… glowing?” I asked the dryad as I shielded my eyes from the suns so I could get a better look. “It’s almost like they are absorbing some of the sunlight even as they reflect and refract the rest.”
It was no surprise to me that Petra’s leaf hair, as well as the vines that grew around her wrists and ankles, seemed to grow greener and lusher as she spread her arms out to the solar display before us. She nodded slowly and turned her head towards me, her eyes bright as she smiled.
“Yes, my savior,” she answered, her voice still a soft whisper of delight. “The Solas retain the suns’ power for a time, and that makes the plains and the surrounding forests a lush paradise. I even understand that some of the other races use fragments of Sola as weapons of a sort.”
