The Imagineer's Bloodline: Ascendant Earth Chronicles – Book 1

by J. J. Lorden

  “Okay, I’ve had enough of that. Do you think you could stop with the naked boy crap? I really don’t want to be continually reminded of this morning’s events. Up until just now, it’s been a pretty horrible day.”

  Nero looked at him. “Grow a spine while getting dressed, now did we?”

  “Look, I just don’t want you calling me naked boy. I have a name, just like you, Nero.”

  “Indeed, you do. Okay, then, Carson. I can respect that, point taken. Now let’s go. You still need to see Irrienna before we can start your training.”

  “Great.” Carson smiled, feeling a long sight better having gained a measure of the ranger’s respect. “Let’s go.”

  He turned and followed the disturbingly graceful man back the way they’d come.

  “Hey, Nero, who’s Irrienna?”

  The elf ignored him and just kept walking.

  19

  Entiarch

  How did I forget about this? Val shook her head, still smiling. It was one of the extras unlocked by her Jade Equilibrium avatar bonus.

  The Jade Equilibrium included several overall bonuses, all amazing, but most exciting to Val was this racial affinity. Stuck up in this tree, she was in a perfect place to explore it–maybe even raise it from an affinity to an ability.

  Racial Affinity (Rare): Arboreal Kinship—Your core energies are aligned such that you possess the natural capacity to communicate with living trees. Your connection is uniquely broad and allows for both empathic and telepathic communication.

  Effect: You can form an empathic connection to young trees that lack self-awareness and a full telepathic connection to those aged trees that are sentient.

  Arboreal Kinship is the foundation affinity for several advanced abilities, including: Sheltered Grove, Wild Call, and Wood Weaver. Explore and train this affinity to evolve one or all of these abilities. Sheltered Grove creates a space of healing and protection within the forest. Wild Call brings the creatures of the forest to your aid. Wood Weaver allows you to create items of woven wood from living trees.

  Note: To evolve any of these abilities you must submit yourself to the power of a willing Pado’tan tree spirit for instruction.

  The affinity by itself was pleasing; she loved that she had a natural connection to trees. But the potential of the evolved skills was what really excited her, particularly Wood Weaver.

  This could be amazing. I could weave myself a weapon. As she had that thought, another idea came to her, and Val sucked in a breath in sudden excitement. Could I weave myself a treehouse? She was practically itching to unlock the Wood Weaver ability after that.

  The description stated that Wood Weaver was evolved by exploring and training her Arboreal Kinship. And to do that, she had to submit herself to instruction under a Pado’tan tree spirit.

  She had no idea what kind of tree would have a Pado’tan spirit. Was Pado’tan the type of spirit or the type of tree? The tree she was in was the largest around for a significant distance. It seemed like a good bet.

  Val recalled her earlier intuitive connection to the tree. Of course! I connected to the tree because of my Arboreal Kinship. She reached out in the same way and immediately made a connection.

  Val visualized breathing into the connection and communing more deeply with the tree. As she did, her sense of its aura returned. This time she tried to communicate her need to the tree and request aid.

  She could feel the spirit’s awareness of her as it passively observed and somehow politely declined to provide aid.

  She rephrased her request, adding in a sense that she was a traveler and needed to find her companions. The spirit declined again.

  After many different attempts and being rebuffed time and again, Val began to get frustrated. No, frustrated didn’t capture it; she was feeling desperate–the tree’s spirit hovered right at her fingertips, tantalizingly close but still out of reach.

  So, she decided to go for it differently. Recalling the affinity description and its exact wording–she had to submit herself to the power of the greater tree spirit. Val did not like the idea of submitting to anything or anyone. But it was just a tree.

  Okay, trees are gentle. I can do that. Calming her flaring sense of self-preservation with some deep breathing, she laid face down on the branch.

  It was a couple feet wide with a mostly flat area across on top. Valerie pressed the side of her face and her chest into the limb and wrapped her arms as far as she could around its smooth, ancient girth.

  Then, using the empathic pathway, she opened herself and gave respect, acceptance, and gratitude, allowing the powerful awareness of the tree into her center without resistance. The action’s humility had apparently been the trick–her link to the tree expanded, rich images and raw emotions flowed through.

  The wordless communication caused time to lose meaning as she was drawn into re-experiencing the tree’s memories in vivid detail. They were entirely foreign to her experiences as a human and came to her in heartbreaking detail.

  After each, Val felt as if she’d lived them.

  In a state of merged awareness, she learned of the joy of summer rain and sorrow of fire. She learned of being tied to many thousands of others like herself–each with a flavor of personality shading them.

  Joined with the spirit, her awareness traveled great distances through a continuous network of roots, touching on or brushing by hundreds of other sentient tree spirits. In this state she felt one with a great community.

  It was blissful, and some old part started to stir within.

  For her part, Val shared memories of childhood tree-climbing joys. Of the thrill of going higher and higher, of always looking up for the next branch.

  She shared her pain and regret when her sister had fallen from a tree because Val had cruelly made her climb via a route with too few handholds. She laid out her memory of similar trees from Earth, of her precious Sycamore grove and its magical helicopter seeds.

  The tree spirit purred at that memory.

  She then shared the thrill of rocketing through a tight, tree-lined s-curve at over 150 miles per hour, engine howling, and electronic music blaring. The tree spirit was fascinated by Valerie’s experience of speed, and it drew on those memories like a child asking for another story.

  It seemed bewitched by her relationship and ability to exist so calmly in the center of so much chaos and apparent danger. She dwelled on those memories for long minutes as the tree spirit drank them in. Only moving on when its hunger for them faded.

  And on it went–with each shared experience, they felt more like old friends, separated for many years, now new again and celebrating the accumulated stories of their time apart. It was a communion of unveiling.

  Through this bonding, the tree spirit came to know who she was on a fundamental level. And it deeply loved the woman it knew her to be.

  Val emerged from the timeless haze with a glorious glow in her soul. She had not known it was possible to be so wholly accepted. To be seen, without hiding anything, and have all of who she was validated. Val was thunderstruck by the raw love.

  Tears of joy ran freely down her face, and she let them, basking in the knowledge she was so well loved.

  Then the tree spirit opened its physical form to her, and Val could feel the massive branch she sat on as if it was an extension of her body, almost as if she suddenly had another arm or leg.

  Though not entirely, as she couldn’t move the limb, not precisely. Instead, she could feel its very fibers; she could feel they were ready to respond, ready to be molded, prepared to be woven.

  With a smile, she blinked at her tears, using a knuckle to rub them away. Then, with her back pressed into the bowl made between limb and trunk, Val and her new teacher, a tree spirit whose presence felt like home, began to work.

  Val began by pressing the shape she wanted forward. The spirit responded, and within the wood, a silvery line of energy formed a core to work around. The tree limb became transparent to her eyes, and she co
uld see the form within.

  The substance of the tree became like a thousand loose ends of string. Not quite knowing what she was doing, but trusting the gentle guiding touch of the spirit, Val started gathering them.

  Images of hands from long ago floated past and she knew. It felt like weaving invisible threads of silk that pulled and drew the fibers around each other, encircling and enveloping the core of energy.

  Again and again, the sliver of consciousness was wrapped with living wood. As she worked, the tree spirit guided the grain, aligning and compressing it about the simple shape.

  At one point, she found herself moving her hands in intricate gestures above the branch like she was alternating between stitching and molding the wood–a weaver and a potter at the same time.

  When she felt it was complete, Val pulled away from their co-creation. It was done. The tree acknowledged the same, and the life energy at its core began to seep out.

  Somehow Val knew this was normal, but she felt a horrible loss at the splinter of consciousness receding from the creation.

  No, please. Stay. Val pushed her desire and love into the tree spirit, compelling it not to remove the energy it had invested.

  In that moment, the spirit’s emotional response was surprise, but it stopped withdrawing.

  It investigated her sincerity, found it true, and warmed, sending first humor, then grateful acceptance as the great tree spirit aligned with her request.

  The life energy seeping out was drawn back into the core of the item. Within Val, a heat welled up, excitement and ecstasy setting her aflame with sensation.

  Her energy trickled out, then flowed from her in a stream of passion and power. The physical arousal was sudden and startling, causing Val to breathe heavy, but it ran and moved with rightness and was accepted with reverence by the tree spirit’s core energy.

  The joy of unshielded connection swirled within their bond. Everything was instantly shared and experienced together in a soulful union. It was a more profound connection than the sharing of memories. It was the naked, full-body embrace of a lover.

  Val had never known this sensation to be more than physical, and she melted.

  The bonds of pain knotting her soul loosened and a memory of a girl existing in a world of uninterrupted wonder trickled through. She began to cry as complete surrender clarified and revealed the person she’d long ago suppressed. Val realized that this was more than just surrender; this was healing.

  Feeling whole and completely unafraid for the first time she could remember, a deep well of passionate, rapturous energy opened, her body tingled as her mind felt cut from crystal.

  They drew on this vital power vibrating through her body. From toes to crown of her head, she was raw, naked, and wanting more. Even feeling it all, she was still aware of the work–the weaving they were engaged in. Valerie was mindful of all of it and herself floating at the center.

  She gloried in her body as her soul essence and the ancient power of this vital spirit combined. The two energies coalesced and concentrated, condensing into long strands; hers a deep green, and its a silvery mint.

  The strands spun about each other and began to merge, each embracing and entwining itself with the other, binding together into an intricate cable.

  The silvery-emerald cord began thinning and elongating as the woven object again became the focus, and like a spirit merging with its form, the line of bonded soul energy nestled into its new body.

  Val’s attention returned to her environment. She found herself with legs wrapped around the branch, chest out, hands gripping her thighs, and skin all over her body alive as she relaxed the flow.

  Reluctantly, Val separated her source from the completing core, and in decreasing waves of intensity, her energy pulsed and ebbed.

  There was no sexual peak, no sharp end–Val didn’t convulse in a climatic collapse. Rather the passion settled and calmed, leaving her fulfilled while still feeling high as a kite in a fan factory.

  Bark receded from the shape she could sense within, then it pressed out of the wood, and the bark closed back. Before her rested a nearly six-foot-long staff.

  She could feel the weapon without touching it, like an extension of her body. And within that sensation, she could also touch its connection to the ancient tree spirit. That energy was resolute, steady, the force of a millennia-old being.

  Reaching to pick it up, she stopped a few inches away and called it into her hand. Astoundingly, the staff responded and rose sharply up to her palm, leaving behind a thin line in the bark.

  She stood up, and her intense connection to the tree faded a bit. Valerie pressed a hand and her forehead on its trunk, then she sent gratitude, respect, and love.

  It was reciprocated in kind, and she again found tears of joy rolling down her cheeks to drip from her chin onto the branch below. The wet spots were quickly absorbed, and still even more gratitude filled her soul.

  Entiarch, the single word rang in her mind.

  Valerie, she sent back. She saw Entiarch in its glorious time-weathered wisdom and strength, and it saw her–raw, hungry, driven, and awakening to this new world.

  Taking a deep breath and oh so slowly, as if emerging from a time capsule, she turned her attention to the staff.

  Val grasped the weapon in both hands and began twisting and waving it unhurriedly, getting a measure of its weight and heft. It had small bumps and ridges at different points, but as a whole, it was straight and felt solid.

  More than solid, it had a heft that promised potent striking ability. The rises and bumps had an unseen pattern and utility. And although she didn’t understand their purpose, her fingers seemed to find them intuitively and improve her leverage and grip.

  Val’s proud consideration of the grand achievement was interrupted by a small light that flashed in the corner of her vision. She focused on it and notifications appeared.

  Well done Valerie Breking, you have achieved an ability evolution.

  Evolved Ability (Very Rare), Base: Arboreal Kinship—Wood Weaver– Your unreserved surrender to Entiarch, an ancient Pado’tan spirit, has taken you beyond your fears to experience intentional vulnerability. Through your bond with Entiarch and using this ability, you have taken the first steps on the path of understanding the power of creation.

  Effect: Your core energy can now form a cooperative bond with living trees to craft items of woven wood.

  Level: Primitive

  Experience gain—1000

  Ability level increased X3: Wood Weaver—Level: Apprentice—While crafting your first item of woven wood, you offered to bind your soul to that of the Pado’tan spirit, Entiarch. Entiarch found you worthy and accepted your offer. Together you have successfully created a soulbound weapon many levels above your ability! Amazing! See what’s possible when you give it up!

  Trees everywhere be warned, there’s a new cat on the loose–and not the type with fur. Keep bonding like that Valerie, and you’ll be the envy of long hardwood the world over.

  Title earned: Soul Forger

  Named Weapon gained—VirginWood (Name visible only to soulbound owner.)

  VirginWood is a unique and world-first weapon.

  VirginWood is soulbound.

  VirginWood is a Passion Weapon.

  VirginWood is a Sentient being. (Looks like you’re a mom now, don’t screw it up.)

  Experience gain for crafting a world-first weapon—2500

  Experience gain for crafting a soulbound weapon—750

  A mom? Val thought. What? Everything else in the notification disappeared as she scowled at the final line of Virginwood’s description.

  The implication set her on edge. A baby? Considering it brought a worm of doubt wriggling into her gut.

  Her scowl became a snarl. “It’s a damn staff.”

  Making the weapon had been an experience beyond what she had considered possible in any world. She had a skill that crafted powerful objects while simultaneously being totally, mind-blowingly, orgasmi
c.

  Who the hell could have ever dreamt that was possible? Well... Elle apparently could.

  Remembering Elle brought thoughts of her two best friends. Her breath caught at the idea of telling them what had happened. There was no telling how the boys would take it, and if they were mocking, particularly Matty, she couldn’t take that.

  There was a sanctity to weaving Virginwood with Entiarch that she didn’t want tainted in any way. I’ll keep it to myself, at least for now.

  Her mind drifted back to the crack about being a mom–it really niggled at her. Val didn’t have a high estimation of her motherly abilities. So, even though she knew it was just a staff, the idea still poked at a deep fear. How exactly would I raise a wooden stick?

  A staff was no baby. It didn’t need breastfeeding, and it certainly didn’t need to have its diapers changed. Good thing on that first one too, since I’m definitely not lactating. Val chuckled.

  The laugh helped put things back in perspective and brought back the glow she’d gained from the wood weaving experience. A few peak moments from the soulful union reasserted themselves, and she relived the ecstasy. Echoes of arousal rippled over her body.

  After a bit, the sensual tingle faded, leaving peaceful awareness in its wake. Val reflected upon the act of creation, and considering it now, she was floored by the ridiculousness of sex with a tree.

  Thinking about it logically grated on what her body knew to be true. It wasn’t intercourse, but she’d joined with Entiarch in every other way that really mattered.

  The bonding was energetic, spiritual, and sensual, which she could maybe explain to someone open to those ideas, but at its core, it was more than that. It was being seen in full and then wholly accepted. And that was a gift beyond any she’d ever received.

  The experience simply existed beyond the bounds of logic.