by Hickory Mack
“I’ve been here so often I brought out the essentials. There’s a futon inside. Use it if you need rest,” Lord Makkai said. Alice nodded. “I’m going now. The trees will watch, should you choose to go exploring. Don’t get lost, you’ll cause yourself needless stress. Don’t overexert yourself, you’re supposed to be relaxing and healing.”
“Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d rather come and watch you work,” Alice said and he waved at her dismissively. "Please," she added quickly, before he could tell her no.
“Alright. You may accompany me. I might put you to work, though,” he smiled, his face softening, and led her into the forest. Trees bent out of his way to make a path. He slowed his pace so she wouldn’t have to trot along behind him. It took half an hour to reach the group of damaged trees. Alice bent down and touched the new growth low on the trunk, covering a wide swath of bark.
“There’s five of them here, I contained most of the damage when the grenade exploded but there was still loss. Three others died.”
“This is where the explosion was,” Alice muttered. “How did you get back to the clearing so quickly?”
“I jumped using spatial magic. The last one was on his way back toward you, I couldn’t let him beat me there,” he answered.
“Did you know then? About our-”
“Yes. I didn’t want to believe it, but yes, I knew,” he answered.
Alice touched the fresh soil where the two trees had once been. “How many more are there that still need your help? Have you been out here all this time?”
"Answering the second question first, no. I spent the first two days with you. When it was made clear that you would survive the infection but would need to sleep for some time more, I came out here," Makkai answered.
"I'd forgotten, Asuka told me you were there," Alice said.
"Our sudden connection was disorienting, to say the least. I couldn't leave you," the corner of his mouth quirked in a sardonic smile. "I took temporary leave of good senses. My territorial side went to war with the need to have you healed. I want you close to me, as often as possible. Working with the trees eased the restlessness of having you in a coma, unreachable. Which I suppose is why your request to come out here was granted, though more hunters could come at any time. Pretty reckless on my part, now that I think about it."
"Restless is a good way to describe it," Alice said, feeling lame. She didn't know how to respond. He was so candid about his thoughts. Makkai nodded.
"When you called for me, and I could hear you, as clearly as I hear you now though there were miles between us. It was a peculiar experience," he said.
"It was pretty awesome though. You were a ball of light." Alice said and a bit of the Lord slipped away, showing her the man beneath, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
"Pretty cool, right?" he grinned.
"Super cool," she agreed, grinning back. He gave her a strange look then composed himself.
“To answer your first question, what’s left are these five, and seven more. The other seven are not as severe as these, though. And yes, I must help them. Ichio could do this in moments, but I caused the damage, so it's my responsibility.” One of his ears flicked toward her and he sighed.
“You’ll hear it from others eventually. I am connected to this land. When it hurts I hurt, too. I’m not old enough or powerful enough for this, foxes aren’t supposed to be bound until they reach godhood. I don’t have mastery of Earth yet, so the healing goes more slowly for me than it would for an elder fox,” he said looking at the trees.
“This hurts you.” Alice stroked the bark and contemplated his words. “Asuka said she thinks I’m an Earth witch, maybe, I can help?” she asked. He reached out and ran a strand of her hair through his fingers.
“Asuka’s correct, you’re an Earthy. Unfortunately, like me, you’re too young.” He smiled gently and sat in the middle of the trees, atop the scarred ground where the grenade had detonated. Alice moved to sit next to him but he shook his head. “Here, in front of me.”
Alice moved, errantly wondering when she’d become so obedient. He motioned with his head and she scooted forward until less than an inch separated their knees. Alice took a settling breath when he took her palms in his, trying to calm the frantic butterflies in her belly. His black eyes caught hers and her stomach tripped over itself.
“We can link, if you want to see what’s happening. Allowing you to experience it through me, maybe it will help you make sense of accessing your own power when the time comes,” Makkai said quietly. She nodded her agreement, swallowing hard. “Let me know if it’s too much and we’ll stop. Breathe until you’re calm enough to follow my lead.”
Alice went hot all over at his acknowledgement of her mental state but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When the embarrassment faded, Alice followed suit. It took a while before she entered a space of tranquility. Then she felt a tug on her mind and she worked to go toward it.
“Relax, Little One,” he whispered. “There’s no rush, just let it happen.”
The tug came again and she was pulled into the surrounding embrace of cold blue fire, moving upward in a strong stream. He gave her enough time to orient herself and then Alice could feel him gathering from the stream and redirecting it into the ground.
She watched it slowly leach through the root systems of the trees, his blue light mingling with their easy green glow. He had to work to keep the fire cold. It wanted to rage and burn hot. His power had desires all its own; it would incinerate the trees in a single moment of distraction. She kept quiet and watched.
His magic moved from the roots and into the trees' internal system. Alice marveled at how complicated it was. The tree's energy moved through it with the water, long tubes extending from the root to the leaves, forever transferring, some to store in small pools of energy, but most was moving. It reminded her of Anatomy class in Nest Balance, it was so alike the vascular system.
She could see the broken places, where the trees had been hurt. It was harder for her to see all five of them at once and unintentionally her mind focused on a single tree. His magic moved to the storage pools, mixing his fire with the Earth magic, carrying it back to the injured places, slowly working to fix and repair and regenerate. Completely focused, Alice unwittingly changed the game, gently pointing out an area that was being particularly resistant. His magic moved, flowing to the spot.
Surprised, she pointed out another especially nasty space and the magic responded. With a little trial and error Lord Makkai’s magic was moving and healing with a flicker of her thoughts. She lost herself in it, becoming so completely caught up in their task she was baffled when she was squarely deposited back in her own mind. Alice blinked, looking at the Fox in a daze.
He wore a gentle smile, but his eyes were tired.
“Makkai?” she asked, her head foggy and confused.
“It’s been six hours, Little Witch. Look,” he instructed. Her eyes went immediately to the tree she’d been focused on and sure enough, the deepest gash had healed over completely. She gave him a big grin.
“You did that with your magic!” Alice scrambled to her feet, wincing and stretching her stiff limbs. She went to the tree and touched the new growth. The bark was smoother there, and slightly lighter in color, but otherwise sound. “You’re amazing.”
“No, you did that with my magic. Look at the difference, here.” The other four had growth, too, but noticeably less than the one she’d connected herself to. “You sped up the process, I was able to let go of that tree completely and focus on the others. All I did was feed you my magic. I’m impressed, but keeping that level of control over my fire is strenuous. I don’t know about you, but I need to eat, and the trees will need more water if we are to continue.”
They walked back to the cabin, Alice maintaining a steady stream of commentary on what she’d experienced. Lord Makkai listened with a half-amused air, his ear tilting her way and one corner of his mouth lifted in a slight grin. When they
arrived he slid the doors into the walls, opening the space up on two sides, mindful of her fears.
“Do you know how to cook?” he asked, chuckling lightly at her expression.
“I can cook well enough by our standards. I can make sandwiches, and I can heat up canned foods,” she said a little defensively.
“It’s okay, nothing to worry about.” He set his hand on top of her head a moment. “It isn’t expected of you, I have people for that. Stay here and rest, I’m going to water the trees first, then we will eat.”
Alice sat on the step outside thinking of what she’d seen. She looked up at the Sun, noting how far it had traveled across the sky and felt guilty. She’d wasted so much of his time by sleeping in. Biting her lip she stood and explored the little space, gravitating to the icebox, wanting to be useful. Opening it she groaned in frustration. It was all ingredients. Alice poked through, moving a few items and sighed. She went back to her step, resting her chin on her hand irritably.
Lord Makkai returned a few minutes later, removing his shoes before entering. Alice’s eyebrows furrowed and she silently berated herself. She wanted to help but didn't know how.
“What’s wrong now, Little One?” his voice came from inside.
“I’m useless,” she said and he gave a low growl, startling her.
“So, get in here and be useful,” he replied. Alice kicked off her sandals and went inside. He met her halfway across the room and handed her a pot. “The basin is outside, go fill that halfway.”
Alice took it outside and walked around the other side of the cabin before finding a water basin made from barrels, a small wooden trough below a spigot at the bottom. She set her pan inside and opened the spigot. The water poured out faster than she expected, tipping the pot over and soaking herself. Alice had to start again, but she got it.
When she re-entered, Makkai was cutting some vegetables, a blue fire burning on the stove. He looked over at her, standing in her soaked shirt, and started laughing. Alice set the pot down and flicked her hands, droplets flying at him. He laughed harder.
Alice rolled her eyes but laughed too, his amusement fueling hers. He put the pot over the fire and tossed his veggies in. Soon he had her peeling sweet potatoes while he cooked some tempeh. He showed her how to cube them without cutting herself, then proceeded to get more water for a second pot, which he put rice in.
“Here, smell this.” He handed her a gnarled bit of root, looking pleased.
“What is that? It smells spicy,” she said.
“That’s ginger root. We’re having gingered coconut curry. The sweet makes the spice perfect,” he assured her, breaking off a piece of the root and grating it before setting it aside. “Everything is ready, all it needs is time on the stove. I would consider it a great favor if you would not inform Milly I can cook. She believes I am incapable of taking care of myself and I wouldn’t want to disabuse her of such thoughts.” His eyes crinkled.
“I won’t tell her,” Alice agreed.
They finished cooking. He put the rice on the plate and covered it with the curry, the tempeh on top. It smelled amazing. Lord Makkai brought the tea pot and cups to the step and looked at Alice apologetically.
“I’ve been out here alone, so I didn’t bring a table. I like to relax the rules a bit when I’m on my own,” he said, handing Alice her plate.
“Thank you, I don’t mind. I usually ate alone at home, too, but on the couch,” Alice said. He watched her from the corner of his eye while she tried her food, keeping his opinions on her upbringing to himself. “This is so good! We didn’t have anything this good, not even at Nest Balance,” she told him, watching his fingers and how he held his chopsticks, what he did with his napkin, where he set his drink. They ate in silence for a minute when he gave her a quizzical look.
“To get a feel for your preferences, what do you think of Noriko?” he asked. Taking in her confused look he clarified. “For your name.”
“Oh. Um…”
“Okay,” he said, picking up her tone. “Maybe, Masako?” Alice shook her head, crinkling her nose.
“Yukiko?”
“Too close to Yukio,” Alice answered without hesitation, trying to stifle a shudder. He took time to appreciate that, she’d been affected deeply by her short meeting with the ferret.
“Sakahito?” he asked. She shook her head after trying it out loud. “Hmmm, too much? I’ll keep thinking.”
They finished eating and cleaned up, setting some curry aside in the ice box for later. When the space was spotless Lord Makkai told her he was going back to the trees.
“I need to get it done, it eats at me,” he explained somewhat apologetically. “Shoshi?”
“No. I’ve never heard of any of these names. Are you making them up?” she asked, following him outside. “Wait, I’m coming too.”
“They’re names from my home country, good names. And I’d rather you not, you’ll exhaust yourself,” he argued. “Go exploring, nap, enjoy the rest of your day, you’ve already helped a great deal. Shichi?”
Alice tried that one too. “File that one in the ‘maybe’ column,” she said. “If it’s okay, I’d rather come with you. You’ll use magic to get the trees to babysit me instead of using it to heal. I liked doing it, it was relaxing.”
“I think the feeling you experienced is called catharsis. I’ll allow it, but no complaints when you can’t keep your eyes open and I take none of the blame when the healers start scolding. Shichi is better for you? You like short and cute instead of royal names. Rishi?” he took her hand again, touch came so easily to him, he couldn’t seem to stop reaching for her.
“Nah,” Alice looked at him, wondering why he was so different, so quickly. He’d avoided touching her before, and he definitely hadn’t been as friendly. She certainly wasn’t going to question him, though. She liked his attention.
He looked around as they walked, muttering something to himself but wouldn’t tell her what it was when she asked, just gave an unclear answer about tree spirits behaving curiously. Alice looked wherever she saw him glance but saw nothing.
They worked on the trees another five hours, coming back to reality with the setting sun. Alice was stiff but she wasn’t as tired as Lord Makkai clearly was. He’d allowed her to take control and run with it and as before, the tree she’d worked on had gained more growth than the others. Alice had barely begun to feel like she was getting a better handle on what she was doing, getting comfortable enough to start moving faster with greater accuracy when he’d pulled them back.
He inspected the tree then looked at her pointedly. “Useless, you say,” He used a mildly chastising voice. “This is good work. Sayuri? It lends itself to several short names.”
“I actually like that one.”
“Ah, a second ‘maybe’,” he teased. “It’s a common name, as common as Sakura. It means ‘little lily’. I think it could suit you. Or, we could make something up. Chiori? The kanji for it can mean any number of things. Shining knowledge, or you could be ‘Chiori: the bell of a thousand sounds.”
“I like both of those better than any of the others,” Alice said, twirling an errant twig between her fingers, picking at its bark. “Do you have any idea how strange it feels to try choosing your own name?”
“No, I cannot say that I do. I think that may be why I pick the names instead of those under me,” he said. “If you like both you can have both. You hold an important place in my house, it would not be unheard of for you to have several names.”
“Until we find out I’m not your super rare mate, you mean,” Alice said, not liking the tone of her own voice. She sounded bitter, over something neither of them had control over. He let it go without an answer, just a curious expression, one of his furry foxy ears flicking sideways for a moment.
“Shall we go back? Your use of my power was expedient, but exhausting. It takes an immense amount of mental strength and control to force my magic to mix with Earth and not burn through it. I’m grateful to you
, you’ve saved me time, but I need sleep,” he said.
“Are we going back to the house?” she asked, secretly pleased when he shook his head.
“I think I’ll keep you here another day. Michiko?”
“It’s cute, but, I think I want you to pick one of the other two,” Alice said, placing her hand on the tree she’d spent so much time with that day, embarrassed again. She wasn’t accustomed to anyone giving her thoughts any value. She’d learned to shut her mouth and keep her opinions to herself.
Her heart beat heavily and it reminded her of how it had felt when she’d blown out the barrier. The power had felt like it came right from her heart, like when she’d convinced the trees to let her through. Her handprint, glowing faintly in the dark the night she’d left the Tallow. Alice stopped fighting and accepted the knowledge that she was a witch. She turned inward and looked, she wanted to know.
Lord Makkai said something, a word of warning, but she was already too focused, trying, wondering if she could connect with the tree on her own. She pushed out from that place in her heart and the tree lit up in her mind, all the little energy pools and channels were easy to see.
Ignoring the pools of reserved energy Alice tapped into her own power, the same rich shade of green, and started pouring it into the tree. She pushed hard into the blocked places, growing, regenerating. It was an exhilarating rush, the magic moved faster and too quickly the tree began to pull as hard as she pushed. The green light grew brighter and brighter and the excitement turned to fear. She stopped pushing but the power was bleeding out of her and she couldn't make it stop. The tree was healed, she could feel it, but it kept taking everything she had.
She heard an angry growl, and blue heat poured through her connection, abruptly breaking it off. Pain blossomed in her chest and Alice came thrashing back into herself with a shock, gasping and choking, starving for air.
“Oh, thank the gods. All of them. Even Inari.”
“Makkai…” Alice started when she was able to speak once more. Confused by her orientation she realized she was on the ground.
