The Fae tree was dark at night. Of course, it didn’t have electricity, but it also didn’t have torches to light the way. Instead, when beings moved on the tree, a speck of starlight appeared beside them to light their way. It was magic that had been woven on the tree when the first Fae found it.
Jude and Iris walked with the floating orbs of light next to them in the direction of the queen’s nest. It hadn’t been long since Iris had left the queen after her training, so Queen Millicent hadn’t turned in to sleep yet. Instead, they found the queen just outside her nest, conversing with Rost. The bird king seemed to be recounting the details of their hunt, while the queen, from what Jude could hear, was telling Rost about Iris’ progress.
The two noticed a slight increase in light in the area and turned to look at Jude and Iris approaching. Iris still looked exhausted, but there was hunger in her eyes.
“Tell them!” she urged Jude.
“Queen Millicent, Iris wants to analyze the carcass of the deer we brought today before she purifies it, and we would actually like an explanation on what kind of creature are those deer.”
“Very well,” she said and turned to Rost to say that they would be going to see their prize immediately. “Let’s take care of the first part first. The nature of those beings may take a while to explain.”
Rost and the queen flew over to the trunk where the deer had been stashed. The queen’s wings had regenerated enough by now that she was able to use them for short flights.
“You go with them,” Iris told Jude.
“And what about you?”
“I wanna try something. Just be ready to catch me.”
“You are out of your mind,” Jude replied, but he joined Rost and Queen Millicent.
Iris hadn’t had the chance to use Shadowstep in any meaningful way yet. Initially, she had hesitated when the idea crossed her mind because it was dark, with only the orb lighting the night in front of her, but that’s when she remembered she had the skill Rost had given her. She activated Keen Vision, and the little light available became enough for her to see the entire path of where she needed to go. She couldn’t see much of the periphery, but since each of them had starlight following them, the outline of the path was visible. Iris guessed that she would need some kind of night vision to actually see in the dark.
As soon as Jude landed, he turned around to look at Iris. He saw her wave toward him, get into position and, suddenly, the spark of starlight disappeared, Iris with it. When another speck of starlight appeared, Iris reappeared on a branch closer to them. Then, she disappeared again, and again she reappeared closer to them. On the final Shadowstep, when Iris reappeared, she slammed against Jude’s chest, laughing all the while. Because Jude’s strength stat was relatively high, he barely moved from the impact.
“That was fun!”
“Did you need to do that in the dark?”
“I didn’t have a chance to try it during the day. I think I did well!”
“You did amazing…” Jude said unenthusiastically.
“Whatever, Mr. Poopy Pants. I enjoyed it! Now, where is that deer?”
Queen Millicent watched their exchange with a slight smirk on her face, and they couldn’t read Rost’s expressions, so they didn’t know if he had shown any.
The queen turned to Rost and asked about the deer, and Rost hovered over the open storage, grabbed the carcass and pulled it out, setting it in front of Iris.
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“Can I get more light?” Iris asked.
The tree wouldn’t provide any more light, but Queen Millicent raised her hand, and an orb of even stronger luminescence appeared above the deer.
“Starlight is a spell We know. The one woven on the tree breaks the light into sizes manageable for multiple beings.”
“Thank you,” Jude and Iris responded in unison.
Iris could see everything now, so instead of purifying the deer, she pulled out a test tube vial and a collector to get as much of the liquid rot as she could from the dead animal. After that, she took tissue samples of the skin and the antler, and blood samples of the hind area, furthest from the corruption. When she was satisfied with what she had collected, she cast Purify on the body, but that’s when something unexpected happened. As the body of the deer was cleansed, the branch underneath it started sprouting leaves and fruit. The deer didn’t return to life, however, and after a while, the growth stopped altogether.
When she saw that, Queen Millicent started singing to Rost, and the bird king did the same in a hurried fashion. They seemed just as surprised by the event as Jude and Iris.
“Let us return to the Royal Nest. We will tell you about the Anhangas there.”
Jude and Iris followed the queen back. Instead of entering the throne room, however, Queen Millicent led them through a portal within the Royal nest. Inside, they found a round table and wooden chairs. The three of them sat around the table in even stature. Meanwhile, Rost took the body of the cleansed deer to distribute to the birds.
“The Anhangas,” Queen Millicent started, “are and were the forest itself. Where they walked, forest grew. When Our people came to the forest, they requested shelter, and the Anhangas granted that request by grazing a large area of the forest that eventually became the Fae tree. Every noble Fae keeps a seed of the Fae tree with them in respect and deference to nature. When Our people were hunted, Our tree died, and only the seedling of the fleeing Fae remained. To raise a Fae tree, an enormous amount of mana is needed, but for the Anhangas, it was simple. They are nature alive, but that also means that they carry and spread the rot with them.”
“That’s why they were secreting concentrated liquid rot, and it was everywhere they grazed!”
“Correct. The younger Anhangas are strong, so Rost only hunts the aged and dying. It was Our idea to curb the spread of rot between the Anhangas. When the forest fell to rot, and We chose to isolate the Fae tree, the Anhangas were doomed. Because they are the forest, it was not a poison they could fight against.”
“What about what happened when Iris purified it?”
“That was entirely unexpected. Anhangas are extremely powerful creatures. They sustain rot much longer than any of us. Even We in Our enduring state with Mana Life could not take the amount of rot within the Anhangas. They survive because the forest still survives. Once either of them is completely gone, the other will follow.”
“Does that mean that Iris may be able to purify them while they are alive?”
“That is what We want to find out.”
Jude and Iris only had a couple of weeks left to prepare everything. The hunt for The Devourer would begin the final week, but now, it was possible they would be able to increase the number of allies they had.
“There’s so much to do,” Iris said.
That night, Jude and Iris talked about their next steps. Jude would continue to focus on his flying and melee skills, while Iris would spend a week attempting to learn Mana Life. After that, she would start raising the slumbering Fae from their sleep and attempt to purify a live Anhanga. Queen Millicent said she would go with them on that occasion for if Iris succeeded, she would act as the intermediary between Jude and Iris and the forest kin, and for that reason, they decided that they would try to purify the leader first.
They also decided that they would start sparring. Both of them needed to familiarize themselves with combat, and since they had specialized weapons, they needed to learn how to use them. Iris hadn’t even tried her daggers yet, and Jude had only been able to use his gloves for a single punch. They were both getting more powerful in their own way, so they needed to learn how to utilize their individual power.
Two weeks wasn’t a long time for them to grow much more than they had already, so it was better to focus on getting more proficient with what they already had.
They had a plan and steps to follow to make it possible. When they finally went to sleep that night, knowing the amount of work that was to come in the coming weeks, they both dreamed of the city, of Christmas and of their friends, of the life they had lived. In the morning when they saw where they were, Jude refocused on the tasks at hand, and Iris clenched her fists so tightly in anger that they bled, but she healed herself almost immediately so Jude didn’t notice it.
They walked out under the sunlight together.