[https://imgur.com/ETVCNru]We managed to put on a show of civility through dinner. I kept my mouth shut as final decisions were made. Everything had to be ready by the Blue Moon Harvest, which would end with Myra and Levi's wedding.

Two weeks. I just had to make it through two weeks of preparations and the big day would come.

And I would be gone again at first light the following day.

After dinner I was swiftly forgotten, and I took the opportunity to slip away. I secretly gave Addie several coins to replace the corset, not that the Matron needed to know that.

With every step I felt the tension leaving my muscles. I’d had enough shit today. I didn't know how much more I could take. Being near these memories, and having to endure my father’s hard gaze made the dark pool of energy in my soul stir.

Why deal with it at all, Rowena? it whispered, and I felt the dark spread.

I thought I told you to fuck off, I growled at it and the feeling slowly ebbed away. But I knew it would come back. It always did.

Finally, for the first time since arriving back in this town, Dusk and I were alone. It felt good to be out of the dress, and better to be out of that house. The town was still alive as I left it. Lights glowed in windows, and people meandered around the street. The sky glittered with starlight, with touches of deep purple and blue mixed with black oblivion. The smallest amount of light could be seen over the mountains in the distance, but still the constellations were visible above. I counted them.

There, notable by their shortswords, was Lera the Bane and her twin Lorian the Blade. The angels of Death.

Then came Perasus, the scholar holding the just weight in his outstretched hands. His judgement forever sorted the innocent from the guilty. It was said that he spoke to the gods during the War of Ages, the war between humanity and the Elemancers. Humanity was on the brink of surrendering and returning to their lives as slaves to the Elemancers. But then, Perasus convinced the gods to begin Marking humans. Legend says that the power shed that day nearly ripped a hole through the fabric of reality.

But that was just a legend.

I kept running through those ones and more as I rode toward the Kenshi Ethereal forest. Distantly I could hear the sounds of the town, the music and voices echoing through the open plain leading to the mountains. Dusk knew where I wanted go the moment I directed his reins toward the dark trees. We listened to the sounds of impeding night as we rode away.

It was said that the thunderwood trees which populated all Ethereal forests, were tougher than any metal. The lightning which struck them only strengthened their fibers, instead of setting them ablaze. Humans avoided the Ethereal Forests, and I couldn’t suppress a grin as I remembered the rumors people spread about them.

The thunderwood trees feasted upon human flesh rather than sunlight.

If you took a fallen thunderwood branch, it would sprout roots that burrow under your skin, eventually encircling your heart. Then you would spend the rest of time as the thing’s eternal source of blood.

Tch, whoever thought of that one had read one too many late-night novels.

Another rumor said the air in the forest turned your lungs to stone, unless you were an Elemancer. Another lie.

Yet another said the forest was haunted.

Well, that one wasn’t exactly wrong.

I sighed as I heard rowdy laughter, followed by glass breaking, echoing distantly from the Swooning Sparrow tavern. A cheer let out from the patrons after that.

The first line of trees came to Dusk and I, and suddenly we were in the forest of huge obsidian thunderwood. The trees towered hundreds of feet above our heads.

The sounds of the town cut off. As if nothing made by humans, not even their voices, was allowed to enter.

The forest was silent as death, and just as dark. Dusk kept calm in the gloom, his hooves and the occasional rustle of wind through the trees loud in the silence.

I knew they would come any second.

I looked up and saw the barest sliver of sunlight on the highest of the mostly barren branches. It thinned, then vanished, and the darkness became complete.

The forest seemed to take a collective sigh. Dusk kept walking, staying on the path through some other sense. It was so dark, I couldn’t see the back of his head, but I didn’t dare light a torch.

They would come. They always did.

As if on cue, two pools of light began to glow on my left. They were a pale blue, tinged with white and purple at the edges.

I pulled on Dusk's reigns for him to back away, wanting to see the Raito rise. The pools of light formed into two giant peaked ears, then a horned head, neck, body, legs, feathery wings, and a long flowing tail.

[https://i.imgur.com/sjOB7Qq.png]

Raito Kenshi towered to nearly the tops of the trees, his body made entirely of light. He walked out of the solid ground as if climbing a hill, and surveyed the night he illuminated. His steps were silent as shadows, and his body was immaterial. He looked to be a perfect cross between a gray wolf and a snow fox, with the addition of hooked horns and graceful wings. He was more muscular than any fox, but the face was too fair to be a wolf.

The massive spirit suddenly looked down at Dusk and I, his primordial gaze boring into us. We went entirely still as the slender muzzle came just above Dusk’s head.

“We mean your woods no harm, Raito Kenshi, Great King of the Forest. We beg only passage through,” I said in Kaze, the language of the Elemancers. The Raito laid down until his eyes were level to us for several breaths. He held his wings close to his body, his horns curving inward toward his brow from behind his ears. I felt the waves of energy coming off him, and had to stifle the urge to reach out to touch. I knew the incomparable pain that would follow if I did.

The only rumor about the Ethereal Forests that carried weight was this one. People who touched a creature of light, an “Other” as they were called, became possessed and were later cooked from the inside out.

And that was just if a regular Other touched you. I remembered a time when a group of lumberjacks had tried to cut a thunderwood tree down. The moment they had penetrated the tree's metallic bark, the sky had gone black. Then Raito Kenshi had appeared, and the darkness had swallowed the entire group.

They were never found.

Every Ethereal Forest had a Raito, otherwise known as the king of the forest. They were the largest creature who ruled over the Other in that particular forest. There were at least seven Raitos, all with forms of their own. If the Raito did not attack a person, none of the Other would. I knew as long as I left the forest in peace, I had Kenshi’s permission to stay. And I had been coming to the Kenshi Ethereal Forest for many, many years.

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Without warning, Kenshi rose to his feet and padded away. He walked through the nearest tree and vanished. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. As I urged Dusk to walk again, I saw more of the Other appearing. Some were smaller than seeds, and others were larger than buildings. Some had a defined shape of a bear or stag, but more were a cross between several creatures. They had fangs, wings, claws, feathers, fur, and scales. But all were made of every hue of colorful light.

Slowly, I drew on my leather gloves, the worn material warming my hands. My callouses caught slightly on the soft lining as I worked my fingers into the tight fit.

The fabric went over the braided band of silver and iron around my ring finger.

I pulled my bandana above my nose, and my hat lower on my brow. The air was cooling rapidly so much so that Dusks’ breath came out in clouds of steam. The forest became ever brighter as even more of the Other appeared. They came out of the ground, out of the trees, and even out of the leaves.

A tiny one jumped on to the brim of my hat and leaned over the edge to peer at my face. It was a miniature sparrow with catlike eyes giving off a pleasant green light. It tilted its head and chirped at me soundlessly.

“Hello, little one,” I whispered, shifting my grip on the reigns. It flexed its wings and shifted upright, though I still saw its little clawed feet gripping the brim.

“Trying to hitch a ride, are we?” I asked and the feet tightened their grip on my hat.

“Hmm, you’re a lazy thing, aren’t you?” I asked, looking up so the creature shifted its weight forward into my vision. It fluttered its wings again and hopped to my saddle horn. It turned once, twice, three times and sat, tucking its beak under a wing.

“Shameless,” I muttered, and settled into the quiet of the glowing trees. We went deeper into the wood, going on a barely distinguished track which weaved through the spaces between the trees. Every now and then, I could swear I saw Kenshi in the corner of my eye. Whenever I turned, though, there was nothing there.

I jumped as we rounded yet another corner to reveal a stag of flesh and blood, his brilliant rack lifted high above his head. As soon as he saw us, he galloped away, his hooves sounding like thunder. There were physical creatures here and there, but most were nestled in their dens and nests by now. Only the Other stirred at night.

Finally, we came upon a towering gray stone formed like an arch. Rows of multicolor flower bushes formed an aisle leading to it, with patches of still-green grass forming a thick carpet around the area. Symbols and words were carved into the polished stone of the arch, but some moss had grown on it since the last time I was here.

Patting Dusk’s neck, I dismounted. The sparrow, still on the horn of the saddle, lifted its head and jumped to its feet. It fluttered its wings at me imperiously.

“Wait here Dusk. There’s a good boy,” I murmured, staring into his dark eyes. Then I looked at the sparrow, “You too.”

As if in answer, Dusk lowered his head and began to graze. The sparrow hopped onto his head, turned, and resumed its nap.

I walked toward the arch, and without warning, a flower bush moved.

Each row of bushes leading to the arch formed into a huge bipedal creature made of thorns and branches. They had to be at least twenty feet tall each. They came for me without preamble, every arm-like appendage lengthening into a thorny thunderwood sword. The first swung its sword in a high horizontal arch at my head, and the second swung for my shins. I leapt between the blades and tucked into a ball before landing. I didn't have time to recover as they rounded on me again. The swords, each as long as my entire body, came down in an overhead chop. I dove to the right as they buried deep into the ground where I had just been. I felt the shockwave shoot through my legs as I landed.

Nana's nether regions, why did I pick these guys to guard her?

"Stop!" I grunted as I skipped backward for some distance. But they came for me still. One retracted the sword into its arm and reformed it into a club the size of a barrel.

I only had time to flip backwards, and then the hammer came down with an earth-shattering crack. I flipped again as a second hammer came down from the second beast.

I still didn't draw my pistols. These creatures were called Toge, and they were formidable. Everybody knew that you didn't bother to fight a Toge. You just ran, and hoped someone else in your party tripped. The strength of the Toge was why I had planted them here.

I finally was able to regain my feet long enough to rip my bandanna from my face. I held my hands out to them even as they hefted their hammers high again.

"Stop! Gods damn you, its me!"

They came closer, arms lifted higher.

Shit, they don't recognize me.

I prepared to get smashed as they brought the hammers down again. I held my ground, even as the first started its swing. I heard thundering hooves, and I felt Dusk at my side. He reared and grunted, striking the ground and tossing his head. But the Toge stopped for only moments. They considered Dusk, and began to swing once more. I braced for the blow.

The hammers stopped inches from us.

Each rough collection of branches making a rudimentary head and face of the Toge regarded something over my shoulder. I looked up, tracking their gazes, and my breath caught.

Kenshi stood right behind me, unmoving. He had made himself smaller now, but he still dwarfed the Toge. His gaze was on them with unflinching stillness. His wings were held aloft, as if he would take flight any moment, and those primordial eyes blazed bright as stars. The Toge remained rooted to the spot, transfixed on their king. Their arms hung loosely at their sides.

I took the moment and walked toward the Toge. They both peeled their gazes from Kenshi and looked at me as I approached. I calmed my breathing as I stared upward into each face made of branches and thorns.

"It's me," I repeated in a whisper, gazing at each of them in turn.

Something changed within them, and slowly their hammers retracted and were replaced with gnarled hands. They each stroked my face, all aggression gone.

"I know. Its been too long. I wouldn't recognize me either," I said, feeling Dusk come closer to my back. The Toge each dropped their hands to my neck, feeling my pulse. They looked at one another, then strode to each side of the arch again, where they sat down to be bushes once more. Finally, flowers reappeared on their branches, and silence fell again.

I turned, an apology already forming on my tongue, but Kenshi had disappeared again. Dusk looked at me and nickered quietly, but I calmed him with hushed words. Eventually, he walked over to his patch of grass again and bent down to graze. I saw a dart of green light fly down from a nearby branch and the sparrow landed back on Dusk's head.

Looking around, I saw my hat lying at the foot of one of the trees. After picking it up, I went back to the arch.

Taking out my waterskin, I poured some over the stone and used my knife to gently cut away the moss. First, I saw the carving of an angel, then that of a sword and pistol crossed. When I made my way toward the peak of the arch, my hands began to shake, but I forced them to continue cleaning. When it was done, I went to my knees one at a time, sitting on the heels of my boots as I read her name.

Fayra Marvella Stone

1821-1845

Beloved Daughter, Friend, and Wife

I forgot everything else around me. The sweet smell of the flowers, the wind gently blowing through the forest, the softness of the grass, and the glow of the Other surrounding me. Everything. Because nothing else mattered. Pain spread from my chest to every part of my being. My hands shook and my eyes burned like a devil.

A drop landed on the grass below me. Then another. Then another as I squeezed my eyes shut, and took several deep breaths to get myself under control. My attention turned to a thunderwood box at the foot of the arch. I pulled a chain out from under my shirt, lifting the key which hung around my neck. After unlocking the box, I pulled out a bullet shell casing, a tiny note folded inside, and placed it where seven other ones with notes of their own already laid. Fishing into my pocket a bit deeper, I added two more shells.

For the years I had missed.

Finally, I tilted my head upward to the sky. There was an opening to it in this part of the forest, with a pretty view of the constellations above. Closing my eyes, I sent a silent hope to the stars that wherever Fayra was, she was happy and safe.

I refused to pray to the gods, but I would to the stars. So I wasn't disappointed when there was no answer.

Taking the hat off, I stood to touch my forehead to her name and breathed in the scent of the forest. Untamed grass, fallen leaves, winter flowers and crisp night air. Her scent.

“Hi Fay,” I whispered, “I brought you something.” I ran my hands over the hat and felt the burn hole again and again. Slowly, I set the hat under the arch, settling the brim under the thunderwood box so it wouldn’t blow away.

Just then, the wind circled around me and pulled my hair from where it was tied. The trees around me whispered with the wind, making me smile.

“I found him in Grimwater. The bastard still had your hat,” I went on quietly as the air ruffled my hair again. Thinking of Grimwater, and the man with a star tattooed on his temple, I gritted my teeth.

“But he slipped away again.”

The wind went still.

“I know I’ve said this too often before,” I said, voice raw, “But I miss you more than anything. I give you my word, I swear I won’t fail you this time.”

Pulling my sleeve up on my left wrist, my other hand drew my knife.

I slashed deep and hard, nearly halfway through the bones, and watched my blood drain rapidly over the ground like a small river. I growled as the wound stitched up almost instantly from the inside out. As always, my skin became smooth once more, all blood gone.

“One day, it will work. I will find a way. Then I will come for you.”

The arch’s reply was only silence.