When morning came and the rest of her family awoke, Zalia knew that Aylie would still be in bed and might be for some time. She was a little troubled by what Aylie had said and was starting to worry about its meaning as well. What did it mean that the protective barrier between her body and soul had been broken?
After thinking about it all night while everyone was asleep and Boreal out doing who knew what, Zalia had become convinced that it did affect the dreamscape Aylie created. It had been so much more real, solid, this time. It had been a long time since Zalia had been in one so she’d assumed it was a result of practice.
Why Zalia was worried, she could not say for certain.
The only effects of the change that she had noticed so far were the dream and the other odd something that she had noticed about Aylie a few days back. One of those things was good while the other wasn’t impactful at all, which left no reason to be concerned. The way her body and soul existed in the world had fundamentally changed, for better or worse.
Everyone was going about their day after a large shared breakfast. Zalia hadn’t told Ember what Aylie had shared with her just yet, she would ask Aylie if it was okay for her to. While she most certainly shared everything with Ember, this secret wasn’t hers.
Boreal had come back for breakfast, only to take her children and leave afterwards. Had it been a few years ago, Zalia would have been sure she was up to some mischief but her once young feline friend had grown up, becoming more serious and grounded in doing so.
Lumen was with Aylie, asleep at the foot of her bed. He was much too large to fit on the bed anymore and Zalia had a feeling he wouldn’t fit in the house much longer, knowing how large his previous incarnation had been. That was an issue for later, however, one that probably wouldn’t take much to fix considering the fluid state of their home. It would adjust the height of its rooms and doors to accommodate Lumen.
With Boreal out, Lumen and Aylie asleep and Ember busy for the day ensuring that the people they had freed from the Astar had been given places to live, food and water, Zalia had to make her own plans. She would have gone with Ember but she wanted to do something for Aylie.
There were a few things that Zalia had in common with Aylie and that was a love of high up, open spaces and the dislike of people. Not a dislike of the people themselves, they were just more comfortable without others around, free from the sounds, smells and sights of people going about their days. It wasn’t the fault of people, rather a preference on Zalia and Aylie’s behalf. Ember was very different, with a love and care for people that had drawn Zalia to her in the first place. It had been the trip the two of them had taken around the city of Endelbyrn going from farm to town to farm, healing and helping wherever they could that had made Zalia truly like Ember. It was perhaps Zalia’s tendency to help people in need despite her dislike of being around them that had caused Ember to return the feelings.
That was why Ember was out helping the people they had freed, while Zalia was planning to make a retreat in the town, just for Aylie.
The Ancient of Life formed a canopy that spanned over and across the centre half of the town, its thick branches and massive trunk supporting the weight of countless leaves that allowed beams of light to shine on the town below. Zalia flew up to the top of the tree, where its trunk finally grew thin. Thin relative to the rest of the tree, at least. There, with two branches as supports, Zalia began her work.
The Ancient of Life wasn’t like the other two ancients. Wisdom and War were both animals, a crow and a plains cat. You could talk to them and receive answers, both having an active part to play in the day-to-day life of the people and animals that lived in the city. The Ancient of Life instead spoke with the plants that lived in the city.
If she focussed, Zalia could hear them talking, not in voices but by some form of magic. It wasn’t magic like Zalia had, but a type that all plants shared. She had felt it, even helped create it, but didn’t have control over it like the Ancient of Life did. It made the plants in the city act as one being, working with each other to form a strong ecosystem. It was the Ancient of Life that oversaw this ecosystem, ensuring that the trees lining the main roads of the town bore fruit, that the grass growing between the cobblestones thrived yet did not overtake everything, that the vines climbing the buildings supported the structures rather than slowly break them apart. It was the work of the three ancients together that allowed so much life, plants, animals and people to thrive together rather than slowly destroy each other.
Up amongst the branches of this tree, Zalia used her mental communication to talk to the tree, telling it of what she needed. She could have just used Healing Presence and Natural Matter Alteration to create what she wanted, but found it better to ask the tree to change of its own accord.
When it was done creating what she asked for, Zalia spent some time walking about, planting a few choice herbs and making slight alterations. She tried her best to keep it as uncluttered as possible, wanting the space to remain open.
When she was done, she flew back down to their house below and waited. It had been a few hours yet Aylie was still asleep. They had stayed up talking quite late the night before.
When Aylie finally awoke, Zalia waited for her to eat breakfast before showing her what she had made.
They stood in Aylie’s room as Zalia pulled a small ritual from her vault. She had prepared this beforehand, creating the correct ritual on a little wooden plate that could be moved. After placing it in the corner of Aylie’s room, Zalia activated it and gestured for Aylie to step through.
Zalia followed her through to the platform high above the sounds and smells of the town below. It was a round section of rough but flat bark ten metres across. She had planted the portal at one edge, now linked to Aylie’s bedroom below. In the centre of the space were two seats like trunks with soft leaves forming a comfortable place to sit. There were small trees around the platform, along with railings at the edges. All of it had a pattern of translucent Soulroot planted throughout, forming an active ritual. The ritual wasn’t something that you felt immediately but the longer Zalia stayed in the space, the more she felt… connected.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“What is all this?” Aylie asked in a whisper.
They could see incredibly far from this high up, the lands around them visible far into the distance.
“I told you that I’d help you work through this soul thing last night and I meant it. I thought I’d make a place for us to do that, just you and me.”
Aylie was staring at the Soulroot like she had started to feel what it was doing.
Zalia went and sat on one of the stumps, crossed her legs and waited. Aylie sat opposite her, then closed her eyes.
This would be the hard part.
Making this place had been easy, a simple and clear way of showing that she meant her words. Figuring out what the change Aylie had gone through meant was another thing entirely and Zalia had no idea where to start.
Souls were not her specialty and Aylie probably knew a lot more about it than she did. She knew that they didn’t exist on the astral normally, as one of Aylie’s abilities made it so that part of hers existed there. If part of Zalia’s also did, then she would be able to do some of the things Aylie could. So, she supposed Aylie might not know more about it than Zalia did, considering it was the astral, the realm of thought, that Aylie had experience working with.
So where did the soul normally exist?
The obvious answer was in the body, as she knew it could be damaged by some abilities or the overuse of mana and passives. Aylie could even heal souls with the once per day use active that her Healing Presence had developed. Whether that was right or not though, she didn’t know.
“Alright Aylie. I was able to feel that something about you has changed but does it feel different to you?”
Aylie nodded.
“Okay, describe that feeling for me.”
Aylie hesitated, then started speaking.
“It’s like… there used to be three parts of me, my body, my mind and my soul. Now it feels like there's only two, my mind and… my soul and body aren’t two different things anymore.”
She saw Aylie shiver, her eyes still closed.
“Alright. How about the part of your soul that is still in the astral, can you still feel that?”
Aylie nodded.
“And you can touch the astral still?”
Aylie nodded again.
“So it doesn’t stop her abilities from working at least.”
Then Aylie frowned.
“I can feel it better now though, it’s almost as if I can…”
Aylie reached her hand forward and pulled on… something. It was like she grabbed an invisible curtain and pulled it over her body, her body that vanished as she did so.
Zalia jumped up in alarm, staring at where Aylie had been.
“Aylie!?” she called.
There was no response.
She looked around but couldn’t feel or see anything. Then she felt a touch on her mind, like someone had brushed her thoughts with a hand. It was her turn to shiver.
Used to the action of mental communication through her magic, Zalia tried to open her mind to Aylie’s touch and words flowed in.
“I’m still here, Zalia.”
The thoughts entering her mind had a sense of panic but also excitement to them. Where previously it had just been Aylie’s soul that had been sent to the astral by the Astar, it was now her entire body that went there.
“Can you get back?”
“I don’t know how!”
This time, the sense of panic was much greater.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way. Hold on, I’ll get Lumen up here, they might be able to help.”
“Alright.”
The thought was wavering, fear obvious.
Zalia sent a thought down to Lumen who responded immediately, appearing out of the portal moments later.
“I saw that thought…”
“Alright Aylie, can you see Lumen?”
“I can.”
They knew that Lumen had a way of solidifying things on the astral from their time back in the mists and Zalia was hoping that it would help now.
“Alright Aylie, try to grab onto the same thing you did before. Pull it open and step through.”
There was a moment of nothing before Aylie appeared again, as if she pulled the curtain of the world back and stepped through.
Aylie stared at her for just a moment before laughing, almost manically.
“Oh, gods. I was in the astral. Entirely.”
Zalia put a hand to her head, looking up and letting out a sigh of relief.
“Please don’t do that again for the moment.”
Aylie nodded in agreement.
“I don’t plan to, don’t worry.”
They both sat back down and Zalia found she felt exhausted. Too much emotional turmoil.
“What was it like?” she found herself asking.
Aylie looked thoughtful.
“... different, this time. When the Astar separated my body and soul, it was like a piece of me had been ripped away. This time it was like my whole being was finally in the same place for the first time ever.”
Zalia shook her head in amazement.
“What did you do? How did you do it?”
“A part of me is still there, I just… stepped over to it. Then there was nothing left of me here so I couldn’t step back. Lumen let me feel the barrier though, so I just did the same thing I did the first time and came back. I think… I think I might have been able to do this before, when I gained the ability to touch the astral, I just only figured it out. I think that I’ll be able to do it without Lumen here, with practice. Now that I know what to do.”
Zalia hugged Aylie close.
“You, are amazing.”