I carefully padded my way through the library hallways, making sure I didn’t cross paths with a sister or mother as I went. To reach the master, I hazard a guess that he would be in the library somewhere, if not in his office.
“Psst. Two-leg’s git.”
I paused my strides and skewed my heard about to see where the high-pitched and grainy voice was coming from.
“Stupid two-legs, down here.”
I looked down and saw Wolf perched before my feet.
“Wolf, what?” I growled and raised my foot with a threat to stomp on his head.
The skirrat’s whisker's twitched and his snout curled up with something of a sarcastic scowl at my question. It skirted around my foot, looking unfazed by my empty threat. Likely because he knew I couldn't hurt him without bringing trouble to myself. I placed my foot down and crouched low to be on his level.
“Chet, follow me.” He huffed and turned around, giving my ankle a light whip from its stringy tail.
My eyebrows twitched with irritation as I followed the critter through narrow gaps between library shelves and columns, climbed up to a ledge where it was just wide to fit the width of my body and dusty as hell.
“Ah, ah, choo!” I tried to stifle my sneezes and froze as a couple of sisters acknowledged it with the words, “Bless you.”
“Hurry up. So slow like slug.” Wolf grumbled; annoyed that I was too slow for his liking.
I waited for the sisters to return to their book sorting, before carefully crawling along the ledge and around a corner to the start of the roof beams and arched rafters of the glass hallway. My heart went for sprints when I saw the tops of Sister Branwyn and Mother Emorgen’s heads. They were strolling toward the other exit.
“I tell you, Mother, that Neven girl has to go. She’s dangerous.” Sister Branwyn expressed her genuine thoughts about me.
“I’m well aware, Sister Branwyn. As the Master is vouching for her, we certainly can’t get rid of her without some way to explain the loss,” Mother Emorgen said with a scheming tone.
“Then what shall we do?”
“She and that Edde are teaching those henchmen sign language, right?” A devious grin twitched the corner of the mother’s mouth.
She whispered words I couldn’t hear.
Sister Branwyn giggled. “Mother Emorgen, you wouldn't dare to gossip that the influence of a degenerate Numoir heart would be affecting these girls’ honor.”
“Is it that hard to imply? They're impressionable and have a prior history with those boys. The seeds wouldn’t take much to sow. When the others turn against them, the master will have no choice but see them expelled.”
“Sheeze. Are you coming or not? Hurry up!” Wolf squeaked at me with his impatience from the other end of a beam.
“Did you hear that?” Sister Branwyn glanced about the hallway and turned her head up toward the rafters I was perched on.
I carefully scooted around a beam and gathered everything toward my chest. My heart nearly stopped when a small shower of dust fell down behind the good mother's back. I held my breath. My body began to sweat, as I found my balance wobbly on the narrow cross-beam between a set of rafters. Fortunately, I was able to hold onto another beam to keep me stable.
“Just walk away.” I chanted in my head.
Sister Branwyn’s attention lingered on the rafters before dismissing them and returning her gaze to the mother.
“Just another skirrat on an errand. But let’s not dally.” Mother Emorgen dismissed the interference.
From the corner of my eye, I spied Sister Branwyn sigh and make for the door. A short while later they were gone. I sighed with relief and the trouble I had narrowly avoided. That stupid skirrat.
“Wolf! Yah nearly got me in trouble!” I huffed at him, feeling my heart ease into a normal rhythm again.
His tail impatiently swept along the beam as he waited for me. “Hurry up, slug.”
“One day I’m really gonna roast yah.” I grumbled as I carefully crawled to the other side and dropped to the door.
When I checked that the coast was clear, I snuck into the entrance foyer and scurried after Wolf, who had disappeared through a cloth door I had yet to go through myself. Where was this pest taking me? I hurried down a short flight of stairs and found myself outside.
“Woah!” I blurted when I slipped on rock and litter of rubble. And nearly went sliding off a cliff, which overlooked a steep and bottomless drop.
The wind was fierce and pushed at my body. It took all my strength to cling to the climber vines running over the craggy rock wall. No wonder I wasn't ordered to come here. The area was nothing but a narrow and unmanned precipice, but the view was something else.
I scrambled to a safer ledge near the corner and assumed a moment to catch my breath. As I stared out to the vast valley below, I spied the gemstone ring. From this distance, I could tell the stones were actually six towering pillar stalagmites of distinct minerals: moonstone, clear quartz, red jasper, hematite, jade and tiger eye. I frowned when I noticed an odd shift in their positions. They weren't aligned in a perfect circle but formed to make a more meaningful array.
“Six Star Array. No wonder, The Zone’s chi can be in harmony.” My heart raced as the knowledge spilled out of my mouth.
Somehow, I know that the Six Star Array was also known as the Heart Array. This formation was not only ideal for chi purification to empower magic, it could also cast a perfect barrier around a vast coverage. So, these pillars were more than for show. While they stood strong and solid, The Zone was protected from external impacts. The jade river and background waterfall amplified the array’s power, ensuring the barrier wouldn’t wane. While the tourmaline sky purified and recycled the chi for everyone’s benefit.
“Nature is amazing. Anyway, why the hell am I here?” I scratched my head.
“Stupid, lazy, two-legs! Hurry up!” Wolf's voice carried over the canyon.
“Bah! Stop ordering me about, rat!” I snapped at it.
“When you can speak right and stop looking stupid, I stop ordering.” Wolf answered back.
I heard his scampering over rocks, and carefully picked my way along the ledge to follow; entering into an unkept garden of sorts.
“Um, now what?” I scratched my head.
The only reason I followed Wolf was because I felt he would lead me to the master, and doing so would give me a plausible excuse for not doing the training. But I wasn’t expecting this small, messy courtyard where the withered brier branches caused a dangerous tangle among wild growing weeds and lichen variations of lime greens, aqua blues, brownish yellows, whites and deep greens. Lichen thrived over the dead branches, cracked pavements and stones. From the vague outline of stone benches and tables, I guessed the area was a private garden at one stage. But now just a wasted area. My eyes realized the lichen grew abundantly everywhere and hazard a strong guess.
“Aah, this might be the master's favorite spot.” I clapped my hands and nodded.
Wolf sighed and perched on what was left of a mossy stone bench.
“Stop dawdling.”
I huffed and stayed put, folding my arms over my chest with an expression of defiance.
“Are yah bringing me to the master or what?”
The skirrat’s whiskers and eyebrows twitched with something of a sigh.
“Just hurry up.”
There seemed to be an urgent tone to his voice. If that was the case.
“Oh? It’s clear yah in more of a rush than me.” I smugly responded with a cocky grin on my face.
Wolf bared his fangs then lowered them and something of a whistle came out.
“I was told to bring you there as quick as possible. So I do the job.”
“By whose orders?”
“Ugh. Just come. I was told not to tell until you got there.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“So, it's not the master.”
“I can’t say.”
I rubbed my chin with a thought. Knowing what I did of the skirrat, there would’ve been some food benefits for him.
“How much ganmodoki do yah get?”
Wolf twitched and fidgeted on the spot. “Just hurry up.”
“Wolf?” I raised one eyebrow as I looked down on him.
“Five.”
“No wonder. Okay, if yah take me to the master first, I’ll add one more to the tally.”
Wolf huffed. “You’re just like a worker. What food can you get?”
“I’m special to the master, right?” I raised my hands with confidence in my gesticulation. “So, of course, that will earn me easy food benefits.”
Wolf wavered before reluctantly stating his terms. “You go here first, I take you straight away for three.”
“But I’ll be gone for a while longer than I should be. That will cause some trouble and explaining. Half.”
“Stupid two-legs, you’re with me. I can say I was taking you to the master. Two and a half.”
I sighed and shook my head, noticing the skirrat’s twitchy tail and agitation. “But I trusted yah blindly, and now yah betrayed my expectations of trust. Thus, wounding my innocent heart. One.”
Wolf fretted on the spot. He checked a head of us, then climbed the branch next to my shoulder to be at my level.
“You didn’t ask, so I can’t be to blame because you assumed. Two and three quarters.”
“That means yah doing a bad job as a messenger. I’ll tell the others that yah deliver half messages. And we all know that can cause troubles. How important will yah be to the master then? One.”
“Fine! Go here first. Then I take you to master and help explain.” He growled and scurried off the branch.
I nodded. Naturally, I wasn’t liking the situation. After eavesdropping on the sister and mother's conversation, I wasn't keen to add fuel to their fire. But I was curious and if the master wasn’t calling for me, who was. I followed him into a cozy cave, where the walls were carpeted with lichen to make a multicolored wonder. A warm and gentle light pulsated around the area.
“I wait outside,” he grumbled and scampered out of the area.
“Daughter of Marsilien. We meet again.” The melodic, feminine voice sailed around my ears like it was coming off the walls.
The cave’s light swelled to make the area one blinding energy. But my eyes weren’t burning. On the contrary, I felt my body and chi being purified.
“My lichen of this cave eat the contamination from external forces. It will help nutrify your ego’s energies and strengthen your mana.”
I gasped when the lichen began peeling itself off the ground and walls to form a yellowish-blue figure. A woman stood before me. Well, one made of lichen in a complex arrangement to make her almost resemble a human if it weren't for her patchy skin coloring.
“Um, so this nutrify process…” I scratched my head, wondering what she had meant but it, and hoping it wasn’t harmful.
She nodded, making her auburn shades of long, leafy, hair sway against her narrow, twiggy, shoulders.
“My lichen family will both enrich and protect you as you absorb their harvested chi. This chi can help stabilize the magic in your body.”
I scratched my head. “Um, who are yah. Did yah bring me here for this?”
I yelped when she zoomed up to my face, so I could see the white lichen within her eyes.
“We don't have much time. The black herensuge is pressing their way into The Zone. We can't let them absorb nutrients from this place.”
We? I raised my hand to pause her randomly dropped action plan. And took a step back. “Okay. Firstly, who are yah and why are yah calling me Marsilien?”
The lichen lady stepped back and clasped her hands in a formal pose, so I saw more of the branches and roots that formed her bones, limbs and structure of her flowing blue-greenish gown.
“You can call me Eve. I've been watching you since the river. Thanks to my lichen friends, I was able to follow.”
I frowned and remembered Kalia’s word about something upsetting the rock’s chi back in the corridors.
“Were yah the one who was stirring up the chi in the corridor just before we got here?”
Eve tilted her head with thought then nodded. “The residents have been kind to me, as they don't have spirit guardians of their own.”
My mind had arrived to a conclusion of what Eve was. “So, yah a sprite?”
She nodded again. “Specifically, I’m a wood sprite guardian. There are also sky, fire and water. Being a ‘guardian’ allows me the freedom to roam. Unlike normal sprites that are bound to a fixed area. To repay the residents, I’ve agreed to help them fight the herensuge headed this way.”
Her voice darkened with tones at the last words.
“What's a herensuge?”
The lichen around her dress and hands became agitated and unsteady. In deed, the cave assumed a tense atmosphere for a fleeting moment. She was calm after some steady breaths.
“The herensuge is a warped guardian who had seeded a pact with a corrupted and rotten branch, or genus as your kind would call it. This pact makes them only hungry to steal power and absorb chi without care for lives. So, they are constantly seeking out magic energies to eat. The only way to deal with them is elimination.”
“What has that got to do with me?” I folded my arms over my chest with a dour expression.
“I followed you to be here. So, you have a pact with me. This also makes you obligated to help. But, the herensuge is still a guardian, so their bones carry chi words that can help increase a magis mana formation.”
“Chi words?” My eyes widened with interest.
Eve nodded and explained that all guardians were unique, as they could imprint chi words on their bones. These were words contained memories of the spirit’s skill and wisdom. If a magis was to absorb the words directly off the bone within the first hour of a guardian’s death, they could learn new skills and wisdom to enrich their own mana and spirit in leaps and bounds.
“Humph. If that were the case, I won’t be the only one going for the bones.” I scoffed, envisioning a magical bloodbath happening over the carcass.
“Likely. You would need to have the ability. Anyway, it still doesn’t change the fact that you have to help.”
“Hala. So yah dragging other people into yah mess is what I’m hearing. What makes yah think I can do anything to help? Yah the one that makes a dress out of lichen here.” I still wasn’t convinced.
And something about this Eve was making me want to test her. I felt like I couldn’t be submissive with here or that would cause me troubles later on.
Her form lingered for a while before she responded with, “I'm of the understanding your male friends need to seed a pact with their Kretchin.”
Humph. So, she was changing tactics. If one thing spoke clearly to me was the fact she was determined I could help her. If that was the case, she definitely was more than aware of my magic and likely the levels it could go to. More that I did. I mean, I didn’t even know what constituted level one for my ability. So, if she was the wiser, that was all the more reason for me to be cautious around her.
“And?”
“I can arbitrate between the two species for mutual negotiations.”
The yellow lichen of her form emitted a bright glow. I couldn’t tell if she was boosting or excited by the fact.
“Yah can do that?”
“I can. As guardians, we can level directly with various dermaleech families.”
“Okay. Still, why’d yah think I can help yah? I could get killed first go. Unless, that’s what yah want me to be” My eyes narrowed at the thought.
She chuckled. “That master is right. You're very cautious. But I already knew this, since I’ve been with you for some time.”
My heart nearly stopped. Of course, if she had been following me since the river, she’s basically been sticking around my whole life as I know it. And I wondered if she knew me before then.
“Do yah know my name? And don’t tell me it's this daughter of Marsilien crap. I feel it ain't.”
She flashed me a knowing smile, or maybe it was a condescending one. Either gave me the same effect. Her smile and form dampened when she said her next words to return to her aims.
“The herensuge is after the power of the God Star Formation. What do you think will happen to this place if they succeed?”
I signed and eased my expression, mulling over her words. So, I was right. That gemstone ring was a naturally formed Six Star Array. Fine. I was convinced enough to her cause, which seemed to genuinely wanted to help protect the life of this place.
“What do I need to do?”
Her form became vibrant and warm. I took this as a sign of being happy with my commitment.
“Sit in the middle here. Cross your legs and copy my form.”
She sat down, so her branch limbs were crossed and held her arms before her chest. One hand was pointed upright, with the base of her wrist balanced on the other hand’s, which was pointed downward. I nodded and copied.
“Close your eyes and feel the chi’s call. Allow the energies to flow into you, then absorb their power.”
My eyes closed and mind opened. Rather than sort and restrict my thoughts, I allowed them to come and go at will. They made a chaotic arrangement until they became one big blurry blot. I imagined wiping the blot away until my mind was a clean slate. My being was plunged into a state of Mushin. The internal emptiness allowed a gathering of chi to flow into me and enrich pivotal points of my joints and organs. The chi’s flow felt cool and refreshing, uplifting my spirits.
“Good, now absorb the lichen’s blessings. You will know them by the feeling, which you need to integrate into your mana.”
I took a few breaths to steady my flow, and changed the course in some channels to push some of the energy along. Moving my hands into a new pattern, allowed chi to flow into other access points until my body was being saturated with the raw power. But, I had to be careful not to allow too much in and overwhelm my nervous system.
“Focus on the lichen. Their color and scent.”
Eve’s voice soothed my energies and gave me an anchor for the energy. A velvety, warm and fresh feeling swelled throughout my body. It left a tingling trail through my nervous system. I moved my hands in a pattern to control the flow to a point I felt was core within me. When I felt my mana was full of the power, I sealed off the access points and energy channels with my hand movements.
“Wow.” I breathed as I felt my mind slip out of Mushin, and control over my body resume a normal state.
I opened my eyes and saw a yellow-black energy empower my aura around my hands for a fleeting moment.
“Good. You're ready for when the herensuge arrives.”
I let out a wry laugh. “Sprite lady. Yanno, I haven't trained in magic, so…”
She abruptly rose and extended a hand to help me up.
“On the contrary.” She stopped my doubts. “Your instincts carry the skill. Just like now when you were able to absorb the chi. It will make you realize when the time comes.”
I shook my head. It still all felt random. But if a wood guardian wanted to be my friend, who was I to argue. For now, at least, she wouldn't be a threat to me.
“I guess I should thank you then.” I glanced around the cave. “Now, where’s that rat?”