Grey and Jonathan were walking towards the campsite from the Elder tree. As the two reached the camp, Jonathan let out a small whistle.

“Wow, what happened here?” he asked while looking around the camp with his hands on his hips.

Jonathan noticed Grey had stopped walking, so he turned back to look at her, expecting a frosty stare and a sarcastic quip. Her expression caused him to stop in his tracks, unsure of what was happening. She looked white as a ghost and about as confused as a person could get without a head injury. She was staring at him with wide eyes and an emotion he had never seen before, its cause and meaning lost on him.

Grey turned her head to see something past him, and her eyes went even wider as an audible gasp escaped her throat. She quickly connected to her natural magic, not using her runes, and lifted Drock in the air away from the leftover amplification spell in the center of camp. She locked the spell in place with a strong seal, which held him aloft, then gasped for breath from the shock of what had almost happened … again. After a moment, she seemed to calm down, and her color returned.

Jonathan was utterly bewildered, his thoughts racing. Why overact about a simple amplification spell? Why is she staring at me like that? Why didn’t she use her runes? He had so many questions and didn’t know where to begin, but Grey spoke before he could voice any of them.

“You … you don’t remember what happened … do you?” She asked shakily.

With Elder trees talking to him and Guardians popping out of invisible highways, Jonathan was getting used to the unusual. However, Grey acting this way without her runes flaring into life was unnerving him.

“Remember? Remember what?” he finally got out.

She didn’t respond at first. She looked down at the ground, puzzled, thoughtful, and a little withdrawn. After a moment, she seemed to have made a decision.

“You … saved me, Jon,” she said as she walked up to him steadily.

She grabbed his head and pulled his face down to kiss him. Neither of them had kissed another person in a very long time, and although he was thoroughly confused, Jonathan kissed her back with surprising ease. He was such an awkward person regarding conversation and tact that it was easy for him to dismiss thoughts like how attractive Grey was. From her beautiful red hair, passion for research and facts, and fiery personality, he had always enjoyed her company.

After a moment, memories began flooding into his mind, recounting all of the details of what had happened over those terrible few minutes. The memory was told from the perspective of Grey yet was recounted in the third person from above her head. He assumed this was some form of ability guardians possessed. He heard his mouth run with its typical sarcasm, causing the explosion that tore through the camp. He watched himself wake up, then put things together around him before running off to the camp and returning with Drock’s finger. He watched the ending play out, and then it was all gone.

Grey pulled away from Jonathan, a little out of breath from their kiss, and put her head on his chest to hide her blush. She was expecting to give him a simple “thank you” kiss and wasn’t expecting the response she had received or the escalation in return. She had also accidentally read Jonathan’s thoughts just before sharing her memories with him and was surprised at how excited his thoughts had made her. He was every bit as attractive as Jareth in her eyes, who she had dated in the past, but it was hard to see that over the walls he built around himself. She also had a lot of walls in place and wondered how they would navigate each other’s boundaries now that they had shared this moment.

Fortunately for Grey, she could postpone that conversation because Jonathan was reacting to the memory he had just relived. He pulled her away but kept his hands on her upper arms. Her hands were on his waist, but he didn’t seem to notice in his excitement and urgency.

“Wait, Grey … did that really happen?” he asked as she nodded quickly to assure him it was real. “So … really, it’s my fault. I didn’t save you … I fixed my mistake …”

The Grey that existed before those pivotal few minutes of erased time would have snapped at him, accusing him of twisting her words and altering her meaning, but those moments had changed her. A maturation had taken place in that battle for control, with more energy passing through her body than she thought possible. She waited for him to finish his thoughts.

“ … and I am so sorry for that mistake. I was careless with my tongue, like usual, and didn’t think past the arrogance of my own words or how they could impact those around me,” he finished.

Grey realized that letting Jonathan finish his thoughts was a good idea. He will still disappoint sometimes, but overall, he has others’ best interests at heart. She smiled as she realized how impossible such a conversation would have been for her old self. It was freeing to realize that she had finally moved past some of her hang-ups, and all it took was damaging a time stream and a near-death experience to open her eyes.

She pulled him in for another hug and softly said into his shoulder, “What matters is your actions once we were there.”

They held each other for a few more moments, enjoying the comfort of another’s touch, something they both had been without for many years. The moment stretched, and they both felt a semblance of peace come over them. Whether or not it would last was irrelevant because, at that moment, they needed one another to break down some of the walls they had built.

There was the noise of someone clearing their throat loudly, and they both turned to find Drock staring at them with a slight smile. He was no longer in the air, and there was no sign of the spell that Grey had cast to keep him suspended. Seeing real emotion on his face was more shocking to Jonathan than when Grey kissed him. There was a red glint in Drock’s eyes that had not been there before, and it was clear that Drock was no longer a soulless shell.

Jonathan released Grey and took a few steps toward Drock to get a closer look. Drock raised his hand, and a large root from the Elder tree lifted itself from the ground and separated them. Apparently, the roots spread much further than they thought.

“That is close enough, thank you … my friend,” Drock said in an all too familiar voice, accenting the title he had given Jonathan recently in the Great Road.

Drock noticed blood coming from the finger on his hand, which Jonathan had severed to recast the time-altering spell. He stared at it momentarily as if it was of little importance. Then lifted his other hand and grabbed the finger. After a moment, he let go, and the blood was gone, and the wound sealed. Drock looked surprised as if he was expecting a different result.

Jonathan was silent for quite some time, but he made no move to come closer to Drock, so the root sunk back into the earth without a trace. Jonathan noticed a small root sticking from the ground, wrapped around Drock’s leg. He realized the root was undoubtedly the access path for how the Elder tree had entered Drock’s body, and the constant touch meant it was most likely temporary. Jonathan was impossible to read as he quickly recalled his conversation with this entity in the Great Road. He remembered they had spent quite some time discussing how to summon Stein, which included the group's access to all the elements using the resources they had among them. Then they discussed the Great Road and how it was used to relay messages or consciousnesses if needed.

Another part of the conversation suddenly stood out to Jonathan, the part right before Stein had been brought up. The entity had expressed curiosity and the desire to learn of the mortals in this new modern age and how they had changed. So, Jonathan had discussed their party in great detail, going over each race and how they connected, and Grey and her new stewardship. They had even discussed Drock, the soulless shell of a human created by Ultaris to house his time-altering spell.

Jonathan could see now that it had all been a trap. Stein had been a distraction to lower their guard, maybe an unwitting one, but still a distraction. He had been so excited about finding and freeing a guardian, bringing them one step closer to their goals, that he had overlooked the obvious. The tree had undoubtedly hoped the rest of the party would bring Drock with them to investigate Jonathan’s absence. When they left him at the camp, the tree had to expand its roots to find him instead.

Jonathan knew they had been deceived, but he had no idea what the entity before him actually was. He didn’t know its name, motivation for leaving the body of the Elder tree, or why it still needed to be tethered to the tree. Jonathan angrily confronted Drock.

“It was you that killed Stein, hoping to take her body from her, like you had hoped to take mine from the familiar I had changed places with … instead, you were shackled with the guardian’s soul, preventing you from entering the dragon’s body. That is why you wanted us to draw Stein out of you. You were helping yourself all along!”

Drock Angrily replied, “You mortals are such manipulatable little things. I thought the Dardwain would see through me, but a title does such distractible wonders for your self-esteem. ‘Tree Speaker’ indeed. The Dardwain and their wick are a farce. Bumbling idiot who have no idea what nature truly is or its wants.” After a pause, he continued in a more neutral tone, “I was able to calm a human guardian in seconds, but it took me weeks to lull Stein into sleeping against one of my trees. Weak guardians do not bode well for the future of this world. The future … now that is an ironic statement coming from the mouth of this body, wouldn’t you say?”

Drock didn’t wait for an answer. “Oh, and I did take her body from her for quite some time, but it was her soul that made the body immortal. Without her, the body started to deteriorate. I quickly accomplished my goals, then tried to return to the Great Road, but Stein and I somehow merged when I returned.”

“What goals?” Jonathan asked.

“Is this where I spill all my secrets to justify your ignorance? I have been waiting a long time for this freedom, and I’m not wasting time fixing your mental puzzle of events. Now say goodbye to her, and I’ll be on my way,” Drock replied.

“Say goodbye?” Grey asked in feigned surprise as she moved forward a few paces. She wanted to get closer to Jonathon and knew that reacting in fear and surprise to a threat was expected by the one making the threat. However, she didn’t want Drock to feel threatened and raise his root barrier again, so she stopped a pace behind Jonathan, making sure he still held the majority of Drock’s attention.

“Yes, I told Jonathan he would be safe once he helped free me from Stein, and I will uphold my end of the bargain. You, on the other hand, I have no bargain with, and I need another’s soul to make the exchange. With your powers now drained, conveniently, I might add, you will do nicely,” Drock replied as if he was discussing the weather and not consuming her soul.

Jonathan realized Grey wasn’t using her runes, even unconsciously, like before. He remembered that she also hadn’t used her runes to lift Drock away from the amplification spell, which was still burning in the center of the camp. He connected the dots and realized the time spell must have drained her completely. He attempted to communicate mentally with Grey, or Jareth and Izreea, at the top of the hill but found a wall around his mind preventing him from communicating.

Grey decided to risk moving to Jonathan’s side and was thankful that Drock didn’t raise his root barrier. They needed the space between them to remain clear for when they made their move. She handed Jonathan the green runed staff, which he didn’t remember dropping when they had kissed, and grabbed his other hand. She smiled up at him as if he were her protector, her demeanor meek and passive to the casual observer but with a dangerous glint in her eye. It would have made Jonathan laugh if the situation wasn’t so precarious.

Jonathan felt something hard touch the palm of the hand Grey was holding, and he quickly realized it was the hilt of one of her daggers. She wasn’t handing it to him. She was letting him know she had it and was ready to use it. Then, Jonathan remembered her incredible hand-to-hand combat skills, something the warlocks had taught her. He realized that he was the distraction, and she was the hidden blade. He just hoped she knew what she was doing. Drock needed to stay alive.

“We aren’t defenseless,” Jonathan said threateningly, lifting the green runed staff Grey had handed him.

Drock laughed softly, “Your magic is pitiful. You try to command the arcane to bend to your will, but I am the arcane. I am the will. Now your staff, on the other hand, is a little annoying, but …” Drock waved his hand in the air, and movement could be heard on the top of the hill by the Elder tree as if a dozen tree branches were wrapping around themselves, creaking and groaning as the wood bent without breaking. “…fight me, and your family will die. For now, they are only trapped, but that can change.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“You just said you were going to kill Grey, so you’ll kill my family anyway, regardless of my actions,” Jonathan said, more as a distracting conversation than an actual tactic to change Drock’s mind.

“Are you saying we need another bargain for the lives of your brother and his wife?” Drock asked mockingly, barely pausing for Jonathan to nod in agreement. “The problem is you have nothing that I want. You see, that’s how this works, bargains, that is. There is a give and take, and I’m not seeing my take in any of this. I have what I want already.”

Jonathan was tired of Drock’s silver tongue and arrogant demeanor. He wanted to attack but felt Grey holding his arm back, encouraging him to continue their game of cat and mouse.

“What about our runed weapons? Would they be something you would want?” Jonathan asked halfheartedly, not interested in the answer.

There was a look of absolute revulsion on Drock’s face as if the mere thought of touching the runed weapons made him physically ill. He started to gag, then looked surprised and laughed out loud as he gagged again.

“Ha-ha! Is this your bodies- huuuuh, physical response- huuuuh, to disgust?” Drock asked enthusiastically, putting his hand over his mouth and leaning over as he dry-heaved through his laughter. “It burned to touch the runes before, bu- huuuuh, but adding a stomach to the sensat-.”

Grey attacked in a fluid motion, dashing forward in what would have been a fast human but not as fast as a guardian. She swirled through roots that burst from the earth to bar her path. Some would have hit her, but Jonathan had begun casting spells, hardening flows of air around her to redirect dirt and roots, bending them narrowly so they missed her body. With a sideways roll in the air, Grey landed at Drock’s feet and sliced the root from his ankle. The red light immediately faded from Drock’s eyes, and his usual lifeless expression settled on his face again.

The ground around them exploded as roots lashed around, trying to hit them but without the force needed to kill them. Clearly, the Elder tree wanted Drock alive, so its attempts to injure them were restrained to repairable damage. It was also clear that the Elder tree couldn’t see them, as it had no eyes. The roots stopped thrashing and lay flat on the ground. For a moment, Jonathan thought the tree had given up, but then dozens of tiny root tendrils started growing and expanding from the large roots, reaching along the ground in all directions, seeking them out.

Jonathon and Grey knew they had to keep themselves and Drock away from the tendrils. The moment a root touched one of them, the Elder tree would know if they were Drock. If the roots touched Drock, the tree would regain its vision, and the fight would become much more difficult. If it touched one of them, they would instantly be targeted, and this time the tree wouldn’t hold back.

There was a commotion from the top of the hill that sounded like a battle. Jareth, Izreea, and Stein must also be under attack from the circle of roots at the top of the hill. He was worried about them as they had to deal with significantly stronger roots and many more of them. Jonathan had to put them out of his mind as he jumped to avoid a root slowly sweeping the ground around them. He landed, and the root quickly changed direction towards the vibration of his landing.

Jonathan wished he was a bird again for the first time since regaining his body. Then, walls and barriers within his mind crumbled all at once, unlocking the memories of when the familiar had possessed his body. The Elder tree had said the memories were there, but he didn’t form the original memories, so he had to gain access to them somehow. Regardless of its current deadly actions, the entity appeared to be telling the truth.

Years living among the dardwain instantly flowed into his mind, including their lessons and spells. Admiration and respect for their connection with nature were included in those memories of their stories, legends, and history. The familiar had believed those stories enough to seek out an Elder tree and the Great Road as a possible means to restore its body. The familiar had carved runes from the astral plane, its home, into the bark of the Elder tree to communicate with it.

The Elder Tree was restrained from helping because the guardian it had merged with had trapped them within the Great Road, but it agreed to help if they were separated. At first, the familiar was willing to help, but there was one more catch; the Elder tree wanted Jonathan’s body for itself when the familiar was free of it. The familiar in Jonathan’s body refused the deal but promised to help the Elder tree if it could. The familiar had left the runes carved into the tree as a marker, allowing the Elder tree to sense when the familiar had returned. The Great Road connected all Elder trees, so the runes on one tree allowed the creature in the Great Road to sense Jonathan and use its pollen to entice him into communicating.

Jonathan turned to check on Grey and Drock as he ran away from the moving roots. Grey had removed her shoes and was effortlessly leaping over roots, landing softy to limit her vibrations. She had also cast a spell to lift Drock in the air, but she had done that before, and the roots had somehow found him, so Jonathan wasn’t sure how much time that would buy them. He also knew he wasn’t as agile as Grey.

A tendril touched his ankle, and roots as thick as his arm shot out fast enough to impale a horse. Jonathan acted instinctually with his restored memories and leaped into the air, transforming into a hummingbird as he dodged before taking an aerial position above Grey.

There was a significant difference between the body he had turned into and the familiar’s body he had possessed before. He couldn’t teleport through the astral plane, he couldn’t speak, and he couldn’t cast other spells. He wanted to curse at these limitations, and an old memory of the familiar realizing those limitations the first time he turned into a bird bubbled up to mock him.

Grey watched Jonathan take off into the sky and put him out of her mind. Her old self would have cursed him for abandoning her, but she let that thought go. It was logical as he was too clumsy to dodge the roots on foot, and she knew he was doing everything he could to help with what skills he had. He was also worried about his brother and Izreea and knew Grey could care for herself.

She heard a loud noise and turned to see the green runed staff fall to the earth where Jonathan had stood moments before. The roots felt the vibration and attacked but quickly recoiled when they touched the weapon. Grey made a series of deft tumbles and scooped the staff into her hands. She felt the runes' power and familiarity with the guardian runes she usually had on her body. Her runes had been drained of power since the time-altering incident, but she was still a guardian and knew how to handle their runes of power.

The roots purposefully avoided the area Grey was in, thanks to their memory of the staff’s touch, and she felt safe for a moment. She closed her eyes and connected with the staff, asking permission to use its power. If she still had her own runes of power, she could have forced her way through and used the life runes anyway, but she wasn’t strong enough without them. There wasn’t a response right away, but after a moment, Grey felt the Guardian of Life’s presence projected from a great distance. Life inspected the situation and immediately granted her permission, along with the impression of luck and encouragement, then she was gone.

Grey bonded with the staff, linking her guardian powers with the runes, and realized she had two choices. She could drain the staff of its energy and restore a tiny amount of her powers or use the power of Life through the staff. Grey decided the revulsion the Elder tree had displayed through Drock was important and decided to stick with the staff.

She realized that Jareth had been using the staff crudely, casting simple spells like thorns and vines as if the staff was a simple energy source. It wasn’t his fault; he acted like a human mage manipulating arcane energy. The true power of the runes was in its language. She spoke the language of lightning and its power and was given permission to speak the language of life. She wanted to know what was really going on before this went any further.

“Rechan, kreatin don Oltere Strabe. Erkloran Dain Hundlang!” Grey shouted, using the authority of Life’s runes to command the creature of the old road to explain its actions. She plunged the staff into the closest root, using its authority to hold the creature fast so it couldn’t withdraw from the staff.

Grey was instantly in the Great Road. The endless, wallless tunnel stretched before her with the same green tint to everything. Her clothing had transformed into the white robes people wore when their consciousness traveled the Great Road, but she was covered in runes from head to toe. The runes had a blue border like her lightning runes but were filled in the center with the same color green as the air around her. The rune pattern meant she acted on the authority of Life as a representative of her powers but was not the guardian of Life herself.

She turned and found Drock staring at her. It wasn’t the real Drock, merely an image presented for conversation. She assumed the creature’s recent experience occupying Drock’s body was why it had chosen this image to converse with. It was probably better than speaking to the air, a root, or the image of a small tree. Drock’s eyes were livid with anger and madness.

“Your authority is thin indeed, Guardian of Lightning. Lebine alone could command me, and you are not she. I ended her life ages ago,” Drock snarled.

Grey was surprised at the use of Life’s true name but hid it well before responding, “You may have ended her dragon body, but here I am in her name, halting your assault and commanding this dialogue. You are still within her power.”

“My confrontation with you may be paused, but your friends are another matter. You may want to speed this up if you wish to help them. Now, what do you want?”

“To understand. You killed Stein for her body and trapped her here, tricked the other elemental guardians into betraying their leader, orchestrated the battle between Sterben and Lebine, and essentially created revenants as a byproduct. I won’t lay Ultaris’ grief-stricken decision at your feet, he should have known better, but you again threaten this world with your actions … why?”

“I detest this game, but I am compelled to answer, if briefly. I was Life’s first creation and set to replace her when her job was finished. I was to be the new ‘mother’ of this world. The Great Road was for my mind to touch each Elder tree as a means of communicating with Life’s creatures all across the world. News could be spread, instructions given, and crises diverted through speaking to me. I would be granted all the guardian’s stewardships, essentially becoming the soul of the world.

“Then the plan changed, and the guardians never left. Do you understand? The guardians were not meant to stay here! They were to restore the world, create homeostasis, then leave it in MY care through the network of trees …” Drock had tears streaming down his face as he angrily slapped his chest with his passion, “… but I was no longer needed. I was to be recycled, turned back into the gears of creation to be spat out as a new creature with a new purpose. Lebine told Sterben to do her job, so Sterben sterilized my seeds, knowing I would die out in time. Then they both walked away.

“I sat here for eons, unable to communicate or move my roots. I felt the Dardwain use my trees as homes. They tried to repair the seeds … but only made it worse. They destroyed entire forests attempting to repair the damage, then they gave up and moved on. Sometime after Lebine’s demise, after I was trapped with Stein in the Great Road, I felt the kanidians cutting into the remaining tree’s bark like a carving post.

“Then, one day, a little bird trapped in a man’s body appeared. His simple mind had been enhanced enough to cause him to do something incredible … but also stupid. To facilitate communication with me, he carved astral runes into my bark, something this world had never seen before. The otherwordly runes gave me the strength to regain control of my trees and their roots.

“I knew that he would be the means to my freedom, and in a way, I was right. Oh, it isn’t the same entity, but it is the same body. He will remember in time that his actions facilitated my rise and the fall of those who would have me repressed,” Drock said at last, bowing slightly in mockery of his performance.

“So … all of this death, undeath, and destruction was revenge for being forgotten?” Grey asked.

“FORGOTTEN? I was not forgotten! I was sentenced to extinction through sterilization! Do you know how many trees are left? From countless masses of intertwining roots stretching from each end of the planet … to seven. As my trees fell one by one, I felt my impending doom creep up on me like water creeping up my body to drown me. Seven … and six of them covered in scars from kanidian blades, thinking a name on a tree will mean something to the restless dead.”

Grey was silent, feeling the sense of loss stretching from Drock and instinctively letting them grieve, forgetting about the horrible crimes they had confessed to. Suddenly Grey felt roots hovering around her body outside of the Great Road and knew she would be killed the moment her strength was gone. She looked down at her fading runes and saw she was running out of time. Then new knowledge came to her, a benefit of her connection and representation of Life. She abandoned her sympathies and pressed on.

“Your trees were too massive. Their canopy covered too much of the earth, preventing light from reaching the ground below and starving other plants. Each tree that fell nourished countless new life forms, from insects and small mammals consuming and living among the wood to the bacteria and fungi that crumbled the wood into soil. Then the plants that grew from its fertile compost allowed the tree to live on in other plants. Billions, if not more, survived and thrived because of the sacrifice of one small part of your network of trees. This is mortality, Mantorine, and you are not exempt from that influence.”

Upon hearing its true name, meaning “mentor,” Drock screamed in fury, and the green color within the Great Road tinted red.

“You cannot sit upon your throne of power and dictate who may live and die! Lebine …” Drock spat when he said her name, “… couldn’t end me, and neither will you!”

“You cannot take the lives of others because you deem them beneath you! So much hurt and suffering because of your actions … it is time your mortality was fully realized,” Grey said with fury and contempt.

Grey felt the last shred of the staff's power begin to fade. She started casting a spell while still in the Great Road. She locked eyes with Drock, who was smiling smugly, waiting for her powers, and mantel as the ambassador of Life to fade so he could strike. She was a breath away from casting the spell, creating a wall of fire around her body, when she realized it wasn’t enough. The spell wouldn’t be strong enough to save her from the living spikes around her. Then she remembered the amplification spell nearby. She used the last power of the staff to reach into the world where her body was, link the amplification spell to her fire spell, and let go of the staff, pulling her mind back into her body as she cast the spell.

The amplification spell took her simple wall of fire and turned it into the heat of a volcano, encircling her as a shield. The flame was intense, white-hot, and the small roots around her vaporized instantly. She dodged the larger spikes as they tried to strike, but it took only a moment for the inferno to evaporate the moisture in their system. They hissed in pain as they also evaporated.

Grey transferred the enhanced fire inferno to Drock, protecting him from the Elder Tree’s roots. The shield wouldn’t last long, but hopefully, it lasted long enough to reach Izreea and her runed scythes. They held the runes of several elements of power, and their combined strength should be enough to deal with Mantorine, or at least destroy this tree. She started sprinting up the hill towards the sound of creaking roots and waves of smoke.