Nekana walked down from her mountain, into the valley, making her way to the base of it where there were several ponds and a massive weeping willow. The snow faded; the winter never came to where the Moryshin was anymore. He said the cold made his joints ache too much.
He was sleeping among the roots, an eagle was watching over him, using his caelus affinity to keep things warm.
Nekana bowed, and he tipped his beak forward, nodding to her. She slowly laid down on the grass a respectful distance away, not willing to wake the ruler and central focus of them all. It gave her time to look at him, which just twisted the guilt in her heart. His spiral horn stuck from a forehead that was bony, the hollows above his eyes so deep it was unsettling. His ribs and spine stood out, patterned by white fur that was faded and dingy with bald spots. She closed her eyes. It was too easy to remember him from her youth. He was smaller than most mystics, as a unicorn, but the power he wielded made him seem larger than life. The bonds they formed were spiritual, but back then, also emotional. He had played with her when she was a pup, taught her about her magic, mentored her alongside all the young things from those years. He was a pillar of insurmountable strength.
Miri has never even met you directly, she thought, watching him sleep. She just gets the benefits of being born where you can reach her. It was hard to comprehend that thousand of years had passed since she was little. She closed her eyes and rested against the grass. It was really nice and warm here.
“Nekana, my dearest friend, we do not see each other enough lately,” he wheezed just as she was dozing off.
She lifted her head and opened her eyes, looking into the milky cataracts that covered almost all of his blue eyes. “My lord,” she said softly, “You are right; I do not come often.”
His milky, cataract covered eyes stared at her for a long moment, as if he would perceive something about her. “It was a tragic loss; I am sorry every day, but I know that you are sorry also. Please… come to me.”
“She is lost, but not dead. She’s out there somewhere, yes?” Nekana said brightly, less for her own sake than for his.
“But of no use to any of us,” he said with a sad wheeze as she stood up and slowly laid down next to him. He put his bony, fragile feeling head over her shoulders, cuddling with her in a way that made her feel how lonely he was lately. She closed her eyes. “And then your mate…”
“Yes, I miss him every day,” she agreed. She wished they were not reviewing her sorrows, but then again, she had withdrawn from everyone since the tragedies had multiplied in her life.
He wheezed out, “I cannot do anything. I can only hold on and wait for the Gods to give us a new path. But we lose on our loved ones.” His horn glimmered a little, as if he would like to go back in time and use his white healing magic to heal her lost mate. It flickered out.
I can barely stand this; it hurts so much. “Moryshin, my lord, I came to ask you a question. Can I ask you a question?” Can we not dwell on the past before I break?
“Anything, my dearest friend.”
“What happens to a human who survives the loss of their liana?”
He groaned and lifted his head, his joints popping. “It is not possible.”
Nekana felt a cold pang in her heart. He cannot sense Rosalea, or he would know exactly why I was asking. Has he really deteriorated so much? Every tree in this forest had once been eyes and ears for him; he was the living embodiment of the heart of the forest. Nekana lived under one of the biggest and eldest of the trees, but he he did not know what was happening there. “What if… it was?”
He snorted, which somehow also sounded wheezy. “It is not. The liana will always be stronger than the human; we are gifted of Gods: humans are tolerated of Gods.”
Nekana was afraid to push the issue with him; he seemed almost riled up by her ask. The topic suddenly veered to something new.
“I… regret my treaty, Nekana. I regret the promises I made. But I loved her. She was so sweet, and they promised me only to do the panning-thing…”
Nekana had not been there to see Elysia, an elf, protect the Moryshin from an imagined danger, but she had seen the consequences. The foolish, genuine act of bravery had moved him. Where no human race had ever been tolerated in the woods, she was allowed; she used some sort of shaking of shallow dish through water to get minerals she found interesting from the water.
It was harmless. She seemed to have a good relationship with nature; the bonsai tree that grew from her shoulder was well tended and of good size. She was granted the right to continue her mineral collecting, and eventually, she had friends. They crafted pretty things, one of which still hung on a slender chain from the base of the unicorn horn, tarnished now beyond all recognition. For the whole course of her life, they were close, the Moryshin and the elven woman.
I think it is because we all saw him as a father-figure and an emperor, but she just saw him as a creature like her. It had been scandalous for a lot of different mystic communities to see the Moryshin have horse-brushes plied to his coat, but he had liked the attention, so the scandalized feelings were left silent.
The handful of friends, after a tense encounter with a short-tempered bear mystic, had wanted a treaty. So, the location of the town was set for temporary dwellings, and a promise given that no mystic would cross the boundaries into the town.
But Elysia’s handful of friends in tents turned into temporary dwellings turned into a town and became infested with humans. A little while after, the dragon had come. A refinery had been built, and poison entered the land. There was no one there who belonged to the original group of elves and humans, and yet the promised sanctuary continued on.
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Because Gods cannot lie. Or at least, forest-gods cannot. The Moryshin is the closest to an actual God of any of us. She nuzzled him, listening to him talk about the woman’s bravery and not interrupting him until he finished.
“Can you tell me more about liana bonds?”
He huffed. “You are still on about that?” Nekana continued to nuzzle him, massaging along his mane, trying to soothe him, to get the old one talking again. He grumbled. “Mystics were made to bond. It was part of the Gods’ design; you were raised from regular animals with access to unique elemental magic. The trade off was a need to form bonds to keep the magic and the wisdom to use it. So a central focus for those bonds was made and called ‘Heart of the Forest’ in language of the Gods, or, Moryshin.”
Nekana mastered her desire to interrupt him. She knew this. Everyone did. He got more riled as he continued, “All of you are dependent upon the ability to form bonds. The magic you have, which your children have; it is through the bond to me. It grew ponderous, as generation after generation was born; hundreds of souls to keep track of all at once is too much, even on a younger Moryshin. The Gods had need of wise mystics for humans they called Uryans.”
He was getting so riled, he half moved to get up, but his foot slipped and he fell. He whacked Nekana so hard on her spine just beneath her shoulders with his bony jaw that it was all she could do not to yelp. He grumbled. “Who could stand to look at mystics with human familiars? Our forests were protected from them. Many Moryshin objected. The liana were to stay away with their humans. Still, the liana that go, they are as strong as a mystic. Forest gods! That’s what humans call us. No, no, it can never happen. No… no… no icky little human is going to be the match or better of a forest god.”
Nekana breathed out. The Gods, or at least one of them, beg to differ. She did not say anything to the old unicorn, she just nuzzled. He was so riled, and it was the first time she had seen him be so… negative. It unsettled her, but she still needed more information. “How does the bond work?”
He huffed and laid his head back over her neck, calming as abruptly as he had become wild. “You haven’t been full of this many questions since you were a little one. Are you thinking of Fen?”
“Even though it has been over five winters since she left, Raisa is not over it,” Nekana encouraged him to think that, but only as a distraction from her real purpose.
He sighed. “I said it was not fair, to suddenly declare another of your children to be taken,” he grumbled. She was silent, still trying to keep him soothed. “The bond is a lot different than ours. You and I are spiritually connected, your magic flows a little into me, and you stay wise, honest, and… mystical. A liana gives all their magic to their familiar. Uryans that are pure have no magic of their own; the liana becomes their source of magic. It’s these filthy mixes that sometimes are independent.”
“Filthy?” she asked him, ears tipping forward. “There is the prophecy, yes? So the Gods must want the diversity.”
He huffed. “It is not what we understood to be promised to us,” he amended with another wheezing snort.
He was so negative and difficult to be around, was his age really catching up to him so much? “So, the life forces are merged? One tries to replace the other?”
“Yes. So, you see, it is not possible. They will all go mad, they will die; they deserve such a fate for failing their mystic companion. A mystic’s magic magic becomes the life of their companion.”
Nekana decided not to push it further. She sat and let him lay on her, his thin body pressing to hers. He talked now about when she was little, retelling stories of the trouble she sometimes got into.
It was a lot less stressful, and she was happy to laugh at herself if it meant he seemed more like his old self.
However, the moment shattered. “Moryshin!” First one gruff voice, and then many. Nekana found herself in the middle of a fairly large group of badgers, five or six of them, with possibly more of them coming. “Moryshin! Setsy has been killed by the humans!”
“You!” said Kazi, “What are you doing here?” He didn’t say it out loud, but she felt it, this is your fault. The judgement in his face was profound.
The nearly blind Moryshin, of course, did not see. He simply leaned on Nekana and got onto his feet. “All of you are welcome to visit me, but especially Nekana.”
There was silence.
Nekana slowly stood and carefully scooted out of the way.
“Moryshin, he is dead. They killed him by the town.”
The old unicorn bowed his head, “I did warn him not to get overzealous.”
Silence was heavy. “You knew he would go?”
“He believed the humans would leave if they could not get food, and I warned him it would not work. He promised he would stay to the woods.”
Silence again that spoke volumes of the group’s dissatisfaction with that answer. “This cannot go unanswered. We must drive them and the dragon out.”
“Must we? Nekana’s family already learned the cost of fighting dragons, Matoryn is dead now.” The Moryshin said calmly. “The Gods will provide for us. They must.”
There was a tense silence, and many eyes turned to her. She remained silent and did not meet their eyes.
“Please. Let us at least kill the humans responsible.”
“For as long as I live, you cannot cross the boundaries of the town. If you do, I will let your bond go, and you will become as stupid as you sound to me. I am old; I can do nothing you hope I will do. You must carry some of the burden of honor.”
Nekana winced. What a threat. What is happening with him? How could he say something so cruel?
There was soft grumbling and murmuring among the group. The biggest spoke again, “We will not cross,” they agreed with a grumble. “Should they cross into our forests; we will kill them.”
“I would never insist that you do not, but I would caution you not to forget your wisdom and reason in your pursuit of justice.”
“Justice is wise,” huffed a smaller one toward the back of the group. No one reacted to her.
“We will go.”
Nekana did her best to accept all the stink-eyes directed her way with dignity.
The Moryshin tilted his head toward her. “Nekana, the future for us will be dark. I believe the Gods do not lie. I believe somehow, we will all be saved, even an old one like me. The bonds all work the same. When they are broken, scars on our spirits stop us from going back to what we were. If the injury is too great to scar, the spirit will break, and it will be the end. My strength wanes with my body. I am nearly blind, the trees are hard to hear now. If the people lose their way, more bonds will break. The path forward will become not just dark, but bloody.” He wobbled on his knees and then laid down with a massive groan.
“Keep the lights alive,” he said, curling with his back to her, and seeming to fall asleep.
She felt thoroughly dismissed. Her heart felt heavier than ever. Me? What can I do when I bear so much of the blame for everything?
She turned and walked back toward her home.