In the hushed atmosphere of anticipation that overtook the assembly, they advised the people of all the events that had transpired both within the city and without. Torn between their desire to be honest and their instinct to shelter the people from unnecessary distress, they jubilantly informed them of their brightest hopes for the future, including the heir’s presence in Seramour and the pending arrival of the group from Pardatha.
Cloaking their greatest fears of what yet could be in the garb of remote possibility, they also painstakingly advised their beloved subjects of the conflicts that might yet befall them and the balance of the races. Finally and with great care, they set in motion the mechanisms that would protect the treetop city as long as possible from the destructive might of the dark and imminent storm that was certain to shortly grasp all of Lormarion in its deadly fist.
“I will attend to the boy now,” Elsinestra said to her husband in a hushed voice when he was finished speaking. “I shall stay by his side until our son arrives,” she declared and she inconspicuously backed away from him.
“Go, dearest. Stand vigil for us all. I will join you when Elion is once more safe within the Heights,” he answered, catching her eyes with his own for one brief moment.
“I love you, husband,” she said finally before retreating into the shadows.
“As I do you, beloved,” he responded, hoping she could still hear him.
Warmed by his devotion to her, he turned to his people once more and began the tedious work of securing Seramour from the inevitable onslaught.
Chapter Eight
The path was twisted and narrow. It wound through the snow covered hills until it ended abruptly, opening into a barren plain of ice as far as the eye could see. The morning sun reflected brightly off of the sheets of frozen water, intermittently striking the eyes with brilliant flashes of blinding light. To the left, a dark area stood out in contrast to the whiteness of the ground. It was too distant to determine clearly how large it was or even if it was not simply an illusion; a mirage caused by the sharp sunlight playing tricks upon the eyes. Alemar walked, determined, toward it nonetheless.
The Princess navigated her way across the slippery plain, digging her studded boot soles into the thick ice to insure her traction. As she drew nearer to the area of darkness, she began to discern color and was relieved to see the greens and browns of growth distinguish themselves against the white background. When she was within fifty yards, she could clearly see now the massive tree looming in the distance. The ground beneath her feet began to change from stark white to the colors of life, and it slowly grew softer to the touch and thicker with vegetation with each cautious step she took.
Apprehension welled up in her throat, but never once could she have misinterpreted it as fear. Her confidence was driving her forward relentlessly, and although she was uncertain if Wayfair and Crea would accept her presence and speak with her, she was determined to approach them nonetheless. She could not sit idly by any longer and wait for the darkness to engulf them. In the depths of her soul she felt it coming, reminded each evening by the evil stench of wrongness that pervaded her senses in the waning hours as she lay awake, unable to sleep. Her father, as wise as he was, was determined to ignore the churning forces that she knew would eventually destroy them if he continued to deny their existence, let alone their virulent potency. Kalon was partially to blame for that, as he continually encouraged King Whitestar to avoid becoming embroiled in what he called the ‘human wars’. And her father, the King, embraced those excuses with both arms, wishing to avoid anything that might upset the long prevailing balance in Eleutheria.
Alemar knew in her heart that her father harbored his own doubts about his recent actions or lack thereof. The mere fact that he was allowing her to attempt to converse with the Chosen and his Tree was evidence enough of that.
I will find a more receptive elf when I return from here
, she thought.
If my journey should be successful…
By this time her feet were upon soft and comfortable ground. It suddenly occurred to her that perhaps Crea was not even at home, but on a secret journey to somewhere mysterious and secluded.
What a shame that would be
, she practically said aloud.
She approached with respect the looming giant whose shadow now fell directly across her path. Her skin prickled in expectation of the meeting and she all at once felt strangely inadequate to the task. It struck her suddenly that perhaps she should turn around now and escape without going any further. But she quickly relegated that cowardly thought to the deep recesses of her mind.
In the near distance she heard a humming sound, but she could not discern exactly where it was coming from. She continued to walk cautiously forward until she saw, to her great relief, a man crouched upon a woven mat on the ground before the trunk of the massive tree. His image almost escaped her completely, dwarfed as it was by the sheer magnitude of the tree’s breadth. But the sound drew her eyes to it and she was guided by the harmonious cadences. Crea lifted his head and gazed in her direction. Alemar immediately felt as if she was intruding and all of her doubts surfaced at once, causing her to blush from head to toe.
“Do not fear, Alemar,” the hunching man said. “You are welcome here.”
She was so relieved to hear that, after all the hours she spent anticipating how she would deal with the rejection that she was certain would come.
Crea stood up slowly and brushed the clinging leaves and grass off of his silver-hued cloak. His long auburn hair hung in soft waves over his broad shoulders. A belt of woven reeds secured his grey tunic and upon his feet he wore boots of supple suede. In the sunlight she saw his aqua-blue eyes glint and sparkle, and they caused her to drop her gaze humbly to the ground in fear of having them catch her own. The words she had planned to speak were momentarily lost to her and she found herself unable to utter anything. She wished only to turn and run back to the city.
“Why do you look so uncomfortable? Have I not said that you are welcome?” His voice was riddled with confusion.
In fear of insulting him any further, she gathered her wits about her and finally spoke. “Thank you, Crea,” she said, the words barely escaped her mouth in an intelligible fashion, dry as it was. “I was unsure as to whether or not you would allow me to approach you.”
“Why is that? Do you think I am that aloof and untouchable?” he asked, disappointed by the thought.
“It is just that I have never done so before and you have never really convened with my people. I have always assumed that you preferred to remain distant from us.”
“It is not a preference Alemar, as you suspect. It is a necessity,” he responded. “I have walked a path chosen for me, not one that I chose myself.”
“Has it not been of your own free will that you wear the mantle of a Chosen?” she questioned, astounded by his revelation.
“Free will? And what may that be? Do any of us really choose our destiny? You may think that you decide among various options but in fact, what is was meant to be. You have very little choice,” he responded.
“Yes, the fabric weaves of its own will. I understand that, Crea. But regardless I see the need to make choices, to decide to do something or to do nothing. I have decided to come here to talk to you and to learn from you. Are you saying that I did not make that decision on my own?”
“On your own? Do you mean to say that no one else influenced you, or that no other circumstances compelled you to come here? Do you mean to say that everything around you does not affect how you behave and how you feel? No, my dear, we are all obliged to do what we do in conjunction with all that is around us and with everything that occurs even in the remotest of places.”
“Can we not embrace our decisions regardless, Crea? Even if destiny brings me here to face you and Wayfair, I am here because I want to be nonetheless.”
Alemar was listening carefully to every word, and she believed that even in this brief discourse she could garner some meaning that might guide her in the future.
“I thought that I was fated to be Chosen,” she suddenly revealed, surprising even herself with the utterance. “I so desperately wanted to be you, to be the one favored by Wayfair. My whole life I waited, and when I was overlooked and you were chosen instead, I felt unworthy and useless.” She straightened her shoulders and stood up tall. “Will you say to me now that you did not want to be what you are? That you would have accepted another role in life?”
“It is not about wanting, Alemar. I adore Wayfair. He is everything to me. He is the most important thing in my life. I only wish to make you understand that each action is the result of every other action. None of us are separate from the rest, no matter how hard we may try to be so. Even Caeltin D’Are Agenathea acts in response to the events transpiring around him. We Chosen sense the flows, we feel the fabric as it weaves and we recognize the influences that urge us all forward. But even we cannot affect them significantly, for we can never see the totality at one time. We impact a small corner of the cloth, but the whole of the bolt is beyond our comprehension. The pattern appears so different when you gaze upon it close up from that which you see when you view it from afar.”
Tell her of the mark,
Alemar thought she heard him say, though in a voice quite different from his usual one.
Crea paused.
“You should not wish for a life like mine. It is full with accomplishment and rife with satisfaction, but it is a lonely one nevertheless. Surely I have companionship at all times, but here in Eleutheria I do not have the opportunity to commune often with others. What I have had to sacrifice is inconsequential in the greater scope of events, but you are destined for other things.”
Explain to her, Crea. She must be enlightened
, the elf Princess distinctly heard in a voice unlike any she had heard before today. In fact, she was not even sure that she heard it with her ears. It seemed more as if it emanated from within her head.
“The trees are being threatened by a situation so discomfiting, so thoroughly ironic in nature, that it pains me to even discourse upon it. You though…”
Get to the point, my friend. She does not need all of this prattle to understand the significance of what you have to say
, the voice broke in to the Chosen’s sentence.
“Who was that speaking?” Alemar finally asked, and she looked from side to side, perplexed by the sounds invading her mind.
“Who was what?” Crea asked surprised.
“That voice. I distinctly heard a voice other than yours interrupt you just a moment ago.”
“There is no one else here but you and I, Princess. It is impossible unless you are hearing things,” he responded, more calmly than before.
“I did not imagine it, Crea,” she said defiantly.
Is it possible, my friend?
the voice echoed again.
“There— You heard that, did you not?” she questioned.
“What exactly did you hear, Alemar?” the Chosen asked her seriously now.
“I heard a voice say ‘Is it possible, my friend?’,” she replied without hesitation.
May the First bless us all
, it declared.
Alemar searched from left to right with her eyes. Then she pivoted upon her delicate feet and looked in all directions, expecting to find a living being behind a bush or tree.
“Where is he hiding and why must he conceal himself from us?” she asked.
You will not find anyone to whom you can attribute the sounds, my dear
, she heard echo within her head.
“Please, Crea, what is happening? I am becoming frightened,” she said honestly, and consternation creased her pale forehead.
“I wish I could tell you, Alemar. It seems that somehow you are hearing Wayfair speak to me, even though he did not allow this intentionally,” the tall man said.
“The Lalas? I heard a Lalas speak?” she asked, astonished at the prospect.
“Apparently so, Alemar. I cannot understand it myself. This is highly unusual.”
Unusual? It is unheard of
, Wayfair chimed in.
The voice was so deep and so mellow that Alemar wanted to hear it over and over again. It brightened her with encouragement despite the words. Just the tone and the fact that it rose from within her mind, not from without, made it sound so pure and full. She wished only for it to speak again.
I have not chosen her and yet she hears me converse with you. How odd. It must be the mark
— Wayfair concluded.
“I was going to tell you, Alemar,” Crea began.
“Tell me what?”
He spends too much time on trivial matters, Alemar. Speak Crea, I am losing my patience
.
“The star behind your ear is not a mere coincidence. You were marked at birth, as you suspected. But not as a Chosen. You were destined for other things,” Crea said. Turning to Wayfair, he too spoke in the silent language of the trees.
Was that clear enough, my friend? May I continue, or would you rather tell her yourself if you think you can do it any faster than I am able to?
he asked with fond sarcasm in his voice.
That was fine, just fine Crea. But you must explain more to her. Time grows short
, he said more seriously now.
“There are some things that we know and some things that we can only speculate about. The Tomes give us insight into the future, but only into its possibilities. There are so many contingencies that.…”
Would you please get to the point. I do not wish the girl to be merely a nub in the fabric, Crea. She must create her own pattern, and if you spend any more time philosophizing, her moment may pass
, the great tree interrupted.
“Please speak to her yourself then Wayfair, as you apparently ardently wish to do so still and all,” he replied patiently.
That is a very good idea. I think I will, since she can hear everything I say anyway
.
Alemar gazed upon the giant Lalas and waited for it to continue. She had quickly grown accustomed to the means by which it communicated with her and she was now very anxious to ‘hear’ the melodious voice once again.
The world is changing; the patterns are fading and new ones are revealing themselves. But there are those who wish to alter them to their own advantage. And, for the first time in this age, it is possible that one individual can. It is Caeltin D’Are Agenathea of whom I speak my dear, if you have not guessed so by now. He has caused considerable harm already, yet all that he does may only serve to promote what we seek, if he is unable to complete his task. We do not know for sure, as the future is riddled with possibility only.
“Can you not get on with it, Wayfair? I fear I may fall asleep before you finish,” Crea interrupted, smiling.
You have an important part to play in this episode Alemar, and you must prepare to begin your journey
, Wayfair continued, ignoring Crea’s remarks.
“What must I do?” she asked, eyes wide and bright.
You and two others whom you choose to join you, must travel across the Pass of the Righteous to the Caves of Carloman. There you will meet your destiny
, he said solemnly.
“I thought the Caves were merely myth. Are they real after all?” she questioned, astonished.
They are quite real, my dear. I have seen them through others’ eyes and they are as palpable as you and I.
“Can you not tell me more about my pursuit?” she questioned the tree.
I know nothing more, Alemar. You were born for this purpose, of that I am positive. The books make it clear that you are the one and the earth tells me so. I cannot be wrong. But whom you must meet, what you must retrieve, what actions you shall take… of this, I have no knowledge.