Between the Veil and Crown

Kylin 45

Vivienne had asked for a list, but a list in and of itself seemed too unorganized and long. The more Kylin tried, the more difficult it became. He began adding methods to make it simpler, easier to understand. When he had finally fleshed out his system, he had several large library tables pushed together, bearing a large, detailed map of the Veil Forest and the villages right in the center. The map was covered in pins, each carefully labeled with a letter. The letters corresponded with papers on the edges of the map. Each stack of papers had a creature that was found in that area when the evil first walked the forest, along with the details of what it did and how it was handled. More information was added as he went along and found another detail from another Ranger. Numbers were put on the pins where current events had taken place. Like the letters, the numbers had corresponding papers with information regarding the current events.

Over of the course of his research, others helped him. They learned and adhered to the system he had in place. Some helped with the research part while others focused on condensing the information compiled into a more presentable form.

It took several days to complete, the group stopping only for short breaks and sleeping. Kylin found it better not to sleep, even forgoing eating many times. Not so that he could be more devoted to his research, however. Now having witnessed the transformation of the strix and with the image of the bloodied wooden nest burned into his mind's eye, the depictions the early Rangers gave of the creatures they faced took on a whole new horror and meaning, making it near impossible to close his eyes without nightmares and to swallow without choking.

Stories of creatures becoming warped like the strix. Stories of innocent animals becoming incredibly violent and blood thirsty. Flowers that fed on the dead, trees that opened up and swallowed passersby, vines that entangled anything that had lungs to breathe. Even sentient beings were not safe from the power of the evil. Nymphs of the forest lost all good nature and became little more than a beast, keeping only enough sentience to lure prey. And then, if that was not enough, there were the things unseen. Who knew what they looked like, what they once were if they were anything before, and what to do about them. The only way they were truly taken care of was when the evil was sealed. These creatures were always a shadow in the corner of the eye, hiding out of sight when a better look was given. If ignored, people went missing.

The strix on the loose felt like such a minor problem now.

Kylin was presented with the compiled version- all neatly organized and concisely written without forgoing the important details. On his way to Vivienne, he was informed that he was expected to bring it to the captain's office.

When he arrived, he found that almost all of the senior masters were present, with Rei at the head of the table. He had heard them discussing plans before he knocked at the door, but now he had all of their attention. Slowly, he placed the stack of papers containing the list on the table and pushed it closer to the middle. For what seemed like hours, no one spoke. They stared at the list as though it would jump up at them and either dance or attack.

Something dark moving in the corner of Kylin's eye and he glanced to the side. Xane was off to the side, barely noticeable. He gave Kylin a nod of acknowledgement, then turned his attention back to the masters.

Finally, Rei spoke. "Do you have anything you would like to tell us before we read this?"

Kylin could think of nothing. He shook his head.

"Go and rest. You look like you need it."

It was a tall order, considering his mind was still going through a slideshow of hand-drawn images and the strixlings, but he nodded all the same and left.