The Whispers Of Trees

5. Unsettling Riddles

Navy shadows settled over the lands, the skies dancing in glittering starlight from up high, with rough silhouettes of the woodlands they roamed through below.

There was no saying how long exactly they had been travelling, but it certainly felt like long enough.

"Alea mentioned a woman in the meadows, a two-day walk from here. Pendula she said her name was, any idea as to who she is?" Orym asked, to pass the time.

"I have heard whispers of the name through the Mycelium, although it is usually accompanied by the term Lunaris," he said nonchalantly, plucking a leaf off of a passing fruit bush and popping it into his mouth.

Orym wanted to state the obvious about the fruit being the edible part but set it aside. "Lunaris? Are you serious? They're just myths, stories to scare children to bed. You know, you might have a sense of humour after all"

"On the contrary, they are powerful beings and ones that should be respected, for they care for us spirits and the Earth around us. You have much to thank them for" Alimar noted matter-of-factly.

"And why would Alea know of her?" Orym said, although mostly asking himself rather than Alimar who he didn't expect to give him an answer.

"I suspect your wife has connections to her for specific reasons. She said that she had travelled beyond the borders of your village did she not?"

"Alea came from another village up North, but what does that have anything to do with this Lunaris woman?" Orym's face seemed offended, but the answer suddenly dawned on him "What are you trying to say? That she's a  Lunaris as you put it" he snickered dubiously.

"I would say she is a Tulsi rather than a Lunaris, a lesser rank as one might put it. All the signs are with her. She holds a bright aura."

Orym remained quiet, he didn't exactly know what to say in response. He had never thought of his wife's love of herbs, foraging, and healing remedies as anything more than a hobby. But if what Alimar said was true, then there was a massive chunk of her life he was oblivious to, for rings he might add. The gods only knew what would happen if Achillia were to find out, people like Alea were deemed criminals and heathens by the rest of society, worshippers of Ubium, and wielders of poisons.

He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

"I have to go back," he said with a distant stare into the dark.

"We cannot-"

"If Achillia finds out about Alea, she could have her locked away or worse. She will probably blame all of this on her, the poison, me coming back, all of it"

"Alea made her choice. She knew of the risks, and what hangs in the balance if we do not do this" Alimar comforted, although Orym couldn't help but miss the sympathetic aspect.

"I can't just leave her to... I can't leave Faelyn on her own either. Achillia will probably go after her too if she gets spooked enough"

"I am afraid, you must"

Orym tried to swallow down the engorged lump in his throat, but it went without saying that he felt sick to the stomach, to the point he genuinely thought he my have to duck into a hedge for privacy as he brought up bile and whatever else may be lurking in the depths of his stomach.

But before he had a chance to pale further, Ulme, a make-shift gathering of both people and accommodation came into sight.

The canopies of tents and roughly built homes still held a dull crimson colour in the lack of lighting, the torches seeming to be few and far between.

Nevertheless, it gave them hope, or at least Orym who had grown tired and wary as he stumbled and tripped through the forest. Alimar, however, appeared to float, but perhaps it was the dark playing tricks, then again, he was one with the trees.