Blood Ties

Chapter 7: Green Gains

Goliath had led them their new respective living quarters. Until the trio assimilated into society, their chambers in the city would be amongst city officials like Goliath and the City Guard. They straddled a central courtyard. Trisa was a little unhappy about the fact that her room was closer to Goliath's chambers while it was across the courtyard from both Aliyus and Frenzick. It meant he'd have a close watch over Trisa, though it also meant she could keep watch of synthetic plans, which were already underway.

Trisa's body ached. Nature, nature was calling her, and the beast inside the woman was beckoning for its liberation. A Maji's power builds if not released back into the earth. The bond between Magi and the elements was sacred and if left untamed, if left unused it would cause the Magi's strange spiritual afflictions. Sometimes visions, sometimes bursts of magic from their hands, and sometimes worse, but Trisa didn't know what the worst was all she knew was that power was a beast. A beast that killed; a beast that drank from pools of corruption or pools of purity alike. Nature has a dark side, this she knew, and even a human can sense nature's cold indifference for those that do not bow before it. Things apart from nature always prove to be inferior; in the end, nature conquers all. All that is flesh all that is bone, all that is organic breathing matter or magic.

Trisa felt her power holed up inside of her, building painfully, begging for release. It had been the first time in ten years since the elements had revealed themselves, that she'd not used her powers in days. Never, since the day the trees showed themselves to Trisa had she gone a day without celebrating nature's calling for her.

It was late at night, Trisa's body ached with indignation. She tossed in between the sheets lying awake restless. It had to be sometime in the wee hours of the morning has the sky was changing to its deep indigo coloring as light begin to fill the absence it had created. Trisa heard a door creak open and the quiet tap of sandals on the stone floor walking away from the room beside her. Goliath was awake and moving. Trisa thought it was strange that he should be up at such an early hour. Curiosity boiled inside her. His room was probably locked, but maybe she could try the door, see what was inside it.

Trisa slipped out of her room door checking to be sure no one else was in the hallway. She tried Goliath's door, but alas it was locked. The next best thing she could think to do was to follow him. Not weird at all right? Following a strange older man in the dark looking to exploit him in hopes of discovering his evil plans. What any typical 19-year-old would do really.

Trisa quickly slipped off her sandals and quickly walked in down the corridor, holding her breath every time she passed the opening to another hall. Even though the people believed them to be of Barbaric heritage, naturally the inhabitants of the city were suspicious in nature, especially the guards. It wouldn't look good, and worse yet it would be taken badly. Shivers ran up and down her spine, at first Trisa thought it was fear. Then she realized her hands were glowing bright orange. The beast had been awakened. Passing all the wooden doors was like taunting a wizard in a wand shop. Hurriedly she began running down the corridor having dropped her sandals in the hall. Fists balled to hold the power; suddenly she was out in the open running breathlessly and recklessly through the night. Within ten minutes she'd made it into the forest surrounding the city.

Trisa could hear singing, beautiful deep humming. It was the trees they were speaking to her. She checked all about herself. Assuring she was alone, she opened her balled fists. Encircled by what seemed like ancient trees. Trisa listened to their song, and it was more than beautiful. This was bliss in it's most unadulterated form for Trisa; her craft was what made life worth living. They sang, oh how they sang! Like the sweet humming strum of the deeply resounding string instruments played on the festival days within the Kingdoms, only better. As the leaves rustled in the wind, she could hear the trees chorus of their lives in the forest. These trees, though not so tall has one would expect of beings so ancient, had roots that grew deeply into the ground. Like the vocal box of a man's throat, this is where their story came from, their roots.

Trisa 's hands brightened and dimmed with the beautiful song her light turned from a fiery orange to a sweet green, the color of life. Walking forward, Trisa gently placed her hands gingerly on a tree. In what felt like a huge rush Trisa gasped for air she felt the current of her magic sucked into the tree. She felt all of its roots deeply set several feet down into the earth. Not only that, she began to feel the symphony of voices all the roots of all the trees interconnected beneath the surface of the earth. Her magic stretched itself and danced about the forest. It spread further and wider than it ever had before. Trisa felt the strain on her body, but the beast would not be called back. Her body tense and she grasped the tree tightly holding onto its life force.

Suddenly the sympathy became sadness, and such a space was left a deep aching hole all singed edges and pain. So much pain, the trees were crying bemoaning the cruelness of fire. Blackness, blackness, and death. Its progeny taken, taken away for good, all the decades spent together lost. My children, they cried, my children. It was as if Trisa could hear the words. She could feel the immense pain, and all of the injustice felt, suddenly it was all too much before Trisa realized it she passed out slumping against the tree, tears rolling down her unconscious face.