Stars Of Memory

Chapter 48

She taps on her chip, and hundreds of tiny tendrils shoot out, spreading across the floor of the forest. Every so often, a new tendril emerges from one of them and takes a new path. She taps again, and the chip spits out a tablet with the ends of the tendrils connected to it. She sits down to wait, and finally, her tablet chimes. She taps on it, and a web of glowing lines appear in the air. Iyokú waves one of her hands through it in amazement.

"What is this?"

Jīvitaya responds, her voice tense. "It's a map of the forest." She taps again, and clusters of dots appear at intermittent points on the map. "The dots are the crystals, and those large ones," she points at the top "are the life crystals you mentioned."

"Why do you need a map?"

Jīvitaya grins tightly, and the map shifts. Each of the dots representing a crystal grow darker as a spot inside them begins to throb with darkness.

"I was right, all of them are impacted, and you were right, I can't reach all of them. So this is what I'm going to do."

She wraps her hands around the bundle of tendril connecting to the tablet, and nature magic pours out of her and down the tendrils, following each one's path to a cluster of crystals.

"Jīvitaya, what are you doing?"

Jīvitaya pants, her face strained and white. "I'm flushing out the darkness. I did it before, now I'm doing it on a larger scale."

They watch as the darkness winks out of the crystals, one by one, until the last is gone and Jīvitaya releases the tendrils, gasping. There is a slight clinking sound from behind them and Jīvitaya turns. Rynsta is standing there, and she stares at Jīvitaya in wonder.

"I feel amazing! What did you do?"

"There was an energy blockage, similar to a parasite. I purged it." Rynsta gasps slightly, and the light around her dims slightly, just as a bit of the darkness creeps back into the crystals at the top of the map. Jīvitaya frowns, her face shadowed. "Correction, the blockage isn't similar to a parasite. There is an actual parasite, and I'd say it's being a bit more aggressive now."

Rynsta gasps again and Iyokú looks at her in concern. "Where is the parasite?"

Jīvitaya looks at the map and points at the new spots of darkness. "It's in that area. Rynsta, can you point me the rest of the way?"

Rynsta nods, and steps forward shakily, stumbling and collapsing to her feet. Iyokú bends down and scoops her up.

"I've got her." She looks down at Rynsta. "You're going to have to point in the direction we need to go, okay?"

Rynsta nods, and extends one hand, shaking, to point high up in the air. Jīvitaya pushes off the ground, rising up into the air slowly, and Iyokú follows with Rynsta. Jīvitaya halts, letting Iyokú and Rynsta pass her, and then follows as Rynsta points them higher and higher. Finally, they reach the ceiling of the cave, and Rynsta's hand levels to point them where she needs them. As they continue on, they approach one of the tree webs surrounding the life crystals. Rynsta points them inside and Jīvitaya looks at her in sadness.

"Rynsta, I can't get in there."

In reply, Rynsta struggles to sit up in Iyokú's arms. She wraps her hands around one of the branches and they part to form a space big enough for the group. Once they pass through, the branches close up again. They continue on until they reach one of the massive crystals, and Rysta points them up to the very top of it, where it connects to the rest of the forest. Iyokú sets her down on the flat top, and Jīvitaya approaches the connecting tree. She activated her nature sight and circles the tree to find the point with the darkest black.

She finds it on the far side and releases her nature sight to examine it normally. Even using her normal vision, it appears to be a pulsing orb of darkness. She carefully touches it and cries out in pain as her hand flares up in burning cold. She snatched her hand away and cradles it to her chest until the pain fades. Jīvitaya approaches the edge of the life crystal and holds her hand out, summoning a pile of soil from the bottom of the forest below. It takes a few minutes, but eventually, the soil is in her hands, and Jīvitaya forms it into two half spheres. Iyokú looks up at her and frowns.

"Jīvitaya, what are you doing?"

"I can't touch the parasite, it burns. So I need to remove it from the tree without touching it so that I can destroy it in a better spot."

Iyokú nods and goes back to shaking Rynsta, who has fallen unconscious, her light dimming more and more noticeably every second. Jīvitaya approaches the parasite once more and carefully places the domes on either side of it. She brings them together carefully and tries to pull it away. It doesn't move, and she examines it. She doesn't see anything, so she activated her nature sight once more, to find a tendril of darkness extending from her sphere of soil and wrapping around the tree. She gathers her power and forms it into a blade of energy before she brings it down in a quick, fluid movement onto the tendril.

It snaps, and she pulls the sphere away just as the orb starts roiling within it in rage. She seals the orb and makes the surface of it harder before she steps away, returning to Iyokú. Iyokú is still crouched beside Rynsta, who is pale and her light is dim. She rushes back over to the tree and places her hand on the trunk, flooding it with her energy until all of the black energy has retreated and disappeared. When she returns to them, Rysta is sitting up, her light strong once more. Her eyes narrow in on Jīvitaya and the sphere in her hands.

"What is that?"

"The parasite. I still need to destroy it, but I don't want to try up here near the life crystal, where it would be more disastrous if it escaped."
Rynsta nods, and they descend back to the ground far below.

———————————————————————————————
Did you think the problem would have been stopped by Jīvitaya's first attempt? What is Jīvitaya going to try? Tell me if you have any questions, and happy reading!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.