Twelve Realms

Chapter 7

Lucia

My eyes fly open. I've just had the most vivid dream and yet, the harder I try to recall what exactly it was, the less I remember. 

One clear message sticks in my head, the only thing I remember about the dream: I have to go to the Realm of the Forest and find the Thief. 

Go to the Realm of the Forest and find the Thief. That sounds like instructions. 

Then I realize: they are instructions. I've been given my mission. 

"So soon?" High Priestess Sanca asks when I relay the news. "I was given a whole month after receiving my mark before I was sent on my mission. But I suppose it is Dea, after all, and she is the most important goddess. Very well, I will have Vara prepare your things." 

"This is all happening so fast," Vara tells me as she packs me a rucksack. "A month ago you were just a temple maid, and now you're on your mission to become a High Priestess." 

Coming from anyone else those words would sound bitter, but not from Vara. Her adventure will lie in the stories I tell her when I return. She's content at the temple. She needs the stability of life here. 

"I've packed you a week's worth of food and water, but I wouldn't use it all up immediately. There's a manual in there about what plants are edible in the Realm of the Forest. The rivers are generally clean, so unless it looks cloudy it's probably safe to drink. I packed you a journal and a charcoal pencil, since you'll be investigating. Wear your sturdiest clothes." 

I decide upon a simple, long-sleeved undershirt, a pale blue and silver embroidered jacket that's warm, but not too thick, a pair of durable pants, and the boots I wear when we trek up the mountains. I pack an extra pair of pants to wear when I wash my main ones, but I figure that I can wear my undershirt while I wash my jacket and vice versa. 

Vara and two other priestesses accompany me to the border. It's not far from the Temple, only a few minutes' walk. The gateway is not at all difficult to find- a swirling, glowing whirlwind of snow up against a solid rock wall. 

"Is there something special you need to do?" Vara asks. "So you don't have a segment deduction when you cross the border?" 

I try to remember if Dea gave me any instructions about this in the dream she sent me. But all I can remember is that she told me to go to the Realm of the Forest. Am I supposed to blindly trust her to not remove part of my lifespan?

Then it hits me. That's exactly what I'm supposed to do. 

I roll up my sleeves and take a deep breath. 

"Dea, protect me. See me safely through," I whisper. 

I feel the skin on my right wrist begin to heat. I look down and see that my tattoo, the mark of Dea, is glowing, a yellowish white color. That is when I know that Dea is protecting me. 

I take one last look over my shoulder and step into the portal. 

This should be familiar to me, considering I'm on my second segment, but I've never left the Realm of Eternal Winter. The completion of my first segment was purely ceremonial. 

It's definitely an interesting sensation. I feel a strong wind coming from every direction, sliding across my skin,  blowing back my hair, powerful but not violent. I can't tell if my eyes are closed or if I simply cannot see anything, because I'm having a hard time remembering what the different parts of my body are. 

Then everything stops. The wind is gone and I feel nothing. I blink, realizing I can now use my eyes again. I'm floating. I look around. It appears as though I've come to reside in the night sky, a dark, thick background, pinpricked with tiny specks of light. 

I feel a presence, a twinge in my mark of Dea. I look around, and though I do not see Dea, I know she is here. I hear her voice, but not with my ears. 

This is not how people usually change Realms, she tells me. I have taken you into the outskirts of the Land of Gods because you need to go to a Realm that is not next to yours, and because I do not want you to lose a segment because of this journey. 

My eyes pop slightly when I hear her say I am in the Realm of the Gods. How many people have ever gotten to stand in the same place as the Gods and Goddesses of the Twelve Realms? 

I see something I can't quite make out upon the horizon, moving towards me, and realize that I must be moving. 

Surrounding me are different objects. At first I am confused by them, but then realize that each of these objects represents a different one of the Twelve Realms. 

A snowflake for the Realm of Eternal Winter. A wave for the Realm of Islands. A flower for the Realm of Eternal Spring. 

I turn, finally finding the icon I need: a sapling. The Realm of the Forest.

I reach out to it and feel warmth spread through my fingertips, my palm, up through my arm into my chest. A light shines out of nowhere, getting brighter and warmer until it hurts to look and I have to close my eyes, sweat forms on my brow, I try to pull away from the sapling but my fingertips are glued to it and all the while it's getting brighter and hotter-

And then it stops. The light behind my eyelids vanishes. I hear wind rustling tree branches, birds. I slowly open my eyes.

I'm curled on the ground, squatting with my knees hunched to my chest. I stand, tentatively, and take in my surroundings. 

Everything is green. The trees, the moss, the ground, the leaves- I've never seen so much green in my entire life. A breeze brushes past my cheek, not the icy cold wind I've known all my life, but a warm, gentle breeze. 

I'm in the Realm of the Forest.