A Curse of Competence

4

^^ the Floating Tree of Zeres ^^

One year: a length of time that is approximately one ninetieth of the average man's lifespan, and one ninety-fifth of the average woman's. A blink, to some, and an eternity to others, but for me, it is the length of time I have been in this world, the length of time I've spent being an infant too small to hold up their own head, too small to run around, too small to pee in a proper toilet, and so on. A year was not an insignificant achievement, in the face of all those challenges, and so finding out that Mother's Mother was hosting a celebration to inaugurate me into the royal family and baptize me for my Skills at the same time, I was less elated than I was proud of my accomplishment, and grateful that someone else understood and appreciated my efforts. I did my best not to let it show on my face, but I could tell from the amused glances I received from everyone in my party that it was a futile attempt. Of course, it wasn't lost on me that Grandmother had made my Baptizing a public event, likely to flaunt the expanding power of her royal family, and to make sure to introduce me to all the most influential Nobles of her kingdom, (and their children,) at the same time. I didn't mind the political theater, really, as it was no different than hosting an office party and showing off your grandson who'd become a senator at only 30; a power play, a display of brilliance and skill, and a rather base attempt to increase ones own influence beyond its current state. In that regard, I was both amused and disappointed by the low-level political power play that I would expect from a student trying to vie for the position of class president, not a Queen of an ancient and powerful nation, but I also supposed that society was not quite advanced enough here to bother with the type of higher politics I was used to, and I might even prefer this type, thinking about how complicated life got when you couldn't tell who your enemies were.

Mother surprised me by picking me up from my position standing at the window of the carriage, watching the woods go by as they got even thicker than before if that was possible, and placed me on her hip securely. "Would you like to see my home from the carriage, dearest? Or shall we walk?" I settled myself in her grip, thinking quietly for a moment. We'd worked out several different methods of my answering her without speaking, due to my wishes to remain somewhat unsuspicious, and my intellect not be discovered, so she knew not to expect a verbal response; A tug of her shirt in the direction of the road served as an answer for now. Sensing my intent, she giggled happily and hopped out of the carriage nimbly, barely even jostling me despite the nearly two-meter drop. "Alright then, we shall stride confidently into our kingdom!" The carriage followed us at a slightly slower pace as we walked down the endlessly similar road for a few minutes, and I began to worry for mother's poor feet; she had been complaining of her ankles lately, and I was sure it was a precursor to a second pregnancy, so I didn't want her endangering her health for a simple jaunt in the woods just to make me happy, I wasn't quite so selfish. As I finally made up my mind to mention something, she knelt in the road, and took out a long and wicked-looking silver dagger, easily longer than my entire body and similar in shape and size to Riunan's short swords, though made entirely of silver. From her mouth came a few soft words in what sounded like Latin, (which I knew to be the language of the Forest Walkers, who sounded suspiciously close to the Elves of Tolkienian and Northern European folklore, from my understanding of our culture,) which I unconsciously translated as 'Dear Mother, Blessed Seedling of Zeres, Your Daughter Returns to the Court of Thorns', and stabbed the dagger into the dirt in front of us.

Almost instantly, as this password was spoken and the 'key' was inserted into the dirt, a curtain of brambles and thorns appeared in front of us as if an illusion was dispelled, a wall of verdant rage that seemed to radiate distrust, but it slowly subsided, the brambles snapping with sounds not unlike fireworks and curling out of the way to open a passage big enough for the carriage to carefully and precariously pass through. On the other side, the road was no more, and instead of a simple dirt path, we stood at the edge of an impossibly wide gorge, a Canyon that seemed to challenge even the Grand with its magnitude, but instead of harsh oranges and reds, the colors were verdant green, black, and whites, as an abundance of plant life populated the sides and bottom and the mountains that seemed to frame this valley/gorge. Most amazing yet was the center, where floating impossibly, a massive tree that seemed to have grown around a castle sat, connected to the edge of the gorge by a quartet of stone bridges, the one facing us being given structure just barely beyond natural by arches and cobbled walkways, leading up to the gently glowing interior of the Castle/Tree. The glowing green-blue roots of the colossal tree were visible beneath, dipping the thousand or so feet down to reach the dark waters below, and the size of the tree, so massive and unfathomable, surely played a part in that same water flowing from within the canopy, creating a series of artificial waterfalls that poured into the waterway below. A cloud passing by was caught by the canopy of the tree while I watched, bending around it and then disappearing, causing more water to fill the waterfalls for a moment while I stared, mouth open and eyes wide in awe. Beyond and to the sides, on the steppes-like land that seemed to be foothills to the mountains that hid the interior, small self-contained forests were barely visible, nearly fifteen kilometers from our current position due to the sheer size of the tree-city and the gorge itself, but even at this distance I could see shifting trees and scattering birds, likely scared off by something big moving around and smashing into the old-growth trees within. The castle itself, while it at first glance seemed stone, now revealed itself to be Wood, and an actual part of the tree it had disguised itself as merged with, being only a facsimile of stone even down to the 'cobbled stone' of the bridge before us and the 'stone' arches that covered it; petrified wood, it would seem, made up the incredible structure, and the entire tree glowed with the same gentle radiance, both within and without, making everything from the bridge to the gentle trickling waterfalls and the heavy pouring behemoths all glow with an interior light as if blessed by some nature deity. At least ten different fruits were visible growing amongst the canopy, much larger than the normal kinds, and the smell of a thousand different flowers filled the air, making everything smell like fresh rain, wet earth, and a flower meadow all at once, and while it was a sensory overload, it was also blissful in its sheer and unadulterated abundance. This was not the fake, man-made marble mausoleum of the port city's inner city, nor the sandstone exterior, but rather a city that seemed to thrive with the blessings of nature itself.