“Hello, Rienna,” a voice said from in front of Rienna.
She jerked her head up to see who was talking. Just in front of the entrance to the bedroom, a tall, dark woman stood, smiling at her with a confusing amount of happy friendliness. Her dark hazel hair hung loose all the way down to her hips, and woven into it were brightly colored leaves and miniature flowers.
Rienna blinked. For a moment, it seemed as though the flowers were growing out of the hair and that the hair was made of wood.
The woman walked over and sat on the remaining stool, right across from Rienna. “I am Måren Muril,” she said pleasantly. “I am glad you could come so promptly.”
“Um… sure,” Rienna said. She stared intently at Måren’s eyes for a moment; she was sure they had turned from a hazelnut color to a green one, but they seemed normal now.
Måren continued to smile. It wasn’t a creepy smile; it seemed genuine. However, it seemed a little off, and Rienna couldn’t tell why. “I hope you can forgive me for using magic to summon you.”
“Wait… what?” Rienna asked, forcing herself not to focus on the lady’s changing characteristics.
Måren sighed, dropping her smile for just a moment. “I thought you may not have known. Ah, well,” she said resignedly. “I knew that you might understandably refuse to follow Rildie here… so I cast a spell.”
“A spell?” Rienna was worried; she knew where this conversation was headed. Please don’t say you enchanted me to follow Rildie… she thought.
Måren smiled gently. “Don’t worry, you’re no longer under the effects of that spell. All it did was make it so that your thoughts that would lead to you coming here would be more prominent.”
“What?” Rienna was having trouble following what Måren was saying.
Måren didn’t seem to mind Rienna’s confusion. “Ordinarily, your impulses to leave Rufdand wouldn’t have been so urgent, but a small part of you thought it might be a good idea to leave as soon as possible. My spell made it so that part of your mind could be heard.”
Suddenly, the last couple of days made more sense. She didn’t usually hold debates with other parts of her brain. So I trusted Rildie because a small part of me was willing to, not because I am ‘blober-brained.’ She shot a glare at Xio… Except that it could be said that that part of my brain is the ‘blober’ part. “Okay, then,” she said, deciding that it wasn’t worth arguing with someone with magical powers. “Why did you want to meet me?”
Måren continued to smile. “I have had an interest in you since your encounter with Trusten Ylad. Not many people come out of Vieryen, and none of them have been children,” she explained. “I think that is why Trusten took that much more interest with you. Most people don’t survive that kind of encounter with her; you’re lucky I was nearby.”
“You were?”
“Yes. Do you remember how you escaped?” Måren asked patiently.
Rienna thought back for a moment. “The ground. It collapsed from underneath us… there were voices… next thing I knew, we were no longer in the forest…” She had forgotten about the voices, but now she realized that one of them must have been Måren.
“Yes. That was me. I saw your potential and had to save you from her.” Måren’s eyes flashed green again.
“May I ask,” Rienna started. “Why do your eyes turn green?” And your hair turns into wood?
“It is a side effect of my magic. Anyone who wields magic is affected by it in some way, especially the more powerful they become.” She waved her hands, and suddenly her eyes turned into a green color again, and her hair became bark. “Because my magic is rooted in plants, I take on some characteristics of plants.” She winked. “See what I did there?”
Rienna chose to ignore the pun. “What is Trusten’s magic then?”
“Necromancy,” Måren said with a sigh. “She’s only a hundred years older than me -and yes, I know that is a long time for you- but she’s… well… because she works in death, she’s taking on the characteristics of a corpse. I still don’t know what compelled her to choose such morbid magic…” she added quietly.
“Not to be rude, but how old are you?” Rienna asked, finally releasing the question she’d had since she’d learned about how old the main tree was.
Måren smiled her unsettling smile. “Don’t worry; I don’t mind. I believe I am about six-hundred and eighty-seven years old. Still have a few centuries left in me… can’t say the same about Trusten, but that’s the price of dealing in death.”
Rienna struggled to wrap her head around dates and numbers and eventually just gave up; she didn’t think it was worth fussing over. She decided to move on instead. Or rather, back to the main point. “Okay, so, I’m here because you found it strange that a ten-year-old,” almost eleven, her mind jutted in, “left the Suppression. What do you want from me, though?”
Måren waved her hand, and her appearance went back to normal. “The fretch have decided that Jenni’s reign must be put to an end. We have recently discovered that by mining rare magical crystals, she is damaging an entire ecosystem. We need someone to stop her.”
“Who’s the fretch, and why can’t they do it?” Rienna demanded.
“I am fretch. Trusten Ylad is fretch. It’s our species. We prefer not to get involved in human affairs; we’ve had problems in the past,” Måren said. “We used to live in cities like humans do, but in the past millennium, your kind has proven to be quite dangerous. We’re a dying race on this continent, and we don’t want to facilitate our own extinction.”
“So, I’m expendable?” Rienna questioned. “I still don’t understand why it has to be me.”
“Frankly, I am unsure why, too,” Måren said, shrugging. “But there is a seer on this continent, and they predicted that someone who was from Vieryen would be our best chance. With Trusten’s grudge against Jenni, I am surprised she was so eager to… well… you don’t need to know what she would’ve done if I hadn’t stepped in.”
Rienna sighed tiredly. “Do you even know what I am supposed to do?”
“No.” Måren’s smile didn’t even waver.
“Of course…” Rienna mumbled. Her automatic response to what Måren was saying was to ignore her and just go home. However, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to just ‘go home’ and act like nothing had happened. Because of her hesitation to return to where Sovereign Jenni ruled, she was willing to wait a little longer before going home if it meant she could save other kids who had been kidnapped or free her kingdom from its ignorance. “Alright,” she said. “Tell me where the Sov-… Jenni… gets the crystals.”
Måren somehow smiled even more, and her eyes flashed green again. “There is a cave just south of Westrikov. Stay here overnight, and I’ll set up quick transport for you in the morning,” she said. “Thank you, Rienna. I’ll contact you with more information later.”
After her meeting with Måren, Rienna went with Rildie to get more materials for her journey. They walked a path that led up from the first tree and into the main village. There, Rienna realized that the tree she had thought of as the central tree was no such thing. It was one of the few trees that granted easy access to the jungle floor, but there was a far taller and bigger tree that grew out of the center of the village. Many people walked around, talked, and sold goods, much like the vendor center that Rienna had explored during her first day in Rufdand. Everyone seemed completely at ease being hundreds of feet in the air, despite the fact that there were no railings and even the edges were crowded.
“Don’t people fall off the trees?” Rienna whispered, glancing around nervously. Rildie was fortunately leading her through the center of the path and away from the edges, but she could still easily see where the ground dropped, and a great fall followed.
“No,” Rildie said. “Måren has put magical wards around this place so that if someone does fall, they are guided back to solid land. But no one falls. We are all used to this height and know how to balance well.”
Rienna could understand that. She was certainly better at climbing trees than any of her friends back in Vieryen. She supposed the same could be true with living at even greater heights constantly.
She felt a little out of place as they continued walking toward the giant tree in the center. While she was wearing a long skirt and a simple top, everyone else was wearing pants and usually long sleeves. The few people who were wearing skirts had them cut to above their knees, and many people wore leather or thicker clothes. Even the women who were perhaps higher in rank were only distinguishable by the clean and perfect state of their clothes. They wore no jewelry and acted the same as everyone else. Maybe they don’t have very distinct social classes, Rienna thought. She certainly hadn’t seen largely differing areas and peoples like there was in Vieryen and Rufdand.
Once they got to the center tree, Rienna realized that there was a door. It obviously grew from the tree since it was practically invisible when closed, but there was a thin gap that made an outline of a door. Rildie walked straight up to it and pushed it open. It swung easily inward like any other door, even though there didn’t appear to be any hinges.
The inside of the tree was hollow. Standing inside the tree was like standing inside an enclosed spiral staircase. If Rienna had to guess, the only way the tree was able to live with a hollow center was through its immense size and, of course, magic. Also, it didn’t seem likely that the stairs went all the way down to the base of the tree, so it probably had a solid trunk in some spots.
Rildie led the way up the stairs and through another door that was about halfway up the staircase from where they had started. From there, she led them out of the tree and across another wooden bridge to a series of enclosed buildings built in between the branches of the trees.
“This is one of the living zones,” Rildie explained. “The houses are smaller than you may be used to, but we don’t have much need for large living spaces.”
Rienna took a deep breath as the branch path narrowed and the edge shrank closer and closer to her. Magic will save me if I fall. Magic will save me if I fall. She turned the words into a mantra to keep her from overreacting and losing her balance.
Rildie stopped and pointed up a pathway to a small cottage-like building. “You can stay there until tomorrow; the old residents’ kid moved out, so they decided to move into a smaller home.”
“Wait- I thought we were getting me more supplies?”
Rildie crossed her arms. “We were, but then you started to look like you were about to collapse. I thought it may be better for you to take a nap, or whatever.”
“Oh.” Rienna hadn’t realized she was showing how tired she was. She had been trying to conceal her soreness, but apparently, she wasn’t doing well enough.
“I’ll come back in a couple hours with some materials. In the meantime, please get some rest,” Rildie said, motioning her up the stairs. Rienna was certain she’d never met a kid quite as sarcastic.
After the nerve-racking struggle of walking up the thin pathway, Rienna pushed aside a curtain of vines and entered her momentary home. There were three small rooms. One was definitely a bedroom, another appeared to be a kitchen, and the last was completely empty; that was the one at the entrance. She had no use for the kitchen, so she went straight to the bedroom and dropped her bag beside the bed. Without hesitation, she flopped onto the bed and shoved her face into the pillow. Before she knew it, she was asleep.
Rienna awoke to Xia gently licking her face.
“Gah!” she yelped, jumping into a seated position. “Xia!? Why?!”
Xia just looked at her innocently, her fluffy tail wrapped around her legs. She closed her eyes and purred softly, as though everything was in complete balance.
“Xia,” Rienna said, looking at her sternly, “Do not lick my face. I do not like it.”
Xia tilted her head at Rienna as though she was saying funny nonsense.
Rienna rolled her eyes and fell back onto the bed. What had she been thinking? Just say yes to trying to overthrow a powerful sorceress? She really had been tired. Was it too late to refuse? Probably. That, or it would be considered rather rude. She sighed. Maybe I don’t have to actually ‘overthrow’ her. Maybe if I can just stop her from taking magic from the crystals… Seriously, though! Why did a multi-century old witch think a ten-year-old -with no powers, by the way- could stop another sorceress with an entire army on her side!
She looked back at Xia. “How long was I asleep?”
Xia stared at her like she was an idiot.
Rienna sat up again. “Fine. Where’s Xio?” She looked around, searching for the small cat. “Xia…” she started again. “Where is Xio?” She jumped out of bed and almost fell as the soreness in her legs returned double time. As she stumbled out of the bedroom, she called for Xio. Shoot, shoot, shoot… Where could he have gone, she thought, panicking.
Xio peeked out from behind the wall into the kitchen. “Wat?” he mewed, tilting his head slightly.
Rienna sighed with relief. “Don’t worry; it’s nothing,” she said. “Do you know how long I was asleep?”
Xio padded out from behind the doorway. “I don’t know. Maybe a bit over an hour?” he suggested.
So Rildie will be back soon, she thought. “Okay, thanks,” she told Xio. She turned to go back into the bedroom, then stopped. “Don’t leave the hut,” she added.
“Fine…” Xio mewed before walking back into the kitchen. Rienna could only wonder why he would want to stay in the kitchen as she walked back to the bedroom.
She collapsed back onto the bed and grabbed her bag from beside it. Popping a piece of bread into her mouth, she began a more thorough inspection of the bag's contents; she hadn’t gotten much of a chance after the encounter with the wyrvens. Her original analysis had been mostly correct. The food was flattened a bit, and the water canister had spilled a little, but otherwise, the contents were in good shape. However, the bag was pretty beat up. It seemed as though Xia had scratched at the back of the bag, probably trying to get Rienna’s attention. “Seriously?” Rienna muttered, peering at the scratches. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be a huge hole (Xia’s claws had managed to get to Rienna before she completely ruined the bag,) but it was still a little disappointing that the new bag was already pretty damaged. That’s the last time Xia’s being put in a backpack…
Rienna sighed and put all the stuff back in their places, including the pouch with a singular chunk of salted meat. She placed the backpack back in its spot next to the bed and rested her head on the pillow, biding her time until Rildie came back.
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