Aster Fall, Ch 30: Siwaha (Patreon)

Siwaha’s house was a small, elegant cabin with walls made from some thick hide that was tightly stretched between wooden supports. The frame arched to form a square enclosure about twenty feet across.

The thatch of the roof above was a verdant blue-green grass that smelled like snow and winter flowers, with a faint hint of wintergreen.

On the floor, a mat of woven grasses was warm from the fire that sat to one side of the house, which was banked to a low, red heat.

Overall, it was a refreshing, gentle place that complemented and contrasted the elder’s commanding nature.

He wasn’t sure what to expect from his mother’s old friend, but the first impression was her strength.

From the weight of her aura, she was the strongest person he’d met so far and probably past her First Evolution.

He wasn’t sure why she had held back in the battle.

Perhaps she had been guarding the village or its hearthstone, acting as a last line of defense.

Or perhaps she wasn’t much good at attacking, depending on her class.

Her blessing had been useful, so perhaps that was her focus. He still wasn’t able to analyze her for more information.

As they entered, she showed them to low seats, which were cushions that rested on the grass mat.

Siwaha turned to the fireplace on the far side, filled a kettle with water, and placed it over the coals, which she began to stir to a higher heat.

So far she hadn’t spoken.

Echoes of the injuries flickered through his bones like a ghost, so he took the time while she was busy to clear his mind. He also sorted through the items he’d gained, putting everything away.

The Outsiders’ dimensional bags were from this world and nothing special, but the items inside were strange.

When he had some time, he’d have to investigate what the shaman’s dagger, amulet, and the bone shards were. Perhaps he could break down the shards to figure out their purpose.

A spellbook, talismans made from essence, some version of a scroll...weapons, money?

There were a lot of possibilities.

It didn’t take him long to finish. While he sorted things, no one felt the need to speak.

The silence in the cabin was peaceful, a quiet rest like deep snow on mountain peaks.

It pressed down on his shoulders with a gentle weight and he found himself relaxing, like there was a heavy blanket calming his mind.

The fire was built from some strange, thick grass that was similar to the thatch in the roof. As it burned, it let out threads of smoke that drifted through the room like winter wisps, idly twisting through the air in cloudy spheres and curls.

The smoke tickled his nose and eyes with a scent like silverleaf pine and green apples.

Siwaha pulled out a few small bags from a chest and took some herbs from them, which she started to prepare for tea.

Her hands flickered as she combined items, and there was a swirl of subtle, shifting magic in her gestures.

Gentle, icy mana streamed around her, especially her hands, and poured into the herbs.

At the same time, it was also wild and intense, like a hawk soaring above the mountains that chose to calm down and rest on Siwaha’s arm.

He wasn’t sure if it was her control over the Ice mana that made it gentle or something else, but her gestures carried a natural harmony that brought it all together.

When she was done, she turned around, which outlined her features in the firelight. She had elegant, high cheekbones and features that were too thin for a human, with eyes that were slightly larger.

Her hair was pure white, flowing down her back like a white-topped river of the ages.

Her gaze moved to Jeric, Altey, and Sam, and then the others, resting gently on each of them in turn as her crystal blue eyes took in who and what they were, before she returned her attention to Aemilia with a smile.

“Sun Child...it has been such a short time,” she said softly, “but filled with changes. I remember you as a small, golden-haired girl with a perpetual smile. And now you are grown and have children of your own. Time passes so quickly in my eyes.

“When I visited the Ten Rivers many years ago, and found that you were no longer there, I spoke with your parents.”

She frowned, a quick twist of her lips that passed over her features and was gone like a cloud in front of the sun.

“Their answer about where you were was not acceptable, so I pushed harder. When I found out what they had done, I confronted them with it. Years had already passed and they didn’t know where you were by then. After that, I severed my connection with them, much to their disappointment.”

“It was a long time ago,” Aemilia sighed, shaking her head. Siwaha’s words made her relax, easing an old pain in her heart.

“I’m so glad you tried, and that you don’t share their views.”

“Tell me of your life,” Siwaha smiled, looking from Aemilia to the others, and then back again. “Help me to understand what has passed since then.”

For a while, the cabin was filled with Aemilia’s story, her life in leaving the Ten Rivers at 18 and going to Tower Reach, where she met Jeric at a laborers’ pool, looking for daily jobs.

From there, years passed as they were married and moved to Cliff’s End, traveling with a merchant caravan for safety, and then of Sam and Altey’s younger years, until she brought them up to the present and the journey to Highfold.

“I am glad that you have chosen your own path,” Siwaha said at last, smiling again as Aemilia finished her story. “It cannot have been easy for you to do, but you have achieved wonderful things.

“Now, unfortunately, we must turn our attention to the matters that press us from the outside and that currently threaten this ancestral valley.”

Siwaha turned her attention to Sam, nodding at him.

“When it comes to your path, young man, are you content with what has happened? What is your goal in life now?”

Sam hesitated for a moment, but something about the cabin and the fire, and the scent of the wild ice in the air made it easy for him to speak.

“I’ll take care of any Outsider who threatens the world,” he said, speaking his mind, as he thought about the future ahead of him. “They’re a problem to us, and not one that I can ignore. I’ll do my duty.”

“Yes, they are a problem,” Siwaha agreed. “They have been for a very long time, since the very origins of my people.

“But why are you doing it? Is it for wealth, or power, or something else...? What drives you forward?”

“No, not for those things,” he said as he turned the question around in his mind, examining it from different angles until he found an answer that felt right. “Or at least, not directly. It’s not that complicated. I just want the world to be a better place for my family. If wealth or power helps with that, then it’s necessary on the way.”

He knew it wasn’t the answer that most young men would have given.

Others his age were driven by the need for self-respect, or a desire for authority and power, or just for girls to pay attention to them.

He was simpler.

He’d grown up with his family constantly under pressure from the outside, making their lives difficult. All he wanted was for them to be free of that.

He knew it wasn’t a complicated desire, but he hadn’t had a lot of other experiences in his life yet.

Perhaps in a few years, he would be able to come up with a better answer.

“I want to make sure the future is different from the past,” he added, holding nothing back. “I didn’t want to become Aster Fall’s guardian, but it’s necessary.”

“And once your family is safe, what then?” Siwaha asked as the blue-green smoke in the room grew thicker, its curls dancing like wild sprites in the air. “What will you do with yourself?”

The weight of the world hung close around him, like a familiar, trusted touch.

“I’ll...” Sam hesitated. It wasn’t something he’d thought much about, since it was too far in the future. “I suppose I’ll create new enchantments and try to understand the meaning of Aster Fall, and the stars...and things like the ruins here.

“I want to understand the natural powers of the world, the runes that come from Aster Fall...and to create magic that resonates with them.”

Siwaha listened to his answer and then nodded slowly. There was a smile on her face as she came to some decision.

Her hand rose as she reached out and touched his forehead.

A cool, pleasant burst of energy passed through her touch to his skin, like the blessing she’d given him before.

“Study,” she said slowly. Her hand stroked across his forehead, like a cool compress, bringing clarity of mind and thought.

“Family.”

She paused, and her hand brushed across his forehead again.

“Strength.”

She pulled back her touch, but the sense of her energy remained, like a comfortable breeze.

“Make those three your touchstone, and you will find your balance in life, no matter where you go next.”

The smoke in the room cleared, along with Sam’s mind, but the presence of her touch was still there. The other questions on Sam’s mind rushed back in and he looked at her curiously.

He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it was relaxing to speak his mind.

Something about the icy smoke here, or her words, and helped him to focus on what was important.

“You’re not worried that I’m a demon?” Sam asked, puzzled, as he remembered how the sylphs had all seen his appearance.

“Should I be?” Siwaha asked calmly as she turned her attention to the kettle for tea, pulling it from the coals.

Sam frowned, thinking about it.

He knew he must have looked brutal fighting the Outsiders. The memory of the battlelust and the desire to rip his enemies apart with his bare hands was sharp in his mind.

Strangely, none of the Ice Sylphs seemed to be disturbed by it.

If it had been him watching, he wasn’t sure he’d be so accepting.

“I don’t know,” he said at last. “Why doesn’t it bother you?”

During the battle, and even now if he were being honest with himself, the desire to kill his enemies in the most effective and violent way was simple in his mind.

The rules of civilized life dictated that enemies be dealt with cleanly, offered the chance to surrender, and so on, but in his mind...they were his enemies.

Why would he be gentle with them?

He wasn’t planning to torture them, since it was a waste of time, but he was all for the quick and brutal approach to killing them.

Talking it over first was not required.

The problem was that his innate desire to kill them without mercy was causing a conflict with some of the beliefs that he’d been raised to hold true, especially in regards to civilized races and intelligent life.

When he’d been fighting monsters before, the question of intelligence had never come up.

Having his family around him, especially his mother and sister, who had seen him like that, was making him critical of himself.

“Appearance is one form of truth, but not the only one, and often not the most important one.”

Siwaha shook her head slowly as she mixed more of the herbs into the kettle. “It’s just the first thing that is seen.

“Some of the Outsiders think and speak, but they are not your allies, nor would they spare you. The fate of anyone who falls into their hands is miserable.

“There is no reason to spare them. This is a war for survival. Either they die or the world will die, and all of us who live on it.” Siwaha shook her head.

“Does a hawk regret the death of the mouse it eats? Does an ice drake regret the death of a wyvern who invades its nest and tries to steal its hatchlings?

“You are who and what you are. They are the same. That is all. Nature is violent at times.

“What matters the most,” she continued, “is that you direct your efforts in the proper way. Protect your family and deal with your enemies. That is all. There is only a need to worry if you confuse the two.

“Now, have some tea,” she said as she passed small cups around. There was a solemn gravitas in her eyes as she handed it to each of them.

It was a pale blue-green tea that steamed with a light layer of white mist, which hovered just above the surface, forming into patterns like snow crystals and frost.

The brew smelled like wintergreen leaves and snow, with a faint touch of something icy and ancient that drifted past his nose, like oaks that had grown for a thousand years.

He wasn’t sure he knew what ancient smelled like, but somehow this tea did.

It made him think of tumbled ruins and passing time, and cliffs high up in the peaks that were always assailed by the wind.

Without thinking about it anymore, he took a drink. The others around him did as well.

The world spun away into a mist of blue-green sky and frozen clouds, of icy peaks piercing through the heavens.

When it stabilized again, the room was the same, but different. All around him, there was a swirling mist of icy energy floating in the air.

It resonated with the hum of natural energy, similar to the runes of the Storm Plains, and it shared a certain quality with redfrost and silverbark pines that he'd seen before, making it familiar to him.

It felt like it had always been there, perhaps most intensely here in this cabin and in the valley all around them, but he’d never paid enough attention to it before.

He wasn’t just seeing it now, but feeling it. He could follow the flow of that mist all around him. It extended from here and out through the walls, into the wider world.

Somehow, his senses had been opened.

Congratulations, Battlefield Reclaimer.

You have gained the Trait: Initiate of Ice.

The others all blinked, their expressions changing to shock and surprise, as questions began to rise. Siwaha held up her hand, bringing calm silence back to the room.

“Welcome to my valley, young ones,” Siwaha said with a smile as she looked around at their reactions. There was approval in her voice.

“And to the first step in your Initiation of Ice. This is something that all young Ice Sylphs receive, and I give it to you as a blessing.

“You will need it to help with the dangers of your journey, and it will aid you in your time in my home.

"It is not a reward for your aid, since friends do not weigh such things, but rather a gift as we look to the future together.”

As she spoke, her presence became more clear in his mind.

Siwaha. Ice Sylph. Alchemist-The Speaker of the Snow. Level 135.

“The more you can attune yourself to the world here, the more the valley and the snow will aid you.

“Even now, having just opened your senses, you should find it easier to walk on snow and ice, and the weather here will be more comfortable.

“You may also find this is a new path for you to follow, if you wish to learn more of Ice and make it part of your future, but that is up to you.”

“Can you tell us more about this Initiate of Ice?” Krana asked as she looked at the room around her with shock. It looked like she could see the Ice mist as well. “What is the best way to use it?”

“It is the path of Ice that is most familiar to my people,” Siwaha said with a smile. “Ice Sylphs are a young race, born from Winter’s Peak here when the Goddess of Life wept on top of the mountain after her son was lost in the First War between the gods and the Outsiders.

“Her grief formed the snow and her tears formed us, the people of Ice, giving life to the memory of her son. For the 60,000 years since then, we have lived here, remembering her words and tears, which are carved into our hearts.

“The tea that I gave you was mixed from the snow of Winter’s Peak and some of the herbs that grew here as the goddess wept. They share an origin with us, the Ice Sylphs, and they carry some of that element of Ice in them, as well as the force of creation.

“You will find that the heart of Ice is open to you. If you continue to meditate on Ice, paths will appear for you to continue on your journey.

“Now, I formally welcome you to this valley as the Speaker of the Snow. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you like and to settle on an area of your choosing that is not already taken. I know that is what you came here to ask.

“Unfortunately, now we must turn our attention to more immediate matters, and make a plan to deal with our enemies.”

---

After that overwhelming introduction, the rest of the conversation in Siwaha’s cabin turned to more practical matters.

“A Grand Flaw is incredibly dangerous, and it has to be dealt with,” Lenei’s words carried across the room, “but it also offers great opportunity.

“The World Law heavily rewards those who deal with them, particularly with experience, but sometimes also with other things.

“It’s rare to find someone at their First Evolution who hasn’t dealt with at least one, and sometimes more. You can consider it a rite of passage.

“What we need to do now is contact the church in Highfold and then begin a more concerted, and fortified, effort to find the original Flaw. It’s essential that we stop it from spreading any further.”

“It should be somewhere in the ruins,” Sam spoke up, “but the question is where.”

His vision from the Guardian Star hadn’t been very specific, but it had given him the general direction. Once he got closer, he should be able to locate it.

“The ruins are nearly a hundred miles across,” Siwaha said gently, nodding her head. “And they rise for nearly twenty miles from the base to the shoulder of the peaks, across all three of Great Mountains, but they are most concentrated on the slopes of Sun’s Rest, and the least on Winter’s Peak.”

“So there are close to 2,000 square miles to cover,” Jeric said with a frown. “That’s a lot of area.”

“If we can get within five miles or so, I should be able to find it,” Sam offered. “I’ll be able to feel it when we’re close enough.”

“Alright.” Lenei nodded. “That means we still need to create a path through the ruins that covers everything within five miles, or perhaps more if there’s any interference with your ability. So that’s....”

She frowned as she began to sketch a path in the air in front of her, white light following her finger to create a map.

“At least four points from top to bottom and then another twenty points across...so we’re looking at something like eighty points to check.

"That’ll make it simpler, but from what I’ve heard of the ruins, they’re not just a flat plain, nor always easy to cross.”

“They are not,” Siwaha nodded in agreement. “With the blessing of Ice, you will find it somewhat easier to travel through them, since some of the obstruction is due to the weather. The other part is due to monsters and uneven terrain, and that the ruins are broken in many places.

“I estimate it will take you at least a week to check all of those areas, but more likely two.

“I will speak with the warriors of our people, who travel much more quickly. They are currently fighting another group near the ruins and should return soon. Perhaps they have seen something.”

“Will the church help with this?” Lesat spoke up, looking toward Lenei. “Now that you have proof?”

“I’ll take them the heads of the Icebloods and some of the serpent fangs,” Lenei agreed. “They won’t be able to deny it then. The only question is how fast they can act and move more troops here.

“A Grand Flaw will be enough to summon their attention, but it will be at least a week to gather a large force, and even then they will need a target.”

“So our mission is to scout the ruins, gather information, and eliminate any small bands of Outsiders or monsters we find as we assess the threat,” Sam concluded, looking around the group to see if anyone disagreed.

“If possible, we’ll close the Flaw ourselves. If it’s too large, we’ll wait for reinforcements.”

“We’ll need to keep in touch with the church periodically,” Lenei agreed. Then she turned to Siwaha. “And with you, elder, or your warriors?”

“Yes, they will aid you if you can find the target,” Siwaha agreed. “They will also be searching on their own. I will arrange a way for you to contact them, so that whoever finds the original Flaw first can reach out to the others for support.

"Make sure to prepare well for the hunt."