Amber - 14 (Patreon)

I brushed a strand of hair out of Vivi's face with my free hand as she lay next to me, curling up tighter around my other arm as I disturbed her slumber. Tonight was going to be a pain and a half; I had hoped to catch up with or meet Celestine and everyone else on the way so I would have help with this part, as carrying Vivi through the forest alone in the dark was going to be quite annoying.

While I would hesitate to call her heavy, for reasons that were patently obvious, she had a good few inches on me and a lot of muscle.

Before going to sleep I'd made sure to warn her that she wasn't going to wake up in the same spot and that I would be keeping her asleep and moving her. But, despite her nerves, she hadn't protested. It had quickly become clear that she could feel the presence of the Blackwald, however weakly, due to her experience communing and drawing on the elements. For the last two days, she had stuck close to my side, always keeping a hand on my arm or clasped with mine, and just like now she practically slept on top of me.

Pressing a hand to her forehead I lulled her into a deeper slumber, her breathing evening out as she relaxed enough for me to free my other arm.

It was the work of a few minutes to pack up our camp, store everything away and find places to hang the bags off of myself. I knew there was a proper and easy way to carry someone, a... fireman carry? But I didn't know how to do it. Piggyback wasn't going to work with her asleep.

"Over the shoulder?" I said, looking down at her sceptically. "Or I could try and make a stretcher of some sort..."

I laid a hand against the tree we had camped beneath, testing if it would be willing... and I was rebuffed. It wasn't interested in doing something so frivolous when it was trying to produce for a mast season.

Everything was different in the forest in summer, the trees were so much more awake and vibrant. All day there was a chorus of a thousand birds, of more kinds than I could count, belting out their songs for all to hear; rabbits, squirrels, and a dozen other small rodents scurried amidst the trees foraging in the undergrowth, and larger animals like the bear we crossed paths with yesterday wandered freely.

Where in winter there had been a stillness and silence that seemed almost verboten to disturb in summer it never grew quiet for a moment. Even now there was the soft hooting and barking of owls, more scurrying of nocturnal critters, and the leaves whispering words in the wind.

Drawing on the strength of the forest I threaded a weave of magic through my limbs, then reformed the starlight crown I had used the last time I was here. I would need the strength if I wanted to carry Vivi and everything else a reasonable distance, and despite the forest being more vibrant in the summer it was, if anything, darker.

Even during the day, there was scant sunlight that reached the ground to feed the sun-starved undergrowth.

Picking the limp and sleeping Vivi up and across my shoulder took a while, the awkwardness of her being taller than me was far more of a problem than any lack of strength on my part, but once it was done I started walking. The light of my crown of stars illuminated my path through the shadowed forest as it had six months ago.

Soon enough a shimmering set of tails and bright blue eyes revealed themselves, shadowing my footsteps through the forest.

As much as the not-so-little fox was looking at me... it was also eyeing my crown.

I quirked my lips as they shifted from coming close and dashing farther away. I was going to be down some of my lights when I woke up.

-oOoOo-

"Wow," Vivi murmured as she set eyes on Tal'Doren at the centre of the glade. The great tree sported vibrant purple leaves that shone resplendently in the afternoon sun; the streams of shimmering blue water spilling down its trunk formed into a faint mist before it could reach the ground. Deer openly grazed upon the grasses of the glade despite the presence of a few witches already setting up camp.

There hadn't been any issues with Vivi's enforced slumber beyond my own tiredness when she woke. And the period she tried hugging me in her sleep, mumbling strangely, and had... let her hands wander a little.

Not that I could fault her for having a good dream, it was just extremely awkward at the time.

I scanned the area, my senses stretching out across the glade to feel what lay below the pulsating font of Life that was Tal'Doren. "We're early," I said, not finding Celestine, Heather, or anyone I knew save Old Grims.

"That's good, right?"

Humming noncommittally I started forward. Being the second woman here was less awkward than being the first, but still somewhat awkward. There were plenty of stares as we approached, with one of the younger men looking me up and down appraisingly, his eyes lingering on my bare legs, and grinning in a manner I didn't much care for. I marked him as one of the rude ones but otherwise ignored him and kept walking until I reached old Grims.

She was in conversation with a grey-haired old man who was wearing a fox mask as a hat, in a style that I knew I recognised but honestly couldn't place. Something from Before, most likely.

"Reginald wasn't happy about this, you know." He said softly, his voice carrying. "Meant to be his boy's big day and you've gone and messed it up."

Old Grims snorted loudly, resulting in her coughing in her fist. "Reggie can shove it. Celestine asked for a meeting an' she's getting it. Watchers all know she deserves more than that from me."

The Fox Speaker tilted his head, a tired smile on his face. "I suppose so. I can't say I mind Reginald losing out, his boy is competent but I've met him. More arrogant than your Meredith was as a girl."

Vivi was fidgeted, about to speak up, but I put a hand on her arm and pulled her to the ground. The grass was comfortable enough and there was time enough that waiting wasn't a problem. As the two elders and speakers continued to gossip I let their voices fade away, drifting into the warmth of the glade.

As the forest breathed Tal'Doren pulsed, the earth was nourished in full, and all that bloomed echoed with Life. Unbridled life and energy drawn from the sun above; there were a few spots, here and there, that remained sheltered and quiet, and others that rang with a macabre tone as the pulse lulled. A fallen tree where fungi thrived, breaking it down to grow new life.

All through the winter, such things were... not gone, but quiescent. Sleeping and waiting for spring.

A finger pressed against my forehead, pushing me backwards, and I startled; my breath catching as I was yanked from the trance and back into the world, holding tight to Vivi's arm to stop myself from toppling over entirely.

"Hey!" Vivi exclaimed, "What was that for?!"

Old Grims ignored her and grinned at me, her wrinkled face awash with amusement as she drew back her hand. "Well, you gonna introduce your friend?" She said as if nothing unusual had happened.

The Fox Speaker on the other hand was chuckling and shaking his head.

As my cheeks warmed from momentary embarrassment I stood, Vivi following me even as she glared at Old Grims.  "Speakers, I present to you Vivianne Mistmantle. Due to the events which caused my teacher, Celestine, to request this meeting she was sent to act as a representative for Darius Crowley. She was kept in slumber and knows not the way to Talloren's grove."

"A bit formal," The Fox Speaker said, still sounding amused. "Is there a reason you could not represent your lord, Gwyneth Arevin?"

"A... conflict of interest," I said, for all I was on Darius' side I was a Witch before that. Gilneas came first, our survival as a whole, but I would side with them over him. "I am a Witch before I am his subject."

"Good." Old Grims said, eyeing Vivi up and down. "As fiery in spirit as her hair, and more... Awake than most folk by the feel of her."

"Gwen taught me." Vivi said defensively.

"One of her apprentices, then?" The Fox speaker said, rubbing at the silver hairs on his chin. After a moment he narrowed his eyes at Vivi. "No, you've not the feel for it. Different."

The wind gusted, flowing about the two of us protectively, and an agitated raven croaked in one of the trees; though it sounded more annoyed at the sudden wind than a voice of support for us. Curling around us the current of air didn't abate, Vivi's hair dancing in the breeze, as the speakers both eyed her appraisingly.

Old Grims snorted. "She doesn't know the way. That's plenty, not like the lords didn't already know we gathered somewhere in this wood."

"You aren't as secret as you believe yourselves to be anyway," Vivi said, bristling after their examination. "Lorna flies and–"

"Vivi!" I hissed, tugging on her sleeve.

"No, let her speak." The Fox Speaker said.

Vivi harrumphed, tugging her sleeve out of my grip and crossing her arms under her chest and glaring down at him. "Lorna flies Donovan, her gryphon, and goes all over. I know she flew over the Blackwald." She waved a hand at the tree. "That is not subtle."

For an instant Tal'Doren weighed down on us, pressing, and Vivi's confidence flickered into worry. The wind curling about us abated, scattering and fleeing the ancient tree's attention.

"While that may be true," Old Grims said flatly, "it be best to speak of Talloren with respect while you're in its woods."

"Is it true?" The Fox Speaker said, looking at me.

"Lorna swore she wouldn't tell anyone," I said, glancing at Vivi, who shook her head.

"It's obvious!" She said, though she glanced at the great tree with a fair bit more respect. "She didn't just fly out here to get you, she's been to Stormglen, Duskvale, and others. She had to have flown over the forest. The grass here is blue, the, uh, Talloren's leaves are purple, and... grand."

I smiled, nodding to her. "It... it is obvious from the air, yes." I turned back to the Fox Speaker. "Lorna alluded to myself, Heather, and Joseline Rosethorn, that she had seen the tree and knew we must meet here. It is an obvious guess from the air."

The Fox Speaker kept looking at me, frowning faintly, as he reached into a pouch and grabbed... something. I stared in confusion as he reached out to Old Grims who cackled as he dropped coins into her hand.

"Told you!" She crowed, rocking as she laughed.

"You did." He said, then heaved a great sigh. Slowly he reached up, pulling his mask down over his face, his voice changed and became serious as he next spoke. "Be welcome then, child of Aderic Wolfheart, to the heart of Gilneas. For the first time in three centuries I, with the voice of the Foxes, welcome you and offer sanctuary."

Old Grims' hand wobbled as she pressed the raven mask to her face. I hadn't seen where she got it from and it was just there now. "I, with the voice of the Ravens, welcome you and offer sanctuary. Let there be peace between us as there was in days long past."

Vivi hesitated for just a moment before sweeping into a bow. "I thank you for your welcome, Speakers of Foxes and Ravens. In the name of Lord Darius Crowley, Duke of the Pyremarsh and Amber Wood, Warden of the Wall, and Lord of the Northgate Wood, I accept the offer of peace and return it in kind."

There was silence for a few moments before the few men who were here started gossiping about us, hearing Vivi's words and piecing together this as being why Celestine had called for the meeting.

I heard my name once or twice, showing that despite the separation they still at least knew of me.

The Fox speaker lifted the mask from his face and nodded. "Aderic Longtooth, young Vivianne. And yes, I was named for the King." He grinned faintly, a literal long tooth peeking through his lips. "Awkward as it might make the ritual words now. Beside me is Samantha Grimsby, or Old Grims to those who know her well."

"Damn right I'm old!" Old Grims coughed. "Don't bother remembering me, you won't see me again after this is done. Now, get," She waved a hand at us both. "Go make camp, play with the boys, or hug a deer or something. Don't need to bother with us until things start, you got here well early."

"The advantages of having a friend with a gryphon." I said with a smile, giving them both a small bow of my own. "Speakers."

Glancing around the glade as I backed away I tried to decide exactly where I would camp, somewhere with enough space for everyone else when they got here, to be sure, but... I spotted a small patch of Moonleaf hiding in the shade of one of the glade's oaks. There would be fine, and it would give me more of a chance to study exactly what was going on with the plant.

As we headed over there Vivi let out a sigh of relief, her hand resting on her chest. "That was..."

"You nearly started a fight." I pointed out.

She flushed, her glare failing to intimidate at all with how cute the faint tinge made her look. "Well, I didn't! And they were being rude." She crossed her arms again, glaring over her shoulder at one of the boys who was staring at us. "I don't like being looked at like that."

I shrugged. "It's not nice, but remember that if they push you can beat them up. I doubt it'd even be hard." It wasn't ever pleasant but the knowledge that if they tried anything I could string them up by their ankles helped me not fuss over it.

Vivi kept up her glower for a couple moments longer before laughing, there was a hint of cruelty to it, but it was still pleasant to my ears.

"Hey, Gwen, can you teach me how to deal with those plant roots you use while we're here?"

Glancing at her I saw a rather sadistic grin on her face. "I doubt they can do it as fast as I do, even Celestine struggles a little to match my speed." I said, for all she could take them as she was now that wasn't a reason to refuse. "But sure. So long as Tal'Doren doesn't mind; so don't go hurting the glade."

"Why would I?" There was genuine confusion in her voice as she said it, as if the concept itself was foreign to her in that moment.

-oOoOo-

Celestine and the rest of our group had shown up soon after us, barely a day behind, and slowed due to the sensitivity of Trix to the forest's presence and weight. Almost as soon as they spotted me and Vivi, when I had been admiring my friend's daily practice with her sword – she was positively mesmerising as she went through her wind and water dances – Trix had snuck up on and startled me by grabbing me from behind.

But she'd been too exhausted to even realise what she had done, murmuring about how she hadn't been able to sleep because everything was so alive in the forest, and I quickly found myself cuddling her as she fell asleep in my lap. Which prompted Emma to demand my attention as well.

I might love my cousin-slash-little sister dearly, but her jealous streak was not cute at all.

As the days went by more and more witches, men and women both, filtered in. I started up teaching almost immediately, Heather and  Rachel drawing in Jandice and Ethel from the Winter meeting straight away so I could pick up where I left off, Trix and Richard dragging in other apprentices. If everyone here could heal a simple cut or gash by the time I was done I'd consider it a success, but the real goal remained opening others up to the idea of sharing their carefully hoarded and protected knowledge.

It took a little while for the older boys, or any of the grown men, to decide to join us. At first, it was just the teenage apprentices who were set to get their initiation this summer, who seemed more interested in staring and responded awkwardly to questions.

Not that they were the only ones. Heather was eyeing Daniel, the most rugged of them with a good bit of stubble on his face, whenever she thought no one was looking. And with the fact he'd taken his shirt off to be our test dummy for healing, showing off his firm abs, I could understand why. It was rather a shame he let his hair become such a rat's nest and didn't bother looking after it.

That combined with the fact he didn't do much to hide the fact he was enjoying getting a lower angle to look at me from, where it was hard to tell if he was looking at my face or chest, was something of a turn-off. Fit as all hell or not he just wasn't all that appealing.

But as annoying as the boys were... they still deserved to learn.

"No, no," I said, grabbing Adrian's hand and splaying my fingers behind his. He'd been ineffectively holding it over a razor-thin slice on Daniel's arm, the latest in our test dummy's willing injuries. "That's not right, you can't force the wound closed. His Life is his own, you can't control it and shouldn't be trying. So don't." I shuffled over, pressing up against his back. The sudden hitch in his breathing was amusing, but I pulled back. I didn't need to be that close and it hadn't really been intentional. I was only this close because I needed to be. "You need to help his body knit the wound shut, using its own methods. The body knows how to heal – you just need to give it direction, guidance, and breathe Life into it to empower the healing."

"Y–yeah," Adrian muttered, staring at me from inches away rather than at Daniel. I rolled my eyes and let go of his hand to snap my fingers; he startled, refocusing back on his lesson rather than me. "Right, yeah. Helping not... forcing."

I taught Trix, Richard, Triss, and all my other students this way. It was just easier. Doing it with someone my own age was a little awkward, but doing it with the adults I'd taught had been way worse.

Ignoring the heat in my cheeks and hoping it wasn't noticeable I sped up my breathing to match his. If I was going to sync up with him and direct his magic so he could feel what to do I needed to match him, no matter what his heart was doing right now. At least arousal wasn't something I needed to match...

Not that Adrian was terrible. He kept himself better than Daniel did, clean-shaven even out here rather than sporting stubble. A proper beard would be better but for a seventeen-year-old, I couldn't expect that. And he had a nice broad, and, as I'd discovered, firm back. By far not the worst person I'd seen around and seemingly decent enough, he looked less than the others and was shyer about it. Still didn't know him well enough.

And... well, Vivi was just as muscled and prettier, and Lorna was just better all around. Plus he was too tall.

Not that any of this mattered! The stupid mingling that was coming up after the initiations and the first discussion had my mind on stupid stuff.

"Hurry up, Rian," Daniel grumbled, batting Adrian on the leg. "I'm bleeding here." He had a frown on his face and looked a little jealous.

Wonderful.

"It's hard, alright?!" Adrian said, huffing loudly. "Dad never does healing, says it's... er, woman's work." He mumbled the last part and frowned. "Mum never got a chance to teach me."

"It's by far our most valuable skill at the lower levels." I interrupted, still finding it hard to match my breathing to his erratic mess. Giving up and moving closer again, and glaring at Heather as she started to smile, I felt for the beat of his heart through his back. "For a variety of reasons. One of which being that it's hard to convince someone who owes their child's life to you healing them to justify joining a mob to throw you out of your home. Another being how much nobles will pay for even the most simple things when it comes to their vanity. Right, Heather?"

She narrowed her eyes at me before tilting her head back and staring up into the sky. "Mhmm. Gold, actual, real, bite into it and it's soft gold, for taking a day to visit a noble and 'heal' his baldness." She said to the sky, her voice as flat as the first time she told me the story. "More money than I'd ever seen in my life. For giving a man a head of hair."

"And you still haven't decided what to spend it on either, if you ever plan to." Joseline said, then put a hand up to her mouth and conspiratorially whispered to the rest of us. "Mounted it on her wall, she did."

Trix covered her mouth as she snickered and a murmur of amusement ran through everyone else sticking around to watch the lesson.

"Mother!" Heather protested, "I just put it in my– somewhere safe!"

"Yes, yes, safely on display above your bed." Joseline nodded sagely.

Heather let out a frustrated whine and shoved her mother, who just started laughing.

I could feel Adrian start to smile, amusement overpowering his nervousness for a moment, and I finally got the right rhythm to work with him.

"So, healing. Very valuable." I said, "Now, you feel that?"

"Yeah," He said, far more calmly.

"Good, now, you thread it together like this, as if you're knitting the flesh back together..."

"Never done any knitting," He mumbled under his breath, "Or sewing..."

Despite the issues with my analogies, which I would need to remember to revise in the future, Adrian managed to heal the little cut on Daniel's arm. He left a scar which I dealt with like I had all the others, but it was up to him to do it on his own the next time. I couldn't guide them through everything.

Healing was the most obvious and important thing to teach everyone, both for its more general utility as a form of magic to have... and because it was what we would need most come the civil war. Giving a reasonable force of trained healers to work with, to have a real impact, was more important than teaching them the 'cool' magics of shaping plants and directing them to attack enemies.

It was also far easier, at least competitively, than waking the trees or grasses and making them do things that were possible but unnatural.

All healing was, at its core, was an acceleration and enhancement of natural processes. Even regrowing limbs was just hearkening back to the pre-natal state and when they were grown in the first place. Harder, and more power-intensive, but not something that required immense skill to achieve.

"Okay, who's next?" I said, looking into the crowd of onlookers. Despite the slow buildup of those willing to learn I still had more than thirty people interested in what I was offering and who were quick to volunteer.

-oOoOo-

"This isn't proper."

I looked up from the Moonleaf plant I was examining to find a man looming over me, his arms crossed in front of him as he glared down at me. He wasn't one who had joined in on my lessons, hadn't taken part. But he had been since the first day – his apprentice had been the one to leer at me when I arrived.

"What isn't proper?" I said nonchalantly. I knew, of course, but I wasn't going to say it for him.

"You being here. Them being here." He jerked his head in the direction of the younger girls, who were playing a game of tag under Heather's careful eye. "Summer's the men's time, and you're the one who made all this happen. It ain't proper."

After raising an eyebrow at him and waiting a moment, to see if he would say anything more, I disregarded him and turned back to the Moonleaf. I had been right that it tied itself to the Blackwald Oaks to a degree, and it was a thirsty little thing, though only for little dribbles of magic here and there. I might've been stifling the ones I was growing by offering too much at once rather than a steady trickle.

Not the easiest thing to solve, it wasn't like I was willing to go to it every few hours to feed it, but maybe Frazzle knew how to produce a way to release mana at irregular intervals?

"Don't ignore me!"

"If I wish to ignore stupidity, I shall do so." I said blandly, preparing myself to move if he made a more aggressive motion. "Nothing you said was worth paying attention to."

He reached down to grab my shoulder, the movement of the air giving me warning even though I couldn't see, and I sprang to the side and stood up. It hadn't been an attack, not really, just anger and intent to force me to pay attention to him.

But I disliked it enough anyway.

"Who even told you that it was my doing?" I asked, keeping my eyes on him now.

"It's clear enough." He growled. "What would you do if men showed up at your precious winter gatherings, broke–"

I laughed for a moment before smirking at him. "I'd welcome the return to the old ways!" I chirped happily, "You know, back before we were all forcefully separated due to fear of the Inquisition? The old and traditional ways of gathering and meeting rather than what we changed to?"

His eyes narrowed. I still didn't even know his name, but it was clear he didn't like – or agree – with what I said.

Or maybe just how I said it. Walking up to me while I was working and looming hadn't put me in a cooperative mood much.

"There be reasons for the traditions. For our way of doing things." He stomped forward, closing the distance between us. If I was bothered to meet his eyes I'd have to crane my head to match them. "Who're you to trample all over that?"

"The reasons are gone, and change is coming." I stepped around him, unintimidated. If he wanted to make it a fight, he'd lose. Badly. Even if Vivi wasn't hovering a few feet behind him with a hand on her sword, the Oak we were standing beneath was ready to answer me. "It has to. Or we will all die in a flurry of fangs and fur." Not everyone would support me. I knew that. But as I walked past him and he started shouting more nonsense I wondered if I should've been more diplomatic.

Maybe not to him, he was a git, but there was a limit to what people would tolerate before rebelling against our plans on principle alone.