The Soul Engine Ch. 35 (Original Fantasy) (Patreon)

A/N: On the road to the Citadel. A bit of an exposition chapter. Just some fluff really, nothing to see here...

-x-X-x-

When they’d fled Alether, it had not been on horseback. There simply hadn’t been time, not even to try and retrieve Thayla’s steed. With the city already occupied by Foss Sangrey’s unnatural army, there only escape route had once again been via the damn sewers, which led off into a few rivers, one of which was outside of Alether right on the border with Zuveria.

Unfortunately, the first town they’d been able to stop in and get a good night’s rest had been too small to sell horses either. So from there, they’d had to journey on foot for a few days more, with Mikael giving Avina a few piggyback rides to help the less physically capable member of their party rest her aching feet.

Fortunately, the second town had been a bit bigger, with wooden walls. With that size had also come more problems, and before Mikael knew it, they’d found themselves with the task of clearing out a monster den. Truth be told, it wound up being a slaughter. Sure, the creatures were more organized and grouped up then the sort of things he and his companions had hunted and been hunted by on their initial flight from Ocreatha, but it was still completely one-sided.

It reminded Mikael of being over-leveled for some part of a video game from back on Earth. Between him, Bula, and Thayla, they crushed their enemies with ease while Avina watched. This in turn got them enough coin to be able to purchase two horses and a cart. And so Mikael finds himself sitting in the back of said cart, with Thayla up front managing the horses and Bula and Avina with him.

Honestly… it was the first time Mikael had gotten to truly sit back and take in Vaclatora’s natural splendor. Before this, it had been one thing or another. First, he was busy provoking Zadicus into holding another Grand Melee. Then, he was moping around over his inability to go home or fix his mind. After that, it was running from Foss Sangrey as fast as possible and just trying to survive another day.

And sure, it wasn’t like they didn’t still have a lot on their plate now. But apparently Zuveria was huge… easily twice the size of Ocreatha, and while the Citadel wasn’t on the other side of the Empire thankfully, it was located closer to the middle of it then a border. Meaning that they had plenty of travel time still, even with the cart to speed things up and let Avina rest.

Looking around at the rolling hills and grassy plains, Mikael has to admit… it’s beautiful. All of it. And gazing at it all, it’s almost as though something settles within him. He still aches for home of course… but he’s not sure he would have even chosen to go back to Earth if he couldn’t have his mind fixed first. The loss of half of his memories… it’s left him a different person than he was back then.

He couldn’t look his mother in the eye and tell her he didn’t know her name anymore. He wouldn’t even be able to recognize his father without having to be reintroduced to the man. His entire life, everyone he’d ever cared for… they’d been torn away from him, almost as surely as if they’d been killed. Or maybe it was more accurate to say he’d been torn away from them. He was the one who’d actually died, after all.

Mikael is never going home. Vaclatora is his world now, as surely as it is the world of his lovely traveling companions. He just needs to get used to that, accept it… and move forward, no matter what obstacles choose to get in his way. Of course, it helped that he had such beautiful friends to make things easier on him.

A smile alights on Mikael’s face, as he considers Avina, Thayla, and Bula. Perhaps karma is a real force in this world, because as shitty as things had gotten, he’d also gotten very, very lucky as well. Part of him wondered if he even deserved the three women and the affection they showed him. But at the same time, he certainly wasn’t going to be the one to push any of them away.

That said, he finds his gaze lingering on Bula in particular, considering the half-orc and the fact that she’s decided to stick around. Of the four of them, her reasons for doing so are certainly the flimsiest. He appreciates her presence all the same, and he can only hope that they aren’t leading her to her death. Especially not so soon after she got her freedom.

Though… the longer he looks at her, the more he realizes she’s looking at something as well. At first, Mikael assumes that she’s just staring off into the distance, deep in thought. But no, that’s not quite right. Her eyes are fixed towards the South. Following Bula’s gaze with his own, Mikael peers out that way. He thinks he sees something in that direction, but it’s tough to makeout truth be told.

Fortunately for him, he has magic now. Incredibly versatile magic at that. After a moment of thought, he sends a burst of energy towards his eyes and as they blaze with teal light, he finds his sight magnified tenfold. This allows him to make out what he’s seeing in the distance with far greater detail. At first, he assumes he’s staring at some sort of… mountain wall. Thick and tall enough that it goes up into the clouds even.

But then he looks even closer and realizes he’s not looking at some cliff-face at all. No, what he’s looking at… are trees. Massive, thick tree trunks, close enough together to almost give the appearance of being an insanely steep mountain face, but far enough apart that he can tell the difference once he starts paying attention.

Mikael gapes at the sight in silence for a moment, but his little trick with his eyes has not gone unnoticed.

“Mikael? What are you doing?”

Avina’s concerned voice prompts him to pull out of his stupor and shake his head, blinking rapidly as he looks over at the confused woman.

“Err… trees. Really big trees. There are… incredibly massive trees over there on the horizon. What’s that about?”

He can’t help but cringe a little at how stupid he sounds once he’s done talking, but to be fair… he’s still a little shocked by what he’s looking at. He’s seen a lot of crazy shit since he arrived in this world, but in terms of the most majestic, awe-inspiring sight… those huge-ass trees take the cake, at least for now. Still, pulling the energy back from his eyes, he focuses back on the present and looks to Avina, who has a bit of a smile on her face.

“Ah, right. The Sylian Woods.”

Mikael raises an eyebrow at that, prompting Avina to shrug.

“Sorry, I know full well that things that are obvious to natives like us wouldn’t be to you. But unlike Zuveria, the Sylian Woods have never really been relevant to our situation. So they just didn’t come up. But basically… you’re right. The trees that make up the Sylian Woods are said to be the biggest in the world. Each towers over even the largest man-made structures in recorded history, and there are said to be at least a thousand of them, easily.”

A thousand of them? On the face of it, a thousand trees doesn’t seem like a lot. A brief flash of something crosses Mikael’s mind. Something about a ‘Team Trees’ and Twenty Million Planted. But it’s gone as quickly as it comes and Mikael honestly doesn’t have a clue what it was about. That said… he remembers trees from Earth. They’re a lot like the trees he’s seen in Zuveria’s woods so far, at least in size anyways.

The trees he’d seen in the distance however… they were immense in both height and width. So a thousand of them? That was a fucking lot.

Perhaps sensing his shock, Avina just nods, her smile growing a bit as though she’s enjoying the wonder on his face.

“Yeah, the Sylian Woods stretch across not just the entirety of Ocreatha’s Southern Border, but also the Empire of Zuveria’s as well. They even run up into the Savage Lands from what I understand. They make for a natural barrier, with no one really laying claim to them… though there are legends that say they are populated by an ancient race of elves.”

Mikael blinks at that and glances in the direction of the Sylian Woods. Legends? Okay, so there were definitely elves in the Sylian Woods. Mikael remembered enough of the stories he’d read back on Earth to know that much. There was simply no way that there WEREN’T elves in the Sylian Woods. That said, he was curious about one thing…

“Why are they only legends? And why don’t Ocreatha or Zuveria lay claim to them?”

Avina snorts at that, but before she can answer, Thayla speaks up in her stead. Turning back for a moment from where she’s driving the cart, the Knight of the Rose tosses him a smile.

“Because Sir Mikael, they’re filled with beasts said to be as tall as the trees themselves.”

Mikael’s eyes bulge out of his skull at that claim, while Avina scoffs and shakes her head.

“Not THAT big, probably. At least, nobody has ever actually laid eyes on a creature from the Sylian Woods said to be that large. All factual and confirmed reports of Sylian Beasts put them at around the size of a house at best.”

A house?!

“That’s still pretty damn big!”

Avina and Thayla both laugh at his outburst, causing Mikael to flush a little bit. Still, Avina nods her head in easy agreement.

“You’re not wrong. Big is a good way of describing everything in the Sylian Woods. And honestly, most of the time, ‘big’ is still an understatement. The trees are undoubtedly the largest thing in those woods, but the rest of its denizens are plenty huge themselves. The legends say that there were ancient pacts made with the Sylian Elves in order to keep the denizens of the Sylian Woods from running roughshod over Ocreatha and Zuveria. And that’s why our lands are able to flourish so well, despite having such a dangerous place right next to us.”

Avina’s tone and eye roll make it clear what she thinks of that. Mikael can’t help but furrow his brow.

“It sounds like you don’t believe that Avina. If the elves are just legends, then why don’t the big beasties in the Sylian Woods come out and lay waste to Ocreatha and Zuveria? Doesn’t that seem to imply that there IS some sort of magical pact in place?”

Honestly, he’s a little surprised at how closeminded Avina is being about this. She’s from a literal fantasy world, one with magic and even orcs. And she doesn’t believe in elves?

Shrugging, Avina glances over in the direction of the Sylian Woods for a second before explaining.

“There are two reasons I doubt there was any pact with elves, Mikael. Or rather, if there was one… it hasn’t been enforced for a long, long time now. Number One, every once in a while, someone gets it in their head to try and start a settlement on the border of the Sylian Woods. After all, it’s a land of untapped potential with no prior claim to it, right? Sometimes, they even go into the Sylian Woods and try to make a town under the great canopy.”

Avina shakes her head.

“It never ends well. No settlement, either on the border or inside the Sylian Woods itself, has ever survived for longer than a couple months at most. And yet, there’s no reprisal from these elves, if they even do exist. No diplomatic envoy to tell us to stop or that we have to honor some ancient pact. And of course…”

Mikael raises an eyebrow as Avina pauses for a moment before waving her hand airily.

“Well, the second reason that I doubt any such thing is real would be the fact that Sylian Beasts DO come out of the woods every few years. How do you think we know about the ones as big as houses, Mikael? They cause quite a mess, doing a lot of damage, and sometimes even wipe entire towns of the map before they’re put down. But ultimately, there’s never more than one of them.”

Frowning, Mikael asks the obvious.

“Why not?”

Here, Avina would definitely be pushing her glasses up her nose, if she were the type to wear spectacles. As is, her nose does this cute little wrinkling motion as the freckled young woman smirks, clearly pleased to be able to speak her theories into the world.

“Why not indeed? If I had to speculate… I suspect it’s because we simply don’t have the right resources for such massive creatures to survive. The Sylian Woods are beyond our reckoning. If the trees are as huge as they are, what must the bushes be like? Or the prey animals? The predators are as big as houses, meaning their prey must be as large as horses at the very least if not larger.”

Nodding to herself, seeming quite confident in her assertions, Avina shrugs.

“Something in their instincts must tell them that our lands aren’t sustainable for their kind. In fact, I postulate that those few who do wind up leaving the Sylian Woods and attacked our lands were probably pushed out by rivals, forced into exile because they lost some sort of bestial dominance challenge, perhaps.”

Mikael takes that in for a moment, rolling Avina’s words over in his mind. Then, he tilts his head to the side.

“Huh. Wouldn’t that mean that the beasts that come out of the woods and attack Ocreatha and Zuveria are the weakest that the Sylian Woods have to offer?”

Smiling thinly, his Soul Mechanic nods.

“Yes Mikael. It does.”

Well. That certainly isn’t frightening. Okay, maybe a little bit. Although… Mikael’s eyes slide over to the only person in the cart who hasn’t said a word throughout this entire conversation.

“Bula.”

Her name causes the half-orc to jolt, her eyes sliding over to him as she blinks.

“Is that why you keep looking in that direction? Is the idea of fighting a Sylian Beast that enticing?”

Bula’s knife-like ears twitch and the half-orc snorts as she shakes her head.

“Tch. No. We already have a fight, and a good one at that.”

She’s putting on a brave front, but Mikael thinks he’s on to something. Is it crazy that he’s already considering the viability of taking Bula on a ‘hunting’ trip when this is all done? Assuming they manage to survive Foss Sangrey and stop his mad bid for power, maybe he and Bula could go to the Sylian Woods and hunt down a big, honking monster for the half-orc to fight. Between the two of them, he figured they were more than powerful enough for it.

Ah, but that was in the future. Plenty to do in the meantime. Still… it was always good to have something to look forward to.

-x-X-x-

A/N: So now you've learned all about Chekov's Gun- er, I mean the Sylian Woods!

I'm sure we're not going there in this novel though. Haha, why would we? No foreshadowing here! See you all on Monday~

Leave a Like if you enjoyed please, and be sure to let me know what you think!