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Greta accepted the chalice after Claire drank down the contents and gestured towards the shimmery white barrier. With one last glance towards her Triad, Claire stepped through.
The barrier felt like a cool breeze on her skin as she passed through it until Claire stood in front of the massive Royal Tree. Even though they had been living in the tree the last week, it was like Claire was viewing it with new eyes. Or that could be the contents of the chalice settling into her veins. It seemed that the contents of the chalice had bypassed her stomach and flowed straight into her magic’s center, igniting the unbound magic there and stirring up the magic still wrapped in the bindings her mother gave her.
Claire gritted her teeth as the pressure inside her grew, the magic restless and lashing at her hold on it, desperate to get out. It beat against her center, trying to escape the tight hold Claire kept on it and lash out at the Tree, at the war, at anything. It wantedout.
She fought with it, wrestling it back in. She wished she had been able to bring her daggers to help channel it but the whole point of the ceremony was to bond with the Royal Tree so it could ground her. Too bad no one told her how.
She planted her feet wider as she held her magic inside of her, studying the Royal Tree as her mind raced. With Puck, she had accepted his magic into her. Maybe she needed to accept the tree’s magic inside her as well? With her building magic though, she didn’t know how much more magic she could take in. But she had to try.
She attempted to quiet the magic inside of her so she could take a small strand of it and send it into the tree but her magic was having none of that. As soon as Claire gave it the smallest opening, it slammed out of her like a tidal wave into the tree. The ground shook as the tree absorbed the massive amount of magic.
Claire was horrified. She hadn’t meant to do that. Had she hurt the tree? That would be just her luck, instead of connecting with the Royal Tree she accidentally killed it. When the ground stopped shaking, Claire held her breath. There were no visible signs she had hurt the tree and her magic had now settled at a reasonable level in her center, no longer thrashing outside her control. Had she connected with it? Was that it? Claire wasn’t sure but with her magic now more cooperative, she sank into the tree’s Energy to make sure she hadn’t hurt it.
This time, sinking into the tree’s Energy was different than anything else Claire had experienced. It was like she was sucked in right away and deposited in the tree’s own magical center. Claire’s magic was there, rushing around her and weaving up and out each individual branch and down and deep into the roots. The Royal Tree accepted it all, seemingly content to let Claire’s magic explore down each pathway and groove in its bark.
Until it pushed her magic back.
Claire’s magic rushed back towards her, racing down every branch and root until it hit Claire’s magical center, bringing Claire to her knees with the force of it all. It felt like she was being burned from the inside out, the feeling similar to when she had tried to take the fire inside of her the first time she had absorbed Energy.
Claire gritted her teeth and endured it as her magic kept coming. With it came the tree’s memories and knowledge, burrowing themselves deep into Claire’s brain, a heavy weight of the entire Elven history as seen through the tree’s eyes caused Claire’s head to pound. But it wasn’t over yet.
As her magic returned from the roots, it brought with it the connections to the other Elven trees that the Royal Tree touched. Everything was connected. The trees helped heal and nurture each other and in return had built a series of tightly connected bonds that Claire now had access to. Each additional tree’s Energy was slightly different and if she had to guess, the Energy would be similar to the Elf the tree was bonded to.
She planted her hands in the ground to keep herself from face-planting as she absorbed the weight of the connections. It was chaotic and messy as her magic and the new Energy fought for their own place inside of her. The burning in her chest had increased and spread to her limbs. The magic was overloading her. She needed to find balance.
She focused on absorbing one thing at a time. With sweat beading on her brow, she forced her magic back into her center, layering the Royal Tree’s Energy over it as a way to keep it there. When it resisted, she sent some magic back into the Royal Tree, hoping it would help. The magic returned to her violently and Claire groaned. That was supposed to work. She was supposed to be able to feed the tree magic and have the tree absorb it to help balance Claire’s magic. Why wasn’t it working?
Her muscles were all on fire now as they ached from holding everything together. Claire tried a new approach. She sent her magic into the Royal Tree this time, but this time she sent it with intention. She wanted to connect to the tree and feel what it felt out in the Forest. But not all the time. Claire just wanted to establish a pathway. Maybe she could even send excess magic into a dying tree if that would help.
This time the Royal Tree did accept her magic and Claire wanted to cry with relief as the pressure inside of her eased slightly. Okay, this was good. She could do this.
Next, she focused on the weight of all of the other trees in the Forest, specifically the ones bonded to Elves. She tried to send her magic back to them with the intention of setting up a pathway by which she could find the Elves and they could find her. She had a gut feeling she would need them in the next few months so there needed to be a way for them to respond to her call. She fed more magic down that connection until it snapped into place with each bonded tree, the weight easing slightly as each pathway snapped in place.
If Claire focused hard enough, she could see small green lights that represented each of the Elves still alive. Most had gathered in the clearing while a few were in the depths of the Forest. There was one lone light outside the Forest. Claire pushed more magic into that connection, unable to figure out which tree the Elf was bonded to but all she succeeded in doing was give herself a bigger headache then she already had.
The pressure had eased now, enough that Claire was able to unclench her jaw and take a deep breath for the first time since she had stepped through the barrier. Her own magic was still restless inside of her and the overwhelming knowledge of the tree still sat heavy in her mind. She imagined taking all of that knowledge and forming it into an image that was a replica of the Royal Tree in her center. She pushed every piece of knowledge into that imagery, creating a holding place, until her brain eased.
Her arms gave out and Claire pressed her face into the Forest’s floor, taking deep gasping breaths as everything finally settled inside of her. She was overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. Even though she had settled the magic and Energy inside her so it no longer felt like she was burning, she could still feel the connections. The one between her and the Royal Tree burned brightly as did the ones between her and her people’s trees.
She wondered if this was normal for a Royal or if her people were going to be angry she had bonded to their trees. She hoped it was normal. She didn’t really want to deal with one more strange or unusual thing in her life. Especially not after this.
With her forehead still on the floor, Claire tested the connection and drew a small amount of Energy from her connection with the Royal Tree into herself. The ache in her muscles eased and some of the fog of exhaustion lifted. Claire pushed herself back up to a seated position, looking around her and evaluating her surroundings. The barrier still held and Claire couldn’t see anyone on the other side. Which hopefully meant they couldn’t see her either.
She didn’t even want to know how her Triad would react if they had seen her falling to her knees. As it stood, she had no idea if they could feel anything she went through but she hoped not. She didn’t need any of them reacting to her pain and then the Elves reacting to them. It seemed that the Elves were cautiously hopeful with Claire but her Triad still had farther to go to win the Elves' trust.
Shakily, Claire climbed to her feet, waiting until her legs felt more solid underneath her before she took a step to the barrier. The white magic shimmered stronger as she touched it but the barrier held strong. Now that she was up and moving, she realized she couldn’t hear anything from outside the barrier either. So there was no way to communicate to them that she needed the Elders to take the barrier down. She tried reaching for her men or for Puck to see if she could get the message through that way but with no luck. It was like the barrier blocked all magic and her bonds with them just felt fuzzy.
Claire frowned. Something didn’t seem right. Surely they had all felt the ground shake and settle. Even if they couldn’t see in the barrier, enough time had passed that someone should have checked on her. The bad feeling in Claire’s gut only grew as she thought about it. She placed her hands on the barrier and pushed some magic into it, trying to get an idea of how it was made and how she could take it down. The Energy felt familiar, like the Elder Tree and the Forest. Claire realized that the Elders must have cast it by pulling on the Energy associated in the Forest around them to serve as a more natural barrier. With that knowledge, Claire should be able to dismantle it by sending it back into the respective trees.
Placing both hands flat on the barrier, she called up her magic and focused on drawing the Energy into herself and sending it down her newly formed connections back into the Elder Tree and the surrounding Forest. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to give her people an extra Energy boost so she fed the remaining Energy into other bonded trees.
In front of her, the barrier started to shimmer and thin as she absorbed its Energy. Claire closed her eyes as the Energy rushed through her body like a conduit. Once it was finished, it was like a bubble popped and Claire could hear again. She opened her eyes as the sounds of chaos assailed her ears.
12
Shouts and roars clashed together in a harsh cacophony as the barrier fell. Claire immediately took a step backwards from the chaos in front of her. Four Feluas with glowing red eyes were attacking the Elves. Frightened children peaked out from behind their mothers on the upper platforms as the Elves protecting them ushered them up and away from the scene.
Toan was barking orders to his warriors as they worked in groups trying to take down the Feluas. They weren’t making much headway. Their spears and arrows were bouncing off the beasts’ hides which was new. Claire narrowed her eyes and concentrated. There was a soft red shimmer surrounding each of the Feluas. Dark magic reinforced their skin creating an impenetrable barrier. The dark magic user must be back? Was it the fake Elf she had seen?
