The Ten Guardians: The Mother Tree©

Chapter Eight

It took several hours to recount the lengthy tale of their journey and the history of the dragon guardian’s legacy. Izreea spoke most of the time, keeping the information factual and concise. Jareth often interjected to flesh out information connected with an upcoming event, such as Jonathan’s ethereal cube. Stein was silent for most of the conversation, giving her entire focus to whoever was speaking at the time, absorbing everything with an intense, piercing gaze.

To his credit, Jonathan spoke very little. When he did speak up, it was with full awareness of Stein’s uncomfortable gaze upon him. He kept his contributions factual and with none of his usual flare. Grey had little to say except to help explain the warlocks and how they fit into the story, and why two guardians were hiding among them. She kept the details of her curse out of the conversation, and no one else felt it was their place to explain it since it didn’t impact the story’s outcome.

Grey was reluctant to discuss Biggs, the parasitotic creature of nightmares, but he had been brought up as part of the final battle and on returning Jonathan’s body to him. She gave her permission for the others to explain the information but excused herself to relocate the camp to their current shelter. She was mature enough to recognize that the information needed to be passed along and that she and her runes probably couldn’t handle the emotions involving the conversation. Jonathan accompanied her as the conversation made him just as uncomfortable since much of it involved him taking his brother’s body by force.

Jonathan and Grey were silent as they walked back to their campsite at a slow pace, both of them preoccupied with their own thoughts. Grey had come face to face with what was considered to be her equal, a guardian of this world, and she did not feel like she was facing a peer. Thanks to her turbulent emotions, she almost lost control of her powers again, and looking back at the moment made her realize how foolish she had been. A bolt of electricity that strong would have killed Jareth, Jonathan, and Izreea. It probably would have taken out half of the Elder tree as well, all without doing any harm to the source of her anger.

Jonathan had been reminded of the harm he had done to his brother, forcing the corruption of unnatural rebirth into his body and taking control without his permission. He had done everything possible to make amends, but words could only go so far. Every time he looked at the stubble on his brother’s head, the hair just beginning to regrow from his transformation to a half-lich, he was reminded of the pain he had caused. He still wasn’t sure if Izreea had forgiven him as she was overly preoccupied with her pregnancy, rightfully so, and refused to discuss what had happened.

As the two reached the camp, Jonathan let out a small whistle.

“Wow, what happened here?” he asked while looking around the camp with his hands on his hips.

Every runestone Jonathan had placed in a circle around the camp had exploded when Grey forced her way through the shield with her power. Small holes dotted the ground where the stones had been, and dirt from the holes had rained down on the campsite. The smell of ash hung in the air from the multiple brush fires that Grey’s magic had started.

“You did, halfwit,” Grey retorted, blaming her response on his absence squarely at his feet.

Jonathan was going to retort that her actions were of her own making, but his tongue froze as he noticed a ball of pure arcane energy burning in the center of the camp, like a floating pool of blue magma. Droplets of arcane energy dripped off the swirling mass, burning into the ground like acid. A small hole had already been created beneath the orb, as large as a man’s head.

When Jareth had extinguished the brush fires with his staff, he had accidentally extinguished the fire in the center of their camp as well. However, the magical enhancements that Jonathan had imbued the fire with was a separate spell, one that amplified the arcane power of whatever it was cast with. When the fire spell was extinguished, it left the energy of the amplification spell without a focus, so it turned on itself. The energy could only amplify to a point, but it was still quite powerful.

Sitting next to the swirling ball of energy was Drock, his eyes locked on the power source. The party had grown used to his soulless presence now that Life had made managing him easier, causing them to forget that he was precious cargo that had been placed in their charge. Jonathan made a mental note to keep better track of the unique creation in their care. A walking spell was not to be taken for granted.

Drock had said nothing new since starting their journey toward the dardwain’s underwater kingdom. Whenever someone did try to speak to him, he would repeat the same information about following the party, hiding from battles, and resisting the pull of magic. He kept their pace without a sound and followed basic directions like a trained dog. He also still ignored commands to do something frivolous, like when Jonathan tried to get him to eat something. Drock did not need sleep, eat, or need any other necessities the rest of them needed. It didn’t make sense because he breathed like anyone else and almost died when a mimic had partially pierced his heart, but nothing about him made much sense anyway.

“What in the name of the guardians is that?” Grey asked while pointing at the swirling mass of energy at the center of the camp, the irony of her exclamation momentarily missed.

Although he had every intention of explaining the phenomenon, preferably with a high degree of superiority, he was still irritated by her earlier comment about the state of the camp. So, he naturally responded with an immature snap of “Touch it and find out.”

As Grey gave him a withering stare, Jonathan entered dai schen, the state of mind where magic is visible and useable, in preparation to pick the seal on the spell and deactivate it. Before he could act, Drock chose to follow Jonathan’s sarcastic directions and stretched his hand out to touch the arcane energy in front of him. There was a momentary flicker of magic from Drock as his hand reached forward, and Jonathan shouted a warning and tried casting a spell to stop him, but he wasn’t fast enough. Grey heard Jonathan’s shout of warning, and her guardian reflexes kicked in. She threw herself in front of Jonathan with her enhanced speed, knowing that her rune-covered body offered some protection, and she hoped that it was enough.

The moment Drock’s skin touched the orb, there was an explosion that destroyed everything in its path as it expanded from the center of the camp. The destruction reached halfway up the hill towards the Elder tree, uprooting trees and starting brush fires. The camp was destroyed, as well as their packs and equipment, as the remains were scattered across the hillside.

Jonathan’s senses were overwhelmed, his vision blurry and hearing muffled. He struggled to fight the fog and confusion in his mind, shaking his head as he tried opening his eyes. He heard a high-pitched buzzing sound, piercing and shrill, but dulled at the same time as if he was hearing it while underwater. He brought himself to a sitting position, staring at a flickering pink object on the ground in front of him. As his eyes cleared, he realized the object was Izreea’s pink carnation, a gift from the Guardian of Life that she had intended to give to her baby girl when she was born. It was on fire, already half consumed in flames. Jonathan looked up and realized he had been thrown 20 paces from the camp, and appeared to be mostly unharmed, thanks to Grey’s efforts.

As he looked around, his jaw dropped, and his mind raced to process what had happened. All around him, there were pockets of the hillside flipping back and forth between two different time frames, the one right before the explosion and their current time. The time frames were fighting one another for dominance, stuttering as they collided. Furthermore, there appeared to be hundreds of patches where this was happening, and they were not in unison. Some flickering faster than others and with varying areas affected. Some patches were more dominant in one direction of time, and others flipped between the two almost faster than the eye could follow.

As Jonathan tried to take it all in, he finally saw the source of the sound he had been hearing. Grey was standing several paces behind him, her entire body glowing with her runes of power, bright enough to cause him to squint when he tried to look at her. Her eyes were shining so brightly that the energy seemed to protrude from her eyes like daggers. Her mouth was wide as she screamed in pain from the overwhelming source of power coursing through her body.

Jonathan could see a shimmering haze in the air pouring into Grey, amplifying her runes and scream of pain. The spell had not been destroyed when Drock had touched it. It had unsuccessfully amplified his source of existence as the time-altering spell Ultaris had tried to cast. Now that same power was amplifying Grey’s runes. Jonathan knew she would create a second explosion if he didn’t find some way to diffuse or redirect the amplified power, and this time he doubted he would survive.

He quickly looked around, frantically searching for anything that would help, until he saw what was left of Drock. The front of the soulless man was completely black as tendrils of smoke drifted from his burnt body. His right hand, where he touched the orb, was completely gone. If he lived, then he was certainly blind, and his arms and legs looked bent at odd angles. As he stared at Drock, Jonathan remembered the glow of magic he had seen emanating from Drock just before his hand touched the amplification spell. Jonathan knew that this was a spell, one that Drock had cast, and all spells could be canceled or reversed. He just had to figure out how.

Jonathan had spent years trapped in the body of a bird, doing nothing but researching how to cancel, revert, subvert, merge, and even consume spells. He used this collective experience to explore the facts and came up with an idea. It was a gamble of an idea, but it was the best chance of success that he could think of in half a minute. He just hoped Grey was strong enough to survive the attempt. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he survived by robbing Grey of her second chance at life. He also believed they would both die if he did nothing.

Jonathan sprinted down the hill toward what was left of their camp, avoiding the warped areas of time as he ran. He reached the camp and examined the shimmering windows of fractured time around him, staring at them until they flickered so he could see what the windows into the past held. It took only a few moments for the different scenes to paint the picture of the campsite, and Jonathan found the one where he knew Drock had been sitting. He rotated around that space until he could see Drock shimmering in and out of existence, sitting unharmed on the ground, his arm outstretched towards the amplification spell.

Jonathan did not hesitate; he stuck his arm into the window of time the moment Drock flickered into view. He cast a spell, a crude cutting spell, and cut the smallest finger off of Drock’s hand. Jonathan didn’t know if it was the fact that Drock was frozen in time or that his body felt nothing, but Drock made no reaction to the removal of his finger. As blood poured from the wound, Jonathan pulled his hand out of the window into the past, turned, and ran back to Grey.

 On his way back up the hill, Jonathan could see the other members of their party heading down the hill from the Elder tree, investigating the sound of the explosion they had heard. It looked as if they were moving in slow motion, which Jonathan assumed was the shock impacting him. Concern and confusion plastered Izreea’s face, with alarming realization dawning on Jareth’s. Stein observed passively, making no move to intercede.

Jonathan ignored them as he ran to Grey, pulling himself up short when he was within a few paces of her. Jonathan still had no idea if this was going to work, but it was the best time-altering deity-level spell of power that he could come up with in half a minute. As a torrent of electricity rained down on him, a precursor to the massive bolt of energy Grey was about to release, Jonathan took action. He thought of the space of time he wanted to reach, using the technique of picking a destination before casting a portal spell. He then channeled that thought, as well as enough pure energy to hopefully activate whatever spell Drock was made of, into Drock’s finger.

Jonathan knew he wasn’t remotely strong enough to cast the spell. The amplification spell hadn’t been strong enough either, and he could see the destruction that had caused, but he hoped an amplified guardian would be enough. As the finger glowed in his hand, Jonathan threw it at Grey. Grey threw her head back as a massive torrent of energy exploded from the sky, as wide as the Elder tree at the top of the hill. It looked like a swirling ball of lightning but traveled far slower, a pillar of doom for all around them.

The finger hit Grey’s chest and bounced off of her, but before it fell to the ground, energy reached out from her runes and latched itself to the finger, holding it in the air as it connected to her. Then in the space of a breath, the finger began pulling all the energy around it. The arcane energy in the air visibly swirled as the amplification spell redirected energy to Drock’s finger. Then the energy pulled from Grey’s body into the finger, appearing as if she was bleeding lightning energy from every pore. The pillar of death above them shrank as the energy was redirected to the finger through Grey’s runes of power.

Eventually, the energy stopped pulling from Grey, her runes went dark, and she collapsed. The finger quivered in the air, shaking so violently that it appeared to blur. The amplification spell was absorbed, and it was clear to Jonathan that it wasn’t enough power to complete the spell. He had tried reversing time by maybe three minutes, and all of that energy and power wasn’t enough to complete the spell. There was going to be another time shredding explosion, and he was down to his last option.

When Lebine, the Guardian of Life, had her private discussion with Jareth and Jonathan in the void, there was something revealed to the two of them. When Jareth and Jonathan were eventually separated from one another, one of them would have to carry the burden of the half-lich curse upon them. Much like Jaya, a seeker, they would be able to transform into the power of a death-lich at will, without the ability to transform into a life-lich. However, there was a catch. If they ever fully used the gift, transforming entirely into a death-lich, they would sacrifice their fertility and never be able to have children.

Jonathan had immediately insisted it be him. He didn’t have a body at the time and knew full well the long struggle with fertility Jareth and Izreea had gone through. He was also the cause of the curse in the first place. The decision was made, and the curse transferred, becoming a hidden ability of Jonathan’s, briefly revealed when his powers were used to help pull Stein from the Elder tree. Jonathan could still transform into the half-lich monstrosity if he chose to do so.

Before he could activate his curse and add its energy to the spell, Stein appeared next to Grey in her true form as a beacon of light. Jonathan could see her stone form on the hill, standing lifeless. She merged herself with the finger, adding her godly, immortal energy to the spell.

There was a blast of blinding light.

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