Path of Dragons 13 - Chapter 86 - Farewell

Elijah stood beside Jasai’i, his hands behind his back as he watched the pyre burn.  Two mages stood sentry over the flames, ensuring that it continued to burn despite the heavy rain.  For Zek’s funeral, Elijah had purchased a new outfit of undyed cloth.  The material was similar to cotton, stark white but with a slightly rougher texture that reminded Elijah more of wool. 

It was a simple outfit.

Everyone else wore white as well, though in a wide variety of styles.  Some were elaborate robes with multiple layers and subtle embroidery.  Others were no more complex than Elijah’s. 

He was the only person there with bare feet.  He hadn’t even bothered with his footwraps.  Nor was he wearing any of his other equipment, save for his Arcane Loop and the invisible Antlers of the Wild Revenant. 

Part of him wished he’d worn the white suit Hope had given him, but he chose a less conspicuous route.  After all, the ceremony wasn’t about him.  It was about Zek.  It was about honoring the hunter’s life and his sacrifices. 

Many people had spoken of their admiration for him.  A few, like Jasai’i, had professed their love for him.  He’d played the role of Dravkein’s father, and his reach branched out through the entire city.

Even those who’d come from other settlements knew of his heroics in the battle against the Synod.  He’d killed the Bloomless Sovereign as well as the Mirror Saint with his own knife.  For that alone, he was hailed as M’yakein’s champion. 

The mages opened their mouths, loosing a wailing and wordless song that echoed through the meadow they’d chosen for the pyre.  It was a traditional song of mourning, and it carried with it a note of magic that made everything that much more profound.  The resulting ethera mingled with the drifting smoke, sending arcs of subtle light coursing through the grey column. 

Above, Treebie’s leaves shimmered.  The spores flashed in time with the arcing light, signaling the tree’s participation in the ceremony.  He understood.  Perhaps not completely, but he was sentient enough to recognize the profundity of the funeral.

People wept.

Others, like Elijah, remained stoic in the face of their grief.

But everyone mourned.

No one moved for nearly half an hour until the mages’ songs faded away, leaving haunting silence in their wake.  The falling rain sizzled in the fire, breaking through and asserting reality onto the proceedings.

By then, everything that was going to be said had been.  They had all remembered Zek as well as they could.  They’d said their goodbyes.  Acknowledged his place in Gorveth’s history. 

And now, it was time to let him complete his journey to whatever afterlife awaited him.

Slowly, people filtered away.  Thousands had shown up, but that number soon trickled down to a bare dozen or so.  Then, only a handful remained.  Elijah, Benedict, and Jasai’i were among them.  Louis remained in his mother’s arms, and even with his childish naivete, he understood the situation well enough to maintain his silence.

They watched as the pyre burned down to ashes.  As the coals cooled.  The wind stirred them, scattering a few across the rain-soaked meadow.

And just like that, Zek was gone.

Elijah stepped forward, his hair and beard weighed down by rain.  His clothes clung to his form like a second skin.  Mud squished between his toes with every step, but he ignored it.  Once he reached the site of the pyre, he retrieved something from his Arcane Loop.

It was a simple acorn.

There was nothing special about it.  In fact, he wasn’t even sure why he’d stored it away.  That was probably why he’d never bothered to use it. 

Now seemed like an appropriate time to change that.

He knelt, thrusting his hand into the still hot coals and into the cold mud beneath.  A simple scoop, and he’d made a divot where he reverently placed the acorn.  After covering it, he embraced Nature’s Design and brought his focus to a sharp point.

The acorn was normal.  Mundane in every single way.  So, the influx of ethera prompted extremely rapid growth.  It sprouted in only a few seconds, its roots spreading quickly. 

Elijah pulled away when it was only a few inches tall.

Then, without any further warning, he shifted into his dragon form, took a deep breath, and breathed life upon the area.  Green lightning mingled with glittering spores, and when they fell upon the area, flowers bloomed.  The tree shot to maturity in a matter of minutes, spreading its branches wide. 

When Elijah let his breath dissipate, the area was transformed.  Life unrivaled had taken hold, and the land had responded.  Bright flowers and fat mushrooms decorated a shallow mound. 

He let himself return to his human form.

When he did, he felt a hand on his shoulder.  He looked back at Jasai’i, who said, “It is a fitting memorial.  He would have liked it.”

Elijah shook his head.  “I’m not finished.”

And he wasn’t.

Over the next couple of days, he further transformed the area, adding benches he’d carved from stone he’d quarried from the nearby mountains, a few water features, and a small gazebo.  In the end, it became a beautiful park that would have made any gardener green with envy.

It still didn’t feel like enough.

Maybe when the city’s residents began to make use of it, that would change.  The idea of children playing while men and women enjoyed the atmosphere was a powerful one indeed.  By that point, everyone was gone, though. 

For a while, Elijah just stood there, staring at the memorial he’d built.  The park stretched across a few acres of land, with the now-massive oak tree standing in the center.  Fountains and streams flowed through it, creating a truly peaceful atmosphere. 

He hoped it was enough.

But now, he had other matters to which to attend. 

So, without further procrastination, he turned away from the park and strode toward My’akein.  The city was only a couple of miles away, so he covered the ground fairly quickly.  When he entered the city, he found no fanfare awaiting him.  It almost felt like a betrayal, that everything had returned to normal.  It would have been more fitting if everyone mourned Zek for months yet.

But that wasn’t how people worked.

Most of them didn’t know him personally, and they had their own lives to lead.

Elijah considered that as he headed toward Benedict’s apartment, where he found his friend working through his notes.  He sat on the floor, papers scattered all around as he leaned close, marking mistakes and making adjustments. 

“He’s been like this since the funeral,” Jasai’i revealed.

“Is he okay?”

“I can hear you,” Benedict announced.

“He’s not eating,” Jasai’i stated, ignoring Benedict’s assertion.  “He’s not sleeping, either.”

Elijah nodded.  “Probably throwing himself into work to distract from his grief.”

“Probably.”

“Please stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Benedict complained.

“I’ll see if I can help,” Elijah said, crossing the apartment and finding an empty spot amidst the scattered notes.  As he sat, Jasai’i told them that she was taking Louis to one of the parks.  After only a few moments, Elijah was alone with Benedict.

“I’m perfectly capable of monitoring my own health,” he said.

“I know.  What are you working on?”

He sighed.  “A means by which you can identify dimensions in the void.  I think I can get a Crystallier to build a device integrating this enchantment.”

Elijah looked at the page Benedict had been working on.  “Is that a monocle?”

“Yes.”

“Can you make it into something cooler?”

“Monocles are dignified.”

Elijah sighed.  “Maintaining my dignity has always been my number one priority.”

“This is the shape I picked.  If you don’t like it, you’re free to develop your own.”

“Cool your jets.  It’s fine.  Besides, I have something you might like,” Elijah said.

“What?”

“An idea.”

After a few seconds of silence, Benedict rolled his eyes and asked, “Did you seriously just do a dramatic pause?”

“No.  Maybe.  That’s not the point.”

Benedict gestured for him to keep going.

“You are absolutely no fun.  Alright – so I was thinking about how to find my way through the void.  I can navigate it just fine, but I have no clue which way to go to find my way out of the abyss so I can resurface in World Tree-controlled space,” Elijah explained.

“I know the problem.”

“Well, here’s the solution – I told you about the thread I felt when Treebie woke up, right?” Elijah asked.  When Benedict nodded, he went on, “Well, that’s a direction.  If I can feel it in the void, I can just follow that.”

“You said it didn’t connect to anything.”

“Right.  I know.  But it’s a direction, like I said.  Not a road.”

Benedict shook his head.  “Do you know how risky that is?”

“Riskier than just staying her for however long it takes Treebie to connect to the World Tree?”

“Yes.  Unequivocally so.”

“Well, I don’t want to wait that long.”

“So, you’d risk your life for impatience?”

“Risked it for less important things,” Elijah pointed out.  “Besides, I think it will work out just fine.  Shape of the World Serpent is literally built to travel the void.”

“It’s untested.”

“I’ve been testing it for a year.”

“Like I said – untested.”

“I thought you’d be excited about this,” Elijah said, disappointed in Benedict’s reaction.  As far as he was concerned, it was a game-changer.  But Benedict was treating it like it was a last-second haymaker.

“I think it’s interesting.  And with enough testing, it could be the answer we’ve been looking for.  But for now, it’s just another thread to investigate.”

Frustrated, Elijah looked away.  He didn’t need Benedict’s permission, but he’d come to respect the other man’s opinion.  Especially when it came to matters of the void.  His class and demeanor were both suited to its study, and his instincts had proved invaluable on multiple occasions of the past year.

Elijah knew he should listen, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.

“What do you need for your little monocle thing?  Money?  Materials?”

“One of Treebie’s leaves.”

“What?  Really?”

“They’re valuable natural treasures.  And he’s a tree.  His leaves are replaceable, right?”

“Maybe.  He’s never shed them, but the seasons on this planet are weird.  I don’t even know if he’ll ever lose his leaves,” Elijah answered.  “But I’ll ask him.  If he says no, we need a backup?”

“I’ll just have one of the Crystalliers create something appropriate.  It won’t work as well as if you had the leaf, but…well, we can make do.”

“Fine.”

Elijah pushed himself to his feet, and after a short farewell, headed to Druhmor.  Once he reached the center, he laid his hand on Treebie’s trunk and slipped a bit of his soul into the tree. 

Communicating with him was difficult, largely because he wasn’t fully sapient.  However, if Elijah kept his thoughts clear and his intentions obvious, the tree could understand basic ideas. 

In this case, it only took a couple of hours to convey his wishes.  But when he did, Treebie responded by shedding one of his leaves.  Surprisingly, doing so came with a sharp sting of secondhand pain.  Clearly, Treebie wasn’t meant to lose his leaves.

Which brought up a significant problem.

If he went ahead with Benedict’s plan for the monocle, then one of the Crystalliers would discover just how valuable Treebie’s leaves could be.  Then, human nature would one day assert itself, and power-hungry Tradesmen would eventually try to harvest more. 

That made Elijah hesitate.

However, he eventually chose to trust Benedict.  He would protect Treebie.  And failing that, he would make sure that anyone who chose to violate the tree’s autonomy would come to regret it.

Of that, Elijah was certain.

So, with that in mind, he headed back to Benedict’s apartment and handed it over. 

Once that was done, Elijah went back to his routine and continued exploring the void.  But he knew that one day soon, his impatience would get the better of him.  Eventually, the time for testing and experimentation would be over, and he’d embark on a dangerous journey to return home.