The Place of Knowing, page 13
part #5 of The Volatar Saga Series
Volatar
The outskirts of the forest loomed in front of us, dark shadows slipping through the branches, and the trees swayed with a gentle breeze that I didn’t feel down here on the ground. The sun sent streamers of light through the branches, and as we reached the edge of the forest, the great power chasing us behind us, I hesitated a moment before guiding the others inside.
“Go,” I urged to the Jahor. Most of them hurried into the trees, though Coldan waited. Shae and Erich did as well. “You don’t need to stay here,” I said.
“I’m staying with you,” Coldan said. “I did promise to keep guard over you, or have you forgotten?”
“You have done that well enough over the years,” I said. “Eventually, you are going to have to rest.”
“I can rest when I’m dead.”
I looked at him sadly. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“You know it might,” Coldan said.
“I know it might, but I wish it wouldn’t.”
“Why?” Shae asked.
I looked over to her, seeing the way that Erich stood close to her. There was a comfort between them, and something more. “Coldan hasn’t managed to live the life he wanted all those years ago,” I said.
“What life would he have wanted to live?”
“Well,” I said, looking over to Coldan, smiling slightly. I tried to ignore the pressure of the great power behind us as I waited for the Hith to enter the forest. “I suspect Coldan would have enjoyed farming, finding a beautiful wife, having massive babies filled with the elaron.”
“Is that right?” Shae asked, looking over to him.
Coldan just growled softly. “I think the Volatar is spinning tales for you.”
“The Volatar is only saying what he knows of his friend,” I said.
“What you knew of your friend.”
“You don’t want that anymore?” I asked.
Coldan turned, focusing into the distance. A haze began to drift toward us, and both of us knew that meant the ger’thin were getting close. He gripped the hilt of his sword, squeezing tightly. A hint of elaron flowed through him, glowing brightly.
“I want to ensure the safety of our people.”
“If we accomplish that—”
Coldan turned to me, watching me. “If we accomplish that, then I can begin to look for something else, but until that day, I’m going to be standing by your side, Volatar, and I’m going to be fighting, trying to ensure that not only you are safe, but the Jahor are safe. That is the vow I made all those years ago.”
He nodded into the distance.
I turned to see the Hith finishing their entry into the forest. It amused me that they weren’t even willing to go into the forest in the same place that we were, though once we were in the trees, it would be easy to lose them, and we would need to stay close together so that we didn’t get separated.
If we were to get separated, then we would be doing just what the ger’thin wanted.
I motioned for Shae and Erich to follow.
“I don’t know if they are going to be able to reach the forest,” I said, nodding through the darkness. “When we were here before, I had a feeling that there was power here, but knowing what we do of the ger’thin, and that they have some control of the ne’rash, I have to wonder if they might be able to enter here.”
“Then use the elaron,” Shae said, as if that were something easy to do.
“What was that?” I asked.
“The elaron,” she said, motioning to the edge of the forest. “The other forest we went to had it.”
“The tu’alan forest?” Coldan asked.
Shae nodded. “That one. It had a hint of the elaron within it. I could feel it.”
“I felt it as well,” Erich said.
“We don’t know which of the great powers the tu’alan have control over, though I suspect that they have some control over the elaron,” I said. “From what I’ve seen, the other factions have control over various great powers, and not all of them have access to each of the great powers.”
“The is’anish?” Shae asked, turning and looking behind her.
“I don’t know. They seemed to be predominantly able to control the ne’rash, but I’m not sure if there is some other aspect to it that I wasn’t able to detect. Seeing as how I only have access to the elaron and the ne’rash, anything else would be beyond me.”
“But you can feel when a great power is used around you,” Coldan said.
“I can feel it when it’s powerful enough,” I said. “I can’t tell what great power it is.”
“What of the great powers do we know?” Shae asked.
I shook my head. “Now isn’t the time to go into that. I think we need to give some thought to your suggestion.”
“The elaron?” she asked again.
“The elaron.” I lingered near the edge of the forest. In the distance, I was able to make out the haze, the movement that I could tell was coming toward us.
It was drifting gradually closer.
As it did, the ger’thin would make their way here.
When they did, then I would have to be concerned about what would happen if the ger’thin were able to enter the forest. I needed to offer whatever protection I could to the is’anish, especially since I was the one bringing the ger’thin in this way.
I took a deep breath, and focused on the elaron.
There had to be some way of mixing it with the edge of the forest.
I didn’t want to stretch it too deep into the forest, not if that was going to somehow affect the is’anish, but could I layer it on the outskirts?
If I could, then the ne’rash that was already here, the ne’rash that I could feel the moment that we reached the edge of the forest, might mingle with it, and prevent the ger’thin from entering.
I started stretching out with the elaron.
“Not like that,” Shae said, touching my arm.
“How, then?”
“It’s more like this.”
She created small filaments of the elaron, and they began to drift, draping outward, catching the branches of the trees.
“Where did you learn that?”
“From you.”
“Did you?”
“I’m sure I saw you doing something,” she said.
I frowned. I didn’t remember ever having used the elaron quite like that, but Shae was talented. She had proven that over and over again, especially with how quickly she had grown in her skill and strength. She continued to call upon the elaron, creating filaments much the same way that she had, and letting those drift out and away from her.
It left me wondering whether or not I would be able to hold on to that quite the same way that she was, but even if I couldn’t, perhaps it didn’t matter. With Shae and her ability to create these filaments, I could have her do it.
Not only that, but I could have Erich help.
Erich stood next to her, focusing on the elaron, and he started creating the same strands of power. His weren’t nearly as potent as Shae’s, but Erich had changed considerably in the time that I had known him.
When the ger’thin had attacked him, drawing power off of him, it had changed something for him. I had hoped that going to the tu’alan, or even perhaps the dwul’ran, would have restored him, but he remained not only tentative, but weaker than he had been before.
The elaron began to drape over the branches.
I pulled upon as much elaron as I could, drawing from the Jahor that I felt within the forest near me. I let small filaments stretch outward, and I pushed them up, where they floated before drifting back down, draping along the forest. I held on to that energy as long as I could until I began to feel the elaron within me starting to fade. Only then did I withdraw, retreating once again, and open my eyes, having realized that they were closed.
“Were you able to do it?” Shae asked. She had stopped before me. Erich had as well.
“As much as I could. Come on.”
We headed into the trees, deeper in the forest, and we caught up with the others of the Jahor with us. I weaved through the trees, trying to see if there was any way that I could catch sight of the Hith, but they were moving too quickly, staying in the shadows.
That was their skill, though. Not only that, but we were in a place of the ne’rash, a place where the Hith would be even more potent.
“I need to find them,” I said.
“Then find them,” Coldan said.
I probed beneath the ground, using the ne’rash in order to do so, letting that energy stretch away from me. The forest here was filled with ne’rash.
When we had been here before, I hadn’t taken the time to detect that, but now that I did, I could feel the way the ne’rash flowed underneath the ground, stretching from tree to tree, a series of interconnectedness, as if the forest itself had been grown out of the ne’rash.
Was that the same as what the tu’alan had with their forest? Or perhaps it was the dwul’ran. Either way, the elaron would have flown in a similar way. Perhaps each forest was fortified with whatever great power the people possessed. Now this forest had been laced with the elaron, and though I didn’t know what it might do, I had to at least hope that it would keep the ger’thin from penetrating the forest, reaching us and causing more harm.
Nearby, I found Nevii and the other Hith.
I guided us over toward them.
The Hith suddenly appeared out of the darkness, stepping out of the shadows, and several of them had swords unsheathed. The ne’rash flowed around them, drifting outward, and I held my hand up.
“We aren’t here to fight,” I said, trying to remind them of the purpose of our visit. “We are here to learn,” I said.
The Hith stepped back, but they didn’t sheathe their swords.
Nevii step forward, and she joined me, looking over to the others with her. “They feel the power within the trees,” she said.
“Just them?” I asked.
“I feel it as well. We have never been aware of it before.”
“I suspect you had been at one point,” I said.
“We would’ve known,” Nevii said.
“I don’t know if you would have. Your temple of memory might have once told you that, but I think the memories that were within it have been altered over time, now leaving you without the truth.”
“Perhaps,” Nevii said, and there was a troubled expression on her face.
“Either way, we can help.”
“Help with what?”
“Feel the forest,” I said.
She frowned at me, but then she used the ne’rash, pressing it deep beneath her.
I probed along with her, using the ne’rash, stretching beneath the ground, and using that energy to see just what she was doing, the way that she was calling upon the power, and tracing the connections there.
And there were connections. I could feel those connections, and I was aware that Nevii could feel them as well. She used her hold over the ne’rash in order to trace along them.
Her breathing practically stopped.
“How is such a thing possible?” she whispered.
“Because of the is’anish,” I said.
“How are they able to control it like this?”
“You’ll have to ask them when we reach them.”
“It’s even more than the temple.”
“It is.”
She looked over to me. “Is this where you learned it?”
“I didn’t do anything with your temple.”
“I was there. I saw it. You used your hold over the ne’rash to try to restore the temple.”
“I would love to take credit for that,” I said. “And if I thought it might convince you that I could be trusted, then I would tell you whatever you needed me to say, but unfortunately, I had no hand in it. The ne’rash forced its way forward.”
“You’re saying that the ne’rash wanted the temple to be there.”
“From the way that I could feel it,” I said.
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“The temple has been there for longer than the Hith,” Nevii said.
“What?” I froze, turning to her.
“The temple. It was there when my people first came. That is one of the memories stored within the ne’rash. I thought you would’ve seen that.”
“I didn’t have the time that I needed to get through those memories and see if I could uncover everything that existed.”
“Perhaps not,” Nevii said. “Regardless, that is one of the memories that has been there. The temple existed from a time before my people.”
I closed my eyes, thinking back to what I had detected when I had been in the small stone room, feeling the ne’rash that had held the memory of the Hith. I had seen a time when their people had moved, migrating to these lands.
What did that mean? If the temple had been there before, then it meant the Hith had not been the ones to have created it. Could the is’anish have done so?
“Wouldn’t they have revealed that to me?”
They didn’t trust me. Of course they wouldn’t. They knew me only as a Volatar. They knew me as someone who was dangerous, willing to attack. Someone who was interested in violence.
And perhaps that was all I had been.
“How many other temples have there been in your lands?”
“Coynahl is the home of the great temple. The others the Hith have created, using what we learned of Coynahl in order to try to replicate it,” Nevii said. I could see from the Hith gathered around her that they were uncomfortable with her sharing. “What does it mean?” Nevii asked.
“I don’t really know,” I said. “I can only guess.”
“What is your guess?”
“That we need to go to the is’anish,” I said.
“You said that before,” she said.
“Nothing had changed.”
There came a pressure against me.
For a moment, I thought we were under attack from the ger’thin, but then I realized it came from the elaron I had laced over the trees. I turned, focusing on the elaron, but decided to probe and follow the ne’rash, using that energy to guide me to the edge of the forest. We hadn’t gone all that far into the depths of the forest, so whatever the ger’thin were doing to attack the outskirts, it would be easy enough to return and observe, but I didn’t want to return. I wanted to see if I could feel it from where I stood.
“The attack has begun,” I said.
“The forest will hold,” Nevii said.
“I didn’t know if it would or not,” I said. “I added something to try to protect it.”
“What did you add?”
“Nothing that harmed it,” I said. “But if you are connected to the ne’rash, then you would be able to feel that.”
She closed her eyes, squeezing them tight, and I could feel the way she used the ne’rash, sending it streaming under the ground. Gradually, that energy drifted, before finally easing as it neared the edge of the forest.
“I feel what you have done,” she said.
“Then you know I didn’t harm the trees.”
“We will see,” she said.
“What’s there to see? I didn’t do anything that harms the trees. I have done only what I could in order to try to protect them.”
The ger’thin weren’t able to penetrate the forest. I could feel the way that they were attacking the elaron, but even as they did, not only was the elaron holding, but the ne’rash managed to hold out as well.
The combination of the two was enough. It would have to be enough.
I motioned to Coldan. “We need to get moving.”
“Are they coming?”
“Not yet, but they have begun to assault the trees in full.”
“Is it holding?”
“It seems to be,” I said.
“Good.”
We continued moving through the forest, and now the Hith didn’t move quite as far away from us. I was appreciative of that, but it probably didn’t even matter. As we made our way through the forest, I was able to follow the ne’rash coming off of the Hith. Nevii, along with the other Hith, continue to hold on to their connection to the ne’rash, pushing it downward as they probed, tracing the connection between the trees.
It was almost as if they marveled at it, or perhaps they simply studied it. Either way, I could feel the way they were using that power, and I was fully aware of how it was stretching away from them.
Distantly, a greater source of ne’rash began to bloom in front of me. I could feel it starting to pulsate, throbbing in my mind, almost as if I were meant to reach it. When I had been here before, the is’anish hadn’t prevented me from finding their place, but they had prevented me from spending any time there.
I had to move more quickly.
Every so often, I was aware of the ger’thin, aware of the way they pressed on the energy around us, aware of the way they assaulted the trees. I needed to use whatever I could to try to prevent them from penetrating the forest, but even as I focused on it, I realize my efforts didn’t matter.
Either it was going to hold… Or it was not.
If it did not, then we had to offer whatever protection that we could, but first I wanted to get to the is’anish.
“I can feel something,” Nevii said, having crossed over and joining us.
“Yes,” I said. “That is Nearrahn.”
“Is that a city?”
“Something like that,” I said.
As we made our way to the forest, I continued to feel the energy of Nearrahn. It practically drew me forward. We moved as quickly as we could, sliding through the trees, and as we went, I could feel the energy continuing to build, that power of the ne’rash filling me. As it did, I sensed considerable energy out there, the kind of energy and power that I had been aware of before when I had come here, but not nearly as acutely as I was now.
Why should I notice it much better now?
Perhaps it was only because my control over the ne’rash had been limited before. The is’anish had freed something within me, connecting me, and they had helped rescue me from the anger that had filled me when it came to the ne’rash. I had them to thank for my ability.
The trees began to thin. As we approached, I stared for a moment. I could feel the energy there. Every so often, I caught sight of movement up in the trees. We started to slow.
