Private Tales The Withering - Part II

[Eske]

"I know the hour is late. Thank you for coming."

Twilight lay heavy on the deep forests of Mirlorne, a gentle quiet seeping into every corner of the wood. Eske's voice echoed softly in the clearing, a place that Aster had never once been invited to before. Further into the heart of the grove than any were allowed, tucked away beneath the bows of the largest, oldest trees. Eske had woken her Acolyte from a sound sleep and quietly whisked her away with little but a word of patience.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to see where you are," the High Omnia intoned solemnly, "for it is a sacred place of my own. The heartgrove of my sister and I. The beginning and end of us both."

The gentle hands that lead Aster here then left her standing in the darkness, in a place that felt out of balance with the ley. Disconcerting for those not spiritually connected to it - a kindness if nothing else when compared to the surge of choking concern presently holding the High Omnia.

"My dear Aster, I need your help and your discretion. Will you swear this oath to me; that what I reveal to you on this night will henceforth be communicated never again lest it be with me."

Aster Tiernan

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster liked her sleep. It was never something she had an issue with and she did not appreciate being woken up. One did not say no to Eske, especially when Aster could hear something in her voice that was not normal - not right. She had sleepily gone with her High Omnia without comment or complaint.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to see where you are"

Aster did not need to see where she was to know that she was deep into the ancient forest. Deeper than she had ever gone before. The smell was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Eske had always been so open with her and now there was a secrecy that made her nervous. The heartgrove. It made sense now. She was in Eske's domain completely. Something was definitely up.

"My dear Aster, I need your help and your discretion. Will you swear this oath to me; that what I reveal to you on this night will henceforth be communicated never again lest it be with me."

Aster looked in the direction of the voice she knew almost as well as her own. The voice that belonged to the woman who held a piece of her heart. She had never told Eske no and today would be no different. Her voice was softer than usual as she spoke her oath to her High Omnia, her friend, and her mentor.

"You have my vow, High Omnia. I will not communicate anything that I am told this night unless it is with you." She bowed her head and closed her sightless eyes as a sign of respect.

Eske

 

[Eske]

"Your word is your bond," Eske responded with a practiced fae closing to an oath or promise, "with the moons as our witness, so it is said, so it is done. Come."

Aster would feel her mentor at her side again, guiding her further still into the heartgrove of Mirlorne. Nature shifted around them as easily as hair shifted around shoulders in a breeze. Those who had grown within Mirlorne knew that the forest was their Ladies, and their Ladies were the forest. Eske and Vashe, sister vessels of the same sprawling entity that was Mirlorne. There could not be one without the other, or so it was said.

The truth was not far from the gossip.

The pace set began to shift into something of pressing importance. Now that Eske had her Acolyte's word there was little time to lose. Their path twisted and turned in a dizzying labyrinth of ancient growth, winding through massive roots and broad trunks beneath an impossibly thick canopy of branches, leaves, and needles. The sounds of fauna dimmed the deeper they moved until they reached the center of it all.

The heartbeat of Mirlorne could be felt - the convergence of energies and memories and knowledge, compounded between the sisters and all manner of occupants within their domain lived here.

Right here.

And something was very, very wrong.

"My sister, Triumvir Vashe, is in trouble," Eske's voice resounded with deafening clarity in the clearing, resonating with vibrations of the ley like ripples on water from a droplet. "Her heartseed begins to wither, and with it," the trembling of the ground reflected the shudder of the High Omnia's own soul, "everything she had created here in Mirlorne. I fear she may be dying ... or stolen from us."

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster trusted Eske completely and walking with her was like walking on her own. Eske never let Aster falter no matter the terrain or the path. She had been guided by the High Omnia for over eleven hundred years now and that counted for something. Once they came to a stop, Aster breathed in deeply. She longed for her sight, which was something she rarely did, so she could see the beauty of the heart of Mirlorne. The beauty of Eske and her sister, Vashe, that no one else got to witness.

If she was being honest with herself, just being here and feeling the power around her was amazing enough. She did not need her sight to know this place was like no other. She could feel the power and yet there was something pulling at the energy around her. It was off, but she could not put her finger on it.

Aster listened to Eske carefully as she spoke and a frown formed on her lips. "My lady, I am not sure what help I can be to you. If you do not know her current fate, what can I do?" Aster was genuinely confused why Eske would bring her here now. She was no tracker and any object that could possible lead to Vashe was with the Triumvir and not just lying around.

She knew that Eske always had a plan and she shut her mouth before any further questions emerged. "I am sorry for my outburst. Please, High Omnia, tell me everything and what part I will play."

 

[Eske]

Eske watched her Acolyte with a tethered, weary gaze. So much of the trust, hope, and belief placed into her hands by Aster and the rest of the Duskirae ... even her sister. Despite them being of equal power and gifts, Vashe had always deferred to Eske as the greater Seer of them both. To her, Eske had deferred as the greater leader, for she was too often lost in her Seeing, taken by visions, to keep her attentions set for long.

The last decade had been a test of her aptitude to fill her sister's role, and it seemed now she would not be given a choice on the matter. All evidence suggested to Vashe's departure of her domain.

"We can never see past the decisions we do not understand," Eske spoke pointedly to her student, always teaching, always learning, always growing. That was the way of things here in Mirlorne. "Not our own, nor others. Vashe made a choice ten years ago that I could not understand, so I cannot see beyond that final glimpse. But you ..."

The High Omnia lingered at a distance from Aster for several moments, leaving her in the silence of the heartgrove where the ever constant thrumming of Mirlorne's life could be felt like a frisson of magic across one's skin, static and electric, jolting to the bone.

"You have the power to See around that choice. Take off your gloves, Aster, hold out your hands, and center yourself."

Eske waited for her to do as bid, giving her several long moments to find the quiet and stillness of her own mind before carefully placing an object the size of a melon within her palms. With it nearly ten millennia of the life that was Vashe.

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Vashe had been gone for ten years. It was but a moment in the life of a fae yet still so long to not know the whereabouts of a sister. Aster's heart hurt for Eske and she could not imagine the stress and fear that her mentor now felt.

Aster did as she was told and slowly pulled her gloves off. She pulled at each delicate finger and tucked the gloves into the waistband of the dark brown pants she was wearing. Eske had been patient enough to allow Aster to change from her nightgown.

She placed her hands out and front of her and closed her eyes. She didn't need to close her eyes to center herself but she had found over the years the her blank stare was creepy. She took a deep breath in and out before drawing a calming energy to herself.

Eske placed a medium sized sphere into her waiting palms and she was immediately bombarded with images that held memories from Vashe's life. She sifted through the older memories knowing that she would not find anything there and not wanting to pry more than required.

Aster had a feeling that she would know when she found what she was looking for. Her affinity was weird like that. She had no idea yet she had an idea. It was hard to explain.

 

[Eske]

The flashes of memories came relentlessly, endlessly. A torrent as unforgiving as a raging ocean wave. Eske watched her Acolyte strain under the onslaught, knowing well what it was she experienced. There was too much to take in all at once, and not even Eske could sift through it all on her own.

She'd need years to do it. Years without break.

Perhaps this had been foolish of her to try, but her hope had outweighed her sensibilities. Just when she was about to take the object away, though, something shifted in Aster's stance. As if she'd captured an errant insect with her mind and had to hold on to it, firmly but without force, for fear of losing it ... or smashing it.

An image of a man. Not a fae, but a mortal. Plain as the winter was cold and the summer heady, but not without a sullen charm.

A name came to her. Detlan.

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster's pale blue eyes flew open and she started to speak rapidly before the details she needed retreated. "Detlan. Red hair, red beard, blue eyes, mortal." She was starting to shake and she took a step forward trying to keep her balance. "Eske...take it..." The memories were still flowing through her and zapping her energy as it went. It was too much for her to take much more. This sphere held too many memories. More than any regular object.

Once Eske had taken the object, Aster gasped for breath. It felt like she had been drowning in an ocean of memories and only now she was able to surface. Able to breathe again. The Omnia took several deep breaths before she even tried to speak again. "He clicked, I have no idea if that is the right information but I am not usually wrong about what I am looking for. There was just so," she paused and rubbed her forehead. "So much information."

She felt for her gloves and quickly slid them back onto her hands before Eske could try to give her back the object. She would not be able to handle it. "Are you sending someone to try and find this man?"

 

[Eske]

She took the orb from her pupil without haste but tender care, a deep frown settling into her voice, "Detlan...I know this name..." and the distant wandering of a tone that suggested she traversed those same memories Aster had just witnessed within her own mind.

Silence reigned as the younger Seer reeled from her session. The heartgrove thrummed as steadily as ever, still with that strange misbeat to the tide of its power and energy. Aster might feel it more pronounced now, like a sliver in an hourglass slowly losing sand. Every second that ticked by was a grain that could not be recovered and the world around her became that much more imbalanced. The amount was minuscule, but overtime it would slowly gain weight.

"Are you sending someone to try and find this man?"

"I have sought him out already," Eske remarked absently, her voice faint, "and I was unsuccessful, I did not know what I was looking for. Now I do, but I cannot leave Mirlorne, the Withering has already begun...."

"It is you who must go and find this man," Eske was at her side again, a gentle hand at Aster's upper arm, "I have called upon Baenon to help you."

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster had already understood the situation was grave, but she did not realize how grave it was until now. She could hear the sorrow and worry in her mentors voice. She could sense that Eske would be hard pressed to calm down while she waited for some kind of word.

When Eske placed her hand on Aster's arm, she put her own hand over it. A sign of comfort that went both ways. A comfort that neither of them needed to speak aloud. "You want Baen and me to go look for this man?" Aster understood that Baen was one of the best trackers who lived and he was her literal seeing eye dog, but she still did not understand why she was going with him.

"It has been ten years and you want us to find this man. A difficult mission indeed, my lady." She thought about her oath and bit her bottom lip. "What am I allowed to speak with Baen about? He will need to know about this man that we are tracking yet that falls into my vow to not communicate any information."

 

[Eske]

"If anyone can find this man, it is Baenon, but he will need your help along the way. Ten years cold ... he does not possess the powers you do to find the clues that lay hidden by time."

Eske's tone continued to grow ever weary, but her gentle grip on her acolyte's arm did not waver. She lead her from the heartgrove and back into the greater known regions of Mirlorne forest. Aster would not be able to see that dead and dying trees dotted the wood. Leaves drooped and littered the ground out of season. Creatures fled falling branches and decaying trunk holes. Every tree that had been seeded and fed by the will and powers of her sister was leaving them.

Every plant, every flower. If it had been Vashe's wood alone there might have been a way to quarantine and stop the spread, but Vashe and Eske were intertwined. Though Eske's forest would perservere for a time, the cascade effect of the spreading death would eventually touch her creations as well. She turned her gaze away from the face of a dryad forever sleeping within her wasting tree. Never to wake or bloom again.

"You must tell him nothing of the troubles here, he cannot know - he is not of the Duskirae. Only the information of his target is pertinent to his pursuit. Detlan was my sister's Warlock who lived here for a time well before you were born. Her power gave him life beyond. He was a gentle soul and kind to her, but magic alters the mind of mortals...and she was very generous to him."

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Eske was right, Baen didn't have the skills that she did to read the things that may need to be read. Her only concern was picking out Vashe's presence among the many others. She would do it though. For Eske, for her home, and for herself. Besides the bringing the Futures to the Winter Court every year, this was the first real mission that she was being sent on.

"Understood, High Omnia. I will not break my vow." She said these words but there was a small part of her that worried. She trusted Baen with her life, but his loyalty did not lie with the Dusk Court. She would have to make sure to be careful. "When do we leave?" She had to admit that she was no longer tired. She wanted to go right away and bring Vashe home as soon as possible. She followed Eske's orders though and so she waited for the answer.

 

[Eske]

Eske's footsteps slowed as they entered the central atrium of the Mirlorne estate. Ancient trees held a veritable city of white aloft within their branches, elegantly grown and intertwined in strong but detailed architecture.

"You must prepare and ready for a long journey. Understand this, Aster," the High Omnia lifted a hand to tenderly smooth wisps of hair along the younger fae's shoulder, "you have become a respected figure of Dusk. Before long, the Duskirae will be looking to you for guidance. They will need you. Be mindful of what you find as you go out into this world. Not everything is as it seems."

Tender lips, soft as rose petals, pressed a kiss against the bangs covering Aster's forehead.

"I will meet you at the southern gates at sunrise."

Then, without another word, Eske's presence was gone from her.

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Eske's words were ominous. It sent shivers through Aster as her mentor kissed her head. Aster committed words to memory and bid goodnight to Eske. Once Aster was home, she began to pack. It was a haphazard affair since she had no idea where they were heading. She hoped she would be able to purchase things along the way if needed.

Aster did not fall back asleep. She tried for a little bit before her thoughts were bombarded with every terrible scenerio. She finally gave up and made herself a simple breakfast. After eating, she grabbed her stuff and headed to the southern gates. Her stomach was felt like butterflies had made a new home there and she was not sure if it was nervousness or the excitement of seeing Baen.

Probably both. As Aster approached the gates, she looked around for Eske or Baen.

 

[Baenon]

Left alone to his own devices, Baenon wandered very little. He kept to his home in the Winter Court, nestled into the wood at the outskirts of the city. Secluded, peaceful, quiet. It was his escape from the ever spinning chaos of the fae realm he'd come to call his life. Here there was no judgement, no opinion, no distraction, no pressure to do or be anything but himself.

A place he could study, expand his mind, and reflect on the many things that otherwise invaded his dreams at night. It was where he had expected to spend the next month, alone with his continued education. Perfectly content to while away his hours learning about historical runes and finishing the new piano solo he'd been working on for nearly a week now. He was doing just that when the letter arrived, bidding him leave his solitude for an extended mission abroad.

He could not have been more incensed.

"I fear this will be the last I can provide you for some time," Eske's voice fell like a wilted petal from a dying flower to the black shuck's ear. Her melancholy was palpable, her fatigue as evident in her eyes as it was in her movements. Trouble shadowed her words and steps, but he hadn't the innate desire to ask after it.

"For how long," his voice insisted low, leading him to his self interest as he was want to do.

"I cannot say," Eske frowned, looking down to he crystalline phial in her hands, glimmering in the light of dawn like a diamond, "but it will run out and you will need to find alternate means of relief until ..."

He watched her gaze drop, saw the quiver of her hands, and reached out to claim the phial, "Say no more. I will ration it carefully." There was nothing more to do. Baen was not a creature of blame but one of action and progression. Realizing now he had been leaning far too heavily on the High Omnia's charitable contributions to his sanity, he endeavored to give himself no reason to be upset with her. Fortuitous that Aster would arrive at the very moment he pocketed the phial, "She's here."

"Take care of her, Baenon."

"That was not the understanding we came to for this mission, High Omnia," Baenon impressed the heradryad with a discontent scowl, his dark gaze shifting to the flight of the bird that was Aster Tiernan gliding in, "I will do what I can to bring her back to you in one piece, but if I must choose between your Acolyte and my Target..." with a sharp sniff, Baenon turned on the spot, making to step several paces away as tendrils of black smoke furled out from his form.

"Then I pray you do not have to make such a choice."

By the time Aster joined them she would find Baenon's massive black hound form standing nearby an exhausted looking Eske. Baen was curiously bedecked in his warmount harness - not something she'd seen him in before. A leather saddle seat rested on his back just behind the point of his withers, with pouches and saddlebags resting at either side of his shoulders and ribs. A strap looped over the back of his neck, resting just in front of the saddle where a rider might keep their hold and balance by. The black leather shown dull in the sun, well worn and used.

Baen did not look pleased with his pointed ears flattened against his skull.

"Take this," Eske turned to Aster, pressing into her hands a folded parchment, "it is a map to three locations where you may find clues to the whereabouts of Detlan or my sister. That is all the help I am able to offer."

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster had seen Baen and Eske talking as she descended towards the ground. A small swirl of wind surrounded Aster as her feet hit the ground in her natural form. Her right hand slid along his haunch until her hand found the worn leather of the saddle she knew well. She turned to the sound of Eske's voice before her hands wrapped around a piece of parchment. Aster held it in silence for a second before she pulled her mentor into a hug. This could be goodbye forever. One never knew what the road ahead held. "I will make you proud, High Omnia."

Aster slid the map into the pocket of her black pants for easy access as she returned her hand to Baen. Her palm ran over his short, thick hair until she reached his head. She scratched his left ear and placed a kiss on the side of his snout. "You are such a pretty boy, Baen," her voice was so low that only he could hear her. She smirked before turning around and feeling until she found the point where she could pull herself onto his back.

Once she was up and comfortable, she adjusted her own pack that rested on her back with the strap resting across her chest. Other than the dagger on her hip and one in her boot, she was unarmed. Aster was not a fighter. That was Baen's job. She grabbed the strap that was looped around his neck and patted him gently. "I am ready Baen, let's get going." Her voice was uncharacteristically solemn as she settled in for the ride. She normally loved riding Baen, but this time was different. She was too nervous to truly enjoy the wind in her hair.

 

[Baenon]

Sleek and lean, Baen's beastly silhouette cut a svelt black form against the rising sun. Different from the rest of the black shucks, he lacked the long and thick wolfen fur as well as their flailing tails. His was of shorter black fur, broad and long chest, a finely tapered line that ended in a regal skull atop a stout neck. A cropped tail and ears further set him apart, giving him a more compacted and clean build than the wispy and oft'times fuffy shapes of his packmates.

Out of them all, he was the only one that wore armor in his hound form. Baen didn't have that thick ruff to protect his skin like they did.

His red eyes tracked the progression of Aster as she smoothed her hand forward, notably unpliant as she scratched at his ear and kissed at his muzzle. Baen's lip ticked at her words, but she received no snarling rebuttal. He'd not openly lash out at one of Eske's own in front of the High Omnia.

"Baenon," Eske offered gently, drawing his attention as he moved to step off, "...left leads true," she said, her eyes glassy in visions, "trust the one that others shun ... beware the white horse and its rider."

The shuck gave a low rumble of reply, ears flattening against his skull as he turned and headed off down the rolling vista and away from the treeline of Mirlorne. Before long Eske had disappeared from the clearing and the sun had fully arrived in the sky for the day. Baen made his way at a steady pace through the gentle wave of the fields, the tall grasses just barely tickling at his belly. When he came upon a mortal roadway, Aster would feel the gentle tingle of glamour magic as the hound shifted his outward appearance to that of a black horse.

"We will reach the first location on her map by nightfall," he informed her, "do not stray from my sight and under no circumstances are you to speak to any mortals."

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Eske was usually ominous, but she had been extra ominous as of late. The skin on the back of Aster’s neck prickled at Eske’s final words and she closed her eyes. Any mission that started off with the word beware made Aster worry even more. She was already leery of entering the mortal realm for the first time even with Baenon by her side. Aster was one hundred certain that her fear and worry surrounded her like a blanket right now.

The Omnia did not say anything else as Baen took off and Aster rode in silence as her worried thoughts took up all the space in her mind. Aster may not have been able to see her surroundings but she knew how much time had passed by the warmth of the sun moving upwards on her body.

The tingle of magic rolled over her and she took a wild guess that they were entering the mortal domain and that Baen was no longer a giant dog to the untrained eye. When he spoke, Aster’s lip curled slightly. She did not like being told what to do so her response was laced with sarcasm.

“First, Baenon,” she rarely used his full first name so that should have been the first sign of her attitude. “I cannot see if I stray from your sight. Second,” I do what I want. She did not speak those words though. Her attitude faltered slightly before she did finish her sentence. “You do not have to worry about me speaking to any mortals.”

Aster sighed deeply. Baen was right and this was his area of expertise. She was literally just there to sift through things for possible clues. He was the tracker, he was the warrior, he was her eyes. She would defer to him for almost everything on this trip. She would still sneer when he told her what to do though.

 

[Baenon]

"You can tell well enough," Baen rumbled in response, "little raven."

Her ability to hear him and, generally, sense where he was through magic alone should have been enough. But the Omnia would be distracted and out of place in the mortal realm, away from where the ley were strong and she had the protection of her title and kind to keep her. Here those things mattered very little, and unless they lucked out that these locations were as equally well placed as the Dusk Groves were on ley convergences then they could not rely on having that fount of power at their disposal.

Baenon knew this for he had spent much of his entire life traversing the ley across the known realms, both fea and mortal. His knowledge and, subsequently, his disgust for the mortal people of these lands was greater than he cared for.

"You have never even met a mortal before, have you."

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster felt some measure of comfort when Baen called her by his nickname for her. The nickname he had never muttered in front of anyone else during all their years of friendship. The small comfort was not enough to ease any of the dread that was currently coursing through her body and settling in the pit of her stomach.

"No, I have not. There has never been a need for me to come into contact with them." Her voice was soft as she spoke. She knew Baen could hear her and she did not have to worry about any eavesdroppers. She was not really happy about having to come into contact with them now, but the orders of the High Omnia were not to be ignored.

What she was about to say was something she would never admit to anyone except for her seeing eye puppy. "Baen, I am scared..." Aster was not someone to show her weaknesses. She had lost her sight at such a young age that she had automatically compensated for it as she grew up. Her sight only limited her slightly, but she liked to make sure nothing else ever did and that included emotions like fear. She thrived off adventure and thrills so admitting this scared her was a big deal.

 

[Baenon]

"You are better off without," the hound replied, "they are little more than leeches on this world with very little in redeeming qualities."

Of course sometimes there was one that made value and note of themselves well enough to be recognized by the fae. Or stupid enough, as it were. Baenon had a low opinion of warlocks if only because they still came from mortal stock of which he had negative respect for.

"Baen, I am scared..."

His withers rolled smoothly at the front of the saddle in the steady, purposeful stalk of his gait down the road. It took a sweeping turn down around a hillside, hugging a human laid wall of stone that lined the confines of a cattle pasture. It was with luck for the farmer that the hound had eaten his fill before disembarking for this journey.

"Be not afeared," his deep baritone responded, "you are with me, therefore you are safe."

The hill turning upward again, rising high above the surrounding valley which opened up before them. A brilliant sky of sunlight over endless, rolling fields of green. Farmland as far as the eye could see, patchworked by various crops and criss crossed by roadways and fences. "Look," he said to her as he paused at the precipice of the hill for the view. Aster knew of the scarring along his wither, just within her reach that she could use to for Second Sight.

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster trusted Baen with her life. She did not know if he trusted her the same, but she knew everything about his past and she had never shared it with anyone. It had been a complete accident the first time she had borrowed his sight and he had almost killed her. He had been irate and it had taken both herself and Eske to calm him down. She still couldn't control her Second Sight completely, but she tried to never pull at his history. It worked sometimes.

Aster already had her gloves off before she had even mounted Baen. His canine form was one of the few things she could touch without issue and she liked touching his fur. They had figured out many years ago that hair somehow blocked her power. The Omnia felt along his wither until her fingers touched the scar and her magic flared to life.

Her conscious was pulled forward to where his eyes rested in his head. She smiled as she looked out over the valley. Baen had picked the perfect spot to stop and share the view. Her eyes roamed over the different colors and patterns before she sighed happily. It was not often she got to see such beautiful things with her own - well with Baen's - eyes.

"It's beautiful. Thank you, Baen." She withdrew her hand from the scar after a few more minutes and she returned to the darkness she lived in. In the process of figuring out her power, they had discovered that if she took too much from Baen it would cause him to have terrible migraines. She never wanted to hurt him...at least not in that way.

 

[Baenon]

Speaking on such things was not something Baenon came readily by. He left it to those of softer hearts to tongue words of poetry or appreciation. He left Aster's words in his usual silence, giving his head a gentle shake as he felt the tingling of her powers seep away from his sight. The hound pressed on along the road, following its twisting path through rolling hillsides and grassy knolls. The day was pleasantly warm, the skies clear, but he smelled on the air a coming rain. They would need to take shelter tonight.

There was hope that the first location would be one appropriate for their needs. Eske had not spoken on what, exactly, these locations were - only where. A house, perhaps? Or would it lead only to some forest clearing magicked away from the mortal realm. After ten years of disuse, even Baenon would be hard pressed to find such a place - the Duskirae were not known for keeping their secrets for nothing.

"I have my suspicions that these locations will be hidden behind Asks, much like the Dusk Groves," he rumbled to Aster after a long while of silence, "is that something you have skill in navigating?"

 

[Aster Tiernan]

Aster was used to ridiculously long silences when she was with Baen, but this time she let it be instead of trying to force him to talk. Her thoughts were focused on everything that could happen to cause them to fail. The Omnia was afraid that she wouldn't be able to find anything to help Eske and her sister. What would happen to Eske? Would Aster feel the blame for the rest of her extremely long life? So many questions and no answers were driving her insane.

She had been absently petting Baen when his deep voice pulled her back to the present. "Hmm?" She mumbled as the words clicked in her brain. "Oh, yes, of course I do." Aster was sure he would have known the answer but Baen was not one to ask questions that he knew the answer to.

"How long do you think it will be before we reach the first location?" She let her worries take back over in the silence that surrounded them while she waited for her answers.

 

[Baenon]

He assumed as much, given the nature of her needing to come and go from the Dusk Court groves as she did, but he wasn't aware of how the Asks truly worked. Could a blind fae navigate them alone? Only the Duskirae knew, and the Duskirae weren't telling.

"Several hours," he replied, his voice dropping and his gate slowing as he spied a horse-drawn wagon coming up the hill around the bend, "...draw your hood, Aster."

She'd be able to hear the clip-clop of hoofbeats and the rattling of the wagon wheels long before it arrived near them. An older gentleman sat in the front wagon bench, driving an equally aged farm horse at a lazy pace. He glanced up as he passed the woman on her black horse, smiling friendly-like and tipping his hat to her as he went by.

Baen could feel Aster tense up through the saddle, her heels digging at his side, "Just a farmer," he rumbled to her, "there is a village along the way where we will stop so I get pick up a few more supplies and you can eat."