Kilmeny was exhausted. The sort of bone-deep weariness that comes from days of challenging physical and mental labor. Mother had taken over her training, and Mother was a perfectionist. Within the tiny tree and the halls of the Oakenfold, Kilmeny learned to expand and hold holloways in the blink of an eye and under immense stress. She learned every edible plant in Mother’s secret forest. She learned to make medicines and to make poisons. She learned to make antidotes. She learned the subtle ways trees communicated.
Mother no longer needed the rest typical of a mortal being, and though she tried to remember that Kilmeny needed sleep, she found it difficult to remember how much. She did listen when Kilmeny explained her fear of dreaming and nightmares and the Nothing and told her how to ma
