Ur Ung Baen

Into the forest

Andrea walked into the forest of Memory, her black linen camisole dancing in the breeze, Desdrian following behind. She had changed her attire to a more comfortable wear. A tight night sky colored leather body suit, with black leather boots, her hair styled into a braid. She had a knee-long, oversized, long-sleeved camisole over it, fitted by a high-waist-night-sky blue belt adorned with silver stars.

They had come to an agreement; first came first. She needed a way to survive the coming buttload of crazy batshit that was in motion. Unfortunately, an old contract couldn’t do that for her.

Welcoming and lifting the block on Hoggs's powers had complicated things. An event that fell so out of Téra character that it did not even come to a prediction. But it altered her future greatly. The only one who could see a fated future, and not a prediction, was Desdrian, the god of Destany, and even then, that fate could be altered.

So, she had taken her time plotting for the day Arad would be freed from his prison. That guy hated her gut since the day she was born, so she was sure he would come for her, and he wouldn’t come alone.

He had tried to kill her several times already, almost succeeded at it even.

So here she was setting foot in the forest of memories in search for a servant of Ená. An extinct order that served the Tritans, a dying breed of powerful immortal warriors, if not extinct, with powers in comparison to the Elementals.

Their father had fought them long ago, and almost annihilated their whole race while carving the Tuátane. However, the battle had been so bloody that, even today, he had marks on his body from their axes.

So that left them with only one option when it came to finding a servant of Ená. The forest of Memory. Where all dreams come to rest.

Past and present, the forest was the home of all that one’s imagination had once conjured. A place beyond time and space.

- Are you sure it’s there? - Andrea asked.

- Yes, I’m sure. - He answered, slightly irritated. - I saw it there.

- And whose fate were you seeing?

- And that matters because? - Andrea looked at him suspiciously.

Desdrian shrugged.

- That is all you need to know. I still value people's right to their privacy, you know? I’m a gentleman. - He said with conviction.

Andrea rolled her eyes at the comment and the smug smile on her brother's face.

She tried another approach.

- How are you so sure that it’s there at this time then?

- The log... it... - Desdrian summoned a sword to his hands and assumed a battle pose.

Upon seeing Andrea change his attire, Desdrian had changed clothes as well, nothing new. He frequently changed his attire based on his mood.

Unfortunately, the green pajamas with pink pine trees he had chosen to wear, in contrast with his black boots with golden stripes, and big white characters that read "Call me daddy", made the gigantic sword he had conjured out of place.

Making it more comic than fierce.

That and the fact that he thought a sword would help.

The Forest of Memory was a tricky place. Swords seldom helped with protecting their intruders.

Andrea grimaced at the ridicule, but she did not stop.

A rabbit jumped from the shadows and a couple of meters behind a group of faceless fading children followed suit, running and giggling. Desdrian gasped.

He looked at Andrea, she was no longer there. She had continued her journey inside the forest, leaving him behind, seemingly unaware of the fading kids.

It was a disturbing, to say the least, sight. The children's bodies were vanishing like smoke at their edges, like water evaporating under the warm sun.

Forcing himself to stop looking at them, Desdrian picked up the pace and he hurried to behind the goddess.

- The f**k was that? - He asked as he reached her.

- Why? Need to call Daddy ?

- hum hum, very funny, the f**k was that? - Andrea shrugged.

- You are in the forest of memory...

Desdrian silently mimicked her response in a mockery of a manner.

- No joke, didn't know. - His sarcasm reaching his limit. - and they are faceless because??

- You do not see yourself in a dream. Your mind doesn’t find it necessary to imagine it.

- Oh shit... wait, like everyone?

- Yes.

Desdrian dropped the sword and summoned a hand mirror.

- s**t, f**k, thanks... I’m too handsome for me to be faceless...

- What do you know? I didn’t say that if your brain dreamt of a mirror, you would not see your reflection in it. - She took the mirror out of his hand, making it disappear.

- What? - Desdrian felt his face. It was all there. She could not be... f**k. - Wait I’m not dreaming...

He was about to retort when a trotting sound started.

A mist was forming about fifteen meters from them, and in it, a giant battalion of sand elves appeared covered in white smoke.

Carved in the god’s image, they could easily pass for one, being in size, strength or manner and they were at full speed coming in their direction. The elves were screaming battle cries, in full armor, white cloth covering them head to toe, with their helmets covering their faces, spears in hand.

- Ah, Andrea?

He inquired, slightly panicking as she kept calmly walking in their direction.

- It’s but a dream, they can’t hurt us.

- You sure? Because that blade is coming straight at us. - He said, pointing at one of the soldiers.

Argh god’s, the god was skittish.

Andrea summoned a dagger and threw it at him. The blade went through the soldier, dissolving him momentarily.

- They are made of memory. As long as you know that they can’t hurt you.

- As long?

- Generally speaking, memories and dreams are as strong as your belief in them. The more real they seem to you, the more they will be. But if you know you are in one, they hold no power over you.

- Seriously?!

A wave of fading elves hit him, passing right through him.

It's just a dream, just a dream you hold no power over me. He repeated in his mind.

He felt chills all over his body, all his senses were suddenly on high alert. His hands started to sweat and his throat dried. Voices of plea, encouragement and rage filled his ears.

As a wave of emotions went through him, he felt scared, confused, angry, happy, hopeful and lost, and just as he was feeling overwhelmingly suffocated by his emotions, it stopped.

- What is this? - he inquired. His voice a squeaky, hoarse whisper.

- Dreams.

- But these feelings... - a second wave came at him; the scenario had changed. They were now in the middle of a battlefield.

He looked at Andrea, his eyes watering.

She passed right through them as if they were nothing. How could she do that? Was she hollow inside? It hurt, it hurt so badly, these feelings, their voices.

Andrea looked back at him and said something he could not understand, and the dream dissipated.

- Don’t let yourself be affected by the forest. - She said. - Next time I will let you drown in it.

- You could have stopped it all along? - he was furious, she had let him pass through all that for s**t! f*****g cunt! - The f**k!

- Don’t whine. It’s not safe to do so. Not all dreamers take “orders” nicely.

She kept her voice calm and composed, even though Desdrian knew she could read his thoughts.

They were in her realm. After all, there was very little she could not do there.

As always, he could not decide if his sister was just that oblivious or if she was simply that weird? Was it weird? He did not know she was "something" and "nothing" all in one.

He felt as if something was eluding him. Had he not said she had no humor earlier in the day?

Yet she had just been funny, even if in a sarcastic, cruel way, since they walked in the forest.

Or was it the forest? Was she pretending all along?

He could not seem to understand her.

As he was considering all this, a tree stem full on hit him at vengeful force.

A large sound echoed in the forest as he dented it with his forehead.

He cursed. His sister was about a meter in front of him, seemingly unaware.

He rubbed his forehead and breathed soundly. Yeah, yeah, heartless, that was the word he was missing.

He took a deep breath and went after her.

Cleaning the blood from his nose, he approached her.

- How much further do you need to go? And is it just me or is the forest getting denser, darker, and creepier?

He looked around, the light of the eternal moon was becoming scarce and the path denser, a strange energy circulating all over. Making him feel uneasy, like he had just entered somewhere forbidden.

- Not far, just until we find what we are looking for.

The forest of Memory was composed much like an onion, of various layers. From happy, to hopeful, to weird, to scary, until, by the time you get to the inner circle, you are confronted with your most secret, deep inner memories. Those were usually hidden.

But they were looking for neither and for all of them.

So, it was not only a matter of where but also how to access the memory.

Therefore, she took them just deep enough for her to be able to access the forest network without using much of her power..

- And that would be?

- The last servant of Ená. - Desdrian looked at her with a dumbfounded expression in his face. Was she seriously talking to him as if it had not been him who told her whom to look for?

- Her name, give me her name.

- Oh s**t right. Hileina. Hileina Jaber-Tier.

The name of the woman echoed through the forest, the wind hardened, gaining strength and speed, lifting tree branches, throwing leaves and bits of dirt at them. The sound became louder, screaming the servants' name.

Andrea grabbed Desdrian by the elbow and said something he could not distinguish. When had she approached him?

She gestured something with her left hand. A small sliver of light formed in her palm.

Suddenly, all was quiet. He could no longer hear the deafening sound of the growing wind. It was bliss.

A voice called him.

Desdrian... Des...Desdrian!

Andrea shook his elbow.

I need you with me. Tell me when you see her.

Lifting her palm, she drew a circle in the air. The wind started to get sucked into the circle, filling it with its strength, until images started to appear in it, but none was her.

It was impossible, he thought.

She is dead.

Memories do not die. She said.

Desdrian looked again into the circle, his eyes hurting from the strength of the wind in his pupils.

There, he caught a glimpse of her. He pointed at it.

The circle started to get bigger, pulling him, grabbing hold of him like a giant over its next meal. He panicked.

The vortex got stronger, and he fell in.

He could feel the air thicken, the rain falling over his shoulders, his boots soaking in the mud.

Even the energy of the cosmos was different. He was no longer in the forest.

His eyes widened as he realized that he was in Niágar, the legendary land of the Tritans, where the Garthtamé Tower resided.

And therefore, in grave danger.