The Trials of Ascension

Chapter 2 – Otylia

Chapter 2 – OtyliaI’m dead.

IT WAS MY FIRST—ADMITTEDLY STUPID—THOUGHT after Jaryło sliced my throat. Of course I was dead, but death wasn’t what I’d expected.

Father claimed souls wandered for forty days before journeying to the Smorodina River that divided Jawia, the realm of the living, from Nawia, that of the dead. Instead, I knelt among the mosses in a dense swamp of willow, birch, and alder trees. Above me spread a tapestry of vines and lush, full branches that wound around each other, allowing only a few streaks of daylight through. Roots stretched from the ground to an enormous tree whose trunk somehow began high above.

A chorus of frogs echoed across the swamp as I felt the familiar moss. It was soft, as it often was after a storm. The smell of rain against the dirt and bark filled the air as a droplet fell on the tip of my nose. With an exasperated breath, I flicked it away.

Where am I?

The swamp felt familiar, but I had never seen it before. Dziewanna’s… Mother’s… power allowed me to sense a forest’s spirit, and this one buzzed with life unlike any in Jawia.

A wind whispered among the trees and blew a few stray strands of black hair into my face. Is Wašek alive? I thought as I forced myself to stand. Gods, I am a fool. Here I was, dead, and I was worrying about my demonic—what? It was obvious our relationship had moved beyond mere friendship, but he was a demon and I a goddess. What did that make us?

I gripped my head in my hands and screamed in frustration. We’d been so close to the clans. But Jaryło had ruined everything.

I clasped my throat where Jaryło had sliced it. No scarring remained. He’d only killed me when something struck him. I assumed Wacław had found a last ounce of žityje to drive Marzanna’s Thunderstone dagger into the god’s back, but that concerned me more. His black veins had already returned before Jaryło’s betrayal. If he’d used the winds again… “Gods help him.”

“It is an odd thing, praying to yourself,” a rough voice said from behind me.

I spun and reached for Dziewanna’s power. The roots beneath me grew around my legs like an armor as the trees awaited my command.

A bearded gray man studied me, his head donned with cattle horns and his body with a cloak of bear fur. Slowly, he shuffled through the shallow swamp waters with the help of a willow staff that curled over itself at its peak. His steps didn’t disturb their calm, and as he passed through a beam of light, his eyes shone green.

“You have your mother’s spirit,” the man said as he leaned against his staff and studied me.

Weles… I gritted my teeth, fighting back my fear at meeting the god of the underworld. “And I have none of yours. Where is Jaryło?”

He chuckled like an old man entertained by a child. “You possess her mind too, I see. Jaryło is here, as are you and I. Tell me, little one, do you know where that is?”

“Nawia, but I haven’t crossed the Smorodina.”

“Gods need not cross the stinking river nor wander like aimless human souls. Besides, Marzanna’s minions control the river, and she is not known to be kind to those who kill her pets.”

I scoffed. “As if the mistress of death shows favor to any but the cruel.”

“Is the boy cruel?”

“Anything but.”

Weles placed his hand on the trunk of a willow. His fingers followed the grooves in the bark. “Yet he is a demon, and demons are a corruption of the natural balance—the World Tree’s bastards.” He raised his gaze to the oak high above.

“Wait…” I stumbled back, gasping. “This is the base of the World Tree?”

“Indeed it is.” He approached a cluster of roots directly beneath the tree. They twisted together but formed a gap large enough for a person to enter into. “This is the Heart of Nawia, where the World Tree’s roots lead to the realms above. Demons threaten this bond between the realms. Whether the boy believes so or not, he is nothing but a tool of destruction. Why else would Marzanna be so fond of him?”

“Why the questions, Weles? You’re a god. Surely you know more of Marzanna’s schemes than I do.”

A grin crossed his weathered face. He drove the staff into the ground, and the walls of vines creaked around us. “There has been much secrecy in recent moons, and all the whispers lead back to her. It is no surprise she wishes to take Jawia for herself. But why now? That is the question neither god, demon, nor man can answer. None except Marzanna herself.”

When he raised his hand, roots from both above and below wove themselves into a throne before the Heart. He sat upon it, never taking his gaze from me. “I fear her allies stretch far further than any of us expected. For some odd reason, however, that płanetnik of yours has her attention more than any other.”

“Why the concern now?” I asked, brow furrowed. “You didn’t seem to care when he was dying—when I saved him. Why should I listen to you at all? You killed me.”

“Is it too much that I ask to see my daughter?”

I clenched my fists and spat at his feet. “I’m not your daughter! A father doesn’t tell his minion to slice his daughter’s throat.” I huffed, my hand returning to where the Moonblade of Kwiecień had drawn blood. “Mother fled from you because she saw who you are. Now she’s trapped by Marzanna. I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back, and I’ll do it without you.”

He leaned forward, clutching the cane between his palms. “What if I said the only way for you to rescue her is with my assistance?”

“Then I’d say I don’t believe you.” I lowered my head. Unwelcomed tears burned my eyes as I remembered Mother’s embrace in the Lake of Reflection. She’d given up everything for me to be free from Weles. I wouldn’t allow her sacrifice to be in vain.

Shadows hung over Weles’s face as he settled on his throne. “Don’t be a foolish child. You are little more than a godling, powerless against Marzanna until you Ascend.”

“Ascend?”

“All the power you currently possess is channeled from your mother or grandmother, but as gods, our strength lies with the forces of the Three Realms we control and protect. I rule over Nawia and the lowlands of Jawia as well as sorcery, cattle, bears, and elements of nature. Your mother nurtures the wilds where no man may go, the game that men hunt, and the mares they ride. Soon, you will earn your place, but before then, I cannot allow you to leave. An un-Ascended goddess is vulnerable. Marzanna could slay you forever if she were to discover who you are.”

Earn my place?

In the little time since Mother had told me she was Dziewanna, I hadn’t comprehended that I could be the goddess of something. It had been complex and frustrating enough to grasp that my parents were gods. Knowing that I would have power over a domain was too much. All I wanted was to return to my friends and find Mother. I wasn’t a goddess. Goddesses were beautiful, graceful, and respected, not outcast witches who no boy bothered to catch a second glimpse of. No boy but a demon.

“You say she could kill me,” I said with one arm held across my body. “How? Aren’t I immortal?”

A weight filled Weles’s eyes. “Until you Ascend, you possess immortality like that of a demon—an impossibly long life unless you are killed by curse or blade.”

I winced, remembering Wacław’s blackened fingers. He actually saved me from Marzanna’s Curse…

“Jaryło wished to bring you here by less violent means,” Weles continued, “as it required a large sacrifice of my žityje to recover your soul when you died. In the end, it matters little. You will Ascend when the time is right, and your place among the gods will be set.”

“How am I to know my place when this has fallen upon me in mere days?” I asked. “You can’t keep me here while Jawia is falling apart!”

Weles waved his hand dismissively. “The land of the living never lacks chaos. Marzanna is not the first to covet it for herself, nor will she be the last. Your mother is immortal and so shall you be. We will wait until you are ready. Until then,” he said, turning away and staring up at the World Tree, “I will teach you the ways of the gods so long as you leave your old life behind and take your place by your brother’s side and mine.”

I felt sick as I crossed my arms and stepped back, leaving the roots’ protection. “Just a few weeks ago I said the same thing about whoever ruled our tribe’s lands, but there are things, people, worth fighting for. I’ll find my own way.”

As I turned away, the trees creaked around me.

I ran.

Water soaked my legs as I slid through the trees and their shadows, hoping to leave the god behind. My weapons were now enemies as branches and vines shot towards me. They scraped my arms and tore my dress, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

Weles wished to trap me in Nawia for an eternity until I was powerful enough for him to use for his own will. I’d seen it in his eyes. He was no different than Marzanna, and it didn’t matter he was my father. Ascended or not—I would not be tamed.

I burst into the light drenched in swamp water and sweat. An endless plain lay before me. Flowers of violet and red, blue and yellow, bloomed upon its hills and grasses swayed in its valleys. Cattle and horses grazed under the sun as people in pure white tunics wandered among them. I struggled to find my breath as its beauty caught me.

Then I heard the snakes.

They were everywhere at once. Branches shot from the trees and entrapped my arms as the serpents slithered up my legs, winding around them like relentless vines before digging their fangs into my skin.

I fought and I thrashed, but my body was weak. When I reached for the power that had saved me from Yuliya’s ice, there was nothing. My mind drifted, and though I tried to scream, my voice was only a whisper in the void.