Rebirth: Lady of the River

Chapter Five: Faolan

She wasn't what I was expecting, but perhaps that was the beauty of it all. What were we expecting? The prophecy was ambiguous aside from the details that she would have red hair and a name that tasted woody. The valerian plant was known for having a wood-like flavor, which confirmed that portion of the prophecy. However, looking at her, she appeared to be a tired and frightened young woman. I could not deny that she was amongst one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen, from her smooth and perfectly constructed features, to her angelic blue eyes, and soft copper hair. 

Only in a dirty, bloodstained chemise and a ragged blanket, Valeria was ill-dressed and wide eyed around the company. Already one miracle had been demonstrated, even though it seemed not to be intentional. Still, the thought that the Sebian soldier had beaten the Lady of the Rill when bound and defenseless boiled my blood. 

I didn't know what drew me to her and I expected there was a plain answer, such as instinct and attraction. She was lovely, it would only be natural that I, among many others, would lust after her. 

Morning had come and the Sebian's blood had been spilled amongst the pine needles, where the trees would feed off of his life. The men were saddling up and Enchanter Emrys remained with Lady Valeria to keep her company. We would be returning to Thagallia now that the mission had been completed successfully. Now, we needed to extract her to the safety of our own borders before Sebia caught wind. Despite being as careful as possible, I knew that overstaying our welcome could mean disaster.

It had been a long stay in a hostile land and many of my peers were excited to return home. Lady Valeria took the horse that had once belonged to the Sebian soldier. She was clearly nervous as she stepping up, still barefoot and ill dressed. Her chemise rose up, revealing smooth porcelain legs. I stared longer than was acceptable, Emrys bringing up alongside of her as she tried to tug down the hem of her skirt, pulling her blanket closer. 

"I can't wait to return and see Mina," Conall sighed as the group began moving. He spoke fondly of his mate, preening Iain on his shoulder. "We've been out here for a few moons, haven't we?"

I nodded silently.

"It all paid off. The Lady is safely with us, but..." Conall paused, about to speak the doubts we all had. "She's not what I expected."

"What did you expect?" I asked. The prophecy was vague and had no information other than that the Lady of the Rill would unite the kingdom.

"I don't know... but she just seems confused and quiet. I thought she'd be more... knowledgeable."

We all assumed that. The Goddess gives us this gift and yet we look it in the mouth and wonder why it's not even better than we had hoped. She healed herself without trying, I can only imagine what else she might be able to do, I thought, but did not voice these opinions to him. "The Lady is not an answer to all, but a tool to help us fix it. We cannot put all the burden on her shoulders."

"I suppose that's right. The Goddess would expect us to pull the load ourselves," Conall considered.

Few would voice their disdain or confusion to me. Perhaps because Conall was higher ranked and considered a Beta amongst the civilization, did he feel comfortable voicing his opinions. Before true sophistication, Thagallia was run by several clans or packs. As we were required to branch out and interact with humans, we adopted more policies and infrastructure. Even if packs were no longer in ordinance, there were still the unspoken assignments of our births. At this rate, all of Thagallia was one enormous pack. As most leaders in the military, I was an Alpha. My own regiment that I headed was an elite operations team that worked on missions assigned by the Crown. We had been out on our mission for months now and would have continued to remain in place until we found the Lady.

We continued through the forest, eventually breaking the treeline to the edge of Sebia's border. Once, the forest had continued. Much of Thagallia had been beautiful, wild forest aside from the farmland more inland toward the capitol. However, when King Ulster saw to stripping our land, the Shades had purged the trees, causing them to wither and the soil to blacken as if it had been scorched. For as far as the eye could see, black expanse sat where a forest once did.

This was the most dangerous part of our journey, as our convoy was visible for miles and by the Sebia border. 

"Let's get everyone moving in a canter, we can't remain here," I ordered, sending Conall to send the command. 

"My lady, please, we must continue-" Enchanter Emrys was throwing nervous glanced over his shoulder as Lady Valeria had halted her horse completely. "It is not safe here."

"Wrong. It's all wrong," she said.

I pushed my horse forward, cutting a line through the other soldiers to see what had stopped them.

Lady Valeria dismounted, her bare toes in the soil. Her face shifted, contorting in pain, as if she could feel what the trees and animals had when the Shades had burned and cursed the land. Mages varied in talent and we had no idea what Lady Valeria was capable of. I knew Magical Empathy was a skill some people possessed, but again there were variations. Some mages could read minds through contact with others...

The image around the young woman rippled, my eyes snapping to Emrys. I knew what this meant, because I'd seen it happen to him before. "A glamour. How does she have a glamour about her? Those were real manacles, were they not?"

"They were," Emrys admitted, perplexed and nervous as he wrung his hands over his horse's reins. "They were generic suppression manacles. It's possible that she has such immense mana that-"

Valeria screamed, falling down on her hands and knees, digging her fingers through the sooty earth. 

I winced, her pain was palpable, the rest of my men turning to see what might have happened. 

"My lady!" Emrys persisted, getting down from his horse, attempting to touch her shoulder.

The interruption caused a chain of events. Emrys was blasted backwards. If he weren't a mage, I think the blow might have killed him. He was left dazed on the earth, head plopping back down as he passed out from the impact. Spiderwebbing from beneath her feet, grass and flowers began to blossom, spreading like wildfire in a circumference around her. Beneath my own horse, the earth became fertile and small saplings began twisting up. 

She remained on the ground, power pulsing from hands and feet, repairing the broken land. Again, her visage rippled, threatening to break the illusion that was trapped over her. I approached her cautiously, she was whispering beneath her breath as she rocked slightly.

"It's ripped, I must sew it. The roots are string to weave the fabric on the loom-" 

"Ser! Ser, Sebian soldiers are approaching from the north west!" Llyod galloped over, his aw clear on his face, but it was overridden by his fear of the large party that was riding to greet us. 

I cursed, glancing between Valeria and the approaching throng of enemy riders. 

"We must prepare to meet them. I will remain here with two others to protect the Lady of the Rill," I instructed, passing the baton to Llyod. 

"Wrong. Defilers. Ron naa il- creosa!" The glamour shattered.

Her palms twisted in the grass, the earth trembling beneath our feet. "Retreat! Retreat!" I hollered, but my own men hadn't even made it far enough. Roots of thorned bramble as wide as tree trunks lanced just below the surface of the scorched earth, leaping up from the ground, plowing into the Sebian riders. There was no hope for them as they were killed by the impact or intertwined in a thorny, inescapable prison. 

Valeria fell forward onto her creation of monk's hood and snapdragons, the grass curling around her in a protective envelope. She seemed mostly the same, whatever glamour on her had seemingly changed nothing. Yet, just staring at her made my heart thunder in my chest like ocean waves crashing into cliffs. I knew what was happening, but it rarely happened with humans, as they didn't know how to reciprocate the emotions Thagallians possessed. 

She's not human. She never was, I realized, turning Valeria over to make certain she was alive. She slept peacefully, her fair, perfect face enchanting me. Her features were sharper, more refined, more elegant. Her frame more slender and willowy. Her ears, were long and pointed, protruding from her tangles of fiery red hair. 

The Goddess had sent us not just The Lady of the Rill, but an elf from the depths of a world where such an ancient race had been lost.