Transcendence
Alayni could not say for certain how long they sat there, her crying, Anahita silently consoling her. When the tears had dried and she could cry no more, they had both risen from their seats at the table. Anahita stayed behind to clean up while Alayni left for her haven within foresthome. A small pond kept from sight by tall hedges.
When she'd stumbled upon it in her first year, she'd found it curious that it would be hidden. She reckoned it was deliberately placed there by one of the first forest keepers or the harbinger herself. For what reason though, she'd never found out.
A strange feeling had come over her then. It was as though the place was both resisting and welcoming her presence. It recognized the harbinger's essence inside her, yet it was only a fragment of the whole. The dilemma was something she had gotten used to, pegging it as just another strange quality of foresthome.
Alayni sat on the edge of the pond , absently passing her hand back and forth in the water. Within minutes she was asleep.
Is this a dream? She thought as she opened her eyes to a strange surrounding.
The world around her was white, like a canvas untouched. She took a step forward and noticed she did not step rather floated, like in the ethereal realm.
Is this foresthome? Her thoughts echoed in the empty space. She moved forward again, her form floating over the lucent space.
"It is not."
The voice echoed just as hers did. She was sure it was only her in the strange place, yet the voice was too loud and too clear to have been her imagination.
"Who's there? What is this place?" she asked, or rather thought. Once again, the words in her mind echoed as though she had uttered them.
"It is called transcendence, i moulded it for you." the voice replied.
"Who are you?" Alayni asked again.
A calm came over her and her voice evened. Whatever the strange being was, it soothed her broken heart.
"You know who I am, you can feel it." came the reply.
"A keeper. I can feel your essence but, it is weak, fading." Alayni was now certain this being was a keeper. The strange calm she felt was the essence consoling hers, mending her broken heart.
A sheen appeared before her. It materialised until a person was standing in front of her. She had glowing brown skin and deep green eyes of a sort Alayni had never seen before. Her dark brown locks of barely shoulder length encased her heart shaped head. She had a fairly long, straight nose and puckered lips. Beautiful was not enough to describe the female before her.
"Who are you?" she asked again, this time her voice full of awe, was barely above a whisper.
"Citali." she replied
The gasp passed her lips before she could register it. Alayni was sure a keeper had to die for another to manifest. Citali had been the forest keeper before her. She'd lived in her cabin, read her accounts in the books of old. How was it then, that she was standing before her now?
The slightly taller woman looked on as confusion, disbelief and finally suspicion passed on the forest keeper's face. Though, was the name not true for both of them? One live, the other non-living, fading into oblivion.
"You are confused. Do not be, i am not alive." Citali, or at least her form, paused for her words to settle.
"What you see before you is only a fragment of my life force, trapped in this enclave. Should it be let out or released, it would perish."
"How is that possible? Our essence fades when we die." Alayni argued.
"It is true our essence disperses when we die but, i did not divide my life force when I died. I did so long before the day."
Her mind was once again in turmoil for what the form before her was saying contradicted with everything she knew. Yet how could she deny it when the truth was clearly standing before her. Unless, this was an illusion of some sort.
"How do I know that you're real, that this place is real and not some illusion?" she questioned.
"You know i am. The harbinger's essence cannot be mimicked."
She was right. Alayni knew she was right. Though it was fading, dying out, the essence was without a doubt a keeper's and evidently the harbinger's. Something else was at play. Something sinister that caused her predecessor to take this drastic measure.
"There is not time for doubt, forest keeper. Evil has awaken from slumber. It will rise and cause chaos. You must stop it." Citali's voice was grave.
"Why me? Why not Calida?" Alayni questioned. "She is stronger than i am, older, wiser! I am just a girl. I don't even know how to fight" her wide eyes stared at her predecessor's form. How could she be chosen when she was barely holding herself together?
"Is she? She may not know it but, the earth keeper has already resigned herself to her fate. You must trust in yourself forest keeper, the fate of this world lies in your hand." Citali answered.
"It is not the way of the keeper of forests to interfere with the path of nature and as such i can only reveal this to you. If fate is behind you child, you will not fail" she continued. Alayni remained silent, listening with rapt attention.
Behold the earth is shook, from its depths the raging beast must rise. The earth, the sea, the sky, the tree, all must seek the truth or reap defeat. Beware the one who claims control, beware the twins. Beware the order as you know it. Beware the tree must, for though stronger than the earth it may be burnt in the hearth.
As the last words echoed around transcendence, Citali's form began to fade. Slowly, her skin blended with the translucent space they were in. Citali's essence finally dispersed, this time into oblivion.
Alayni stared unable to utter a word as her predecessor along with transcendence, disappeared. The feeling of loss overcame her. Her soul mourned as it watched its kin fade away. Her essence breathed in relief as it received its missing piece yet wept at the loss of its former bearer.
A final whisper left Citali's lips as the last ounce of her form faded. It danced in the vanishing space of transcendence until it reached the ears of the forest keeper, distorting ever more all she had come to know.
"Beware of the harbinger, young shoot."