The Voice in the Village

"That ended better than expected. I was really getting worried that they might betray us." Lariss said after they left.

"Definitely." I said. "How much do you think we were affected by the forest? I didn't feel paranoid about her but I feel much calmer after the Spirit Stone healed us."

"That's the danger of the forest. I don't think we were as far gone as she was getting but we were on that path and I didn't even feel it." She said.

Our side adventure took us nearly three days. We would have been to the village at the heart of the forest already if we hadn't met Aspasia. I was completely lost but Lariss' sense of direction was great enough that she knew what direction we needed to head in and without any further delay we'd be there in a day and a half.

Towards the end of the day we came across a few monsters that were easy enough to handle. As night closed in we drank the mind protection potions that Vegaror made. We gave one bottle to the others, leaving us with three. Rather than each of us having six days worth of protection we'd end up with four and a half days if we split it evenly.

The further we went the next day the more I noticed changes to the trees. When I mentioned it to Lariss she showed me what they were. The new trees that I was seeing had much wider trunks. Removing some of the foliage near their base showed steps and doors. Inside was the small interior of a home. The closer we got to the village the more of the tree houses we saw. They also started to become bigger and even had structures built onto the side of the trunks and into its upper limbs.

Traditional structures started to appear when we entered the village proper. They were in a similar state to the village we had previously encountered. The canopy had also opened up more in the village giving us a view of this village's Spirit Tree. It was three times as large as any Spirit Tree I had seen before. Unlike the tree in the other village this one seemed to be alive. The star shaped leaves had more points than the one in Greendew and shimmered with colors, many that I had never seen before.

"Wilmaer Stop!" Lariss stood in front of me with both hands on the side of my face pulling my eyes towards her. I found myself half the distance to the Spirit Tree than I previously was.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You started talking in a language I didn't recognize and wouldn't respond to me. Then you started walking towards the Spirit Tree pulling out your sword and infusing it with your magic." She looked frightened.

As she spoke I started to have a vague recollection of what happened. I was speaking in English and I was giving a campaign speech. My enchanted sword was in my hand and my Lydos Lineage was flowing through it. What the hell happened? I still had both Svanhildr and Vegaror's protection on my mind and something still took control.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. It took a lot to plant that worm in his mind. I was hoping this wouldn't be much of a bother." The voice echoed in our minds.

"Who are you!" I screamed.

"I can't see anyone." Lariss said.

"It shouldn't have been that long, Little Star. Can you really not remember me?" The voice said.

"You were in my dreams. Did you get to me at Svanhildr's?" I asked.

"Ah, the last of the Spirit's slaves thinks she keeps me at bay. But I can reach further than this forest when the need arises. Like I did with that Elf." The voice said.

"What elf?" Panic started to enter Lariss' face.

"Did you enjoy the advice I gave you all those years ago? I hope it was helpful. With the Little Star here, it has been helpful to me." The voice said.

Her face began to turn pale.

"All this just to get me here? How did you even know that I'd come years ago?" We needed more information. The only one that called me Little Star had been that entity that had sent me to this world. It didn't seem like the same entity now.

"You were supposed to be here years ago. I was so disappointed when you didn't come. Then this one showed up on the edge of my senses and the threads of fate tied between the two of you were so bright it wasn't hard to read. What happened to you, Little Star?" The voice said.

"Why don't you come out and we can speak in person?" I said.

"Sadly I can't. You can blame it on your late arrival." The voice said.

Silence followed.

"What should we do? You had a plan?" I asked. She didn't answer. When I looked toward her, she was pale with a blank expression.

"Lariss, pull it together." After I spoke to her, she turned to look at me.

"Who are you?" Paranoia filled her voice. I knew she wanted an explanation on what the voice had said and if I didn't give a satisfactory answer, she might turn on me.

"We don't have time for a full explanation. Whatever exists between us was there before this thing got involved. We can't let its words come between us at this moment." I said.

"You're right. I just lived my life by what my mother said and it turns out it might have been a trap." She said.

"It could be lying. But that doesn't matter right now. What do we need to do to complete our quest?" I said.

"There were seven points of the ritual. My father told me that one was already destroyed when they were here and they took care of another two. That leaves us with four. He said reality bends around them and even Svanhildr's blessing didn't help, that's why I had Vegaror make the potion. It should be able to help." She said.

"How do we find the first one?" I asked.

Lariss pulled out a pouch and sprinkled some dust into the air. The dust floated about reflecting the light with odd colors similar to the Spirit Trees leaves. It then floated in four directions without the need of wind.

"Let's head toward that one first." I followed the trail of dust that she indicated.

We soon passed the edge of the village and entered the forest. There we found a hollowed out tree trunk. Ropes were tied within the top of the trunk looking like a spider web. Different colored beads were threaded on the ropes forming a rainbow.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Watch my back, I'll take care of the cleansing." She replied.

She pulled out more of the dust and sprinkled it among the ropes, the beads began to glow when the dust made contact. Lariss then began to read a prayer to the Tree of the True Spirit from a parchment. The glow increased in intensity as the prayer continued. Lights began to rise from the beads and danced around them. As the lights began to condense into each other a chill entered my heart.

With my sword infused with my Lydos aura, I struck through the largest light. It sliced open and a black sludge fell to the ground. I continued to slice open the orbs of light, revealing more black sludge. On the ground the sludge started to move together. With my Moonlight Lightning Slash I burned the sludge before it could collect.

When the last of the floating light orbs was sliced open, Lariss stopped the prayer and slumped over, panting. I kept watch until she was able to stand again. With a knife, she cut the rope from the tree trunk. Pulling it into a pile, she used her Fire magic to burn it.

"Do you think this is the right thing to do?" She asked.

"You're thinking that this is what the voice wants." I said. "I don't know. It seems to know things that no one in this world should."

"Like calling you Little Star?" She said.

"I don't even fully know what that means and only one other entity used that name." I wasn't sure how much to tell her. The voice could be listening and it didn't know about Earth, which meant it wasn't all knowing.

"I'm sorry. There's things about my past that I don't want people to know. Expecting you to just tell me everything under these circumstances, isn't right. All we can do right now is trust each other." She said.

"Agreed. Where to next?" I said.

We went back to the center of the village. She didn't need to use the dust again, having remembered the paths it had taken. Before we left the center of the village I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a little girl in a bright green raincoat. But there was no way that she could be here. My daughter Jennifer wasn't a little girl anymore and she would still be back on Earth.

I didn't mention it to Lariss.

As we went further towards the next ritual site we began to hear discordant music. Laughter soon joined the music. We soon arrived at a grouping of overgrown hedges. In the center was a dirty pond with a large stone breaking the surface in the middle. A blue pouch sat on the rock.

"I think that's what we're after." Lariss pulled out the dust ready to enter the water to perform the cleansing.