The Fool 28

Cray could tell he'd stolen the last bit of heat from the dying embers of positive thought in the young mage and added, "But give me a couple of days where I don't need to feel like I'm being turned into a wood plank with a hand plane. Add a good rest, a good meal and a good bath to it and that regret will wash right off."

Trying to find some hidden corner of himself to pull up a kernel of will not to sit down and give up, Orison said, "Speaking of which, I know things have been going slow with the restoration but we're past the hardest parts. How's the cabin thing going?"

The archer replied, "It's still real fuzzy but I can sort of feel it. Couldn't tell ya how long it's got left but I can't pull it out yet."

The young mage said, "I feel like there's a dirty joke in there somewhere but I'm too tired to find it."

Snorting, Cray said, "I'm too tired to laugh, even if it was a funny one."

"It's easy to be too tired to laugh but I'm too tired to cry," Orison said.

A ghost of a smirk was on Cray's face as he said, "Well, I wouldn't know. I'm too tired to tell the difference."

One last night of roughing it and a quick cast of Presto while braving the cold to remove nearly a week of constant funk buildup and they were making their way back to 'Top Rock'.

Orison noticed Cray's complex face as they rode up to the entrance. "Alright. First of all, Heath hasn't been a people for that long and I don't think our guest is one to make an issue of someone's superficial appearance. A few light scars and uneven skin tones aren't going to make him or HER freak out. Second, I only need the winter to get my understandings consolidated before I work on fixing up the delicate bits."

Cray looked back to him on the smoky, phantom-like horse and said, "You think I'm... I ain't got no mood to get in a fuss about that. What's got me antsy is if we'll still be welcomed here and if it's safe. Things haven't exactly gone without a hitch since we got here, ya know."

In the air around them, a strong and sure woman's voice said, "There is nothing but appreciation for your dedication in cleaning up a small but critical mistake, Theurge Cantrip . And I have always had a soft place in my heart for tragic heroes, Wild Talent Cray."

Puzzled, Cray said, "Thank ya kindly, mam. But I don't rightly know what that means."

Orison said, "I find myself a little puzzled over your choice of titles as well. But if you're saying we're still welcomed to winter here, it's far more pleasant than what I'd be willing to be called. This place has an awful lot of humidity in the air for this time of year. I bet the snow gets ridiculous."

As they walked towards the platform that blended into the floor, Orison found out that 'Silent Beauty' hadn't known a single detail about the place that he didn't. In a rush of light they were standing on top of the 'top'. As he took in the sights, the young mage was disappointed to see a few buildings and an open roofed temple-like structure only slightly better than basic stonework construction.

The circle of standing stones they had appeared in was alarming until he felt the peaceful hum passing through them. Without distortion and optical illusion, the diameter of the surface was little more than a mile. Wailing face carvings lined the circumference, looking at the world around them in horrified bewilderment. It was a sentiment that Orison could deeply empathize with.

A near total western quarter of the surface had a large pond with a floating orb that dropped a steady stream into it. On the eastern side there was a stone structure built over the dividing creek that emptied into a gaping hole not too far beyond. Skirting the pond to the north and south were an assortment of wild growing vegetation with berry bushes and fruit trees dotting either side of the creek bank, studded with two squat but sturdy stone bridges.

The southern side, where they stood, held little else aside from the standing stone circle and an ill kept surrounding park. Were it not for self maintaining stone paths, its original purpose would have been lost on the observer. The benefit was that there was a small assortment of wild game with no fear of people.

"Winter here will be more mild but the seasons are observed to some degree. If you are done gawking at your humble surroundings, perhaps you'd care to join me and Heath at the Sky Hall?" the woman's voice floated through the air with a touch of amusement.

While the woman's voice had been speaking, orison had been looking around with spirit sight at full strength. "Fancy being the father of a dryad child?"

Cray, who was about to step out of the circle stopped and looked at the young mage in confusion.

Orison said, "Tree spirit fey that can have offspring with people. As far as I know, they only have other dryads, though. I think the price of our wintering here is to help with that."

The woman's voice laughed. "I can see what you see. How did you reach such a conclusion?"

The young mage said tiredly, "For some reason, I'm bad with illusion magic. I'm starting to think it's for the same reason that creation magic comes to me a great deal more easily. The difference between reality and illusion is a sliding scale not a 'black or white' thing. At least, that's my understanding of it.

"I'll subconsciously choose to accept what I see instead of trying to fight free. As a compensation, I see bits and pieces of potentially hidden real world knowledge pulled in to bolster the illusion instead of breaking it. Can I just pretend that you were going to find a good time to bring it up and give us a choice rather than uglier alternatives?"

The confidence in the woman's voice wavered. " I... yes. I have no desire for conflict."

The young mage nodded and said, "Then by the old ways, I request guest rights, Custodian Ezra."

With a sigh, Ezra responded, "Partake of the flora bounty of my land, not its fauna. And by this, I know you as tree friend to my grove."

Immediately hearing the long view trap in the statement, Orison looked at Cray and said, "Sorry, buddy. It looks like fresh game's not on the menu unless you want to travel nearly two days and into tribal territory to hunt."

He chewed on a shriveled but sweet persimmon and tossed another to the archer. Cray didn't seem to be a fan.

When asked why, the archer responded, "Lots of persimmon trees around the old homestead. Ma would use it in everything from marinades to filling for sweet dumplings over the winter. Strange thing is, I still like blackberries and we had a lot of them too."

As they walked closer to the ancient structure of the temple, Orison caught a fish surfacing to grab a bug of some kind in the creek. "With the idea of not playing word games and looking for loopholes, would you object to Cray being allowed to fish? It's not a bounty of your 'land' but I would prefer we honor the spirit over the letter of your request and our desire to keep the peace and our safety, if that's something you'd dislike."

Cray looked at Orison with some gratitude but the young mage was focused on the spirit sight outline of Heath eating within the temple. The voice of Ezra consented with a faint tinge of frustration. Around that time, a bird mysteriously chose that moment to land and hop around in a daze close to the boy, distracting him from his meal. Getting resentfully upset, Orison rushed over the bridge and shouted for Heath, announcing their presence.

"Teet E Shama!.. Pa Kay?" the boy said as he ran out and all but tackled and began trying to climb Cray.

With a saintly smile, Orison walked in to face the naked woman standing near a bare apple tree. "Well, since Heath is the bridge of our friendship, I'll take it that the boy has long ago learned what is and isn't acceptable behavior in your sanctuary and learn by his example. After all, I doubt you'd risk the consequences of playing guest rights false by manipulating the one present who is both guest AND fostered child of your care."

A complex gaze ghosted across her face.

"What troubles you," the young mage asked sympathetically.

Ezra said, "The longing for winter sleep weighs on my tree. I know not how it is done but Hazel has learned how to keep the winter vigil now that Yew is no longer among us. Were either of you willing to end my lifetime of barren loneliness, even a mere season will be denied. I desired to have one of you for my Hamadryad."

Orison pondered and said, "Were one willing, would there be a problem with your releasing of them come spring?"

He could sense her attempt to lie. The old ways may be the only rules the wild fey would follow but they were bound by them even more so because of that.

Sullenly, she said, "Such an invitation is difficult to relinquish. Instinct and desire rule us. Years may pass before my ardor would cool enough for sentimental thought."

The young mage thought on it and said, "There is a father of two friends wandering the lands south of us. I wanted to see if he was still alive after everything that has happened. I have a device that can point to where he is and a way to boost that signal to reach him but it has no way to communicate. Would your spirit speech be able to ride that connection?

"His youth has been restored and he's a girl crazy guy devoid of potential targets for his amorous intent. If you're willing to give it a shot, he might be a potential taker on a more long term offer... Were I not setting my sights on another and have no current desire to delay my journey..."

Ezra said, "That woman you have mistaken for your estranged paramour? She was not your... Lily."

Cray, who had been avoiding entering what sounded like an awkward conversation to be involved in, openly wore the shocked confusion Orison was suppressing.

The young mage said, "One issue at a time."

With a subtle eagerness devoid of all but the slightest touch of hope, she attempted to spiritually piggyback Orison's key amplified tracker signal. After nearly ten seconds of silence, he was about to cut off the flow when Ezra sent a quick request for him to 'stay fast'. When it reached twenty seconds, he complained that he wasn't a 'damn cellphone service'. As his key started to 'slim down', he gave a curt ten second warning.

He got the subtle hint that if it wasn't for guest rights being established, she may have threatened bodily harm to remain connected. For the plethora of other things that he had spied while her spiritual consciousness was occupied, he believed her capable of just about anything. Pushing down the horror over what he had seen and just how dangerous the seemingly peaceful situation had been, he plastered a pleasant expression on his face once she was forced to finish.

Up close to her as he currently was, Orison could see the shine of insanity dancing behind the recently renewed, ancient apple tree spirit's eyes. He pretended not to see her fight urges to enslave or kill him as she prepared herself for the arrival of a more convenient and willing mate. The worst part about the whole thing was how he couldn't so much as breathe a warning to Cray or point out how Heath was all over the barely alive Hazelnut Tree, giving the apple tree a wide skirting as he scampered around.

With a pleasant smile hiding barely contained hostility, Ezra said, "Green but sweet and possessing a bold heart. Yes, the Rogers half-man will serve my needs for many years. In gratitude, allow me to inform you of the deceitful one's playing of your sympathies to rob you of your precious seed bearing sap and affections."

There was little of value in what she had to say. Most of it seemed to be designed as an attempt to twist affections towards herself. An impossible task without supernatural attack as Cray wasn't quite as 'innocent' to a maiden's cruelty as he was to their affections. As for the young mage, he was trying to keep from thinking too loud about how a female dracolich would have a better shot at winning him over.

It did give him something to ponder, however. The unknown woman had made two brief appearances in his life. Both times were major turning points in life preservation opportunities. And even though her appearance may have been under some kind of disguise, she hadn't really lied to them. It was his own misconceptions that he felt she may not have had any control over dispelling.

As he and Cray went to prepare one of the stone structures for a desperately needed night of relaxing coma, He laid out to himself and Cray what he did know. "So, she has a strong presence of existence, experiencing many 'steps' on her climb. I believe that she is either a really powerful tier four on the edge of becoming tier five or she is very early into the 'land god' tier that five represents. I don't think that the story she told was a lie nor do I believe that she lied about taking our marks to find us again once she 're-birthed'."

Cray gave him an odd look. "I can't quite figure you. This is a girl we both like. Shouldn't you, I don't know, be trying to weasel me out of the picture?... You know, I didn't like her because I thought she was a 'Lily' in the first place. I just met her. I'm thinking maybe I like the real her just a tad more than you."

With a weak smile, Orison said, "Does that mean you'd try to weasel ME out of the picture if you could?"

Frustration and conflicted emotions etched themselves onto the archer's weary face. "Damn it all! I should if I could! It's what any sane man in my shoes would do and hardly a soul would blame me... but no... How can I? You ain't been nothing but kind and generous and noble and all that other stuff that would make me feel like a turd for doing it.

"Tell me how you can just swallow this down without nary a ripple on your pond. I'm supposed to be the easygoing one, ain't I? Maybe hearing how you can deal with this when you're a jittery box of thumbtacks on everything else will help me. It must sound dumb to you that I can walk away from a girl I crossed the world for without much of a fight but not let this go.

"I was killed and brought back. I was broken and put back together a few times now. I've been tortured and turned undead and who knows what else I might have forgotten. To all that, I can just say 'Ain't that just the way it goes?' But this one thing here is where I can't stop worrying it, like a toothache."

Orison said, "It's lots of reasons but I need a little courage to say it all raw without the window dressing. I got a bottle of the 'Fuzz Buzz' with me. That's the peach flavored 'mess you up' we had before. Do you think you could handle having a couple shots of that before I do this... It's kind of a bad habit but it helped 'the boy' and Gan get through conversations that were a lot harder."

Cray said, "You don't think I don't want to be three sheets before having this out? I just don't know if I can keep my eyes open long enough if I was."

"Then, I'll make it quick," the young mage said before slamming a few right from the bottle and handing it over.

After the sweet but sharp after fumes and stomach burn died down, he said, "Like I said before. I think, feel and prefer looking like a human man. That's what I know and it feels right to me but under that I know that what I'm really supposed to be is whatever helps me survive. I think that makes me a little more soft around the edges of what I can accept when it comes to friendship, love and stuff like that.

"Closer to the surface and deeper underneath, I don't know if I'm strong enough to do this climbing thing on my own. I think I'm scared to death of waking up without anyone and having to face the horror of a cruel and uncaring vastness of existence all by myself. That doesn't mean that I'd be fine with just anybody, though.

"I can accept the craziness of this because it's you. You're someone I know inside and out that pretty much knows me the same way. And somehow, we still like each other. It's kind of strange that we skipped the years worth of slowly working our way past the cracks of each other's defenses, to have something that only 'once in a lifetime' best friends usually have but there it is."

Cray snorted, "You know, we actually have known each other for years. I just don't think you thought much of me way back when. I think I was just one a your charity cases. But to me, you were a person I thought hung the moon."

Orison said, "I was only a part of the person you knew then. The go-getter that you admired wasn't even me. I was the softy in the back telling him to be more cautious and to be nicer and more forgiving and all that...

"If he knew you like I do, I'm pretty sure he'd have regretted not pulling you into his inner circle. But you know what? It's his loss and I'm glad you're here. Well, I'm not so glad that either one of us is HERE but you know what I mean."

The archer took a couple of swigs before handing the bottle back and laid down on his pallet. "I think some of the better parts of that other guy rubbed off on you, then... It don't feel so bad to know I'm appreciated for a change. I tell ya that much."