Chapter 27.4: After He Left

  The fire crackled behind her.

  Enid stood. Her people were still recovering, coughing, pulling themselves upright. She left them to catch their breath.

  The path down into the valley stretched ahead, winding between the pines. She walked.

  The trees grew taller as she descended. Their trunks thickened, roots spreading across the forest floor before pulling back, sweeping leaves and fallen branches to the sides. The path ahead stayed clear.

  Homes appeared in the branches above. A cone-shaped dwelling hung upside down from a thick limb, its tip pointing at the ground. Beside it, a spiral tower grew from the trunk itself, winding upward until it disappeared into the canopy. A sphere floated between two oaks, tethered by nothing visible, swaying slightly in the breeze.

  Small orbs of light drifted through the air, spirits that hadn't taken form yet. They circled the tree trunks and slipped between the platforms.

  A window blinked in the bark ahead, wooden eyelid sliding shut and open as she passed.

  She turned her head toward a rhythmic scraping, finding a woman seated on a platform to her left, grinding herbs in a stone bowl. The woman paused, glancing up.

  "Elder."

  Enid nodded and kept walking.

  Children burst from the shadows between the trees. They circled her, their bare feet quick against the dirt.

  "Elder, Elder!" They sang it, their voices overlapping as small spirits wove between their legs.

  They spun around her, bare feet kicking up dust that caught the spirit-light as the circle tightened until she could feel their breath—"Enough"—and the motion shattered instantly into a ring of heaving chests and grins that remained wide.

  She smiled, lifting her hand to draw one boy into the air. He didn't flinch, only let out a breathless, delighted giggle as he floated up to meet her gaze, and her fingers drifted into his hair to ground him. "Time to find your beds." She guided him down, the laughter fading into a drowsy smile the moment his heels touched the ground.

  The children scattered without another word, their feet light as they ran back toward the homes. The spirits followed them, wisps of light fading into the branches overhead.

  Turning away, she let the path pull her deeper into the valley.

  A chair crawled past Enid's feet. Four wooden legs moved like a spider, carrying it toward a home carved into a massive oak. The round door set low in the trunk swung open to receive it, and once the chair climbed inside, the door sealed shut.

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  The lanterns floating overhead followed her path, drifting along to light the way, the oil inside hissing faintly as the flames fought the breeze.

  The path widened ahead.

  The valley opened into a clearing. A vast circular platform filled the space, its surface a patchwork of fitted stone slabs bound together by roots that had grown through the cracks and hardened into black wood. Glyphs spiraled outward from the center, carved deep into the stone and burned into the root-wood where the two materials met.

  At the tree line, the lanterns that had followed her path held their position, forming a luminous border. Their combined glow spilled inward, illuminating the clearing without any of them crossing the threshold.

  She looked up.

  Figures appeared in the branches. Men and women emerged onto platforms. Children leaned over railings. Windows opened in the bark, eyes watching from within. The valley held its breath.

  Enid stepped onto the platform, closing her eyes and pressing her palms together as magic pulsed outward, making the air shiver.

  At six points along the platform's outer edge, the earth cracked. Dirt and root tore upward from the breaks, rapidly compressing into solid mass: torsos, legs, broad shoulders, and arms rising upward beneath smooth, featureless heads. The golems took shape, each one twice her height.

  They began to move, taking slow, deliberate steps. Their heavy feet struck the platform, the sound echoing across the clearing as they closed the distance and encircled her.

  Then, as one, the six massive forms dropped to one knee, fists pressing into the ground.

  The glyphs beneath them ignited. Light spread outward from where the golems knelt, following the carved spirals through stone and root-wood. Green fire traced every line and symbol until the entire platform blazed.

  The light surged upward through the golems' fists, climbing their arms and filling their bodies. They glowed from within, green fire burning through the compacted earth that formed them.

  Enid opened her eyes.

  She pushed her magic outward, flooding the golems. As the light intensified, she felt the amplification: her power merged with theirs and returned tenfold, creating a massive reservoir circulating between her and the six kneeling forms.

  She drew from it.

  Spirits began to form in the air around her. Small wisps at first, barely visible against the green glow. Then more. They materialized faster, taking shape - wings, legs, tails, heads. Birds coalesced from nothing, their forms sharp and clear. Wolves stepped into existence, their eyes bright with borrowed life. Deer emerged, their antlers catching the light. Foxes. Owls. Fish that swam through air as if it were water.

  The number grew. Twenty. Fifty. A hundred.

  They circled the platform, spiraling upward and outward. The green light from the golems reflected off their translucent forms, casting shifting shadows across the clearing.

  Enid raised her voice.

  "Go. Summon them to the valley."

  The spirits scattered.

  Birds shot into the sky, their wings cutting through the night. Wolves bolted into the forest, their forms flickering between the trees. Deer leapt over roots and vanished into the shadow. Fish dove toward distant streams. The air erupted with movement as spirits poured outward, feathers and fur and light scattering in all directions.

  The villagers above remained silent, watching until the last spirit disappeared.

  The light from the platform began to fade. The glyphs dimmed. The golems' glow weakened, and the green fire inside them guttered out.

  Enid lowered her hands, and the reservoir of power drained away. She felt the connection severed.

  The golems crumbled. They collapsed back into the ground, roots pulling free and lying still. Within moments, six piles of dirt marked where they had knelt.

  The platform went dark.

  Enid's knees buckled. She clawed at the empty air as the world tilted, catching herself just before the floor met her.

  *One day. Maybe. He might notice I exist.*

  She straightened slowly, breathing hard, and walked off the platform toward her home.