large stretches.
The ridge did not rise from some larger plain, however. Instead, it just fell away to either side, its edges seeming to grow steeper as it faded from view, making the whole thing round, like some gargantuan barrel. The crown of the ridge ran off both ahead of and behind them into the distance, eventually fading from sight into the pervasive silvery light. The narrow gorge from which they had ascended appeared as a crack in the surface behind them.
Zasian halted and took it in for a moment. He scanned the horizon in every direction, as far as he could see. I'm actually standing here, he thought, pleased. I'm actually standing on the World Tree. It is grander than even I could have imagined.
'What is this place?' Myshik asked, peering around in wonder.
'The World Tree,' Zasian answered. 'Or rather, a single branch of it.'
'Where does it lead?' the half-dragon asked. 'Why are we here?'
Zasian glanced at his companion, irked. Can't you even appreciate the grandeur of this place? Do you not grasp what a monumental moment this is? He shook his head in disgust. 'It leads everywhere,' the priest explained with a sigh. 'And we are following it to get… elsewhere.' He stared at the hobgoblin with a steady gaze, as if to say, Do you really wish to keep testing my patience?
Myshik returned the stare with displeasure, but he didn't press the issue further. Instead he asked, 'Which way do we go?'
Zasian studied each direction before deciding on the path leading back alongside the crack. It seemed to him that the ridge grew larger in that direction, whereas the route in front of them became the slightest bit narrower. Without a word, he set out along that path.
The trio walked for some time, passing numerous thick, angled tree trunks. Zasian recognized them as other, smaller branches jutting from the larger one upon which they strolled. In some places, great fanlike expanses of green material as large as a ship's sails clung to them.
Ah, the priest realized, leaves. Magnificent, monumental leaves. Extraordinary!
They skirted large patches of undergrowth, and eventually, he recognized the dense, tangled vines as oversized clumps of moss.
Before long, unease replaced Zasian's elation. For a while, he thought it was simply a wariness of the unfamiliar place, or an expectation of encountering some hostile denizen of the tree, but eventually he knew it was something else entirely.
No wind blew and no sound reached the trio other than their own footsteps. The odd, silvery surroundings were utterly devoid of any noise, any hint of life.
I guess I keep thinking I should hear birds singing and breezes blowing through the leaves, he decided. On the other hand, he added wryly, I don't really think I want to see the bird that nests in this tree. Stifling the chuckle at his own grim joke, Zasian refocused his attention on the trail, the offshooting branches, and the moss. Many things could hide in those places, waiting to spring out and attack them.
The trio walked on in utter silence. The landscape never changed, although it was very clear to Zasian that the thickness of the branch upon which they hiked had grown considerably since they had set out. That observation convinced him that he had chosen the right way, and that they were, indeed, headed toward the trunk.
'Look,' Myshik said, and Zasian glanced back at the half-dragon to see him pointing off into the distance, ahead and to one side.
Zasian peered into the silvery murk and spotted what the hobgoblin had noticed. A second great branch was just beginning to become visible, running at an angle and from a slightly higher plane such that it would most likely join with their own branch within a few more moments of walking.
Zasian nodded. 'Yes, we draw ever closer to the nexus of the World Tree, to its trunk. Its branches spread throughout the Astral plane, connecting to every location in the cosmos.'
'How will we know which new branch we will need to follow?' Myshik asked.
'Why, we'll have to hire a guide, of course,' Zasian replied. 'I'm certain we will run across a local inhabitant of the Tree very soon.'
In another few moments, the trio neared the point where the two branches intersected, and Zasian smiled to himself. Ahead, right at the junction, he spotted clear evidence of habitation. A whole series of elevated structures, like children's tree houses, filled the branches rising up from the larger one. Ladders and bridges of rope hung between the different levels, making the whole place a tiny interconnected community.
As they grew closer to the small tree village, Zasian could make out the distinct forms of creatures. A small group of them were emerging from the mist and approaching the trio.
'Perfect,' the priest said softly, still smiling in anticipation. 'A welcoming committee.'
Aliisza parried a strike from one of the hound archons trying to surround her and took another step back. The celestial warrior closed the gap and swung his sword at her again. Her foe wasn't trying to injure her. His attacks were slow, methodical, not designed to slip past her defenses so much as wear them down.
'Surrender,' the archon said, raising his sword for another two-handed strike. 'It's only a matter of time before you must. Save us all some aggravation.'
Aliisza smiled and whipped her more delicate sword up and out to block his. The blow rang in the mists of the forest, and it sent a tingling up her arm, but she didn't let that show. Instead, she took another step back until she pressed against a tree. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two more archons closing in. They held a net between them.
Aliisza followed up her parry with a feint to the archon's knees, then used the space she had created to duck around the tree. She heard the creature's blade strike hard against the trunk, but she was already sprinting toward a fallen log with another clump of bushes, nearly as thick as she was tall, nestled against it.
The archons had relentlessly pursued her since she had become separated from Tauran and Kael. Kaanyr had gone off in his own direction, but the other three of them tried to remain together, closing ranks to defend themselves from the swarming onslaught of archons. They could not maintain their positions, though. The creatures utilized a clever tactic to divide them through rapid and repeated teleportation. They used their attacks to drive her to one side or another, then they popped into the area she had just vacated, becoming wedges, separating her from her allies. They were herding her away from her compatriots.
Once Aliisza had realized their intentions, she abandoned her efforts at staying near the other two and sprinted through the forest, ducking and weaving in haphazard directions to evade their attacks and confound their strategy. The new tactic prevented them from closing in on her initially, but they had the numbers necessary to surround her.
The alu nearly took to the air then, thinking to outrun the archons by winging her way into the canopy and beyond. She had gotten only a few feet off the ground when that innate sense of danger she sometimes experienced washed over her. She peered up into the trees and spotted devas awaiting her there.
Giving up on fleeing by wing, Aliisza returned to the branch, where the archons continued to close in. Over and over, she managed to evade the creatures, but each desperate maneuver took her farther and farther away from her companions.
She no longer even heard the sounds of distant battle ringing through the misty forest to indicate where they might be.
She was alone in her fight.
Nothing you can do about it now, she chided herself. Find them later. If they're still standing.
'Surrender,' the one chasing her demanded.
Aliisza did not turn around. She leaped and spread her wings. She glided over the low scrub brush and came to rest atop the fallen log. She turned to survey her pursuit.
The archon closest to her took one faltering step before drawing up at the edge of the scrub. He eyed the greenery as if considering how best to get past it, then he shrugged and blinked out of existence.
Aliisza had anticipated his tactic, and when he appeared next to her atop the log, she muttered a quick arcane phrase and looked away. A flare of magical light flashed right upon the tip of the archon's nose. He yipped in surprise and flinched, falling backward. He swatted at the afterimages dazzling him, but Aliisza was already moving away.
She sprinted the length of the log and leaped, spreading her wings to soar over the other archons closing in.
