“No, I can’t feel it, but this illusion is beautiful,” Sath said, his voice soft. “This is what you protect. This is who you are.” He inhaled deeply, suddenly surrounded by his favorite scent; the sunflower smell was overwhelming. Sath’s eyes rolled back in his head as he fell forward onto his face, much in the same position as Gin.
“That’s better,” she said as she eyeballed him from her prone status. “Just don’t make eye contact with her and let me talk.”
“Aye, that is a wise suggestion you make, Ginolwenye of the Trees,” said a booming female voice. Sath’s hands flew to cover his sensitive ears as the sound resounded throughout his head. “What have you brought me, my good and faithful servant? Please, on your feet, my Nature Walker.”
Gin looked up slowly and gasped aloud—before them stood Sephine, the All-Mother. Sensing the goddess’s presence was one thing, but seeing her standing just footsteps away was almost too much to take in, even for the Nature Walker. She appeared as a giant high elf with blonde hair swept back into an intricate braid at the nape of her neck. Her gown was forest green, made up in parts of tree branches and giant leaves. Around her slender and pale arms were wound golden bracelets in the shape of vines that glinted in the morning sun, just like the ones Gin wore in her ceremonial garb as the Nature Walker. The crown on her head was similarly adorned and held a single green stone at its apex. Completely overwhelmed, Gin pressed her face back into the grass at the goddess’s feet.
Sephine snapped her fingers, and creatures seemed to pour out of the very air and move between Gin and Sath, surrounding him menacingly. “You are safe here, my daughter Ginolwenye,” the goddess said, her voice musical yet menacing. “The Bane of the Forest will trouble you no more.” Gin looked up at Sephine.
“He is no longer the Bane of the Forest, Mother,” Gin said as she slowly got to her feet. “Sathlir Clawsharp is the Rajah of Qatu’anari, the Guardian of the Qatu race, and is my dearest friend and most steadfast companion. He means me and my kind no further harm.” The goddess laughed, causing both Gin and Sath to cover their ears.
“You think you can fool me, Nature Walker?” she said, kneeling down so that she could better glare at Gin. Sath held his hands up in supplication, but one of Sephine’s guardians, a giant treant, glowered at him, as though daring him to make another move. “Why you have dared to be in my presence with one such as this Qatu. Do you not fear the wrath of your Mother?”
Gin swallowed hard before she spoke. “Of course I do, Mother, but I was raised to believe that for those of us that honor and serve you, you keep no wrath. Only love and understanding,” she said as loudly as her fear would permit. The goddess cocked her head to one side but did not reply. “Besides, I am the Nature Walker and the Guardian of the Great Forest—I speak for you to my people and to those in Alynatalos—there is none closer to you on Orana than I am, so why would I try to fool you? You have my word that he has changed his ways. Why have you made yourself known to me now, when you have not before?”
“I thought I knew you, my Nature Walker,” Sephine replied. She stood, rising to her full height and glaring down at both of them. “I certainly know those who came before you, following in the footsteps of my most cherished Nature Walker, Draoch. But Ginolweyne, you are a puzzle. I can feel the love you bear for this Qatu—yet you know that with a snap of my fingers, my guardians would tear him limb from limb—and I should, to avenge all of my children that he killed and injured. Why do you risk his life so?”
“Because I love him, Mother. Because I have seen a change in him. Because I trust him with my life, and I would hope that my devotion to you would give me enough clout to speak on his behalf and vouch for who he is now.” Gin did not break eye contact with Sephine, even as a tiny voice inside her screamed for her to show respect. “We need your help, Mother; we are far from home and in grave danger, and we need help to return.”
“Why should I help you?” Sephine asked as she raised a blonde eyebrow at Gin. “This is tiresome.” The goddess moved her lips silently, and a great thunderclap echoed across the landscape. She disappeared in a puff of smoke and then reappeared in front of Gin, the size of an average high elf. Still taller than her devotee, Sephine looked down her nose at Gin. “Well?”
“You are the Mother of us all!” Gin said, her frustration beginning to show. “You created us and love us and care for us. Why would you not help one of your children in her time of need?”
“Gin, easy,” Sath said, and then immediately shut up as the treants closed their circle around him.
“You speak to me this way because you have spent too much time among the lesser races of Orana, just as your ancestor, MY Draoch of the Trees, did,” Sephine said, sadly. “You do not show me the reverence your ancestors did when they bore the mantle of Nature Walker. Over and over, I watch as my chosen turn from me to the ways of the Father of Hate. He commands no power, yet they follow him still? It makes no sense! You are in danger thanks to one of those converts, my child, and I fear that there is not much I can do to make it right—nor, in truth, much I am willing to do. The Nature Walker line will end with you.”
Gin deflated on
