Dipak looked out over the quiet grove. Rubbing his fingers against his temples, he closed his eyes. Jacob touched the back of his neck gently.
"Are you alright?" Jacob asked.
Dipak said nothing, but raised his head and gave Jacob a small smile. It didn't reach his eyes. The silence settled between them a moment.
“I have to call her here,” Jacob said.
“Do you think you’re strong enough?” Dipak asked.
He rubbed his hands over his face, feeling the skin crinkling beneath his fingers.
“There isn’t any more time for waiting,” Jacob said.
“I can hold out a little longer,” Dipak said with a tremble in his voice.
“And then what?”
Jacob took Dipak by the shoulders and turned him so that his body was facing him, but he didn’t open his eyes.
“Then what? Will the Life Tree magically make you all better? Is that what you think?” Jacob asked.
Dipak’s eyes flicked open and he growled.
“No.”
“Then what?” Jacob asked again.
“I protect the Life Tree and I protect the Verdant and then I bind myself to the new Life Tree. That’s what I do Jacob. It’s what I’m born for,” he spat, flinging his hands out and pushing Jacob away from him.
“And if you fall apart?” Jacob's voice was soft.
“Then I die. And I will be born again.” He rubbed his eyes, seeing the sparks there as his skin struggled to hold itself together.
“Then what?” Jacob whispered, taking Dipak by the shoulders again.
“Then the fucking same thing, Jacob!” he yelled, swatting at Jacob's hands. But Jacob didn’t let him go. The tears were heavy in Dipak's eyes and his breathing was ragged.
“It’s always the fucking same thing!” he screamed it, leaning close to Jacob's face and baring his teeth. Saliva speckled onto Jacob's face. He clenched his hands into fists and his claws slid out, extending out with the expectation of violence. Dipak opened his hands and spread his fingers wide, forcing the claws to retreat back into his flesh.
Pressing in the back of his skull was the beating drum of the past. Hundreds of life times flitted past his eyes, parading versions that they had once been. Brothers, lovers, friends and more. Every relationship that two people could share had been explored by them. They had even been enemies once. Would they be again, in this life time when the darkness was unleashed? How long could he hold it in?
He opened his eyes and stared at this boy standing in front of him, trembling. What did he owe this stranger that he had just met?
“Raven fucking died!” he screeched and then added “My name isn’t horse!”
Pulling at his hair and digging at his arms with his fingernails, he tore open his skin with the claws that he let extend again. Oily black blood oozed out onto his white skin and he wailed. There was nothing inside his but darkness.
“Enaid wasn’t supposed to die!” Dipak screamed.
His knees gave out from beneath him and he sobbed. Jacob caught Dipak's weight in his arms and lowered them down. He sat and cradled Dipak's head in his lap.
“Why do they always have to die?” he asked. He buried his face against Jacob's stomach. Everything could make sense if he just let himself hide here in this embrace.
“Do you love me?” Dipak asked.
“Yes," Jacob whispered.
“Because I was Horse and you were Raven?” Dipak asked, looking up at those soft blue eyes.
“Because we are us,” he whispered.
“I don’t think I am me any more. I don’t think this me ever was.”
Dipak held up his hand and looked at it a moment, letting his blood drip from his claws. Then he slid the weapons away, leaving the blood smeared between his fingers where the claws had passed.
“I have to call her here,” Jacob said.
“And then what?” Dipak asked.
“Then the Verdant plants the Life Tree and you bind yourself to the new Life Tree. Then we leave here and we find the answer to whatever is going on with you,” Jacob said.
Dipak closed his eyes, nodded.
Jacob closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he gathered himself. He didn't know what he was doing, didn't know how to call on the magic or seek out the Verdant, but he trusted that he could. This soul was fashioned for the purpose. How many life times had he already served this role?
Beneath Jacob's touch, Dipak’s breathing slowed, syncing to Jacob’s rhythm as Dipak began to draw on the magic that tied him to Enaid. That magic funneled up from the earth, seeping into Dipak's flesh and through him into Jacob.
"Relax and let you mind wander, follow where it takes you," Dipak whispered.
Jacob took at deep breath, feeling the mana pulling into him and slowly breathed it out.
"By roots unseen, by branches wide," Jacob whispered. "By memory's thread that none can hide, through land and grove, through blood and bone, reveal the path to those alone."
The wind stirred around them and Jacob felt something inside him shift. Tilting his head back towards the sky, he cawed as feathers sprouted from the sides of his face. Opening his black eyes wide he extended his awareness outward, seeking the Verdant, feeling for her presence across the vast distance between them. The world around him faded, the grove dissolving as his consciousness stretched, brushing against the energies of the Life Tree and the fragile threads that held Enaid together.
"I call by leaf, I call by stone, guide me where lost souls have gone. Where shadows dwell and daylight fades, bring forth the way through tangled shades," Jacob continued, no longer aware that he was speaking. "With eyes unbound, with spirit free, unveil the place where you may be. So shall I find what’s hidden well, as life and light obey this spell.
Dipak poured his magic into Jacob, letting him take all the mana that Enaid had in excess, funneling to this single purpose. Light burst from Jacob and beamed up into the sky, radiant as the breaking of the dawn.
"By the Life Tree’s strength, let secrets part, reveal the lost within my heart,' Jacob said, throwing his hands out and arching his back as the magic poured out of him in a torrent.
And then, somewhere far beyond, he felt her. Her mind was a complex weave of vibrant life force and cold, sharp fragments, a constant duality of nurturing warmth and chilling calculation. Soft, warmth and hard cutting edges.
Jacob reached out to her and touched the edge of her mind. He called to her, "Come home. It's time. We need you."
Folds of velvet enveloped him, wrapping him into a protective embrace and for a moment, he felt as though he was with his mother again. Safe. Protected. Loved. Then he slammed against a hard metal wall, cold and unforgiving. He pressed against it, his hands reaching out to try to find the edges of it.
Initiating command sequence 98365. Beep. Beep.
Sharp cutting and Jacob pulled his hands away.
"Verdant?" he called. He could feel her behind the steel and wires that had spun themselves around her, shutting him out.
Purge engage. Beep. Defensive protocols initiated. Beep. Beep.
Then he was on fire. He screamed and wrapped the mana around himself, pulling back and away from the onslaught that pursued him. Then he was falling back down into himself and when he opened his eyes again he was just the small boy that he'd always been.
Jacob closed his eyes again, feeling a tremor begin in his hands. Dipak’s head was still heavy in his lap, but he could sense the life force within his friend flickering, weakening with each passing moment, changing into something different. He swallowed, the taste of ash filling his mouth.
“She... she’s not right,” he whispered. “There’s something wrong with her.”
Dipak stirred, his eyes opening to slits. “What do you mean?”
Jacob looked down, his gaze meeting Dipak’s. “She’s different. I don’t know what happened, but I felt something cold… something metal. It was as if she didn’t have complete control of her own mind, like there was something else in there with her.”
Dipak pushed himself upright with a groan, wiping at the traces of black blood still clinging to his skin. “Then she’s already tainted,” he said quietly, a glimmer of sorrow breaking through his hardened gaze. “Maybe she isn’t the Verdant we need.”
Jacob's hands clenched. “But she’s the only Verdant we have. If she’s changed, if something’s corrupted her... then we’re running out of time faster than we thought. There won’t be another chance.”
Dipak sighed and pressed his palm to the ground, feeling the faint hum of the Life Tree far beneath the earth, the last vestiges of its ancient energy holding on, pulsing through the earth.
“Then I’ll do what I must,” he whispered, feeling the darkness stirring behind his eyes, squirming in an effort to ooze out of him the way that his blood did.
Jacob looked at him, his heart sinking. “You can’t bear this alone, Dipak.”
Dipak’s gaze softened for a moment, the vulnerability flashing through his eyes before he shook his head. “It’s not about what I can bear. It’s about what has to be done. Enaid is everything, and I must fulfill my duty.”
As the last of his words faded into the quiet of the grove, Jacob felt the cold touch of fate pressing down on them, heavy and relentless. He reached out, his fingers curling around Dipak’s hand, grounding them both. They could feel the heartbeat of the Life Tree below, faint but resilient.
“We’ll bring her,” Jacob said softly, a spark of hope reigniting in his voice. “We’ll make her become who she is meant to be.”
Dipak looked at him, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He ruffled Jacob's blond hair, his fingers stopping where the black feathers now sprouted out from behind Jacob's ears.
"You're changing too," Dipak said, his eye brows furrowing.
Jacob reached up and felt the feathers and smiled.
"Guess I'm Raven after all," he said.
"How is that possible?" Dipak asked.
Jacob shrugged.
"Your time sickness is bleeding into him as well," Gytha whispered.
They both looked up at her.
"What does that mean?" Dipak asked.
She shrugged, petting Angerona with her long claws.
