Sianna hadn't slept. She would have liked to blame it on the fact that she was a corpse. Or a wight or whatever she was supposed to be, but she knew her lack of sleep was because of that thing that had appeared last night. The canopy above them had disappeared and an array of constellations hung in the dark sky like the dancing fireflies that had rarely appeared in Jabel.

Then she saw it.

That monstrosity that had flown in the air, curling like the fingers of death itself around the scattered stars, encasing all in darkness. Sianna had felt its touch in her chest, a phantom hand that pushed against her ribs. It hammered, demanding to be heard, to be felt. When she placed her own hand over her heart, pulseless, was when she realized she was feeling the echo of a heart beating from fear.

Iari had told them to remain where they were, under the damn invisible tree. He explained it would keep them safe through some magickal nonsense and he knew this because of some other magickal nonsense that all simply made Sianna fucking sick to hear. Magick was also the reason why there was a damn hole in her neck and why she wasn't even in her fucking home world anymore.

"Ready to go, Sianna?" Aldermeck said.

Sianna looked up from the meager breakfast they had secured. She didn't know why they even bothered. No one except Calera had eaten. Even if Sianna had felt hunger, there was no way she would eat knowing it would probably fall out of her neck. She stood and Aldermeck followed her action with pensive eyes.

"What is it?" Sianna asked.

The ex-Leitnant crossed her arms but remained silent.

Everyone was on their feet, ready to be off. Iari would lead again. It seemed in this world he could hone in on magickal essences he was familiar with, but Sianna figured it was the necklace the wizard had given him that was granting him this power. She noticed it was still glowing its annoying white haze since the black dragon had emerged. The pendant looked like a little star, the only light that hadn't been devoured last night.

"Sianna?" Iari wrapped the wizard's stone in a fist. "Is something wrong?"

"Why is that still glowing? Why did it even glow to begin with?" she asked.

He gave her his usual wide-eyed, innocent stare that not even his scarred face could mask. "I don' know. But I think it's okay since it 'elped us."

"How can you trust it if you don't even know what it's doing?"

"If you frown any more, Sianna, your face will freeze like that." Lycin grinned at her.

As she was doing since Reth and others left, Sianna ignored him. "Whatever it is, just hurry up and take us to where the others are," she said to Iari. "Who knows how far away they are now since we stopped for that excessively long night."

"No." He shook his head. "I think they also stopped. Kota still feels the same distance away."

"Then let's go," Aldermeck said and gave the user a gentle shove.

Iari nodded and walked them further into a mess of tree roots, moss, and other vegetation Sianna couldn't name. She had never seen a leaf grow ten times its size much less gather together with others to resemble a jade rose that hung from ruby vines. Each sight in this world was an impossible one, yet despite countless encounters with impossibilities, it never ceased to fascinate her. Even Sianna could recognize the beauty in the world of Ayodite, but that still didn't mean she trusted anything in it.

Their walk was a repeat from yesterday. Sianna would share a few words with Aldermeck, glower at Iari's ever increasing magickal abilities, and ignore Lycin's tactless teasing. As soon as she returned to the Citadel, she was going to lock herself in her room and take a week-long nap. Hopefully by the time she woke up, everyone currently around her would be long gone from her life.

A tug around her waist halted her walking, and she looked up to see she was inches from crashing into Iari. The arm around her lingered and Sianna knew it was Lycin before she turned around to face him.

"Let go." She glared at him.

He answered with his usual sly smile but obeyed.

"What is it?" Aldermeck asked. She was looking at Iari who had a puzzled expression on his face.

"They're movin' really fast," he said, eyebrows furrowing deeper.

"They?"

"Kota an' Reth an' Deneck. I feel them approachin' really fast. I think they're ridin' somethin'."

"We should wait for them then. Who knows what it may be."

Iari's eyes brightened. "No. It feels okay. Come on!" He took off running.

"Iari!" Aldermeck trailed after him.

Sianna only took a step before Lycin's hand circled her wrist. Though he held onto her gauntlets, she felt his heat as if melting her armor. She faced him but her sternness faded when the grin she expected him to have was instead a frown.

She composed herself. "What?"

He blinked, hesitated, as if caught off guard by his own actions. "No." He released her. "Nothing, Sianna. I'm sorry for grabbing you like that."

His apologetic tone and lack of eye contact prompted Sianna to grip his collar with both hands. "What the hell is it? You don't just..."

Lycin stared, stoic. It reminded her of the face Reth had the first day she met him. A chill lanced down her spine.

"Lycin...what is it?" Her words were slow and careful.

He smiled, empty of his usual mischief. "I'll tell you when we return."

"Return?"

"Yes. To our damn bodies. Back to Dracarr."

She bared her teeth. "Stop. Saints know what the fuck you're talking about. Just say it now."

Calera appeared before her, blocking the bottom half of Lycin's face. Sianna remembered the last time the Rhokin came up to her like that, she had been choked. Sianna recoiled, losing her hold on Lycin. He gave her a final glance before walking toward the direction Iari and Aldermeck had taken. Sianna made to follow him but Calera blocked her way again, silver eyes burning into her with their emptiness.

Sianna grunted. "Fine. I'll leave him. Now get out of my way."

She left the Rhokin standing alone and made sure to steer away from Lycin lest she have another demonstration on how much pressure was needed for a human head to pop off the shoulders that held it. Though Sianna did briefly wonder if she could even be choked in her current state. She sighed, gripping the Armadura sword by her side and relishing the clank of her gauntlets on it.

"They're comin'!" she heard Iari say from a few yards away.

The vegetation in front of them wasn't as thick that she couldn't see him. He appeared through gaps of fallen branches, vines, and the moss that clung to them, Aldermeck by his side. The two were staring up at the sky, Iari murmuring silent words.

Sianna heard a crash, and then the splintering crack of wood. It was a crescendo of broken branches and falling leaves, an array of sight and sound that left Sianna dizzy. But there was familiarity in it, a sensation that alerted something was descending.

The creatures were a total of three, and they looked like giant tortoises whose thick and scaled arms were replaced by three pairs of enormous wings. The plumes were long and curled like flippers, crushing the vegetation below them. One beast sported spotted feathers, white on brown while the creature next to it had solid white wings one side of his shell and solid black wings on the other. The one behind the two had the peculiar pattern of jade and brown diamonds, camouflaging it to the surrounding environment.

Tails long as Sianna herself coiled in the air with the delicacy of needles but the thickness of logs. Sprouting from their backside were short, rounded barbs that marked the scaled patterns of their shells, and nestled between them were the rest of Sianna's merry band of undead misfits.

Deneck was on the spotted creature, Reth on the black and white winged one, and Kota, in her Nayichi form, was on the other. Sianna narrowed her eyes when she saw the Nayichi wasn't alone, and her company appeared, of course, magickal. The creature was a male-looking humanoid with the skin of a plum.

"Kota!" Iari waved to her, unfazed by the strange beings.

Sianna fought the urge to pull him away and by her side. That boy!

"What the hell are these things?" Aldermeck asked.

"It is my new mount. I call her Kirala," Deneck said as he patted the barb he was using as a back rest.

"That thing is a female?"

"Maybe." He shrugged with his usual smile.

"They are umnal," Kota said as she jumped off the creature. The humanoid followed suit and stood next to her.

"And what is that?" Sianna asked, pointing to the male creature.

"His name is Yokir, ser," Reth said, at her side, "and he is a Nayichi."

"Of course he's a Nayichi. He's naked," Sianna said.

"Ser, we tried to clothe him."

"I see how well you succeeded." She looked at Reth and noticed he was clean shaven, something which both amused but didn't surprise her.

"How is he a Nayichi?" Lycin asked. "He's...purple. Though I do see the nudity part is taken care of. Unfortunate it couldn't have been another female to join us."

"He is as a Nayichi should be, colored from nature. Purple like the blood of an umnal, green as the grass found in both our worlds, blue like your skies or our mist that coat the trees in the morning," Kota said with clear annoyance in her tone.

Sianna stared at her. She hasn't seen any of this blue mist in her time with all these damn trees.

Yokir came before Iari and eyed the user, tilting his head and stepping around him. The user followed him with confused eyes that darted between him and Kota.

"You are almost done, da'shua." Yokir said to Kota.

The awe at hearing him speak the Dracarrian tongue was only surpassed by the final word that left his lips. It sounded like a soft breath of wind, a gentle brush on the skin. Kota smiled at it, the warmth in her features something Sianna had never seen on her.

"Wha' does tha' mean, Kota?" Iari asked.

She shook her head. "Just that he knew I had to find you."

"Because of...?" Iari seemed to deliberately trail off his sentence.

Yokir nodded as if keen to those unsaid words.

Sianna sighed through her teeth. Already Iari was siding with another Nayichi. She half wondered if she should just leave him here in Ayodite so he could frolic with all the other magickal creatures.

"Enough!" Aldermeck swept her arms in front of her, and for some reason that caught everyone's attention, even Yokir's. "Someone needs to explain what's going on. Did you find a way to descend from up here or not?"

As if to answer her question, the umnal Deneck still sat on lifted its head. Sianna noticed it resembled a bird with an elongated neck. The feathers that crowned it were green and white, layering out of its skull in waves and traveling down to disappear inside the shell. The eyes on it were narrow and red, but when a new pair of blue ones opened above those, Sianna recoiled. She felt the warmth of Reth's hands grasping her upper arms and catching her fall.

"Ser?" he asked with that expression she learned to read as his face of concern. His right eyebrow always raised the slightest bit.

She shook her head and pulled away from him, but she still gave him a smile. Sianna felt comforted with Reth's return. The dread that hovered over her with Lycin's conversation dispersed knowing she had someone by her side who wouldn't let her down. Even Deneck's familiar, scruffy face eased her as she saw him throwing his mysterious smiles to anyone that would look at him.

"They will take us where we need to go," Kota said and placed a hand on the umnal next to her. "Yokir found us with them—"

"Found you? Why would he be looking for you?" Sianna asked.

"Yes. It's too much of a coincidence that he found you the one time you slip into Ayodite," Aldermeck said.

Deneck nodded. "Exactly what I said."

Kota and Yokir exchanged looks. Sianna heard a sound like the low sigh of distant thunder, and she was sure it had been uttered by one of the two Nayichi. Yokir nodded and placed a hand powdered with tiny crystals on Kota's shoulder. His darker skin accented the jewels' illumination more than Kota's ever could even when under the sun.

"I have been searching for her since she was banished even though I knew it would be years before I would find her, if at all," Yokir said.

Banished? Sianna remembered within the constant noise Kota would always spew she mentioned how The Eye of Artemis—the same artifact that is supposedly going to restore their bodies—was what she needed to lift her banishment. Sianna crossed her arms and payed closer attention.

"The umnal are one of the many creatures we raise and breed in our settlement. I simply take mine out for exercise every few days and if I shall run into someone I know, so be it. I am elated this day I did." Yokir faced Kota again. "She is my...how would you say it...wife, and I have missed her and love her very much."

That unfamiliar expression crossed the Nayichi's face where her orange eyes appeared wide and her face darkened with an odd blush. Kota wrapped her arms around Yokir's neck and the soothing sound of a babbling brook washing over pebbles was heard. Except Sianna didn't find soothing.

"This is all very lovely that you found your long, lost lover, but we need to get out of here. Are these things going to help us or not?" Sianna pointed at the turtle-bird hybrids.

Yokir smiled at her. His fangs were smaller than Kota's, but his eyes were wider, more observant. "Yes. They will fly us to the village and from there, you will hopefully receive access to the temple where The Eye of Artemis is waiting to restore you to life and to your bodies."

"Hopefully?"

Again that smile. "With only three umnals we have to divide ourselves. Please keep it to a maximum of three. They can only fly for so long depending on the weight. Figure out how you would like to be grouped and we shall take off after they get some rest. If you could please..." Yokir motioned for Deneck to jump off the umnal he was sit seated on.

The Rhokin did and walked up to Aldermeck. He had kept his smile, but they always seemed to differ when he was around Aldermeck as if he communicated with her through his grins. He earned a smack on his head with the one he gave her this time, but his grin only widened with it.

Sianna looked for Yokir, who had ignored her question, but he had already turned away from her. He had the hem of Kota's makeshift dress pinched between his fingers with a curious look on his face. Their conversation was the noise of smooth stones sliding and falling over one another. Iari approached the two with a timid smile, and Sianna already knew he was going to be riding with them. Discussing their secrets. As much as in infuriated her, she found herself unable to hold her anger toward Iari too long. Those Nayichis were another matter.

"Ser, how were you when I was gone?" Reth's question brought Sianna out of her thoughts.

She sighed and gave his chest a soft whack with the back of her hand. "I felt annoyed by everything." The expression across his face told her he hadn't expected any other answer, and it made her laugh. "Believe it or not, Reth, I'm glad you're back."

He lifted his chin in his usual display of pride. "I am glad to hear that, ser."

Sianna smiled at him.

Their wait was an hour. Or at least it felt like that to Sianna when Yokir announced they could mount the umnals. Their riding partners were chosen silently, each reading the other's minds. Sianna saw as Aldermeck walked to her, Deneck separating to join Lycin and Calera. However, Lycin's ominous words still rang in her head, and now was the chance to have him explain just what the hell he meant by them without his damn Rhokin interfering.

Sorry, Meryl.

Sianna grabbed Lycin's arm in one hand, Reth's in her other, and walked up to the closest umnal—the one with the spotted feathers.

"How do we get on this thing?" she asked.

"Sianna?" Lycin voiced his delayed surprise.

The creature in front of them dipped its head and tucked in its feathered limbs. The shell settled to the ground with a soft thud and four eyes blinked at its passengers. Reth, familiar with the procedure, climbed to the top of the shell, using its bumps and barbs as support. Sianna followed his path and settled in a groove in front of where he sat. She noticed there was a bar protruding from the barb in front of her as if carved out from the shell itself. There was another one not too far from hers.

"Hurry up, Lycin," she said when she noticed he was still standing on the ground.

He gawked at her. "You honestly want me to accompany you?"

"Yes. Hurry."

Lycin shot her a curious glance and boarded the creature. He sat next to her, as she had hoped.

"Ser," Reth said behind her, "are you...all right?"

"Don't worry. I'm fine, and I know what I'm doing. Just make sure I don't accidently fall off this thing," Sianna said.

On the umnal next to them, Yokir let out a long, sharp whistle followed by a series of short coos. The three hybrid beasts lifted their heads to the sky and simultaneously spread their wings out their shells. Sianna gripped the crude handle in front of her, expecting to shoot up in the sky but instead was surged forward.

The umnals scuttled on their wings across the mossy earth, crawling over bumps that jerked Sianna around in her seat. With each stroke of the wings, they increased speed until they glided over the ground, hovering higher and higher until a cool wind brushed over Sianna's cheeks. They approached the leafy canvas above them, its spectacular display of flowers appearing like another sky in itself. The umnal soared through the leaves and branches, a few of them snatching between the feathers giving the illusion they had grown through the plumes. They erupted through the vegetation with an explosion of leaves and flower petals.

Sianna gasped.

The world around her was bright and blue, but instead of the expected clouds, there were floating islands. Hundreds of them, vines connecting handfuls of them here and there to create flying archipelagos. Sianna felt like the broken structures littered among the islands had probably been one massive and magnificent castle. Why a castle would be here was lost to her, but whatever it was, it now resembled rubble from so high up.

She also noticed the sky creatures had returned, including the ribbon-like beast that swam through the clouds on scales of water and fire. Despite the immense distance between it and Sianna, she found herself enchanted by its silky moves, blinking at the magnificent elemental dance on its body.

"Are you going to ask me your questions now, Sianna?" Lycin leaned over to her and his words mixed with the wind. "Or can I hope you simply asked me to join you because you've finally warmed up to me?"

Sianna tore her gaze from the creature to stare at him. "You know why I dragged you with me."

His grin faded as she knew it would. "Sianna, I told you when we return to Dracarr you will know."

"Know what? Why is it so impossible for you to tell me now?"

Lycin cast a look to Reth.

Sianna followed his glance to see her partner's expression as dead as the first day she saw him. His stone stare concerned her but not as much the information Lycin was hiding. "Reth won't say anything," she said.

Lycin studied the Rhokin. "That's not what I'm worried about."

She peered at the man sitting next to her. The fact he ended up with her, with them on this journey, was not a coincidence. It didn't matter how many times he had insisted it was. With all that had happened to Sianna—chased by talking skeletons, stranded in the world of magick, even literally dead—she didn't believe in coincidences. Had Lycin's father somehow learned about the wizard's mission he gave to her? Or maybe it had been the Captain with his strange Rhokin girl that sent him. Either way, Sianna knew Lycin was more familiar with the story at hand than he lead on.

"Sianna." Lycin faced her with tired eyes that told her he knew what she had been thinking about him. "I'm not here to hurt you."

She flinched. "Why would you think I would need that assurance?"

"Because I know you're crazy and always think about outlandish things, so I might as well make you understand that much."

"I honestly don't think you'd ever hurt me, Lycin. You're a womanizing ass, but I trust you in arms and know you take honor in what you do in the Guard...mostly."

He grinned. "You can consider me bedding my Rhokin part of my honor. But"—his smile turned humble—"it does make me glad to hear you trust me in some aspect."

"Then don't lose the little trust I even have in you. What the hell was all that crap about earlier? You were sent to follow me, weren't you?"

His silence was enough of an answer for her.

"Why?" she asked. "What do you even know about what we're doing here?"

His green eyes darted to Reth. When he spoke, he kept gazes locked with the Rhokin for his first few words. "The king knows about this mission, but he knows nothing of you and the rest."

Sianna almost fell of her seat. "The king?"

Lycin nodded. "He wanted to have a guarantee of the successful retrieval of the eye. He wanted someone he knew and trusted to join. My father is someone he knows and trusts, and so I was sent. Of course it took some prying to get my father to agree, but it doesn't change the fact that I am here."

"The king," Sianna repeated to herself. "Then why us? If the king is so worried about it why not send a whole army of Rhokin? Better Guard members than no-name and presumed dead Leitnants?"

"That's exactly why you were sent. If it was known what you were set out to do and you returned empty-handed, the kingdom would lose moral. King Oric would not have the kingdom's delight from his daughter's engagement tarnished by a failure, much less show the kingdom of Jorster any sign of incompetence. It's easier to explain the disappearance of unknown Guard members and their Rhokins than a whole battalion of them."

Sianna couldn't believe it. That damn wizard probably knew we were coming all along. He was just waiting.

"Sianna," Lycin said, his already close face inching nearer. "I'm here to make sure you make it out okay, Sianna. I promise once we get back to Dracarr I'll bring you to my father and the Captain and they'll explain everything."

She pressed her lips together as she observed Lycin's serious demeanor. Everything in his expression held true to her earlier words about him. "Fine. I'll trust you on this," she said.

He smiled. "Then—"

Reth caught Lycin's wrist inches away from Sianna's cheek, a silent scowl on his face. Lycin appeared momentarily startled before his usual grin overtook his face, and he turned away to face the sky in front of him.

Sianna listened to the wind, watching as the clouds, creatures, and islands slowly dispersed as they reached closer to their destination. Wherever that was. She blinked and it emerged. The monstrosity that pierced through the sky had to be where they were heading.

It was an enormous, splintered tree trunk, grander than the giant's castle she had imagined scattered through the sky. The broken trunk pieces jutted through the clouds like mountain peak, winged beasts circling the shards. Sianna felt like they were getting closer to it, but its dominating size gave the impression it was everywhere no matter where she went.

The umnal dove under the clouds and away from the islands. The land below was as lush as it was above, and Sianna welcomed the familiar sight of earthy brown and grassy green. She smiled as the umnal increased in speed, feeling now their destination was indeed the trunk. As they approached it, Sianna knew only a god's fury could break such a vast and substantial tree, but what awed her most was the single, massive vine that wrapped around its mass. Entire towns could settle on its twisting form. It curled between the trunk's peaks like needle fingers cradling a wound, its dark green color was lush and alive against the tree bark's ashy gray.

Sianna felt hands on her shoulders settle her back down on her seat she didn't know she left. Reth leaned from behind her, his face by her ear. "Please be careful, ser."

Lycin laughed. "So Sianna is capable of being awed. And how adorable you look when you are."

A scowl overtook her but so did a slight heat across her cheeks. "Shut up, both of you."

"Yes, ser," Reth said, "though I do agree on how adorable you appeared."

She pushed him away, eager for their flight to end, but it wasn't till what felt like half an hour and one numb spine later that the umnal landed at the base of the trunk. Sianna slipped off the shell and landed on legs that almost gave away from under her. She envied Reth's agile jump and solid landing that caused an eruption of dirt to halo around his feet.

"And we have arrived," Yokir said, leading his umnal with a hand on its neck.

Sianna noticed he had dawned on a makeshift loincloth and Iari's shirt sleeves were missing. She suppressed at laugh at the thought of a nagging Kota making her husband suffer wearing clothes if she had to as well.

Yokir placed a hand on the neck of the other two umnals as if his touch could read their thoughts and emotions. He let out staccato coos similar to the ones when the umnal took off, and take off they did again, leaving their passengers to whatever was in store for them.

"Bye!" Iari waved to the creatures as they scurried away. "I'll see you soon!"

Sianna was about to ask why he was giving his farewells to a mindless beast when she heard a long, bubbly chirp come from the direction of the umnals. She stared at their disappearing figures, dumbfounded.

"Iari bonded very well with Na'al," Kota said to Sianna as if sensing her thoughts.

She crossed her arms. "Of course he did."

"This is the temple?" Aldermeck asked, walking up to Yokir's side.

"No, this is our home." He cast a sad look to Kota, but she didn't meet his gaze.

There was a whirlwind of roots before them, taller than the Citadel and even King Oric's castle towers, tall enough to block the view of the tree's broken tips. They arched and crisscrossed among each other while others spilled across the land like rivers. Sianna scanned the spider web of bark before her, but she couldn't see where this home Yokir said was.

"Home?" Lycin said. "You live in roots?"

"Yes." Yokir said and walked into the wooden labyrinth only to stop and turn around. He looked at Kota.

"Guide them or they'll be lost. I can still enter the gate. I will wait for you there," she said.

"But, da'shua..." He gazed at Sianna now.

She froze and Reth stood a step closer to her. "What?" she said.

"No. It is nothing. Simply my banishment. I can't enter our village." Kota shook her head.

"It's okay, Kota. I told you I'll wai' with you," Irai said and smiled at the Nayichi.

She returned the gesture. "Iari, you don't have to."

"No! I said I woul' an' I will. It's okay, right?" He faced Sianna. "You won' be mad, right?"

The only thing that angered Sianna at the moment was her inability to say no to Iari's adorable face. Even scarred, his expression was akin to a wide-eyed rabbit's. "Do what you want," she said.

"All right then. Take us to this damn temple. I've waited long enough. I want to be able to sleep again!" Lycin said.

Yokir gave a final nod to Kota before facing the others. "Follow me. It is up there."

"Up there? The broken, rotting tree?"

"Yes, but as I'm sure Kota told you, you have to enter through to get to the top."

"Oh, yes. She did mention that. Clear as day. How could I have forgotten." Lycin's last sentence was said through a sneer.

"Probably because you haven't been able to do much sleeping as of late," Deneck said with a smile as he passed by Lycin.

He looked at the Rhokin with surprise, but his glare also dared him to say more.

Sianna caught a small smile on Reth's lips as he walked next to her. One blossomed on her lips too.

They continued in silence and Sianna felt everyone's unease coupled with their curiosity grow as they awaited the village within the roots to show itself. Its appearance was stealthy. What Sianna mistook for hanging moss and useless vines were actually roofs the converted the grooves within the roots into huts. Trails cut into the ground under oversized wooden arches that forked into other tunnels giving way to other paths.

It wasn't till Yokir paused by a clearing that Sianna saw them. The Nayichi. Each was a colorful as the next, together forming a living rainbow without a repeated color. None of them, Sianna noted, had gray skin, but embedded within all their bodies were jewels. None shared Kota's multi-colored scheme; they sported white gems which gave them an otherworldly glow.

Crowned on all their heads was life. Little leaves budding from the Nayichi children that ran with the sound of thunder. Flowers and moss hung from antler branches on the males laughing in a snowfall's silence. Bare twigs promising new life exploded from the scalps of the huddled females that chattered with the purrs of a cat.

It reminded Sianna of the Citadel's market but instead of haggling and yelling, there was serenity. The quiet rush of a river. Wind rustling through a meadow. Insects chirping to each other. The warm crackle of a campfire. Crunching through fresh snow. The scattering of a frightened deer. Rain plopping on stones.

Sianna blinked.

It was the Nayichi. They were talking nature's tongue.

Tentative steps were taken as Yokir guided them through the bustle of earth and creation, and like a naïve, green hunter stepping into the wilderness for the first time, the sounds of nature ceased and all eyes fell upon the disturbance. Sianna expected gaps, glares, and even hisses—how Kota was fond of those. Instead, smiles were given. Eager and welcoming gazes came in all directions from orange, alien eyes. The abnormality of it all had Sianna wishing for scowls and even yells, but as soon as they passed through the clearing, nature's song erupted as if nothing.

"I'm sure you noticed too, Sianna, how none of those Nayichis had gray skin like Kota's?" Aldermeck asked.

She nodded. "And the jewels were all white."

"It is her banishment," Yokir said from the front of the group. "Kota's color was drained when she left. Anyone who is banished or leaves the village is drained and their jewels start to absorb the colors around them."

"I guess you weren't being foolish after all, Calera," Lycin said.

"No, ser," she answered in her voice fit for a gorgeous queen.

"I had thought she was lying to me when she said all Nayichis were gray skinned," he said when he saw the questioning stares everyone shot at him.

"All magickal aspects and creatures were taught to us in the Instituo. We were told all Nayichis appeared gray skinned in their natural form," Reth said. "Calera was not lying to you, ser. She was merely giving you the information she learned."

"And did you learn in your Instituo to speak out to a Guard member like such?"

A pair of silver and green eyes fell onto Sianna. She shrugged. "I don't see Reth doing anything wrong."

Deneck chuckled from behind them.

"It's here," Yokir cut through their banter.

They stopped in front of a knotted root, far from the makeshift homes Sianna noticed. The roots braided together into a gate that arched into a point. Bark twisted to form odd markings that reminded Sianna of Zerahdin's dizzying constellations when he had transported them outside his domain of death. Gnarls protruded from the odd door, some resembling orbs, others flowers, and more so objects Sianna couldn't identify. Other than appearing like a gateway, she couldn't see how it could function as one.

"The way to the temple is on the other side of this gate," Yokir said. "Simply step through."

Normally, Sianna would've hesitated, would've asked Reth is he felt anything strange from it, but she was beyond exasperated. After flying on a damn turtle to a huge tree trunk that houses tree people speaking like nature, she figured why not go through a solid wall of roots and emerge somewhere else?

She stepped through, Reth's concerned words cutting off midsentence. An immediate coldness seized her, but it wasn't unpleasant. It pulsed over her with soothing currents, similar to how she felt when she had stepped under that waterfall with Reth.

The damn waterfall.

That was enough to knock her out of her tranquility and bring her bearings to recognize she was standing on top of the tallest root from the nest. Before her was the base of the massive vine she had seen wrapped around the broken tree trunk, and standing there was Kota and Iari.

"Iari?" she asked.

He lifted his head.

"How the hell did you get up here before us?"

Aldermeck shared Sianna's thoughts. "If Kota arrived here before us while banished, why did we even bother to go through the village?"

"I wanted you all to see," Yokir said.

"See what?"

A howl tore through the air, and it wasn't till after it also tore through Sianna's flesh and into her bones that she realized Kota was the one that released it. Yokir was already by her side, the calm sounds of waves lapping at land emerging from his lips. Iari gave the couple a somber glance before joining Sianna and the others.

"What is going on?" Sianna asked him.

Iari shook his head as if feeling Kota's pain. "Kota didn' know their elder had die'. She said she didn' know it was this bad an' started cryin' in front of 'is corpse."

"His corpse?"

He pointed at the vine's base.

What Sianna had mistaken for a giant knot in the vine was in reality the torso of a body. It jutted from the surface like a facedown, drowned man where a burly tree grew from his spine. Roots like streams burrowed into his flesh, becoming veins, and the branches erupted from a hearty trunk, becoming arms, their twigs becoming fingers. It was a macabre display of life and death.

A pair of eyes opened, slit and murky.

Only it wasn't from the corpse but from the vine itself. They blinked and with it, like the scattering of leaves during an autumn wind, the emerald vegetation peeled off from the vine to reveal iridescent scales like brilliant crystals. Thin in appearance, Sianna could see tiny, red veins running behind them. The scarlet surged to the top, toward the corpse where the tree absorbed it like water. Dead bark dissolved, a fleshy red color taking its place like skin. Fingers twitched as arms rotated hands, roots pulsing like the veins they resembled.

A hiss as a colossal, forked tongue emerged.

Sianna gaped. A snake. A giant, fucking snake.

And on top of its head, the elder's corpse looked like a crown.