Time Elapsed: 05:58:37

Instead of going to Agadhi's office, like Severance expected, they went for a walk in the woods.

Rather than follow one of the narrow animal paths, Agadhi took his own route, each step light and purposeful. He didn't look at the ground to see where he was going, but merely navigated over fallen trees and around craggy shrubs as if he'd memorized their location beforehand.

Severance followed, feeling more than a little baffled. Why were they wandering through the forest now? He ducked beneath a tree that had fallen and gotten stuck on the way down. Its narrow trunk now provided excellent limbo practice as it cut across his path.

They wandered in an aimless direction—or at least it seemed so to Severance—for several minutes. Eventually, Agadhi stopped at the base of a tree. This one was old, with a trunk wide enough to hide three men behind it. When Severance tilted his head back and looked up, he saw that it produced no branches before its neighboring trees swallowed it up with their foliage.

Agadhi laid a palm against the gray, knotted bark. "Let's go up."

"What?" Severance's attention snapped to him.

"There are handholds, if you look closely. Here is the first."

Agadhi reached up to a spot just above his head. It looked like a gnarled rock sticking out of the bark, and it was enough for him to get a good handhold. With his other hand he found another spot, and just like that, he began to climb up the side of the tree like was scaling a rock. By the time Severance hesitantly grasped the hold he'd been shown, Agadhi was over a dozen feet high. He moved without hesitation, obviously having done this more than a few times.

First a walk in the woods. Now we're climbing trees.

This was a lot of work just to have a few questions answered. Severance sighed and began looking for the second handhold. If the clan Head wanted him to climb a tree, surely there'd be a reason for it. Right?

Once he got going, he figured out what to look for. At first glance, the tree's bark appeared rough and uneven, but there were gnarls here and there, as if it had purposefully grown protrusions to allow people to scale it. Severance wondered if the Veiled had somehow done this, or if the tree naturally grew this way.

He glanced down. That was a mistake. His entire body froze up as he realized that in a short time, the forest floor had seemed to have dropped far away. If he fell now, he'd probably die. Or worse, break a pile of bones.

Severance swallowed and looked up. A dark shape was all he could make of Agadhi at this point. There was a ways to go, apparently. Which mean that it was the perfect time for Severance to realize his how his fingers ached with the strain of holding on to the little bumpy bark bits. He shifted, trying to let some of the weight rest on his footholds.

His foot slipped. With a gasp, he tightened his grip, pressing his body against the trunk. He managed to regain his foothold, but now all he was thinking was that Agadhi was insane. Who, in their right mind, would think climbing a tree like this was a good idea?

Only the Veiled, he silently groused. Gingerly, he let go with one hand and began to feel for the next protrusion. There were two ways he was getting out of this. Go up, or go down.

One was slightly less painful than the other, so it wasn't a hard choice.

He had to stop three times to rest, because climbing a tree was a lot harder than it looked. His fingers were rubbed raw, and his shoulders were on fire. By the time he reached the first branch, which was bare of any greenery, he almost sobbed in relief.

Agadhi crouched upon it, balanced neatly on the balls of his feet. He looked down with the faintest of smiles, and offered a hand.

"Come, we're almost there."

Severance looked at the man's hand. Then he looked at the man himself. With the way he perched, it seemed like the slightest brush of wind would blow him off. If Severance grabbed that hand, wouldn't he pull both of them off the tree?

Agadhi seemed to read his thoughts, for rare humor glinted in those dark eyes of his. "Come, Severance. It will be worth the effort, I promise you."

The urge to look down was strong. Severance refused to give in, knowing that if he did so, he'd probably have a heart attack. So he gritted his teeth, and decided to trust that Agadhi knew what was he doing.

Severance steadied himself, and flung out his right hand. His aim was off, but it didn't matter. Agadhi leaned, just a little, and caught Severance's flailing wrist. With a single pull, he somehow lifted Severance up without losing his balance.

The branch hit Severance across the belly, pushing the breath out of him, but he immediately curled around it like a leech. It wasn't dignified in the least. He didn't care. He wrapped his arms around it, as if worried it'd try and toss him off, and squeezed his eyes shut.

Nope, he wasn't going to look down. Not now, not ever. And he definitely wasn't going to worry about how they'd get down from this tree, either.

Why, oh why did I follow him?

Agadhi rose, one foot posed before the other. He stood as if he were part of the tree itself. "It's not much further."

Severance lifted his head. He saw how relaxed the other man looked, as if they weren't one slip away from death. It was disgusting. Severance was the one who could re-spawn from death, yet he clearly was the only one who had some sense of how dangerous this was.

Agadhi turned and lightly hopped to a branch that was a few feet away. This one was a lot bigger than the one Severance clung to, and he slunk down it like a wraith.

Severance squinted. If he didn't get moving, he'd lose sight of Agadhi. He grumbled under his breath.

"This is crazy."

Carefully, he let go of his desperate hold on the branch and got his feet under him. It was times like these where he greatly appreciated the extra agility and balance that came with his Gifts. Once he stood, it didn't seem as bad as he'd feared.

Still, that little hop to the next branch scared the crap out of him. If he fell...

I'd die. And then I'd respawn with a pile of broken bones. Which is nothing new, right? Right. He'd been through worse. He could do this. Even better, he could survive this.

Severance leapt-

Wind in his face, nothing below his feet, oh crap, there was nothing below him-!

-and landed neatly on his toes as if it was the easiest thing in the world. His heart fluttered in his chest like a butterfly. He felt light-headed, exhilarated, and absolutely terrified. A breathless laugh bubbled out of him.

Madness. This was what this was. Sheer insanity. And yet, he turned and trotted after Agadhi without any further hesitation. His mind couldn't believe any of this, but his body instinctively knew that it could. It felt like flying. Like doing the impossible.

Up ahead, Agadhi had moved to a third branch, and he stood motionless, waiting for Severance to catch up. A faint smile lifted his lips when Severance finally landed beside him, more than a little breathless.

"There." Agadhi lifted an arm and pointed back at the tree's trunk. "Do you see it?"

With so many branches crossing overhead, very little sunlight made it through. Shadows lingered, rippling as swaying foliage let the sun peek through. It made it hard for Severance to notice what Agadhi was pointing out, but after a moment, he saw it.

The tree's bark twisted apart, leaving a hole just wide enough for a person to slip through. It looked more menacing than inviting, like the maw of a tree monster ready to devour anyone dumb enough to venture inside.

Severance eyed the mysterious portal to possible death, before casting his attention to Agadhi. "Do you go there often?"

The Veiled clansman's eyes creased at the corners, and he laughed. It was a deep, melodious sound that didn't really fit with how serious and imposing Agadhi usually was. Severance couldn't help but stare, feeling like he witnessed something he wasn't supposed to.

"Actually, I do." With a last chuckle, Agadhi went towards the hole. "Everyone has their own place of solace. This one is mine."

Severance followed dubiously. "A hole in a tree?"

Agadhi paused just before the opening to run light fingertips along the bark's twisted edge. Most of his humor faded, though not entirely.

"Indeed," he murmured.

Then he slipped inside and disappeared.

Severance raised his eyebrows. Was there a secret dimension in there? Or was it a hole that plummeted right to the bottom of the tree?

He cautiously leaned forward, gripped the sides of the hole, and poked his head in. It took a moment for his vision to adjust, but when it did, all he saw was a rope ladder that led straight up. It bucked and swayed.

Severance scratched his head, then decided to wait. After about a minute, it grew still. He took that as his cue, and began to climb. Whatever traces of light there were faded quickly, leaving him in pitch dark. His elbows bumped against the inside of the tree, and once he accidentally kneed it, which felt absolutely wonderful.

And then light began to filter down, soft at first, and then growing increasingly bright. He climbed faster, eager to be out of the dark hole. It didn't take long before he emerged.

A circular wooden platform surrounded the hole, and when Severance clambered up onto its surface, he had to lift a hand to shield his eyes. The sun had no trouble touching this place, for they were so high that they were above the rest of the forest.

Severance stood in complete awe. He turned a slow circle, taking everything in. This little platform was like a nest, complete with overhead branches to provide some shelter from both rain and sun. A pair of wooden chairs had been fastened to the trunk, and there was a single wooden chest nestled between them.

Although the wind was light, barely enough to sift through the hair on his head, the entire place swayed gently beneath his feet, the wood creaking and groaning. A soft shhhhhh came from the foliage, as countless of tiny needles rustled against each other.

There was no railing along the edge of the platform, and when Severance ventured closer to the edge, he saw the greenery of treetops below and clouds glowing with the first yellows of sunset. The sky had just begun to deepen into darker purples, and when he squinted, he thought he saw the first glimmering star near the horizon.

"Wow," he breathed.

Agadhi came to stand beside him, his hands folded behind his back. "Indeed."

"It's beautiful."

"Yes."

They stood quietly after that, watching the colors deepen across the sky. More stars came out, glittering coldly until pale clouds swept over and hid them from view. The air gained a chill, causing goose bumps to rise along Severance's arms. He shivered, but had no desire to move.

"In a short while, the lesser moon will rise. There." Agadhi pointed to the distant horizon. "If we wait long enough, you will see how it makes the trees shine."

Severance looked over at the other man, and saw an almost wistful expression on the normally stoic features.

"That sounds really nice," he finally said, wondering why Agadhi was showing him this.

"I thought you might like it." Agadhi turned his head and met Severance's eyes. A trace of a smile came and went. "While we wait, why don't you tell me what's troubling you?"

The reminder startled Severance, for he had forgotten entirely about his original purpose. He looked away, almost bemused. Agadhi, he realized, was good. And definitely no worse than Olen at setting the stage.

After their jaunt through the trees, Severance felt more relaxed than he'd been in a while. And Agadhi somehow didn't seem quite as inapproachable.

He crossed his arms over his chest. The approaching night brought increasing coldness with it. He took a breath, exhaled, and thought he might have seen a wispy puff of condensed moisture.

"All right," he finally said. "Earlier today, something really strange happened in my own world."