2407 Strilaxis 11, Reshpe

Jona opened his eyes. The familiar blobs of pink and blue was enough to blind him. A groan escaped his lips, causing a flurry of voices and shuffling footsteps to explode into a frenzy. He's waking up! Thank the gods. Quick, get him something to drink.

The words jumbled in his head, ending up in a garbled mess. A headache throbbed against his temples, enough to make his gut churn. He wanted to throw up. He tried wiggling his toes or moving his arms but they wouldn't respond to his wishes. They remained still, his form sprawled against the soft carpet of the magrora.

It took a while, but his vision sharpened enough to register his father's face from the blobs of color crowding for his attention. "Xenna," the Grand Monarch breathed. "Can you hear me?"

Jona bobbed his head, the action alone seemed to have tired him out a great degree. Relief crumpled the Grand Monarch's features. "Please don't do that again," he said. "You're lucky Ixy was smart enough to lead us here. She seemed frazzled about what you did. Which prompts the question—what did you do? To the Living Throne, nonetheless?"

Jona's memories were all in tatters but he accepted his father's hand and he felt himself getting hauled up. "I...attempted to bind my soul to the Liferewarder," he said, clutching his head when it began spinning. "I hope it was enough to stop the Decay from spreading."

Strong arms wrapped around his neck, pressing his head against a warm body. The Grand Monarch was sniffing, the sound scratching against Jona's ears which were still recovering. "You've done the nature fairies a great service by following in your mother's steps," he drew away and clasped Jona by the shoulders. "We honor her sacrifice and now we will honor yours."

Jona didn't care about honor, though. "What about the Decay?" he asked. "What happened to it?"

"I've received urgent reports last night," the Grand Monarch turned to the host of legs forming a wide berth around them. Only did Jona realize they weren't alone. In Gandirk, no less. "The Decay is gone. Completely."

A wave of relief washed over Jona. It's all worth it. Whatever the price the Arbotro demanded, it was worth it. He bought them enough time. He...

His initial amusement died off when he realized what he had achieved. Memories of the glowing being, the embodiment of the Arbotro, flashed in rapid succession in his mind. It wasn't enough to stall the Decay. It would creep up after a few years or even less as soon as Jona's magic couldn't sustain the force against it any longer or if the magic became more and more depleted.

The war. There was a war coming and he was supposed to look for something, or rather, someone, who could solve it. Someone who could tackle it at the root.

Thorns prick only those who hold them. Perhaps, the way to clean this mess was to let go of the thorns and strike the only thing giving it life. Maybe that's the lesson Rutoria had been trying to tell him. Or maybe she meant something else. That fairy never did explain what she truly wanted to say. She hasn't even confirmed she was indeed a pixie.

But it didn't matter. At least, not now.

Jona stood up, using his father's arm as a support in taking weak steps. After they reached the cobbled road, he looked back at the crystalline flower. Its magical aura still hasn't changed, glowing as brightly as ever, but he could swear he could almost tell what it was thinking, what it was feeling. He had never experienced such heightened senses like this. Maybe it was the effect of the Arbotro's spell?

"Let's go home," Jona said to no one but himself. The Grand Monarch must have heard it because he began ushering Jona past the cobbled path and into a pavilion he hadn't seen before. Granted, he hadn't been here long enough to explore the place inside out. He flopped onto a bench beside a wooden table. His eyes admired the wood's intricate designs but also felt bad a tree had to die to provide them this fixture.

His throat was parched dry and he spied a pitcher near a clump of vines hanging from a protruding tree branch. He raised his hand and summoned his magic. It flared under his skin like always but when he sent it towards the wines, they didn't react.

Jona frowned. That's weird. Why wouldn't the plants respond to his magic? He tried to enchant the branch, the leaves, or even the grass at the foot of the stairs leading to the pavilion. They didn't follow. None of them did. What...what's going on?

Could it be the price the Arbotro was talking about? He still had his magic but he couldn't influence the plants to do his bidding anymore. A shaky sigh heaved off him. His synnavaim. That's what the Arbotro took. That's what he had to sacrifice.

He raised his head to look for his father. He spotted the Grand Monarch talking with a bunch of council masters he had no doubt imported from Acosa. Jona must have been here for quite a while, seeing as how the Grand Monarch had brought his work over.

And it looked like Jona was about to give his father more things to worry about. He was about to stand up and tell the Grand Monarch about his new lack of a synnavaim when pain ripped into his gut, sending him stumbling forward. His senses flared as they tried to tell him what's wrong. Someone...someone was tampering with nature somewhere in Dwanzeig. He reached out and gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white.

There was something else too. It felt like his whole stomach was being scraped clean and it drew his magic out, little by little. A breath escaped his lips. The cause of the depletion of magic. That's what it was. Was he...

"Your Highness!" a breathless Eldan elbowed his way past the circle of court masters and braced his knees as he panted. "There's been a trace of illegal activity in the forests. Obeia still has to track it to its location but we are certain someone was harming nature. We—"

"Komery," Jona rasped, the word bleeding out of his lips before he could make sense of what he was implying. "There was a disturbance in the flow of magic in the forest in Komery. West of the Regal palace. Down in the foot of the mountain. They're cutting the wandess trees. Two people. Don't bring the whole army."

No one moved for a while. "H-how did you know that?" The spy's eyes were wide and a look of shock was plastered all over his face. "It would take us days to figure that out and you just woke up after two days in Gandirk."

So he was out for two days. He was beginning to think he had been knocked out for a month or something. "That's what I'm trying to tell you," he said, meeting his father's eyes whose worry had never quite emptied. "I'm connected to nature now. And when the Decay starts all over again, I go with it."

Silence filled the pavilion. Nobody knew how long before the Decay relapsed. It was another kind of waiting that Jona had to live through but it was what it was. There was nothing he could do now.

"So we shouldn't waste our time on trivial things. Right now," Jona staggered upright and pushed himself off the table. He met the court masters' eyes before going to Eldan who watched him like a bird of prey, before finally resting once more on the Grand Monarch. "We must prepare for war."