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I made an effort to settle, ignoring the residual twitches of my body until they faded away. I stilled; my mind slowed. Everything blanked, a moment of blissful emptiness…

Then I landed in another plane of awareness. I fell into the guidance of gnomes.

The tree grew alone on the hilltop, willowy branches sweeping in the breeze. It looked strong, yet damaged somehow. The injury was recent, raw treeflesh exposed beneath the missing bark. Gray ash streaked across the scar, a parasite working to expand. The Brand would take down the tree to claim it.

The elder’s guided tour had long since passed this point. Now the gnomes examined the roots.

I followed into the trunk and down into the roots. My consciousness split, streaming through all the roots at once. Simultaneously, the sensations overlapped, stacking as I considered each root at the same time, diving deeper, driving down, into the core of the hill…

I didn’t have to travel far.

There. They struggled. All the roots, all at once. They all ran against the same barrier, a block.

Metal. A thick sheet of iron was under the tree. It restricted the growing roots. The boundary thwarted the tree from security and expansion.

The iron denied the roots, but in their perseverance, the roots grew creative. They grew sideways, sprawling and spreading over the hilltop. They grew shallow, tangling in higher soil, when they were meant to grow deep.

The tree had done such creative things, constructing clever roots in the unsuitable hill. Even with a stubborn taproot pressed against metal, the tree had survived.

“Let’s focus here,” the elder said. With her guidance, my mind dropped the simultaneous strands of roots and focused instead on the tree’s taproot.

Denied its desired depth, the taproot had grown thick. It rammed against the metal plate, stopping there, at the edge, too stubborn to take an alternative path. It grew, pushing against the metal, like it might one day overpower it. Never giving up hope, it planned to grow.

“If we go beneath the binding…” My awareness was pulled past the taproot, leaving the tree behind. I followed deeper into the earth, journeying beneath the iron.

The earth glowed, bright after the darkness, the shallowness. The light welcomed me with a serenade, and I basked in it. It had always been there, meant to be a part of the whole, a part of me…

If the taproot ever punched through the barrier, the poor tree would light up, burning with more power than it knew how to contain. If the taproot ever succeeded, the tree would adapt or die.

I grew afraid—weirdly, strangely, overwhelmingly afraid—at the possibility. This power wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be…mine.

I blocked it away. I returned to the tree, to safety. I froze, detaching. I had to go, go, go—

“Wait a second, what are you doing here?” the elder said. “Oh. Sorry, dearie, you’re not supposed to see that.”

She pushed me away, back to the surface of my mind.

“And that is how you balance the gluons. Be sure to never skip this step—it’ll wreak havoc on your patient if you do.”

The acolytes were wide eyed. “Impressive,” someone said.

The elder faced me. “Terribly sorry about that. I must have done a poor job casting my boundaries. I was careless with those two coming along. Hopefully, you’ll be able to forget what you saw.”

What did I see?“The tree, was that—”

“Now, now,” the elder continued. “Up! Up! And off with you! You passed with flying colors. Go on then, adventure with Ninti. She’s excited to explore.”

I stood, head rushing and body unbalanced, as the three of them began jumping, reaching my waist. They bounced, waving their arms about. “Go, go. Off with you. Go,” they said.

They backed me into the door, and I followed Zayne through the threshold. “Best of luck!” someone cried. And the door vanished.

19 | Lingual Lessons

Ayla

It took me a few minutes to collect myself. My senses reverberated, overwhelming me.

Zayne was patient. Thankfully, he had the common sense not to ask questions.