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Heila was dimly aware of Ashlynn’s energy sinking into the mud and earth along with hers, but much like Ashlynn, while she felt the brush of the other witch’s energy, she followed her own path as her consciousness sank into the earth.

More than the roots of the trees around her, Heila’s mind traced along the roots that connected to trees long fallen, stumps beneath the gentle waves on the surface of the lake.

Here, there were a few trees that held on to life despite being almost completely submerged beneath the lake, but if she extended further out, beyond even those hearty trees, she could feel the roots of trees that had stood in places that were once dry land and now lay beneath the water’s surface.

A feeling of calm peace enveloped her, nurturing her body with the gentle power of water that collected in the soil and roots of trees for hundreds and thousands of years.

Heila always felt small. It was the fate of everyone in the Horned Clan to feel like people from most clans towered over them and some, particularly the imposing giants like the Tuscans, made them feel so small that they dared not move for fear of being crushed beneath the feet of the powerful giants.

The lake also made her feel small, but this time, it wasn’t a threatening or imposing kind of small.

Rather, she felt connected to something so deep and so vast that she could never possibly contain all of the power it offered.

The energy that flowed through her strengthened and nurtured her body like the waters of a river nurturing crops, but the power wasn’t hers to keep and she couldn’t take it away from here if she tried.

For the diminutive Willow Witch, it was enough to allow the waters of the lake to offer up what they had kept waiting for someone like her to claim.

Not all of it, but a large enough portion that the Heila who emerged from the mud hours later felt as though she had grown to more than twice her previous size.

Before, if she could have held a single bucket full of magical energy and put it to use for her, now she could manifest an entire bathtub.

Moreover, she felt that if she repeated this process after some rest, she could make even more progress!

"My lady," Heila said as Aledia helped to pull Ashlynn from the thick, cloying mud.

"We should return here when... My lady!" Heila cried, stunned by the boneless and limp appearance that Ashlynn presented when they pulled her from the mud. Worse, when Aledia wiped away the mud from Ashlynn’s face, her complexion beneath the mud was pale and sickly.

"Dis, dis isn’t right," Aledia said in a trembling voice. Moving quickly, she emptied a bucket of water over Ashlynn’s body, abandoning courtesy in her haste to wash the mud and the glyphs beneath it from the skin of the Mother of Trees.

"I, I don’t know what dis is..." she said, giving Heila a panicked look.

Without thinking, Heila reached out toward the lake.

The power she’d absorbed during her meditation thrummed through her body, making her feel larger than her diminutive frame.

With a grasping motion of her hand, she felt the water rushing to meet her will, almost like an eager hound wishing to please its master.

A wave rose from the surface of the lake like a rolling wall of water that reached as high as most men’s knees. It swept onto the beach, knocking aside the comfortable lounge chairs, dining tables, and fresh towels that waited for her and Ashlynn as it surged toward the pair of witches.

At Heila’s direction, the water flowed over Ashlynn, briefly submerging her as it washed away the mud from her face and body.

With another wave of her hand, Heila sent the wave back toward the lake, leaving Ashlynn’s skin as fresh and bare as the day she was born among a collection of puddles glittering in the afternoon sun.

"My lady," Heila called out to Ashlynn, wrapping her arms around the other woman’s torso and pulling her close.

-CAUGH- -GASP-

Ashlynn sputtered for a moment, expelling a mouthful of lakewater before she drew a deep, shuddering breath and opened her emerald eyes to meet Heila’s worried gaze.

"I’m all right," Ashlynn said weakly. "Just very, very drained."

"Lady Ashlynn," Aledia said as she knelt in the mud and standing water. She placed her hands on her knees and lowered her body until her chin nearly touched the surface of the water before she spoke again. "I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Dis ritual, it’s never harmed no one before. It, it shouldn’t have..."

"It’s not your fault," Ashlynn said, raising an arm that felt like it had the strength of a three-week-old kitten to wave off the other woman’s apology.

"Your ritual helped me reach something... someone, very far from here. It’s not your fault that I wore myself out doing so.

You didn’t hurt me at all," she said sincerely before offering a weak smile.

"You may even have done me a great favor. So please, don’t bow down like that, and hold your head and tail up high. "

"Ashlynn," Heila said softly. "What happened to you? I didn’t feel anything dangerous when I was in the mud but..."

"I encountered something like Cecile," Ashlynn said quietly. "I’m starting to believe that this is a power that belongs to our coven, to the Mother of Trees and her coven rather. I met a previous mother of trees who planted some kind of remnant of herself in another forest, far from here."

"The same way Cecile planted a portion of herself in the Ancient Willow?" Heila asked. It shouldn’t be surprising if she thought about it, but somehow, she’d assumed that the power to preserve a ghostly remnant of Cecile had come from the Ancient Willow rather than the other way around.

If this was actually a power that came from the Mother of Trees rather than the trees themselves, then did that mean that one day she would become something like Cecile had?

"I’ll tell you later," Ashlynn said, giving Heila a gentle squeeze. "Right now, it’s a little cold here in the water," Ashlynn added with a faint smile as she gestured to the puddles left by Heila’s hasty magic. "Can we dry off? Maybe Aledia has something else for us to eat?"

"Of course," their reptilian host said, her tail swishing back and forth rapidly in embarrassment.

"Let me help you up and get you properly washed and dried," she said, reaching out as gently as she could to scoop Ashlynn up in her arms. "I have a chilled soup of smashed vegetables and herbs that should be gentle on your stomach and then we can work on restoring you. "

Ashlynn wanted to protest that she didn’t need anything more than the meal and a chance to dry off, but Aledia insisted on doing everything they could to help her recover from her exhaustion.

"Mother of Trees," Aledia said, bowing deeply as she presented a tray filled with a collection of smooth, polished stones, each one twice the size of a hen’s egg.

"Dese are bloodstones," she said, pointing to the red-veined green stones.

"If you feel like you can trust yourself wit’ us for one more ritual, den I can stimulate your blood and reinvigorate your body.

I, I understand if you do not trust our ancient ways," she said humbly.

"I told you, didn’t I?" Ashlynn said as she placed a hand on the other woman’s scaly hand.

Despite how draining her conversation with Claire du Gaal had been, the treatments that Aledia had provided so far had done a remarkable job of softening Ashlynn’s skin, and the other woman’s hand felt even rougher than usual under the tender skin of her palm.

"Your ritual helped me, even if I was exhausted afterward," she said in a firm tone that wouldn’t accept argument, no matter how well-meaning. "If you believe that this will help, then I will accept it."

"Thank you, Mother of Trees," the reptilian woman said. "I’ll heat the stones at once. Once dese are nice and warm, you jus’ need to lie dere while I place dem on your body. De warmth of de earth will flow through you and I’ll guide it where it needs to go wit’ my hands on your skin. It won’t hurt none, I promise you dat."

While Ashlynn waited for Aledia to prepare hot stones and a soft cushion for a ritual massage, complete with scented oils that smelled of fresh herbs and cypress needles, she explained her encounter to Heila whose brow furrowed in worry the more Ashlynn spoke.

"I’ve heard mention of Exemplars in old stories," Heila said as her mind struggled to recall stories that had once felt like distant tales told by her parents to frighten their pack of children before bedtime. As a child, they had been frightening tales but as an adult, she’d dismissed them as exaggerations told to keep her rebellious brothers in check.

Perhaps there was more truth to those tales than she thought.

"But I’ve never heard anything about ’Saints’ or ’Oracles.’" Heila added in a worried tone. "Just how many more horrors does the Church have to attack us with?"

"I don’t know," Ashlynn admitted. One of her tutors had once said that many records regarding the Church were difficult to find and some texts were banned entirely.

Just possessing a forbidden book could land someone in the hands of the Inquisition and given her own status, Ashlynn had never dared to investigate beyond the warning her tutor gave her.

"But Amahle may know more than we do," Ashlynn added. "Particularly about this other human Mother of Trees. So when we get back, I intend to see what she knows..."