Elena Whitmore's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The smile stayed on Marcus's face, but the sky above the grove had darkened. Night was coming. Elena watched him rub his hands against the cold altar stone. He wanted to stay and learn how she chose who to help. She wanted him to stay too. But her grove had no bed, no fire, no roof. It was a place people passed through, not a place a mortal could rest. "You're shaking," she said. Marcus shrugged. "I've slept in worse." "Not here." Elena stood. "My trees don't shelter mortals. I heal them and send them home. I've never asked anyone to stay." He looked at the glowing towers high in the branches. "Those aren't for me." "No. They're not." She hated saying it. If he left tonight, he might not come back. And she would lose her one chance to answer his question, the question that had cracked open her whole practice. Elena thought. She had power to heal wounds and calm grief. She had never used it to build. But a man asking to learn was a kind of need, and she helped need. That was the only rule she trusted. She knelt and pressed her palm to the earth beside the altar. The ground was warm under her hand. She pulled at it the way she pulled pain from a body. Roots rose. They wove together into a low shelter, walls of living wood, a floor of soft moss. It was small and plain. It was enough. Marcus stared. "You made that." "I've never made anything before." Elena's hands trembled. "I only ever took things away. Pain. Fear." She looked at the little shelter, surprised at herself. "You asked me how I decide who deserves help. I don't know yet. But you needed a place to sleep, and I could make one. So I did." He crouched and touched the moss floor. Then he sat inside, out of the wind. The tired lines around his eyes eased. "That's an answer," he said. "You help the one in front of you." "Maybe." Elena sat at the shelter's edge. "But that can't be all of it. A cruel man could stand in front of me too. A liar. Someone who'd use what I give to hurt others." She frowned. "I never had to ask before. Now I do." Marcus leaned back against the woven wall. "Then we'll figure it out. Both of us." He stayed. That was the change. For the first time, someone lived in her grove instead of passing through it. Elena had built a place for a mortal to rest, and by building it, she had bound herself to a harder task. She had promised, without saying so, to learn the thing she'd never known. Tomorrow the first stranger might come with a request. And Elena still would not know if they deserved a yes. The stranger’s widened at how close Marcus stood next with Elena staring eagerly into his eyes. The pair paid no mind to the stranger’s gaze onlooking in astonishment.