Lumina Nightglow's Arc

Chapter 20 of 34

Morning came, and Lumina left her woven house to finish her work. The forest's heart beat clean beyond the trees, but its glow still thinned. She walked to the clearing where three trunks leaned close, her fox-like companions padding at her heels. Their fur showed glowing lines of pink and blue, the same gentle marks she wore. They watched her kneel by the roots. Lumina pressed her hands to the soil. The emblem at her chest brightened, gold and pink light spilling across the grass. She reached through the roots to the last sleeping part of the forest. "Wake," she whispered. She poured her loving light down into the earth, through every root, into the heart itself. Her wings spread wide. They flashed with every color at once, huge and reflective, throwing sparks of light through the trees. The ground answered. Warmth ran outward. The dark part of the forest opened its eyes at last. Green spread. The heart's glow steadied and did not thin. The forest was fully awake, and Lumina held all its power. She stood, complete. Then a sound came through the trees. Footsteps. Many of them. People came down the path toward her clearing. They were not enemies. They were folk of the forest, small fairies and quiet spirits, and they carried a bed between them. On it lay a spirit gone gray and still, barely breathing. They set the bed down at Lumina's feet and looked up at her with hope. "You woke the whole forest," one said. "You hold every power now. Please. We could not wake her ourselves." Lumina looked at the gray spirit. This was not a battle. There was no cold to break, no wall to cross. They came because she was the strongest thing left, and they had run out of their own answers. More waited behind them, each with a trouble they could not solve alone. Lenora came down through the light and stood beside her. Her silver hair fell loose, her flower dress trailing petals. She had worn Lumina's first body once, before the frozen tree thawed her whole. She looked at the crowd, then at Lumina. "They will always come now," Lenora said softly. "You made yourself the last answer." Lumina knelt by the bed. She laid her hand on the gray spirit's chest. Her light flowed in, gentle and slow. The spirit's breath deepened. Color returned to its cheeks. It opened its eyes. The crowd sighed with relief. But behind that spirit stood another in need, and another. The line did not end. Lumina rose and faced them all. She had awakened the forest, yet the work she had wanted to finish was only beginning in a new shape. "I will answer," she said. "One at a time." She had a home, a hearth, and companions. Now she also had every soul in the forest at her door.