Sylvi's Arc

Chapter 9 of 13

Sylvi feels the scouts before she sees them. Their boots crush the new white flowers along the streambank, and their voices carry through roots that still tremble with returned grief. Three of them stand at the well's edge, staring at the stone shelter that wasn't there yesterday. She moves toward them through the undergrowth, her bag of mushroom leather pressed against her side. Inside it, the crystal jar of moon flower pollen waits—the ingredient she needs to awaken the dryad's spirit tree in the northern grove before the Crown's wagons roll through. But the scouts have found the well first, drawn by the twisted tree that sprouted overnight where the creature dissolved into soil. Its dark trunk gleams with eerie blue crystals, branches reaching skyward like grasping fingers. They cannot miss it. They will not leave it unreported. Sylvi steps into the clearing. The scouts turn, hands moving to their weapons. She raises her roots in a gesture of peace, though her needles show her what comes next—a scout tower of wood and stone rising at the forest's edge, forty guards marching from the quarry, the northern grove trampled under their boots. She can stop these three from leaving. The forest would help her. But killing them will bring the others faster, and she will lose the time she needs to reach the grove. She speaks instead, her voice carrying the weight of ancient bark. "You stand on ground that does not welcome you. Leave now, and the forest will forget you passed." The scouts exchange glances. One of them laughs, but it sounds uncertain. They back away slowly, weapons still drawn, eyes fixed on the twisted tree behind her. When they reach the streambank, they turn and run. Sylvi watches them go, knowing what she has chosen. They will report what they saw. The Crown will come with more than three. But she has bought herself hours, maybe a day, and that must be enough. She grips the leather bag and starts north through the trees, moving fast. The grove waits, unprotected. The moon flower pollen will wake the dryad's spirit, but only if she reaches it before the Crown does. The arc goal remains—restoring balance to the corrupted woodland—but now she must race against boots and blades to finish what the creature's release began.