Excerpt from Alexan’s Third Journal, Tour of the Shadowed Depths

As far as the Great Aether Trees go, Linumbra's Hollow isn't so impressive a place at first glance. After all, it lacks the height of the Uuslumin’s Prism or the breadth of the Sergeode’s Labyrinth. But that doesn't mean the place has no reach, it just extends in a different direction from the other great trees.

Not that it isn't impressive.

To look down on Linumbra's would be like seeing a diamond that could fit in my whole outstretched hand and being disappointed with another diamond only as big as my fist. Still, the wonders hidden within this place are amazing. And of course, that it extends so far deep makes it ideal as the halfway point in my exploration of the continent of Linavrone.

Unnamed Tal

Tal sighed as he stood at the door to the Reach. A fancy name for what was just the mayor’s house.

While Easil might have fully intended to have Tal make the report with him, old Mayor Pearsiv wouldn't allow it. Which left Tal standing on the balcony ringing the bulb house of the impossibly suspended building. Pretty much as expected really.

At least it was a good view.

The story was that every hollow home tree had no solid core to its gigantic trunk. Not only did the endless tangles of branches form their own maze, but the innards of the trunk were an even greater maze. Tal, like any other resident of Linumbra’s Hollow, had seen enough of this tangle to know the story to be true, even if none of them never had, nor ever would see another hollow home.

It was a natural home for the Erlkin who enjoyed the dark and the confusion. The gnomes weren't creatures of the dark, but the compact tangle of the tree suited them. Although Easil had admitted most gnomes found the giant sized tree intimidating.

The wind tugged at Tal, bringing the fresh scents of life and the very occasional smell of something… off. A smell he had come to recognize more and more as he got older.

Tal was mostly used to the size of it, but standing on this outstretched branch always forced him to remember. The hollow trunk towered into the sky, far above the Reach. Farther again beyond the roots Tal had never seen. The top of the tree didn't taper to a point like Nolsa said the mountains would do, instead it seemed mostly flat. Above that flat top was the everpresent barrier that ensured all within, stayed within. The diffuse glow of the barrier had started to fade as nightfall set in.

In the early days of imprisonment, the peoples of the time had sealed the tree to create a bowl at the top of the wood. Next had come the summoning of water. This great aetheric work had cost many of the lives trapped within, but there were more lives than the wood could support to begin with. A steep price to avoid the death of all.

Thanks to them Tal could enjoy the sight of the western waterfall trickling over the side of the wood from Martyr Lake. Not that it just went merry wherever. From the waterfall glittering in the distance to the farming terraces of Spiral Terrace Village and beyond to the tributaries that fed each settlement, all water that flowed travelled as the shapers desired.

Tal smiled as he saw what he’d been waiting for. Not from the bowl, nor the terraces or the tributaries. Tal saw it from the ponds, it came from the reservoirs and rose from pools. Mist. From every final end point of the water system the mist that would soon form the life-giving rain coalesced.

From the carefully and artfully placed waters of the hollow tree it floated upwards, soon to start the cycle of life over again. The dying swirls and gusts of the seed spreading winds scattered puffs of mist here and there, but there was no harm in it.

It was beautiful.

If only it felt like home.

The tiny taps of Easil’s feet on the hardwood drew Tal’s attention. Tal turned and automatically knelt so that Easil could climb up to his shoulder.

"Let's go," Easil muttered as he climbed up to the pauldron.

Tal didn't bother asking questions. It was obvious they'd been arguing, he just wished he knew why. His trek back down the spiral was a long one, but at least Tal could look forward to the rain

“Hmm, hmm, hmm…” the voice went, playing at thinking hard. “I wonder how it went again?”

Tal held onto the edges of the desk, his arms straining at effort of restraint. Arlen liked to dig whenever he ran into Tal without supervision. Without Nolsa here to see or hear it, now was an excellent opportunity. If Tal were to take off now he’d be leaving the class and the lesson.

“Don’t be silly~” Roila giggled under her voice. “You know how it goes.”

“Maybe I do… was it something like…” Arlen drifted for a moment like remembering really was hard.

“He has no name, hardly better than a weed! He’s to blame with his useless empty seed.”

Tal could feel the tendons in his neck straining as his back shrunk. He was starting to get a headache. The Erlkin classmates didn’t often pass up the chance to do this without Nolsa’s supervision.

“They said Yek and dropped him on his head! I mean heck, they went and left him for dead!”

Tal hadn’t realized he’d stood up until he heard the clatter of his chair. He turned around to see the wide grin on Arlen’s alabaster face. The other Erlkin watched Tal to see what he would do and perfect looking Roila wore a cruel grin of her own.

"Oh, Tal, is everything well?"

Tal looked up from Arlen's face to see Nolsa looking at him, her right hand resting lightly at her cheek. She’d walked in the door as Tal had stood up.

"Yes, teacher Nolsa," Tal replied, his voice sullen. He leaned over to pick up his chair.

"That is a relief, my time with all of you continues to grow shorter," Nolsa walked around the periphery of the room, her hooves loud on the wood as she moved past the compact balconies of the gnomes. "Especially with a small number of you acquiring your trade names, this class will be shrinking in size. Although perhaps some of you need a proper occupation sooner than others."

Tal sat at his desk, carefully looking at the polished and stained wood of the surface. A wand of soft damp seeming wood sat on the surface of the desk. He, like the Earlkin students, had been carrying it for just under a month to get a feel for water aspected mana.

"Now, as much as I'm sure some of you would love to leave here early, there is still much to learn!" Nolsa clapped her hands, even as Tal felt the flush of heat rising up his neck. "Everyone take your wands in hand, today you will begin learning of aetheric mist for the sake of the village."

Tal took a deep breath and picked up the deep wood wand. At least this lesson he was interested in. There wasn't much he liked more than the rain, and now he could learn how to create his own.

"Thanks for staying Yekchetal," Nolsa's voice was soft with concern as she spoke.

"Well, I'm not gonna just say no when you ask," Tal sighed, rolling the wand around in his hand. He jumped when a new wand was placed in his other hand. Tal looked up at Nolsa with surprise, "What's this?"

It didn't exude smokey shadow like the hollow wand sometimes did. The pale wood was also warm and dry unlike the damp greenish wood of the deep wand.

"That is one of very few char wands we have in the village," Nolsa explained, worry in her eyes, "I heard a deep beast has been prowling the higher levels."

Tal looked at Nolsa with wide eyes, then back at the wand that would allow him to channel fire. "But I'm just a- just an-"

"Unnamed?" Nolsa caught Tal’s eyes she leaned over his desk. She gently traced one of her fingers around the base of the twisting horn framing the right side of her face. "You see that patch of darkened skin Tal?"

Tal twitched. He'd been admiring the soft curve of her mouth and enjoying the scent of flowers. Flushing red, he looked at the base of her horn to see the dark spots indicating her age beginning to spread to her skin. "Uh huh," Tal answered dumbly. He had a hard time keeping his eyes where she was pointing.

"As you know, these spots put me close to the four hundred mark," Nolsa stood up straight, allowing Tal to breathe a little easier. "I know a few things, and the deep beast coming higher doesn't bode well for you in particular. So we are going to start a lesson on the use of fire, today."

That shocked him out of his stupor. "Today?!" Tal asked in shock, "I haven't even had time to attune!"

"Indeed, that is going to make converting the aether more than twice as hard as normal. You will have headaches and be exhausted for the next several days. And that’s without letting you suffer from mana burn. If you get burnt we’ll have to end our lessons early.” Nolsa looked Tal in the eyes, her expression serious. He nodded in understanding.”

With his acknowledgment, she continued. “There is always much work to be done, which is why we don’t normally press the students, but!" Nolsa raised a finger. Going by her straight posture and bright eyes, she was far too motivated to let him escape now. "Converting mana through an entirely new focus is the lesson for today! The actual fire casting will come after. Since you aren’t going into the tree until they reorganize the hunting parties anyways, I’m going to have you comfortable with this new wand in no time!"

Nolsa soon had Tal working so hard, he forgot to ask her why she was so worried for him.

To ask why he in particular was getting these special lessons.

“I found some hot leaf!” Tal called out carefully as he held the glow torch close to the red broad-leaved plant. The shaft of wood was cool in his hand and the pit of a gem fruit glued to the end glowed with a pale light. Nisk had naturally developed a seed of light as a youth, allowing him to enchant the wand with a simple glow. It was just up to Tal to provide it with circulated aether.

One of the true talents of the gnomish race and the reason they were the first of the Unsown was the way they could develop into any elemental seed. That’s what Nolsa had taught and Tal didn’t have any reason to doubt it.

“I’m on my way over!” Easil called back.

Tal knelt down to collect the small fruits Easil had collected, dropping them into the pouch currently hanging from his hip. Easil climbed up to Tal’s shoulder to start picking the spice-laden leaves with his smaller and much more dexterous hands.

If Tal attempted to harvest them he risked crushing the fragile leaves, which wasn’t necessarily bad for the product. But the leaves would give him a rash for sure. The spice of the hot leaf would go right through the cloth gloves he used for harvesting.

Tal shifted his head slightly as Easil worked. “Nisk, have I told you how much I like your glow torches? So much easier to see in the deep tangle.” Tal had to keep his voice low with Easil so close. His adopted father was busy maintaining a spell of listening to warn them of anything unfriendly sneaking up.

“You tell me everytime we work together Tal,” Nisk replied from near Tal’s knee. “It’s only ever been a matter of time.” The gnome was busy picking more orange berries like those Easil had already dropped in the woven pouch. With Tal to carry a larger rucksack Nisk had taken a chance to attach his own glow torch to his back and the small staff protruded above his head to light the area directly in front of him. Unlike Tal’s glowstick, Nisk’s had a slightly different enchantment that directed a broad cone of light so it only illuminated what he was looking at.

The quiet clap of leather clad hooves on wood behind Tal announced the presence of one of the younger Erlkin guards and the fourth member of the scavenging party. “Hot leaf you say? It’s been awhile since a new source was found,” Tunnel-Guard Oarun commented, “Oh, that is a decent bush. Easil must be right about this tunnel being good for wind, I just hope this one lasts.” There was a rustle as Oarun pulled his map out to mark the date and location of the find.

After Easil’s report the scavenging parties had combined into groups of four to better overlap talents, even if this tended to result in less goods found over time. No one argued that it was better for protection, the normally independent gnome only hunting parties weren’t even arguing this decision. Everyone could feel the tension in the tunnels.

The hollow wood itself seemed to enjoy playing games with the explorers within its walls. It would grow fruits, herbs and fungi seemingly at random. New patches of life could pop up at any time and how long it survived seemed to rest merely on a whim. The only indicators of where to forage were loose ones. Damp areas tended to grow mushrooms, windy places ended up with herbs and fruit, deep areas with light may sprout an extremely rare and valuable crystal tree. These trees were valuable especially because the pits of the gem fruits held enchantments very well for things like their glow torches.

Unfortunately, and in all cases, those rare plants might wither and die at any time.

At least the staple grains and fruits grew dependably in the villages, but many of the more interesting foods wouldn’t take outside the tunnels. More importantly, the farmed foods were carefully regulated for those who lived and toiled through the hollow wood. Any extra had to come from the tree itself. Nolsa had said it wasn’t just a problem of space, but also a problem of lacking direct light. That didn’t seem to make sense to Tal when the tunnels were nothing but total darkness. But then, the hollow wood would grow whole new tunnels and block old routes at any time too. And who knew when one of the deep monsters would find a new path to the high levels. Blocked routes were also much more likely to have unfriendly wildlife.

“Hmm…” the rustling ceased as Ouran put the map away, but he was tapping his hoof on the floor. “Are you nearly full Tal? My fur is starting to prickle.”

That caused everyone to pause. Ouran wasn’t always right, but he was very rarely wrong when it came to tunnels. If he felt nervous, then something was almost certainly aware of them, maybe even hunting them. A talent not at all unknown to Erlkin, Ouran had just developed it a bit earlier than most.

“Think it can feel us drawing aether?” Nisk asked.

Tal let Nisk dump the rest of the fruits into the side pouch and picked up the gnome. Nisk would grumble later about the treatment, but for now, not a word was uttered. Tal dropped the gnome onto his backpack where Nisk could crawl in and strap himself into the side pouch.

Ouran ran a hand through his white hair, causing his brightly dyed green braid to bounce against his left cheek. “Hmmm… it’s faint, but it crawls. Yeah, it’s getting closer and it can sense the glow sticks. Honestly, it’s probably a wyrm.”

Nisk’s voice cracked as he spoke, “That’s impossible! The deep wardens should have sent a warning!”

“Well they didn’t before we left and it’s not just probably.” Easil asked, his tone grave as he slid down into the sidepouch of the rucksack opposite Nisk, “I can hear it coming. It’s definitely a wyrm.”

“Which way is it coming from?” Nisk hissed from behind Tal.

Easil’s answer wasn’t one they wanted to hear.

“Above us.”

End Chapter