12:6
“Folks?” Siobhan pitched her voice to carry over the laughter. “Keep dancing.”
There was a chorus of “Yes, Siobhan!”s and a lot more laughter.
Kim slanted Siobhan a look. “You think it’s necessary?”
“Laughter is the opposite of tears, right?” Siobhan started for the roses in the center of the room. Kim trotted along at her side. She kept smiling because it really did make sense. Happiness was the opposite of sorrow. When they started laughing and being silly was when they were able to help Ivan and Ben. If this story was about opposing perspective it all made sense. So laughter and joy it was.
Not that this group really needed permission – or a directive – to laugh together. They did enough crying. Only made sense they should also find joy in each other.
Siobhan stopped next to the column of roses, planted her hands on her hips, and looked up at the figure engulfed on the ceiling. “I have a theory.”
“A theory?”
“You remember how Rapunzel grew the wall of brambles?”
“Yes,” Kim’s response was slow. She remembered she was just wondering where this was going.
“So, she explained the theory behind the Magick to me and I think maybe I can do it. In reverse.”
“Reverse?”
“Make flowers recede instead of grow.” She turned her attention from the ceiling to Kim.”I want to try but I was hoping you could help with the earth part of it. I can, I believe get the roses to return to seed but I’m not sure if they’d bloom again if the tears are still in the ground under this floor. Can you get them to go away?”
Kim thought about it a moment. “Maybe? Probably. They aren’t water, as I said, so I can’t just move them. But maybe the earth can shift them away from the rose roots.”
“Can you try?”
“Sure.” Kim breathed out, air and Magick, sinking the latter into the ground under the stone floor.
Earth?
The gem from previously shimmered into view in her mind’s eye. She closed her eyes to get a better feel for it. Earth still wasn’t her strongest element though they were in a better place after it ate her whole and spit her back out when rescuing Grace. Communicating with it didn’t come as naturally as breathing, unlike with Fire and to a slightly lesser extent Air and Water.
She considered how best to communicate what they needed. She was pretty sure the premise of tears was not going to make sense to Earth. Tears were a very human function, a very bodily function, and the only time Earth truly experienced bodies was when they were interred within it and then they were long past tears. Although–
Earth?
Iridescence pulsed.
Kim visualized a group of mourners, standing in a cemetery, clustered around a coffin suspended above a six-foot hole in the ground. Or rather Earth. She called up the sorrow, the tears, and she released it into the Earth beneath her feet.
The gem remained quiet a moment then pulsed again. There was the strong sense of question playing back through Kim’s Magick.
She isolated the feeling and image of the tears falling from the mourners then superimposed those over an image of the earth.
The gem pulsed. Not quite understanding but not quite question played back through the earth, up her legs, and through her core along with her Magick.
She envisioned tears then earth then tears moving through earth.
The gem pulsed very slowly. It wasn’t sure.
“One more mikro,” she murmured for Siobhan’s benefit.
Then she drew up an image of tears as a pool of water not Water like Earth would know it and she laid it over the image of the earth directly below her feet. This time the gem flashed iridescence. Yes.
Now Kim envisioned that pool flowing away. Somewhere else. Somewhere far from the immediate area beneath the stone floor. She didn’t so much feel the tears leave as she felt Earth’s quiet satisfaction. Gathering a bit of her Magick she released it into the ground, cutting it free of the well inside her so it absorbed fully into the earth. Earth drank it in then sent a pulse of Magick back to Kim that felt like it lit inside of her with an iridescence to match the pulsing of the gem.
She opened her eyes and looked at Siobhan. “Try it now.”
Siobhan shook out her hands and took a deep breath. Then she raised her hands, palms towards the column of roses and breathed out. As she did so Kim felt movement in the earth. Or Earth. It came back at her almost like a giggle. A grinding something-like-a-giggle as Earth didn’t have a light ‘voice’ that could replicate the delicacy of giggling.
She chuckled, giving Earth voice. “Tickles.”
Siobhan shot her a very quick look.
“The roots are moving and it tickles. Sort of. Sorry.” Kim shifted her gaze to the column of roses which was clearly losing height. “Keep going.”
“Okay.” Siobhan turned back to the roses and repeated the deep breath in and out. Each time she breathed out the column of roses lowered more.
Kim eyed the vines encasing the figure on the ceiling. As the column lowered the vines pulled back from the form, revealing an arm here and a shoulder there. She wasn’t sure how much longer the integrity of their grip would hold.
“Do we need to get someone over here to catch her?”
Siobhan shook her head in the negative. “I’m asking the vines to lower her with them.”
“You think that will work?”
“We’ll find out, won’t we?”
“Sure. Just let me–” Kim reached out to Air and two ladies formed next to her. Just in case. Siobhan seemed pretty certain the vines would help but this was an experiment. Sort of. Better safe than sorry or dropping the lady of the house on the hard stone floor.
The vines pulled back but as they did so they wound around the figure on the ceiling so as the column of roses receded towards the floor the figure traveled with it instead of plummeting to the ground like Ivan and Ben had.
She heard more than saw the conga line move towards them. Siobhan must have done the same because she threw back over her shoulder, “I’m not sure if you can stop yet.”
‘Got it!” Patti called then started to sing loudly about lights. Red light. Yellow light. Kim didn’t know the song but it was catchy and Sass definitely seemed to be familiar as it leant its piping warble to the rhythm. The stomp of feet in time picked up and Kim felt the conga line go skimming past behind she and Siobhan.
Though there was some temptation to turn and look at the line because damn Dempsey was fucking funny with his kicking and rocking out, Kim’s attention remained firmly on the woman being lowered by the roses. Siobhan smoothed her hands on the air, spreading them out like she was smoothing the sheets on a bed. As she did so the rose vines withered. No, not withered. Diminished. Became tiny little bushes then nothing at all as the stems disappeared beneath the stones of the floor.
Earth chuckled-rumbled as the roots trailing through it vanished. Kim felt their absence like a gulf in the earth and then she felt Earth shifting, breathing itself into the spaces left by the roots so beneath her feet it felt like the roses had never been.
She shifted her gaze to Siobhan. “Good work.”
“You helped.”
“Earth helped.”
“Well, thank earth for me.”
“Done.”
They looked down at the woman lying on the floor. She wore a flowered hat with a large brim and Kim frowned trying to figure out the logistics of how that had remained on her head while she was pinned to the ceiling and also how it had stayed there when she was lowered to the floor. The brim of the hat lay forward over the woman’s forehead, partially obscuring her features. All Kim could really see was full cheeks, a soft chin, and a rose-toned cupid’s bow mouth.
The air ladies stirred next to her then one broke away to swirl around the form of the woman, It brushed a gentle hand over the woman’s mouth and nose then turned to Kim. It didn’t have words so much but emotions Air handled well. And it was these that the lady used to send Kim a sense of distress and—stillness?
“Siobhan! I don’t think she’s breathing!”
Siobhan fell to her knees next to the woman and pressed her head to her chest which Kim could clearly see was not rising and falling as it should be. The sleeves of her sweater were badly torn, revealing skin ripped and bleeding from where thorns had attacked her. The skin of her neck was a mass of cuts and seeping blood but from her chin up her skin was completely unblemished. Small mercy.
“Prairie!” Siobhan rocked back and looked over her shoulder.
Instantly Patti stopped singing. Sass stopped piping. And Prairie ran over to fall to her knees next to Siobhan. Her eyes widened on the woman’s still form and her hands shot out, fingers snatching at something.
She looked at Siobhan then at Kim. “Her soul. It’s leaving. I’ve got it but it really wants to go!”
Gwen ran over and dropped to the other side of the woman. She laid her hands on the woman’s chest and a look of concentration crossed her features. Siobhan grabbed a potion from her strap, thumbed the seal, and poured salve directly into the cuts on the woman’s throat. She rubbed it in then went for another vial.
Gwen grunted, drawing Kim’s attention. The skin of Gwen’s throat burst, separating along long gashes that gaped for a moment before receding into her skin. She drew a ragged breath and blew it out through parted lips then leaned harder into the hands pressed to the woman’s chest.
Prairie drew a stuttering breath and then slowly moved her hands forward. She pressed her palm against the woman’s collarbone, right below where Siobhan massaged more salve into the woman’s throat. And then she grunted. A small grunt. Before rocking back on her heels and drawing a deep breath.
She closed her eyes. “You can stop now.”
Gwen shot her a side glance then slowly lifted her hands from the woman’s chest. Siobhan pulled her hand back from the woman’s throat. And then the woman reached up a pale hand to the brim of her hat and pushed it back revealing pale blue eyes in a face that looked very familiar.
“ARFA?” Prairie breathed.
Oh, shit. That was Granny from Roanne’s story. Or, uh, probably – definitely – ARFA.
ARFA smiled with Granny’s mouth, revealing very sharp teeth. Which both confirmed she was Granny and also sent Kim stepping back. Twice.
ARFA – Granny. No, let’s go with ARFA – lowered her hand and placed it on Gwen’s head. Then she turned and laid her other hand on Prairie’s.
“Thank you.” She smiled and then just, poof, disappeared so Gwen fell forward to land with palms on the stone floor.
“So.” Gwen looked up from under her tumble of hair. “That happened.”
“It did,” Prairie answered. Wonder softened her words. “Wow. That is a very potent sou–” She tapered off. Frowned. Looked to the side then to the ceiling then to the side again. Her lips firmed into a line and she blinked very hard.
“Prairie?”
At Siobhan’s prompt Prairie blinked hard then focused on Siobhan. “ARFA has a soul.”
“What?”
“That– I think–” Prairie tapered off. Looked into the distance again before focusing once more on Siobhan. “I think ARFA has a soul.”
“ARFA is a machine.” Ivan spoke up, drawing Kim’s attention to where he stood hovering a few steps away from Prairie.
“I know.”
“Machines don’t have souls.”
“I–” Prairie wet her lips. “They don’t? I–” She went silent.
Dan broke the silence. “Something to ask Maise about.”
“You think she’ll know?”
“Unknown. But I still think it’s something to ask her.”
Ivan reached down and offered Prairie his hand. She laid hers in his and let him pull her to her feet. She lingered a moment, standing close to him, then blinked, bit her lip, and stepped back. Turning her chin to the far side of the room previously blocked by roses, she tilted her head.
“We should keep moving.”
“Okay.” Siobhan rose to her feet and dusted her hands off on her skirt. “Dan?”
“Yes?”
“What’s next?”
Dan thumbed through a book. “Castle. Maybe.”
“Where?”
Dan just shrugged.
“Well,” Kim walked toward the far side of the room where a door was clearly visible in the wall. “I’m guessing outside.”
“Good guess,” Patti said and walked over to the door. She flung it open and sunlight poured in, lighting the stone floor and providing a path for the group to follow.
They exited the house to a barren wasteland. Maybe not a wasteland, but barren. Like the front of the house there was bare earth stretching in all directions. Siobhan’s feet stumbled as she stepped from the house and into the stripped yard. Instinctively Kim sent some Magick into the earth, searching for any information about the area. There were voids in the earth where roots should have been. She looked to Siobhan.
“This should be a garden. I think.”
“It should be.”
“Why isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Can you make it a garden again?”
Siobhan shot Kim a hard look. “Did you notice how big this place is?”
“Yes. Can you do it?”
Siobhan pushed up her sleeves and planted her hands on her hips then swept her gaze over the barren earth. “I don’t know.”
“Do you need to?”
Siobhan looked at Dan. Dan looked at his book. Then he shrugged. “Unknown.”
Patti, Ivan, Ben, and Dempsey started wandering the barren garden, their gazes searching. Once they’d walked a distance they each stopped and stared into the distance in various directions.
“I don’t see anyone,” Ben said.
Ivan pulled something from his jacket pocket. He flicked his wrist and the something expanded into something metal. Look, Kim wasn’t an expert on gadgets. All she could tell was it was metal and probably a gadget.
Mumbling something under his breath, Ivan flicked his wrist again and then held the metal thing to his eyes. Oh, it must be some kind of magnification glass or something. Made sense.
He moved slowly in a half circle, making tiny gestures as he focused the device. After a few mikros he lowered the gadget from his face and flicked a glance back over his shoulder at where Siobhan, Kim, and Dan stood. “I don’t see anyone. Or anything for that matter. Just empty earth.”
Ben kicked the ground, releasing a puff of dry earth. “We have to be missing something. There should be some direction to head in.”
Siobhan slanted another glance at Dan. “Thoughts?”
“Crow.”
“That’s not a thought.” Gwen walked over to stand next to Dan. “It’s a word.”
Dan tapped his book. “Gerda had a crow guide.”
Gwen made a point of staring up at the sky. Then she loudly proclaimed, “It would be great if there were crows.”
Most of the group turned their faces skyward and stared intently. A mero passed before they looked down and then at each other.
“No crows,” Dempsey said.
Gwen gave him a look. “Way to state the obvious.”
Dempsey didn’t seem even mildly shaken by the attitude being blasted at him. He shrugged and went back to looking at the sky. “Still no crows.”
Kim looked at the barren earth again. Why was it so green everywhere else but not around this house? It had to be significant. Because if this was a story – and everything said it was – then details mattered. Stories weren’t full of superfluous details. Probably. I mean good stories weren’t unless the author was trying to make the reader bored or—Nah, a good author just didn’t do that.
So, details mattered.
“Details matter,” she said the words because, well, no one else could act on this deep wisdom she’d come to if she didn’t say it.
Siobhan gave her a confused look to which Kim swept her hand over the empty landscape.
“Details matter. The earth says there were plants here and now there aren’t.”
“Okay. Still not getting the point.”
“Dan?” Kim turned to look at him.
“Yes?”
“Is there anything in the story about plants?”
“There are a lot of plants in the story.”
“Because they are important?”
Dan just shrugged.
“Details matter. What was with the plants in the story.”
“Gerda talked to them.”
“Gerda talked to them?”
Ben poked his tongue into his cheek. “Is there an echo? The guy said Gerda talked to them.”
Kim shifted her attention to Siobhan. “So talk to them.”
“Talk to who?” Siobhan swept the barren earth with her gaze.
“The plants.”
“That are missing.”
“Uh, yeah.” Kim twisted her neck and spun her chin. “Talk to them.”
“You are so weird.” Siobhan lifted her brows then sighed. “Okay. Doesn’t hurt to try.”
Siobhan pressed her hands together at chin height then stared at the ground. There was a long drawn out silence and then Kim felt a shifting in the earth. She looked down to see a small outcropping of wildflowers push from the ground. The grouping was distinctly–
“Footprint.” Abe peered hard at the group of flowers. “That’s a footprint.”
Siobhan shifted her chin to stare down at the flowers. “It is.”
“And so is that.” Gwen pointed a short distance out to the right.
Ben sauntered over to the group Gwen pointed out and then shaded his eyes with his hand to look into the distance. “There’s another one out there.”
Kim slanted Siobhan a look, pursed her lips, and raised her eyebrows. Siobhan rolled her eyes and then gave a very exaggerated sigh.
“Fine. Good idea, Kim.”
“I know. Thank you. You’re welcome. I’m awesome.”
Gwen came over and poked Kim’s upper arm with a finger. “You are awesome!”
Patti hefted her shield and stared at where Ben stood. “It’s no crow but I’m guessing that’s where we should head.”
“Seems like,” Abe answered and then hefted their cassock so they could rush over to join Ben. “I see lots more! Well, maybe not lots, but definitely more. We should follow the trail!”
Dempsey shrugged and headed in that direction. “Might as well.”
With that everyone else kind of fell in and headed over to join Abe and Ben and then they started following the spaced-out trail of flower footprints. The grass and flowers and trees and all the other things that made a landscape slowly cropped back up but only the footprints were made of the mix of wildflowers that had first cropped up and they stood out distinctly in the grass.
They’d walked maybe an hora with flowers popping up to guide their way when Ben called out, “Is that something up there?”
He pointed towards the horizon. Ivan pulled out his gadget, flicked and muttered, then peered through it in the direction Ben pointed.
“Good eyes. It’s a castle.”
Almost everyone turned to Dan. He gave them all a steady stare and shifted his toothpick. Seriously, how many of those things did he have? Or was it just one?
Kim shook her head. Tangent!
“Gerda goes to a castle to find Kai. She thinks he’s getting married to a princess.”
“Why?” Abe asked.
“Crow.”
“Well,” Dempsey nodded real slow. “Crow.” Like that was answer enough. Which Kim guessed it was.
“Do you think that’s what Gia is doing?” Siobhan pressed.
“If she’s following the story, yes.”
“So,” Ben planted his feet like he was straddling the deck of a pirate ship, planted his fists on his hips, and stared intently at the castle most of them still couldn’t see. “To the castle!”
Enter The Woods 