[Niles] - Ten Years Prior
"Hey, mister Elinas?" I tugged at gramps' sleeve. "What happened to make your face so nasty?"
My Ma gasped. "Niles!" She went from very far away to very close, very fast. "Don't you ever say something that rude again! Especially to Elder Elinas!"
It was rude? But his face is nasty. Doesn't she see all that purply-black stuff on it?
The man laughed like an old birch tree. If trees could laugh. Looked like one, too. "He's just a wee boy, Urtica. It's natural for them to wonder and question - no need to be too harsh."
He leaned down on one knee beside the pond in the middle of town. Then he pointed at his face. But not at his droopy greying mustache. At the splotches that looked like scars that were picked at everyday for the last hundred years. "Dark magic did this to me, y'understand? Some of that element's arts have a strange effect. The scars they give… never naturally heal. Almost nothing can mend them."
"Magic did that?" I asked.
Gramps nodded. He looked sad. "Made some bad decisions when I was young. But don't worry yourself. It's something I must live with."
"Oh… I'm sorry." I didn't know why I said sorry. But I felt bad.
"Thank you, Elder," Ma took up my wrist, her long hair swinging as she bent down. "You're too polite. All the same, Niles here has a lot to learn about thinkin' before he speaks. Learnin' that should be done at home."
"Ma, we have to go already? I didn't get to talk to everybody yet."
"You'll be able to talk to me all afternoon. Now come on."
"Erm…" Gramps slowly stood up as we left the pond, "good luck, Niles!"
Ma tugged my wrist all through the village. Which is funny, because we went more up than forward, because we lived in a giant tree.
That tree - Mother Tree - was our village. Ma said that wasn't usual. That most places had trees that were way smaller. Sometimes I think Ma told fibs. But ours was big enough to hold more people than I could count. Half were Wildfolk, half were… Humanfolk? Is that a thing?
Anyway, Mother Tree was tall enough to touch clouds. To get that high, rope bridges took us from one wood floor to another. On these platforms - people called them - you could walk into our big trees' big branches. That's where everybody lived.
It's where we lived too.
Ma opened the door into our branch, and closed it behind her. Lanterns of bright-green glow-ferns hung over the mossy chairs, and leafy tables, and pelt rugs, and Ma's frown.
"Are you mad at me?" I asked.
"Am I?" she looked around our living room with scary eyes. Ma raised her hand. Balled a fist over me.
…And slammed it on her other open hand. "You've lost your tree-climbing privileges. For a week."
"A week!?"
I couldn't remember a time Ma punished me so meanly. No parent would do something so evil to their own kid. I didn't even know what I did wrong!
"Yes sir! Some people have bad memories, and things they feel right awful about. They don't want someone dredgin' 'em up! 'Specially good people, like the Elder. That man saved my life, y'know?"
"Y-your life?" I went bug-eyed. "He did?"
"Mhmm! It-" Ma stopped, and chewed on her tongue. "…It was a long time ago. But yes; he did."
"Woahhh. What happened?"
Her face was different than usual. She usually looked serious. But not like this. "Your Ma was… in trouble. I'd traveled a long way. Met sickening monsters. Fanged, bloodsuckin' devils. I outran them all, but I was hurt, and tired, and I was carrying you. The Elder found me near the base of Mother Tree. Nursed me back to health." Ma's dark face got a bit brighter. "Then you were born."
Her eyes turned back to me. "Look at you. So many questions bouncing around that hyperactive head, you don't even know which to ask first."
"Well, I mean… yeah! You never talk about what you did before coming to Mother Tree. Now you're making me wanna know even more!"
"You're really askin' about that? Didn't you hear what I just told you?"
"About not bringing up old things? What does that have to do with this?"
She groaned. "Goodness bloody gracious. Listen, when you're older, I'll tell you all about it. Let's say… when you're seventeen - no, Abyss, eighteen."
"What!? That's, like, four forevers away!"
"It sure is. So don't even start to think about it," she went to sit in her favorite mossy chair. "You've got a week of being grounded ahead of you, after all."
I sniffled. Aww… Ma's old days - and tree-climbing. I might as well never have anything I want ever again…
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"Vine Cling!"
From outta my sleeve shot my trusty ol' vine - zipping me through the air like a red-and-green dart. Branches huge and small whisked by as I flew from one to the next. My vine gave just the perfect level of resistance. The wind swept past my ears just right. But believe it or not, I wasn't ascending Mother Tree on my eighteenth birthday for pleasure. Not today.
Today, I was taking out the trash.
"Back for seconds, are we!?" I landed on a higher branch, pointing down from my breezy perch.
Under my pointer finger, a much thicker offshoot stretched into the morning sky - big enough to hold a mansion inside and an arena on top. And in that arena gathered a pack of giant porcupines! Chips of bark slipped from their greedy jaws as they turned to look on high.
"That's someone's house you're snacking on, you overgrown rodents! Find some other tree to make your dinner!"
The pack of porcupines stared. Then went back to gnawing at the branch.
I cracked my knuckles. "You had your chance to roll on home. Now comes the beatdown!"
I dove off the higher branch. Next second, my boots smacked onto the lower one. That made the porcupines perk up. Stand up, too. To about two - no, three times my size. Razor-sharp quills poked out behind them. And they started to curl into three deadly balls.
The first splintered across the branch with wicked speed. I rushed to the right of its path - smack-dab into the second's. I jumped quick, clear over the pointy beast. Though I'd forgot about the third.
I landed before it got too close. But there wasn't time to dodge this one; I'd just get made into a pincushion. Their spines were shorter than any regular ol' porcupine - but sharp as smithed steel and numbering in the hundreds.
Not that their quantity could beat my quality.
I drew my shortsword and struck it mid-roll. It didn't do any damage. But it did redirect the porcupine's path - spinning off the side of the branch.
"…Sun above," I turned to see it roll under. "I didn't want to kill it-"
Approaching noise prickled my ears. I lunged out of the way of the porcupine behind me. That one kept rolling, meeting up with its buddies where the branch connected with the rest of Mother Tree.
"Whew," I spun around, keeping light on my feet. "Holding onto the underside of this branch takes some grip. But you guys move around too much, and that's coming from me. So keep still! Briar-!"
A bunch'a brown seeds filled my palm. I dropped one at my feet; it sank into the tree's bark. I flicked two slightly further to my left and right. Then two more even farther than that.
While I kept tossing, the porcupines curled a second time. They zoomed toward me all at once.
Right toward my ring of planted seeds.
I rotated my hand. Lifted it. And made an unbreakable fist. "-Field!
Sowed seeds sprouted into a fast-growing web of prickly wooden brambles. Sharp turns shot one growth into the next; they connected and tangled even tighter. Everything came together when those porcupines rolled into the heart of it all.
Their motion stopped in a heartbeat. They might've been moving fast, but my Briar Field was denser than… well, someone who was really dense. Maybe a dozen brambles broke. The next hundred didn't.
"Welp," I dusted off my hands, "anything to say for yourselves?"
The porcupines uncurled, fighting to break out of their new pen.
"I'll take that as a no." I uncoiled the vine around my arm, letting it scratch a pesky itch on my back. "Well, you guys know what time it is. Just remember: this'll hurt you a lot more than it hurts me."
My vine looped high over Briar Field. Just over their tails.
And I started whipping.
"Don't. Eat. Someone's. House. Ever. Again!"
Two thwacks of vine-to-ass each was enough for pest removal, I decided. I deactivated Briar Field and, like I thought, the porcupines couldn't wait to scram. I couldn't even bring up a hand to wave before they rolled tracks down the height of Mother Tree, delving into the canopies of other, smaller trees for safer dinner.
"Alright - there we have it. Time to see Gramps."
I shaded my eyes with a hand and gazed up. A few mega-branches and a lotta normal branches higher was one of Mother Tree's massive hollows. I cracked my neck. Tasted the earthy airs. Jumped. Then vined myself from branch-to-branch-to-branch.
One last tug, and I rose to a soaring stop in front of the gaping hollow. Warm lights and a blend of cheery voices leaked from inside. But they were missing one.
Mine.
Flying through the hollows always felt like crossing over into another world. Fireflies skittered past my eyes like a pulled-away blanket to reveal a scene of unbound life. Teeming greenery decorated the bark walls and doors to branch-homes. Wooden platforms spiraled up and down Mother Tree's heights with fireflies and glow-ferns keeping every floor mellow. And the smell of fresh vegetation? Never got old.
Hammocks of vine to relax on below. Diners with log stumps for seats and vegetarian meals up above. I hovered in the middle of 'em all.
"Heya, look…" some of my people pointed down from wooden platforms above.
"It's that ol' rascal again…" others snapped up.
"Niles! Happy Birthday!" a rush of voices bundled around me.
I didn't know which face to smile at first. "Thanks, everybody!"
With my vine-arm, I swung down through Mother Tree's layers. I extended high-fives to a string of my mates on a rope bridge. Waved to gumming grandma's hunch-backed over board games. Did a couple slightly risky mid-air tricks to amaze some of the little tykes on the school platform, and this time, the teacher didn't even get mad.
Soon the bottom of Mother Tree came just a few levels away. And I already knew what'd happen when I got there.
"M'lad, I'm sorry to have burdened you with such work on the day of your birth," he'll probably say. I'll brush it off - say it's no big deal. Nothing's cooler than that.
But as I slowed my descent, I saw less bodies than I expected. Mother Tree's base usually buzzed with people, socializing around the crystal-clear pond at its center or collecting bucketfuls of its invigorating waters. Now only three people stood there.
And with my landing? Four.
"Gramps?" I rose to stand over the cane-supported Elder, popping my elbows. "Who're these guys?"
"M'lad?" he looked to me, swaying his chalk-white mustache, before turning back to the two armored people in front of us. "These are Templars. And - goodness, my apologies to the both of you, for our lack of proper decorum."
Templars? That's those holy knight fellas, right?
"The apologies should be ours," said a tough-looking, scarred lady who was definitely getting up there in years. "The sudden appearance of visitors of any kind at one's home can be unnerving. Let's try and dispel that with a round of introductions."
"My name," she put a gauntlet to her chest, "is Slania Ducasse - Warden of the Order. "
This Slania lady looked over at her buddy. This one didn't have a cool eagle on his shoulder. "M-mine is," he stiffened like a wooden pole and did a funny bow, "Ike Zalant - Knight of the Order!"
"A pleasure to make your acquaintances," nodded Gramps. "I am Elinas, the Elder of this community. And this is-"
"Niles Hawthorne!" I shot a thumb at myself. "Uh, professional porcupine punisher!"
The lady snorted. "Right."
"Er," started the bald old man, "you wouldn't be here to recruit, would you? We didn't think the Order came this far east anymore - sniffing at the border as we are."
"This place is mighty close to the Saveld Expanse," she admitted. "Some of our maps even have you guys in it. But we're here to recruit just the same, as you've deduced. And already, I think I've spotted just the hidden gem."
Everyone looked to me. I tilted my head.
"W-we saw how you swung around up there," said the stiff-necked Knight.
Slania nodded. "He's right. Athleticism like that is rare; so is an art as mobile as what's coiled around your arm," she pointed. "In five months the Sacred Ordeals will begin - the challenges an applicant has to conquer to become a Templar. Someone like you might just make the cut, Niles."
"What an honor…" Gramps' eyes went wide. "I always knew you had potential, M'lad, but to have it attested to by a Templar?"
"But, Abyss take me," she slapped her metal wrist. "I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't even told you about our Order yet."
"You don't have to," I held up a hand. "Thanks, but no thanks."
"Wh-what!?" stuttered Gramps.
"Why're you so blue in the face?" I asked. "I know enough about the Order to know you can't work for 'em from the comfort of your own home. And why would I want to leave Mother Tree?"
"B-but to be in the Order is a prime opportunity!" said Mike, or whatever his name was. "Think of the r-rounds!"
"Eh," I shrugged, "we don't really use rounds much, here."
"W-well, think of the connections!" he leaned closer.
"Look up," I pointed up to the rings of people over our heads. "That's all the connections I'll ever need."
"Then think of all the p-people you would save!"
I frowned, and glanced past him. "Left your high horse back at your gilded castle, mate? I help out plenty of people from right where I'm standing."
"But you aren't saving them from d-dark magic," his pointy jaw clenched. "Out here, you people would not even begin to know how it taints the rest of our proud nation!"
"Taints?" I stopped tapping my foot. "Whaddaya mean?"
"That's enough, Ike," the old lady said firmly. "If the man said no, then we accept his answer. You didn't join the Order to accuse and guilt, did you?"
"I…" his eyes collapsed to the wooden ground. "no, Warden Slania."
She shook her head. "Don't mind him; he's young and passionate. But to move on - assuming it's fine with you, Elder Elinas - we'd like to humbly ask to stay in your beautiful village for a day. Meet some of the other bright youngsters you have here, as well."
"Why, of course," he said quickly. "We'd be honored to keep the company of Lumerit's saviors. I'm sure my people have many questions for you."
"And we'd be honored to answer them," she smiled.
"Wait," said Knight-guy. "We're spending the night? I thought you had to be back at the Deathbed as soon as possible?"
The Warden scoffed. "With all this sudden running around I'm getting tasked with? I'll get there when I get there."
"C-can you say that, Warden Slania?"
She smirked. Then looked to Gramps. "Thank you for your hospitality, Elder."
"Erm - indeed," he stopped his funny look to sweep an arm. "This way; I'll show you to our lodgings. M'lad, we'll talk later."
"Goodbye, Niles," waved the Warden. "Ever change your mind, you know where to find us."
The three walked off, starting the long climb up Mother Tree's many levels. Leaving me standing by the lake. Confused.
…Dark magic is their enemy? That's crazy. Dark is the same element that she knows…
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"Ma, I'm home," I blew through the front door and into our cozy living room.
"You're back already?" Ma's voice drifted down the hall ahead to another room. "I thought you'd be out all day talking to- wait, don't come in here!"
Too late. I already stood in the kitchen. And I already saw her with a flaming Wick-finger, lighting the candles of a birthday cake.
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"Sorry, Ma," I dug a fork into the slice in my lap, and took a big bite. "Thanksh for the cake, though."
She reclined in her favorite chair across from me, and shook her head. "It's on me for not predictin' that you'd be unpredictable. Especially on your birthday."
"If it makesh you feel any bettur," I cleared a hole in my cake-filled mouth to speak through, "this is your best cake yet."
"You're sweet, Niley. But why are you here so early?"
"Well," I swallowed a mouthful of frosted flavor, "these strangers showed up in town."
"What?" she sat up.
"Templars, turns out."
She laid back. "Oh."
I kicked my feet up on the wooden table between us. "They're recruiting. Asked me to join."
Ma cracked a grin. "And I'm guessin' you told 'em to kick rocks?"
"All I'll ever need is right here. Why leave home to go running around the country in clunky armor? No way it'll be easy to vine in that stuff."
"I can't say I see the appeal either. Mother Tree's peace is priceless, in my mind." Ma took a small bite from her slice. "Knowing there's Templars in town is interesting. But you didn't swing past everyone else in Mother Tree just to come tell me that."
"One day you're not gonna able to read me like a picture book, Ma." I sighed. "They… said something about dark magic being their enemy, like it was the worst thing since rope burn. That can't be right, right? I know they fight undead and necromancy and blah blah blah, but…"
"Your Ma is a dark mage," she finished. "That's the problem, isn't it?"
I swear she's a mind reader…
She closed her eyes. "…I knew that was one secret I should've kept."
I jumped out of my seat and lost the cake somewhere along the way. "What? No! I'm glad I know that about you, Ma. It's part of you. One of the few parts you've ever told me about your past."
Ma stayed quiet.
"Remember when I was a little tyke?" I bumped around the table. "You said you'd tell me all about your old days when I turned eighteen."
Her hazel eyes finally rose to mine. "I said that?"
"You forgot!? That's the reason I didn't bug you about it all this time! If anything's worth being patient for, it's that."
She looked like she'd stepped on a bed of splinters. "…Abyss. I know I didn't raise a liar in you, Niles. But this is the only time I ever wish I did."
"What?"
"Sorry," she winced, and stood up. "I promised you, all those years ago. I won't go back on that. But… I need you to promise something too."
"Sure Ma - whatever you need."
I'd never seen her look so torn before. She didn't even turn towards me.
"It's just… there's so much to tell. Little of it good. At the end of it all… swear you won't think less of me."
—————————————————————————————————
Not in a million years would the wisest seer or brainiest scholar have guessed the journey Ma would take me on.
She led me through rundown streets and rickety once-homes that never saw a sliver of sunlight. Through the day-to-day of scraping together enough copper rounds to eke out a meal that wasn't half-molded. She brought me to as many corpses as living people, and so many of the second group joined the first, eventually.
Then, she took me to Pa.
I always dreamt of knowing about him. The kind of man he was, and how tough he'd have to be to make me. The crushing truth, though? There wasn't a good bone in his body, Ma said. Even if he had a talent of making you think differently. He was so rotten that she had to take me away from him. He was the kind of man that'd ruin anyone he was around - most of all his son.
Hearing those things, I felt sick to my gut. I didn't want 'em to be true. But Ma's far-off stare into a darker time promised me it was.
I could barely look away from my boots. "That life, it sounds… depressing."
"And the glue that held it all together?" Her eyes sat on the floor too. "Dark magic."
She kept going. "Necromancy. Illusions. Glamours. Without them we couldn't have carved out a life. Hurt the people we did to help ourselves. So many others did the same. Even here, in Lumerit, it's still a talent that's rooted in chaos and survival. And the sufferin' of others."
"Wait, Ma… are you saying the Templars are right?"
"Darkness is an element, like the other seven. And it's also a curse. A taint. Not just on those it's used on, but those who use it, too."
Her pained eyes traced the folds of her hands. She turned and made her way to the hall. "There's a reason why I quit using it eighteen years ago - took up bio and fire magic instead. But I have to be honest with myself: part of me will always be that selfish animal who only cared for her next meal."
I followed her. "Wait, the way you're talking… you sound like you think you're bad. Still bad."
She stepped into the evening light of a window in the wooden hall. "I am. That's your Ma's secret: there is no good Urtica Hawthorne. There never will be, because I've always been-"
"I don't believe that!" I rushed in front of her. "You were bad. You and… Pa. But nothing can be awful forever, can it?" I fought to smile. "You raised a damn good boy, didn't you? And maybe you're kind of a hermit, but everybody knows you care. Abyss, all your alchemy-stuff has helped way more people than I ever have. Nothing about you is tainted, Ma."
Ma's sad eyes lightened. "Oh, Niles… I don't deserve you."
"You do. You stole, and beat people up. But that's all you ever did, right?"
Something caught in her throat. "…Yes. That's all."
"And it's been going-on two decades since even that! So see? Not one speck of you is bad anymore."
"…Even if you were right, I still know dark magic. I don't use it. But I can't ever forget it." Ma pointed to her head. "It's followed me to the present. And it'll never leave."
"Abyss. Then… then… I'll prove you wrong! Teach me dark magic!"
"What!?"
"That's the last part of yourself you think is bad! So obviously, I'll take it, and prove it can be a good thing!"
"N-Niles, no. I swore I'd never touch that magic again - for any reason. I can't."
"That's okay," I launched a fist into my palm. "I'll teach myself then. Either way, I'll be a dark mage like you! And I'll be the best, kindest, coolest one there ever was! Then what can you do except feel better about yourself?"
"It-it's not that simple, Niles."
"But it's gotta be! You turn poisonous herbs into medicines all the time, right? Why can't dark magic be made into something good just like that?"
"Because! Because, well…" her lips trembled. She clasped a hand over them, and steadied herself. "Dammit…you're going to have a hard time, pickin' up a whole new element on your own. You know that, don't you?"
"I'll pull it off - no matter how many hours I gotta put in! My ma didn't raise a quitter!"
"…I sure didn't. Listen, I won't even try to change your mind. No point. So if you're going to learn dark magic, I suppose it'd make me a bad Ma to let my son struggle on his own. Not when I'm around to guide him."
I leaned into the window's evening glow. "You're really going to teach me!?"
Something close to a smile snuck on her face. "I can't always keep up with that hyperactive brain of yours. But it has its moments of genius. If you're so willing to prove me wrong… to show there might be more to me than darkness… then I'd like to see if you're right."
"Awesome!" I threw up a fist. "Then let's start now!"
"Now? Don't you want to see everyone before it gets too late?"
"There's always tomorrow!" I blazed to the living room. "Right now, Ma? It's just me and you!"
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Try patting your head, rubbing your belly, and writing your full name with the tip of your tongue - all at the same time. Then keep up that balancing act for the rest of your life.
That's how it felt to add a new element to your arsenal.
Each one challenges you to call on a strict headspace. Fierce passion for fire. Unshakable determination for bio. But calling on two at the drop of a hat was easy enough. Most people could dabble in two elements just fine - especially if they picked 'em up young.
A third, though? Something other than your ol' reliable and back-up weapon? Your brain had to sweat to pull itself in an all-new direction while keeping the old pathways active. It was exponentially harder work.
Exponential practice, though, needed an exponential amount of sleep to rest an exponentially tired brain! It was a few months into that practice that I dove into bed. Like always, I struggled to fall asleep. Counting sheep? Breathing techniques? A load of useless bunk. Extra useless on that night.
Because then, I was on the cusp of a revelation.
An all-new, Niles original art. And I feel it - so close. Tomorrow, I'll have it for sure!
I tossed and turned in bed like spitted meat over open flame, imagining the booms and bangs and visuals my art would bring. I'd show everyone in Mother Tree. Amaze them with what it could do. And then Ma would-
"-orne! Where is she!?"
"Huh?" I stopped. "Was that a voice? What turd is up past midnight yelling his lungs ou-"
"Where is she!? And where is my child!?"
I shot out of bed. "Who is that?" I made myself whisper - since Ma was fast asleep - before shaking my head. "Doesn't matter. Even if the voice isn't familiar, someone needs a helping hand."
Quietly I belted into the hallway, past Ma's room, past the kitchen, into the living room, and through our leaf-covered front door into the fence outside that kept me from falling off the platform as a kid. Our home hung somewhere around the middle of Mother Tree. And from there I peered down over a dozen levels to its very bottom.
In front of Mother Tree's pond stood five people. Gramps. Three of our defenders.
…And a dark-skinned man in black clothes I'd never seen before.