1.3

Drift 1.3

Lara​

Unanswered questions were the bane of Lara's existence. It was rather unfortunate for her then that there were so many questions and so few answers, the divide between the two growing larger with every passing day.

As far back as she could remember, she had been troubled by a lack of explanations for the happenings of the world around her. 'Why is the sky blue?', she would ask, and they would answer, 'It's how the Gods made it,' which didn't really answer her question at all. 'Okay, so why did the Gods make it that way?' and the adults would say, 'It's the natural order of things,' to which she would respond, 'So is it the natural order, or did the Gods make it that way?'

After that, the adults usually got quiet or sometimes angry, and Da said she was in trouble. All the while, she still had not gotten any answers to her questions, just more questions to add to the never ending pile.

Anger was a common response when she asked too many questions or the wrong kinds of questions. To her though, there could be no such thing as the wrong kind of question because they all seemed so logical to ask. She simply didn't understand what others were thinking - shouldn't they also want to know more about the world's unknown mysteries? And if they already knew the answers, why didn't they just tell her? Were children forbidden from knowing certain things? But why would they be, when she was smart enough to understand? Perhaps you had to be highborn in order to gain access to the exclusive answers, in which case she was terminally out of luck.

Her latest batch of unanswered questions all revolved around the eerie blue lights that had popped up in the grove. When she first asked Da about them, he had scoffed and told her to quit talking nonsense - he did that a lot. When she insisted, he finally relented, confirming that the lights were not a hallucination born of her 'overactive imagination'. After that, Da had gone off to the castle to talk to the Lord about what they'd seen, making her promise to stay on the homestead, or there'd be 'seven hells to pay' which was a favorite phrase of his, although he didn't use it as often with her younger siblings.

So Lara had remained at home, tending to the lambs and nannies, not straying past the wooden pen posts that marked the edge of the property, the whole time utterly transfixed by the blooming flashes barely in sight over the tree line. Little Dil and Yanny were inquisitive as well, and she wished she could give them answers, both for them and her own sake.

Night fell, and Da hadn't come home -a not unusual occurrence as he often stayed overnight for business in the nearby towns and at the castle- and her itch to look for answers was becoming greater than she could bear. She didn't sleep a wink that night in her cot, resting on her back with eyes wide open and staring at the thatched ceiling. Through the shutters, she could make out the faint glow now that it wasn't being washed out by the Sun, teasing her and taunting her for a closer look.

I can't take this anymore, she thought. Rising from her cot, blanket set aside, she donned a thick cloak hanging off the rack, tying the belt about her waist and lacing up her boots. A creak brought her attention to the bedding in the corner, where Yanny was sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

Her sister yawned, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "What are you doin'? Father said not to leave."

"I'm going to see the lights."

"But Father said." She spoke as if Da's words were final, immutable, that to disobey would be as impossible as an apple falling up.

Lara believed words were just that, words, and nothing more. They held no power unless you gave them power, and she rarely saw reason to give others that power unless they provided her answers in return, or were soldiers or highborn - you always had to respect soldiers and highborn. One could say that she gave power to the answers themselves.

"Father won't know unless you tell him. Are you going to tattle on me?"

Yanny scowled, "Ye know I wouldn't, but it could be dangerous out there."

"I'll be careful."

The scowl deepened, "And who's goin' to watch Dil?"

"You're old enough."

The argument, hushed though it was, must have woken their baby brother, as he spoke from his spot on the bedding.

"I wanna come too," the grogginess evident in his slurred speech.

"Sure, get your coat on Dil, quickly now. I'm leaving soon."

Now her sister shot a glare of vitriol. "You are not takin' 'im to the Pillars. Father'll kill us."

"No, he won't." Lara rolled her eyes, or her one good eye rather - her left didn't like to cooperate with the right.

"Well, he'll punish us with muckin' duty for a year and then he'll send us over to the Tullard's to muck out their pens. After that it'll be every pen in Gadberry, and then if he thinks we haven't had enough, it'll be more muckin' out the castle stables."

"That sounds about right," Lara agreed, "so we don't let him know."

Yanny sighed, deeply and drawn out. "Fine. Get dressed Dil, we're goin' to keep your sister from dyin'."

"We're goin' to see the lights?" he asked.

"Yes we are," Lara replied confidently.

The eldest sister led her siblings carefully in the pre-dawn gloom, tracking a winding path that would show the least signs of movement. It wouldn't do to have Da discover their excursion because of a trail of footprints pointing straight from the house to the grove. Not once did her brother or sister -despite her look of consternation- complain, likely as enraptured by the now distinguishable lights as she was.

The comparison to fireflies was apt. The little bugs flitted about the Wolfswood at dusk, pinpricks of yellow and orange flaring up. Just like the insects, the trees flared brightly and died down at a steady, hypnotizing rhythm, although she had never seen a firefly glow such a vibrant shade of blue. In fact, she had never seen this color on any plant or animal - in all her memories she only recalled its bright blue hue on some piece of equipment being carried by a passing group of knights down at Ironrath, who if she remembered correctly, were hoisting spoils of war on their return march from the Greyjoy Rebellion. She remembered now. It was a shield with a silver scythe on pale blue like the sky at noon on a clear summer's day. The color could be a clue that would help answer the question of how these lights came to be.

What other clues could she find?

Firstly, none of the timber woods were lit, only the Pillars. Her Da had once explained the differences, one of the rare times she got quality answers for her questioning efforts, and he had said that timber woods were younger than the pillars. By a lot. If the maesters' records were to be believed, the oldest of the Pillars predated recorded history, while timber woods, so called for their desirability in logging, fell mostly within those records, even if they had sprouted from a sapling centuries ago. There inlay the other non-trivial difference; the shorter, younger timber woods could be used to create some of the hardiest structures in the known world, being an incredible building material for ships, shields, and castles if you could afford it, but the Pillars could not be cut or shaped by mortal means. Or so Da said. It certainly couldn't be cut by steel or burnt by fire, but then again, the shorter trees were resistant to cutting and burning as well, so it seemed to be an issue of degrees. She always believed they ought to try a bigger sword or maybe some of that wildfire she had heard of before concluding the Pillars 'could not be cut or shaped by mortal means'.

In any case, only the Pillars of Iron were lit. Except for the mightiest of all the Pillars, and wasn't that interesting? The tallest tree in the Wolfswood went by many names to the people who inhabited the forest, but her favorite had always been Cloud Piercer. Such a grand name for a big old tree. She thought it rather humorous.

What could this mean though? For every Pillar but the most central, the most important, to have their leaves enwreathed in light could imply some kind of intelligence was at play. If someone or something made this happen, they must be powerful indeed.

There's a clue for you, she thought as her eyes fell upon a novel set of glowing markings. Of all the Pillars, only this one bore the entwining spiral patterns on its bark, a voice to visitors screaming out 'This is important, come here.'

She hastened over to the spiral covered trunk, but a tug at her hem stopped her in her tracks. Yanna was looking at her with wide, fearful eyes, her narrow face awash in the ethereal blue glow.

"You've got your look. It's very pretty," her arm trembled, "Can't we go home now. Please."

"I don't know what's causing it yet," Lara stated simply.

"Why do you have to figure that out?" Yanny's voice, kept to a strained whisper shout, rose in pitch, "I don't want to meet anything that could do this!"

"Well I do."

Lara pivoted and strode forward before her sister could stop her again.

"Look at all the faeries," Little Dil followed her, gazing upwards in innocent wonder.

He was confusing the tree lights with fireflies, which were sometimes referred to as faerie lights. Again, it was a useful comparison.

"I don't think it's faeries, Dil," she corrected him.

"But- but it's all glowin'"

"Yes, but if you look closely, you'll see that it's the leaves that glow, not any bugs. See here?" She pointed out a low hanging branch.

"Ohhh."

She assumed he was still processing that information.

"Lara, Dil, get back here! Stop right this instant!"

It's not very commanding when you're whisper-shouting, little sister. She hoped Yanny wouldn't whine the whole time.

Dil hesitated though, wavering on whether to listen to his fearful big sister or follow his fearless bigger sister. In the end, his natural curiosity must have won over, as he took a few long, tottering steps to catch up.

Her sister played catch up as well, not content to be left behind. Safety in numbers and all that.

"We head back at sunrise," she insisted, "no later, or someone's liable to catch us out."

She did have a poignant argument there. "Alright, but stop slowing us down."

Yanny huffed.

The break of dawn wasn't far off, and the Sun would soon be peeking over the horizon, signaling the end to their misadventure.

The trio stopped in front of the peculiar tree - more peculiar than the other trees, at least.

"What are we looking for?" Yanny asked.

"Clues."

"What kind of clues?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but this tree seems important."

"You're so excellent at statin' the obvious."

"Thank you."

My little sister let out an explosive sigh.

A while was spent like that, encircling the vast trunk, searching for some other hint, but aside from the glowing markings, it really was identical to any of the other Pillars, not a scratch present and not a twig out of place.

As the sky began to lighten, Yanny asked another question, "Isn't it strange that there's nobody else around? There's plenty of folks as reckless as ye are."

She hummed in thought, "You make a good point, I would have assumed that there would be others out here even before us. Father must have told Lord Forrester by now, and surely anyone for leagues around would have noticed, the same as we did."

They weren't the only family living secluded in the Wolfswood, although not many chose to live so close to the Ironwood groves. Still, the lack of curious onlookers defied expectations.

That raised concerns, If the Lord issued orders to avoid the grove, we could get in more trouble than just punishments from Da. It might be time to retreat. She was about to suggest as much-

Creeeak

All three siblings jumped at the cracking creaking cacophony coming from the tree right in front of them. She couldn't quite comprehend what she was looking at. The bark split open from a seam like the jaws of an angry bear, exposing a hollow area inside.

From the hollow stepped a girl in a queer outfit - actually, if pressed to place her age, Lara would have said that the girl was a year or two her senior, more of a young woman really. That loud combination of pure white with bright red accents was a poor choice for forest activity, as evidenced by the numerous stains from dirt and plants smeared about. Her clothing was cut as a robe similar to what a septon might wear, if septons believed in colors other than brown. Draped across her shoulders was a scarf with a swapped color palette - white on red rather than red on white. It too bore the strange insignia that adorned her shoulders and hood, a short cross chased by two star tipped intertwining spirals not too dissimilar to the pattern on the tree behind her. Could the stars be a reference to the glowing tree tops?

The young woman was neither homely, nor would the men at the tavern describe her as a northern beauty. Her appearance was certainly uniquely identifiable though. She possessed thick bushy eyebrows and frizzy tightly curled hair that poofed out from around the edges of her hood, all in a shade of red common to the clanspeople of the northern Wolfswood. Freckles, heavily sprinkled from her chin to her forehead, battling with pale pink skin for dominance across her face. Lara thought the girl's best features were her lush red lips and well defined nose. Certainly, her eyes were nothing special, a dull brown native to many places across the world, including the North.

This not-quite-average-but-not-beautiful-either face was made up for in other departments, her curves filling out like many a highborn's, visible under the bulk of her robes. Her frame was otherwise average for a highborn lady. That is to say, a few inches taller than the majority of smallfolk women, including Lara.

The expression she wore was one of mild confusion clouded by grogginess, as if she'd just woken up, which to be fair, was more than likely given the early hour.

"Um, hi?" Tree-girl posited it more as a question than a greeting.

Somehow, the gape-mouthed sisters were outdrawn by their precocious toddler brother. "Are you a faerie?"

Dil, this is clearly a human girl who just happens to live in a tree. Or maybe she's really some tree-spirit. Either way, let's not anger the tree dweller. Hmm, although you may be on the right track. If anyone is going to have my answers, it'll be Tree-girl.

"Excuse me?" she sounded mildly affronted, but confoundment was still the dominant expression.

Lara took her chance. It was now or never. "Do you know why the Pillars are glowing?"

"I- What? Ex-excuse me? I mean, ok, yes I do know. I mean, uh- I didn't ruin anything right?" she sighed, "Okay, let me start over. If you couldn't tell already, I'm a parahuman, and the whole glowing tree thing is a part of my powers. I'm very sorry if I intruded on your religious grounds or whatever, but I had to signal for help. It clearly worked because you're here, although I really didn't expect to meet children at the first step out of my shelter. To make a long story short, I've been lost in the forest, and you're the first contact I've had in over a week. I assume from your accents that we're somewhere in the Yoo Kay, although I didn't know they still had forests like this over there, and the timezones don't make sense? Not to mention the ecology is out of whack," she muttered those last few points rapidfire, "Anyways," her volume picked back up, "could you please take me to where you came from? I need to get back home as soon as I can. I'll fix the trees on the way out if I need to."

An answer or two was certainly hidden somewhere in that rambling. There was just one problem: The dozens of new questions Lara now had. She'd stick with the original train of thought however. There was no need to overcomplicate matters yet.

"But why are the trees glowing?"

"I just told you. I was signaling for help."

Lara realized the question was ill-worded. "Apologies, I meant how are the trees glowing? What did you do to make them glow?"

Tree-girl blinked twice in quick succession. "It's part of my powers. I'm a parahuman."

That didn't explain anything.

"What powers? What's a parahuman?"

"Y- You don't know what a parahuman is?" She sounded worried, almost afraid that Lara would tell her that she had no idea what she was talking about.

"No. Should I?"

The girl's lips trembled. "I d-don't suppose by chance that you've been isolated your whole life? Do you live out in the middle of these woods?"

She asked the non-sequitur as if her salvation depended on Lara's affirmative answer.

Well, she was right on the mark, even if her question was seemingly unrelated to their conversation thus far, and Lara said as much. "Our family used to live closer to the village at the edge of the woods, but we moved out here a few years ago. I suppose our community is pretty isolated. We don't often get news from the outside world."

Tree-girl breathed a sigh of relief, shoulders untensing. "Okay then, can you take me to your parents? I really do need to get home."

Lara nodded. She supposed they could continue their chat on the way back to the homestead.

"Follow me. I'll lead you to our farm. I don't know when Father will be back, but you can talk to him when he does if you fancy."

"Great. Let's get going. I can't tell you how glad I am to see other people again. And finally use indoor plumbing."

"Indoor plumbing?" Lara parrotted.

"Please tell me you're fucking with me."

"'Fucking with you?' I should think not. Don't you think that's quite rude to say?"

"Er, sorry."

"It's alright, but if you use that kind of language around the others, you're liable to get in trouble."

"Noted."

This girl certainly had a penchant for strange turns of phrase and vulgar language. Seriously, 'fucking with her?' Even Lara had limits on what she said to other people.

As the two of them began their hike out of the grove, her siblings remained rooted to the spot, her sister's mouth still agape, and her brother looking back and forth between Lara and the strange girl with bewilderment.

"Yanny! Dil! Let's head out before Father gets back."

That shocked them back into motion, the two younger siblings jogging to Lara's side. They began their trek in earnest, and Lara would not let this precious time go to waste.

"About your powers. Could you explain more?"

"Sure, I don't see why not. I know you don't get a lot of news, so you don't know about the whole cape thing. Somehow…" she didn't have to be so condescending. Not everyone held all the answers. How was Lara supposed to know better if she didn't get answers? "But yeah, I'm an open cape, Panacea. I know that name doesn't mean anything to you, but it is what it is. If you want, you can call me Amy. I'm Brockton Bay's premier healer. That's a city on the east coast of the Yoo Ess, about an hour north of Boston, if you know where that is. I say healer, but there's no point in hiding things when it's all out in the open like this. I- um- I'll just say it - I'm a biokinetic. That means I have the power to look at the biology of any living thing, like the trees, and make whatever changes I want. Move stuff around, change up molecular structures. Like I said, I used to only use it for healing injuries and stuff, but recently I've realized there's no point in denying that it's greater than that. I'm capable of so much more than I could have thought, and none of it has to be bad. There's so many amazing things I can do with my powers. Such as using those trees as a gigantic signal light. Again, sorry about that. I'll fix it after I get transportation arranged."

Wow, that actually answered a lot, or it sounded like it would have if Lara understood half of what was said.

Before she could ask several thousand follow up questions, Amy preempted with one of her own. "So, are those trees actually a religious thing? Because I kinda felt bad about the whole violating natural wonders deal."

Again, Lara was cut off, this time by her little sister.

"You cut the Pillar open." If the awestruck tone of voice didn't give away Yanny's admiration, the wide eyes and still-agape mouth would have.

"Is that a bad thing?" Amy shrunk in on herself.

"Not as such," Lara answered, "there are some people who pray in the groves, but the Pillars aren't connected to any Gods. They really are just big trees. Now, when you said-"

She was interrupted again by Amy.

"Ha, 'big trees', she says. Those 'big trees' are incredible, a true marvel of evolution. I've never even conceived of an organic material that tough. And don't get me started on their other properties - high efficiency carbon sinks, broad spectrum photosynthesis, anti-aging telomere adaptations, the root systems. Oh my God, the root systems. You would not believe the depth those root structures can reach on the Great Tree. We're talking almost a mile below bedrock. Seriously, what kind of tree would go, 'Wow, I really feel like incorporating iron deposits into my lignin today.' Crazy."

The girl had a passion for trees. Lara got the sense that there was so much hidden information in that speech -which she couldn't begin to comprehend- that entire libraries could be written about its contents, and there would still be knowledge left over.

Just as she was about to begin her barrage of questions for the fourth time, she was interrupted by yet another distraction. Hearing the clomps of horse shoes, the four of them swiveled to look into the middle distance. They had been too invested in the conversation to realize how close the contingent of mounted men had gotten.

Uh oh. The lead rider bore a tabard emblazoned with an Ironwood timber tree.

"In the name of my father, Lord Gregor Forrester, I command you to halt!"