Splinter Soul

Each tree was a chorus of birdsong and the undergrowth chittered with tiny creatures. Terra heard it all, could feel even the animals in their burrows and tunnels underfoot, could sense the insects in the soil amongst the tangled roots and mycelial threads. Indeed, he could sense the vast web of life stretching across all of Aria.

"Come along, creature," Sidriz snapped. The wizard sat atop a tall fianna, his arms crossed over his finely embroidered tunic. Terra had learned the hard way this meant he was growing impatient. And Sidriz was increasingly unpleasant the more impatient he became.

"Yes, Master," Terra said, hurrying to join Sidriz. With them was Hyrinth, a diviner Sidriz had hired for the journey to locate some particular curiosity in the ever-shifting currents of the Flow.

If Sidriz was also connected to all life in their surroundings, he was not awed by it. It did not cause him to slow and stop so that he might better commune. It did not fill his very soul with warmth. His dedication to arcane study was obvious from his pale complexion, and his usually neat beard had grown tangled and wild in his obsession, dark bags growing beneath eyes that gleamed with his own grand purpose.

They continued onward, the smaller humans on their mounts, while Terra trailed close behind. Sidriz's fianna pulled a heavy cart loaded with bottles and stoppered jugs, tinkling and sloshing as they trundled along the road. Sidriz said it was for trade, but to whom and in exchange for what, he would not say. He refused even to explain the purpose of trade when Aria's natural bounty offered more than enough to sustain every creature living within its bounds.

There were many things Sidriz would not say.

"Master, why did you create me?" Terra asked. It was not the first time the question had floated to the top of Terra's thoughts, but it was the first time he had allowed himself to speak the words.

"If I had known you would be sentient, perhaps I wouldn't have bothered," Sidriz said.

Hyrinth looked over her shoulder at Terra, mouth twisted in a frown. But Terra was used to sneering dismissal from his master. The woman wore a long, simple dress, once green, now lovingly repaired with patches of fabric in rich azure, crimson, and violet. Her red hair glinted beneath the sunlight, and her many necklaces clattered and chimed with the rhythm of the fianna's steps.

Sidriz sighed. "I don't expect you to understand, but I have a plan for Aria, of which you are key." He turned to face Hyrinth, his chin raised, chest puffed out. "I created Terra from a splinter of the Great Tree of Korshem itself."

Terra craned his neck as a flock of birds passed high above, tiny black silhouettes forming a 'V'. When he brought his eyes back down to the horizon, Hyrinth was staring at him with a look she normally reserved for particularly brilliant displays of light in the sky marking the Flow's passage.

"Terra came from the Korshem?" she asked. "Why didn't you say?"

"I just did," Sidriz sneered. "See, I found myself deposited beneath the Korshem's grand boughs. It saved me, as it saves many, for what is a wizard without purpose? Wasted power, wasted time."

Terra was familiar with this wasted time. He had found himself born into this world suddenly, filled with a sort of desperate purpose he was kept from. Every morning, he would feel the drive to wander into the nearest woods and lose himself amongst his kin, but he would instead be kept indoors as Sidriz pored over magical tomes and nattered away about his schemes and plans.

"Finding myself in a new land provided new opportunities," Sidriz said, speaking as though addressing a crowded room. "So, I did what any man of knowledge would do: I studied Aria and its ways. I must know more about the Flow than even you, diviner; though I am still lacking in practical expertise, obviously, or you wouldn't be here."

"Obviously," Hyrinth said, glancing toward Terra and rolling her eyes.

Terra smiled, already enjoying this woman's company far more than he had ever enjoyed Sidriz's.

"Aria is a beautiful land," Sidriz continued. Terra was starting to wonder how anything Sidriz said related to his original question. But he held his tongue. "There is nature in abundance, beasts that I have never come across in all my travels, and easy-going peoples with little to fear, but also little to strive toward."

Sidriz threw his hands wide. "The performances I have seen played out in thatch-roofed taverns would awe royalty in their courts, yet the bards and thespians that traipse around these lands do not care for coin - which is grand because the audience has none to give! And the spirits, liqueurs, and brews are first rate across all of Rathe...and let me tell you," Sidriz said, giving Hyrinth a wink, "I would know."

Those evenings were amongst the few Terra enjoyed spending with Sidriz. While the wizard got increasingly drunk ‘sampling' various brews, Terra could quietly stand guard and listen to the songs of the bards, revel in the stories of the charismatic vagabonds, and lose himself in all variety of breathtaking performances. In these taverns and open-air theaters, Terra's heart warmed in the same way it did when he was allowed time to spend wandering the forest, surrounded by kin. These stories and performances were life itself in another form, and it too was precious. Not that Sidriz appreciated them, or indeed Terra's thoughts on the matter at the end of the night, as he escorted the drunkenly belligerent wizard to his abode.

"We take the next path on the right," Hyrinth said, her head cocked, listening to the Flow's silent song. "What does any of this have to do with Terra? People will want to know his story."

Sidriz glowered. "I'm getting to that part," he said, clipped and stern. "And it's my story. I determined that my purpose in Aria is to open it up."

"Open it?" Terra and Hyrinth said, their voices overlapping.

"Open it to trade, to travel. The Great Tree of Korshem is the only gateway between Aria and the rest of Rathe, but it is a rather fickle one. I believe it chose me for this task. Why else would it bring me here?"

The wheels on the cart creaked and squealed as they turned the corner, the fianna plodding tirelessly ahead. The forest grew thicker on either side, the foliage and underbrush teeming with life so Terra's heart seemed to swell with it. He sensed a pair of startled gossamhares bolt away at their approach and he longed to calm the skittish creatures.

"I took a splinter from the Korshem and imbued it with life. I expected more of a golem than what I created. I suppose I do not know my own power."

"How does Terra help you create your own gateway?" Hyrinth glanced at Terra, worry furrowing her brow, but for what reason he was unsure. Would an open Aria not continue to grow? Would the Flow not stretch further and connect life with ever more life beyond?

"You will see soon, my dear," Sidriz said. "I believe we are here."

"You're right," Hyrinth said, clutching her necklaces threaded with gems, amber, and bone. She shivered. "I've never been asked to find an eddy in the Flow before."

The road ended in a small clearing, the trees beyond it so thick that Terra could not see through them, could see only a wavering darkness like shadows given life. With no more road ahead of them, the fianna stopped.

"The sensation is strange," Terra said. "The Flow not flowing, but churning here for a time before rolling back."

Hyrinth rested a hand on Terra's powerful arm and he supported her as she dropped down from her mount. She walked slowly forward, tracing her fingers through the air. Terra watched her, stroking the fianna's flank as he undid the straps on its harness, releasing the beast from its heavy burden.

"There, there. Rest up, my kindred," Terra said softly. "You will find some particularly juicy berries over there if you're hungry." He pointed toward a blissberry bush, branches sagging with the weight of the small, delicious fruits. The fianna nudged him gently with its snout.

"What are we doing here, wizard?" Hyrinth asked, her voice loud, edged with an unspoken challenge. She stood at the edge of the forest, an impossible wind whipping at her hair.

"It frightens you, doesn't it?" Sidriz said. He floated off the side of his fianna and toward the diviner, hands out to his sides in a flourish that allowed him this facsimile of flight. He dropped gently to the ground beside Hyrinth. "I understand. Change is frightening."

"Come, creature."

"Yes, Master." Terra stroked the fianna's snout once more and stomped toward Sidriz and Hyrinth.

"This is where you open the gateway. Reach into the trees."

"Terra," Hyrinth said, stepping closer and looking up into his eyes. "I don't like this."

Terra hummed deeply in the back of his throat. All he knew in this life was the master's commands. How could they be wrong?

He moved between Sidriz and Hyrinth without a word and approached the trees, craning his neck to take in their full glory. They were ancient redwoods, the years of their lives written in the rings formed within their bodies. They had grown slowly over time, reaching toward the sky, giving shelter to countless others. They had found themselves transplanted here by the whims of the Flow and been glad of it, glad to see more of this land they were rooted so deeply within.

Terra felt all of this as he stepped forward, resting his hands on the bark of his two sturdy kin. "Gentle old ones," he said, reaching an arm between them, scintillas of light sparking at his touch. He pressed against something malleable, pushing his fingers further in, the shimmering rainbow engulfing the digits and curling around his hands. He pulled them back quickly and checked that none of the strange glinting color clung to his skin.

"Keep pushing," Sidriz said. "You are Korshem born; the barrier will yield."

Terra reached ahead with both hands as though parting a curtain of dangling vines. The further in he reached, the more the iridescent curtain of light pushed back. Terra shifted his stance, bearing down with all his might and tearing a rift in this strange bright. He ripped it apart, revealing something impossible beyond.

Sidriz laughed. "I've done it! They will call me Duke Wizard of Aria. I will transform this land."

Through this new, makeshift gateway, the sun shone down on a largely destroyed forest. Saplings struggled to survive within a field of tree stumps, and a small pack of starving wolves looked warily at Terra, their ribs visible through patchy fur. He could sense hidden insects and small rodents, but little other life; certainly not enough for the forest to recover when it had been so thoroughly despoiled.

"Terra, this is incredible. Your connection to the Flow is unlike anything I imagined." She turned to Sidriz. "Where is that place?"

"My homeland, the Northern Realms, though exactly where I am not yet sure. Hopefully not too far from a town where I can sell these liqueurs. Word will spread, people will flock, and I will be rich. But first, construction of my gateway must begin."

The rift pulsed and shook, Terra struggling to keep it open. "I can't hold it, Master."

"You can and will, you simpering creature! The Flow is too volatile; we may never find another potential gateway site!"

Hyrinth backed away, looking from Sidriz to Terra and back again. Terra roared and pushed back the torn halves of the fissure, holding them apart at his full arm-span, his arms and shoulders trembling with the effort.

The trees on either side of the rift shook violently and were torn from the earth. The opening seemed to slacken, its strength waning. Terra looked over his shoulder and saw Sidriz, eyes glowing a brilliant gold, his fingers twitching, forming magical geometries, energy crackling as the trees split into long, straight planks. Their death cries pierced Terra's mind; hundreds of years of kinship torn asunder in a moment. The branches were stripped away and fell to the ground, spilling birds' nests, squirrels and meeps, the animals that weren't too hurt by the fall scurrying away, their fear like a blade scraping down the back of Terra's throat. Hyrinth ran toward the cart, her eyes wide with fear.

"Master, what are you doing?" Terra cried, straining to hold the rift open.

Planks slammed into the ground and slid beneath Terra's bare feet, forming a solid hardwood floor. More timber was magically slotted into place to form walls on either side of Terra, the murdered trees pieced back together to match Sidriz's vision.

"Stop it!" Terra roared.

Two more trees were torn from the ground and expertly split, the walls climbing higher and higher, towering over Terra. Another tree was ripped apart, only to be reformed as one side of a massive gate.

"Enough!" Terra shouted as Sidriz tore a tree out of the earth. Terra snatched the younger redwood from the air and held it in both hands.

"Silence, creature!" Sidriz bit down on the last word, his face contorted with strain, blurring at the edges as he drew aether into his body, fingers twitching with arcane commands. "My work is nearly done."

Terra surveyed the scene - the fallen animals, dead and injured, ancient trees killed just to create a gateway to some other land where such destruction seemed as common as it was heartrending.

He swung the redwood like a hammer. Sidriz brought up a protective shield at the last moment, the frame of interlocked geometries shattering at the force, sending Sidriz flying backwards. The wizard regained control, hovering in mid-air to glower at Terra.

"You turn on me now, at the moment of my triumph? This is all for you! I'm giving you purpose. A gateway for you to guard, to keep open. You will connect Aria to the rest of Rathe!"

"You would have me remain here? For how long? All my life?" Terra asked. He would not be this man's gatekeeper. Not when the rest of Aria constantly called out to him. Not when plants and animals all across this land had secrets to whisper to him if only he could meet them. "I will not do it."

"If you won't guard my gateway, you serve no purpose," Sidriz spat. His eyes began to glow, gold flickering orange and red. Fire rippled up his arms and Sidriz drew that power to his hands, forming a roiling ball of flame. "I need only the splinter from which I formed you."

Sidriz tossed the fireball and Terra stood firm, not willing to let the flames strike the forest behind and around him. It struck him in the chest and the flames roared as they engulfed him. Terra fell to his knees and slammed his makeshift hammer into the ground for support.

Sidriz floated toward Terra, the air around him swirling with magical energy. He drew the aether into himself once more, gathering another fireball as Terra desperately beat at the flames blazing across his chest.

"Leave him alone!" Hyrinth shouted. She tossed a bottle of liqueur, the glass shattering against the side of the wizard's head. "Remember, Terra: You are Korshem born!"

Sidriz faltered, falling nearly to the ground. He turned and tossed his second fireball. Hyrinth dived out of the way and it struck the cart, bottles exploding, fire burning bright green, blue, and purple.

Hyrinth scrambled to her feet and ran for the trees. Sidriz turned back to Terra, sneering.

"I summoned you into existence. You either serve me or I send you back to the void of nothing from whence you came." He began to mutter an incantation, one familiar to Terra - words that had ushered him into this world, this life.

Terra closed his eyes. He ignored the wizard and listened as Aria itself spoke to him. The burned parts of him fell away, the Flow coursing through him, healing his wounds, soothing his pain. Terra stood and rested his hammer on his shoulder.

"How?" Sidriz asked, incredulous.

"I didn't come from nothing. I came from the Korshem," Terra said, pounding a fist against his chest, vibrant with brilliant green leaves budding from new growth. "It's not your magic that animates me, it is Aria."

Terra brought the hammer down hard, Sidriz barely getting a shield up before he was slammed into the ground. Terra grabbed the wizard by his robes and lifted him so they were face to bleeding face.

"You have given me purpose, but not your purpose."

Terra carried Sidriz to the gateway and hurled him through. The wizard tumbled through the air and hit the ground hard, too dazed to float or shield himself. Terra then swung his hammer at one wall of the gateway, splinters bursting into the air as it broke apart. He kicked the opposite wall and tore up the floorboards.

The breach in Aria's border pulsed and shimmered, the two sides reaching for one another. On the far side of the rift, Sidriz struggled to his feet. "Don't leave me here!"

As the tear sealed itself closed, the pack of starving wolves stalked toward Sidriz, surrounding him. The portal disappeared, that vision replaced by the remaining redwoods, the trees creaking in shock at the sudden deaths of their kin. Terra only hoped Sidriz might find his purpose in the bellies of those wolves.

"Is it safe?" Hyrinth called out, warily emerging from the tree line.

"Safe," Terra replied.

They walked toward the burning cart, Terra stomping out some small flames - he had to ensure the fire would not spread. Both fianna joined them, their mouths stained with blissberry juice.

A gentle rain began to fall, droplets sizzling as they hit the flames. Terra looked up at the gathering clouds. "Thank you, friends."

"What now?" Hyrinth asked after a time. "We probably shouldn't stay here."

Without Sidriz, Terra could do as he pleased, go where he was needed. He closed his eyes and a vision was carried to him on the gentle current of the Flow, more vivid even than what he had seen through the gateway: A sacred mountain surrounded by jagged stone shards, cascading waterfalls, and verdant hills.

"Can you see it too?" Terra asked, offering a hand to Hyrinth.

She took his hand and gasped. "Mount Heroic!"

The image faded and Terra turned to Hyrinth. "You know this place? Would you guide me there?"

Hyrinth rested a hand on his arm. "It would be my honor, Korshem born."