My breathing increases along with a pounding in my chest. Maybe I had been resuscitated? No, if this is a dream I don't want to be pulled from it. I'd rather my last moments to be under the umbra of this gorgeous tree.
Damn it, let this be real!
I fall down, not caring that I am dirtying both my dress and hands as I crawl towards the large roots that poked wave-like up and down through the ground.
A longing in my chest commands my arms to reach out, my hands clasping down on one of the exposed roots.
An electric wave passes from the root into me. I can see it tracing up my arms and into my chest through glowing veins that light across my body. I try to break away in fright but instinct keeps me latched on tight. A burning sensation spreads out in waves down and up my torso to my four extremities. The light shining from my veins is bright enough to illuminate through my dress, outlining into luminescent spider veins.
Finally, it reaches my head.
My heart kicks into third-gear, pumping so fast and loud my ears start to ring.
I see it.
The tree sparkles in its own light. A beautiful cobalt linked together by nodules and channels that pulse with life. Its own heartbeat is so loud that I can no longer hear my own over its symphony. My vision grows distant as a malaise falls over me and I rest my head against the root. It's an intimacy I cannot even describe. I imagine even more intimate than sex even if I had never experienced it before.
As my vision darkens, I see through a mind's eye. Something akin to seeing by touch almost.
I see it. I can see it.
The tree's network of blue spreads hundreds . . . no, thousands of feet into the ground. I go deeper and deeper, wanting to find where it leads. The further I go, the sleepier I become. Eventually I no longer feel the branch I now used as a pillow. And then black.
. . .
I fall further into darkness, sinking slowly like a rock in the ocean. All breathing has stopped. I just exist in a void.
I no longer see the sparkling lights etched through the oak and its underground channels. After a while I see something coming up from beneath me.
No, not something. Someone. The closer I get to them, the clearer the image becomes.
It's me.
Or rather it looks like me, except for long waist length hair; golden eyes that glew with such luminosity that they look like LCD lights.
It mirrors my movements, like my own reflection from this morning. When our images meet I reach out to touch our hands together. Her hands continue forward, holding my cheeks, her face smiling a sorrowful grin.
. . .
"Y'Raelle"
"Y'Raelle, come back to me. Breathe deep and come back."
I hear faintly a familiar voice.
I am suspended, held by some force. Gentle but firm.
"That is it, my blood. Breathe in, breathe out."
I take in deep breaths, my vision growing from a brownish darkness into light.
Kneeling with me against her chest and a relieved smile on her face is my mother, Silda. She wears a long blue robe that covers up most of her from neck to ankle. Her silver lavender hair is held up in a ponytail that runs down back length. The most peculiar thing about her, besides her long elven ears that are more prominent than her own, is the ethereal glow in her golden eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Lady Silda!" a voice cries out behind us.
It's May, her eyes puffed up and red from crying tears.
"I-I was so busy cleaning up the study and Lady Raelle said she was joining you for tea so I . . . I . . . and when I found her, she was so cold. I thought she was . . . she was . . ."
Silda raises her hand in a calming motion, stopping May as she continues to sob.
"I know it would appear that way, but she was not dead," Silda replies. I look carefully in her eyes and indeed, I can't see even a hint of worry in them. As if she had expected something like this to happen? What did happen?
"What happened?" I ask weakly, still groggy from what felt like a long nap.
Silda turns to me with a smile.
"I was unsure if you would manifest like the rest of our kind, or if you'd take after your father's side. I am relieved but slightly surprised that 'twould occur before your third name day," she says. "I hadn't manifested until my seventh. Perhaps due to your physiology I wonder."
My physiology? Wait, and what did she just say? I'm only three years old!? I slowly look down at my hands.
"Why am I so big then? And what do you mean by manifested? And why isn't my heart beating?" I blabber out all the questions spilling from my head.
My mother laughs with a curled finger to her lips.
"Why shouldn't you be? Did Adele tell you how other children grow? You are of my blood, the Vasque. We age differently than others, at spurts at a time. You will have another several years from now. As for your heart beat, you do not have a heart like your father's."
"But I felt it!" I blurt out, strength returning to me. "When I touched the tree just now."
"You tapped into the etheric ley energy beneath this tree. When ether enters into us, it awakens our crystalline hearts. It allows us to channel and use the Arts. This oak stands on a ley line fault where ether is much more potent. T'was one of the reasons why we ordered our home to be built out here. So we are close to the aether so far away from our homeland."
"Crystalline heart? And when you say Arts, do you mean magic? Can we use magic?"
Silda calms the excitement on my face with two fingers to my lips.
"No more questions, at least for now. You went too deep, fell into the Slumber. 'Twould be wise to rest."
"But I'm fine no-" I begin to say as I sit up but another lethargic wave and vertigo hit me.
Silda places her index and middle finger against my left temple and speaks a melodic phrase. It's a different language than what we just spoke, but I can still understand it.
[ Calm this one with gentle sleep ]
[So ether and mind restore]
[I call on you - Restful Embrace]
The fatigue intensifies and I feel the need for a long nap. I can't keep my eyes open any longer. My eyes flutter shut as I rest against my mother's breast peacefully.
"Lay her down to bed, May" is the last I hear as I am handed off to another person's arms and drift off into longed for sleep.