CHAPTER 830: A TREE FOR ISABELL (PART ONE)

"I promised you when you came here," Ashlynn said as she reached into the pouch at her waist for a folded piece of paper along with a few sprigs of tender, young branches and small pinecones taken from a much larger and older tree. "I didn’t bring you here to fight in my wars. You’ve always been honest with me and open about your reasons for leaving the Emerald Kingdom behind."

"I didn’t ask you here because I wanted to borrow the power of the Engineer of Destruction," Ashlynn said firmly. "And I’m not asking you to join my coven because I need someone who can bring death to our enemies. Virve and I can do that just fine, as can Heila and Ollie. What we need from you is something else," she said as she unfolded the paper to reveal a sketch of a slender tree shaped like the long blade of a spear or the point of a lance, rising high into the sky.

"You may have seen this tree in the hills around us, growing side by side with the red cedar that dominates the Vale of Mists," Ashlynn said. "In the Kingdom of Gaal, they call it ’Western Hemlock’, even though we’re still in the eastern lands as far as the Eldritch are concerned."

"I have seen this tree," Isabell said as she reached out to pick up the soft, tender tips of branches that Ashlynn had brought. The needles were still a brighter green than the rest of the tree would be, but they had already started to lose the brilliance of new spring and summer growth. The tree these had been picked from was clearly healthy and growing, renewing itself and striving to be greater every year.

"These grow very tall and their trunks are very straight," Isabell said as she set down the twigs to pick up one of the pinecones, turning the rough, round sphere over in her fingers as she inspected it. "The Clan of the Great Claw said that the oldest long houses are made of these trees and that they can take more than a hundred years to grow tall enough to be used in the most important long-houses."

"You’ve been learning a great deal about the Vale since you arrived," Ashlynn said with a warm smile. "Yes, these are towering giants that the Clan of the Great Claw respect for more than just their timber. In the spring, women who want to bear a strong child will weave the tender shoots of the hemlock into their hair while they, um, take their mates beneath the furs," Ashlynn said with a face that had turned a faint shade of pink.

When she spoke with Virve about the tree, the older woman had been quite a bit more explicit about the ways the tree was used in some of the old rituals of the Clan of the Great Claw, including constructing a wooden frame of the tree’s branches and lashing a woman to it in order to be ravished by her chosen mate. Supposedly, after the deed was done, the husband would tip the frame upward to aid in the flow of his seed...

"Besides that," Ashlynn said, quickly moving on from thoughts of how the tree had been used in fertility rights. "The tree represents the ability to create shelter and safety for others. To house and nurture many in its branches or to comfort those who sleep on the bed of needles beneath its boughs."

"So you chose this tree because you wanted to center my role as a mother," Isabell said with a frown as she cleaned the lenses of her spectacles and put them back on. "But you’re the mother of this coven. Are you certain you need another mother?"

"This tree is about more than motherhood," Ashlynn said as she stood from her chair and walked over to the window that overlooked the fortress town below. "It’s about the enduring wisdom that you offer to the people around you. It’s about building things that will last for generations to come."

"It’s about striving upward for a brighter tomorrow than the one we can see from where we stand," Ashlynn said as her eyes began to shine with hope for something beyond the constant cycle of wars the Eldritch had been trapped in for so long. "And looking far ahead from on high instead of getting lost in the thick of the forest of problems in the present.

"That sounds very aspirational Ashlynn," Isabell said, dispensing with the formalities and speaking to Ashlynn as a pure friend. "But I’m a practical person. I need more concrete details to work with. How does this power manifest? Are you telling me that I should expect to have dozens more children, or that I can cause an explosion in population by conducting fertility rights?" Isabell asked, laughing openly at the notion of having more children at her advanced age. "How would these traits manifest for me?"

Ashlynn smiled slightly as she turned away from the window to look at her friend, only to realize that while she’d been laughing, the older woman had retrieved a pen, parchment and a small inkwell in order to take notes.

Isabell’s mind was incredibly sharp and her attention to detail was better than most but this conversation was far too important to leave to vague recollections, especially as Ashlynn had a habit of dripping shocking revelations as easily as a tree dropped pinecones in the fall.

"There are other trees for people who nurture and care for others, and for people who can bring peace and wisdom to a coven," Ashlynn admitted. "The Black Locust is well known for helping to stabilize volatile covens. But I chose this tree for you because its wood grows long and straight and true. Because it doesn’t easily warp or twist, it isn’t just good for ordinary construction, but power flows through it easily as well, so it has long been favored by witches who build things."

Amahle had taught Ashlynn how to draw magic circles of increasing complexity in order to guide the flow of vast amounts of power, but what Ashlynn was talking about now went even further. Rather than simply drawing a circle on the ground, the Hemlock Witch would be able to build things that functioned as permanent circles, guiding the flow of energy through the things that they built long after the witch herself had moved on.

"Remember what I said about our desires being the core of our powers, Isabell," Ashlynn said as she returned to her chair by the fire to pour another cup of wine for herself and to refill Isabell’s. "The things you build will inherit your desires for them, whether you use the wood of a hemlock tree or not, though it will always be better if you do."

"You told me that you wanted to build the future, Isabell," Ashlynn said softly. "This tree gives you the power to do just that..."