CHAPTER 859: LESSONS FOR THE COVEN (PART TWO)

"When spring comes, we can begin nurturing seeds into saplings and planting new trees here," Ashlynn said as Ollie and Virve pressed in beside her to look at the graceful curving lines and carefully marked areas of the diagram Ashlynn had unrolled. "But right now, it’s time to pay respect to the fallen trees that once stood here by giving them a new place in our Enchanted Grove."

In her mind’s eye, she could already see the place that she intended for this to become. Some sections would hold fruit trees that could be nurtured to grow exceptional fruits that could provide far more than simple sustenance. Elsewhere, she would cultivate exotic trees from across the world, providing not only unique materials for witches’ wands and other forms of magic, but seeds for future generations of her coven.

Elegant stone paths would wind between areas of the grove, with small bridges that crossed over meandering streams that nurtured the entire grove. Here and there, benches would provide places to withdraw from the chaos of the world outside to enjoy moments of peace and and tranquility that Ashlynn was certain all of them would need in the years to come.

"You want to harvest the lumber for raised garden beds?" Ollie said, pulling Ashlynn out of her thoughts as he studied the diagram.

A deep frown furrowed his brow as he struggled to read some of the unfamiliar words written on the large sheet of parchment. He’d been practicing his reading when he could, and he was proud of the fact that he could write out many of Georg’s recipes as well as the common goods needed to supply a village. But with everything else he needed to learn in order to care for his people and become a knight as well as a witch, there had been precious little time for learning his letters.

"The number and variety of herbs we need for our potions isn’t small," Ashlynn said with a nod as she tapped on a few places on the diagram. "Some herbs can be grown in the shade of other trees, but we need to be careful about the canopy we create when we start planting trees, so I want to plan small clearings between the trees where we can cultivate the things that we need."

"I understand that much," Ollie said as he scratched his head. "The trial you gave me taught me a lot about managing sunlight on plants," he said with a wry smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He’d had the opposite problem at the time, the hell of a midnight sun that scorched anything without at least some shade to give plants a respite from the blistering heat. "But building something like this will take dozens of workmen," he said, gesturing to the scarred, pockmarked earth.

"There’s enough land here to build farms for ten families," Ollie estimated as he looked around. "Do you need me to fetch villagers to help us with the work?"

"I doubt she does," Virve said with a hearty laugh as she placed a hand on the young knight’s shoulder. "Even if she hasn’t ever said it, isn’t one of the traditions of our coven that we labor with our own hands whenever we can?"

"It is," Ashlynn replied, glad to see that the example she and Heila had been working to set was taking hold. "That’s another part of what I wanted to do while we’re out here. The two of you haven’t had much time to learn, and most of the lessons I’ve been able to share with you have been about fighting."

"Today, we have two tasks," Ashlynn explained. "First, we need to clear aside the fallen timber," she said, pointing at several broken trees. "It isn’t enough to imbue ourselves with the strength of the oak or other mighty trees in order to move some of them, so we’ll break them down as we go, turning fallen trees into rough-hewn timber that we can use to build with," she said.

"You didn’t bring axes or saws with us," Virve noted as she looked at the few tools that Ashlynn had brought along. "You intend to accomplish all of this with witchcraft?"

"Just watch," Ashlynn said as she walked over to a large, fallen cedar tree with a trunk that was easily half her height in diameter.

"Noble tree, though life has fled,

Your service is not finished yet.

Where my fingers trace their line,

Let wood part by my design."

As she spoke, an emerald aura enveloped both her and the fallen tree, growing brighter and brighter, reflecting off the droplets of mist that hung in the air until the entire world was dyed in pale, emerald hues. Then, the energy enveloping the tree condensed just above the roots where Ashlynn stood, while the energy surrounding Ashlynn flowed down her arm until it became a brilliant point of light at her fingertip.

With a single smooth motion, Ashlynn drew her finger across the entire width of the tree, slicing through it with an effortless flick of her finger, as if the tree was no firmer than fresh cheese curds.

-CRACK- -CRASH-

The sounds of the roots breaking free from the trunk and falling to the ground felt far louder than they should have in the stillness of the late morning fog, but perhaps that was simply because Ollie and Virve were staring so intently at what the leader of their coven had wrought that they unconsciously held their breath.

In the span of a few heartbeats, Ashlynn had done with a few words and a finger what a pair of men with a great saw would have taken several minutes to do, and the cut she left behind was as clean and smooth as one that had been sanded and polished by a skilled woodworker.

"I always intended to clear-cut this area so we could transform it into our Enchanted Grove," Ashlynn said. "But I also intended to pay respect to the trees that are already here by making them part of what we will grow here."

"I’m sure that Isabell will have her own insights to add to the design of this place," Ashlynn said with a smile as she glanced in the direction where the next member of her coven was undergoing the trial of her seed. "So we won’t do much to shape the land for now. We’ll want Heila’s help to plan the flow of water as well," she said, acknowledging that the Willow Witch had the greatest skill with water of anyone in her coven.

"So, for now, we should focus on clearing the fallen trees and cutting them roughly into usable lumber," Ollie said, after repeating Ashlynn’s spell under his breath several times until it was firmly fixed in his memory.

"Exactly," Ashlynn said warmly. "And once that’s done, we can move on to collecting stones," she said, pointing to a large boulder, half buried beneath the sodden soil. "We may not have the skills of the Father of Stones to shape rock, but after the power of wood and growth, the strength of earth, and the richness of soil are among our most common powers."

"When the time comes, I’ll show you how to encourage the soil to release the stones it holds beneath the surface," Ashlynn said with an ironic half-smile as she considered how useful that magic would have been when she was buried alive. "But since we can’t easily turn boulders into pebbles, we’ll need to rely on the strength we can summon in order to move the largest ones."

"Just tell us where to put them," Virve said as she briefly struck a pose, flexing a powerful arm and making a fist. "We’ll get the work done, Mother Ashlynn."

"I know you will," Ashlynn said warmly as she beckoned for the two witches to join her in breaking down the first of many trees that they would turn into usable lumber.

In truth, this was a task that could have waited for weeks or months without harming anything. There was no need to prepare the Enchanted Grove so soon, and Ashlynn suspected that both Virve and Ollie knew it.

But she needed to do something, anything, that felt constructive and useful while she waited for the plans she’d already set in motion to come to fruition. Spending time with her coven, teaching them new ways to use their witchcraft and making preparations for the future felt good, but the most important part of it was that it kept her busy during the day without retreating to the safety of Nyrielle’s dreams.

Soon, she would put an end to Owain Lothian, and she would reunite with her sister, Jocelynn. Soon, the nightmares that lurked in the shadows of her heart would begin to lose their stranglehold on her. Until then, she resolved to keep herself busy, filling each moment with activities that wouldn’t allow her mind to dwell on the things that weren’t yet ready for her to confront.

Things like teaching her coven and shaping a place that would become sacred to all of them for many years to come...