Chapter 195: The Hidden Power of a Witch’s Blood (Part One)
"You already know that the place where you have the most power is deep in forests like the Vale of Mists," Nyrielle said. As she spoke, she pulled Ashlynn close and kept her voice low. "Looking back, I’m grateful to Owain for ordering you to be taken outside of Lothian March to be buried. If they’d dumped you in a shallow grave in Lothian City or outside some random farm, you might not have found enough power to sustain your life until I reached you."
"That night," Ashlynn said quietly, thinking back on what she felt when she crawled out of the grave that Sir Tommin and Sir Broll had dumped her in. It felt like the trees themselves were responding to her. Like the forest wouldn’t give up on her as long as she didn’t give up on herself.
"I felt like the trees pulled me along," she said. "Their roots helped me out of the ground but even after that, whenever I felt like I couldn’t go any further, I’d get a little push from the tree I was leaning about and I could stagger another hundred or two hundred paces further."
"You used the power of nature in the High Pass," Nyrielle pointed out. "How did that feel?"
"Cold," Ashlynn laughed. It might seem strange to people who hadn’t experienced it, but her experience with ’cold’ that day had been just as intense as the fear and loss and everything else that she felt that day. Even now, her memory of that ’cold’ was strong and vivid.
It wasn’t just because it had been a bitterly cold day that included a plunge beneath the surface of the frozen lake but because when she had drawn on the energy of the frigid wind and the icy water beneath her feet it felt like she was filling herself up with ice water.
"I was able to use the energy of the wind and ice," Ashlynn said, shivering as she recalled the feeling of the magic in the air that day. At the time, all she cared about was finding the strength to fight back against the Tuscans and to avenge Andrus’ death, but looking back, it had been a very risky use of her power. "But it didn’t feel comfortable at all. Like it was reluctant to help me and that it wasn’t meant for me."
"That’s because you’re the next Mother of Trees," Nyrielle explained, pulling one of the plush blankets closer and wrapping it around herself and Ashlynn. The fire in the hearth had almost burned down to nothing but the early morning air was still chill and the memories she had provoked clearly made it harder for Ashlynn to ignore the chill in the air.