Chapter 513: A Man of Faith (Part One)
"That’s enough," Ashlynn said, her voice rippling with power and echoing from every tree surrounding the village square. Branches shook as though caught in a mighty wind, and the tender trunks of recently planted saplings bowed in the presence of the Mother of Trees.
One misunderstanding had already cost the lives of dozens of people in the High Pass and resulted in tragedies that she was still working to help people recover from. In the High Pass, standing on a barren mountainside amidst the ice and snow, she could do very little to keep the situation from spiralling out of control. But here, in the forest of the Vale of Mists, there was no way that she would let another tragedy like the one in the High Pass unfold again when she had the power to suppress anyone who might fight.
Ashlynn’s exercise of power went beyond a simple demonstration of force. While she wasn’t willing to draw deeply on the strength of the forest to apply a powerful binding, she had more than enough strength to infuse the stiffness of wood and a feeling of being deeply rooted to the ground into everyone present.
The magic was weak, and if anyone was determined to commit violence, it would only slow them for a moment or two before they broke free of her suppression, but those moments would be all she and people like Thane would need to take additional actions. Right now, she wasn’t trying to trap anyone, she just wanted to hold everyone back from making a hasty move before they had a chance to sort matters out.
Moving quickly while Ashlynn drew everyone else’s attention, Heila darted to stand between Ignatious and Milo, drawing Snow Fang to match the Heartwood archer’s own wickedly curved blade and giving him a look that said she was willing to use the frosty weapon if someone forced her hand.
"Your Dominion," Old Nan began as she struggled to pull herself up to her full height under the stiffening pressure of Ashlynn’s witchcraft. Before she could say more than two words, however, she was silenced by Ashlynn’s next words.
"Sir Ignatious isn’t just someone that Sir Thane brought along for tonight’s rituals," Ashlynn explained, her emerald eyes flashing with power that flowed from every tree within a dozen paces of the place she stood. "He’s one of Mistress Nyrielle’s progeny, recently returned from exile."
"I know you’ve suffered at the hands of the Church," Ashlynn said, walking calmly to Heila’s side and placing a hand on her shoulder before shaking her head slightly at the drawn blade. "But Sir Ignatious had nothing to do with those tragedies."