Chapter 525: Unique Offerings (Part Two)
"If there had been more time," Ashlynn said apologetically as she held up the knotted piece of wood from the box. "I would have asked Juni or Milo to carve this into something more elaborate. This is a cypress knee, part of the barrier the cypress tree builds around itself to keep floods from washing it away," she explained as she turned the gnarled piece of wood over to reveal a carefully carved shield.
"I know you haven’t chosen a crest yet," Ashlynn said. "But I hope that you’ll stand as a shield at my side, helping me to protect the people who need a guardian the most. When Juni presented me with the hairpin," she said, touching the pinecone-shaped carving on the pin that had found its home in her hatband. "I asked her to carve this for you. Seeing your village, though," she added with a faint smile. "Perhaps she should have carved it into a strong wall that could protect an entire town instead."
"No," Ollie said, tracing his fingers gently along the carving and feeling the intense devotion that Juni had carved into the knot of wood when she shaped one side of it into a shield. A wall might protect the village, but from the way Milo’s wife had shaped the shield, it was clear that she wanted to present something taht would keep him safe.
To the displaced members of the Heartwood clan, Ollie had become more than just a protector of their village, he had almost become a member of the clan itself. During the summer campaign against Liam Dunn and Loman Lothian, Juni had worried about Milo’s safety, but she’d also been secretly grateful that Ollie hadn’t been forced to join in the battles.
She knew that his time would come one day, and when it did, she would worry about both her husband their young savior. So when the Mother of Trees asked her to carve an emblem of protection into a piece of wood for Ollie’s ritual, she’d poured her heart and hopes for his safety into the small piece of cypress, hoping to shield the young man from any harm that would come his way.
"No," Ollie said thickly as he ran a thumb over the carving one last time before placing it in its circle of stones. "This is perfect."
"This is the last one," Ashlynn said, holding out a slender, dark feather that seemed to drink in the pale light of the waning moon and the distant, twinkling stars. "I hoped she might be able to be here to explain this herself, but Mistress Nyrielle has other matters to attend to tonight," she said.
For a moment, a wave of anxiety passed through her as she thought of the very similar ritual that Nyrielle was overseeing this night. If all went well, Lennart would die tonight, rising again as Zedya’s first progeny. Ashlynn hoped that Nyrielle’s continued absence didn’t mean that something had gone wrong, but even if something had, there was nothing she could do to help with it now. All she could do was proceed with Ollie’s ritual and, if something had gone wrong, she would do her best to comfort her lover afterward.
"This is one of Mistress Nyrielle’s feathers," Ashlynn explained, her voice growing more solemn than it had with any of the other gifts. "It’s common to use a feather from a bird to represent wind in this ritual, and Heila and I had collected feathers from birds who roosted in cypress trees for this purpose. Nyrielle’s feather, however, carries something special."