Chapter 538: The Ancient Oak’s Judgment (Part Two)
"In the vision the Ancient Oak showed me," she said, staring into her reflection as it danced on the surface of the water in her cup. "The human savages, they... After they cut it down, it was still alive while they butchered it. It could still feel every saw and chisel when they carved it into furniture and weapons and... Trophies." Her fur bristled along her neck as she fought to control the fury rising within her again.
Virve looked up at Ashlynn with eyes that were haunted by pain that wasn’t her own. For a moment, she shuddered as a terrifying thought came unbidden to her mind. Was this what Hauke had experienced when he interacted with the horns that carried the spirits of his own long departed ancestors? The notion was enough to stop her cold and leave her wondering if she should accept the tree’s offer. If it was going to use the seed to control her the way the horns controlled Hauke...
"None of what I saw or heard was real," she said after several moments of thought. "And I don’t think the Ancient Oak is trying to control me. But when I think about the memories the Ancient Oak shared with me, I’m certain the visions of the past it shared were true." She hesitated, uncertain how to express what she’d felt in that moment of imagined vengeance. "It also showed me a glimpse of what my future could be..."
-CRACK-
The sound of a branch snapping high above in the crown of the Ancient Oak startled both women, pulling their attention upward as a hawk nesting in the branches above made it’s way down, clutching a small branch in it’s talons as it did the bidding of the ancient tree, delivering a gift along with the Ancient Oak’s judgment.
The branch the hawk carried was longer and thicker than the one that the Ancient Oak had offered to Ashlynn when she came to ask for a branch to use as a wand, and for a moment, she wondered if the tree intended for Virve to fashion the branch into a club rather than a wand. More importantly, there was a single acorn attached to the branch, along with five leaves in shades that ranged from brilliant autumn orange to deep crimson.
"Does this mean that the Ancient Oak is willing to let me face its trial to become the Oak Witch?" Virve asked as she received the branch from the hawk’s talons. The bird fluttered away without lingering to see what the soldier did with the branch, but Virve barely noticed as she ran the tips of her claws along the twisted and gnarled branch in her hands.
She’d expected some kind of approval. She and the Ancient Oak had too much in common, and even though their meeting had been brief, the depths of the memories it had shared with her had left a deep impression on her heart. If she were forbidden from facing its trials after the vision it showed her of the chance to claim her vengeance against Owain Lothian, she wouldn’t have known what to do with the rage such a refusal would have provoked in her. But somehow, the branch in her hands felt far more significant than simply being a carrier for the seed that Ashlynn could use to form her seed of witchcraft.
"No," Ashlynn said, looking from the branch to the tree and back again with eyes that had grown wide in shock. "Is this truly your intention?" Ashlynn asked the Ancient Oak, uncertain whether or not she had correctly understood its message. After a moment of listening to the wind moving through it’s leaves, however, she accepted the tree’s answer, even if it was very different than what she’d expected when she brought Virve here.
"Virve," Ashynn said as she looked at the five different leaves on the branch in Virve’s claws. She would have to check the books she’d brought back from Amahle’s library to be sure, but the choice of five leaves on that branch displayed a clear message of the strengths the Ancient Oak intended to bestow on her soon-to-be Oak Witch, but she wasn’t certain that she understood the meaning of the colors the Ancient Oak had used to express it’s message.
"The Ancient Oak hasn’t just accepted you to take its trial," Ashlynn explained, offering Virve a gentle smile as she met the other woman’s gaze. "It has agreed that you would be a good Oak Witch. I still need to nurture this seed for a few days," Ashlynn said, reaching out to retrieve the acorn from the branch in Virve’s paws and feeling the dense energy within it as she attempted to further discern the mighty tree’s intentions.