Broken Lands

Sophia blinked slowly. Why would Leo be in the Heartwood of the World Tree? Sophia didn’t even know what that was, but it sounded important.

She could ask. She should have thought of that earlier. Sure, she’d been trying not to bother him while he was with friends but that clearly no longer applied. She reached out over Dav’s mindlink towards Leo. “Leo? Are you okay?”

Leo didn’t answer, which worried Sophia again.

Dav set a hand on Sophia’s shoulder. He didn’t say anything in words, but the message was clear: he was there for her, no matter what.

“Naturally, I was called in as the only Et’Tart currently seconded to the Watch. I was unable to identify him, but his Heir title made it clear he was not from Arcatiz. His name was not in the Clan rolls, yet the World Tree does not give an inaccurate Clan. He had to belong to an established, Guide-recognized Clan offshoot on another world, one I do not know of. It did not take long to find that two of our Clan did meet an offworlder who claimed to be of the Clan within the past few months.” The inspector cleared his throat as if he was about to say something uncomfortable. "Ekkiba Et’Tart reported meeting you while you recovered from sudden Lifeweb exposure. Someone with official standing in the Clan should have reached out to you to see if you needed support or aid and to welcome you to the main Clan on Arcatiz, but that did not happen. I do not know why, but I guarantee that I will find out.”

Sophia remembered Ekkiba and her son Kestiben. The two flying badgers were good company while she worked to learn how to deal with the Lifeweb, even if they couldn’t spend much time with her because Ekkiba had her job to do and Kestiben needed to practice his flight.

Sophia shook her head gently. “It’s fine. I enjoyed talking to Ekkiba and Kestiben.”

“It is not fine,” Inspector Ivorha … no, Ivorha Et’Tart insisted. He was definitely speaking as a member of the Clan, not a member of the Watch. “It is our duty and our privilege to welcome you to the Clan and to support you as a Clan member.”

Sophia was certain it also came with obligations; Clan membership always did. Despite that, she was certainly willing to talk to them. “It’s a very, very distant relationship if there is one at all; I’m not sure when you left … um, I’m not sure what the name of the homeworld actually was. Grandpa Senkovar would know, but I don’t think it’s ever come up. He just calls it the homeworld. We … uh, well, he left it oh … I don’t know. Five hundred years ago? Four hundred? I’m not sure how old he is.”

She knew her multiply-great grandfather lived through the exodus as a child or maybe young adult, but that was all. He didn’t like to talk about it and it wasn’t something that ever particularly interested Sophia.

Both pairs of Ivorha’s wings opened lightly and his crest rose in surprise. “You are from the other side of the Way? Where the darkened blood of our world turned it against us? How are you alive?”

Sophia shrugged. “I don’t know. I know that’s not what made the Suras flee, that’s far more recent. Whatever your people ran from was either solved or ran its course. We can deal with all that later. What’s going on with Leo?”

“He touched the Heartwood. With his hand,” Ivorha stated, as if that meant something Sophia should already know about.

“So?” Sophia frowned at the four-winged Archon. She knew something was wrong with Leo; he still hadn’t answered. That didn’t mean she knew what the problem was. “I mean, it’s clear he’s in trouble, but you’re going to have to tell me why that’s different from just going somewhere he’s not supposed to.”

“The Heartwood is the heart of the World Tree,” Ivorha stated slowly. “Thousands of Archons are in the World Tree, maybe even hundreds of thousands. The Heartwood is the heart of all of that. Some believe it is where Wisps come from, while others believe it is only the zones, but whichever it is, it is dangerous. People try to steal Thread from it every year, only to find that it does the opposite. Even getting close to the Heartwood can drain Thread and damage Spheres; I’ve never heard of anyone getting close enough to touch it. That’s why the room is warded!”

“Leo doesn’t have a Sphere.” Sophia’s thoughts whirled. It was obvious something had happened; Leo shouldn’t have even known such a place existed, though he probably could have guessed, just like Sophia would have if she’d thought about it. Ansuz sat in a pillar that was key to the Kestii Tower, directly above where Cliff now rested. It only made sense that there was something similar in the World Tree.

She didn’t have any problems when she touched the Kestii Tower’s pillar, but that didn’t mean anything. It made sense that the Kestii Tower’s pillar would be safer, despite the damage. The Maze was probably about the size of one of the World Tree’s branches, and the World Tree had at least a dozen. The higher ones were supposed to be even more expansive than the lower ones, despite the smaller population, and they certainly gave out more Wisps at a time. Sophia didn’t know what came after Thread, but she was certain there was something, and it probably took a lot of Thread to make the same way Thread required a lot of Wisps.

“Then it may prevent him from ever getting one,” Ivorha said heavily. “It’s certainly damaged his connection to the Lifeweb; I can’t feel him at all.”

Sophia shook her head quickly. “He’s never had a connection to the Lifeweb. Dav, can you feel him? He’s not answering me.”

“He’s still there,” Dav answered immediately. “It’s strange. I can feel him there but he’s not entirely there. The closest I can say is that it’s like when we stepped through the Gateway to Arcatiz; I couldn’t feel you from Revanos’s realm or when you were there, but once you were on Arcatiz with me, you were back.”

“So the conduits let you feel us but not the Gateways?” Sophia couldn’t remember talking about the difference, but she didn’t really remember too much about her first month on Arcatiz. She was a little surprised they hadn’t pulled her back through the Gateway, now that she thought about it; back then, she was too busy dealing with the noise to think.

Dav nodded. “I’m not sure if it’s because they’re broken or because they’re closer. Could be both.”

Sophia bit her lip. The conclusion didn’t quite feel right, but she wasn’t sure why. It also didn’t actually tell her anything about Leo’s situation.

Or maybe it did. “Is there a difference when we step into the World Tree? Either into the Branches, or the first time we stepped into the Roots from the outside world?”

Dav frowned. “It was dimmer, but you didn’t disappear. I wasn’t looking for more than that.”

“Then that implies he’s somewhere else. Somewhere far away or … no, that’s not right. Somewhere protected.” That felt more right than simple distance. “Maybe the area near the World Tree’s Heartwood is shielded somehow? That might make a lot of sense, to protect people who are near it. I didn’t feel anything like that near the Kestii Tower’s pillar, but it wouldn’t have been necessary. Nobody knew how to get there and it was broken anyway.”

Sophia felt a ton better now that she had a possible explanation that didn’t involve severe injury to her brother. Her family could heal almost anything if she could get him home alive, and even “alive” had some wiggle room, but almost wasn’t everything and even things that could be healed might leave scars.

“The Lifeweb doesn’t reach past the doors that protect the Heartwood,” the four-winged Archon confirmed doubtfully, “But it does work once you’re inside and I couldn’t feel him. Why didn’t you Bless him with … oh, right. You didn’t know the Lifeweb was there until you came to Arcatiz. How can there be a recognized Et’Tart Clan branch without …”

“That doesn’t matter,” Sophia figured they could deal with the whole Clan thing after Leo was safe. Her preference was to ignore it the way she had ever since Kestiben introduced himself; while she was proud of being a part of the Et’Tart Clan of Suratiz, the relationship with the Et’Tarts of Arcatiz was so distant that they really only shared a name. It sounded like Ivorha didn’t feel that way, which was convenient now but might be a lot of trouble later. “Where is Leo now? Is he still in there?”

“We’re still trying to figure out how to get him out,” Ivorha admitted.

“Take me to him,” Sophia requested. When Ivorha didn’t move, she added, “Please. I can .. I might be able to get him out of there, but only if I can see what’s going on. And that way we can talk to him if … if he’s close enough.”

Sophia cleared her throat. Her eyes burned but she couldn’t cry now. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop, and that wouldn’t help her brother.

“We can fly,” Dav added, “So show us the fastest route.”

“You risk your Spheres,” Ivorha stated plainly. He glanced from Sophia to Dav and back to Sophia, then sighed. “I would do the same for my sister. Follow me.”

He led them out of the building, then leapt off the side of the branch at one of the overlooks. Sophia summoned her wings and followed, with Dav just behind her. They dropped to the lowest level of the World Tree, more or less the same level as the Roots were. It was somewhere between two and three hundred feet down, a distance that normally amazed Sophia but right now it was an obstacle to reaching her brother while he was in trouble, which made it far more annoying than impressive.

The architecture changed as they moved closer to the center of the World Tree once they were near the ground. Sophia expected it to get larger and fancier, but the opposite happened; it became smaller, simpler, and clearly older. On another day, Sophia would probably have asked about that. Today, she fixed her attention on the Archon’s four wings and single tail and moved as quickly as she could. She was the slowest of the trio, which meant she had to push herself to keep them moving as fast as possible.

They didn’t land to enter a building. It was more like flying in through a cave entrance, though the entrance was made of wood. They were still moving quickly, but not so quickly that Sophia didn’t see other entrances to the roughly-shaped wooden column. Some were even at ground level, which had to be how people without wings entered.

Ivorha zipped past a series of rooms without pausing to check his directions; it was clear he knew where to go. It wasn’t a path Sophia would have chosen; it wound up and down and through all sorts of different rooms, past dividers that were pushed out of the way and in one case through a divider that wasn’t pushed out of the way fast enough.

Well, through the space it occupied before Ivorha knocked it over with a “Coming through!” rather than an apology.

They eventually came to a long shaft that led down with a wooden central pillar that looked a lot like the outside of the “building” they were in; the wood was the same pale near-white. It was smaller and didn’t have entry-holes; those were the only real differences. A staircase spiraled alongside it down into the ground, with landings that were clearly placed where they were because that was where it crossed giant ice-colored roots.

Ivorha did not take the stairs. He slipped between them and the central pillar and dove.

Sophia was right behind him and Dav was right behind her.