August 15 - Day 5 Mistake / Wild
Fiorenze landed hard enough on her back that it knocked the wind out of her and popped a couple vertebrae. She heard the rush of magic from Yserina’s shifting more than she saw it with her own eyes — it was easier to stare at the spiraling branches of Amirdrassil above and let the world stop spinning a bit first.
“Your form is off today. What could you have done better there?” The kaldorei’s tone was a little harsh, and in an instant the much taller woman was looming over her, blotting out the moonlight.
Fiorenze wheezed out a pained, “Bear.”
A clawed finger crooked slowly upwards, growing roots and leaves rapidly enough to push the sin’dorei trainee back to her feet before they wilted away and turned to mulch equally as fast. As effective as it was, it always made Fiorenze’s skin crawl a little to feel the plants grow and creak beneath her. Yserina’s ancient features gleamed in the White Lady’s light as she gave a short, affirming chuckle, “Yes, you could have become a bear. Or summoned a typhoon to knock me back. Called down a sunbeam, even, to sear me out of my casting—”
“Yes, I know, I need to think faster on my feet,” it was hard not to be sharp with how her head throbbed, causing her long ears to slant back.
Her teacher hummed a slightly displeased note, “No need to be short with me, girl. That’s enough for today. Come, make me some tea, we’ll talk.”
There was an undeniable comfort in the hollowed out tree that Yserina had made her home. A small fire bloomed in the hearth, heating up the well worn teapot that had become a fast friend. Yserina had pulled out an ornate, slender pipe with some immediacy and packed a mix of peacebloom and dreamfoil down into the bowl, “Have you made progress on your staff, yet?”
Fiorenze slumped down into a chair that had become overgrown with moss since the last time she’d visited, “Yes, some. There’s a tree I grew up with that I think will grant me permission, it’s on the edge of the necrotic scar that cuts through Quel’thalas. Some of it has corrupted, but the heartwood still seems hale.”
“A guardian tree!” Yserina’s eyes lit up with approval as she waved a hand over her pipe to help the embers inside catch a little faster, “Wonderful choice. You will be stronger for it. That’s not enough to distract you so terribly, though, hm?”
She dropped her head to rest against the top of the chair’s back, staring up to count the rings that wound from the center of the ceiling out toward the tree’s outer walls, “No, it’s not.” Fiorenze laced her fingers together to prevent herself from fidgeting too much; Yserina wasn’t one who liked to guess and it was best to simply be out with it. She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before finishing her thought, “My late husband’s sister, the one who requested the estate back from me and the titles that went with it — Lady Tel’vaiel, now. My old name — wants me to run it for her so she can … effectively be Lady in name only. It’s too much, apparently. The tenants miss my governance and the Town Council is wildly in favor. She’s too flighty to work with, apparently. None of the other nobles really want to deal with her because acknowledging her right means they’d have to acknowledge their own bastards…”
“Ah, she looked the gift nightsaber in the mouth, did she?” Yserina’s quiet, amused laugh rumbled like slow thunder, “How tempting to be offered something you’ve excelled at your entire life. Born and raised for.”
“I don’t want it,” her own voice carried a vehemence that surprised her, “that’s what’s bothering me. I should, shouldn’t I? It was my home for nearly 70 years. This last year without it has been so… free. The time has been mine, and mine alone. Giving that up is impossible.”
Yserina clucked her tongue, “You tasted what it’s like outside of captivity. No more gilded cages for you, my dear. What will you do about it, then?”
The answer had always been there, the same one she had been taught to direct toward the service of her long family line. Now it was hers to do with as she saw fit. “Take what I want.”
@daily-writing-challenge
