Rose walked through the grove with a heavy heart. This was the Forest of the Fallen, where all the Elves who died during the Battle of Urȗ'baen were buried. The trees here were mature for their age as Elven magic had been used to strengthen and age them. It was nearly eleven years that they were planted, and that was cause enough for sorrow.
It was almost eleven years since her sister Tuami fell in battle against Lord Barst. She fell with valor and honor, but she had fallen leaving Rose alone in the world, Last of the Red Sisters. She had loved her sister and still missed her dearly. She wanted Tuami to return and be alright, but she could not; there was no coming back from the grave.
Out of respect for her sister, she did not wear the face of a Human on the pilgrimage, which was early to avoid other Elves being here at the same time, and instead had restored her face to that which she had been born to wear. Her hair was also black like she had once had, but it had been a very difficult and painful process to make it so. Changing the color of her hair, cutting off her brown locks, and then finally forcing the black hair to grow was especially painful, but she wished to show respect for her fallen sister and could think of no way to do it other than to wear her proper face. At least, that was what she believed.
Her sister fully supported her wish to look beautiful, even if what was only in her eye. While some thought Humans were ugly because of their roughness, it was that roughness was what Rose thought was so beautiful about them instead of the delicateness of the Elves. Even now the face she wore was relatively Humanlike for Elves, though it seemed she was simply born that way.
As Rose came upon a walnut tree, she stopped in front of it. This was the tree that had been planted in honor of Tuami. This was her tree. Why she had chosen a walnut tree eluded Rose as she had never like walnuts particularly, but that mystery would never be solved unless there was an afterlife, which she sincerely hoped there was.
The thought of an afterlife was appealing to Rose. It meant that all that was lost would be made whole again, and what was taken would be given back. While some Elves in their arrogance only believed in what they could see, Rose knew that just because it is hidden does not mean it doesn't exist. If there was no belief in what could be and only what is, then there would be no discovery—like the discovery of the land of Alagaësia—and no growth or progress. It makes a people become weak, backwards, stagnant, and dead, like the Elves would be had it not been for their unrelenting cheeriness and denial. Rose believed in an afterlife because it was something she hoped to discover one day, which was more hope than any Elf who had ever lived might have.
Rose knelt before the walnut tree, trying to keep back tears, and began to speak. "I'm sorry for skipping last year," she said sadly. "I was busy and I couldn't leave what I was doing. I was actually training a Dragon Rider. I know it's strange and unlikely, but I did it. Her name is Lynde and her Dragon named herself Artsanna. Yes, that is a Human name; Lynde's a Human. I still like Humans better than Elves. I hope they become more Human because of the pact with the Dragons, not more Elf, because at least they try to do better than previous generations and don't have them linger and control everything."
Rose smiled, thinking on the adventures she and Lynde had. "We went all over Alagaësia together. No, I haven't yet gone to the Dwarven lands, and yes I still mean to do so. It's just that it's so hot in Surda and I don't want to make the trip until winter. But the four of us still had great adventures. Oh, I forgot to mention Arlen; he's a Human swordsman who I've seen defeat Elves. I know it's strange, but he has!
"You know how father always told me that getting involved with Humans would get me into trouble? Well it did. We've fought Shades—yes, that is plural, Shades—and gotten involved in a Surdan rebellion against the Empire. Don't worry; I can still handle myself and so could they.
"I've met a lot of old friends on my journey too. I met Cade; he's all grown up and has a family. I met Fayre too. She actually married, and Lynde's her daughter. She married a good man, Herbst, who is tricky one to say the least. He accompanied us after…" Then she remembered what happened at Dras-Blӧthr and said, "Fayre's dead now; died defending me. I'm running out of people to care about. I suppose that's what will happen when you make friends of Humans, but it's still more than I can take."
She lowered her head in shame. She couldn't hold back her tears now, but at least she could hide them from prying eyes. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I hope you can. It's hard being immortal and seeing everyone else die around you. I've been through dark times and times of peace. It doesn't even feel like peace now, just a quick breath before another plunge into war."
She looked up and saw hanging from the tree all the red ribbons she had put there. Each year she would come her, talk to Tuami, and place a ribbon teared off her red cloak on the branches of her tree. Last year had been different, but this year she would try to make up for it and place the tenth ribbon.
She took out her dagger, which she called Laufsbläd, and cut a strip of cloth off her cloak. It was only an inch or two wide, and about six inches long, but any longer and she might fear that her cloak might run out. Even now, if she kept up this tradition, she might run out of strips in less than a century. She would have to acquire a new cloak by then, though she would still keep doing it until the tree was completely clothed in red—the color of a warrior.
She placed the ribbon on a low hanging branch that had no other strips on it, and knelt down again, placing her cheek and hand against the trunk of the tree. "One day I hope to join you, Tuami," she sighed. "One day." She closed her eyes and enjoyed the shade of the tree, the cool breeze blowing from the north, and the smell of the forest.
She stayed there for a long while until a voice disturbed her. "Oh, so you're the one who's been doing this." She drew her dagger and prepared for a fight when she saw who had spoken. It looked like an Elf with a long, well groomed, gray beard, but that seemed more out of a dream than anything in reality. His voice was real though and he said, "Who are you?"
Seeing that he meant no harm, she sheathed her blade and said, "I am Ro… Lilyon, sister of Tuami." She realized that he probably only know her by her Elven name if he even knew that, and giving her Elven name might help convince him that she was the sister of another Elf and not some pretender.
The Elf smiled through her beard and said, "Ah, I know of you. You are, in some ways, an outcast because of what you have done in the farther past and what you did in the nearer past. But even an outcast will not be rebuked by me."
He bowed, his beard touching the ground has he did. "I am Meinris, the groundskeeper of this forest. I have tended the trees since they were saplings and seeds and the graves were new. I was here when they were buried and I keep them from being chopped down. I collect fruit and nut in their season, and I protect them from storms that would threaten them. I have seen many pilgrimages come by here, especially in the early days and on the fifth and tenth years that they have been here. I find it strange you would come on the eleventh."
Rose nodded and said, "I was busy last year and couldn't come." She did not think she should be here much longer and added, "I should leave."
"Perhaps," Meinris said nodding. "But I have seen those who have sat by the tree of a loved one for days or even months before leaving. We are not like Humans who bury their dead and move on. Each life is precious to us, and we mourn longer because of it. Do not forsake your feelings; let them out and accept them."
Rose lowered her head and stated, "I carry her grave with me wherever I go. I see her when I last saw her before she left, and then I see this tree. I should not be here longer than I need to or else I fear I may be here forever."
"Forever is a long time, especially for an Elf," Meinris said.
"And yet it is what I feel would happen if I linger here any longer," Rose said. "Farewell."
She marched out of the forest, but as she did the wind picked up and she hung onto a tree so that she would not fear being carried away. The leaves shook and branches flew off as this wind blew past. She would not have turned towards it unless she smelled something different in it; something like a Dragon. She looked into the wind and saw the cause of it: it was Thorn, the ruby Dragon of Murtagh the Traitor, flying towards Ilirea.
She felt like running, but also felt that she should be fighting him. She took her longbow from around her shoulder and drew it back with one arrow loaded and held two more at the stave. As soon as she was sure she would hit, she'd fire an arrow right for Murtagh's head.
But something strange happened. Murtagh and Thorn were closer to the city than to Rose, so they soldiers over there would be in a better position to start shooting at him, and yet no arrows were fired at him. He should have been taken as a threat, but the soldiers seemed not even to acknowledge he was there. The pair flew over Ilirea's great walls and into the city, and there were no sounds of battle from within. Rose had no idea what had just happened.
She lowered her bow and looked to Meinris standing nearby, equally dumbstruck by the experience. No matter what this meant, Rose knew the Riders had to hear of it and she might as well be the first. But she was unsure where the Riders stayed while in Alagaësia, and would have a hard time finding it.
If there was to be difficulty in this quest, she needed a better bow than the yew bow she got from Dras-Blӧthr. She needed a bow like her old one. She needed a bow worthy of a Daughter of the Bow, and she knew just where she could get one.
She ran back into the forest and went straight to Tuami's tree. While she was hesitant to do this to her sister's tree, it almost seemed like the reason she had a walnut tree. While most didn't make bows out of walnut trees, Rose knew exactly how to.
When she got there, Meinris asked calmly, "What are you doing?"
She looked and him and said, "I am making a bow from my sister's tree." Meinris's eyes widened with surprise. "Don't try to stop me. It was what she would have wanted."
"If any have the right, it is you," Meinris said, surprising Rose with his willingness for her to do this. It seemed odd for the caretaker of the forest to allow someone to make a bow from a tree under his care. "I have eaten the nuts off her tree for eleven seasons," Meinris said, "if I have that right, then you have this one." She smiled at his approval and began the spell.
She began to sing for a longbow to come from the trunk of the tree. She sung the spell to the irregular and stirring tune of one of Tuami's favorite songs—one of honor, courage, love, and victory—as it seemed the only fitting thing to do. While she sang she made sure to give the wood certain unusual qualities. While it would retain its strength, it would become bendable in such a way that it would not break when she suddenly pulled back on it with all her strength or held it in place for hours and would even fight back against it. It was easier to reduce qualities of a hardwood rather than enhance the qualities of softwood. She made it a perfect bow for one of her strength and skill.
When she was done she beheld it. The dull brown color was telling of it being walnut wood, but it felt different. She bent it, but it fought against her significantly. That was excellent because then it would allow her to fire arrows that would go much faster and go longer distances, making impacts deadly. It looked to be a good bow, but she needed a proper bowstring or else it wasn't going to work.
She considered what to make the bowstring out of. Her hair wasn't long enough to do, but she could grow it out. She spoke a spell to make a lock of her hair to grow faster than the others, and it grew until it was at her ankles. She then commanded it to fall off, which it did, and then she began to grow the missing hair back—a bald spot was not something she wanted, not matter how small it was. She then took the hair and—because she didn't want to take so long making it manually—spoke a spell that wound it into a thin rope. She tied it to the ends of her bow stave and she was done; the bow was complete.
She wanted to test it, so she went outside the forest, and remembering an old tree she saw over a nearby hill, she began to take aim. She drew the bow back, it fighting her all the way, and fired it over the hill. She then went to the top of the hill and used her excellent sight to see the arrow over halfway stuck in the tree. Satisfied with the test of range, she pulled another arrow back to test the accuracy. She fired from atop the hill and split the last arrow down the middle perfectly. It passed her test and now she was ready to use it in battle.
She was ready to go to war, if need be, but not as Rose. She could not call herself a Human name any longer. She would use her Elven name henceforth until her death. She was Lilyon the Wanderer, sister of Tuami, Last of the Red Sisters, Sixth Daughter of the Bow, Redcloak, and Shadeslayer. All would fear her name or learn to fear her bow.
Now Lilyon set out on her trek to find the Rider stronghold in Alagaësia, or at least some Rider to tell of Murtagh and Thorn's return. It might be easy or it might be difficult, but she would do it nonetheless. And she would do it for the dead and so the living may not need join them yet.