11 - Crossroads

Eylara wasn't sure whether or not she was actually asleep. She felt as though she might be somewhere else entirely. The woods around her seemed so familiar. It was early spring; the trees were just beginning to blossom, and the pines among them were growing fresh needles. Strangely, the bark of every tree she passed looked like it had been through a recent fire. There was no ash on the ground, only dead pine needles and leaves with tufts of new grass showing here and there. Dry creek beds interrupted the ground through out the forest. The sun shown warmly through the branches, and she could hear the pleasant chirping of birdsong. As she walked slowly along, she gazed southward toward a vast, green valley rimmed with mountains. It was beautiful . . . but she wondered what she was doing there.

She had a sudden impression of someone walking with her, of bright, benevolent golden eyes watching her. Yet, as she glanced around, there was no one to be seen. The impression wouldn't go away, but the presence was surrounding, protecting, comforting.

There were words, but she didn't hear them so much as she felt them. They were in her heart. Waken your memory, child, they said. And she did. She remembered. The landscape of her mind recalled it.

She sighed and sat down against a thick trunk near the bank of the largest dry riverbed she'd come across yet. "I know I said I'd deal with the consequences of leaving. Did I? Was that all there was for me to do there?"

The choice is yours.

"But I left myself in higher hands. That's what let me come here, let me know something I wouldn't have otherwise. Why is it up to me all of a sudden?"

Do not all people have the freedom to choose? You became willing to sacrifice yourself in order to further what is right. You didn't let the power you experienced drive you to abuse it. You used it to help others. That was what the hope was for you. You learned what it was intended you would learn, Eylara. And you learned not to fear it. You embraced it, even as it threatened your very being. The choice is yours.

"Leave to an existence where nothing can ever trouble me again, or go back and live out my appointed years?" She rubbed her neck and chuckled. "You'd think the answer would be so obvious . . ."

It is. But you know well enough that the life you are given is a gift. It should be lived to it's fullest. You have done as much in your short time as some people do in the full length of their years. How much more do you think you can do?

She smiled. "You know I love a challenge. And I know who is always with me. I know whom I'm going to when I die. I'm not afraid to live."

The presence around her smiled back, warming her very soul. A stream of fluid light began trickling down the middle of the riverbed, steadily growing. Then there is one thing you must do. You asked to be used for something that your chosen world needs. This is how you shall. Eylara watched the rising water-light, nodding slowly. It was something that made complete sense to her. Somehow, she knew it was the true form of what she had been becoming in her old world of stifled magic, and something that had been shown to the fullest in the new one. It had always been part of her, and now it was something she would be able to embrace and control.

Three more streams to fill, child. What do you choose?

Eylara closed her eyes and named them unspoken. The forest around her slowly came into full bloom. Three streams and a river ran healthy and full with rushing light and life. Finally, after days of barely feeling whole and human, she felt strong, vibrant . . . alive.

Full of light, she drifted. Then, the brilliance softly fading to comforting darkness, she slept.