This Chapter is dedicated to F.R., in memory of his death

Chapter 5: The Truth

"…Jasmine? Do you hear me?" Lief asked worriedly.

"Lief, are you sure you don't want to stay here, with me?" The Spirit of Life asked one more time, in a desperate effort. "I can give you my love, all the riches of the world and eternity to do anything and everything you like."

"What use is eternity without a loved one?" Lief asked coldly, helping Jasmine to sit up.

Turning to Jasmine and experiencing a change in mood, he thundered, "Why did you have to go and climb down the ladder of death? Didn't the flora of Del warn you? Didn't I warn you? Shouldn't you have stayed on the path? How could you go and do that to me? Do you even know what I went through, praying to the gods that you would be safe?" Finishing his barrage of questions, he noticed that Jasmine's eyes were filling over, though she had turned away so he would not see.

"Jasmine, I'm so sorry," Lief apologized at once, feeling guilty for all his questions. He felt awkward as he bent over her.

She had enough worries already without him going and adding another one to her pile.

"No, Lief. I should be sorry. I'm the one that got us into this mess, so I'm going to be the one that gets us out." She said firmly, and began to stand up. All at once, she fell back, the roots of the flowers having wound tightly around Jasmine's body.

Lief whirled around, to see the Spirit's hands, up high in the air, calling silently for the roots of the flowers to come and bind Jasmine, to join them in the soft earth.

'Come…'

'Come…'

'Come… come with us, underground. We lost you once, but we won't lose you again…' the flowers whispered inside her head. Jasmine, not being able to move, struggled helplessly, hurting her injured arm even more in the process.

With large, tearstained eyes, she asked Lief, "Will you be able to get me out of here? It's uncomfortable."

"I will, don't worry." Lief replied, more boldly than he meant it, and strode towards the Spirit.

"Kayoyata sris chiphleth," Lief muttered as he approached her. A soft, white light surrounded him briefly, before disappearing into the Belt.

"Very nice choice of a pathetic charm," the Spirit said, with her arms still raised. "The protection against evil? But I'm not evil, am I? She asked.

"You never know. To others you might not be, but you are to me." Lief replied as his hands made their way to the topaz, for truth, the emerald, for honour, and the lapis, for protection. (Wait, is the Lapis thing right? Or was it the Amethyst? Totally coddled!)

"What would you know?" she asked bitterly. "To wait in this accursed valley for thousands of years, with no one visiting me because of the magical barrier around it, and looking hopelessly for a soul-mate. Now, I find my soul-mate, but then I find that he's got a soul-mate of his own!" she finished.

"It serves you right, Aradia of the Forests of Silence." Lief waited for her response.

It came, soon enough.

"What did you say?" glowered the Spirit. "I am the Spirit of Life, not Aradia of the pathetic Forests of Silence?

"Truth tells all," Lief said softly, and revealed his hands, resting lightly on the topaz, emerald and lapis.

Aradia's eyes widened, and she cried, "I knew this would happen from the very second I laid eyes on you!"

Back in Del…

"Citizens of Del!" Doom called with a magically amplified voice. Roscoe, a sorcerer who supported Jasmine, had agreed to amplify his and Barda's voice for the day and he was using this to their advantage. He, Barda and Roscoe were standing up on a rough, temporary platform raised for them by the loyal men of the marketplace.

"People of the marketplace," Barda called over the banters of the customers, and, as if by magic, all eyes turned to him. "Thank you." He turned to Doom, and he began talking.

"I need you all to go home now and get all the men and women that are not here today, for a special person we have been neglecting these past months," Doom asked. "So would you please leave your things, go home at once, and return again with all the people you think should have to hear this announcement?" There was a loud cheer from the crowd and they started dispersing at once. "Be back in" – he glanced at the sun – "one hour." There was another cheer and soon, the marketplace was nearly empty, save a few people tending to the litter on the streets.

"Now, we wait," said Roscoe grimly, and they sat down to do so.

"Hurry!" someone urged their elders into the thick crowds around the three people on the platform.

"Everyone, pay attention!" roared Roscoe over the noise of the crowd. The silence started at the front and spread out through the throng.

"Thank you," Doom said when silence reigned in the multitude of people. "Now, we need to talk. Jasmine" – he was cut off by a series of boos from a small section of the throng. Barda recognized the group as the young men and women who didn't like Jasmine for her un-urban-ness. A frown settled over his face as others quietened the people who were making the noise.

Doom tried again. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, Jasmine, our queen, has been uncomfortable lately with Del. I" – here, he was cut off again by a young man calling out.

"Why doesn't she go back to her precious forest then?" he asked, and the small group burst into raucous laughter.

"Let's go," another said, and the group pushed its way out onto the grass, but not before Roscoe muttered a spell under his breath.

"Tros ironne dur," he murmured, binding them to where they stood.

Only the people's eyeballs rolled helplessly as they tried to break free, but the sorcerer was powerful and wouldn't let them go.

"I see who is making all the trouble for her now," Doom said quietly, thinking. For a few seconds, he stood like this, then came to a conclusion. "For her to be happy here, she should be comfortable with her subjects. So why don't we give her a warm welcome if" – he stopped suddenly – "no, when she and Lief come back?" He asked, raising his voice.

The people, much to Barda's amazement, cheered heartily for the queen. He motioned for Roscoe to let the trapped ones free, but hold them in an orb so they could not escape, but do anything else.

Roscoe did so, and Doom asked them the same question. One of them nodded, if somewhat reluctantly, but the others shook their heads fiercely.

"Very well then," Doom sighed. "Now that I think of it, you would have been the ones to cause all the trouble, with one or two others," he muttered, voice lowered so that they wouldn't hear, but the two on either side of him could.

Barda changed the subject. "Moving onto the celebrations for when they return…"

In the Valley

Meanwhile, Jasmine's eyes had widened. "Aradia of the Forests of Silence?" she whispered. "That means…" she was cut off by the roots rapidly receding into the ground. "Thank you," she told them, and carefully, got up off the ground, dusting off her clothes.

"Lief," she called. "Aradia's my…" she never got to finish her sentence, for at that moment, the Spirit turned into a girl, about the same age as her, but only a little younger.

"Jasmine?" she whispered. Then her face turned into one huge malicious grin. "I have no relatives, not even you."

"What?" Jasmine demanded. "What do you mean, you don't have any relatives? I'm still alive!"

"You may be alive, but I've changed. I am The Spirit of Life, not Aradia of the pitiful Forests of Silence." She countered.

Lief, who had been simply standing there in shock that Jasmine knew this… monstrosity personally, managed to open his mouth. "What are you talking about?" he demanded to Jasmine.

"She's my… half-sister." Jasmine muttered.

"I have no relatives, I told you!" The Spirit thundered. "I used to, but I don't now! All the relatives I have are in the soft soil, stripped down to their bones, with the roots and insects. And so will you," she whispered, advancing towards Jasmine.

"Oh, no you don't," Lief muttered, and stood in front of Jasmine.

Er… nothing to say. Literally.