Chapter -13: The Heart of the Forest
It was almost eerie how quickly the people of the planet resumed their daily lives after the Devil brought panic and fear across the land.
But with Lilith's pride dealt a fatal blow and most of her supporters, willing or otherwise, turned away from her there were hardly any obstacles to this blossoming era of peace.
However, there was one Tribe that dealt with a very persistent weed.
Carmine never doubted for a second that Glade would continue to plot his schemes regardless of what condition Lilith was in.
And his presence in the Devil's battle, however brief, bode ill for the future of Tanglefae, and put Ividae on constant edge.
Brine and Torren offered their aid to guard the perimeter of the forest when they could.
Carmine was constantly on patrol and while his wife was reluctantly agreeable towards his duty, they both hated how much of a wedge was being driven between him and Acai.
She was getting more rebellious with age, showing more skin and even taking plant fluids to mark her stomach with a painted rose.
Somewhere along the way she somehow learned how to make a whip for herself out of wood and vines.
Carmine worried that should she be left unchecked she'd try to pick a fight with Glade.
But if he asked every villager to keep an eye on his daughter, all it'd do is make her hate all of them as well.
She needed to still feel like this place was her home.
He had considered putting her in Darnia's care, but that would just be replacing one "cage" with another.
Anywhere else on the ground wasn't safe. Glade was slippery, stubborn, and determined. He was allowed to see that Acai was Carmine's weak point.
If there was a chance he would get to exploit it, the Sage would do so.
Carmine found his clothes growing a bit of moss that Ividae nibbled off in the rare chance they got to nap together.
They were too few and far between nowadays.
His heart wasn't feeling too well either.
It wasn't just guilt over how much he neglected his daughter, but for how little progress he made finding a solution to the pollen control over Lunis.
How wrong would it be if he just took a moment to stop and scream?
But he didn't. Because he wanted to remain good. He wanted to keep his thoughts pure.
He loved this forest and everything inside of it, from every petal to every leaf.
Blood would stain their purity. Their roots would not taste of his…or even Glade's.
As he walked through the forest again, he hung his head with a weary sigh and Ividae's vine rose to prop him up under the chin.
Carmine pushed it back with his finger and smiled, "It's alright, Ividae. Please…don't worry about me."
The vine shook and then pushed up against his cheek.
Carmine was momentarily stunned, before bringing his hand over to let the vine nuzzle between his fingers.
He cracked a small smile and murmured, "You were thinking about our first meeting…?"
"Oh yeah…" Carmine felt ashamed, "How young was I then? I just happened to find you trembling in your resting place. You were bleeding. A wild beast from another Tribe had wandered into the forest and attacked you."
Ividae nodded.
"And I rested by your side. Ha…I believed it would help you heal." Carmine shook his head and grinned at his innocence.
Ividae nestled itself up next to his neck and rubbed under his chin, causing Carmine to remark on its gesture, "No, I didn't do anything. You were going to recover just fine on your own."
"...But that's not the point of this, is it, my friend?" Carmine hung his head and Ividae retracted over to his shoulder.
"I haven't…felt as gentle as I used to be," He clenched his fist close to his chest and trembled, "It's kept me from being your friend, and left me failing as a father."
"...I wonder if I've been subconsciously holding myself back from finding Glade because of this?" He shook his head and looked up towards the gaps of sunlight in the canopy with a forlorn glance, "Ividae I don't know what I will do when I find him."
"Sarajin wants this world to belong to everyone, and has even vowed to make peace with Borealis, but I…" He clenched his fists by his sides and bit his lower lip, "I can NEVER forgive Glade. And he CANNOT be reasoned with. The only solution for him…"
He took a deep breath and hung his head with a melancholic sigh, "...Is to become a man I don't want to be."
Ividae danced around for a while, causing Carmine to flinch with a chill in his heart when it was over, "T-Thank you…Ividae."
A bit of strength returned to his legs and he pressed onward, "Let us keep up our search, and make sure my daughter hasn't wandered off again."
But wandering she was. Having learned every nook and cranny of this twisted, wooden cage, Acai ventured into the Grove of Eternal Night once more to try and find her freedom.
She only took one look back to ensure she wasn't being followed, then stuck her tongue out at the village.
She then pushed through the nocturnal plants with a brave heart.
"I'm not afraid of anything anymore." She told herself.
The Fae tried to pester her with their inviting whispers, but a raise of her whip fended them off quickly.
Her heartbeat was rising with anticipation to escape. Far as she knew her father was far off, and nobody else was coming to see her.
"I can do this." Spoken with an adult's confidence, but a child's naivety.
There was no care taken to check that she could make her way back.
She would press forward until she found her way out, or found the person who might be able to.
That hooded stranger…
Her father didn't want her to be near him. He attacked him outta nowhere.
He might be dangerous. But that invited her towards him.
What was the harm in trying? There had to be one adult who treated her with respect around here…
She would keep wandering through this strange, tangled forest until her worst fears became vocal.
"Acai!" Her father shouted from far away.
She grit her teeth in a panic, "H-How…?"
She got lost? He was that good?
The right call was to duck into the bushes until he passed by.
She was not known to be smart though, and picked up her feet and ran away from his voice.
And that alerted him through the crunch of the leaves.
"Acai!" His voice rose in pursuit of her.
"Let me leave you dummy!" She cried in her head.
Her escape came to a sudden halt as she rammed into the side of another person and bounced back.
She rubbed her forehead and looked up to see she had interrupted the hooded man's walk.
His listless stare sent a shiver down her spine. She swallowed deep and was spurred to haste by her father's voice approaching closer.
"H-Hey! You have to know a way out of the forest, r-right?!"
She kept looking back and forth, pleading to the motionless man, "I wanna leave! You have to take me!"
The hooded man reached down towards her face and remarked, "Very well."
Acai's dread only hit her when it was too late to fix this mistake.
"AAAAH!" Her scream became muffled, and with a faint heart Carmine rushed to her aid.
After cutting through the thorny bushes he stopped and saw Glade, standing there, his expression stoic as he held his hand over his daughter's mouth and put the other on her shoulder.
"I have finally captured your heart, Carmine Rose." Glade uttered.
"Glade…!" Carmine hissed, his hands tensing up into fists.
One nudge on his part made Glade pull away and hold his hand tighter against Acai's mouth, deafening her cries.
Acai's eyes were full of tears and irises felt regret.
She was still just a child when faced with adversity.
"Khh…" Love prevailed over rage, and with his heart made tender Carmine looked this horrid man in the eyes and asked him bluntly, "Why me? Why me specifically?!"
Glade's answer was instantaneous, "You consider yourself caring and kind. I see otherwise."
"As if you have any right to judge me." Carmine retaliated.
Glade leaned his head back and the poison in his eyes glowed, "Nobody is different from anyone. I look at people and see the same faces, the same masks, hiding the ugly poison within their souls."
"I am hiding nothing." Carmine stated.
"Sure," Glade said in a sardonic tone, "Maybe not consciously. But it is there. Festering, growing."
"Soon it will seep out from under your mask, making every word ugly."
"Enough…!" Carmine bemoaned, "This involves me alone, keep my daughter out of this!"
The sheer passion of his sincere plea left Acai crying more out of guilt.
Glade dug her cold fingertips into her shoulder and remarked, "She WAS honest to me in her intention. But also, had to lie to make it here."
"Children…are not exempt from this poison."
"Yes, that's all the more reason to let her live and grow. So I can raise her right…!"
Glade shook his head, "You don't get it. Poison breeds poison. You will fail, because you are not exempt from the cycle that made you."
Carmine rushed right to the point of this whole encounter without a second's hesitation, "I'll give you anything you want in exchange for her safety. Please…!"
Glade glared at him and did not yield in his beliefs, "Then stop trying to pretend you're a good man, and show me the poison you're hiding, Carmine Rose."
"I-I…!" Carmine felt his heart stewing with range, he wanted to strangle this man, suffocate him, leave no light in his eyes…
But every time he looked at his daughter's tears he saw his bitterness reflecting in them. For all her rebellious ventures had done to splinter their relationship, she still saw him as a father, and wanted to trust in that good-nature that helped raise her.
But if he didn't act in some fashion, Glade would.
He was forcing his victory onto their battle of the minds. There was…simply no way Carmine could come out of this victorious.
Ividae wiggled at him in a shriveled up form and Carmine gently shook his head.
He then looked over at Glade, his morals pressured to the breaking point…and held on to who he was.
With a bitter tone, he gave his most sincere speech yet, "I have lived in this forest all of my life. Even knowing the world outside, I have never found anything more beautiful than these plants around me."
"I thought I could raise my daughter to appreciate the forest like I did, but I kept making mistakes…Disregarding her feelings, and now…pushed her right into your hands, when all I wanted to do was keep her safe."
"But nothing will change how much I love her. So I will not toss away this love to show you hate, Glade."
"I named my daughter Acai after my favorite type of berry…Because every time I cry out her name, I want her to know how much she means to me."
Acai squeezed her eyes together in pain and her whimpering pushed through Glade's fingers.
He looked at this unfold, closed his eyes, and muttered, "Very well…"
He let go of Acai and pushed her in Carmine's direction.
This microsecond of deliberate kindness kept Carmine from noticing the needle sliding down along Glade's finger to jab Acai in the neck.
Acai's expression became one of shock and her pupils shrank.
Carmine's heart grew faint and he watched as purple quickly infiltrated his daughter's veins and made her tumble into his arms.
He cradled her against his body and felt her body getting feverish all over.
Breathing made an oozy saliva stick to the sides of her mouth that would eventually build up enough to stop her breathing entirely.
This was the Devil's brew, Glade's final and most cursed concoction.
Glade hung his listless shadow over father and daughter and pushed at Carmine's dwindling control over his emotions, "My body has developed an immunity to all poisons. If you take my blood, it will cure her."
His eyes widened and his cold voice burrowed into Carmine's ears, "Show me your poison, Carmine Rose, or lose her to it."
There was no guard in this man's posture. He was so willing to prove his twisted ideals that even his body was a tool in the experiment.
Carmine was not prepared to deal with this level of callousness…no man was.
"But if I don't do something then…!"
He swallowed deep and began to move, when Ividae's vine grew to tangle up his arms and insist on having the last say.
"I-Ividae?!"
Glade's eyes widened in focus as Carmine communicated with the Titan's fragment.
Carmine grit his teeth and muttered, "A-Are you sure?"
And then he hoisted Acai up in his arms and fled.
He kept checking back, believing that Glade would pursue.
But he did not.
There was no time to think about what he was plotting. His friend offered an answer to his daughter's pain.
He ran and ran until his feet were blistered and splintered, arriving at Ividae's sanctuary to bring his daughter to rest at the Titan's belly.
The Titan immediately let out a deep, piercing wail through the forest's leaves and brought its snout in contact with Acai's body.
"W-What are you planning to do, Ividae?" Carmine wondered, forced to remain on all fours.
Nature's basking glow surrounded Ividae's snout and bridged the gap between it and her. In the blink of an eye, Carmine was forced to watch as his friend took all the poison into itself.
"N-NO! Stop it Ividae!"
The Titan performed its role as mother to all nature, but more poignantly, paid back just a shred of the kindness Carmine had shown as a friend.
When its actions were fulfilled, Acai was cleansed of every drop, her body looking as fresh as a newborn.
The mental toll this took on her left her unconscious, but breathing steadily.
Carmine quickly picked her up and covered her with his arms and body, while raising his head towards his friend.
Immediately Ividae began to thrash about in place, snapping off the roots that comprised its legs as it rebelled against the pain that overwhelmed it.
Carmine was speechless and helpless as his friend suffered in misery, banging its proud antlers against the trees it loved and soon collapsing onto its side when the pain became too much to bear.
No pain inflicted upon it would grant it the freedom of death though, as it continued to moan and creak loudly.
Carmine's heart ached and he started to become faint of breath.
And while this all unfolded, one of Glade's sickels flung past him and into Ividae's nesting grounds, slicing the Wellspring in two and carrying one half back towards him.
He sealed it tight in an orb of aura and held it in Carmine's presence, its natural glow baking shadows into Carmine's face that emphasized the disgust he could no longer suppress.
Glade commented, "You lost because you could not look inside of yourself and accept the poison within. Nor could you recognize the same in your 'Titan'."
Glade watched Ividae struggle to lift itself up, "Writhe, ugly beast."
"Shut up…!" Carmine growled.
Glade looked down upon him and said, "Did you know that a Titan cannot be killed with the same methods used against another?"
"That poison I planted into your daughter to be delivered to your Titan would have been extremely fatal to it now…Had we not felled Luminesca with poison before."
"Because as far as my research revealed, the poison from the Khull Drago is particularly effective against Wellspring energies."
"Why is that?"
"I don't care…" Carmine growled with his teeth bit bitterly.
Glade continued regardless, "The Titans have kept secrets. And this isn't the only lie yours has carried."
He turned to the right and Carmine forced himself to follow his gaze to the forest. Before his very eyes he watched everything in the distance rapidly transform into the Grove of Eternal Night, with new Fae appearing out of thin air amidst the trees.
"The Grove isn't a creation of the world's design. It was born through the act of your Titan trying to suppress it's poison."
"Because if it was seen as anything other than 'gentle' and 'nurturing', no one would admire it."
"It's revolting how many of you fight to be perceived as good, instead of embracing what you truly want to be."
"Shut up…!" Carmine raised his voice, silencing the Sage at long last.
When Glade looked at this man again, he had finally broken through. Carmine's face was warped with ugly, angry creases as he gripped his daughter tighter against his body. He was crying, scowling, and glared at him with a naked desire to kill.
Yet his tone of voice desperately clung on to the good man he was even as he yelled, "The only revolting person here is you…!"
"What right do you and Lilith have to be sanctimonious towards others, just because your lives didn't turn out how you wanted?!"
"I DO want to kill you. I want to strangle your throat until your skin is purple, I want to gouge out your eyes and make your poison gush all over your skin…!"
"This does not make me a bad person, or a wicked one…! Because my 'poison' is LOVE…! Everything I've felt…and ever shall feel, is born of LOVE."
"Not that you would ever understand how I feel…! We're all experiments to you!"
Carmine flashed his teeth in a bitter scowl and then roared, "You got what you wanted from us! Now leave us alone!"
Glade's eyes trembled, the roar of Carmine's resolve diminishing the succulent taste of victory he had achieved.
"...Very well," Glade tucked the Wellspring fragment into his sleeves and then started to make his way out of the forest, "Live the rest of the days knowing I am your superior."
Carmine would have the last word though, "Enjoy your arrogance while you can, you cruel, cruel, man. Sarajin will put an end to your ambitions the moment he gets through to Borealis."
Glade left in silence.
Ividae would soon recover from the pain, but this was a sorrowful scene to awaken to…
Carmine kneeled there, cuddling his daughter in his arms as tears burst free like raindrops…
Meanwhile, Glade made his way to Caimanabel with zero distractions along the way.
Upon casually walking into the palace, he found his walk interrupted by Atrax.
"You." Glade said with mild scorn.
Atrax rubbed his chin and remarked, "Rude. Oh? Is that a Wellspring I smell on you?"
Glade reached into his sleeve and revealed the orb.
Atrax's hand immediately dropped with him letting out a sigh, "Oh, just a fragment."
Glade retracted the orb back into his clothes and remarked, "Enough to give Lilith its Conduit Form."
Atrax gestured his hand out and said in a droll tone, "I suppose so. Hand it over, I'll deliver it to her."
Glade started walking before he was finished, telling him in a curt tone, "You can no longer be trusted."
One of Atrax's appendages bent against his chest to keep him in place, with his tone taking on a more casual, accusatory nature, "That's a heavy accusation."
Glade glanced to his left and remarked, "It's curious how often Lilith's schemes to collect the Wellsprings have failed ever since Sarajin came into the picture."
Atrax replied in kind, "He is a tricky fellow, that Sarajin…But I fail to see what that has to do with ME."
Glade turned all the way around and glared at him, "How would he have found out about some of our schemes ahead of time. Someone within our group was leaking information to him."
He craned his head back and remarked, "I suspected Nimus due to his former connection, but his reach was limited by how visible he was."
"There is, however, someone among us with more freedom to move around."
"And you say that's me?" Atrax said in a cheeky tone.
Glade glared at him and repeated his point, "You have betrayed your sister to aid Sarajin."
Atrax shrugged and kept his answer brief, "No."
"No." Glade showed no belief.
"Think about what you're suggesting. That I would ever betray an oath of blood."
"You think you can worm your way out of this, but there are more reasons to suspect you of betrayal."
Atrax flicked his hand out and chuckled, "By all means, waste both our time."
"You told Lilith that the last Anti-Genesis Theorem was lost, but I know it by scent. Obscura's king wore it on his darkness like a coat of armor."
Atrax replied, "The jester had the ability to warp dimensions to his liking. From my perspective, it looked like it was lost, but he must have simply played me for a fool."
Glade continued, "The Murder plot in Pulsa Minoria…The knife was never supposed to end up in Carmine's possession. The moon child is clumsy, but under the pollen's effects, the knife never should have slipped from her hand."
Atrax's tone got slightly deeper and more blunt, "But as you recall, that first mask was a prototype."
"The strength of the pollen didn't change between masks, only how long it lasted." Glade countered.
Atrax shrugged, "Perhaps Lilith isn't in control of that child as much as she thinks she is."
Glade went straight for the jugular on this last comment, "Why were you extending your arms towards the Khull Drago?"
Atrax went silent, Glade taking the opportunity to tear him down, "During that battle you were on one of the towers. I saw you. Do not try to deny it."
"Do you have some relation to the beast? Are you the reason it was lured towards Sancturia?"
Atrax held his hand out, a cold air wrapping around his body that made Glade silent.
Once Atrax dropped his hand, he shook his head and muttered, "What's the point of all this?"
"You are all ready to present Lilith with the perfect gift. Ratting me out to her won't add any extra value…because in the end she'll still feel the same way towards you as she does anyone else."
"It's…pitiful really, how you scurry beneath her boot, wishing to be crushed."
"Honestly, it's too late anyways. Lilith has no chance of creating Genesis."
"Genesis…?" Glade uttered.
Atrax dropped his arms and sighed, "But I suppose there's no cure for love poisoning, is there, Preying Mantis?"
Glade tucked his arms into his sleeves and looked him dead in the eyes, "Lilith chooses to embrace the ugliness inside of her when so many do not."
"If I must be a rat in her eyes for her to remain true to herself…So be it. It will only make me admire her more."
He turned and began walking away.
Atrax bowed his head and mumbled aloud, "I suppose…I can respect that level of honesty."
"But…!" He raised his head up and remarked, "For the sake of keeping things tidy going forward, you are going to need to forget any suspicion you have towards me."
After that, Atrax slipped away into the shadows, and Glade continued walking towards Lilith's hidden chamber.
Though his mind felt…off.
Once inside he saw her still clutching the tome against her chest with her hair frayed everywhere.
He took the Nature Wellspring out of his sleeve and its light made her form a twisted smile.
Without a word exchanged, he watched her stumble off the ground to reach out to the light, giggling in an unhinged fashion until her hands caressed it.
Her body was filled with the green energies and she rose with stunning lucidity and confidence.
Her hair turned a dark shade of red and her body took on the qualities of nature, but wilted.
Once the light unraveled from her body, her tingling frame stood and raised her stump limb towards her face.
And in a matter of seconds, she recreated her hand out of vines and wood, perfectly under her control.
She curled her fingers and her honest, ugly smile became a grin.
"You have given me exactly what I needed, Glade…" She said, "With this, we can expedite the creation of your masks…"
Glade closed his eyes and bowed, "What shall we do next?"
Lilith's eyes lit up and saw only the path forward for her goals, "It's time for all my followers to serve me well…"
"No more games…by the end of this month, all my enemies perish, starting with Borealis Aurora!"
Next Time: Sins of the Past