A Scholar's travels with a Witcher

by Spike368

Sent out to gather the knowledge of the real world. A young scholar from the University of Oxenfurt finds a wounded Witcher on the steps to the inn where he was staying. So he starts gathering the material for his journals. Rated T for language I will be publishing this story on Royal Road /profile/349358

157. Chapter 157

(Warning: Continuing discussions about consent, real, dubious and so on. Also conversations about polyamorous relationships and some frank discussions about sex.)

(A/N: I like to think that when it happens there will be some mutual consent going on but there we go. Carrying over what I said last time about rape being rape. Yes, as Freddie is being forced to have sex with someone or he, and his companion/friend will be killed makes what the dryads are doing to him, Rape.)

Believe it or not, the follow-up efforts to find the more philosophical and scholarly of my two partners was relatively quick.

As was promised, Apple-Seed and I had a small period of time together, it wasn't long and I think we both would have preferred more time to get to know each other before we were thrown back into dealing with everyone else.

Truth be told, I don't remember very much of that small conversation. I seem to recall that it mostly consisted of her checking with me that I was ok with this and me checking with her the same. In the end, though, she took my hand and carefully kissed my cheek before smiling.

"I am scared," I told her.

She nodded. "I feel the same way, this will be the first time I've been with a man."

"Flame," I cursed and she grinned.

"If it wouldn't potentially mean your life," She began. "I would suggest that we elope into the woods. Far from the watching and judging eyes of everyone else."

"That sounds, eminently sensible to me," I admitted.

She smiled again.

"There is a pool, deep in the forest to the south. Far from the heart of the woods, the Schattenmann and the homes of my sisters. A small, woodland lake, shaded by trees and gouged out of the earth. It is always cool there and is one of those places where I keep a small package of supplies should I find myself cut off or suddenly caught out in a storm. There is a little hollow where I can build a small area of warmth. We could cook, eat and get to know each other properly there."

"It sounds nice."

"I would like to show it to you. It is peaceful there. I have spent a lot of time there, working on my new fighting style, carving my javelins and working on the movements." She seemed a bit wistful for a moment before she shook her head.

"But we do not have a lot of time and you must still choose another to lay with."

"I do not want you to think that you are lesser than…"

She smiled up at me. I kept having to remind myself that she was shorter than me. She seemed to grow in my mind's eye whenever I looked away.

"Silly human." She said. "There will be no greater, or lesser. We will come to an accord, her and I. Come. Let us see what Elm-Branch has for you."

She took my hand and led me back to the training area. Her hand seemed small and cool in my own.

The Weapons-Mistress seemed to have dismissed her class as all the young dryads had gone elsewhere. She was still there, chatting with Blonde-Giant. I also noticed that my group of hopefuls had shrunk considerably. Those women that I had expected to be more martial in bearing had left. Those that remained wore a variety of dresses and hooded robes. Those robes reminded me of nothing more than the kind of robes that nuns wear. It was an unfortunate comparison.

I tugged Apple-Seed to a stop before we walked in.

"Just before I do that," I said. "I understand that you will 'come to terms' with whoever it is that ends up being chosen from me in that group and I know that if I asked you if there are any that you actively dislike, you would be careful, something about… 'you loving all of your sisters'. But are there any that I would find difficult to get on with or that you would find more difficult to get on with? I think that the three of us will be spending a lot of time together and I would prefer to not have to referee between the two of you."

"That is a fair point." She admitted. "Although, I truly don't think it will come up."

"Why not?"

"Because your first partner was me. I will go and stand with my Aunt and the Weapon-Mistress."

"Ok," I said, "What's her name. I know that your Aunt is called Sunflower which is a thing of slight amusement for me. But what about the Weapons-mistress."

Apple-seed smiled. "Her name is Steel-Wood."

I considered this for a moment. "Fitting," I commented.

"There is much more to our culture and our heritage than you might at first think. All you have seen so far are our procreation practices. The parts that do not necessarily paint us in the best light. Having said that, I am pleased with where they have left me." She shouldered her bundle, lifted the hand that she was holding to her mouth and kissed the back of my hand before moving off.

Elm-Branch had seen us and started to walk towards me when she saw Apple-Seed moving away.

"I take it that things are moving well?" She wondered.

"You seem a little smug," I told her.

"It's a side-effect of being so good at what I do." She said.

"I still have so many questions," I told her.

"I know. And between them, Apple-Seed and whoever you choose next will be able to answer them. But my job is to get the two of you together right now and I can't do that if we stand around chatting all day."

She turned and started to lead me towards the remaining women.

"What are they doing?" I wondered.

"Arguing." She said. "If you put a group of attendants and scholars into one place and leave them alone for a few minutes then they inevitably start an argument. It's like the sun rising and setting."

"What are they arguing about?"

"The same things that they are always arguing about. Our culture, our way of doing things, our history our behaviour, our laws. It all gets thrown into one big melting pot and then mixed together."

"Those that advocate fundamental change and those that seek to keep things the same as they always have been." I guessed.

"As you say. How did you know?"

"In a debate about tradition, law and society. The sides are always the same. How are we going to test my compatibility with them? I don't see myself, particularly enjoying arguing with any of them. That would turn things competitive which is not really my idea of a good time."

She looked horrified for a moment. "Shit."

"What?"

She stopped walking and turned me so that I had my back to them all. "It's called the oldest game."

I felt a chill go up my spine and she nodded as she watched me. "I see that you know it. Maple-Leaf warned me that you would."

"Kerrass once played the oldest game for my life and my soul." I told her. "He lost."

"The stakes are not quite as high here."

"Are they not? My life is still on the line and laying with someone I hate would easily damage my soul."

She stared at me for a moment.

"Sorry," I said. "That came out more bitter than I thought it would."

"No need to apologise. You are correct after all. And that makes what I have to say more difficult. There are other ways that I can ascertain which of these women would be better suited to being your other mate. But they take longer. So the question remains, can you play?"

I thought about it for a moment. "I can play. My reactions, apart from anything else, might show you something."

"That is true."

"Can I listen to the argument for a moment?"

She smiled. "By all means, will you want to say something to them?"

"That depends on what I hear."

A couple of the arguing women noticed that I was there but said nothing. Their eyes narrowed a bit and then they went back to what they were talking about with renewed fervour. Elm-Branch moved the pair of us carefully around and found us a spot where I could hear without being observed. It was skillfully done and spoke of much practice. The voices all seemed to meld into one after a while.

"The simple fact of the matter," one voice was saying. "Is that the system is flawed."

'Why is it flawed?" asked another. "We are a meritocracy. The best of the best lead and direct. That is the nature of such things and it leads us to the best results."

"Oh, there is so much wrong with that statement that I can barely say anything." Said another voice. I thought it sounded a bit younger and more muffled.

"Such as what?"

"Such as, the ability to be good with a particular skill is not the same as being able to teach it." Said muffled. "Teaching is a completely separate skill. The General would be the first to say such things. Secondly, leadership is also a separate skill. As is innovating and coming up with new ways of doing things."

"Why come up with new ways of doing things when existing ways work."

"Because they might not always work, things change, we know more about working wood and weaving leaves and vines than we knew a year ago, and those that are outside the forest, the humans, the dwarves and the rest, are always coming up with new ways to do…whatever. But I want to hear more about what Chestnut-Shell was saying about the weaknesses of meritocracy."

"It means that the mediocre are left behind." The voice that I took to be Chestnut-Shell spoke. "Not everyone can be the best at everything. There is something to be said for versatility. Someone who can do a bit of everything but not be able to do one thing to excellence. People should be driven to excel but in a meritocracy, those people that are lesser talents are left behind."

"Are you speaking from personal experience there?" Someone said harshly.

"Let me propose a problem," Chestnut-Shell spoke, she seemed calm but I wondered if I could detect an undercurrent of rage. "When the house is built, does the master-builder do it all by herself?"

"Well no."

"Why not?" Chestnut-shell asked. "She is the master at the craft. She is the best to do the job. Why doesn't she do it all herself?"

"It would take too long." Said another.

"It takes multiple crafts to build a house." Said yet another.

"Because it's impossible," Chestnut-Shell said. "Manhandling those materials sometimes takes more than one woman, physically apart from anything else. Now, what happens if the master-builder gets another master-builder to help her. What will happen then?"

The others didn't seem to want to answer that.

"They will argue." said Chestnut-Shell. "They will both want to argue about who is in charge and who's design is used. So a master-builder gathers apprentices, workers, women that can follow orders, dependable women."

"Also," said another voice. "We have just seen what happens when the mediocre are ignored. It was well known to me that although Apple-Seed is a decent shot, she is not the best fighter and that her spear work is lacking due to her height. Yet she has shaken the general and the Weapons-Mistress with her new and innovative style. And snagged herself a man while she was doing it."

"So a meritocracy has its flaws." Chestnut-Shell insisted.

There was some laughter at that but I don't think that Chestnut-Shell was deliberately making a joke. Elm-Branch was watching my face carefully.

"But the system is flawed." Chestnut-Shell insisted.

"I

n what way?" A slightly older voice, sounding tired and jaded.

"In almost every way." Chestnut-Shell went on. There were some groans and shifting of weight. It sounded like an old conversation but I was intrigued.

"We condemn the world outside." Chestnut-Shell was insistent. "We tell them off for belittling us. Those of us that come from the outside world tell stories of men assaulting women and we are afraid because it means that they could be assaulting us. But it never occurs to us that we are doing the same to them. That man (Freddie: presumably me) is being assaulted, abused and we tell ourselves that we are doing it to further our species, to say that we can protect the Schattenmann and look after ourselves. But that's not true, is it? We could…"

"Yes yes. We've heard it all before. We could go out into the surrounding villages and we could take mates and find lovers. We could wear disguises and all kinds of things. But we also know about what integration with the humans has cost the Elves."

"The villages around the Black Forest are not like that." Someone argued.

"You wanna see how quickly they become like that?" Another said. "Jealousy is a thing. Some prissy idiot that would never attract a sister gets cross at the fact that his neighbour has a sexy dryad lover that comes to him every half-moon give or take. That will soon bring some church or other down on our heads."

"Does that make what we're doing to him, any the less wrong? You are arguing that the humans are wrong and their evil excuses our evils."

They descended into generalised arguing for a while. Then, to some unknown signal, they all seemed to quieten down.

"Why are you here then?" Someone asked. "No seriously, why are you here. If we are all evil for forcing ourselves on that man, leaving aside all the arguments about species, society, crimes and punishment that that question invites. If we take what you say at purely the face value, we are forcing ourselves on that man. Then why are you here? Does that not make you as guilty as the rest of us. Doesn't that mean that you are as bad, as evil, as those men that would force themselves on a woman? So if that's the case, why are you here?"

I looked up to see, again, that Elm-Branch was watching me carefully.

"Because you get tired of trying to change a thing by shouting at it from the outside," I whispered to Elm-Branch. Her eyes glittered.

"There are two reasons," Chestnut-Shell said. "I have been saying these things for years. Every time I get invited to speak and put these ideas across. I say this and you all laugh at me, become offended by me and yell at me. Don't bother to deny it. Our society is sick and it needs to change if we have any hope of surviving into the modern era. But you won't listen. You tell me that I do not understand, that I cannot comprehend, that I do not know what I am talking about.

"You say that I cannot possibly know what I am talking about because I am not a mother, that I have not been a mother. So if that's what it takes to allow my voice to be heard, is to have a baby, then so be it."

"Oh come on." One of the others protested while I grinned my victory to Elm-Branch. She looked as though she was having as much fun as I was though so it wasn't like I had beaten her. The feeling was more like two children playing a prank on their tutors.

"Oh come on." Another voice was positively dripping with scorn. "That's even worse. The man himself said that he did not want to be with anyone that was just doing this so that they could get ahead. The baby for the status is essentially what he said he didn't want to interact with. He even insisted that all of the people that thought like that should leave. But you're still here. Doesn't that make you even worse than the rest of us? Because you are actively going against his wishes in this. He wants a connection, you want to the status to be able to force your ideas on the rest of us."

"I want that perspective." Chestnut-Shell said, bursting into the tirade. Her voice seemed a little shaky and I guessed that the previous line of argument had rattled her and upset her a little bit.

It certainly rattled me.

"The other thing that you always tell me," Chestnut-Shell went on. "Is that I need to have a baby so that I can understand where you are all coming from. You tell me that I cannot understand what is happening and instead of debating with me, instead of explaining and teaching, you just dismiss me with a wave saying 'You are not a mother you cannot understand'. So I want a baby so that I can understand. Will my perspective change? Absolutely but how much? I need to know."

"But you are still about what you want." Argued someone else. Not as harshly as the other speaker and the voice sounded a little older. "You want the perspective, you want the route in. I agree with you by the way. I have seen the fact that we, as a society, use motherhood as an extra badge of status. Motherhood is the key to getting us in the door and a seat to the big girl table. But I would argue that you are doing this man harm. I was astonished when I heard that he was taking on the burden of conception from his friend. He was volunteering to put himself, to sacrifice himself, in place of his friend. We do our best to lessen the blow for those men that are willing but even despite that, it is still a forced thing.

"And I would also agree with you that what we do to these men is not ok. The reason I know that is the lengths that we go to in order to make those willing to lie with us comfortable. If we thought it was alright, then we wouldn't bother. We are apologising in advance, to make it seem like we are doing him a favour.

"But I would argue that this man deserves better than to be treated as your way into motherhood, a commodity towards being a seat at the table and a route towards your own enlightenment. What about him? What about the child that the two of you will produce? Why this man and none of the others that have come before? This is not the first time that you have been fertile when a man has come calling but this is the first time in some time where you have allowed yourself to be added to the list of hopefuls."

"Because this man is a scholar," Chestnut-Shell said. She seemed calmer after that last line of debate and I wondered about the difference between the first women that have been attacking her and this other. There was a dynamic amongst the women here that I was finding fascinating. The most recent… the older woman had given Chestnut-Shell the time to get her breath back and recover her composure. Chestnut-Shell had the wind in her sails again and was back on the attack.

"Because this man is a scholar. We don't need to take his word for it or even the words of Maple-leaf and Willow-Branch. (I would later learn that Willow-Branch was the name of Blonde-and-Bitter) We could all see it in his fighting. A new fighter would stand before him, his eyes would narrow and he was already figuring out how to beat them. He treated every opponent like a puzzle to be assessed and every move like an experiment that needed to be tested against whatever it was that we were doing next.

"Those women that did better against him were those that lived more in the moment. Women that fought on their instincts and their skills.

"He knows what we are doing to him. He could fight, complain and attempt to escape. He is plainly uncomfortable but he is doing it anyway. Why is that? I would like to ask him. He is a scholar, he thinks like a scholar and a scientist. I think we need more minds like his amongst us. We have to have more minds like his amongst us.

"I think it's vital for our survival. It is not lost on me that he is being bred, both to the warrior lines and the attendant lines. Maple-leaf is deliberately introducing that line of thinking into both strands. If I could talk him into it, I would persuade him to come back and breed with some of the crafts folk too and get that intelligence and way of thinking amongst as many people as I could.

"You say I haven't thought about the baby. The baby is the only thing here that I am thinking about. I can't help but imagine the baby that the two of us would produce. I want to meet that young girl. I want to see who she will become. I want to guide her through the pitfalls of her early life and teach her that it's ok to be clever and smart and not necessarily as good with a spear as the person standing next to her. I want to teach her to find her own way to serve and to… I want to meet that girl. I want a daughter like that. The rest of it is a bonus, the status and the way into the inner debates, I need that too, but I want the daughter.

"And for him? Why him? When is the next chance I am going to be able to ask questions of a man like that? When am I next going to be able to see our world through the eyes of someone like him?"

There was some murmuring of agreement after that but Chestnut shell wasn't quite done.

"We all know the type of men that we get through here. We all know it. We get woodsmen, mercenaries and hunters. They get brought to our village and they look and see all the fit, healthy and beautiful women that, let's face it, we all are at least to human eyes. They look at us and get told to make as many of us pregnant as they can and they go mad with it. This man did not. This man looked past it. I've got to talk to him. I've got to know and yes, if I can make his time here more pleasant, even while it terrifies me, then I have to try."

That last line got to me a little, I have to say. There was something in the way that she spoke that caught me in a way that I did not expect.

"I have heard enough," Elm-Branch stated, stepping out from behind the tree that we weren't really hiding behind. "You all know the test of compatibility between a man and one of our teachers and attendants. The oldest game."

I turned around and walked forwards, the group of hooded and robed women saw me approach and weighed me up. I tried to see if I could fix voices to faces but it was an impossible task. They were either robed, or they were hooded and robed. Impossible to pick out much more than that. Some stood confidently, some stood nervously, some stood placidly and calm, some were smiling. I could not pick one of them out above all the others.

I was still nervous. The old ghosts of the oldest game were not to be sneezed at. I still have nightmares about what happened that night in the woodland of Amber's Crossing. I suspect that I always will. I looked over to where Apple-Seed was sitting. The Weapon mistress was there while the Blonde-Giant had left, presumably off about her business. Apple-Seed was cross-legged, her elbows resting on her knees as she examined the women before her with something of a bemused expression. She still had the echoes of bewilderment and shock about her. She caught me watching her and she winked at me.

The wink of a pretty girl can do wonders for a man's ego.

"Before we start, I have something to say." I didn't know I was going to say it until the words were out of my mouth. "First, you should all know that the oldest game has some resonance for me and that it is not at all pleasant. I faced a being called The Darkness and he played against my friend for my soul. There are bad memories surrounding it."

I saw a couple of the women's eyes narrow, a couple of them gasped at the name of The Darkness and I resolved to ask them about it later.

"I occasionally suffer from intrusive memories and that is one of the factors that I suffer from." I expanded and I saw some more women nodding.

"The last thing that I have to say is that I am aware that my circumstance is unusual. Not only do I need a connection with my partners, but I need to have a connection with two women. One of those women is Apple-Seed over there. I cannot have any kind of sense of competition or division between you and her. I need the two of you to be friends. If you cannot do that then please, save us all the time and the heartache."

"Well said." Someone muttered although I could not tell who it was.

No-one moved. I nodded over to Elm-Branch who was looking at me with a slight smile.

"Well?" I said. "Who's first?"

"Chestnut-Shell," Elm-Branch called. "You're first."

There was some confusion and more than one expression of shock and surprise.

I was surprised by how shy she was. Listening to the spirited, almost angry debate from earlier, I was expecting some kind of brazen, forthright, shoulder's back, chin up kind of stance as the lady in question came forward. But that's not what happened.

"Surely you can't be serious." One woman said.

Now there's an old and obvious joke to be made whenever someone says something like that. I didn't say it then although I wanted to.

"I am deadly serious." Elm-Branch snapped. "And lest we forget who is in charge of this entire process, I would remind you to remain civil. Isn't there a law about civility and courtesy amongst attendants and teachers?"

I felt myself smirk. It might be a useful law. No fight or argument among students is ever as bad as the fights that happen in the faculty areas at the university. Often over who gets to eat the last sausage.

"I have decided that the first person to face Lord Frederick here is to be Chestnut-shell. Now there is not a lot of time so I require you all to stop wasting it and to let her step forward."

That was an interesting wrinkle in my head. Were they actively preventing their rival from coming forward and making her presence felt?

"But she's…"

"She's what?" Another demanded. "Radical? Different? Or is the problem that you have with her the fact that she disagrees with just about everything that you think. Including the proper time that a person should go to bed."

"LADIES." Elm-Branch snapped. "That's enough. I would remind all of you that I am not concerned with the arguments that you all make, the morals and thoughts that you believe in or the points that you stand by. My only concern is about matching the right partner to the right man. It was dictated by Maple-Leaf that this man should be allowed to breed with a warrior or a scout. AND that he should breed with either a teacher or an attendant.

"Now so far, he has done really well, followed every task that we have set him and has made an otherwise difficult task easy. It is astonishing to me that we encounter difficulties when we come to the people that should understand the requirements and the way things are done the most."

The hooded and robed women stepped back before Elm-Branches fury. I found it quite funny to watch and as I glanced over at Apple-Seed, she was hiding her face and peering intently at one of her practice spears.

"I have been given my duty," Elm-Branch said. "And furthermore, I like this man. I will find him the best partner for his character and his body and any that stand in my way and his, will not only stand before Maple-Leaf's wrath but they will also stand before mine."

I carefully filed away the question of what punishment Elm-Branch could visit on these women for another time.

"Now," Elm-Branch said in a much more relaxed tone of voice. "Chestnut-Shell. Stand forward please and be ready to play."

A woman, wearing a long hooded white robe stepped forward. And when I say that she "stepped forward" She was gently pushed by a couple of her fellows. She shuffled forward and stood out in front of me, looking from side to side as though searching for somewhere to hide.

My stupid male desire to look after a person in peril leapt forward and I desperately wanted to like this person.

Apple-Seed beat me to it. She appeared next to the robed woman, presumably Chestnut-Shell and said something to her. She didn't speak for long before Chestnut-Shell nodded and Apple-Seed stepped back returning to where she had been sitting and working.

Chestnut-Shell kind of squared her shoulders and stood to face me.

"Let down your hood please?" Elm-Branch said.

Chestnut-Shell did as she was ordered, her hands moving quickly and awkwardly.

I had no idea as to her shape, the robe was shapeless and served to hide her from me, other than to say that she was tall and thin. Her face added to that image. She had a long face and looked utterly miserable and more than a little bit scared. Unlike Apple-Seed who had a rosy, kind of golden tint to her skin. Chestnut-shell's skin was green and her hair, still in the same locks that everyone was wearing, was a kind of dirty blonde.

Was she pretty? I have said it before and I will say it again. Of course, she was pretty. Whatever else could be said about the dryads, they spent their time in active pastimes, they were shielded from the worst of the sun's rays, ate and exercised properly. So they had that bloom of health that makes all women, all people attractive.

She was less muscular than Apple-Seed or any of the other scouts or warriors so her face seemed smaller and more delicate. She gave off the feeling of a person that would break really easily.

Then her eyes caught mine and I found myself being appraised in some way, then fire came into her gaze which was when the expected hair toss finally materialised.

I began to form a theory in my head. I never got to check it with her as it didn't seem appropriate. I think that she had screwed up her courage to come and join the hopefuls and those that were hoping to be chosen to be mated to a man. Everything that she had said in the debate was true, she wanted this, but then faced with the prospect of it actually happening, she was suddenly afraid. I already knew that this was the first time that she had submitted herself to be one of the hopefuls and I wondered how much she had had to screw up her courage to even get that far. That the prospect of taking the next step had not even been considered. It had never occurred to her that she might actually be chosen.

"You both know the rules of the Oldest Game?" Elm-Branch asked.

We both nodded.

"Then Chestnut-Shell, you may begin."

"I am the pool of water, calm and serene." She began.

"I am the fish, that breaks the surface in search of insects to eat," I replied.

"I am the fisher who catches the fish to take home for their family." She said, finding her sense of calm in the rhythms of the game.

"I am the cat that steals the fish from the fisher's table," I responded.

And on it went.

I spent a small amount of time looking into the oldest game after Amber's Crossing. The idea of the game is to state a thing and then for your opponent, or the next person in line has to state a thing that would counter the previous thing stated. Its first recorded use was by a nobleman who was travelling with a group of pilgrims to visit the site of one of the Prophet Lebioda's miracles. But the game was old even then. It is the kind of game that travellers play when they are moving from place to place as a way to spend the time and while away the miles as they pass under the feet of their horses.

I had never played since the village at Amber's Crossing. Too many memories involved with it. I Prefer the telling of stories and the asking of questions. More recently with Kerrass, reminiscing has also been a part of it. So this was the first time that I had played the oldest game in… well… years.

Saying that she was a good opponent is a little foolish. From the sounds of things, she was a person that debated and argued for her living. So of course she was good at it. But as I watched her, the things that I saw in her face were… interesting. At first, she was surprised at my choices of counters. Then her eyes narrowed as she began to really concentrate on the game and try to win, then she became frustrated at the fact that I was dodging all of her gambits to try and trap me into a dead-end of thought.

Then I made her laugh with a silly little response. It was a sudden bark of laughter, not quite a giggle. And then she responded in kind. And her eyes began to sparkle in enjoyment.

And I found myself rising to meet her. I raised my game, then she raised hers and then… something weird happened.

I have only known something like this in terms of a physical contest. When fighting, what I would describe as the "raising of a game" is when one fighter realises that they have badly underestimated their opponent and they take a moment to step back, limber up, maybe slashing at the air a few times to loosen up before coming back to it. I've seen it a lot when arrogant fighters step up to face Kerrass, sure in the knowledge that they are good enough to face a Witcher, only to be disillusioned. I have seen Kerrass do it when facing certain foes at practice.

I have even seen it in opponents that have been facing me. I don't think that I have done it myself as normally, in those situations, I am too busy desperately trying to survive so the thought of fighting down to an opponent's level is ludicrous, and I have never found myself deliberately training against those that I am better than.

But every so often, I have found myself training with someone and we reach a state of… enjoyment is the right word. I see an opening to end a fight, and I don't take it. My opponent smiles. Then I leave an opponent an opening and they don't take it. Then it turns out that I don't want to win. I certainly don't want to lose, but I want the fight to carry on.

That was what was happening. We argued we played, she and I. Occasionally one of us would stump the other for a brief moment. When that happened, I felt myself longing for her to come up with a response, to keep the whole thing going. And when she stumped me, I swear I saw the joy in her eyes when I finally managed to twist my thinking around in order to come up with a solution.

We went on and on, occasionally one of us would pace as we spoke or thought, sometimes we would turn away to gather our thoughts but then we would turn back into the expectant smile of the other.

People were watching. I was dimly aware of it on the outside of my vision. I could hear people applauding and cheering as one or other of us made a point that the onlookers decided should have been a clincher. It was becoming a whole thing. There were children there being lifted onto the shoulders of parents as they watched. Old folk were debating the points that were being made and more than one of the remaining robed women were watching with their eyes shining.

No-one won. We just went on and on and on. I don't know who had the last response, I just know that I was laughing, she was laughing, and that we were laughing together.

"Sometimes," Elm-Branch said, addressing the two of us and raising her voice so that everyone could hear. "The best thing I can do in my job is to just… get out of the way."

The crowd cheered.

I saw the wonderful moment when the reality of what had just happened hit Chestnut-Shell and suddenly the look of fierce enjoyment fled from her face to be replaced by shock and fear. Her mouth opened and her hand raised to cover her mouth. I saw her other hand tug at her robe.

And then she got hit in the chest with a ballistic Apple-Seed who was laughing and cheering with the best of them.

I looked over at Elm-Branch who nodded and I stepped a bit closer to Chestnut-Shell to discover that she was actually a bit taller than me.

She was looking at me, appalled.

"If you don't want this." I half-whispered, half-shouted over the noise of the crowd. "Then please, tell me."

She looked at me and if anything, her expression of fear and shock worsened. She looked at Apple-Seed who nodded at her. Then she looked back at me.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I'm truly sorry." I felt my heart sink. "But I do want this. I do. I am surprised by how much I want this."

"Then I am happy if you are happy," I told her.

She shrieked with an emotion that I didn't recognise before her hand came up to cover her mouth again as her shoulders shook.

"All right that's enough." Elm-Branch was shouting. "Let's leave them alone for now. I promise that you can talk to them when the time is right."

People started to file away.

"Well," Elm-Branch said, approaching the three of us. "That was very well played, both of you. People are going to be talking about that match of the oldest game for years."

"Oh, flame," I swore as my knees buckled under me.

"What's the matter?" Apple-Seed was next to me.

"Is he sick?" Chestnut-Shell seemed furious for reasons that I could not understand.

"Of a sort," Elm-Branch said. "He was once injured by one who used the Oldest Game. We were concerned but he seemed to do well regardless."

I found my strength and stood up, looking up at Chestnut-Shell and saw concern in her eyes. "I'm alright," I said, blinking furiously as I tried to force the face of the Beast from my mind and the sounds of its laughter from my ears.

Another deep breath and it was gone.

"So what happens now?" I wondered with another deep breath.

"Well, you have two weeks to make these two fine ladies pregnant," Elm-Branch said. "So how that works is largely up to the three of you. You will be given privacy where you want it although there will be a feast tonight. Tomorrow, Lord Frederick, Trayka is undergoing transformation and you are invited to witness."

Chestnut-Shell nodded to that. "It might not be pleasant, but it would be good for you to see."

"I would suggest that the three of you spend this afternoon together and take some time to get comfortable with each other," Elm-Branch said. "Pleased for you though, all three of you."

Apple-Seed hugged Elm-Branch. Chestnut-Shell was a bit more subdued even as she smiled.

Elm-Branch headed off through the trees, leaving me alone with the two, very different, very attractive women who were all but utter strangers to me that I had agreed to sleep with, repeatedly until a baby is conceived. When you say it like that, it suddenly seems rather frightening and I could feel my knees begin to weaken again.

Apple-Seed caught me and lowered me to a nearby lump of tree root. Chestnut-Shell didn't seem to be in much better shape while Apple-Seed bustled around the pair of us.

"So," I heard myself repeat, "What happens now?"

Apple-Seed looked at the pair of us for a long moment before deciding that she wasn't going to get much sense out of either of us until things started to settle down.

"I think," She began carefully looking at the two of us. "I think that we take Elm-Branches advice. I think that we find somewhere private in order to talk and for you, Freddie? Is that what you want us to call you?"

"That seems as good a name as any."

Apple-Seed nodded. "So that you can get to know the pair of us and so that we can get used to the idea of what happens next. The question is, where to go. There are already people watching us."

Chestnut-Shell perked up. "There are houses set aside for this kind of thing." Her face and voice fell. "But I imagine that there will already be people there waiting for us expectantly. Wanting to see and to comment." She muttered that last darkly.

"Hey," Apple-Seed muttered to her. "You won remember. You have what you need, you have what you wanted and so far, I think you've done quite well for yourself."

"They will claim that I cheated," Chestnut-Shell said. "They will say that it was Elm-Branches favouritism and that there was never really a choice. I would almost prefer that there had been other people that were competing before me."

"There wasn't time." I heard myself say. "The sun is sinking towards the horizon and I need to leave in about a fortnight. I know little about such things but one of the few things that I do know is that even if the three of us went somewhere private and proceeded to fuck like rabbits for all of those days, there is no guarantee that anything will happen."

I tried to make the tone light and funny. I was rewarded with a slight smile from Chestnut-Shell and a snigger from Apple-Seed.

"There are ways and means that we can help with that." Chestnut-Shell seemed to be coming back to herself after the shock. "Potions that can increase fertility in both you and us, as well as other potions that will help you to stay virile and interested longer than you would otherwise."

I allowed myself a laugh. "Believe me, ladies, looking at the pair of you, the mind would be willing but the body might rebel."

They both laughed at that, as I had intended.

"I just hope that the pair of you are not disappointed," I said, voicing a secret fear.

"Heh," Apple-Seed commented.

Chestnut-Shell grimaced. "I think it fair to say that we both could have done much worse. We might even have done much worse in the past. I agree, this is not a conversation for prying ears." She took a couple of deep breaths and climbed to her feet. She looked over at Apple-Seed who nodded and they both held their hands out to me.

What is a man to do in the face of such an onslaught? I allowed them to pull me to my feet.

"I know somewhere we can go," Apple-Seed said. "It's a bit of a trek though, Do you have something to change into?" She wondered of Chestnut-Shell. "A robe is not very practical for trampling around woodland paths."

"You might be surprised," Chestnut-Shell said. "But no, I do not. We will just have to make do."

"Nothing else to wear?" I wondered.

"Such is the life of an attendant." She replied, even Apple-Seed looked confused. "It is not a bad life all things considered. I have no reason to complain really. The only problem is that my life isn't really my own."

"Ok, that really needs to be explained," Apple-Seed said.

"I must admit to having so many questions," I said.

"Well it seems that I will have a chance to answer them," Chestnut-Shell told us. "Lead on sister."

Apple-Seed positively beamed with joy as Chestnut-Shell called her that.

Apple-Seed led us through some of the paths and out of the village, I followed and Chestnut-Shell brought up the rear. We walked for about an hour, long enough that Chestnut-Shell reminded Apple-Seed about the sinking Sun and that we would need to get back before night properly fell.

We came to a stream that flowed down towards what I knew to be the heart of the forest. It was peaceful there and I could see why Apple-Seed might like it.

"I come here when I am about to set out onto patrols again." She told us both. "It is peaceful here and it gives me the chance to take a bit of a breath and re…. Recentre myself. I… I'm not very good with people as a whole."

"I too, am not very good with people," Chestnut-Shell admitted. "Before we get into all of that, getting to know each other stuff though. I want to apologise to you, Freddie."

"What for?" I saw that Apple-Seed also wanted to know the answer to that question.

Chestnut-Shell stopped and stared off into space. "What is happening to you is wrong. This, with the pair of us, is wrong. It is. What we are going to do to you, and with each other is wrong.

"I'm not talking about the sex. That's fine and I'm looking forward to that bit."

I smiled.

"But forcing you to become a Father, forcing you to mate with us. It's wrong. I am not comfortable with it and I want to be clear that I am sorry. Truly and deeply sorry that you are here and that we are making you do this."

"Then why do it?" Apple-Seed wondered.

"I have a number of reasons, Freddie already knows some of them. I do want a baby, I do want to have the added weight that Motherhood will bring to my voice and I do want the extra perspective that motherhood will bring. I also find that I want you, Lord Frederick. Given time, I wonder if I could even love you but your mind already fascinates me and I want to see more of it.

"But I am sorry. I hope that this awkwardness goes soon but… I'm sorry."

"Then I should apologise as well," Apple-Seed said.

"Don't." I told them both. "Look, I would be lying if I said that I was completely comfortable with everything that has happened and everything that is going to happen. There are things happening here that I do not understand and I have so many questions. I understand that there is something going on here about your culture and about your species and no matter how much the three of us might want to change some of that, there is nothing that can be done there. Neither of you can stop being dryads after all. I don't want to say that we will just have to make the most of things, as that seems as though we are dooming each other from the beginning and I think that all of us deserve better than that.

"I know what is going to happen and I know what I have to do. I have questions about things and I will not deny that I am scared, confused and nervous. More nervous than I have ever been before going to bed with a woman, even when I like that woman. There is a weight of expectation here that I am not used to. Especially now that I know that you, Apple-Seed have never been with a man."

"Oh it gets worse," Apple-Seed said with a slight smile.

"Oh?" A sense of dread settled in the pit of my stomach.

"I have never been with anyone," Chestnut-Shell said calmly. "It's not a matter of taste or anything. It's just… never come up. I have known physical pleasure of course and I am not technically a virgin…."

Apple-Seeds eyes glittered with amusement. "Really. I would like to know more about that."

And that was what it was like when a dryad blushes. It seemed to my eyes to be more of a deepening of the skin tone. As though the skin tone just seemed to get darker.

"There is another topic that I think we need to get out of the way." Chestnut-Shell stated "You love another, don't you… Freddie."

"Yes." I admitted, not seeing the point in lying. "Yes, I do."

"Tell us about her."

"What is there to say? She has rescued me a thousand times and she claims that I have rescued her. I can't answer to that. No matter what happens here, I will always love that woman."

Apple-Seed reached out and touched my arm.

"How will she react to this?" Chestnut-Shell wanted to know.

"I don't know," I said. "She will probably forgive me knowing that I must do this or I will be killed. That's the sort of thing that she would forgive pretty easily. She might be angry with you for spoiling her thunder. Why do you ask? Would you have tried to let me go if I had said that my life would end if she found out…"

"No," Chestnut-Shell said. "No, I would still mate with you. People have fled before and more than one dryad has tried to help those people flee."

"It has never ended well for anyone involved," Apple-Seed said. "This is the penalty for coming into the forest of the Schattenmann."

"And that penalty, that price must be paid," Chestnut-Shell said. "And I would say that it is easier to beg for her forgiveness if you are still alive, rather than be dead. But I do not think you have told us everything about this woman that you love. Do not worry we are not embarrassed."

"I am," I told her. "The pair of you are beautiful, wonderful ladies and I like you both a great deal, just from what little I've seen so far. But I love her and I don't want to talk about her when I am supposed to be dragging my mind over to the idea of… well…"

"Sleeping with us?" Apple-Seed asked.

"Yes. Put simply."

We all sat in silence for a little while.

"I would like to say something," Apple-Seed said. "I am pleased. Happy, no ecstatic even. I appreciate everything that Chestnut-Shell has said about being on the outside because I am not a mother. I get that and it is one of the things that I am looking forward to. But I have seen some of the unwashed, louts that some of the others have brought in. Men who do not hear anything other than that they are expected to fuck as many of us as they can. Men who do not consider what is happening or what the repercussions might be. I have seen women swooning over the undeniably pretty men. But not one of them would have given me the time of day. Not one of them would have trained with me, or gone somewhere private. Not one of them would have taken me seriously.

"I do not think that you will be insulted, Freddie, if I say that you are not the most beautiful man that has come through these trees. But I am happier with my lot than I could have ever expected looking at those men. I am looking forward to when we are comfortable enough with each other to mate… no… to love each other. And I will be proud to bear your daughter."

After that speech, she blushed furiously and turned away.

"I am inclined to agree with my sister," Chestnut-Shell said. "For all the problems that I can see in the future. I have seen all the men that have come through and not for any of them would I have put myself forward. I was waiting for the right man with the right character and yes, the right brain. You are the kind of person that I've wanted to do this with and I look forward to meeting my daughter. I only wish that one way or another, you could meet your daughter too. That little girl is going to be special, both of those little girls.

"And as for you Apple-Seed. You have a sister in me. From now until we can no longer serve. If ever you need anything from me, simply ask and if I can, I will provide it. I did not expect to be chosen at my first attempt of being put forward, but if I was, I was nervous about who the other would be. Your Aunt is terrifying and the prospect of putting myself forward in the face of that…"

"Just think about it from my point of view," Apple-Seed said. She looked up at Chestnut-Shell, clearly moved by what the other woman had said before the little warrior threw her arms around the still robed woman.

"So," I said. "We agree to make the best of things?"

"No," Chestnut-Shell pulled away from Apple-Seed. "That suggests that this is going to be an awful task. Let us instead, take what we have been given and make something beautiful out of it."

"That sounds… appealing," I told her.

Then Apple-Seed hugged me too.

"So?" I said, after a moment of trying to swallow the lump in my throat. "Shall we go back? I'm getting hungry. You might have only fought me once Apple-Seed but I've been fighting all day."

"That's true," She pulled back from me and looked up at Chestnut-Shell before turning back to me. "It has been a bit of a day for you hasn't it, meeting two such formidable women as the two of us."

Chestnut-Shell frowned at that but Apple-Seed was upright now.

"And besides," Apple-Seed went on. "Can I admit to the fact that I kind of want to take you back to the settlement? I want to show you off a bit and crow over all the people that said that my weapons styles were pointless and that no serious warrior would be interested in using them."

"That is hardly fitting." Chestnut-Shell frowned.

"Oh come on." Apple-Seed's smile was sly. "Are you honestly telling me that you don't want to rub it into the faces of your rivals that you managed to snag the warrior scholar of the humans? The wielder of word, spear and blade."

"Is that what you call me?" I wondered.

"You might be surprised." Apple-Seed grinned at me. Now that she was getting over her shock and shyness, I was beginning to find that I liked the sly sense of humour in the little warrior.

"As a people," Chestnut-Shell began, still frowning. "We tend to have relatively little use for names. Instead, we have descriptions of people. It's one of the signs of our descent towards barbarism." She said it in an almost off-hand way, as though it was just one of those things that she had learned to live with over time.

"Wait, hang on." I tried and failed.

"And it might be that I want to enjoy this a little bit." Chestnut-Shell went on to Apple-Seed, "I will admit that there is certainly something of a desire in me to enjoy the fact that I was chosen over other people, but that desire is not a good one. There is a certain quality to being a magnanimous victor."

"Yes," Her counterpart said, linking her arms through mine and Chestnut-Shell's, "But the moral high-ground is awfully lonely if no one joins you on it. And there is no fun at all in being magnanimous if no-one can see you being magnanimous."

Chestnut-Shell was troubled by that.

"And besides," Apple-Seed said, a little more gently. "We have earned the opportunity to be a bit smug. We have every right. This will not be a trial or an ordeal. This is going to be… I don't know what it is going to be."

"Fun?" Chestnut-Shell suggested as she and I allowed ourselves to be led back towards the dryad settlement. "I am not sure that I approve of doing this and calling it fun."

"No." Apple-Seed agreed before visibly brightening. "But I know what it's not going to be. It's not going to be an ordeal. It's not going to be a trial. I have heard of women that have joined with men that they were all… full of lust when they see the man only to wake up next to him after the deed is done and the child is conceived, to find that they are suddenly repulsed by the man that snores in their bed, gently drooling onto the pillow."

I felt an absurd desire to defend my gender.

"It is my experience that drooling into the pillow is not something that is confined to the male gender," I told them.

"True." Apple-Seed admitted. "But the point remains. And you cannot deny that you have heard women complain about their partners after the deed is done."

"I cannot," Chestnut-Shell admitted thoughtfully before giggling. Something that suddenly made me question just how young she was. "They do sometimes get rather annoyed by it all don't they. But such is the peril of a biological imperative after all."

"My point being." Apple-Seed went on, again overriding my desire to ask questions. The term 'biological imperative' needed to be explored. "My point being that although the gentleman to my left might be obviously male, he has taken care to clean himself up a bit, despite the sweat of his exertions, he is not bad to look at…"

"Only not bad." I protested.

"Hush," Apple-Seed told me. "I am paying you a compliment." Before she turned back to Chestnut-Shell. "He has, at least, not just torn our clothes off and got down to business as we also know that more than one of our sisters have been forced to suffer through."

I shuddered at the thought.

"See," Apple-Seed said. "I'm not saying that this will be easy, for any of us. But nor do I think it will be hard. Nor do I think that I will regret my choice of wandering over to talk to the man. Do you see what I mean?"

"I do." Chestnut-Shell admitted.

"I have been told," Apple-Seed went on. "Over and over again that I was too short to be a warrior, too small to be a proper scout. I was told that I would never attract a man in order to mate with them. That I would be forced to settle for whatever I was given, whatever man came through the Forest and that I would be glad of it. But instead, I find a man that I am pleased with and a sister that I am not opposed to. That is a cause worth celebrating I think. I want to celebrate it. I want to thank the Schattenmann for this opportunity and yes, I want to rub it into the noses of those women that declared that I would never amount to anything. Is that so wrong?"

Chestnut-Shell considered this. I was fascinated now and was just listening and watching.

"No." Chestnut-Shell decided. "No, it is not. I too am pleased that I decided to put myself forward. And I do not think that I will regret it in the morning."

We walked in silence for a while.

"Just for the record though ladies." I began carefully. "It has been a long, emotionally tough day. I do not think I will be of any use to either of you tonight."

The pair of them looked at each other, then looked at me. Chestnut-Shell got the joke first and started to laugh.

We walked a little bit further before Chestnut-Shell finally spoke up. "I would like to know more about the Father of my daughter."

"What would you like to know?"

"Everything." She said. "Nothing. Small things, Large things. What do you think about religion? What do you think about politics? What is your favourite food? Where are you from? Are you an unusual man where you are from or are there more like you? Why travel with a Witcher?"

"That's a lot." I jumped in when she took a breath. "Where would you like me to start. And I swear that if you make a joke about starting at the beginning and working my way through until I get to the end, I'm making a run for it and the other dryads can shoot me for all I care."

"What joke?" Chestnut-Shell wondered. "It sounds like an eminently sensible way of doing things to me."

I sighed. "Such are the perils of a lack of cultural references. It's an old literary joke that whenever someone asks 'Where do I start' then someone else will inevitably say, 'Start at the beginning and work your way through until you get to the end'."

"Ah," Chestnut said gravely. "Yes, I can see the joke. Still. Let us start somewhere simple and somewhere that will not require too much emotional context. Let us start with parents and siblings."

Apple-Seed saw my face at that. "I think you will struggle to ask this man a question that doesn't come with emotional context." She suggested.

"Oh, dear." Chestnut-Shell was appalled. "Have I overstepped?"

"No," I told her. "But there's a lot to cover. My father was the son of a farmer who had managed to…"

And on I went. Telling the pair of them the story about how my father had purchased a small title of nobility from the King of Redania when the Redanian coffers had been running dry and someone had realised that the best way to fill those coffers was to sell off some noble estates and titles after the various invasions of Nilfgaard had emptied the court of Knights and lords.

It was an interesting conversation because the pair of them lacked any kind of context for what I was saying. They thought of the lands to the North of the Forest as being "The North" and had no understanding of how far away anything was. In the end, at one point in our return journey, I had to draw out a small map of the continent, complete with scale so that they could understand the distances involved in what I was telling them.

They were horrified by that. Not least because they demanded to know where the Black Forest lay in regards to these places that I was describing to them. It appalled them to learn how far away I had come from my homeland and then again, how relatively small the Black Forest was.

Don't get me wrong, the Black Forest is huge, vast, easily bigger than some countries before the enterprising Kings of the North started to conquer their neighbours. But when compared to the rest of the continent, it suddenly seemed to them to be remarkably small. Chestnut-Shell particularly seemed to be quite shaken by this. Apple-Seed had the pragmatism of a warrior in that she took it in, was terrified by it for a moment before she dismissed it and moved on. Such knowledge was not that important to her in the grand scheme of things.

But Chestnut-Shell muttered for a while. Something about "It is as I feared," and then she was quiet for a long time, leaving the questions and things for Apple-Seed.

That was the interesting thing about it all. They had no concept of a common frame of reference for the things that I was telling them. So sometimes, I had to explain entire concepts to them, things that I took for granted. Some factors were things that seemed to fascinate one or other of them. For example, I had to spend a, not small, amount of time explaining what the Church of the Eternal Flame was and why it was so important to me and my family. I had to explain the hierarchy of priests and what the duties of a priest were as I told them about Mark and what he did for his living. Apple-Seed could plainly care less about that kind of thing where Chestnut-Shell asked question after question while Apple-Seed teased her for it.

In comparison, Apple-Seed was fascinated by the idea of Sam and his Knighthood, how he served in the armed forces of Redania and about how Father had used his influence to keep both Sam, and myself, from serving towards the front line.

They both laughed at my insistence that I would have been useless at the front line and were both fascinated about my description of life in the Redanian logistics and signalling corps. The news of the vast scopes of the armies involved in the third continental war was something that again, gave both of them pause for thought.

I had just gotten through introducing the two of them to the rest of my family when we came back into the settlement where we went and got something to eat and something to drink from the tavern.

It turns out that it wasn't a tavern, more of a kind of informal community meeting area. It was my turn to be astonished when I was told that the majority of dryads were out in the woods, protecting the borders from any encroaching trespassers and that this was the main profession of the dryads. The people in the meeting hall were the craftsmen that constructed the weapons and the buildings, the scholars and the "attendants". It still hadn't been made entirely clear to me who the attendants were and what they did.

I was astonished as to how relatively few in number the dryads there were. I was told that some were eating in family units, and some would have food taken to them, but those that were free to socialise would be here.

I was also fascinated to watch the two women in their social surroundings. Apple-Seed returned to her habit of keeping her head down and not saying very much except when she was confident that no one could either see or hear her. At which time she would come out with some kind of acid barb or insult that was aimed at one of the people that was coming towards us. Either to congratulate the two women, real or false in their congratulations or to try and steal me away from them.

Yes, that actually happened. But that's getting ahead of myself a bit.

For her part, Chestnut-Shell was obviously inexperienced in this kind of crowd. So she was lacking in some of the social grace. She wrapped herself in a kind of authority that, I presumed, stemmed from her position as an Attendant but what that meant was that she came off as being quite aloof at best, rude at worst.

I found my courtier instincts starting to kick in again as I watched my two… mates. I'm going to use the dryad term for what was between the three of us.

I found my courtier instincts starting to kick in as I watched people coming to interact with my two mates. Some of them were genuinely congratulatory. In terms of certain things, especially woodcraft, the dryads were unmatched. But in terms of courtier instincts, they were not that advanced at all and it would not be rude of me to describe it as being able to read them like a book. Some of those women were congratulatory, they tried to be nice to Apple-Seed who gave small, monosyllabic answers to every compliment that was given to them and barely even reacted to any of the good-natured jokes that came her way.

The one time that I saw Apple-Seed react properly was when another of the warriors arrived and asked about Apple-Seed's new fighting technique, and suddenly a tide of conversation erupted out of the little dryad to a level that was almost intimidating to me let alone to the person that had wanted to start up a conversation.

There were some other people that were genuinely congratulatory towards Chestnut-Shell as well. But they were much fewer. I got the feeling that Chestnut-Shell was not very well-liked, even among those people that knew her and agreed with her. The people coming to talk to her seemed to be along the lines of people performing an unpleasant duty that it is better to get out of the way before things get too bad.

Again, there was one person that she seemed to react positively to and that was an older dryad. I say older, the dryads almost universally seemed to be young and fit. But this woman seemed to behave in a kind of "mentor" fashion to Chestnut-Shell which brought my mate out of her shell a bit. This, in turn, showed me that a lot of her attitude was a mask, a shield that she had pulled around herself in order to keep herself safe.

At first, I had assumed that Chestnut-Shell was the older of my two mates, but given their behaviours, I wondered if I needed to reverse my observations.

Unfortunately, not all of the well-wishers were entirely benevolent. Some were even insulting and they did so in such a crude way as it was laughable. I was there of course and I heard one woman decry Apple-Seed for being so small and therefore is useless as a scout. There was some talk that she wouldn't survive childbirth due to being so small, giving me the information that childbirth among the dryads was just as unsafe as it was in the rest of the world.

They couched the entire thing in terms of a joke about smaller being worse. I heard it and I had just started to think about how to respond when I saw Apple-Seed shrink from it as though she was being struck.

So I just laughed. The person seemed a little confused at me until I started to point out that Sun-Flower (THe BLonde-Giant's name came to me just when I needed it) had been impressed by the new weapon style and that out of all of the women that I had faced that morning, Apple-Seed was the only one that had even managed to score a point against me, let alone beat me.

They didn't like that, but then again, I wasn't there to make friends. I was there to make babies and, I found, if I could make my mate's lives a little bit better for it, then I didn't have any objection.

The person suggested that the others had thrown the contest in my favour, at which, I invited her outside in order to demonstrate my abilities. Or Apple-Seed's abilities for that matter as I proposed that the two women have it out and see who was better with spear and bow. Apple-Seed grinned hungrily at that.

Our opponent didn't like that prospect and backed down saying something about how such things are simply not done in polite society and that I would soon need to know what a real woman was like.

As they left, I bent down a little and told Apple-Seed that she was woman enough for me. She smiled at that and a little bit of her true character came out as she muttered something about allowing Chestnut-Shell to be part of things as well. But I was pleased to see that she stood a little bit straighter after that.

In the meantime, Chestnut-Shell was being accused of hypocrisy. Given that it was well known about her disdain for the practice of forcing captive men to mate with their numbers to provide the ranks of new dryads, a lot of people wanted to know why she was sinking to their level. They commented things about sinking down to their level and other such extremely witty comments. Chestnut-Shell's chosen method of dealing with these things was to ignore them which did not help her reputation for being aloof and superior.

So I invited her to dance. It wasn't much that I could do at that stage, but at the very least, I reasoned that I could put in a couple of words for her and teach her a little bit about how to play the game. Because that was, at least, one of the things that she was doing when it came to agreeing to mate with me and to bear a daughter. So I thought that I would teach her how to do that a little bit.

And it started by getting her up to dance. I found, in doing so, that underneath that robe, she was thin, a little too thin for my taste and despite being tall, she was also quite delicate. So we danced and I managed to make her laugh. Then I danced with Apple-Seed who had been speaking with Blonde-Giant and she was much more lively.

"Well," I told myself. "At least we will have something to talk about."

After dancing with my two mates, Blonde-Giant insisted on a dance to one of the livelier dances and she grinned the entire way through it. She thanked me for the dance and congratulated me on my choice of Apple-Seed and Chestnut-Shell before she wandered off in search of another drink.

Then I danced with Trayka was there and smiling. She seemed to be walking around with someone who was introduced to me as the mother of her brother's children. They seemed to be getting on well and I was pleased that she would have friends, presuming the transformation thing worked out.

It was the next dance partner that got us into trouble.

Remember I wrote about a redhead that had clothed herself in a dress that was several sizes too small for her so that she seemed to almost spill out of the top of it?

Yeah.

She was in front of me and asked me whether so gentle a man would dance with so broken-hearted a loser. What's a boy to do in the face of that kind of thing. Of course, I danced with her. She took every opportunity to push her breasts into my chest, bump into me accidentally and guide my hands so that I brushed against her inappropriately. She would squeal in mock outrage before her eyes glinted with mischief. When the dance was over she pulled me close and whispered a place where she would be waiting for me whenever I wanted a real woman.

Then she grabbed my crotch.

I was appalled by the behaviour and I could see that Apple-Seed, at least, was furious. The problem was that a man's anatomy sometimes works in ways different than he would wish it to.

But then I was interrupted by someone else that had been rejected for similar reasons and another. I could see Apple-Seed becoming upset and Chestnut-Shell becoming angry so I wondered if there would be anything untoward if the three of us left the party a little earlier.

Turns out that it wasn't a party and that people would actively be encouraging us to leave early. THus to start, on the whole, me making them pregnant thing.

Chestnut-Shell led us out, Apple-seed following. Fortunately, I didn't need to make any excuses. Both of them were too busy being angry and upset with the women in question rather than with me. So I gave Apple-Seed a shoulder hug and Chestnut-Shell a reassuring smile in order to try and reassure them. It seemed to work, mostly.

Chestnut-Shell led us, Apple-Seed seemed reluctant to let go of me as we walked and that was fine by me so… In the end, we came to a small, group of houses out in the woods, separate from the main settlement. It looked like… I have no real frame of reference to describe what it looked like. There were three of them. We followed a single trail to get to them and then the trail split into three at the same spot. Looking down the paths in the twilight of the forest, I could see down the paths to the left and the right, there were small structures that were unlit, doors shut. But in the third, there was a light shining from the windows.

It was built onto a platform that surrounded the trunk of a great tree that stretched up towards the canopy of the forest. We climbed a series of steps that snaked around the trees trunk until we came to a door that Chestnut-Shell confidently opened and we stepped inside.

It was actually quite nice. It reminded me of a cottage out in the woods, except that this one was round. How they had done it and managed to convince the tree to keep growing and living, I do not know. But they had hollowed out the middle of the trunk so that you could walk through it and out into other areas. The platform also extended around the outside of the tree, some of it outside, providing a balcony of sorts.

One area was clearly a kitchen although I could see no fireplace. Another area was what I would call a dining area with a small table and some chairs. Another area was a living area with comfortable looking chairs and there was a small flight of stairs that led down to where we were supposed to relieve ourselves when the need arose. There was also a pair of baths although it was also obvious that one of those baths had been taken from elsewhere and placed where we might need it. It was off centre in the house and seemed awkward there.

The bed was in the middle of the tree. Right in the centre of the dwelling area. Because of course, it was.

"Is there any significance to that?" I wondered, pointing.

"If there is, I don't know what it is," Chestnut-Shell said. "But you won't be able to move it." She sighed and rubbed her head. "Things that seem practical from the outside suddenly seem a lot more difficult when you are on the inside.

"Only one bed."

"But so large." Apple-Seed's humour had started to emerge again, the fewer people that there were around. Chestnut-Shell gave her a withering look before realising that she was being teased.

"I will sleep on the floor," Apple-Seed said. "Or maybe one of those chairs, they seem quite comfortable all things considering and I am used to sleeping on the forest floor. At least it's clean."

"No," Chestnut-Shell said. "I will… Oh, hang it all. I had not expected this to be quite so awkward."

"All three of us will sleep on the bed." I declared, surprising myself a little. "We are supposed to be doing far more than sharing a bed before the two weeks is up. I am too tired to do anything about that side of things but we need to start being more comfortable with each other."

There was a pause as we all, including me, registered the words that had come out of my mouth.

"So, the only question to ask really," Apple-Seed's sly smile returned. "Is to decide who gets to be the meat in the sandwich."

"Practicality suggests that Freddie should." Chestnut-Shell caught the humour. "He is after all…"

"That would be awkward," I said. I had moved further in to explore a bit. "I am a light sleeper and a restless one at best. I was going to suggest that for tonight at least, I should sleep in a chair while the two of you share the bed. It certainly seems big enough."

"You were the one who?..." Chestnut-Shell protested.

"I know," I said. "But we all need to get a full night's sleep and I am not good at that. Even at the best of times."

"Why not?" Apple-Seed asked, she had also gone exploring and was heating some water over one of their alchemical heat source things.

"I have nightmares," I told them as matter of factly as I could.

I felt the temperature in the room drop a couple of degrees. As both women turned to look at me.

"What kind of nightmares?" Chestnut-Shell asked with the kind of calm that only comes from people that are trying really hard not to freak someone out.

Apple-Seed also came out, she was frowning. "I was warned that you have memories that sometimes intrude on your…"

"Who told you that?" I snapped. "Sorry, sorry. It's just not something that I like to…"

Chestnut-Shell pursed her lips and firmly took me by the hand, leading me to a chair while she sat on one side of me. Apple-Seed gave the other woman a look before vanishing into the cooking area and coming back with a steaming cup.

"Right." Chestnut-Shell. "So you have nightmares. What about?"

So I told them. I couldn't think of anything else to do. I told them about Amber's crossing. I told them about the Nekker biting the young child in half and blood exploding from the child's mouth. I told them about the carriage of tortured children that we found shortly after my Father had been murdered and I told them about being tortured by a group of so-called Holy men.

Apple-Seed had perched nearby when she had brought me the herbal drink that was some kind of tea that I didn't recognise. But when I got to the 'being tortured' bit, she got up and came to join Chestnut-Shell sitting next to me.

I told them about Jack and they insisted that I use a different name. They called him "Lurker in the dark" which seemed oddly fitting. Chestnut-Shell was oddly fascinated by the parallel worlds that he showed me but she made me move on quickly after extracting a promise that I would tell her all about them later. I told them about facing down a dragon and the horror of the cult in the North. I told them about the Goddess which Chestnut-Shell knew about and my resulting madness. It was much later when I finished.

"Well, that settles it then." Chestnut-Shell decided. "You are definitely sleeping in the middle of us. So that when you wake, we can be there to comfort you. Especially after the day that you've had."

Apple-Seed nodded her fervent agreement.

It seemed that I didn't get a say in the matter.

The rest of that evening was a little awkward but endearing in that awkwardness. Apple-Seed and I both bathed although she was a little mystified as to why I was shy about my nakedness and hers. She argued that we would soon be doing much more than looking at each other naked which was a valid argument, especially given that I had made the same point earlier, but I wanted some time to absorb everything before we got to that point and said so.

Looking back now, the hypocrisy is not lost on me.

Chestnut-Shell was much more demure and went elsewhere to change out of her robe into some kind of nightdress. I wore a spare shirt to go to bed. True to their word, the ladies pushed me into the middle. Apple-Seed being the smaller, rested her head on my shoulder while Chestnut-Shell satisfied herself with a bit more distance and held my hand.

All things considered, I slept rather well.

I did have a nightmare though, as I had warned them about. I could have predicted it really. I was back in the forest at Amber's Crossing. Kerrass had lost the game for my soul, had shrugged and was walking away from the beast and me without so much as a backward glance. The Beast had smiled at me wickedly and evilly before stepping forward and beginning to torture me where he turned into Bishop Sansum and started to really go to town on my poor body.

Then I was woken, rather roughly by two women shaking me. I blinked for a few moments and fought down the panic while I struggled to remember where I was and what these two women were doing with me in my bed.

Then I remembered and as I did so, I went through the full routine. I had a brief burst of violent sobbing with tears running down my face. When I was done with that, the sweat ran freely while I shook violently before that too stopped abruptly and I was left feeling drained and exhausted.

To be fair to them, the two women reacted very well. Apple-Seed seemed to know what was happening from a personal experience point of view where Chestnut-Shell reacted from a more professional standpoint. As though she had been instructed as to what the correct thing to do in these circumstances was.

Apple-Seed just held on to me, not getting too close to me and making me feel as though she was crowding me. But giving me a little bit of distance. She held my hand and squeezed it hard every so often to keep me in the here and now. Chestnut-Shell was a bit of a bustler. Meaning that she found herself lots of small chores to do. She sorted me out with a basin of cool water to wipe the sweat from my body, made us all a calming cup of tea with plenty of honey in mine. Then she changed the blankets that were on the bed.

They also made me tell them about the nightmare and what had happened before both of them, rather emphatically informed me that I was there and with them and that even if love was a little distant yet, both of them cared for me and would look after me, that nothing was going to come for me while I was in their care. I was led back to bed and the two of them held me close until sleep finally took me.

I won't lie and try to pretend that it was anything less than really rather pleasant.

I did dream again after that. I found myself in the clearing again. Near a campfire with the same field of stars rotating above me. I could see the campfire again and smell horses. I was already underneath my blankets though and was warm and tired. There was someone else there but I was not afraid. In my half-conscious, dreaming state, I assumed that it would be Kerrass, moving around the camp, doing the things that Witchers do when they are dream manifestations of the normal person.

I woke for the first time to see the light coming in from the balcony area. Chestnut-Shell was getting up and moving around. She was doing so quietly and when she heard me stirring she leant over and whispered in my ear.

"Shhh. Rest there is no need for alarm. Go back to sleep, you have earned it." And she moved off. She seemed calm and I was dimly aware that at some point in the night, I had become the big spoon to Apple-Seed's little spoon. I was helpless and fell back to sleep almost straight away.

I woke again a little bit later when Apple-Seed herself rose. This time I tried to fight my way to being properly awake, but again, I was ordered back to sleep and not having any particular reason to disobey, I allowed myself to be pushed back.

When I finally awoke properly, it was much later in the day. Apple-Seed was gently shaking me awake with a smile.

"It is time." She said. "We have allowed you to sleep as long as we can while still giving you a gentle start to the day. There is a breakfast of boar, bread and cheese and then we need a quick talk before we head off."

I blinked a little bit in the face of the alarmingly perky woman.

"Trayka's changing?" She checked with a smile. "She invited you which makes it an honour, we assumed that you would want to go. It is worth seeing apart from anything else."

"Yes," I commented. "I do want to see that." I tried to struggle my way free of the blankets but she put a hand on my shoulder. "Hush," She said. "Take your time, there is no rush but in order for there not to be a rush, you need to start moving."

I didn't comment on the paradox of that and allowed myself to blink my way towards wakefulness.

Breakfast was delicious and Apple-Seed sat with me as I ate, she watched with amusement as I ate like a starving man.

"You said there was going to be a talk?"

"There is, do not worry though, nothing quite as formal or as worrying as you might think and it can wait until you have finished feeding yourself." She smiled as she said it and put another slice of roast boar on my plate.

Chestnut-Shell came in to see us then. All of the rooms were open to the air and it was then that I realised that it had been raining. She was squeezing the water from her locks while the water made her robe cling to her in ways that I will admit to finding fascinating.

I quickly turned my head away and Apple-Seed noticed, taking my chin in one hand and raising it.

"It's ok." She told me. "Look, it is one of the things that we need to talk about. As you yourself said last night, we need to get rid of the awkwardness between us as we do not have time for it. And she is a beautiful woman."

I looked up to see that Chestnut-Shell was smiling at me a little shyly. When she was satisfied that I had stopped lowering my gaze she nodded.

"That is all well and good, sister-mine but damp cloth is uncomfortable. I must go and change, you," She pointed at me with a fake-stern smile. "Finish eating your breakfast. There will be plenty of time for you to examine me later. And her for that matter."

Apple-Seed blushed. Most enjoyably.

I finished the heroic amount of food that was placed in front of me and drank the, truly, ludicrous amount of water that I was offered to Apple-Seed's insistence.

"Drinking water is very important" Was all she told me.

"What for?" I wondered. Then she smiled a little sinisterly before taking the eating pots away and coming back.

Chestnut-Shell came back in wearing a fresh robe and was rowelling her hair dry.

It's to help you stay… virile. There are several factors that help with that kind of thing and proper amounts of water intake are strongly involved in all of that."

"Huh," I said. "The things you learn."

Apple-Seed reemerged and the two women exchanged glances, nodded to each other and moved towards me as a pair. It was honestly, rather intimidating and more than a little arousing. I tore my eyes away from them and looked at the water jug.

"Have you been dosing me?" I wondered.

"No," Chestnut-Shell said as she took my left hand.

"At least, not yet." Apple-Seed seemed to be in a mischievous mood as she took my right. I was pulled out onto the balcony where I was seated on one of the chairs. It was still raining but they had pulled some of the chairs and benches undercover so that we could sit and talk without getting soaked to our skins.

Then the pair of them looked at each other and giggled.

"Ok seriously," I commented, "what's going on?"

"The two of us have made some decisions," Apple-Seed told me with a barely contained sense of glee.

"That sounds ominous," I told them.

"Not really," Chestnut-Shell told me, "She's just enjoying the drama of the thing."

"Do you want to tell him or are you going to let me do it?" Apple-Seed demanded.

Chestnut-Shell who was also clearly enjoying herself smiled and nodded, pretending to be contrite.

"There are things to be talked about," Apple-Seed said.

"Yes, you've said." I retorted, finding myself a bit annoyed now. "In fact, I would dearly like things to come to a point now."

"Hear hear," Chestnut-Shell muttered.

"Before long, we, you and I," Apple-Seed was picking her way through the words cautiously. I got the sense of a person that had rehearsed a speech and now that she was actually giving that speech, it was all going wrong for her. "You are I are going to be sleeping with each other." She took a deep breath, a look of distracted frustration on her face. "We're going to be having sex."

She rushed that last bit out.

I nodded. "Yes, I thought that that was the general idea."

"And you and she are goingtobehavingsex."

I glanced over at Chestnut-Shell who was clearly enjoying the other woman's excited discomfort. She nodded and winked at me.

"Yes?" I said carefully. "I am confused. I thought we all knew this."

"We were talking while you were sleeping and we're a bit concerned about… well… awkwardness."

"There's that word again. What do you mean in this instance?" I wondered.

"Well… We're going to be getting to know each other."

My brain did that thing where it shut down and my mouth kept talking.

"You mean having sex," I told her.

"Yes. And then Chestnut-Shell is going to come in from wherever she goes and then we're goingtobehavingsex and she will walk in and it will be all awkward. And then you and she will be having sex and then I will come in from training and it will be all awkward."

"I see." And I did, they were trying to set some kind of rules of interaction between themselves and me before things got really unpleasant.

"Well, that sounds unpleasant to us. And you don't want to be in a state where you are worried that we are comparing you with each other or saying that we enjoy different things or mocking you behind your back."

"No," I can see that."

"So we think we have a solution."

"Good," I said. "Excellent." I waited for a little while and when no answer as to what the solution might be presented itself I decided that they needed another prompt. "And what is the solution?"

Chestnut-Shell was outright trying not to laugh now.

"Well… Oh, this was so much easier when I was practising this speech when you were asleep. Well, Chestnut-Shell and I have known each other since we were young. We went our separate ways when we both went off to do different things and since then we're… we're going to be… raising children together and… I mean it might not last but…"

"Oh for the love of the Man of Shadows." Chestnut-Shell half laughed and half growled before grabbing the small warrior dryad and kissed her.

I blinked.

At first, Apple-Seed was clearly astonished as Chestnut-Shell, the far less physical of the two grabbed the side of her head. And then she was kissing back before Chestnut-Shell pulled back with a satisfied look on her face.

Apple-Seed seemed more stunned than anything, blinking owlishly with a little frown on her face along with a slight smile. I could not help but laugh at her. I remember the same feeling the first time Ariadne and I kissed. It had been a much gentler kiss than that one and it was a kiss of mutual agreement rather than anything else. But I remember a moment immediately after the kiss where I spent a bit of time trying to figure out if I had been imagining the event or if it had really happened.

So I laughed at her, which unfortunately meant that I was out of breath when Chestnut-Shell grabbed me and did the same thing to me.

It was a nice kiss all things considered. It was clumsy, a little too aggressive but I correctly guessed that that was more to cover for her own nervousness than anything else. And it was over before it really had a chance to start.

Chestnut-Shell sat back with a satisfied look on her face.

"Now you two kiss." She ordered. "Go on it will…"

I lost whatever else she said as Apple-Seed who had had more time to recover than I had, pounced on me. When we came up for air, Chestnut-Shell was beaming.

I took a deep breath.

"Ok now,..."

I needed more breath than that and swallowed.

"Now I'm not going to say that that was unpleasant," I commented. "And I am grateful for the experience, but what just happened?"

Chestnut-Shell sobered. "I went to Apple-Seed with my concerns this morning. I refuse to be a part of a love triangle. I've been there before when a… partner was choosing between me and another and they chose the other. I was heartbroken for a while. I will not do so again. I will admit that I was young and they were young and that it all got a bit silly, but the sentiment is the same. So it occurred to me that the way round it was to close the triangle.

"I like Apple-Seed. She is certainly easy on the eye, she is quick, intelligent and doesn't have the arrogance of a lot of her warrior ilk where they look down on everyone that cannot properly wield a spear."

Apple-Seed looked as though she was about to protest before she considered, shrugged and nodded.

"Not an unfair comment." She decided after a while.

"It is true that we have known each other for a long time and that we will be raising our children side by side. So I proposed a romantic… arrangement between us."

"She did too." Apple-Seed was recovering from her embarrassment and shock. "She literally called it a romantic arrangement, thus making it the least romantic thing in the world." She cackled at Chestnut-Shell's expression.

Chestnut-Shell threw a glare at the other woman.

"I have no idea if it will last past your departure. I have no idea if it will last past our children being born. I treasure my friendship with Apple-seed, a friendship that I am rediscovering to my joy. But I will not share her with you unless I also get a piece of that. And I think it's worth trying at the very least."

"This is all happening very fast for me," I commented.

"And for me," Apple-Seed admitted. "The two of you don't know it but I've talked more in the last two days, including today, than I have in the last two months.

"We don't have enough time to waste it," Chestnut-Shell told us. "I agree that love can take time to develop. I agree that we are not there yet, any of us. But I know myself enough to know that I am fond of both of you and I will weep when Freddie leaves us. And I do not want to let that feeling go, or let the feeling of…"

Apple-Seed hugged the other woman.

"I have something to say to the two of you," I told them.

They quietened down a bit as they turned to look at me.

"I love another woman," I told them. "You both know this. I knew what I was getting into when I left my judgement at the hands of your council and I must admit that if I was given the choice, I would not be… mating with anyone other than the woman I love for the rest of my life."

They both nodded at that.

"We understand," Chestnut-Shell said while Apple-Seed put her hand on my arm.

"But, having met the two of you? It will not be as awful as I feared. I am pleased for the pair of you." I told them. "I hope that the two of you do get to love each other and that your love lasts. That will make me feel better when I have to leave, to know that the two of you will…"

Apple-Seed hugged me, a moment later, and a little more awkwardly, Chestnut-Shell joined the hug.

"Schattenmann's blood," Chestnut-Shell muttered. "Elm-Branch is going to be insufferable isn't she."

"She really is." Apple-Seed agreed.

"Do you think she planned this?" I wondered.

"I wouldn't put it past her," Chestnut-Shell said. "She acts as the settlement matchmaker and I have never heard of her getting anything wrong when it comes to romantic match-ups." She took a breath as she pulled away from us. "I feel it is only fair to warn the pair of you though. I'm not a virgin but it's a technical thing. I know how my body works but…"

She blushed.

"But there has never been another person involved." Apple-Seed guessed and Chestnut-Shell nodded.

"For my part," Apple-Seed went on. "I have huddled with more than one other scout in the depths of winter and those things sometimes lead to other things. It's never lasted though. And I've never been with a man before." She turned to me. "Most of the men we get through the settlement tend to be blinded by the women like the redhead with the big tits that went after you yesterday."

"That doesn't surprise me," I commented. "I suppose that it's only fair that I tell you that I have had a number of partners. Most were part of a business transaction as sex work is a thing in our society."

They both nodded.

"I have loved two women, I think. Maybe three. One is going to be my wife and another I am still friendly with. She was very kind to me. The third broke my heart. Beyond that? I have lain with a succubus and a woman that I think might have been a goddess. The first was a wonderful experience, the second one nearly shattered my mind. But she taught me a lot of things. Not least the fact that the woman I love will forgive me this."

"You have not known the body of the woman that you are to be married to?" Chestnut-Shell guessed.

"I have not. There are… societal issues that prevent us. Needless to say that I am looking forward to my wedding night."

The two women laughed.

"Thank you for telling us," Apple-Seed said. "Although I'm going to find it hard to compete with a Succubus."

I remembered Saffron then and my face fell.

"Oh, Freddie." Chestnut-Shell, who seemed to be better at reading things. "I'm sorry."

I shook myself. "Right then. What does one wear to see someone get turned into a dryad?"

Apple-Seed wanted to know what was happening but Chestnut-Shell recognised my desire to move on.

As it turns out though, the thing you wear to go and see someone become a dryad is the same thing that you wear every day. I was wondering if it was some kind of religious thing where you are expected to look your best, the same way that you would dress when a person becomes baptised and otherwise confirmed in the religion that they are joining, or for weddings and things.

But that was not the case.

It seemed as though things were less formal here. Less thought out.

But it did seem religious in… I want to say essence. As though being a dryad was in and of itself, kind of a religious thing. I commented on that to Apple-Seed as we walked to the place that we were going. Chestnut-Shell had had to go off. Given that she was an Attendant which was a title that I had still not quite managed to nail down as to what it was, she would be involved in the ceremony accordingly. So she had walked a little way with the pair of us before separating off.

Apple-Seed told me that she was the wrong person in our little trio for me to be asking these questions.

I laughed as there was little that I could say about that. It was true after all.

"But I need to start somewhere." I tried. I know what you do, you are a scout. It is your job, presumably, to guard the outside borders of the Forest. You track moving parties through the trees and near the trees so that when one of them goes into the forest, then you are there to be aware of them and to report the incursion to your superiors."

"That is pretty much it." She agreed. "On occasion, where possible I might deal with a small incursion myself or find some way to warn off people that are not taking the hint. A lone woodcutter who decides to cut down the wrong tree would be a good example."

"How do you do that?"

"You would be astonished how high a man can jump when he hears a low whistle on the wind. And if that doesn't work, then an arrow between his legs normally does the trick. They run off, I recover the arrow, a new superstition is formed."

I thought of all the times that Kerrass, and therefore I, had investigated people who had seen something or heard something out in the trees but it had turned out to be nothing. I thought of these things and decided what to say next rather carefully.

"Oh," I said. Not my finest moment.

"So what does an attendant do? What is their purpose?"

Apple-Seed blew out a breath. She was uncomfortable about something.

"They are similar to teachers and scholars and their responsibilities are the same." She frowned. "Do you know, I have never really thought about it before? I kind of think of them as Teachers with a few extra bits attached."

She smiled "And before you ask, Teachers are the ones that take young dryads between the ages of six and eleven years of age. They teach us to read, write and give us a basic understanding of our world and what is involved in that. They teach us about the tracks of the animals and warn us about the dangers of humans. They introduce us to the crafts necessary to live like sewing, cooking and how to spot spoiled meat and poisoned water. They give us a basic understanding of our lives so that when we choose our specialisations, we have a bit more of a grounding in what we might be interested in. For me, it was the difference between being a scout, a warrior or a craftsman. I didn't grow tall enough or develop enough bulk to be a warrior and I had, and I quote, too much imagination to be a good craftsman."

"Too much imagination? I thought that would be a good thing?"

"Most of what craftsmen do is turn out basic tools. As scouts, we make our own bows according to our own specifications. But Craftsmen make arrows. Nails, rugs, bowls and pots. Not a lot of room for imagination in that kind of thing. So I became a scout instead. It was the right choice, all things considered."

I let that go.

"So what do attendants do?"

"I remember attendants coming to see us, they teach us about the Schattenmann. They tell us about our history and our culture, where we come from and how we are made. Teachers give us the outlines of that kind of thing at a young age but Attendants turn up when we are ten or so. My mother said that the Attendants are scouting for any potential in our class. It is certainly true that there are often cases where some of us are not seemingly given a choice. We just… disappear and the next time we saw them, they were wearing the robes of an Attendant."

She looked sad for a moment. "That was what happened with my first girlfriend. I still see her occasionally but she only has eyes for the Schattenmann now and swears that she will never allow herself to become pregnant. I got over it eventually but… I had promised to wait for her and then she moved on."

I left it a moment before I started with the teasing.

"You go for the intelligent types then?"

She laughed, her downward tilting towards melancholia was diverted. "And you should be grateful for it."

"And this woman was not Chestnut-Shell?"

She laughed again. "No. Chestnut-Shell is older than me by a couple of years. Truth be told that we all had a bit of a crush on Chestnut-Shell as she always seemed too old, too clever for the likes of us. My friends and I. Looking back, I recognise that she was just… She's cleverer than me by a forest mile. She was already thinking and deciding and having ideas and we were too young for that. We thought she was beyond us and talking to her now, she thought we were beneath her. It seems that we needed to wait for a few years."

She grinned shyly.

"So what do the Attendants do in daily life?"

"They communicate with the Schattenmann for us and attend upon his will. In practicality, that means that they are the keepers of the Schattenmann's rituals and magic. And no, I haven't asked Chestnut-Shell about that yet. I don't want to push her further than she is comfortable with and I am… nervous about that this early in our…"

"I understand," I told her. "Early love is drought with peril."

"I don't love her."

I just looked at her.

"Ok," She admitted. "I don't love her yet. But she's sooooooo hot."

I laughed at her.

"In practice though, I don't have much to do with attendants. I know that most of the council of leadership are attendants. There are a couple of former warriors and a scout on them. You met Flax-Seed who we call "The Protector".

My face must have darkened at that as Apple-Seed promptly changed the topic. All I could remember then was Flax-Seed ordering the death of Henrik and Trayka's screaming.

"But most of the council are attendants and they are the ones that dictate our society and what we do. I agree with Chestnut-Shell that they can be a bit conservative sometimes but they haven't led us wrong yet."

"That you know of," I told her. "Such things can sneak up on you when you aren't paying attention. Then you look back and think, if only we had not been quite so stuck in our ways."

She frowned again and didn't seem too happy with that.

We had been walking down a slope and heading into a deep valley, eventually, we came to a dell where a huge tree was growing. Even though the canopy of the forest was far above our heads as a whole, this tree still grew plenty of leaves and seemed so large and ancient. It was one of those trees that gave off an impression of deep thought and wisdom, despite being a tree. As though it had been standing here since the dawn of time and it had seen much and would see much more still.

There was quite a crowd.

"Freddie." I was astonished as I heard the happy voice calling my name. I looked over to see Trayka bouncing around and waving to me with a happy little smile on her face.

I swear to the flame that I almost didn't recognise her.

Trayka normally tied her hair up, well out of her way to keep it from getting tangled up in her business. She wore shirts, jackets, doublets and trousers. I had seen her wear leggings at best and the most skin I had ever seen her display was when I had accidentally caught her with Piotr while I was gathering wood and I hadn't stayed to see much more than that.

Her other piece of clothing was a scowl.

Now, she was almost a different person. Her hair was down and hung loose a surprising distance down her back. Someone had been brushing it and in the light filtering down from the canopy, her hair shone. She was wearing a loose cream dress, I say cream but it was the colour of commonly spun, undyed wool and it was belted with rope. She was barefoot and smiling.

As I say, I almost didn't recognise her and I told her that as she approached. She was trailed by a little girl of four who had a deep green shade to her skin and another woman who was holding an older girl by the hand.

Trayka laughed at me and astonished me even further by throwing her arms around me.

I had never thought of Trayka as being attractive more than an appreciation of a confident woman, but seeing her then, there was a beauty to her face and her stance that I had not seen before.

"You look…" I began, but words failed me.

She smiled. "I feel…" She mimicked my voice and giggled at my face.

A giggling Trayka, will wonders never cease?

Apple-Seed cleared her throat.

"Forgive me." I slipped into a formal style of speaking automatically as a defensive reflex. "Trayka, this is Apple-Seed, one of the two that I am chosen to mate with."

Trayka seized Apple-Seed's hands in her own.

"And Freddie, this is one of my Brother's mates." She said. "Acorn-Shell." The dryad nodded to me with an interesting glint of humour in her eye.

"Yes," I said. "I know, you introduced us last night remember."

"Well, you clearly had other things on your mind at the time." Trayka teased. I was astonished. I had no idea what to do with this new and happy Trayka, she was almost a different woman entirely.

"Can you excuse us for a minute, I have things to say to Lord Freddie."

Apple-Seed and Acorn-Shell seemed to know each other, Apple-Seed swept the little four-year-old up into her arms to distract the child from the new human Aunt that she was clearly fascinated by and the small party went a little way off, the two women were gossiping.

"How are you holding up?" Trayka asked me gently.

I thought about that for a moment. "It could be a lot worse," I told her. "Apple-Seed is a good woman and her companion Chestnut-Shell is a little bit more… intense, but I think she's a good woman as well. Not how I wanted to become a father though."

Trayka smiled in sympathy. "I heard what you did for Stefan. He doesn't deserve it."

"He's a good man too." I protested, "and he was in over his head."

"You never had to listen to him preach about your immorality." She told me. "You men and your codes of honour. Yours makes you protect him. His damns you for doing so. I know which code of honour is better in my eyes but I don't want to talk about him now. I don't need to worry about him, or his ilk, any longer."

She sighed dreamily.

"You seem happier," I told her.

"I am I think." She told me. "I don't know because I never remember feeling this way before."

"How are you feeling?" I pushed it, "You know that this could kill you right?"

"I know." She grinned. "And it's possibly the most… freeing thing I can imagine. When I go down there into that hollow there are only two possible outcomes. I live and become a dryad or I die. There is nothing else. I have seen the life of a dryad in brief. It seems like a good life to me. I will be a scout. I will be a good one. I was always more at home in the trees, the darkness and the woods hold no fear for me. And when the time comes, I shall mate with some man with gladness. And they were right by the way?"

"In what way?"

"The sex is fantastic."

I laughed with her. "I didn't know you swung that way," I commented.

"I normally don't" She replied. "But I was there and she was there and then…" She shrugged. "Ah Freddie, sorry, I never called you that before, are you ok with me calling you Freddie?"

I shrugged. "It's what my friends call me," I told her. "So you are welcome."

She looked at me with a sudden tear in her eye. "Great Sun, but I should have taken you for a ride when I had the chance."

"I would not have been receptive," I told her before taking a deep breath and deciding for honesty. "Not until now at least and even then, I would have preferred to stay faithful to Ariadne."

"She will forgive you." Trayka decided. "If she is worthy of you, she will know why you did it and she will forgive you."

"I know," I said. "But it's not her feelings that I am worried about."

She took that in silence.

"Are you sure you're ok with this?" I checked again.

"Ah, Freddie." She laughed and did a little dance. "I feel like an arrow sprung from the bow. Have you ever felt as though your entire life has been leading you to one moment? As though all your decisions and all of the decisions of the people around you only existed to drive you towards this one point. That is how I feel. This is the culmination of my life and one way or another, the old Trayka will die down there and the new version of me will be born. I will be called Yew-Branch. I like it."

"I have to ask…." I tried.

"Ask Freddie." She told me with a smile. "You might not get a chance again."

"They killed your Father."

"Yes." Her eyes went vacant and I saw a deep sadness. "He was dying you know. It was why he agreed to come with me. He didn't tell me that until just before we went into the heart of the Forest. The poison that you cured him of will not have helped. But he had pressure on his skull that gave him headaches. He had paid a village witch to examine him and she told him that he had about six months to live. I was angry with him that he hadn't told me and now I am furious with myself that I never told the old fool that I loved him."

She sighed and then brightened. "Who knows. Maybe I will get to see him again soon."

"I'm not sure how I feel about this," I told her.

"Ever the martyr." She laughed at me. "Yes, I know what the word means. If I die, celebrate that I died in the way that I chose and if I live…"

She smirked. "Maybe I will convince your mates to let me join the three of you one night."

I thought of Chestnut-Shell and Apple-Seed. "I am not sure that they will go for it."

She laughed again "Oh there is so much you still have to learn about what it is to be a dryad. Come on, I don't want to be away from folk for too long."

We walked back to where Apple-Seed and Trayka's nieces were waiting for us. The nieces had been deposited with Apple-Seed without qualms and the three of them were getting on famously with everything that was going on. The youngest soon reattached herself to Trayka though and there was much laughter.

More dryads were gathering and the atmosphere was taking on the kind of hushed reverence that I associate with religious services. The kinds of services where people stand at the front and get married, or get passed through the flame at birth. Or get cremated. The conversations that had been loud and vibrant became hushed and although not whispered, it was lacking the animation that had been present previously.

I commented on the feeling to Trayka and Apple-Seed. Apple-Seed held to her line about such comments being better kept to Chestnut-Shell as she, Apple-Seed, felt woefully underqualified to deal with such matters. Apple-Seed was returning to her more, shy self now that she was when she was around other people, her head was bowed and she wouldn't speak unless someone was speaking to her and then, she poke in small sentences.

Trayka had no such compunction.

"One of your mates is an attendant right?" She false-whispered to me.

"That's right."

"Well she's right, they will be better at giving you answers. But the truth of the matter seems to be that… It seems weird and I suppose I will have more answers for you presuming I survive what is about to happen. But they, we I suppose, seem to treat the Schattenmann as a God. But instead of "believing" that he is a God, we know that he is a God. I have no idea what he is… yet. But…" A flash of the old Trayka was in her eyes. "I still have questions for him and am looking forward to finding certain things out."

"So is the Schattenmann revered like a God? Will you be required to treat him that way?"

"I don't think so." She told me. "It doesn't seem that way anyway. But they do revere him. He is important to them I… I can't say fairer than that. They seem more… grateful to him in some way. He is important to them. It's as though, they are his subjects…. Yes, that's it. It's more like the way a person treats their Lord rather than a way a person treats their God."

"The difference between faith and belief I suppose."

She raised an eyebrow in question and Apple-Seed looked up in question.

"We have faith that our Gods exist," I said. "And we have faith that they are Gods rather than natural… things. Nilfgaard worships the Sun. I worship a power that was found in the temple at Novigrad. We have faith that they are Gods and we worship them as such. We find spiritual fulfilment there and in those figures. But here, the dryads know that their God exists. There is no doubt there.

"I am fueled by doubt all the time. Am I holy enough, am I good enough for my God to receive me and to love me? I don't know but I have to have faith that that is not going to trip me up. The dryads do not need to have faith. They can just go up to him and ask him."

"It's not quite like that." Apple-Seed said, "But…" She sighed in frustration. "You really should be talking to Chestnut-Shell about all of this."

Acorn-Shell audibly sniggered. It was a well-meaning joke, good-natured and gentle. It turns out that there is a certain amount of humour about what each dryad gets up to. The differences in character and the various trades and professions that they are called to. It is good-natured, fond and gentle in nature. But Apple-Seed seemed to shrink in on herself because of it.

I put my arm around her and gave her a little shoulder hug. She looked up at me and smiled briefly before looking down at the big tree.

Trayka was remonstrating with Acorn-Shell about things before the four of us quietened down, the children caught our mood and hushed, sitting cross-legged before us. By some kind of unspoken agreement, we had been pushed towards the front of the crowd. Presumably, because Trayka was with us and that meant that we would be part of the VIP section.

A procession had entered the small dell. They had come from somewhere although I hadn't noticed. It wasn't the direction of the village or any particular structure. There were ten of them. All wearing robes that were similar to the robes that Chestnut-Shell habitually wore and I wondered if one of the procession was Chestnut-Shell.

"Third from the back," Apple-Seed whispered in my ear.

"How can you tell?" I wondered. Apple-Seed blushed.

"Wow, you got it bad." Trayka had heard it.

"I would recognise her anywhere," Apple-Seed said simply. "And you for that matter." She told me. I had no way of answering that and turned back to the procession. Trayka cackled quietly in my ear.

Eight of them, including the tall thin figure of Chestnut-Shell, were carrying nothing. The leader carried a small cup, no bigger than the kind of cup that you might drink a strong kind of spirit from. I imagined that you could wrap one hand around it easily. But the woman in the lead held it aloft as though it was some kind of ancient relic of immense significance. She carried it in both hands, just below eye level and as she walked, the other watching dryads seemed to bow to it. Including Apple-Seed and Acorn-Shell.

Trayka and I had time enough to look at each other in confusion before we realised what was happening. She met my eyes and shrugged before she bowed as well and I joined her.

The second of the ten carried a large axe. It was an ugly looking thing. Old, notched and gnarled. The handle was black with age and from the distance that I was standing, it seemed to be covered in old, bloodstains. I will not be ashamed to admit that my imagination ran away with me a bit. The head of the axe seemed to be covered in similar, dark, stains that were all too easy for my fevered and paranoid imagination to fill in.

I was appalled and turned to Trayka, reaching for her to grab her and run. It was a frantic impulse, all thoughts of Kerrass, Stefan and the two dryad women were driven from my thoughts.

Trayka had read those movements in me. As had Apple-Seed though and Apple-Seed was a scout with a scout's reflexes and she caught my arm.

"What do you take us for?" She asked, smiling a little sadly.

"You killed her Father." It was my fear talking but I saw my words striking home and it hurt her.

"Yes, we did." She whispered. "But that is not what the axe is for. Watch."

"It's ok Freddie," Trayka told me. "I want this."

I allowed myself to swayed. I cannot deny that a good amount of that swaying came from the tears that I saw standing in Apple-Seed's eyes.

"Apologise to her," Trayka told me.

I sighed. "I am sorry," I told Apple-Seed. "But I will not apologise for being scared for my friend."

"Do not apologise," Apple-Seed told me. "We deserve your anger about that."

She seemed much smaller now and she had shrunk even further. I looked at Trayka who gave me a kind of shooing gesture towards the younger dryad before miming putting my arm around her. I was not convinced but I did it anyway.

At first, Apple-Seed tensed up and I nearly shrank away, but then she kind of nestled into my arm before wrapping her arm around me.

"I'm sorry too," She whispered.

"Good," Trayka snorted. "Now he's sorry, and you're sorry. But can we all get behind the fact that I am about to meet my ultimate whatnot here?"

A couple of the other dryads sniggered. Apple-Seed pulled away and I registered for a moment, how good it had felt to have her in my arms. It was not an entirely unpleasant feeling.

The other eight robed women moved into a loose circle around the dell. The cupbearer stayed in the middle while the axe-wielder moved towards the tree.

"Is there any significance behind where they stand?" I whispered to Apple-Seed but she didn't hear me. She was so intent on what was happening in the dell below us.

"They are the cardinal compass points," Trayka murmured to me. Pointing out as she named them. "North, South, East, West. And the others in between."

I looked for Chestnut-Shell. I had lost track of her in the stately moving around when I had been looking at the axe and the cup. I found her as South-West.

I wondered if there was some kind of ranking situation as to who would go to which position.

The Cup-Bearer placed the cup on a tree-stump. I hadn't seen it before but it was odd to realise that it was the first tree-stump that I had seen since entering the heart of the Black Forest. Then she lowered the hood from her robe and I was not surprised to see that it was Chestnut-Hair from the council. And yes, I know that that makes the difference between Chestnut-Shell and Chestnut-Hair confusing. But I didn't give the name and I cannot help the position that they took in my head. I will call her Cup-Bearer for the purpose of the ceremony.

She smiled up at us, raised a hand and held it out as a gesture of beckoning and welcoming towards Trayka.

"Come Trayka, it is time. Make your final farewells and come down to join us," She said. The gesture would have done Brother Mark proud as he invited pilgrims in from out of the cold. There was a regality there, a sense of dignity and poise.

The silly, humorous part of my brain rebelled a little bit and wondered if there was some kind of school that everyone went to where they teach monarchs how to wave and religious figures how to gesture.

Trayka hugged the children that she was with and said something to both. Then she hugged Acorn-Shell fiercely and I was surprised to see tears in the dryad's eyes.

Trayka looked at me then and began a hug before she changed her mind and hugged Apple-Seed instead. Apple-Seed was astonished and there was a long moment before the hug was returned. Then I could hear Trayka whispering something to Apple-Seed before the hug ended. There was a question on Trayka's face which Apple-Seed answered with a nod.

Then it was my turn. Trayka offered the hug and I accepted it. It was brief, hard and fierce before she pulled away.

"Goodbye Freddie," She said. "I hope that I will see you shortly, but in case I do not. I want to thank you. I would not be here without you."

"If you die here," I tried for a joke. "Then that statement is going to ring hollow."

She laughed. "But I truly…. Truly Freddie. I would truly not have it any other way. Go well and when you finally marry your sweetheart, love her like no other woman has been loved before. You deserve it and so does she."

"I will," I told her.

"And," The old Trayka was back again. "Don't trust Stefan. He might be a good man, but he's a judgemental twat and he is not your friend."

"I will remember," I said.

"Just remember." She said. "You threw yourself on the fire for him. He would not do the same for you."

I won't lie, there was truth in her words and I felt it. Hard in my gut. That realisation was tough, the truth warring with the fact that I liked Stefan. But that moment was not about him, it was about Trayka going to meet her doom.

She went with a smile though, her head high, shoulders back and step was sure.

"I would ask a boon," She said loudly as she met the cupbearer.

The Cup-Bearer, considered. "Name it?"

"If this is to be my death. I would do so wearing the name that you would give me. I feel that it is more my name than the one that my parents gave me."

The Cup-Bearer smiled and for my money, there was genuine warmth in that smile. "I can allow that, Willow-Branch."

Trayka nodded and knelt where she was indicated to.

And then everything seemed to stop.

Literally, stop. The people down in the clearing were frozen in place, the watching dryads were similarly still. Not literally, not magically frozen. There were small signs of natural movement, skirts and hair moved with the breeze, people blinked, every so often a small child would fidget.

But other than that, no one moved. Even the fidgeting children were quiet.

"So what happens now?" I whispered to Apple-Seed.

"Hush," She told me, forcefully but quietly, her eyes didn't waver from the tableau beneath us, and then I noticed that her mouth was moving. There were words on her lips but I couldn't tell what they were. I looked to the other side of me and I could see the other woman that Trayka… sorry… Willow-Branch had brought with her. Acorn-Shell, the mate, or one of them, of Willow-Branches brother. Her lips moved too. I looked down the line to see if there was any kind of similarity between the movements of the people, was it a solid chant? A prayer?

The wind was blowing through the leaves of the trees above us and to either side. The main tree before us seemed still, unaffected.

Small leaves and bits of twig started to blow around my feet and now that I was not looking at my neighbours. It was clear that the wind was picking up. I was unable to keep a prayer to the flame from my lips.

The volume of whatever it was the dryads were whispering was slowly picking up with the wind. It joined the sound of creaking branches and rustling leaves to form a constant sound. It came in surges too, surges that were nothing to do with the wind itself. It was oddly like the surging of the waves, crashing against the shore.

Then there was an added note to the noise, people were no longer just whispering, they were speaking now and the sounds of those voices came out. It was definitely not a chant and my feeling of this being a sacred ritual started to increase. It left me wondering as to whether or not I was supposed to join in before I told myself that there was no way I could know what was going to happen there, so what was the point. If I was going to join in, someone would have told me what I was supposed to be saying.

I looked out over the crowd. The dryads remained still, the only movement came as their mouths moved, whispering and chanting the words. There was an emphasis to the phrases that they were saying and I was almost certain that they were saying the same thing at varying speeds and varying emphasis.

Slowly, so slowly that I didn't notice that it was happening until I looked away and noticed the difference when I looked back, the women standing at the compass points were raising their arms to the heavens, making a V-shape with their arms. They did it so slowly that you could only tell they were moving if you looked really closely. Like the whispering, they didn't move in concert either. They moved, and then stopped, moved and then stopped. And they were at different stages.

I found myself wanting to be able to see their faces. I wanted to know if they were chanting as well.

The Cup-Bearer and the Axe-woman had not moved. Willow-Branch, nee Trayka was looking around herself with interest. She was nervous, but that wasn't really surprising really.

Then the eight women at the compass points seemed to come to their zenith. All of them with their hands pointed up, palms flat, horizontal to the ground bending their wrists to do so. The chanting increased in volume, not painfully loud but certainly louder than it had been. I felt a little uncomfortable. As though I was seeing something that I shouldn't be aware of.

The sound grew, the wind picked up and I felt my clothes really being blown about. I had to squint against the dust and debris flying around and covered my eyes so that I could see. I really felt as though the wind was buffeting me now, to the point of needing to widen my stance in order to properly brace myself against the wind.

THen the women lowered their arms and the wind just stopped. Just like that, the chanting went as well. The silence was deafening.

And it had grown dark.

Cup-Bearer looked around herself but no one else moved.

There is the old saying, that you shiver uncontrollably when a person walks over the place where you will die. They say that "someone has just walked over my grave". It is a shiver not born in cold, warmth or pleasure but it leaves you feeling uneasy as it comes and goes.

It grew darker still.

The Cup-Bearer seemed to nod as an acknowledgement to some kind of unseen signal and went back to looking down at Willow-Branch.

She lifted her hood up again to cover her hair and face. The part of Willow-Branch that was still Trayka was beginning to look frightened and I can't say that I blamed her. It all felt ominous somehow. As though things were moving through the air that we could not control and not understand.

"He is here," Apple-Seed muttered to me. "Remain still."

The darkness seemed to coalesce in the deepest part of the dell. I have spent some time thinking about how I was going to describe this to you and this is the best that I can come up with. Light casts a shadow, the more light there is, the sharper and more distinct the shadow. But if there are small light sources, small, faint and already massively broken up by falling dust, broken leaves and twigs. Then those shadows can dance, move around and feel large, faint and ominous.

It was this second that was happening in that little dell. But as we watched, those shadows seemed to move independently of the things and people that were casting the shadows. They seemed to join together like small pools of darkness. They came together and formed puddles which in turn ran together and started to flow down into the dell.

I make it sound like I am describing it as water, but I am not. It was still shadow. Definitely shadow.

The larger, deeper shadows seemed to come together and a kind of smoke seemed to rise up from those… rivers of shadow.

A large patch of this… shadow smoke seemed to come to a halt before me and for a moment, it seemed to me that I could see a figure made out of that smoke.

Apple-Seed gasped and grasped my arm but then the shadow was gone, down into the dell to join the rest of the shadow. The women down there now looked as though they were wading around, ankle-deep in the stuff as wisps of shadow came up out of it like steam.

But I could still see their feet. I cannot emphasise enough the fact that this stuff was not water. I have no idea what it was but it was not water.

I got the same feeling that there was a figure standing in front of the kneeling form of Willow-Branch as had stood in front of me. She looked up at him and her face went through the emotions. I saw fear, then I saw anger and then I saw defiance and determination. I could not read any kind of expression or body language from the figure. It was just… so indistinct as to get to the point where I could barely see it.

Then it turned away and collapsed into the generalised pool of shadow at the bottom of the dell before it all seemed to flow towards the large tree in the middle where it seemed to just… flow into the tree itself.

There was a pause and the air seemed to go out of everyone as though someone had punctured us all with a stiletto. There was a sigh throughout everyone there and I waited to see what was going to happen next.

Cup-Bearer nodded to Axe-Wielder who marked over to the tree and spent a bit of time examining the trunk of the thing. It took me a while to realise what was happening before it became clear that she was looking for a relatively un-scarred and clear spot. Then, with a scream that sent my spine crawling, the axe was swung in a huge arc before it slammed into the tree at a diagonal. The axe sunk so deep that she had to really work at it to get the axe back out again.

And I swear, as the flame is my witness and may I be burnt to a crisp where I sit as I write these words. The tree bled. Not the deep amber of normal tree sap, but this was deep, dark crimson.

I must have gasped again as I felt Apple-Seed's reassuring hand on my arm.

Axe-wielder stepped aside and Cup-Bearer rushed in. All signs of decorum fled as she rushed to capture the deep red liquid in the cup. She seemed satisfied with what she managed to get though and she knelt next to the tree, holding the cup to the trickle that was still falling down.

I realised that I was holding my breath and forced myself to breathe.

Slowly, Cup-Bearer rose to her feet and held the cup aloft. The crowd sighed and groaned and I got the feeling that another trial had been passed.

Cup-Bearer walked forwards and held the cup out to Willow-Branch who took a deep breath and took the cup, before drinking everything down in one swallow. She seemed surprised as she looked at the cup, honestly looked disappointed that there wasn't any more and actively licked the inside of the cup clean. I heard a couple of chuckles coming from the watching crowd. It didn't do her any favours though from my point of view. It made her lips red and stained and her teeth the same. She looked, uncomfortably, like a story-book vampire and I shuddered.

Cup-Bearer took the cup from Willow-Branch's hands and passed it to Axe-Bearer who put the cup in a pouch that was hanging from her side.

Willow-Branch asked Cup-Bearer something and Cup-Bearer gestured for patience. Willow-Branch made a face and I couldn't help but smile. Cup-Bearer produced a small strip of leather and gave it to the other woman and Willow-Branch bit down as instructed.

The Eight women from the compass points went towards Trayka and knelt in a circle around her, close, but not close enough that I couldn't see what was going on. I wanted to move forwards. I wanted to help and be there for my friend.

Trayka shifted until she was sitting, hugging her knees to herself in a style that I had seen often at the side of the Camp-Fire.

We all waited for a while.

Willow-Branch frowned and then held her hand in front of her face, making a fist before extending her fingers again. Something seemed to be building in her. Her eyes were wide as she looked at the women around her. Her mouth opened in a silent exclamation, the piece of leather falling. Then she jerked. The surrounding women caught her hands, one went and held her head while another found the piece of leather and forced it back between Willow-Branch's teeth.

The tremors were coming thick and fast now, a lot like waves ebbing flowing. Huge, body spasms that seemed to tear through the woman.

Again, I wanted to be there for her but I was enough of a man to know that… I wasn't needed, this was beyond me now.

The spasms increased in frequency and became increasingly violent until her body just seemed to go rigid. Then she relaxed, slumping into the arms of the attendants waiting for her. And she screamed.

I have no words to describe that scream. It is not hyperbole to say that I have never heard a scream like it. I have no doubt that people will mock me for this but it is true and that is possibly because my tastes don't really go in that direction.

Some people claim that there is a fine line between pain and pleasure and that that line is… different for everyone. I can't say I agree but some of my friends have insisted that this is the case and who am I to judge. I never quite believed it though until I heard Willow-Branch scream.

And it was Willow-Branch now. There was no doubt in my mind. It was the scream of someone being reborn. There was an agony in that scream that was hard to believe but there was also a searing pleasure to it as well. I hope to never hear a sound like it again and as I say, I have no doubt that some will make jokes that Ariadne will suffer for that.

What can I say, it just…I cannot see a way to get a sound like that out of someone, male or female, without really hurting them and I am not ashamed to say that that doesn't appeal to me.

If that's what you enjoy, then good luck to you. So long as you don't inflict it on an unwilling partner, then… sincerely…. I wish you the very best. It's just… the thought makes me feel uncomfortable. And I was uncomfortable that day.

She subsided then, whimpering and moaning. Still with the occasional shudder and tremor as whatever sensation that she was feeling was carrying on. Axe-wielder picked her up and carried her, bridal style as she went away.

And the crowd cheered.

It was a release of tension as much as anything else.

I cannot pretend that I wasn't affected by that outpouring of emotion. Apple-Seed hugged me. Acorn-Shell was openly sobbing with relief as her children danced with joy. People were hugging, shaking hands and I felt a suspicious wetness gathering in the corners of my eyes.

Moods are contagious and when a crowd roars, you feel it in your bones.

People cheered, shouted, clapped and danced and I was among them, caught up in the frenzy of that hysteria. I laughed, shouted and danced along with all of them, arm in arm with Apple-Seed and Acorn-Shell. It didn't last long but the power that was kept within that raw emotion was powerful to an extent that I almost found it intimidating.

After a while, people started to calm down and drift off, still talking with each other animatedly, talking with their hands as much as their mouths. Acorn-Shell invited Apple-Seed and me to dine with her family but I noticed that the invitation cooled when Apple-Seed asked if Chestnut-Shell could come along as well.

I don't think it was personal. It wasn't dislike that I saw in Acorn-Shell's eyes but it was something else, something that was almost like fear.

As people started to mill around and eventually wander off, Apple-Seed pulled me over to one side until Chestnut-Shell found us. She was dressed in a blue robe this time, different from the one that she had been wearing while performing the ritual and different again from the one that she had worn that morning. She had a relatively placid look on her face but her eyes seemed to glow with fierce pride. Chestnut-Shell was a good looking woman if a little thin for my taste as I say, but that expression on her face and the blazing in her eyes made her beautiful.

Something about the passion that it carried.

Apple-Seed threw herself at the other woman and hugged her fiercely, causing the taller, slighter woman to stagger a bit. I can't say I blame her, Apple-Seed's strength was deceptive. You could tell as the shorter, but stronger woman pulled the other's face down and kissed her before pulling back in shock at what she had dared.

Chestnut-Shell blinked for a few moments before she grinned at the other woman and firmly took her hand.

"You have to admit." Said a voice behind us. "I am really good at my job."

We turned to see Elm-Branch standing behind us. She was beaming.

"Did you know that the pair of them would…?" I gestured between the two women that were now holding hands.

"I didn't know," Elm-Branch said. "But it was certainly a hope. Your situation is not unique and it always makes life easier for everyone if the other mates get on. Nor is it the first time that mates of the men have found a connection with each other that supplants other concerns.

"In this case though, I am pleased. Two lonely women have found each other and although their working duties will take them away from each other regularly…" She said that as a warning to the two younger dryads who were grinning like fools "I think that they will both benefit from having someone to come home to. Someone that they love that isn't just a parent or a child. I am happy for you both."

"Thank you," Chestnut-Shell said. "And Thank you for giving us the chance."

"Oh, that wasn't me," Elm-Branch said. "That was all down to you, both of you, and him." She gestured. "He is an unusual man and I think that, if you take care with it, the pair of you will look upon this time with fondness. Just remember that you are together and with him for a reason. Don't let new emotions, love, joy and whatever else, eclipse that you, both of you, hold this man's life in your hands."

The two women were suitably chastened by that. I could not help but smile at the techniques that Elm-Branch was using in order to keep the two women in line. Not least because Elm-Branch winked knowingly at me as she left and was out of sight of the other two.

"Is match-making all she does?" I wondered.

"It's part of what she does," Chestnut-Shell told me. "She advises people as well. On mood, behaviour, attitude and all kinds of things." She looked down at Apple-Seed who was looking thoughtful. "And she is usually correct. So…"

She came over to me and took me by the hand firmly. "We, all three of us, have work to do to become more comfortable with each other. In order to… well… There is no way to finish that without minimising and belittling what is going to happen."

"Become intimate." I tried.

"That works," Chestnut-Shell said with a slightly shyer smile. "Shall we head back to our little house? I want to pick up a bottle of Elderflower wine though. I feel the need to celebrate."

"What's your favourite meal?" Apple-Seed asked.

"Do you know… I haven't thought," Chestnut-Shell said. "I don't really think about food, it's just… something that you need to do to survive isn't it."

Apple-Seed pulled a face and I couldn't help but laugh at it.

"Food is one of the great pleasures of life." The little warrior declared. "We owe it to ourselves to do it right." She sighed. "I see it's going to be really hard to treat you isn't it, when I want to make a fuss over you or something."

Chestnut-Shell looked suddenly appalled, her mouth hung open. "But why would you…"

Apple-Seed looked confused.

"Why would she want to?" I supplied. "Because she cares about you. So do I for that matter."

Chestnut-Shell suddenly looked as though she was about to weep.

Apple-Seed said nothing. She looked as though she was almost frozen in place.

"These people have really done a number on your confidence haven't they." I told her. "Both of you in fact."

I felt myself come to a decision.

"One of the struggles here is that my sister taught me not to hug people or touch them without an invitation first. That has cost me sometimes but on the whole, I do feel better to know that I have, at least, never made anyone feel uncomfortable by hugging them when they don't want me to. But I would like to hug you, if I may?"

Chestnut-Shell nodded and held her arms wide. I stepped inside her arms and held her for a moment. Not for long though.

"But I have questions," I said, firmly taking Chestnut-Shell by the hand and leading her away. I was dimly aware that Apple-Seed took the woman's other hand. "I can understand that something has happened today and that people are saying that you did something that was worth some pride. What happened in that dell. And if either of you just dismisses it all with a comment along the lines of "We turned Tray… Willow-Branch into a dryad then I might have to get cross."

The two women giggled which is what I had hoped for. Once again renewing my decision to help both of them with their confidence a little.

"In short language. We summon the Schattenmann until he manifests, at least in part in that dell. He judges the person and then he enters the tree. We don't know why that tree and not another but there it is. Then we open up the tree and take out some of the essences of that tree which is mixed in with the essence of the Schattenmann. The resulting mixture is referred to as "The Blood of the Schattenmann". The hopeful new dryad drinks it, preferably before the mixture hardens which it will eventually. Then they either get turned into a dryad or they die. That is putting it all far more simply than it is, and far more brutally than I strictly care for."

I nodded at that. We had been walking as Chestnut-Shell spoke. We had come to the tavern and Apple-Seed told us to wait where we were as she darted inside.

"I still have lots of questions," I warned Chestnut-Shell. She laughed. Now that she was away from the larger crowd, she seemed to be relaxing a bit more again.

"Yes, Elm-Branch warned us both that you would have a lot of questions. I don't mind answering."

I nodded.

"Is T… Willow-Branch going to be alright?"

"Yes." Chestnut-Shell answered properly. "If they survive that first spasm, then they survive. I have observed a number of changes now although that was the first one that I was able to be a part of. Yew-Branch had all the signs of a successful change going in. I was not worried… I mean, there's always a worry and nothing is certain but I was as sure as I could be that your friend would survive the change. She was already an archer, she commented that she was at home in the trees and woodlands. And although this might sound strange as to why it's a factor, she enjoys sex."

"Why is that a factor?" I wondered.

"It's complicated," She told me. "And there is no certain answer. But my theory is always that it is due to how we used to survive. When there was much more woodland on the continent. We would act like water nymphs or Russalka. We would lure unwary males away by appearing to them and… heh… cavorting. That is also why we are generally so beautiful, physically I mean. It is how we evolved so that we could procreate."

I swallowed. "So Willow-Branch then."

"Yes. She had all the signs. Then the Schattenmann didn't reject her outright. I mean he rarely does and he hasn't in my lifetime but I understand that he judges the hopeful in advance and if he finds them wanting, he just destroys them. Apparently, it isn't pleasant."

I thought of the priest hanging from his church door and said nothing.

"She also found the Blood of the Schattenmann tasty. If the hopeful recoils from the taste, then it is all but certain that they will die from the change. She took it hard. It was powerful for her and some of her body nearly broke as the spasms were particularly powerful. Almost powerful enough to kill her but luckily, that didn't happen. My guess is that it will take her a while to recover. She had a cracked rib from the movements and she will be very weak but I don't think it's anything to worry about. Our healers are very good at what they do, and these are the oldest injuries that we have learnt to heal."

Apple-Seed emerged from the tavern with a sack which she was examining the contents of. It was a large sack and she carried it carefully so as not to jostle it. She presented Chestnut-Shell with a bottle in the same way that you might offer someone a precious jewel. Chestnut-Shell grinned.

"That will do nicely," She said.

"That's good, I got two. I thought we could all do with some celebration and some liquid courage. Let's get home, I need to start cooking."

"But it's barely lunchtime." Chestnut-Shell protested.

"And if I'm cooking Vension, I should have started an hour ago Apple-Seed told her, looking at me for help and encouragement.

"Some people just don't get it," I told her.

"What were you two talking about?" Apple-Seed wondered as she carefully replaced the bottle in her sack.

"Our new sister," Chestnut-Shell told her.

"So talk me through it," I told them. "What was that prayer all about?"

"It's metaphysical," Chestnut-Shell said. "First we have to summon the Schattenmann to come to the dell. That is the job of the crowd."

"What is the chant?" I wondered.

"It's different for everyone," Apple-Seed said. "We each implore the Schattenmann in our own way. Personally, I go for "Please come down here and save this woman,' and variations on that theme. My mother used to call 'Come Schattenmann come' but others have big speeches."

"There was a rhythm to it though." I protested.

"There is." Chestnut-Shell agreed. "But that is part of the magic. Then the Schattenmann comes. The eight of uss standing at the compass points."

"Yes, we saw that," I said.

"Well, our job… The Schattenmann is carried on the winds. So we summon the winds from the eight winds and with it comes the Schattenmann. From there, we kind of channel it and him into the tree."

"So you are like a lens, focusing and directing."

"Umm, that sounds right. What's a lens."

"It's a gnomic device that takes a large, unorganised thing and brings it into focus. Most commonly used so that people can see things that are very small in larger and greater detail. Or apparently, they can make distant things appear close. But in this instance. I saw a professor take a lens and use it to focus the greater light of the sun into a point before directing that point onto a pile of leaves which then caught fire."

"I see." Chestnut-Shell seemed troubled about this thought for a long moment until she kind of shrugged and dismissed the thought from her mind.

Again, another thing that I have seen in a mirror.

"When he gets to a certain point though, the Schattenmann kind of takes over and just seems to… coalesce himself."

"How was it?" Apple-seed wondered. "That was the first time that you have been part of that kind of ritual isn't it?"

I wondered if Apple-Seed had been paying attention to the rest of the conversation.

"It was indeed, my first time," Chestnut-Shell said with a small smile. "It was exhilarating. I could… feel him. It was like that feeling taht you get when you are standing in a storm. All, frizzy and tingly but it was in the air around me and I was channelling it in a current like water. It made me feel powerful and afraid. It was a tense feeling, there was danger there too so I can understand why they train people at it for a long time. It was frightening, exhilarating, overwhelming and by the man himself. I am so glad it went alright."

"And all those people that said that you wouldn't be able to do it can fuck off right?" Apple-Seed prompted. "Fuck the haters."

"Yeah, fuck the haters," I agreed.

"Yes," Chestnut-Shell didn't seem as convinced. "It is both gratifying and saddening that this…" She gestured to the three of us. "Really was a route into the inner circle. I wanted to be taken into that side of things for being good at what I do, rather than because I'm willing to lay down with a man. Not that I'm complaining about the man of course."

She tried for a slight smile with me.

I quickly decided to move past that, it didn't sound as though it was going to do anyone any favours if I tried to probe their feelings about me at the moment.

"Sometimes you have to play the game when you work inside a larger organisation," I told her. "Knowing when to argue, knowing when to back down, when to pretend to agree with something that you hate, when to disagree with something that you want. And sometimes, you have to obey the rules so that you can break them."

"That sounds like… it sounds awful."

"It can be," I said. "But it can also lead to great things. And when you have those skills and harness them for the benefit of those people around you, then it can even be fun."

She looked thoughtful.

"I can teach you if you like?" I wondered and I thought I could see a spark in Chestnut-Shell's eyes. "It's mostly tricks and the like. A lot like learning to fight in my mind."

Apple-Seed perked up at that. She had started to drift off into her own thoughts a bit as we spoke. "This is what the Weapons-Mistress talks about as fighting with the mind. Of thinking yourself into being a victor."

"Pretty much," I agreed. "It was certainly why so many of your compatriots did not succeed in beating me."

"Interesting," Apple-Seed mused. "Which is odd, because I often get destroyed on the training field."

"That's because you lack confidence in yourself," Chestnut-Shell said. "You are a better fighter and a better mind than most of them put together."

"I tend to agree," I commented. "But you go in there with the expectation of losing and then you will. Whereas when you fought me, you were using a different style and you had no expectations. You won your first bout, and that gave you confidence. Again, there are tricks to help you with that which I can teach you if you like."

Apple-Seed considered this. "I would like that I think." She said. "But still, we are home and I have some work to do in the Kitchen."

We entered the dwelling and Apple-Seed wandered off to cook. I offered to help and she scowled at me until I fled. I did insist that they would let me cook for them at some point though. I did ask a quick question before rejoining Chestnut-Shell on the balcony.

"So," I began, "returning to the original topic, Apple-Seed tells me that she was born a dryad. Did you go through the change or are you a dryad born like Apple-Seed?"

"I was born a dryad," She told me. "I think that, if you are looking for the answer to the question of what it's like to be a dryad then you can wait until Yew-Branch wakes up. I must admit that I am looking forward to finding out the answer myself."

She seemed to come to a decision. "I would like for you to teach me to become political." She told me. "I do not like the thought and it disquiets me, but it seems that it is a skill that I need moving forward."

I nodded.

"I warn you though," I warned. "I have a lot more questions."

She laughed, a long and musical noise that gladdened my heart before she stepped in close to me.

"I want to make something clear as well," She told me, a little nervously but with a look of determination on her face. "Earlier, you asked my permission to hug me and you did so for my comfort. I was grateful for that. But this is me telling you, here and now, that you do not need to ask me my permission to… reach for me, touch me or hold me in some way. If I am uncomfortable or unwilling, I will tell you. Do you understand?"

How she made that sound faintly erotic, I don't know. Something about the trembling in her voice and her hand as she reached up my chest to tug at my clothes lightly.

"I do," I said. "What about if I want to kiss you?"

Her eyes blazed in triumph.