Chapter 34: By Bark They Rise

Maleki:

“So, what, we have majik now?” I asked confusedly.

“Presumably, yes,” Khronos interjected. “But neither of your bloods has manifested in majikal form; you just have the scars on your arms as proof. It is early for you, though; Miko has had a month without anything happening yet.”

“Hey, I was too worried about Maleki to focus on that!” Miko blurted out.

“How much do you know about majik, Khronos? Has anyone gained powers before without being born with them?”

“What I know is irrelevant, unfortunately. Majik, like any discipline, has many layers and depths. I could tell you what types of weapons exist, but not the best form to wield them in. I could tell you what metals exist, but I couldn’t tell you what temperature causes them to bend, nor the best environment or conditions for the process. There are things I know that your kingdoms may never know, forms and metals that are as rare as this place, and yet the reverse is true. Scholars have studied your maji for thousands of years now. Their depth of that first layer of understanding is far greater than what any singular being possesses, primordial or not.”

“That’s helpful,” I said with a smile before winking. “Pretty normal for you, though.” I looked at Khronos, inspecting him as if for the first time. What was different between a primordial and a human? His hair was a wispy white, and his features were young and boyish like Miko’s. His appearance was not that of an ancient, formidable being. Even his skin seemed perfect, untouched by even a thorn or the rays of the sun. He was pale but not oddly so. Ananke had the same hair colour and untouched skin, though nothing about their features seemed similar. Miko and I were similar; just by looking at us, you could tell. Those features were even more prevalent now that Miko had grown taller with a more pronounced figure than before. It was surprising, actually. The boy who sat in flower beds with our grandmother had more in common with me than ever before.

“Can we speak later, Khronos? It was great to meet both of you, or at least, the real you,” I said as I leaned my head toward him. “I’d like to walk The Garden with my brother. To truly see it as we had imagined together when we first envisioned this journey in our heads.”

“Of course. Miko knows where to find us. Let us speak later; there is more for us to discuss. Ananke, as well, would like to speak with you both.”

They drifted past the first layer of trees together, leaving Miko and me alone.

“What’s the matter?”

“Let’s walk, brother. I need to know what happened before we figure out what happens next.”

“Ah, yes, that’s fair,” he said as he stood, an arm drooped softly off his shoulder.

We walked deeper into the trees, away from the direction the other two walked. I had many questions, but I figured it would be best to start chronologically.

“What happened after I passed out at the gate? My memory of that last trial is so fuzzy. I was desperate, I know that much, but I remember seeing the gate, and the tree was so close.”

“Brother, I don’t want to bring these things up only for you to blame yourself further or for me to make things worse.”

“I am past that, please, I just want the truth.”

“Well, we fell into The Garden together, and I woke. You didn’t. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even shift or purposefully twitch a muscle.” He looked up to the wide limbs of the tree above and then laughed to himself. “Imagine if your whole body was itchy, but you couldn’t scratch it. I could see, at least, oddly, that was never taken from me. Nomen told me about his brothers and sisters and about how they stole from the tree. They sought power, and it was given to them for a price. I thought it might be a way to heal you, and that desperation you spoke of started to grow. Desperate to heal you, to save you, desperate to save myself.”

Miko paused; there was no tension or pain in his words. He spoke as if these events were from another lifetime.

“How long did it take you to gain movement?” I asked.

“A month.”

“That’s not too-“

“For one finger.”

“A finger!” I exclaimed loudly, my voice splitting at the trees with a thud.

He nodded gently and walked with one hand behind his back. Well, at least he had learned some manners from Khronos. “A month was spent on nearly every section of my body. Some parts were easier than others. Once I regained one part, a similar part was easier to obtain. All in all, I didn’t stand for nine months.”

“How? That's…that’s terrifying!” I stuttered with a glare. How had my brother stayed sane?

“Yes, I won’t lie. It was the agony I had always feared.”

“You talk about it so calmly. How?”

“That pain was worth it, Maleki. You stand before me today, a visual representation of my success. You know just as well as anyone about pain, so I don’t have to explain it to you, do I? When you’re going through it, there’s a point where you think dying might be easier. I thought about it every day when the progress was slow. The small victories kept me going — the worst days, though, felt-“ I paused before continuing.“Impossible. Your goal sits in front of you, so impossibly far, and you doubt every step, until at some point, without noticing, you see the first imprint of progress in the ground before you.”

“Yeah. It felt impossible until I knew I moved that first finger, but I got a taste of progress, and though what I wanted to achieve wasn’t certain, the constant reminder of you lying in front of me made me try again each morning.”

“And you, you climbed this tree?”

“Yes, but that was different. No weight other than my own, and it was scary, but at least I knew if I fell, it would all be over quickly.”

I laughed. “Well, aren’t you lucky? I would call it even between us now, but my fingers still haven’t forgiven me for having done that small climb with you on my back.”

“Even? I’m pretty sure you owe me now!”

“I sure as hell don’t! You woke me up from the best sleep of my life.”

“Yeah, I get that every night, jerk. Now you know how it feels!”

“Fine.” I laughed and extended my closed fist. “Even.”

He bumped my fist, and I swung my arm over him; still a head taller, I scratched his head with my knuckles and dragged him forward with me as we walked.

“Thank you, Miko, for saving me. I was supposed to save you, and somehow, everything got flipped.”

“You did, brother. You saved me every day. Before we got here, and after. I needed a reason to live; I needed values of my own. I found that because of you.”

“Even, then?”

“Even.”

“Not to brag, but I still have one more working limb than you do, so it’s not very even.”

“I don’t need it. I’ve got an equalizer built in since I’m so much better than everyone else.”

“All right, calm down there before I paralyze you with both of my working arms.” I unleashed my arms from around his head and let him walk on his own as we walked down a sizeable route and to a ledge of ground that peered over the rest of the valley of trees. My legs dangled over the twenty feet of distance between the ground and the top of the root. “Was it like that inside the tree for you, too?”

“Yes,” Miko said more solemnly. “But we both saw something different. It was whatever the tree wanted to show us. And I know what I saw, so by proxy of elimination, I have an idea of what you did.”

“I’m not sure what exactly I saw. I’m not even sure how long I was in those places. I was there in one instant and gone the next, but at the same time, it felt like forever. There were voids of almost infinite darkness, bright lights that burned like a vibrant white fire, and then there were objects floating in nothing. I saw our moons, our planet. What about you?”

“That’s…a difficult question to answer. I remember all of it, every long second, but there aren’t enough words. There weren’t even familiar things to reference. I know what I saw; I just don’t know how to explain it.”

“Wait, how do you know?” I questioned eagerly.

“The primordials ate all but two of the elemental fruits that grew on the tree. I spoke with Nomen about what I saw, and after hearing what you saw, it confirms our suspicions. The majiks we received were space and time.”

“I thought Kallen said there were only six elements?”

“Yes, that’s what the books say, but we are the descendants of the primordials who ate the fruit, so we can only be born with the elements they stole.”

“And the space and time fruits? Did we steal them?”

“No. This was an unexpected outcome. I…I just wanted to heal you, so I made a deal with the tree.”

“You made a deal with a tree?”

“I know how it sounds, but I’m serious. The tree had a will of its own, and the fruits were parts of its soul. When they ate the fruit, they took the element inside, but the soul remained—damaged. I freed the tree from its misery, and it healed you.”

“Brother, what was the exact wording of your deal?”

“Oh, Uh-“ He paused, throwing his arms behind him and scanning his eyes left and right. “Well, I didn’t want to climb down, and I was worried the extra time it would take would worsen your chances of being healed. So, I asked for it to take me down and let me have the seeds because I would get to heal you. Why?”

“Do you hear a voice?” I asked directly.

“What?”

“Like, do you hear a voice in your body or your head, but it’s not your voice?”

“Maleki, do you remember when we opened the scroll at Dr. Sekund’s? Does it sound like that?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed, “How did you know?”

“Uh oh. I think we should go talk to Nomen and Ananke.”

“Wait, what does that mean?”

“Follow me!” Miko said as he grabbed the edge of the cliff, which was made of a thick layer of grass that was rooted into the cliff. He hung with one arm, descending himself as far as possible to minimize the space between him and the ground, and then he dropped. His feet angled downward as far as possible, and he slid toward the bottom with a quick descent.

“You that eager to get yourself killed?” I yelled from above as I eyed the distance and began to mimic his movements, removing the first step entirely and bracing my legs and shoulder sideways as I followed him down the sloped decline. Miko hit the ground feet first and pivoted into a run immediately, creating a larger distance between us as I continued to descend. A rock appeared in my path, bulging out of the mountains' smoothed rock, and cresting a jut for me to hit and push off of.

I was still seven feet from the ground as I leaped off from the rock and began soaring through the air towards him. The ground collided with my heels, and I squatted into a deep stance to prevent my knees from shattering. With both of Miko’s legs working, he wasn’t limping or walking; he was running, and he was quick.

“Race me there, Maleki! Like when we were little.”

“I don’t even know where we’re going,” I shouted back.

Miko stopped in place and turned around. “Ya gonna let that stop ya, loser!”

I pushed off the ground, in an attempt to close the distance between us before he could do the same. “You’ve got a head start!”

“I never said it was fair!” His hips pivoted, and he sprinted hard into the line of trees, lazy arm tied behind him.

This feeling was so magnificently free. To be running alongside him had been my greatest desire for almost all my life. This moment was enough to bring me to tears, but I swallowed those feelings, increasing my stride instead.

He weaved around trees and slid across roots that crawled down the hillside. He was familiar with the terrain, and this was much different from simply running across a field. The ground sloped and dropped in uneven patterns. Rocks and roots protruded from the ground, ready to break the confident step of any passerby.

He had only five feet on me now; I had caught up a decent amount. I expected him to grow tired from the effort so that I could overtake him, but Miko didn’t slow or bulge at all. Neither did I, for that matter. My breaths weren’t shallow, and there didn’t appear to be a single bead of sweat escaping me. I felt good, surprisingly. I still felt that long sleep weighing me down, but there was a newfound strength within me as well. Something more than just the increase in energy I was feeling.

I stepped hard against the ground, first with my heels, and let all my weight slide upwards into the bridge of my foot. Every step was taken quickly but with the maximum amount of force I could apply. He was within arm's reach, the wind shot through the trees, pulling our hair back behind our ears, and I almost thought of grabbing him. Pulling that loose arm behind him and dragging him to the ground, just for thinking he could beat me, even with a head start. But I caught myself in that thought, letting it go, because I wanted to enjoy every second of this. I was next to him now, running at the same pace, every step and every swing mirrored unintentionally. I’m alive. Miko’s alive. We’re better than ever. It’s time to let go of the person I was, who worried every waking hour for his health, for his future. He’s proven he can do this on his own — that he can keep up with his older brother.

All of a sudden, we hit a clearing in the trees that held a field of mossy grass and stone, and we leaped simultaneously over a stream of water that appeared quickly at our feet.

“Hah! I win.” Miko shouted with a hand raised firmly in the air.

“You win?” I demanded. “That was a tie at best, and you had a head start.”

“Sore loser.” He spat back.

“I should’ve dragged you down when I had the chance!” I said as I rushed him, tackling him to the ground. I pinned his good arm with my knee and then wrapped his legs tightly with one of my arms so that he couldn’t squirm. My knuckles found his ribcage and dug in as he attempted to scramble out of my control.

Khronos’s footsteps weren’t heard as he appeared in our view; instead, he appeared as if through thin air, peering at us with a smirk. “I see you two are getting along well.”

“Better than ever, actually! Miko is getting along with both legs.”

“Hey, just be happy you don’t have to carry me anymore.”

“Oh, trust me, I am!”

There was laughter and then a pause before Miko spoke. “We need to talk, Nomen. I think I may have messed up.”

“That’s certainly not up for debate. We’ve known that would be the case. We just have to figure out how bad and how to fix it.” Kronos said decisively.

“You don’t understand,” Miko said. “I think the tree and Maleki are occupying the same body.

His face lost its expression, eyes stark and grim, “Let’s go find Ananke.”