The eight friends stood in a circle around the Great Tree, preparing to link themselves, only hours later. They were placed very specifically, according to points of strength, and all were facing in towards the Great Tree. AJ stood at the front. On his left side stood Howie, and on his right stood Brian, so that they formed a wide triangle around the base of the tree. Between AJ and Howie stood Sofia and Isleen. Between AJ and Brian stood Richard and Geoff. At the very back stood Marzio, placed there so that his mage sight would be best used.
All around them the Faerie dome was silent. That in itself was an amazing event. Never before had AJ been there and had the entire people quiet. But this was important; a vital part of their very existence. If this failed, then they were doomed. Nothing would save them. AJ tried not to feel the pressure of that.
He took a deep breath, looking up at the tall oak that had always stood here. His heart broke a little to see that some branches were missing leaves. For longer than even his own memory this tree had stood tall and proud in the hill. It’s branches reached high and far, making a home for the Royal Family of the Faeries; the family that the Great Tree would choose. Always it was a lush and green tree, with firm branches.
Now it looked as if it was dying off as a normal tree would in the winter. Yet, more than that, even. Looking at it, knowing what was inside of it, AJ swore he could almost see those black tendrils trying to worm their way through it.
“Let’s make the link in stages.” AJ said softly, looking around at his friends. “Howi, Marzio, Brian, you three together. I will pull in Isleen and Sofia, as well as Geoff and Richard. Then we join from there. If at any point you feel as if you’re not strong enough for the link, please, let it be known and we’ll feed strength over. This can only work if we all work together. I’ve warned you what we’re up against, and what we need to do. You all have the right to walk away.”
“We’re with you, Age.” Howie told him firmly. The others echoed their agreement. Through his bond, AJ felt love, pride, and faith from Brian. It gave him enough courage to close his eyes and open himself to the lights of the others around him. Linking was a simple process when it was with people you trusted and had worked with before. He easily found Isleen’s light, and drew her in to him, not taking over, but joining them. He linked to her first, so that he could control how much of her empathy that the others felt. It took him time to carefully weed through the emotions of others, to shut if off so that it wouldn’t be felt in the link.
Next was Sofia. Her light was bright and blue, much like the faeries around them. As always her presence was soothing and cheerful. Like a mental smile. AJ joined those lights until one was two, and two was three, and three merged into one. The process was faster and easier with Geoff and Richard, who had both been linked with him multiple times. Next, he sent a questioning sensation over the bond to Brian, and got a reassurance back. That meant it was time to link with the others. They had agreed that Howie would lead that link, since he was the most experienced, and it was like breathing for him and AJ to link.
Soon their circle was complete. To AJ’s eyes once he finally opened them they were a glowing circle surrounding the Great Tree. Life and magic flowed between them, but also something else. Love, friendship. It made their ties stronger, as well as the link. He felt the love from his friends, his partner, flowing through him and providing him with a strong center to ground with, and even more magic to control. It was a heady feeling, to have that much at his fingertips. AJ felt as if his entire body was filled to overflowing with magic. He lived and breathed power.
As gently as he had before, AJ extended that first thin thread of spirit in toward the Tree’s center. He felt the others gasp as they saw what he was doing, and felt the vast magic of the Tree. None of them except he and Brian had seen the magic inside the Great Tree before, and the others were humbled and awed by its presence. It glowed brighter than before with the presence of all the faeries in the room. All of them had filled the dome to witness the healing of their most important Tree.
AJ felt the shock that rippled along the link when they all saw the black cancer at the center of the tree. It had grown since AJ had been in there, only hours ago. Without words AJ showed them what he needed to do. He drew on their strength, on their magic, and pooled it in himself. His physical body arched, his head tipping back under the strength of what flowed in his mind, in his veins.
Splitting the weaves, AJ created hundreds of threads of spirit, so much more than he ever would have been able to do on his own. To give them substance, he added thin pieces of earth to them, making them more solid to better be able to latch onto the tentacles of this cancer. As gently as he could he attached his threads to each tentacle, one by one. It was an exacting process. Part of him wanted to hurry, to pull them all and remove this thing. But he took it slow, using the utmost care to wrap them one by one, not pulling yet, but holding them until he had each one wrapped in his weaves.
He could feel the thing pulse under his touch. The darkness cringing in front of the light. It was as if the darkness was hurt by his touch, and that left him with a feeling of satisfaction. But there was no time for those thoughts right now. He had a job to do and it was going to take every ounce of concentration.
Once they were all held, he very delicately gave his threads a tug. The black resisted, trying to cling and grow more and more. But he was insistent. He pulled slowly but inexorably, forcing them to his will. He shut off all other thoughts except for the task at hand. He pulled, making sure to get every last inch of the tentacles up, further and further away from the Tree. With each pull, he felt more and more life seep back into the Tree, making the lights of the faeries around them brighter and brighter.
Soon he had all the tentacles lifted, hovering over top of the center of the blackness, the thickest part of it. This was going to be the hardest part. AJ had thought long about what he needed to do here. He took one more weave of spirit and earth, thicker than the others, and wound it thorugh them, wrapping around each individual tentacle, then around them as a whole, until it was held tightly by that one weave. Then, slowly, oh so slowly, he pulled back the finer threads, watching for any sigh of it being able to escape.
Finally he pulled back the last thin thread so that the tentacles looked to be bound by a thick rope. Now that he had more magic free again, he drew strength from the others, pulling it into himself as gently as he could. Somewhere along the link someone gasped, and he fed a small line of strength to their light, helping them stay in the link. Losing one person right then would be devastating to them.
AJ took his threads and wove them together, creating two thicker ones to work as he would use his hands. Then, gently, he slid them under the edges of the thickest part of the darkness. The thing fought him, trying to cling as tightly as it could, but his touch was stronger and he soon had the blackness lifted from the tree. But they weren’t done yet. No, not by a long shot.
Now he moved quickly, turning his weaves into a network of threads, making a net finer than any made by man. He slid it under the blackness, wrapping it up and over the tentacles until he had it all bound in this net. This was going to be the difficult part. Here he needed all his concentration. Using all the senses of all around him, AJ watched carefully as he released the thick band that held the tentacles. Immediately they tried to fling out, but he snapped the end of the net closed, trapping them inside, and fed more strength in the net to make it thicker and stronger.
His mind seemed to glow inside his head with the strength of what he was doing. Carefully he started to pull the blackness to him. To destroy it, first he needed to bring it out of the Tree’s center, or he would risk damaging that which he had just saved. He pulled it closer and closer to him as it resisted the whole way. But, finally, yes, there it was. The faeries around him pulsed in shock and fear when the boiling blackness came into view, rising out of the tree. AJ lifted it to the only safe place, directly above the tree.
Here was where things grew more dangerous. He had no idea if what he planned would work, but he had to do what he knew. Had to work with what he was familiar with.
So AJ drew the elements together, infusing them in his net, testing each one as it went in. Water was added to his net, but nothing came. Earth had the thing pulsing, so he added more of that, making the threads of earth thicker and the water thinner. Next he added air, to help contain it for what he planned to do. Spirit was already there and he left those threads as they were. But fire was what he needed now.
AJ brought fire in, and was rewarded with a pulse in the darkness. His mind worked quickly, without thought, acting only on his instincts. He infused earth and fire together, creating a secondary net inside the first one, and he morphed the first one into a simple containment net. Then he drew the secondary one inwards, slowly shrinking it. With each inch he drew it in, the darkness pulsed and shrunk with it, until it was the size of a basketball.
He strengthened the small net and prepared to do the final part of things. He made sure his link was running strong, that he and his friends had the strength for the moment, and felt their wordless reassurance and support. Then he took a deep breath, and pulled the smaller net further in with all the strength he possessed.
There as a purely magical shriek in the air that seemed to cut them all straight down to their core as the blackness was forced in on itself. With one final tug, AJ folded that net in on itself, smothering the darkness inside of it. There was a moment where the shriek intensified, and then silence as it disappeared under the weave of his net.
AJ didn’t let go instantly. He slowly and carefully pulled the weaves of that secondary net until they folded in on themselves and disappeared as well. He wanted to make sure that every last trace of this was gone. Only then did he explore his main net, checking for anything left inside. When he found nothing, he unraveled his net carefully, keeping his eye out for any sign that anything had escaped.
The net finally disappeared from his vision and his senses, and nothing remained in the air. Tired as he was, he put one thin tendril of spirit into the Great Tree to make sure that all had been removed. He found nothing inside the tree that shouldn’t be there. Feeling the rightness of it, AJ touched that thread of spirit to the core of the Tree, offering his wordless love and respect. The others in the link gasped again when the Tree sent him a pulse of thanks that echoed through the link.
Now for the last part. AJ carefully drew back to himself, centered back in his own mind, and rooted his spirit in his body. Then he carefully returned strength and magic to each person in the link, letting them out one by one. He felt them drop away, felt the drop in his own strength as he did so. As each person left the link, AJ grew more and more tired. They had used so much to do this.
Finally he was down to Howie and Brian. Howie he let go as easily as letting go of a handshake. Linked only to Brian, AJ took a moment to wrap him in love and thanks and received the same in return. He gently let his lover go, and then pulled his magic and mind back into his body again.
The instant he did, AJ found himself on the ground, face resting against a root of the Great Tree, his body spread in the grass. He didn’t remember lying down, or dropping down, but he doubted he would have the strength to get back up. Weakly he brought a hand up, placing it against the trunk of the tree, and did as he had always been taught here. He thanked the Great Tree for allowing him and his friends to rest here in comfort. To his surprise, the Tree pulsed back, and he felt a small amount of strength go to him, as well as a permission of sorts to always be able to touch the Tree.
The strength the Tree gave him was enough for AJ to pull his body up to recline against the trunk for a minute. He opened his eyes as sound finally returned to his ears and he could hear the joyous cries of the faeries throughout the dome. As always he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of so many happy faeries. They were celebrating, and in doing so, they weren’t shielding as well as normal and their emotions were spilling over to the humans in the room. Though normally he would have been delirious with them, laughing and shouting for joy beside them. Instead he sat there panting still and smiling at them.
AJ caught sight of his hands resting on his legs and thought to himself, not so human anymore. That would explain why he wasn’t feeling their emotions as strongly as normal. The skin on his hands had smoothed slightly, giving them a slightly warmer look. He brought one hand up to run over his ears and felt that, just by a slight inch, the point to his ears had grown more prominent. He knew that if he could look at his face, the ring on his eyes would be glowing again.
A hand touched his arm, and AJ looked over to see that Brian had managed to crawl over to him. AJ lifted an arm, bringing his lover into his side. Looking down into Brian’s warm face, AJ gave a small laugh of joy. Around the blue of Brian’s eyes was now a brightly glowing ring of yellow the color of sunlight. It gave the impression of looking into the afternoon sky when looking in his eyes. The point to Brian’s ears was stronger now as well, almost matching AJ’s.
Through the bond, AJ sent the image of what he saw, letting Brian see himself through AJ’s eyes. There was a moment of shock, followed immediately by joy. Brian snuggled in, the both of them exhausted. Together they watched as the faeries darted down to their friends, using the magic of their priestesses to revive them all, to give them strength. Water was brought for the others to drink, and soon AJ saw that his friends were on their feet. Faerie water was invigorating and revitalizing. Though his friends would need to sleep later, this would hold them for hours.
They were all humans, albeit immortals, so once they were on their feet, the mood of the faeries caught them and swept them up in it. They were soon dancing around the room with the faeries, singing and laughing for the joy of the night.
Leaning against the Great Tree, with the grass gone plus around them, Brian and AJ watched them all while smiling.