High Elve of Red Hallow

CHAPTER 16: Ashes to Ashes

Soon Nyxith was lifted beyond the great Hallow. She journeyed past the stars, on swift steeds of space dust, into the direction of a dream.

The eroded revine became known to all those that dwelt in Hilltop; so it was called in their own language, Akel Vala, which means, Ravine of Valaria.

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A chilling breeze blew across the North. The air was dry. A faint taste of ash permeated the area. Cawing crows, ravens, and blackbirds filled the air. The children looked at each other, distraught. Mirranda and her younger sister, Rose had a different, distant memory of their home.

Now everything was dead, even the trees.

The Spiderlings had come home, to where? Ezekiel held onto his wife, Aracnia as they roamed the dry, Hellish landscape. Mirranda, on stage six as a Spiderling, felt her spinal legs, abdomen, and spinnerets at full peak. Hair had developed, spreading all around her frame. She had reached full growth and Mirranda's healing saliva was gone from her body. A potent venom was seeping from her fangs now.

It was time for the family to rebuild. The siblings moved further away from their mother and started the process of reseeding. The children began the arduous work, using their legs to dig up dead soil. They made tools and cut down dead white trees. Rose collected the seeds from some and Mirranda replanted them in the ground.

This was their return home. Their home, now dead.

They would have to start fresh. They'd soon settle the North and the land would thrive again now that it seemed free of the elven Witch.

The siblings looked up as a breeze blew the dead, dry leaves and dirt around. Aracnia went to her children. The eldest, now eighteen, and the youngest on stage two. They would be the future of the North and would work hard to bring it back from the dead. Yet, Mirranda felt the need to explore the world of Fonde SSique. She had made the decision to do so as soon as the harvest and everything else ended.

"My children, it is time to take a break. Come with me." Aracnia signaled for them to follow her.

The two walked with her out of the clearing where they were planting. Aracnia led them into the tower. They entered one of the many cellars.

Acorns, fruits, nuts, roots, mushrooms, wildflowers, and herbs hung about. The foliage lay before them as Valaria had left it. An open canopy let in light from above. All the ingredients for food, sustenance, and healing were here in abundance. It looked as if nothing had died.

Ezekiel entered. "I can practice my alchemy as a spicer. I already have the knowledge yet, there's always room for improvement." 

Ezekiel thought of all the medicines he could make.

From a corner, Mirranda grabbed Jars of rich, moist, alkaline soil.

"This should help the trees." She said.

Aracnia gathered plants.

Ezekiel found different herbs and flowers growing along walls and in little hollows.

As his mouth watered at the scent of thyme, onion, and rosemary, Mirranda frowned.

"You've not been feeling well."

"I have had a fever for days. Since I left Cardamon, my condition has worsened."

"Then you could do what you do best, Father. Be a spicer and make something."

She gave him a smile and hugged Ezekiel. "I have been practicing," he said.

Ezekiel had noticed Aracnia moving from one part of the cellar to another. She was still gathering things together. She looked pale. More so than any Spiderling should be with a sweaty forehead and palms. Her skin had flaked off her long Spiderling legs. The same was happening to him.