Tower of the Watchful Eye

Chapter 37

The Nao history was very spiritual. As Sister Carlia told me the beginning it felt more of a religious retelling than from an historical point of view.

It started at the dawn of time where the Tree God, Alfoa, created a new species of trees with sentient life to serve as guardians after Alfoa left the Physical Plane. He called upon his loyal servants in the Spirit Plane to inhabit the sentient trees and bounded them to the Life Springs. Upon death, they would return to the spring to wait to be reborn and keep the cycle going. When the spirits first entered the Physical Plane, all the memories of the Spiritual Plane were wiped out except for Alfoa's mission to protect the sacred forest of Szwen and the Life Spring. This had become their never ending quest until the day Alfoa returned.

When Sister Carlia started talking about their rebirthing, I really had to pay attention. She explained that Carlia had always been her name since she was a spirit in the Spirit Plane. She could not remember her many past lives but she said that any of the skills that she had learned in a previous life would continue with each life. Her example was Tree Crafting. She said that the day she was brought into this world, she grew her house without being told what to do.

The whole history and knowledge transference was weird to me. It seemed like their history was similar to humans in the sense that everything was told orally until it was first written down. The Nao were probably the same as the humans or Evenawks, evolving their way through history, but the very magical nature of them left me doubting there wasn't some truth in the history as Sister Carlia told it.

Sister Carlia teaching me the history also gave me a chance to get to know her. She was Mistress Velias' apprentice and would take over as the leader of the Nao after her death. She spoke as if she was dreading the day. Despite being wise, knowledgeable and her smooth treatment of an 'anomaly' like me, the Masquade situation weighed heavily on her mind.

"How long do the Nao live for?" I asked.

"100 years," Sister Carlia answered. "After that we return our spirit to the Life Spring so another spirit can live and serve."

"How old are you and the Mistress?" I asked.

"I am 46 cycles old and Mistress Velias is 99 cycles old," she answered. "She has one more cycle to make sure I am prepared but I'm afraid I won't be the Mistress we need."

"You will do fine, in time," Mistress Velias said as she emerged from another room. "I am glad that we are both here to deal with this Masquade problem." She turned to me and handed back my items. "Thank you for lending them to me."

"Thank you for upgrading my staff," I said as I looked over the white staff. The crystal was secured firmly at the top but I couldn't see how.

"Sister Carlia, how fast can your scouts get our friend out to the Daru'ka?" Mistress Velias asked.

"We can have him at the border before the sun hits the highest point," Sister Carlia said.

"Wait, what?" I said shocked. "We're leaving today?"

"The sooner the better," Sister Carlia said.

"The longer we wait the more the forest will get corrupted," the Mistress said. "We don't get an opportunity like you falling into our laps every day. We must take it without delay."

"Lovely," I groaned as I ran my hand through my hair. "Okay, how many Mages have your scouts seen?"

"Fifteen entered the forest in total," Sister Carlia answered. "How many survived being enthralled I can't say."

"Oh, that's not bad. When you said army I thought..." I stopped then shook my head. "Never mind. I'm just silly."

Yes you are, Cathy said.