Homeward Bound
Daneera grinned.
The early morning sun was at her back, and its light was beginning to filter through the branches and illuminate the path before her. It was a familiar path, one she was happy to be walking again. This was because it was the path between the town of Zǎri and the cabin she now shared with Kerik. More specifically, this was the end of that path.
Daneera had gone into town to sell the hides and pelts she had been accumulating during her time with Kerik. It was not as though they needed the money; they were fairly self-sufficient this far out in the Bladǎri, and had little need for the things the townspeople sold. But there were always a few luxuries that coin could purchase, and the hides were beginning to take up space. So Daneera had decided to make the three-to-four-day trek into town while Kerik remained behind.
It was the longest amount of time the two had spent apart since the incident with the Fae several months earlier. The trip to Zǎri took just over three days at a normal pace, less if she were hurrying, so she had been gone for about a week. Daneera, who throughout her life had experienced frequent bouts of wanderlust, simply could not think of a good reason to leave. She was happy with Kerik, and he seemed genuinely happy with her. The planeswalker had not truly had a home since her spark had first ignited, but this was finally starting to feel like home to her.
When Daneera broke through the tree line and into the clearing, she felt a wave of relief wash over her. It was an unfamiliar feeling. She had had places over the years that were havens of sorts, places where she felt safe and warm and content, but this felt like coming home. She knew Kerik could take care of himself, and she wasn’t worried about him, not truly. But the prospect of being near him again felt good to her.
Her relief dulled her senses just a bit, and so it took a few moments for her to realize that something was off. Her brow furrowed a bit as she tried to place what was different. She did not sense anything particularly dangerous, but she had lived in this clearing for long enough to feel a difference. She looked around at the trees surrounding the cabin, but everything seemed normal. She therefore lowered her eyes and took a visual sweep over the ground, and that is where she spotted the difference.
Just at the tree line in the northeast corner of the clearing, there was a small mound of dirt that was not usually there. Daneera, curious, set her pack down in the short grass and walked over to the dirt pile, examining it closely. It was not particularly large, but it was clearly piled around a small hole tunneled into the ground. It seemed that, while she was gone, some small rodent had decided to move into their territory.
“Kerik!” Daneera called out toward the cabin. “I’m back!”
It took only a few short moments for the door of the cabin to open and for Kerik’s muscular form to step outside. Daneera could not help but smile. She waved him over, and then turned back toward the small problem in front of her. Kerik came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist before kissing her softly on the neck.
“I missed you,” he said.
Daneera leaned back into him and breathed in, inhaling his scent. “I missed you, too.”
Kerik smiled, then looked down at what Daneera had been looking at. “What’s that?”
“Hmm?” Daneera said. “Oh, I saw this as I walked in. It’s just a gopher hole.”
Kerik looked confused. “What’s a gopher?”
Daneera glanced over at him. “What do you mean, what’s a gopher? It’s a…” realization suddenly dawned on her as she realized that in all the time she had been on the plane of Morvata, she had neither seen nor heard of a gopher. In fact, of all the rich and varied fauna in the Bladǎri, rodents, she realized, were in short supply. “Oh, no,” she said in an exhalation that was barely a whisper.
“What’s the matter?” Kerik asked. “Is everything alright?”
Daneera broke away from him and gently pushed him back a few steps. With a heavy sigh, she said, “yeah, I’m fine. But I’m not looking forward to this.”
Before Kerik could ask her for clarification, Daneera leaned down and shouted into the gopher hole. “Alright, just come on out and let’s get this over with!”
Kerik was now extremely confused, but he said nothing as they both waited. Daneera crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot expectantly. After nearly a minute of waiting in silence, a small, strange creature stuck its head out of the hole and looked up at Daneera. To Kerik, its head looked like a miniscule bear with a snub nose, but Daneera had seen gophers before, on other planes. This was, however, the first time she had seen one with a tuft of pink fur running across the top and back of its head.
Daneera sighed again and rubbed her forehead. “Rhysannon.”
Kerik’s eyes bulged as he watched the tiny creature step out of the tunnel and begin to grow to many times its size. The fur receded and was replaced by dark, smooth skin. The animal configuration of the skull and face seemed to shift into a human one. The creature shifted from standing on all four legs to only two as a feminine humanoid body began to form. Even simple hide clothing seemed to sprout from nothing to cover her. When the transformation had finished, the small animal had changed fully into a human woman just an inch or two shorter than Daneera.
The woman smiled widely and nodded a slow, long nod toward the huntress. “Daneera,” she said.
Kerik simply stared, unable to fully believe the transformation he had just seen. The woman was attractive, with long, black hair that had a streak of pink dyed down the center, as her gopher form had. Her hide clothing was simple and utilitarian, worn in layers and pieces to be warm on cold nights and easily modified for warmer weather. The only weapon she carried seemed to be a single sickle hanging from her belt. Her black eyes twinkled in the morning light, and she wore an amused smile on her face.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked,” the woman said to Kerik with a little laugh.
“Go easy on him,” Daneera said. “He’s never seen anything like that before.”
“Oh, really?” The woman said. “I would have thought he would be used to changing forms by now.”
Daneera raised her eyebrows at this. “How do you know about that?”
The woman shrugged. “I’ve been here for a few days now, waiting for you. Your man transformed a few nights ago.”
Kerik looked away, and Daneera laid a hand on his broad shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kerik. She’s a friend. It won’t get out.”
Kerik just nodded, then looked back at the woman. “So, you two know each other, obviously.”
Daneera nodded. “I suppose introductions are in order. Kerik, this is Rhysannon. She and I go way back. Rhysannon, this is Kerik. He’s my mate.”
“I assumed,” she said with a smile. She looked Kerik up and down very slowly, then smiled wider. “I approve.”
Daneera rolled her eyes. “I’m glad to hear it. How in all the hells did you find me, anyway?”
“We’ve both been doing this for a while now,” Rhysannon said. “I have to believe that you’ve noticed by now that…” she looked over at Kerik again for a moment, “our kind have a certain draw toward one another. If we go looking, odds are we will eventually find who we’re looking for.”
“You don’t need to be coy or subtle here,” Daneera said. “I’ve told Kerik everything. He knows about planes and planeswalkers.”
Rhysannon made a small noise that seemed to indicate surprised approval. “You are just full of surprises, Daneera. Very well. I have been looking for you for a while, trusting on intuition to bring me to the right place.”
“And how many places have you been to, trying to find me?”
The other woman shrugged. “I didn’t bother to count. Seven, at least, but it might be closer to a dozen.” She yawned, although neither Daneera nor Kerik were sure whether it was real or not. “I would spend a week or two on each plane, in some form or another, and see if I could find you, and then move on.”
“You just…trusted on ‘feeling’ me out, huh?” Daneera asked.
Rhysannon smirked. “Well, a liberal use of scrying didn’t hurt.”
“Can you do that across planes?” Daneera asked, suddenly concerned.
“I can’t,” Rhysannon said. “But when I happened to find the right plane, I found you pretty quickly. Finding the right clearing took some time, though. This forest of yours is massive.”
“It’s called the Bladǎri,” Kerik offered, feeling distinctly out of place in the conversation.
“Even I haven’t been all the way through,” Daneera admitted, “but you’re right. It’s huge. For context, it’s at least three times as big as the Lugara, and that’s just what I’ve explored.”
Rhysannon nodded, seemingly impressed. Then she closed her eyes and spread her arms out to her side at an angle toward the ground. Her fingers spread open as she took in a deep breath, and she smiled as she exhaled. “You’ve chosen a good home, Daneera. I sense great power in this land. Very great. Very potent. Your mana bonds must be strong.”
Daneera nodded, then looked over to Kerik. “Rhysannon is a druid,” she said as an explanation. “She’s something of a caretaker,” she paused, looking over the other woman carefully, then continuing in a sarcastic tone, “of sorts.” Rhysannon rolled her eyes. “She lives in the Lugara forest on her home plane, Kirakaba.”
“Honestly, Daneera,” Rhysannon said. “You and names. Yes, I live in the forest and do what I can to help protect it. Why does it matter what it’s called?”
“I’m just trying to explain it,” Daneera said. “Kerik’s new to this planeswalker stuff.”
“Is he a ‘walker too, then?”
“No,” Kerik said.
“At least, not that we know,” Daneera added. “And he’s been through some things that I think might have triggered the Spark, if he had one.”
“Pity,” Rhysannon said. “I wouldn’t have minded bringing you along.”
Daneera’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean, ‘bring him along?’ Why were you looking for me, Rhysannon?”
The other woman shifted her posture to square up to Daneera. “I need your help.”
Daneera ran a hand through her dark, tangled hair. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
Rhysannon shrugged. “Probably because you’re clever. Although for the purposes of remaining a mystical mystery to your friend here, I’m going to assume it was because of some deep calling within your spirit.”
“Uh huh,” Daneera said. She shot a concerned look over at Kerik, but he seemed lost in thought. “Look, I really don’t travel much anymore. I’ve had my share of adventure.”
Rhysannon shrugged. “I understand. Although, this isn’t so much about adventure.”
“Okay, what is it about, then?”
“It’s about saving the Lugara.”
“What do you mean?” Daneera asked. “What’s wrong with the Lugara?”
The other planeswalker yawned again, and started picking something out of her hair. “Well, when I left, some metal monstrosities were marching on it. They had burned a lot of the outer woods and were getting close to the Vine Veil.”
Kerik, who had rarely seen Daneera surprised by anything, watched as her mouth slowly opened, and then just hung there. He watched as she blinked a couple of times, shaking her head slightly in disbelief. The werewolf looked to their strange guest.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know this has nothing to do with me, but what does that all mean?”
Rhysannon looked his way and gave a thin smile. “You want the long version or the short one?”
“Short,” Daneera interjected, recovering slightly as her gaze hardened. “Because I have a few questions of my own.”
Rhysannon nodded. “Very well. I’ll be brief. The Lugara is bordered on the northeast by a kingdom called Iandok. They have always craved the resources of the forest, but for the last few decades, they’ve been embroiled in a war with some other country east of them.”
“Dayas,” Daneera said through clenched teeth. Kerik could tell she was seething.
The other woman laughed slightly. “You and names, Daneera. Anyway, the war apparently concluded, and now Iandok’s rulers and rebuilders want what the Lugara has. The Vine Veil is the forest’s last bastion against invaders. If it falls, it is possible the entire forest will fall.”
“Rhysannon, why the hell didn’t you lead with that?” Daneera said, trying to keep herself from yelling. “I mean, if you’ve been looking for me over seven or more planes, and each one has taken a few weeks…”
She trailed off, and Rhysannon yawned again. “Yes, it is quite possible that the Lugara is already lost. I had thought of that.”
“Are you not worried?”
The druid shrugged. “Of course I am.” She stopped for several long moments as she picked some dirt out of one of her nails. “That’s why I came to find you.”
“But…” Daneera said, feeling her temper starting to bubble over. “You could have been doing something!”
“I am doing something,” Rhysannon said calmly. “I’m coming to get you.”
“And what if it’s too late?”
Rhysannon looked at Daneera with a confused expression. “Then it’s too late.” There was a long pause where none of the three said anything. After a few moments, Rhysannon said, “What?”
Daneera closed her eyes tightly, and Kerik could almost swear he heard her counting to herself. Finally, she took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and spoke. “Kerik, I think I’ll be gone for a few more days.”
“I understand,” Kerik said with a sympathetic nod.
“I wish I did,” Daneera muttered, and then disappeared.
Rhysannon stared at the place Daneera had been standing for a long moment, then glanced at Kerik. “She took that better than I thought she would.” The planeswalker smiled. “You must be good for her.”
Before Kerik could respond, the stranger winked at him, smiled, and then disappeared.
* * *
Daneera felt a wave of nostalgia and comfort as she stepped out of the aether and into the plane of Kirakaba. This was the first plane she had ever ‘walked to, before she even knew what planeswalking was or what planes were. She had been back several times throughout her life, and somehow, every time, it still felt like the first time. She had been so frightened during that first ‘walk, so unsure of what was happening and what was to come, but this place had been like a dream for her. It had reached out and embraced her when it found her drifting in the Eternities, and each time she returned, she felt its embrace again.
She felt the aether ripple right behind her, and turned to see the form of Rhysannon materialize out of nothing. The other ‘walker was smiling, and she lifted her arm to rest a hand on Daneera’s shoulder. “Welcome back.”
Despite herself, Daneera smiled. Apart from the cabin in the Bladǎri, this was about the only place that felt like home. Still, they were there for a reason. Daneera knew this forest well, and almost more by instinct than inspection, she knew which way they needed to go. She had taken almost a dozen steps in that direction when she realized that Rhysannon was not walking with her. She turned around to see the druid simply standing where she had been, watching Daneera.
“What’s wrong?” Daneera asked. “We need to get going. If Iandok has already pierced the Vine Veil, it might be too late.”
Rhysannon just smiled at her and stood, as if waiting for something.
Daneera held her arms out to the side. “What?”
The other woman’s smile broadened, just slightly, and she gave a momentary laugh. “You always seem in such a hurry, Daneera.”
“Well, yeah. We have something that we need to do. So, I mean, we should hurry to go do that.”
“We don’t need to do anything, Daneera. There are things we should do, I suppose. But this world will go on despite what we do.”
Daneera rolled her eyes, something she was finding herself doing often around Rhysannon. “And what about the Lugara?”
“It will either survive or perish, same as it will if we act.”
Daneera was stunned for a moment. She had almost forgotten what it was like, dealing with Rhysannon. Finally, she managed to speak again. “Well, if we can do something, we have a better chance of getting it done if we get there. If we can help fortify the Vine Veil, then maybe-”
“You should go see her, Daneera,” Rhysannon interrupted.
The interruption surprised Daneera, and again, she just stared at her old friend. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. We have work to do.”
Rhysannon nodded in understanding, and then said, “You should go see her.”
Again, Daneera stared. “I don’t…” She paused, shaking her head. “We don’t have that kind of time. If we’re where I think we are, you’re talking about at least seven or eight hours in the wrong direction.”
Rhysannon looked around her, gauging her position. “Most of a day, if I’m not mistaken.”
“A day in the wrong direction,” Daneera added. “We need to get to the Veil.”
“We will,” Rhysannon assured her. “But you should still go see her first.”
“What would the point be?” Daneera insisted. “It’s not as if she would know.”
“I know,” Rhysannon admitted. “But maybe it’s more for you than for her.”
“I can sight-see after we’ve saved the forest,” Daneera said, then turned around. “Let’s go.” She took three more steps before she heard Rhysannon’s voice carry through the forest again.
“It’s more than just a sight, Daneera. You know that.”
Daneera stopped and inhaled deeply. Rhysannon was not making this easy. “There will be time for that later.”
“There is time now.”
“We don’t know that,” Daneera said. “If they’ve pierced the Veil, then-”
“Then time will still exist,” Rhysannon said calmly. “We have time now.” She paused. “You should go see her.”
Daneera turned around and walked toward her old friend. “It’s just a tree, Rhysannon. Just a tree. It doesn’t have a heart. It doesn’t have a brain. It doesn’t care any more about me than it does a nesting bird or a climbing squirrel or a passing deer. Has anything you have ever seen or done suggested to you that they are capable of feeling?”
“In the way you and I do?” Rhysannon asked. “No. But of course, nothing I have seen or done has ever proven that they do not.”
Daneera scoffed. “You’re impossible, you know that?”
“And yet, here I am.”
Daneera sighed heavily, hanging her head. “Look. We can go immediately after we find out what is happening at the Veil.”
Rhysannon looked into her eyes thoughtfully, for a long time, then smiled again. “You should go see her.”
Daneera massaged her forehead again. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“I am not, no.”
Daneera stared, exhaled, and then shook her head. “Fine. If you feel like we need to do this, and you’re not going to let it go, then fine. Let’s go see the Natayaga.”
* * *
The air itself around the tree felt different from the rest of the forest. The tree, the Natayaga, was the largest tree in the forest. It scaled into the sky for well over three hundred feet, with countless branches spreading out in every direction. Daneera had no idea how old the tree was, but she had never spoken to anyone in the Lugara who had been around before it was. The Natayaga, as the tree was called throughout Kirakaba, had myths and belief systems built around her across the plane.
To Daneera, though, this tree held a much more personal connection. She had been born to a dying world, a world that, as far as Daneera knew or could tell, had no remaining forests, no remaining natural land of any sort. It was a world of stone streets, canals, houses, buildings, and towers, as far as the eye could see. Forests existed only in nursery rhymes and children’s books, and many regarded them as nothing but pure fantasy.
Daneera, though, had regarded them as her dearest wish and dream. As a child, she had stolen some paints and drawn a forest on the stone walls of her bedroom. She used to close her eyes at night and imagine birds and beasts alike moving through the brush and the branches. There were many things she could not have imagined, of course, things like the sound of the wind rustling the leaves; there was no wind on her home plane. But throughout the night, and often even throughout the day, she imagined, and pretended, and hoped.
And then, when she finally escaped that world and was flung into the vast Eternities, the plane of Kirakaba had opened its arms to her, and she found herself, alone, afraid, and bewildered, at the very top of the Natayaga herself. Daneera, who had never so much as seen a real tree, let alone climbed one, had to find her way down from the very top of the tallest tree on the plane. Nothing before or since had been so frightening, or so exhilarating.
Seeing the tree again was almost overwhelming for her. She had seen it since that first time, of course. She returned to Kirakaba occasionally. She loved to hunt the wilds of the Lugara. She enjoyed the feel of the forest. She even came to visit Rhysannon, the first planeswalker Daneera had ever met, the one who taught her what she was and what had happened to her. But she had not been back in a long time. She had not been back since before she first encountered the Dual-Walkers, met Fisco Vane, fought the War of the Wheel, and met Kerik. Her life had changed significantly since she had last stood at the roots of Natayaga, laid her hand on her bark, and thanked her.
It’s just a tree, Daneera had said, but in truth she wasn’t sure. The Natayaga felt different. Ever since her spark had ignited, Daneera had spent the majority of her time among trees, in woods, forests, and jungles across the multiverse. She knew trees. They were alive, after a fashion, but they didn’t exactly live. The Natayaga, though, felt different somehow. Daneera had known treefolk before, and the Natayaga was certainly not one. But still, when she felt her bark, she could somehow swear that the Natayaga responded.
Daneera closed her eyes and remembered. She remembered appearing out of the Blind Eternities and into the boughs of this tree. She remembered stalking the poacher-mages of the Farwood in the Oakumbra Duchy and being hurled, almost dead, into the aether. She remembered watching Arbagoth burn, and transplanting the heart of the forest of Anissem into the Grove of Omens. She remembered the malignant magic of Glim Murkwisp as he tried to take control of the Bladǎri, of Kerik. She remembered how much of her life had been defined by forests, and how it had all started here, with Natayaga.
Eventually, Daneera felt a soft hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and looked over at Rhysannon, who had a pleasant, genuine smile on her face.
“We’ll sleep here tonight,” Rhysannon said, “And head out in the morning.”
Daneera simply nodded.
“Would you prefer to sleep down here, or shall we pick a branch?”
Daneera glanced up and, despite herself, smiled. “I think I would like to climb Natayaga one more time, if you don’t mind.”
Rhysannon grinned. “Not in the least.” Her black eyes twinkled in the evening light. “I’ll wait for you up there.”
Daneera knew a challenge when she heard one, and immediately sprang up the massive tree. Rhysannon’s form shimmered briefly, and she shrunk down into the form of a squirrel with a streak of pink fur running down its length. The squirrel chittered excitedly, and then dashed up the Natayaga, leaving Daneera far behind. The forestmage smiled, and continued to climb.
* * *
Daneera could not believe her eyes. As she stared out over the scene in front of her, she felt as though her heart were being stabbed by some frozen knife. She and Rhysannon had been travelling northeast for three days, with Daneera trying to move as quickly as she could while the druid, in her usual way, was taking her time. It was infuriating to the forestmage, but she had known Rhysannon for a long time, and she knew that nothing could sway the druid from her own timing.
They both sensed the truth of the situation before they ever reached the Vine Veil. They could hear the clattering of metallic constructs echoing through the forest, and that could only mean one thing. When they finally reached their destination, the truth was undeniable. The Vine Veil had been breached. The forces of Iandok were pushing even deeper into the Lugara, although they seemed to be in little hurry to do so.
Daneera looked up and down the lines as she could see them, and it broke her heart. The Vine Veil, the last time she had seen it, was a massive wall of magically enchanted vines, leaves, and other vegetation almost completely covering the tree line from the ground to the canopy. When Rhysannon had first showed it to her, many years earlier, the druid had cut a small path into it, and they had both watched as it sealed itself back up mere moments after the druid’s sickle made the cut.
Now, though, the vines and brambles lay in tatters across the dirt. Daneera could see burn marks on the edges where the vegetation had attempted to reknit itself, but the process had been halted. She could see places in the soil where new sprouts had tried to form, only to be dug out again by some invader’s spade. She saw where the large trees that had buttressed the Veil had been cut down to remove the support needed for any new Vine Veil to find purchase.
And throughout the entire area, Daneera saw the metal monstrosities Rhysannon had spoken of. They were golems of some sort, far less intricate than those of the Dual-Walkers that Daneera had seen in the wreckage of their planar barges. And many of them had been torn apart by the forest’s defenses, judging from the scattering of metallic limbs throughout the area. But for every one that had fallen, there seemed to be another seven or eight still walking about. Apparently, the artificers of Iandok had been busy since their war with Dayas had ended.
Daneera’s sharp eyes were scanning the Iandoki camp, trying to plan some avenue of ingress, when Rhysannon laid a hand on her shoulder again, leaned in close, and whispered to her. “We should go.”
The forestmage looked over at her older friend, frowning and confused. “What do you mean? We need to stop them.”
There was a mournful look in Rhysannon’s face. “Only the Veil could have stopped them, and it did not. You and I have no chance here. Not now.”
“We can’t just give up,” Daneera said. “We can do something.”
“The only thing you and I can do right now is either live or die.” Rhysannon pointed toward the camp, crawling with workers, guards, and golems. “If we go that way, we die.” She pointed back toward the way they came. “If we go that way, we live.”
“We can-”
“We are strong, you and I,” Rhysannon interrupted. “But that is an army, and one that is ready for battle. We are strong, but neither of us is that strong.”
Daneera wanted to continue to argue, but before she could, she spotted a patrol – and a large one, at that – heading their direction. Daneera took a very deep breath and forced herself to exhale slowly through the nose to calm herself. Once she had, she simply nodded, and then turned away and vanished into the underbrush.
* * *
“There’s got to be something we can do,” Daneera said, talking more to herself than to Rhysannon. They had found a clearing a couple hours from the place where the Vine Veil had been breached, and Daneera had been pacing it angrily since they arrived. Rhysannon, conversely, was sitting calmly in the middle of the clearing and had resumed picking dirt out of her fingernails.
“Strictly speaking,” Rhysannon said, “there doesn’t have to be.”
“You know what I mean,” Daneera snapped. She groaned loudly. “If we hadn’t gone to Natayaga!”
“We still would have been too late,” Rhysannon remarked.
“Maybe,” Daneera said. “If only you had found me quicker.”
“Yes,” Rhysannon said with a distinctly sarcastic tone. “If I had found you sooner, we could have been at the Vine Veil when it fell. And if you had never left Kirakaba, you might have been able to stop it. And if that other country had won the war, Iandok might not have moved against the Lugara, and if…and if…and if.” Slowly, Rhysannon rose to her feet and approached Daneera, who stopped pacing. “Ifs mean nothing, Daneera. What has happened has happened, and there is nothing we can do about it.”
“Maybe not,” Daneera admitted. “But there might be something we can do to stop anything worse from happening.”
“There might be,” Rhysannon agreed. “But probably not. Iandok has an army, and the Veil is destroyed, at least there, anyway.”
“I’ve beaten armies before,” Daneera said.
“Alone?”
Daneera stared at her, then hung her head. “No.”
“You cannot win every battle, Daneera,” Rhysannon said softly. “And this one is not your fight.”
“You brought me here,” Daneera said. “You brought me here to help save the Lugara, and I want to do whatever I can to do that.”
“I didn’t bring you here to save the Lugara, Daneera. I brought you here to see it. I brought you here to see Natayaga. I brought you here to see me. All perhaps for one last time.”
“You knew they would pierce the Veil?” Daneera asked.
Rhysannon shrugged. “I didn’t know. But I assumed they would. The Veil was always more a deterrent than a defense.”
Daneera breathed heavily as she glared at her friend. “You could have told me that before we came here, you know.”
“I know what motivates you,” she said. “You consider sentimentality wasteful. Be honest, would you have come to Kirakaba if I had shown up and asked you for a visit?”
“Probably not,” Daneera admitted. “But that doesn’t change the fact that something bad is happening here, and I am a powerful ally.”
“I do not consider you a powerful ally, Daneera. You are one, I admit. But that is not how I think of you. I think of you as a friend, and I felt like seeing Natayaga again would do you good.”
“For the last time?”
Rhysannon shrugged again. “Perhaps. But likely not. It is possible that Iandok will push all the way to her, but I do not consider it probable.”
Daneera drew her long knife in demonstration. “I can help dissuade them.”
“This is not your fight, Daneera,” Rhysannon soothed. “Now that the Veil has been breached, the people of the Lugara will see the risk. In all likelihood, they will join in an uncomfortable alliance and push back. There will be blood on the forest floor, and Iandok will need to decide if it is worth pushing further. The Veil will eventually be regrown, likely further in than it was, and life will go on.”
Daneera shook her head. “Things don’t just work themselves out, Rhysannon. Things are affected by people’s decisions. There are things that I could do. I could draw them away in a different direction, or move around and make them think that Dayas is attacking from the rear.”
“To what end? To restart a decades-long war? Would it really be better if hundreds of Iandoki and Dayasians die to save a little piece of what was once the Lugara?”
“And if people like the Iandoki just keep taking what isn’t theirs, with no consequences, what becomes of everyone else, then?”
“There will be consequences,” Rhysannon said. “As I said, the fall of the Vine Veil will draw attention. This does not need to be your responsibility.”
“But I can do something,” Daneera insisted.
“I know you can. But that is not why I brought you here. I brought you here to remind you of something that I think you may have forgotten.”
Daneera shook her head. “Look, Rhysannon, you are my first and oldest friend, and I love and respect you very much. But I am no longer the frightened little girl you found wandering in the Lugara, and you are no longer my teacher.”
“I will always be your teacher, Daneera. Our perspectives were always different, and what you do with the things I say to you is entirely up to you. But you can’t tell me there wasn’t value in seeing Natayaga again.”
Daneera stared at the other woman for a long moment. “No, I can’t.”
Rhysannon smiled warmly. “And I hope that there was value in seeing me again, as well.”
“There is,” Daneera admitted.
The druid stared at her friend for several long seconds. When she continued, her voice was somehow softer, and somehow more serious. “I remember our conversations when you were younger, Daneera. I never said anything to you about it then, because you were still very young, and your pain was still fresh. But it has stuck with me for years now.”
“What are you talking about?”
Rhysannon sighed. “When I found you, as you said, you were frightened and alone, wandering the Lugara without either skills or supplies. It was pure, dumb luck that you had not been made prey by the beasts of the forest or succumbed to hunger or thirst before I discovered you. But what I remember most came after I had started to train you. You said to me once that Natayaga was like a mother to you.”
“It was,” Daneera said. “As far as I’m concerned, Natayaga birthed me into this world.”
“When you left me,” Rhysannon continued, “to go explore the other forests of the Multiverse, you said something similar about me. As you thanked me for all I had done, you said I was like a mother to you.”
“You said it yourself, Rhysannon,” Daneera said. “I would have died if not for you. You taught me what it was to be a forestmage, a ranger, a tracker. You taught me how to live off the land, survive the wilds, and befriend the beasts. Just as Natayaga birthed me into this world, you birthed me into the life of a planeswalker.”
Rhysannon smiled, but it was a sad sort of smile. “I appreciate that, but a thought occurred to me then that has stuck with me all these years. You have spoken of both Natayaga and myself as a mother, but you have rarely spoken of your actual mother.”
Daneera stared, frozen. Without realizing it, her jaw clenched. It had been a long time since she had thought of her mother. She had, after all, found better mothers since. Before she could respond, Rhysannon continued.
“You should go see her.”
Daneera’s eyes narrowed. “I never want to return to that world.”
“That world is just a place, Daneera,” Rhysannon said. “And it is a place to which you are not bound. I know there was little happiness for you there, but it no longer jails you. You can leave whenever you wish. But your mother? You say Natayaga birthed you into this world and I birthed you into your Spark. But it was your mother who actually birthed you, Daneera. You should go see her.”
“That was a long time ago,” Daneera said. “She’s probably dead, or at least moved. I wouldn’t be able to find her.”
“You could try,” Rhysannon said. “What would it hurt?”
“I doubt she even missed me when I left.”
“I don’t know your mother, naturally,” Rhysannon said. “But speaking as a mother, I suspect she did. I suspect she did very much.”
“And if she’s dead?”
“Then you’ll know.”
Daneera did not respond, and for a long time, neither did Rhysannon. Despite being only a few hours’ travel from the invading lines of Iandoki soldiers, only the sounds of the forest resounded through the clearing. There were birds singing and leaves rustling, and everything seemed strangely peaceful. After several minutes of mutual silence, the druid spoke again.
“Do you intend to marry Kerik?”
Daneera looked up. “What?”
“That was your mate’s name, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Daneera said. “But marriage, it’s just a convention, you know? We’re together. What else matters?” Rhysannon just stared at her for a long time before Daneera sighed. “We don’t need the ceremony, but…yes. I don’t want us to be apart.”
Rhysannon smiled at her. “Mothers like to hear about these things.”
Daneera closed her eyes and shook her head. “You really don’t give up, do you?”
The druid shook her head as well. “You should go see her.”
Daneera sighed, then nodded. “Fine. I’ll try.” She paused. “Will I see you again, Rhysannon?”
The other woman shrugged one last time. “No way to know. But probably. I know where you live now. Besides, I think I’d like to come to the wedding.”
Daneera shook her head, smiled, and vanished back into the aether.
* * *
When Daneera stepped out of the Blind Eternities and into what she thought had been her home plane, her mind almost completely shut down. She had expected to see what her memory had imprinted upon her: a world of cold and endless stone. But her booted feet landed on soft soil, and the harsh sun she remembered was blotted out by a forest’s canopy. A cool breeze was blowing through, a wind that Daneera had never felt during her childhood. Daneera was standing in the middle of a large, fully-grown forest, and she could not believe it.
At first, she assumed she had merely ‘walked to the wrong plane. She had, after all, never returned there since leaving. The Blind Eternities lacked anything resembling directions, and so it was easy to assume she had merely made a mistake. But as she started walking through the trees of this new world, she saw occasional hints of the stone city she remembered. She came across a river after a few minutes, and she could see that, while mostly banked with dirt and sand, there were remnants of the stone canals she once knew.
Daneera allowed her instincts to guide her through the wood, which were sprinkled occasionally with the ruins of stone houses and other buildings. Most were completely wrecked, but others still had a wall or two left standing, and one or two even retained fragments of a roof. In these, she found remains of small fires or evidence of waste where people had apparently camped, but none of them seemed permanent settlements anymore. Whatever had happened here was unthinkably powerful. The entire world had been transformed.
The planeswalker froze in place as she saw one particular stone wall. The remnants of this building were only about five feet tall at the biggest, and tapered down to a point at the ground where the wall vanished into the forest floor. A small hillock had pushed up on the opposite side of the wall from where Daneera approached, and a large tree stood near it, but neither facet was the reason Daneera froze. She froze because she recognized the wall.
At some point in her walk, something deep inside Daneera must have realized where she was, and although the trees and the roots and the grass were radically different from the stone she had walked as a child, she found herself tracing an oddly familiar path. It was a path she used to walk from her youthful schoolhouse to her home. And although the rest of the house was destroyed and scattered, she recognized this as her wall.
Without daring to believe what she was seeing, Daneera cautiously walked around the broken wall. There, on the other side, she saw something that stopped her heart. On the stone, faded by time and weather, she saw a small, painted forest, complete with little birds in the chipped and faded branches. The wall was crumbling, and within a year would likely fall. But Daneera was standing in what had once been her very own room.
Small tears had already begun to form in the corners of her eyes as she turned her attention to the tree. It had apparently sprung up in what had once been the middle of her room, and at its base, where its roots broke through the dirt, Daneera could just make out a couple of bones that still remained. Apparently, somebody had been standing or lying here when this tree had erupted through the ground. The implication of this discovery brought a single, whispered word to her lips.
“Mother.”
Daneera held her hand out and was surprised to discover that it was shaking. Cautiously, she laid that hand on the bark of the tree. It is just a tree, Daneera told herself. It felt like any other tree she had ever felt. It was strong and sturdy, vibrant and healthy, and Daneera closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself, as a child, seeing this tree grow up through her bedroom. Perhaps this tree still carried some part of her mother’s spirit. She would never know. She would never know how any of this happened, or what it might mean. But Rhysannon was right. This was something Daneera should have seen. She wondered briefly if Rhysannon had known about this transformation, but she doubted it. After all, who could have?
Daneera closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the tree. She knew her mother wasn’t in there, not in any real way that would matter to her. It was like the Natayaga; it was just a tree, and the visit wasn’t about the tree. It was about Daneera. That was the point that Rhysannon had tried to make. When Daneera spoke, her voice was quiet, but strong.
“I’m sorry, mother. I’m sorry I didn’t come back, and tell you what happened. I’m sorry if you worried about me. But I found something that makes me happy.” She thought of forests, and animals, and wind, and rain, and she smiled. Then, she thought of Kerik, and about how she felt when she was wrapped in his arms. “I found someone who makes me happy. And we’re getting married,” she smirked to herself, “or something similar to it, anyway. I just wanted you to know. I wanted you to know that I’m happy, and I’m sorry.”
She stood there for another few minutes, and she almost thought she heard a soft voice on the wind. But this was not her home anymore, and so she ‘walked, and went back home.
The reveal of the presence of another planeswalker was neatly done. I had to look her name up to make sure she was, in fact, a new entry in the M:EM roster (even tho I think I'd have remembered a hot druid with pink extensions 
) which is kinda weird for how important she appears to be for Daneera; also, I'm having a hard time gauging her age - her maternal role hints at her being at least, say,. ten years older than Daneera, but beyond that I'm kinda drawing a blank.
serene acceptance of fate and natural order that borders on fatalism; her affectionate but relentless insistence on things also is quite familiar to me, I have a friend like that lol. Despite her playful and stubborn demeanor, there's a lot of affection under the surface; they may both live or die, as it could her forest, but as the Lugara was breached Rhysannon's priority was meeting Daneera again, and giving her the chance to reconnect with her roots, pun intended.