When it came to figuring out what to do about our pursuers, the first course of action was obvious. Not just obvious, it was also something we had to do immediately before even thinking too hard about the rest of the plan. Searching along the direct route between the village and the edge of the forest would be the very first thing our pursuers would do. Therefore, we needed to start running full speed parallel to our destination as soon as possible. Eirlathion agreed and immediately cut Levin and Rolwen’s meal short in order to make haste.
We still couldn’t tell whether or not we even had pursuers, but we couldn’t afford to confirm it. We just had to assume we were being followed. Our supposed pursuers could fly, cover ground at least 50 times faster than we could, and had the ability to detect Levin’s and Rolwen’s energy as though we were carrying around a giant flood light aimed at the clouds. In other words, if we knew our pursuers were there then it was already too late.
This brings us to the second task we absolutely had to pursue. As we were being carried, me and Tia would teach Levin and Rolwen how to suppress their spirit energies. Problem is, neither one of them have progressed to the void stage of their meditation yet, and it would take at least three years for them to get there if they progressed at anything like the rate my students on Earth did.
This limited us to the far less effective method Eirlathion had once tried to teach me. This was simply not capable of completely concealing their energy, but at least it would dim it enough that we wouldn’t be detected from such a wide range.
Eirlathion seemed rather skeptical that it would even be possible to teach a couple of supposed three year olds how to manipulate energy like this. I decided not to correct his incorrect perception of the boys. A somewhat dark part of me wanted to see the shocked look on his face when these two started demonstrating an intelligence far beyond their age like a couple of prodigies. Let’s see how the elven racist view of humans interprets that one.
Of course, I did manage to fit in a snide remark about how he doesn’t know how smart Levin and Rolwen were as I was assuring him it would be completely possible for us to teach them.
This only left one more concern about how they might track us. In this world, the plants all had spirits. Those spirits translated to every tree and bush having ears for those who knew how to listen to them.
I raised this concern, but Eirlathion assured me they could not track us like this. While fey dragons and great fairies are several times more powerful than elves, we have one distinct advantage. Every fey creature had some semblance of the green word which allowed us to speak with the plants, but the fairies could only hear the voice of the more powerful tree spirits. And even then, they couldn’t get any meaningful information unless it was from a nymph or a dryad.
The closest tree spirit of that level was Nymph herself, and there’s simply no way she’s going to be helping them catch us.
Apparently, the green word has a strange relationship with the fey. It is the lower ranked fey that are stronger with the green word. Elves, being around the middle ranked among the fey, can hear the more common spirits only after reaching a significant level as a plant specializing mage. Satyrs apparently manage the same at a lower level or even as a generalized mage. Meanwhile, the fauns who are basically the satyr’s degraded cousin is an exception to the rule with the green word and manages about the same as an elf would despite being weaker than satyrs.
The only fey race that can hear the plants from even the lowest levels of magical prowess is a humanoid plant creature called an une. This is because they are really more spirit than fey already and the only difference between a nymph's projection and an une’s humanoid form is that the une is physical.
So, it seems like we would be safe on that front at least. The only way they were tracking us through the trees would be if they took a high level elven mage along with them, which was apparently unlikely due to the fact the fairies of the higher fey court were a little too prideful for that. It might be a bit different if pursuing us was their primary mission, but this is really more a personal task the envoy would be taking on out of some perceived sense of duty.
I cringed at the thought. That seems like a rather rosy way to paint the fact that he’s trying to track us down in order to kill me and or Tia just on a whim. What does that even make my life to these stuck up fey nobles?
Of course the notion that they are out to kill us is mostly based on assumption, but Eirlathion seemed rather convinced this is what would happen when we were running away and I had no reason to doubt him. A part of me would like to get the other side of this, but this was a situation where if what Eirlathion has told me was true then meeting the fey nobles to talk would mean my death. In other words, the price of being wrong was just too high for me to entertain the thought that things might not be as bad as they looked.
I believe there was a name for this phenomenon back on Earth. Evolution favored those who always assumed the worst and perceived everything as a threat. The price of a false positive when it comes to threat detection is just a bit of wasted extra time and energy. The price of a false negative however is getting maimed or killed.
***
It was two nights later since we had started running parallel to the edge of the forest in a direction away from the heaven scar where the capital now resided. We were going on our usual night time walking protocols when Tia suddenly stopped.
[Umm… Asa, Ether…] She said. When I turned to look back and see what was going on, Tia was looking rather nervous. She was glancing upward and over her shoulder.
[How close and how strong?] I asked in a grim tone.
[It…] She paused. Meanwhile, Eirlathion and mother had caught on to what was going on.
[Asa, Tia, I’m sorry, but maybe it would be a good idea to leave Levin and Rolwen behind.] He said.
[What?] Levin demanded. [You can’t do that!]
Eirlathion seemed somewhat stunned at the sudden articulate elven coming out of Levin’s mouth, but there were more pressing concerns to worry about.
[It’s very powerful.] Tia said in a haunted voice. [It is even stronger than when Asa stops hiding spirit energy. It is something like five times Levin and Rolwen combined!] She said. [It is just flying straight. It will miss us if it keeps going, but…]
[Kiriia.] Eirlathion called out to our mother and glanced toward Rolwen in her hands.
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[It won’t do any good.] I told him. [They have managed to begin hiding all but one tenth of the spirit energy they produce. They are already better at hiding than mother. It will sense her next, and then you. Neither one of you have the ability to move fast enough in the forest at night. Besides that, Levin and Rolwen will follow you easily. You do not know how well they can really move. They might not be able to keep up with you in the day, but they will not have a problem at night.]
Eirlathion made a difficult face. He looked at Tia and then back at me. I could tell exactly what he must be thinking.
[I can sense it now.] Mother said.
Eirlathion looked up in the same direction Tia had looked before. I decided to open up my internal fire and begin absorbing spirit energy myself. Immediately the flavors of the area assaulted me. I still was not used to this, but it was pretty clear that there was a very strong source in the direction everyone was looking. More than that though, there was also a strong sense of determination and urgency attached to it. And, something else…
[That means it can sense us too.] Eirlathion said, and then glanced toward me. [Go.] He said, then looked to Tia. [Tia, you and Asa need to run away alone! Now!]
Something felt very off about this, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Logically, I really should run, but something bothered me about it.
Once again, the price of a wrong decision here was death. Best to take the cautious route rather than the risk.
[Tia.] I said, backing up what Eirlathion was saying.
Tia looked back up at mother. Her hand slowly dropped from the finger she had been leading mother around by and was directing a bitter expression toward the ground as she began stumbling toward me.
“Let’s go.” She said quietly in English.
I took one more glance at Levin and Rolwen. Neither one of them looked happy with this, but they didn’t say anything. Without saying a word, I turned and took off running at full speed. I knew Tia was faster than me, so I didn’t even bother to consider whether or not she was keeping pace.
I shifted into a more intense version of the void meditation, but I was careful not to activate the kata that would trigger the magic associated with it. I didn’t need Tia getting disoriented while she tried to follow me. However, this meditation simultaneously concealed my energies while also increasing the flow of the otherworldly energy running through me. This pumped more strength into my legs, allowing me to run even faster.
“Asa! There’s another one!” Tia suddenly yelled.
I came to a stop.
“Where?” I asked.
“Same direction we’re going.”
“Is it flying the same direction as the other one was?”
“Yes.”
“Shit!”
It’s a freaking search grid formation. That means three things. One, the first guy was not just someone passing through. They are definitely searching for us. Two, this is a multi-person operation and they are very serious about it. Three, they are spread out to exactly the amount of space necessary for them to be able to cover everything between them with their senses.
What thing from the depths of the dark abyss could possibly have them so hellbent on catching a couple two year olds like us? And what the hell for if not for the worst case scenario we had discussed before? Fuck it! Fuck it! Fuck it!
I knew Tia’s senses were probably sharper than mine, but I decided to activate my internal fire anyway to see if I could pick this one up. I hoped it it would give me some kind of information I could go on in order to find a way out of this situation.
I was surprised to discover I actually could sense this one. Another surprise was the fact that it was also weaker than the first by a pretty large degree. It was only about as powerful as Levin or Rolwen individually. Does this mean that maybe we can take this one?
“We’re going back.” I said. “We can’t get caught by this one. We might stand a chance of talking to the other.” I found the words tumbling out of my mouth before I could fully reason them through my head, but I knew them to be true. That was just the sense I was getting after reading the two, and it somehow didn’t feel like a good idea to fight right now.