At first, the hallucinations were small. Little flickers of light in her peripheral, or stones that seemed to ebb and shrink in her path. The first fork in the road was easy. To her right was a dimly lit path lined by broken, dry trees, while to her left stretched a path with resplendent golden flowers, mimicking the sunlight Flora was born from.
That part of the legend she remembered, primarily because she had thought it so unbelievable when she had first heard it from Mother.
The second fork, though… that’s when the second dose of the herb truly hit her. Sol glanced from one pathway to the other, her eyelids unbearably heavy. The right path shimmered as if showered in emeralds. The left shone red, the ground that led to it a mess of weeds.
Emeralds. Sol liked Emeralds.
She turned to the right, pointing a lazy finger at the opening between the trees. “This way??—”
“It’s not that way, you know.” A small, bright voice whispered. “That way leads you to a pit of serpents.”
Sol halted. At least, she tried to. But the forest shifted slowly sideways, as if melting like wax from a lit candle. She angled her head the opposite direction, and the world dripped that way as well, strings of rainbow shimmers wrapping around the edges.
Fuck.
“Kerproot from Rimemere is quite strong, Queen of Wielders,” the small voice said again, this time with a hollow timbre.
Sol looked around. Aside from the melting trees, there was nothing that seemed able to speak. Beneath her, the dirt turned to tea.
She giggled. “It’s chamomile tea.”
“You must go left, Queen of Wielders.” The voice wrapped around her in a warm hug, softly smelling of lilies and begeroot. “You must hurry.”
The branches waved, and the leaves reached out their hands to guide her, grasping her by the hair and sleeves. “Are you talking, leaves?” Sol’s throat was mush as she focused on her speech. “You aren’t meant to talk, I think.”
“The Kerproot is too strong, Queen of Wielders. We must help you.” Beady eyes bloomed on the evergreen leaves, and Sol gasped.
All around her, the dim forest was ablaze with ruby light and life before it shifted into a warm amber hue. The tea on the ground fed blooms of orchids, and the branches guided her forward toward the left side of the fork.
“Wow,” she breathed.
“Our Mother has been closely watching you, Queen of Wielders,” the forest sang in unison. “Our Mother has a warning.” The path to the next fork seemed endless, but Sol didn’t mind. She traced the lovely plants with her fingertips and sang with them, lost in the lull of the Kerproot. She couldn’t remember why she was so bewildered by it before—it was fantastic.
Her limbs were feathers, and the world was gold, alive and brutal and gentle all at once.
“Why is—” Sol’s words trailed into incoherent babbles as an orb of iridescent glow hovered at the center of the next fork.
It was the glow of the moon on the darkest of nights, of falling stars. Green tendrils swirled around, and Sol walked to it, entranced. As she neared it, a curious figure appeared within its center.
“Yarrow,” the figure said. “Daughter of Wards, come closer.”
Sol obeyed. She floated closer to the green essence. “What are you?” she whispered.
“I have come to issue guidance, Daughter of Wards.” The figure’s voice was clear as bells and all around her, as if Sol was encapsulated within it. “You must close the Jinn gate before the moon shields the sun, Yarrow. The event will work in your favor.”
Sol watched the sparks of gold dance around her face as she said, “I will.”
“You will not do it in time, Yarrow.”
Sol pulled a deep inhale, holding it in the pit of her belly. “I must—I must do what my mother said.”
The figure within the orb pulsed sapphire. “Your mother failed. She did not heed our warnings; she sought another way.” The figure grew and morphed into a body. Faceless, featureless, but daunting. “There is no other way. Close the Jinn gate as dictated in the skies.”
Sol’s hands burned. They dripped. Her skin, her bones—they melted.
Her words were sandpaper against her mouth as she said, “Her note, it said??—”
“There is NO other way,” the figure boomed. Around her, the temperature flamed. “Your humanity will doom you, just like those before.”
