“I just needed to be here. Needed to feel the healing of this place. I’m safe here. I’m whole here.”
“Please, bow no longer.”
I looked up at her. She gave me a sad smile, and her greenish-brown eyes softened.
“Are you no longer whole?”
I looked away, shame filling me once more. How would she ever understand? Would she even let me be here in her presence if she knew? I shook my head. “No, my lady Jordskote. I am not.”
She knelt beside me, then sat on the ground, her long legs folded to the side beneath her. I’d never seen any of the nymphs in any other position than standing regally. I’m sure I’m not the only one with whom a nymph had ever sat, but I’d never heard of it before. It at once made me more relaxed and more self-conscious at the same time.
She patted the mossy ground below the twisted root. “Essence of the demon?”
I nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so bold. I should have asked.”
This time, she did reach out, her warm hand covering mine; long, slender fingers curled around mine. “This land is sacred for witch-kind. It is no less yours than it is mine. In some ways, more so.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I said nothing, my eyes naturally going to the moss-covered earth under the root. My heart betrayed me by giving a painful clench.
“Would you prefer that I leave you?”
My face jerked up to her. The very idea that I would askherto leave was off-putting. That would be like asking God to leave a church or asking Mom and Dad to leave their house. “No! I’m just sorry that I am disturbing you and taking your time.”
“I made my presence known to you, did I not?”
I nodded stupidly.
She didn’t say anything else, and I followed her lead.
We sat there, her hand still covering mine. The morning grew brighter around us. My heart oscillated between flashes of pain and long periods of peace at having put Brett’s things away from me.
She started so quietly that I wasn’t even aware of Jordskote’s voice until I realized I was humming along. Her melodic tone twittered upward as softly as a songbird, then plummeted to an earthy rasp that would make the sultriest blues singer jealous. She sang in the language of the nymphs. I’d heard it my entire life. It was like hearing a whisper that was out of earshot. The meaning of the words were beyond reach, but only just. As though if I strained just a little harder, their significance would be revealed.
I let my eyes close, letting her notes flow into me, much like the life from the earth that had poured into me earlier. Like before, I felt it coursing through me, making a thick, coating path through my body.
Startled, I flinched when I felt Jordskote’s fingers touch my cheek. I looked over in time to see her inspecting the wetness from my tears on her fingertips. Tenderly, she lowered her fingers to the spot where I had buried Brett’s things. She wiped her fingers over the moss and then blew gently.
Five thin stalks sprouted and grew, lush and green, stopping when they reached nearly a foot high. Long, pointed leaves unfolded. Buds formed in the center of each stem, spindle shaped, before bursting to unfurl into five white Japanese Irises, a faint purple hue in the center of each the only stain upon the ivory petals.
I looked up at her in wonder.
“Though brief, this love was full of truth and power. Much will come to fruition because of its effect.” Her voice was soft but not placating. She was stating a fact, nothing more.
Unashamed, my tears fell freer. “Truly? You think so? I’ve felt so stupid for hurting so badly over something that was so short.”
“The strength and veracity of something is not always judged by length of time. Only by what blossoms.” She stroked the root of the willow. “Each raindrop is but the briefest moment in time, yet it continues on through the life it bestows. The droplet is no more, and yet it is everything.”
A part of my heart healed at her words. I felt it. The pain didn’t leave, but the shame around how much I had hurt over Brett lessened. I glanced up at Jordskote and opened my mouth, but then closed it again. I couldn’t ask any more of her. I shouldn’t.
“What is it you want to inquire, my child?”
I hesitated still, then pushed forward. “Did he have to leave? Was it the only way?” I thought back to the night before he left me. I’d barely been able to make him out as he was surrounded by the nymphs. So many times I’d wondered if they had told him he had to leave me. “Was it your will he was following when he… when he left me?”
She offered another kind smile. “Is this something you are certain you want the answer to? I cannot take the truth back once it is spoken.”
I didn’t have to think even for a moment. “Yes. Please! I need to know. To understand.”
She let out a long sigh, which, as humanlike as it sounded, did nothing to make her appear anything less than what she was. “He did not have to leave. The events that are destined to transpire will still take place, the same as if he had remained by your side. Only the path to the destination has altered.”
