Page 154 of Blood of Ancients

I lifted my shoulders, squaring them and allowing my wings to open to their full breadth. It was a breathtaking moment, even lost in this dream, to witness my majesty—my armored appearance in all my winged glory.

As if reading my newfound strength, the walls of the mountain stopped and reversed course, opening wider. It gave me the width to march through the passage with my wings held high.

I understood these mountains as barriers in my mind. Symbols for my doubts and worries, which I needed to push past to get to the other side.

Digging deeper inside myself, I found a tether keeping my thoughts together, along with my swelling confidence and new strength.

I wasn’t sure if it was Elayina lending me her assistance, or if this was even my memory at all. There was a chance this washermind, as she saw things, and I was simply an adventurer passing through the walls of her mind.

Whatever the case, I made it to the other side in one piece. The mountain closed up behind me, leaving me staring forward toward the silver light that floated beyond.

A shape took form in that light, and I realized it was Elayina herself, floating above the ground, locked in a fetal position with her eyes closed.

The old woman was nude, bare to her wrinkled flesh.

I embraced her then, stepping into the silver aura.

Power rushed through me, and understanding, as I held her like a babe to my chest.

“Not much longer now,Anvari,” I whispered to her in a booming, commanding voice. “Your suffering will soon be finished.”

Instinctively, I beat my wings with a heavywhoosh. A plume of snow and white billowed around us.

Gripping Elayina tightly, I took to the sky, flapping my wings another few times until my boots left the ground.

I barreled through the soft fall of snow around me, bringing us out of that wintry setting and into a blue-green sky looking like an amalgamation of Midgard and Alfheim.

Above, higher in the sky, giant tree roots reached down like beanstalks leading to a land of giants.

With a gasp of determination, realizing where I needed to go, I catapulted toward the roots. My wings beat hard as the pressure of gravity became weighty, trying to force me down.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed on, making sure to keep Elayina tight in my arms. When I looked down, the sight nearly caused me to lose my flight—

Because she had shed age like a lizard shedding its outer skin. Her gray, wispy hair was now radiant and silver like mine—like half-elves—and growing more brilliant the higher I got in the sky. Her wrinkles evened out, and the ancient elf looked how I assumed she did in her prime.

I emerged from our land of ice and snow into a dark plane of gnarled tree roots and jagged mountains, high above the snow-capped hills I’d flown over below.

The youthful vigor of Elayina’s face intensified. She looked even younger as I crossed the threshold from land to sky to tree. Her brilliant, bright yellow hair had become wan and flaxen, nearly white. The wrinkles were gone completely, showing me a half-elf in her youth, before the struggles of adulthood had a chance to take over and change her.

I was riding the Tree of Life, launching past the giant roots the size of skyscrapers, weaving in and out of them, becoming accustomed to my wings and the weight of them and their force.

Exhilaration swept through me, and I smiled. “Hold on, Aunt Elayina.”

My grip tightened on her thin frame. I barrel-rolled through a wreath of misshapen branches and tree limbs, deeper into the clear sky above. My holler of excitement became loud, echoing,reverberating through the heavens as the wind pushed against my face.

The echoes of my joyful cries led me to a corridor of sky-roots that closed in around me, creating a tunnel I could fly through. They were leading me a certain direction—diverting me from the wider trunk of Yggdrasil.

After more dips and weaves through the obstacles in my way, the plane leveled out with a great green meadow beneath me. Gone was the snow and ice, and now I looked at a gorgeous landscape of trees, rivers, wildflowers, and summer.

It was paradise.

And it was where I needed to go.

My wings flattened, taking in gusts of air as I slowed my descent toward the ground. There was a structure in front of me, a cottage in the woods, near a wide river that flowed with glittering, sun-reflecting water.

Pumping my wings a few more times to navigate the strong wings of the meadow, I flew over the smaller trees and landed at the foot of the cottage, quickly stumbling to my knees to keep Elayina protected.

I glanced down with a heavy breath, noting she had taken on the appearance of a whelp—a babe with little hair at all.

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