Page 195 of The Dryad Storm

The Zhilaan Forest

Elloren Guryev

Zhilaan

The power radiating from the dome-shield over Zhilaan is a shock to my rootlines.

As Yvan soars us toward the Forest alongside our Dryad’khin and newfound Eastern Realm allies, the Forest’s warrior energy surges through our bond, our hold on each other reflexively tightening.

The Zhilon’ile Wyverns are holding back the unmoored weather whipping around us with their own storming power, the dome-shield’s blurred expanse becoming increasingly visible, spitting purple lightning and a curious blue mist coursing over its entirety. Somehow, I realize, the people of Zhilaan have found a way to channel the Zhilaan Forest’s power straight into it.

I tense my brow and focus my power empathy on the colossal amount of magic at play in this shield. There’s a strong framework of Eastern Wyvern storm power present in it, but that underpinning magic is dwarfed by both the Zhilaan Forest’s energy and another line of magic that fills me with surprise.

Blue Uriskgeomancy.

Somehow intimately fused to the Forest’s power.

But how?

My surprise notches higher as I read how the geomancy is activelychannelingthe Zhilaan Forest’s power into the dome-shield to wall off the violent weather.

“Yvan,” I say, my lips brushing his warm ear. He pulls me nearer, the close contact sending an unbidden rush of heat through us both. “We’ve an unexpected Urisk ally,” I tell him, striving to be heard over the thunderous mayhem. “Zhilaan’s dome-shield is shot full of blue geomancy—”

My words cut off as the Zhilaan Wyvern soldiers flying before us raise their palms and blast bright white lightning toward Zhilaan’s dome-shield. An oval opening forms in its surface, and we soar through the gap into storm-free Zhilaan...

... and gain our first clear glimpse of the mighty Zhilaan Forest.

My lips part in awe.

The Zhilaan Nightwood Pine Forest is a majestic carpet of midnight purple reaching into the distance, its rich hue dotted by groves of deciduous trees bursting with autumn’s every prismatic color, the fabled rocky Spikelands of Zhilaan arced around the Forest’s northern edge. I can sense the Forest latching on to Yvan’s and my sudden presence, its fire-fueled power embracing us both, our Wyvernbond flooded with purple flame.

“The Forest... it’s amplifying our bond,” I marvel, my awareness of Yvan’s strong body intensifying as the Forest blazes what feels like an intentional pull toward each other through us.

“Gods, Elloren,” Yvan murmurs as he spears us forward. “It’s intensifying my draw to you. I didn’t think that was possible.”

An invisible trace of his fire shivers over my lips, Yvan’s aura blazing around me with such impassioned energy, its motion sparks my own returning heat, his hold on me firming.

We close in on the Forest’s edge, my pulse hammering against Yvan’s, as we take in the gargantuan Zhilaan Nightwood Pine Trees, their spear-like apexes rising so high they almost touch the dome-shield above them. I shiver from the Forest’s intensifying aura, power running blisteringly hot through its expanse.

A colossal firestorm of might.

Witch’kin, the Forest thunders through me, raising every hair on my skin as we follow the Zhilon’ile Wyverns down, the pine trees seeming to rise higher and higher as we descend. Yvan lands in a field of lavender grass in front of the Zhilaan Forest’s tree line, our allies alighting all around us, Raz’zor and the other Wyverns morphing to winged-human form.

I gape at the huge Nightwood Pines before us, the girth of their trunks larger than the largest of Valgard’s buildings, the trees’ massive forms blazing out their invisible fire power toward the shield above through that mysterious channel of blue Urisk geomancy.

Desperate to fully restore my Dryad rootlines, I surge toward the nearest Nightwood Pine and throw my III-marked palm onto its wall-size trunk.

Errilor’s onyx raven head flashes through my vision, the rest of my flock surrounding him, all of them dissolved into a mist of Dark that swirls around me with palpable love and support before flowing back down into Erthia. Tears sting my eyes, my connection to my kindreds blessedly still there for as long as they can hold off the Reckoning.

The Zhilaan Forest’s violet fire blazes into me via that kindred connection with such sudden force that my body begins to vibrate. I fall to my knees, Yvan catching me from behind, his touch an anchoring force as the Zhilaan Forest fully links to my rootlines and sears into them, flooding them with its full spectrum of elemental power.

Light, earth, water, air.

And purple fire.

All of it swirling around and intensifying my bond to Yvan.

My vision clearing, I turn and meet Yvan’s gaze. He’s giving me a wildfire look, our love and Forest-amplified desire for each other pulsing hard through our bond, the yearning to throw myself at him almost impossible to resist.

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