Page 256 of The Dryad Storm

A new connection begins to form between them both, stone and water power uniting, their love for each other weaving the magic ever tighter. As Or’myr says yes to IV’s invitation and feels himself being named Guardian of the stone and soil that make up the Vo’s entire riverbed and banks, Tierney’s Water kindreds cradled within it.

And then new rootlines of magic are surging through Or’myr, winding around his blazingly strengthened violet lightline, his powerful geomancy and fire power, IV’s gift of awakened rootlines of wind gusting magic through his power and filling his lungs.

Closely followed by the rushing might of a powerful rootline of water.

Chapter Twelve

The Purple Garden

Tierney Calix

Eastern bank of the Vo River

Tierney arrives in Voloi a few nights later, flowing through her Vo River in water form.

Flowing eagerly toward Or’myr.

It shocked her, how much she missed him when he left with Raz’zor for Voloi. Her water aura reflexively reached for him, again and again, as she went about showing her Asrai’kin how to flow their power into the northern focal point of what’s become the entire Eastern Realm’s shielding, the liquid swirl of Tierney’s aura flowing out in yearning to caress Or’myr’s beloved form only to find him gone, her center seeming unmoored without his wry, ridiculously intelligent, charmingly domestic self in her life.

Everything in her yearning for his anchoring love.

She misses his physical presence too. A flush heats her water form just thinking about their shared dream and their attempts at kissing before his lightning shocked her.

Running her eyes over Or’myr’s tall physique was a constant—albeit wildly frustrating—thrill, even though they can never act on their attraction to each other. And beyond all that, just having him near never failed to strike a deep emotional chord inside her, being with him increasingly like coming home.

A home she’s ready to find.

Especially after being drawn by her River to the cypress roots growing through its Waters and being pulled into the center of the Natural World and enveloped by Or’myr’s magical aura... as if he wereright there. And then, after accepting the Forest’s invitation to join with Nature as a Dryad’khin Asrai with the Vo as herkindred, a sense blossomed of Or’myr and herself more intimately joined via their all-encompassing connection to both her River’s Life-filled Waters and its supporting bed.

“Go,” Asra’leen gently prodded Tierney the morning she left, her Asrai friend’s rainbow-sparkling blue eyes full of a knowing light, a poignant smile on Asra’leen’s deep-blue lips. “Go find him, Tierney’lin. You saved our Waters. Now find your love.”

Even the Vo River seemed to echo Asra’leen’s sentiment, its embracing flow tugging Tierney joyfully south with a stronger and stronger current.

And so, with the Realm’s shielding Asrai-strengthened and stabilized, Tierney gave in to the call of her River and the call of her heart, letting her Waters pull her south all the way to Voloi.

Tierney’lin.

As night falls and she reaches the Vo’s central Waters, the sound of Or’myr’s voice triggers a leap of surprise through Tierney. Or’myr’s magical aura is suddenlyright there, his geomancy suffusing the entire riverbed. Purple light strobes through Tierney’s vision, the image of a young Eastern Cypress grove just south of Voloi filling her mind, the night sky splashed with stars above it.

Tierney makes a beeline for it, flushed through with anticipation, flowing fast as spring rapids.

Back tohim.

Soon, Tierney senses the geography of the Vo just below Voloi all around her and she slows and coalesces from liquid to corporeal form, garbing herself in clothing made from the delicate, melded leaves of violet river plants. Heart in her throat, she takes in the underwater, deep-purple Cypress trunks anchored to the riverbed before her, the trees intimately connected to her River.

Or’myr’s aura now intimately connected to her River and these trees, the solidity of his magic and personality a riverbed to her turbulent stream.

Her heartbeat quickens.

She canfeelhim here, somewhere in this very grove.

Anticipation welling in a strong tide, she swims through the grove’s underwater roots and surfaces, breaking through into the starlit world, her gaze immediately drawn north toward the city of Voloi.

Tierney gasps as she’s met with the sight of the huge Ironwood Tree IV, rising from the Voling Gardens’ center, a luminous verdant mist swirling around the GreatTree, its display of prismatic foliage breathtaking.

A ripple of awe courses through Tierney. IV’s chromatic canopy shelters a huge portion of the battered tiered city, casting its faint green glow over a wide swath.

A rush of Or’myr’s purple energy flowing through the Waters connects with her power in an ardent current, doubling her heart’s speed. She starts toward the source of its flow, waist-deep in water now as she moves past the city and reaches the deserted wilds, swimming toward the cypress trees.

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