Page 39 of Invocation

“You choose to aid the enemies of your people just to save one man?”

“Not just to save one man.”

If Aruna hadn’t been there to show her the forest through his eyes, if she hadn’t met people like Zara or Shadri, she might have never come to see the Varai as they really were: as people, no different from herself and other Ardanians. If she had never come to know them, she would still have been thinking of them as monsters.

“Would you destroy all of Valtos, if you could?” Novikke asked. “The entire city, thousands of people? Would you kill them all? Burn everything they’d built?”

Avan actually considered it for a while before saying, “No.” She looked almost confused. Maybe she hadn’t expected Ardanians to have the same morals she did.

“What is he to you?” Avan asked.

“A friend.”

“It’s hard to imagine my brother befriending a human.”

Novikke shrugged.

Avan’s eyes softened. “Then again, it’s hard to imagine him doing a lot of the things I’ve heard he’s been doing.”

“He isn’t a traitor.”

Avan shook her head, looking away. “He’s been gone on patrol for months now without returning to the city once. I haven’t seen him in almost a year. Then I hear he’s been seen working with Ardanians, and then he shows up at my door with you, ranting about some disaster coming for us. I do wonder how this all came about.”

“It’s a long story. You should have him explain it to you after all this is over.”

Avan set her jaw as if holding back tears. “I’m really the only one left?”

“As far as I can tell, yes.”

“Then it’s because Ravi protected me,” she said. “But I can feel her weakening. And whenever I let go, darkness starts closing in.”

Novikke looked down at the woman’s hand, which never left the root she was holding onto. “The tree is the source of Ravi’s power?” she guessed.

Avan didn’t answer, and Novikke sensed she hadn’t quite hit the mark. She considered the woman’s words again.

“The tree is Ravi,” Novikke said.

Avan didn’t confirm her guess. She didn’t have to. “Do you understand that no human has ever been where you are right now? Very few Varai have, either. It is a great honor to witness this place.”

Novikke traced the tree’s limbs with her eyes. The branches were thick and gnarled with age. It looked like it had been there since before time had begun. “I know.”

She didn’t know what she’d expected the heart of the forest to look like, but she couldn’t have imagined this. There was a heaviness to the air. The room was thick with magic and…something else.

“Let me help,” Novikke said. “Tell me what I should do.”

Avan looked small with her grand robes in a pool around her folded legs and the fierce, defensive expression gone from her face. “I don’t know what you should do. I don’t know why any of this is happening.”

At least she wasn’t telling her to leave. “I’m open to any ideas.”

Avan hesitated for a long time.

“You came here for Ravi, yes?” she said finally. “Then let’s see if she speaks to you. Come closer.”

Novikke swallowed her surprise. She approached the tree.

It became apparent what the source of the heat was. As she went closer, warmth bathed the bare skin of her face and hands and soaked into her clothes. Somehow, it never grew uncomfortably hot. It felt like an embrace. Like life.

She stopped beside Avan. Worry lined the woman’s face.

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