Page 111 of An Unexpected Ascension
“And we did end up there, but only after I surprised her by bringing her to the town's market. There was a stand I passed by a few days prior and found the most perfect doll clad in a dress just like the one I knew Mercy would wear on her birthday. She had it singled out in her closet for days.” He chuckles to himself. “When we approached, I could see the longing in her face. It was all I needed before I handed over my entire savings. At first, she rejected the doll.Told me I couldn’t buy it for her, that it was too much money, but then I pulled the big brother card.
“The smile on her face was priceless when we walked away, the doll cradled in her arms. She named her after our mother who died to give my sister life. It nearly broke me, my sister naming this gift after a mother she never knew. Yet, it was a blessing all the same.”
I inhale a deep breath, straightening out in his arms.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Just wanted to share one of my happiest memories with you.” I study him as I sit in his lap, his arms curled around me. “Did it help?”
I nod, taking inventory of my body and mind. My heart has slowed to a steady rhythm, the pain now manageable and Lynx’s story, his vulnerability, has dragged me out of my own head and centered me.
“Yeah. It did. Thanks.”
His eyes dart to my lips, stirring a frenzy in my lower belly and forcing me to my feet. He follows, pushing to his as well and we both try to ignore how weird this truce is.
As we reach the edge of the forest without any more mental breakdowns, the garden comes into view. The only problem is, we no longer have the protection of the lush trees to hide us.
“You really loved your sister,” I state as we cautiously approach the arched entryway.
“I did. More than anything.”
My heart sinks.
“I’m sorry.”
He nods, acknowledging my apology with a sadness in his eyes.
With ease, we reach the Tree of Knowledge.
“Let’s do this,” he says, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me into him.
With that swirling flash, we’re free falling into time and space, spiraling at a nauseating pace. With a thud, our boots drop onto a terrain of grey dust.
My head lifts and before me looms the Tree of Death in all itshorrific glory. It’s just as awful as I remember. Snow catches on my lashes, only it lacks it’s obvious cold. Holding my hand out, I collect a flake and smear it between my fingers.
Ashes.
Ashes of burning bodies perpetually falling, death never stilling.
A breath whooshes out of Lynx as he takes it all in. The skeletal body, the roots spearing through its lower half and shooting straight from its unnaturally pried open jaw. The demented branches twist and hiss with malice, up and out as if it yearns to overtake Hell. Its arms reach towards the death that snows upon it, soaking it all in as if it’s the very essence of what gives it life.
There’s not a single sound to be heard for miles, the air sucked out of here replaced with foreboding doom.
It’s a warning.
A threat.
This tree.
Lynx’s voice is muffled, blanketed by the malevolence that simmers from the unholy structure, his words never reaching me and though physical sound is dampened, I can hear it. I can hear the tree talk to me.
It hisses,“Young one filled with light who wallows in darkness, you may place a hand against my own. For you are deemed worthy of my secrets.”
“Briar?” I barely make out my name as Lynx shouts it again and again.
I trek over bone jutting like roots from a tree and come upon the skeleton. Though it’s nearly twice my size, I can still reach its hands pressed together in prayer. With my own, I grab hold of the frigid cold bone, and my vision goes black.
It’s a graveyard.
