OathBlade (Wattys2015)

43. The Price You Pay For Power*

The expansive training hall was more impressive than Elery had imagined. Even more so than those used by knights. It was a great field of grass broken by small streams, rock piles, and clusters of bushes. She would have been tricked into believing she'd stepped outside if not for the charred stone walls and lantern stones to illuminate the field in place of the sun.

Far to the left she spied a door. Cylphi pointed toward it and said, "That is where the seeds are kept."

The reason for their exhaustion after retrieving the seeds had become apparent along the way. The training hall lay on the far side of the east wing, thousands of paces from her room.

Misani separated from Elery and breathed deep. "It is a poor substitute for a field, but...how I've missed the sight of wild land. I care not for these cities and confining buildings."

"Do not get carried away, Misani," Isandel said. "We've not come here so you can play."

"You've done well with sprouts, so try vines," Cylphi said. "You'll not be able to see them so you must sense them."

Elery scanned the field. "I'd not realized I would come to depend on what was available within the ground itself."

"Vines cannot grow from nothing, Princess," Isandel said. "Now focus. Find a seed which contains the life you wish to nourish and do as you did with the sprout."

She let her aura flow out in all directions, seeping into the ground. Small bundles of life, some weak, some strong, all reacted to her immediately. Though she searched for only one she felt the giddy burst of thousands, possibly millions of seeds within the ground. Her aura poured into each and she felt the connection, the sensation of her consciousness being split among innumerable new lives.

Opening her eyes, she witness the ground erupt all around her. A thick carpet of plant life sprang up. New trees grew. Thick vines came forth to curl around them. Her eyes widened and she smiled, though her joy faded quickly with the creeping sensation of emptiness that spread from her chest.

"Stop!" the others all cried as one.

Elery gasped and gripped her chest. She grew cold, a feeling she remembered too well from her fight in Isandel's cavern. Their screaming muffled and she collapsed to her knees.

The plants came to rest, their growth halted, and her only sense of relief came when Misani returned to her. It gave her a moment's burst of energy, enough to look back to find her friends cut away from her by thick vegetation. Then the darkness came and she collapsed forward with a soft groan.

She sank into silence, for how long she could not tell. She lost herself, floating through a place untouched by time. When sensation finally returned it was in the form of radiating pain from her shoulder.

The rough wood ceiling of her room came into focus as she opened her eyes. She groaned, rousing someone beside her. Cylphi's face blocked her view, at first fearful, then angry. "Have you no sense? What were you thinking?"

"Easy, girl," Isandel said. His hand rested on Cylphi's shoulder. "Give her room to breathe."

Elery looked around, spying only those two in the dark room. The dragons outside were quiet now. The barrier cast pale, dim light into the room to compensate for the lack of lunar luminescence.

Isandel leaned over her and placed a hand on her cheek. "You've regained most of what you spent, though you're lucky to be alive at all." He moved his hand behind her shoulders. "Sit up, Princess. Come now, you need food."

She thought to resist, but the growl of her empty stomach warned her such insolence would not be tolerated. With another groan she pulled herself into a sitting position and placed her hand over her face. "I feel as if I've slept too long."