Hunting Royalty

39. Leaves and Lakes

The ground is hard and soft. It doesn't remind me of anything in particular but it is soft when I first touch it until I compress it about an inch then it suddenly firms up until it is completely solid. It's completely white as far as I can see, in fact everything is white. I can't see any kind of horizon where the white ground meets the white sky. There is no light source I can make out but everything is bright white giving the place its own kind of illumination.

I feel so alone and isolated, there is nothing here, not even a speck of dust. I sit down, there is nothing to do but wait. For what seems like hours I sit, lie, fidget, and fiddle with the plain white dress I'm wearing. Aren't I mean to be doing something?

Instead I replay last night again. I'm just getting to the good parts when I see something. After hours of seeing absolutely nothing, something happening feels monumental. I sit up to look at it. A small white leaf has sprouted though the whiteness. It grows. Taller, thicker more leaves, I watch it grow into a massive tree.

The trunk and all its branches are white; the leaves are white too but they glow faintly. Curious, I step towards the tree and touch a leaf.

I'm in the ballroom at the palace, it's decorated more lavishly than the last time I was here. Gold and red decorations are everywhere, the colors of the Hargreaves. A man and woman sit on thrones overlooking the room. I don't recognize the man, but I would know her anywhere. Eva is the queen, she's aged about twenty years but its only made her beauty more striking, in a fierce and lethal kind of way.

I notice the way they interact with the other nobles. They fear the king and queen.

I let go of the leaf and the vision abruptly stops.  The leaf I was touching has dulled back to the same muted white as the rest of the tree. I look at the tree with new eyes, every leaf is a potential future. There must be thousands of leaves, it will take forever to look at them all.

I guess I don't have anything else to do, I also get the feeling that time is moving differently here. I feel like I've been here for hours but at the same time only a matter of seconds. This place is full of contradictions.  

I wonder if there is any sense to the way the futures are organised on the tree, I walk around it studying it closely. There are many branches that diverge again and again, over and over until each thin branch ends in a leaf. I wonder if the diverging branches represent decisions that change the course of the future.

I notice there is one leaf at the very top of the tree, it's branch never diverges only thins as other branches veer off it. I reach for the lowest branch and start to climb, there are so many branches that it is easy, all I have to do is not accidentally touch any leaves. I climb straight up the tree, pulling myself arm over arm until I reach for the top. I was concerned that the thinner branches wouldn't be able to hold my weight but the branches don't budge an inch, I guess they aren't made of wood, they are completely immovable.

If I am right about my theory about each branch representing a decision, it makes sense that this leaf represent the future for the path I am currently on. Where every decision is instinctive and reactionary. I touch the leaf cautiously bracing myself against the other branches.

Nate is alone in a graveyard. He wanders between the headstones with a determines stride, he takes a few turns before stopping in front of a specific one. His familiarity with the cemetery suggests he has been here many times before. He kneels before it and swipes some dead flowers away before replacing them with new ones. He looks older, worn, tired, He sits back and I see the name on the headstone. Lincoln Nathaniel Winchester. I don't recognize the name as one of his relatives. I read the birth and death dates, the boy is born two years from now and dies five years later. It's his son.