Wraithwood Botanist

I had barely sedated the rakas and said, "Bingo," pulling out a beautiful, array-crested box that allegedly held the Spatial Dividers I earned by winning the multiversal Trial of Worth competition, when I heard the dragons.

My mind snapped from annoyance to hatred to fear in a matter of seconds. "Tyler," I whispered.

"Tyler" included Aiden and Felio, and everyone else. It was just a word, a concept that screamed, "They're in danger!" and I found myself shooting out my hand.

"Kira."

Kira could be separated for up to ten miles after the Helix of Annihilation, so she was far away. But she dissipated into fine mist and flew through the forest at a rapid speed. Then she snapped into my body, and I spread wings.

Just before I took flight, I stopped and retracted them.

"It'd be bad if people saw this…" I thought.

Galfer's Gate was high above the Bramble, so anything that happened in the airspace was visible. Seeing me flying was out of the question—

But I had a superpower.

I dawned the Cloak of the Predator and became invisible. It was strange. I imagined seeing an outline of myself, but it was worse. I could only see a cloud of mana and soul force when I put it on.

Yet I somehow felt comfortable with my own mental spatial awareness.

This'll have to do.

I spread my wings and rocketed through the gnarled twisted trees of the Bramble to the top.

Birds flew after me, but the vines on trees snapped down on them, giving me dominion over the skies.

These weren't petty roots and trees I was commanding. They were a military weapon designed to kill enemies on contact, a weapon that had been successful for over a hundred millennia. I was given control of the most strategically powerful army in the world, and I could command it with a thought.

And I was going to command it to destroy the wyverns, if necessary.

The dragons couldn't tell it was me when they saw me, as my sight and scent had disappeared, but they knew something was there, and they wouldn't take chances. So they opened their mouths and released a terrifying screech and prepared a fire breath.

Bad move.

I closed my eyes and sent out a nearan pulse for miles, telling all of the trees and vines to subdue the dragons. And in that split second, tens of thousands of vines and tendrils shot out of the trees, just as they did during the trial of survival, wrapping around the four dragons coming after me.

I approached them once vines had wrapped around their snouts and bound their wings.

Grokan. Paralyze.

A spell reinforced certain vines with mana and aura-sharpening. They snapped into spears that punctured all four dragons, injecting neurotoxins that temporarily paralyzed them.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The dragons screeched as I few toward them and said:

"Where's Thorvel?"

The oldest dragon looked at me. "It's you…" the best she could through the bindings.

"Yes. It's me. Brindle's student. The woman who, as you can clearly fucking see, inherited the Bramble and its responsibilities as she claimed. The same woman you made a nonaggression pact with. The same non-aggression pact that is going to get complicated if Kline kills your weak ass leader."

The dragon snorted. "Weak?"

"Probably. Maybe he's not. Maybe he can overpower Kline and seven lurvines. In fact, I'd fucking hope so. You may be guardians of the weakest ring, but you're still guardians. But—let's make something very clear. You got less than a year at most of that hegemony. And that's why I'm here—because you can't do it.

"I'm this forest's guardian now, and if your hothead leader breaks our agreements by hurting my brother and friends, you'll all burn."

I clenched my digits into a fist, and all the vines contracted and crushed their wings.

The dragons let out pained screams in the forest.

—---

Aiden tried to speak to Thorvel, but the Wraithwood Villagers were far too panicked. Thorvel had landed in front of them and roared so loudly that some of the weaker people's ears ruptured and bled. And amidst the screaming and crying, the guards and lurvine were preparing for battle. Cassain and Asail had been able to activate the wards over everyone, and that was only allowed because Kline and the lurvine were powerful adversaries now.

It was completely uncivilized—until everyone heard the wyverns screech in the distance.

"That's Mira," Aiden said.

Thorvel snapped his eyes on him. "What?"

"Mira. She went into the Bramble to get her equipment. Equipment that you told her that she could get. So why the hell are you here?"

Thorvel's countenance changed when Aiden brought that up, and now he was grateful for Mira's instructions.

Aiden, listen, Mira had said that morning. I'm going into the Bramble.

What? he cried.

It sounds crazy, but I have permission to enter. So you don't have to worry about that. What you do have to worry about are the wyverns. If Thorvel returns, remind him that he gave his permission, too. If he breaks this agreement—there will be severe consequences.

It was a simple exchange, but it saved their lives.

More dragon screams went out in the forest—these ones targeted.

"Don't harm them," Aiden translated aloud. "That's quite explicit."

Thovel's panicked face turned between Aiden and the Bramble. "What is she doing?"

Aiden shrugged. "The fuck if I know. I thought it was insane that she was entering the Bramble to begin with. But apparently she had permission."

Thorvel snapped his eyes on the hundred-plus humans and back. "Is she just revealing our secrets to the forest to everyone?"

"Not everyone," Aiden said. "These people. These people—are making soul pacts and committing their lives to Mira and this forest."

Throvel landed his glassy eyes on the terrified people under the wards. His eyes flickered with fury.

"You mean she's bringing these people to live with her in the forest?"

He buried his claws into the earth. "This isn't what we agreed upon!"

The atmosphere became tense.

Kline prepared to fight.

The lurvines erupted with blue flames.

And in the midst of this chaos, just as the fight was about to break out, an invisible force hit Thorvel in the jaw with a crack, and the vraxle flew across the open stretch outside the Mouth of the Bramble fifty meters into the trees. The impact was so hard that the trees were uprooted.

"I'm done playing this game!"

Mira's voice screamed. There was suddenly a thud, and Mira materialized on the ground, visible the moment she took off her cloak's hood.

"As of this day, you are no longer leader of the Vraxle," Mira declared as she strode forward.

Throvel got up and prepared to strike, but an overwhelming attack hit him on the back. It was Kline—and the slash he used made the vraxle spasm in pain.

He released a sonic screech that buckled the earth so decisively that the wards blew away in the earthquake. But somewhere in the midst of that, Kira shot across his side and slammed him in the head. Thorvel opened his mouth and released a blast of fire that made Aiden's vision go white. It was so big it would've swallowed him and all of the people whole—

But all that fire was sucked away.

It was the lurvine. They released their famous blue fire—fire that only burned skin and muscle and bone. Its unique properties clashed with the fire and snuffed it out.

There was only a scorching gust of wind that flung villagers into the Mouth of the Bramble—the plaza people camp. It was covered in vines and roots a moment before, as the Bramble had shut it down when I walked into it, but all the vines and roots retracted before they hit the ground.

The rest of the wyverns shot out of the Bramble and flew toward us, massive silhouettes under Dronami's pink and purple moons. There were over forty and they blotted out the sky.

Thorvel's eyes filled with hope and victory, but silhouettes of vines shot and snatched all of them out of the air.

They screeched and cried and struggled.

"What's happening?" Thorvel roared. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" Mira stopped before Thorvel, who was free to move—but surrounded. "No matter how much you deny my legitimacy, it won't make it so. Brindle made this Bramble, and he entrusted it to me. This is my domain, and you will respect that."

The ground rumbled, and within the broken earth from Thorvel's earthquake, Aiden could see massive roots shoot under the ground from the direction of the Bramble. It was so hypnotic and surreal that when the roots shot above ground and wrapped around Thorvel's feet and wings, it still felt like a surprise.

Thorvel prepared another breath attack, but roots glowed with white light and constricted, cracking his wings. He screeched again in agony.

"You're weak," Mira said. "Pathetic. Arrogant. And stupid. And if you say one more thing—"

"Mira."

A female voice rang out in the night, and when Aiden turned, he saw a small army of foot-tall pixies, the same

as Trant, each adorned in elaborate armor.

Aiden suddenly realized that Mira was involved in things far beyond anything he could have imagined.