Escape

 

Ayleah woke with a start from swiftly-fading dreams. Dawn had not come yet; the room was still dark, but something else had brought her up her awareness. For a moment her mind strayed half in the remembrances of the dream that had been there before and half in the concrete reality. Telon was leaning over her, urging quiet, and for her to get up and dressed. It took a second for her to figure out that this was part of the concrete and not a reclaiming of sleep and its images.

“Quickly now, I don't know what alerts she may have put about the cottages.” His whispered voice cut through her stupor, and suddenly her memory was vivid with the threat from the previous afternoon. As she heard Telon's steps leave the room, she sprung into action, but found her traveling clothes at the ready, and the rest of her belongings already packed and neatly by the door. In the dark room, Ayleah moved with a quietude of mind and body. She knew haste was needed, but also that she should be careful with her energy. A person such as Angelica had sensitivities. Not only would she know if someone nearby had awakened, but Ayleah thought she could probably sense it from anywhere on this summit. One had to pull one's own energy close about their person, releasing it in a measured way through their actions. Normally, a person's energy vibrated out in all directions, with concentrations only based on their intentions and movements. To remain more covert, one had to control that energy, limit it to the skin level, and release the excess in targeted places where it could be absorbed softly and without notice. It felt a bit like holding your breath, and required a subtlety of bearing and self-awareness. Ayleah considered it quite fortunate that the practice had come up in the course of her previous education.

When she stepped outside, closing the door gently behind her, Telon was immediately by her side. He shone softly in the darkness like a door of indigo among the shadows, his hood up and nearly covering any sight of his eyes. He gestured to Ayleah that she should stay silent and keep very close to him. As they made their way through the night-cloaked village, Ayleah sharpened her senses. The houses and ruins were quiet, and it seemed too still for as nice a night as it was. No moon lit the sky, but the stars glowed brilliantly, winking around the dark shapes of the fir trees. It would have almost made her breathe easier if there were some mysterious rustling in the bushes or movement in the black branches. It was only when they had fully left the old burn-scarred clearings that something did scurry away from their path.

The two of them walked for the rest of the night, keeping to their agreed-upon silence. Ayleah worked to keep up with Telon's long strides, which seemed to carry them along faster than she would have thought. An upcoming landmark on the road that looked to be at least twenty steps away would be reached in no more than five. Ayleah had noticed before how things often looked different at night. Colors faded to gray-scale with the lack of light, but distance, and speed also felt funny. Moving through a landscape at night always felt faster than in the day. She wondered if perhaps it had to do with a loss of proper distance perception. Without the play of shadows and color she could not tell as well how far away things were. Telon did naturally take long steps though, and when they finally stopped to rest a bit her legs were glad of the pause.

Telon didn't dare stop though until the two of them had passed beyond the immediate bubble of Angelica's peak-bound aura. At a small seep that divided the land, as the sky was barely beginning to light, they took a break. As Ayleah watched Telon set about recovering his energies from the effort, she thought about the relation scholars had to the land. There were plenty of people who lived right with the land, and engaged in practices that were more nitty-gritty and druidic in nature. True druids did live in these mountains as well, and any number of hermetic witches and farmers with a family background of spellcraft in one form or another. The scholars like Telon though pointed to a deeper sort of work, and a deeper truth to the matter. The scholars engaged with the land through theory and esoteric ritual. They communed with the land's energies without fully immersing themselves in its rawness. It was as if they sought inner knowledge of the world, of which those druidic powers of the dirt were too close to perceive. Ayleah watched as Telon took water from the spring. He took some and filtered it for their use, but then also placed a drop on his forehead and one on his heart. He took dry dirt from the forest floor and let it drop in the light breeze, then smudged the wet spot off his forehead with one finger. To work with the land is to also work with oneself, she thought. To respect the land is to understand that we are a part of it as well. If we want to use or tie to its energies we must understand and respect our own. We must think about how our energies come together, where their intentions lie, and how that combined intentional power will affect and mix with those of the natural kinds. Land-craft is just as much a kind of “self-craft” as any of the other scholarly disciplines, despite its outwardly focused nature. The truth was this: that all people worked and lived in this relationship, not just the scholars, witches, and hermits. Ayleah could see that everyone had a connection to land, even if just to the small plot on which they live. The land supports everyone, and gives energy to everyone through resistance and growth. In this way all people are engaged in the magical relationship, whether they know it or not.

Once the sun had risen, the two scholars were able to hitch a ride further north with a driver bound for Mt. Etan. He was out early, and had frankly just been glad to hear they had no business down the southward road. In the back of his work-truck there was an air of security, and Ayleah found herself able to get in some of her missing hours of sleep. Telon remained on a passive alert, but inwardly was glad of the chance to relax. He let out a sigh as they climbed the next hill, fully immersed now in the energy of a different mountain. Outside, a pretty spruce forest passed, intermingled with the yellow-green tops of birches and maple against a thinly-clouded sky.