Raising her arms, palms pointed to the sky and looking at a point a few feet
above her head, Brienne hummed a deep note, reminiscent of the trees and the
forests. Holding the note, she looked up expectantly, as the air began to
shimmer and colour. In a few moments, a translucent image of the forest had
risen around her, starkly outlined against the sun rising over the mountains. A
broad smile split her face, the sight catching her for a moment as the beauty
overwhelmed her. She sighed contentedly, then looked down.

Kneeling, she placed her hands to either side of her, closed her eyes and
touched her forehead to the ground, whispering a few quiet words. Opening her
eyes but still touching the ground, she looked to the sides of her as a deep
glow, the colour of emeralds or the lush forest after a heavy rain, spread
through the ground for a while to either side of her. A sense of … growing,
becoming more, filled her, and a wry smile curved her face.

She stood at the base of Avechna's Peak, not particularly looking forward to
the task ahead of her. Looking off to the northeast, she saw clean mountains,
fresh air and blue skies behind them, wisps of clouds flying across the horizon
in their slow time. To the northwest, she saw taint, filthy, plant-killing taint
covering the land and sickening it. She grimaced – it made her nauseous, just
looking at it. Sighing softly, she walked towards it, stopping just on the
edge. Raising her arms, she hummed once more, calling a forest to ethereal life
around her. She worked that way the rest of the day, wandering along Avechna's
Teeth, past Rockholm and above the northern Serenwilde and its hills, clearing
the taint and melding with the land around her. With each area, something grew
inside her, an awareness of each small section she joined with.

Finally, she reached the point where the mountains connected to the Razines.
Raising a hand to shelter her eyes, she peered down along the mountains, not
seeing anymore taint ahead. A faint smile curved her lips, dozens and dozens of
leagues of forest lay behind her, and the clear mountains ahead. She turned back
to her demesne, happy with what she saw. Touching a hand to one of the
almost-there trees, she whispered to the forest around her. "Tell me who enters
and leaves." Silence seemed to echo back at her, but she knew her wish had been
acknowledged.

Brienne pursed her lips, thinking a moment. The aether waves were noisy again,
Serenwilde chatting as usual and the Hartstone discussing the attacks coming
up. She heard her fiancé complaining about the Avenger and being unable to hurt
anything. Chuckling softly, she sent her own thought out to the guild – "Perhaps
you should stop hurting them, the Avenger would not find you near as
attractive," sending a smile his way as she thought it. A few sniggers and
other comments came back afterwards, the usual banter making the necessary task
of defence and protection somewhat less tedious.

She smiled wryly, thinking back on the past few weeks. Magnagora had started
yet another war, the terrible reasons only as bad as the previous ones. Every
month, at least one more attack, if not to Faethorn, to the villages they
protected, or the commune itself. This time, the war was over the villages. Her
commune had actually succeeded in gaining the protection of four of the
villages! New Celest had three themselves, and Magnagora was left with just the
one. This, of course, was unacceptable to the pushy city folk, so once more,
they struck out in the only way they could.

Dragging her mind back to the present, Brienne reached out to the trees once
more. "Who trespasses?" Images flowed to her mind, names somehow attaching
themselves. Nobody important, a Celestian and a few of her commune mates. As an
afterthought, she checked against her list of enemies, safely scribed in a
notepad slung in a hip pocket. Cocking her head to listen to the aethers, she
listened to those who were present in the realms, adjusting her list
accordingly.

Pressing her palms to the trees around her, she slipped into them, letting them
take her back to the center of her demesne. Shaking her head out, she took a
seat on a rock, looking up once more at Avechna's Peak. The names on her list
she read out to the air around her, knowing they would be remembered and harmed
should they enter. Just precautionaries, really, but since they had been using
the mountain path to enter the forest, it seemed more and more necessary of
late.

Resting her chin on her hands, she took a moment to compose herself, breathing
the fresh mountain air deeply. She had never really wanted to be involved in
this, never thought of herself as anything even approaching a fighter. She had
learned all about demesnes and druidry; after all, what kind of person didn't
at least learn how to do the things to protect yourself and what you cared for?
It was putting it all into practice that she found difficult. Brienne shook her
head. No use musing to yourself, she thought, not when there are still things
to be done.

Sighing reluctantly, she stood again. Reaching out within herself, touching to
all the small areas joined to her, she spoke to the vines first. Gaining their
attention, she made a sharp gesture with her fingers, watching as the sharp,
thorny vines on the trees around her trembled, almost appearing to anticipate
trouble. Allowing a faint smile to touch her lips, she then brought her hands
up beneath her chin, chittering for a moment like a squirrel, listening to the
responding chitters from the trees.

Still holding onto each part of her demesne, she pressed her tongue against the
back of her teeth and buzzed, sounding somewhat like a hornet or a wasp. Around
her, all manner of insects swarmed out of the trees, like a humming storm
cloud. At that, she raised her arms to the sky, shouting with all the fury of
an intense storm as the skies darkened and thunder and lightning began to play.

Lowering her arms, she stopped a moment to catch her breath, trembling only
slightly from nerves and tension. She clasped her hands together, lacing her
fingers and clenching so tight her knuckles lost all colour. Springing from the
trees and the floor the ground, tiny red mushrooms appeared, almost pretty to
look at. Her fists still clenched tight, she raised them to the skies, opening
her fingers slowly like the petals of a rose in spring. Around her, the floor
swelled up in a panoply of colours, beautiful flowers growing up and releasing
deadly pollen into the air. Lowering her arms, she threw her arms wide again,
singing out a haunting melody to the trees and wiggling her wingers in an odd
manner. The branches of the trees she could see and hear creaked and began to
move, rustling and waving to the sound of the melody.

Brienne looked around her, gulping slightly from fear. Surely you could not be
silly enough to want to enter this, the forests at their worse, whether you
thought it would hurt you or not.

She trekked back along the mountains, heading towards the spot just above the
hills meeting the Serenwilde. She did not want to be there when they entered
her demesne; she would surely see them soon enough.

The chatter on the aetherwaves soothed her nerves, mindless though some of the
discussions were. No matter what happened up here, or what she would rather be
doing, at least some could still live normally, pretending nothing happened.
She was almost getting used to this, the number of times it had happened
recently. Nothing would ever stop the adrenaline rush, or the shaky nerves or
the trembling hands. But at least she was more than just striking out in the
dark now. Time brought experience, and experience was valuable indeed.

And thinking of experience, she realised that it was more than time she got her
personal defences up. The nasty ones had a habit of showing up while you were
daydreaming. Gathering her thoughts, she imagined her skin tough like the bark
of a tree, and was rewarded with a ripple as her skin thickened. She knelt
down, pressing her palm to the ground and picturing a sickle in her mind. A
small bud shot up from the ground, unfurling into a beautiful golden flower.
Giving
a soft, almost reverent sigh, she cupped her hands around the flower, and it
shimmered before her, becoming the sickle she had pictured. She took it up in
her left hand, gripping it tightly.

Still kneeling, she thumped her sickle to the ground, feeling her connection
the area around her deepen. Pressing her hands together, she turned her
thoughts to her root chakra, a red glow running down her back and causing her
to shiver momentarily as she again felt her connection to the earth deepen.
Pressing her palm to the ground, she whispered, "Hide me," to the air around
her, feeling the air shift as if to cloak her entire body.

She stood, stretching her body to it's full length, arms, legs, torso, neck. If
only preparing did not take so much time. At least it was something to occupy
her while she waited, she supposed. She called out to the spirits of Nature, to
Tree, River, Trout, Fish, Horse, Stag, Crow, Squirrel, all of them, and felt the
air stir around her. She could feel the power in the air, moving faster and
faster, until a whirlwind of power lifted her from the ground, where she arched
as she felt all of the spirits enter her body. As the whirlwind receded, she
came to rest on the ground, falling to her knees once more as she panted
gently, trying to regain her breath.

Rummaging through her pack a moment, she pulled out her pipes and a tinderbox.
Sniffing in the herb-filled cup of each, she pulled the faeleaf pipe away from
the rest and lit it, taking a long draw of smoke from it. She took up her
cudgel while she was thinking of it, holding it tight in her right hand. She
sorted through her vials, taking a small sip of quicksilver, then fire and
frost immediately afterwards. She felt a brief flash of heat then a slight
shiver as the latter two came into effect, then a few moments later she seemed
to see with greater clarity, the world apparently slowing down a fraction for
her.

She took a kafe bean from one of her pocketbelts, chewing it slowly and
swallowing it, feeling more energetic as she did so. Concentrating on death and
the absence of life, she linked her mind to that hidden channel, feeling when
they occurred the deaths of those around the realms. Holding her cudgel loosely
in her hand, she whirled it dextrousloy around her, emerald specks of light
floating around her to protect her from projectiles.

Brienne rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Barkskin, cudgel, sickle, camouflage,
rooting and red, torc, all the totem spirits, anti-weapons, deathsense, fire
and cold protection, speed, cudgel whirled, kafe bean eaten.... oh, staghide!"

She had yet to practice much of her chosen totem's abilities, preferring to
concentrate on her trade skill and artistry. Calling upon the only one she used
thus far, she felt thick stag hide imprint itself upon her skin, taking away
some of the night chill. For darkness had fallen as she had prepared herself,
and the Magnagorans were not beyong attacking at any time of day.

Suddenly, her breath caught up in her throat. They had come, several of them.
She quickly fired the names off on the commune aetherwave, telling them where
and to get ready as the enemies obviously weren't planning on leaving her
demesne soon.

She sat still as a rock, hoping they could not see through her protection and
find her where she sat. She knew there were other ways to be seen, but still,
she hoped it would pass a cursory inspection, as she never did too well when
the fighting became close. Reaching out to her demesne, she renewed the
defences she had placed earlier, urging the squirrels and the plants onward.
She sent roots out through the area, hopefully disrupting any who had hidden
underground. Reaching to the trees, she beseeched them to hinder the enemies,
pull them up into their foliage and stop them where they were. She felt one of
them die to her defences; hopefully that meant others from the commune were
there attacking them.

She kept her cudgel pointed to the east, the direction they would come from,
willing it to shoot the one she knew would come first. She kept willing, just
waiting for them to come, sending another message to the commune for aide. She
watched as the tip of her cudgel swelled up, forming a large knot of splinters
which sprayed off to the east though she could see nobody there. She drew back,
knowing that if they saw her she would not stand a chance. Small as she was, a
few good hits from a sword and she would be down.

Anxious now, she looked around for any sign of her enemies, hoping she could do
something before she was discovered. She could not move, no matter how much she
might dislike dying. She broadcast once more to the commune, before turning her
mind completely back to her demesne. She saw, with a faint feeling of horror,
one of the undead leaders of Magnagora, hiding behind the protective veil of
Yesod. Pointing her cudgel, she called upon the darkseed to grow within him,
and watched as he swelled up with vines from the inside out, entangling him
hopelessly. She clambered up into the trees, hoping for a brief respite. She
heard her commune mates coming, felt the death of the one she had entangled.
She clung to the treebranches to avoid being blown out, and waited for her
power to return to full. She bowed her head a moment, regaining her mental
reserves as she waited.

Sensing more deaths, she snapped her head up from her meditation the moment her
power had returned, and calling a quick warning to the commune to leave her
demesne, as a number of her enemy were still in it, she moved quickly to the
west and clambered down. Raising her cudgel high above her head, she then
slammed it down, breaking it and calling down the fury of nature. The skies
darkened, the trees shook, and slowly, aching minutes dragged on as the fury of
nature built around her. She stayed still, awaiting the hurt but knowing the
damage would be much worse for the Magnagorans.

And suddenly, it lashed out. She cried out in pain as it invaded her body,
feeling as though she was being pulled apart. She heard more cries rise up on
the wind, felt the deaths of several and even one of her commune mates. She
trembled and frowned slightly, noticing that, but remained still, trying to
recover from the wounds her demesne had inflicted upon her. Without notice, a
sword struck at her out of nowhere, removing her defence against weapons and
then biting deep into her flesh a moment later. She screamed, near dead from
the hit, frantically trying to imagine a white light so she could shield
herself, but it was too late. The sword bit deep into her flesh again, and she
realised she had been slain.

She heard her commune mates cry out over the deaths on the commune channel, and
those of the others fighting at present. She tried to sigh, but remembering she
could not, began to pray. She watched as the Basin grew ever smaller beneath
her as she floated away from her body, watched as everything receded until she
saw nothing but chaos and light and darkness. She felt her insignificance as
she watched it play out before her, felt her importance, too, felt so many
things she wanted to cry out. She pondered life and death, realising she was
doomed to complete this cycle time and time again until she recovered whatever
fragment it was that had left her a part of this wheel, wondered about her
previous lives and caught fragments of them as she drifted.

She thought back on her current incarnation, thought on the goals she had
accomplished, the missions she had failed, everything from her birth to the
present point in time. Realising that she had indeed died, she wished once more
she could sigh, and then found herself surrounded by a cold, harsh light. She
knew the light for what it was, a draught of forgetfulness, the potion that
would sweep away her life when it was time to move on to the next incarnation,
the next body, and was saddened at the thought of needing to repeat everything
she had learned over again, maybe some things different, but still, so much
learning to be redone.

The light faded from around her, and she found herself in an empty chamber,
nothing to be seen except a vast tapestry in front of her, seeming to stretch
out on either side of her infinitely. Trying to seperate threads and read the
patterns, realising that they told the story of individual lives, but was
confused by the complexity of the weave, the threads that were interwoven all
over the place. But there ... what was that? So bright and silvery, a single
thread caught her eye, and somehow she managed to follow it, not losing track.
She realised it was her own life. It was then that she noticed the figures of
three women standing alongside her, watching the thread of her own life. She
heard the three women talking about it, and as she listened, was awestruck to
realise that they were the Fates, the vey ones who wove and upkept this
tapestry.

All of a sudden, a beam of moonlight struck Brienne, seemingly solid, strong
but soft, and she heard the sound of sweet chanting and felt herself drawn to
it. Blinking, she looked around, finding herself in the centre of a Moon Circle
filled with her commune mates. She smiled, still a little awed by her encounter
with the Fates. Each of them reached out, touching her forehead and filling her
once more with vitality. Shaking her head slightly, she hugged each one,
thanking them. "I must be going back now, I cannot leave my demesne too long."
They nodded, understanding, and watched as Brienne set off to guard the
mountains once more.