Chương 108: The Fetchwoods

Eoin had a plan. Eoin always had a plan. The fact that whenever he was around Miriam always felt like she was being pulled along on his string was not lost on her. Did he even really know how to save Sol? Or was he just leading her along like a kite on a string, baiting her with what he knew she wanted in order to achieve his own ends? It was entirely possible, she decided. She also decided that it didn't matter. For now what he wanted was the same as what she wanted - at least it seemed to be.

Get her strong enough to enter the Third Ring. Whether saving Sol was an enticing lie or a real goal or an irresistible lure didn't matter yet. It didn't change what they needed to do next. The path Eoin took them in was the opposite direction of Shirren. It would take them a week, he declared. Well, a week at Miriam's speed. In exchange for that time on the road he promised a safe haven from Caolán Séarlait's Vigilance techniques - a place he could not peer into.

Róise at least would also be safe from his prying eyes due to the nature of his Adept class - she was too like him, right down to her blood. Cormac might prove a weak spot there, but now that he was aware of it, it was likely his Luck would help shield him from detection. Miriam needed that sort of safety if she was to take the time needed to improve.

"Can't you just fly us there on your cloud?" Miriam complained.

"I could, but I don't want to," Eoin said matter-of-factly.

"You need to push your body to help you unlock Third. How can you possibly break through to Third if you haven't even exhausted what Second can do?" That was how they ended up with Miriam running along an overgrown mountain trail, followed by a Selkie riding cross-legged on a cloud, the body of a still mist-wrapped Sol behind him.

Eoin thought it best not to give Solas any more chances to try anything, so keeping him unconscious seemed like the wisest choice, via the mist ability Eoin called Sleep of the Mist Dancer, which was one of the prettier names for a technique Miriam had heard. At first Miriam had thought her Second body to be incapable of fatigue. She ran for hours without feeling the slightest hint of exhaustion. It was thrilling really, as all her physical exertions had been.

She had not been so long in the Tír that the memory of being old and frail had escaped her and every time she found herself capable of more than she had been able to do the day before was euphoric. Eoin had only shook his head.

"Of course you're not getting tired. When I told you to exhaust what Second could do, did you think I meant with a leisurely morning jog? Faster! Faster until you can't go for more than twenty minutes. Don't worry," he grinned.

"I'll keep up." Miriam resisted being annoyed - this is what she asked for. Harsh training. Faster results than anyone could expect. So she ran. And in doing so, she realized what her problem was. She had still been pacing herself to a human stride. She could run faster than her mind was used to dealing with, and it was that more than the work her muscles did that began to fatigue her. Her Dryad ability to be surefooted in the forest seemed to only work as fast as her ability to process the world around her could.

She nearly ran into a tree a dozen times, and did collide with three. Her feet stumbled on roots and rocks in a way that she had never had to worry about in Cianán's Walk.

"Not bad," Eoin said as she tumbled to her bottom after a rough slip on a patch of grass.

"Not bad?" Miriam dusted herself off, panting.

"I'm like a blind chicken out here! I can go fast, but my reaction time is terrible."

"Yes," Eoin said.

"You see why running like this is good training. But, effort is useless if not paired with knowledge. I could run through here at twice the speed. Why do you think that is?"

"You're a Fifth!" Miriam complained.

"Of course you can run it faster."

"But why?" Eoin hopped down from the cloud.

"You're a Second. Why are your muscles faster than your brain?"

"Is it because my Life Nature is still First?" Miriam had felt a little self-conscious about that and often wondered if it was holding her back here.

"No," Eoin said.

"We'll fix that soon. But think. Remember what you've learned. What is the body?"

"Fórsa," Miriam said slowly.

"Correct. What is the Mind?"

"It's… also fórsa."

"Right. Just as you learned earlier today that your perception of your body was holding you back from greater speed, so too is your perception of your mind. Your increased fórsa density allows you to move your muscles faster - why should it also not allow your mind to move faster? You're trying to use your brain as it was to control a body it was never made for. You must learn to think differently to control a different body." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Miriam stared at him, confused.

"But how do I do that? Thinking is how I make my body do anything, including going faster. How do I think at my own thoughts to go faster?"

"Ah, now you've arrived at the crux of it! What speed do you choose to think in now?"

"I don't. I just… think."

"All your life you've built a clock inside yourself. How fast you breathe, how quickly your heart beats when you're excited, how fast you react to danger. When you start, you spend most of your life on this one speed, or more accurately use that as a baseline, because those are your physical limits. Now that those physical limits are different, you need to train your mind to get used to new speeds. So. Running as fast as you can and trying not to hit trees is a pretty good way to start doing that."

Miriam looked at the scrapes on her hands from trying to stop herself.

"Even if it looks stupid?" Eoin grinned.

"I won't tell anyone." Miriam ran without feeling much improvement for two more days. Each night she collapsed into a puddle by the fire, exhausted beyond what she thought simply running could produce. The third day the task had become so repetitive that she found herself zoning out as she ran, despite knowing exactly how dangerous that would be at the speeds she was running.

She was beginning to enjoy the dull burn in her muscles from the exercise and the snow had given way to pleasantly warm days as they had descended the mountain. The sky was blue and a nice breeze felt wonderful on her skin.

"You haven't hit a tree all day," Eoin remarked a few hours past noon. Miriam skidded to a halt.

"What?"

"I've been watching you. You stopped thinking about thinking and just ran." Eoin smiled.

"You let your body's speed drive your mind. That's real progress." Miriam looked around at the pleasant day she'd been enjoying.

"Huh. So… the key is to stop thinking so hard and just run?"

"You know, it just might be!" By the end of the week Miriam found that she could even avoid obstacles when she was thinking about them. It didn't feel faster - she would have expected her mind running at a higher speed to make her feel smarter or somehow wiser - but the results were hard to deny. Her reaction time, her ability to process information from her senses, had all accelerated.

Soon the deciduous trees that had followed them all the way over the mountain began to give way to older, gnarled oaks with leaves of such color and vibrancy that would be unthinkable for any tree to have back in Miriam's world. Here Eoin slowed them, looking around warily.

"Now we put the training on pause," Eoin said.

"This is the edge of the Fetchwoods. It's both the thing that will stop Caolán Séarlait from spying on us and a dangerous obstacle in our path."

"Dangerous to me, right?" Miriam teased.

"What in the Second Ring could hurt you?" Eoin smiled mirthlessly.

"Usually you would be correct. But the Fetchwoods are a different beast altogether. The Fetch that call these forests home are a wild, feral species. More spirit than corporeal being. They are masters of Mindcraft and illusion." He looked back at the unconscious Sol.

"Our friend Solas would be but a dim candle to their bonfire in terms of Mind fórsa."

"What does their power do?"

"They show you your death," Eoin said bluntly.

"They will appear to you as visions of yourself and the ways in which you might meet your end. It's important to remember that as far as I have seen in all the Tír, no one can truly predict the future. These are likely fears pulled from your mind and given form, nothing more. But such is the power of their Mind fórsa that you will believe it. From there they will lure you to your true death - but it won't be the vision they've shown you. It'll be a knife to the throat." Miriam shivered.

"Gods. Every time I think I have gotten used to the twisted nature of this place another horror presents itself. How do we fight them?" Eoin looked at her squarely, his pale blue eyes intense in a way that she had not seen on him before. He is actually afraid, she marveled to herself.

"The only way to fight them is to avoid them entirely. This path we are on is the only safe path through the Fetchwoods. And, it's only safe because a few hundred years ago I did a resident of the village which sits inside the Fetchwoods a very large favor. The terms of our pact are that I and anyone I bring with me are safe on the path. If we leave the path, or do any harm to the villagers, that protection is null and void. Do not leave the path. Simple enough, right?"

"I'll go at a pace I can think at," she said playfully, but nodded to let him know she understood the risks. The path degraded the further they walked into the wood, narrowing with such tight curves among imposing trees that Eoin had to adjust his cloud to carry Sol as if he were standing upright. Miriam walked at a painfully slow pace that she realized would have been brisk before, but was careful to keep her eyes on the scant path ahead of her.

"Maybe we should have flown over on your cloud," Miriam said.

"Actually, yeah, why didn't we do that?"

"Part of the pact," Eoin said grimly.

"I can only enter the village through this path. Presumably so they know we're coming. This is an extremely isolated village, and the Fetchwoods are its only protection. They guard its safety with extreme intensity." Patient. He's very patient.

"Eoin?" Miriam whirled, the voice echoing in her head. He frowned.

"Did you hear something?"

"A voice… in my head. You didn't hear that?"

"No. I…" His eyes darkened.

"Now I do. It's the Fetch. They're not supposed to try to force us off the path, but I suppose whispering to us doesn't count." He's waiting for his moment. Miriam spun again, as this whisper seemed right behind her left shoulder.

"Calm, Miriam," Eoin said.

"They're trying to distract you." Let's give him a chance! We never get to meet our Outward brethren! Miriam turned slowly to Eoin.

"Eoin, they're saying -" One moment his attention was on her, then suddenly he jerked to the side, as if avoiding an incoming arrow. At that moment Sol opened his eyes and grinned."'You must stay on the path, Miriam!'" Solas taunted from behind Sol's face. Then he broke free of the mist cloud and tackled her, carrying both of them into the darkened woods beyond.