A new affinity had not presented itself for over a century. Every power known to Witch and Wizard alike sourced from one of the four elements. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. That was always the way it worked. Supernatural power came from Mother Nature and was therefore bound by her laws — as were we all. The spectrum of power a witch could be blessed with only dealt with objective abilitiies, inanimate powers that closely represented the characteristics of it’s parent element.

So at first when the trees started talking, poor Cadaeri thought she was losing her mind.

She was a twenty-one year old Giftless witch, alone in the woods for a reason she suddenly could not remember. Although her affinity had not presented yet, she wasn’t without base abilities and instincts — ones that had been honed by the Elders to such a degree that she was constantly aware of every creature and critter within a hundred-yard radius. She used this ability to confirm that there were no humans around apart from her own self. She had never been wrong before, not once.

But the voices were RIGHT there beside both of her ears as if the people each had two mouths that could wrap around her head. The sound of the voices had a distinct quality. There was a tone, a pitch, a certain level of clairty, something that made Cadaeri sure that they were definitely audible and not in her head.

But. There. Was. No. One. Around.

The young girls sharp mind scrambled to make sense of what was happening. Was the wither beginning already? She was only twenty one! She knew witches that didn’t get her their gifts until close to their thirties. It wasn’t possible her vessel was starting it’s process of decay already! It just wasn’t.

So that left two options: either she was going crazy or there were actual voices speaking an actual language coming from somewhere around her that was NOT human.

The voices didn’t even sound right. They seemed to be more masuline than feminine in their pitch but their was a certain sharpess that made them sound like their anatamoty wasn’t built for this mode of communication. There was also an echo that she knew shouldn’t exist in that hollow forest.

“Her thoughts are still too loud,” one of the voices said in a language she’d never heard before yet somehow understood with ease.

“I wonder when she’ll know,” another voice whispered.

“She already knows.” The first voice tsk’ed as if agitated. “She’s about to remember if you’d LET ME FOCUS.”

So the first one was angry, apparently? The humanistic emotional expression was a small comfort to Cadaeri.

“Hello?” She called out to the glistening forest. Morning sunlight streamed through the trees and the dew made the ground sparkle like it was blanketed in a million tiny Suns.

The sight was actually quite beautiful. Everything was gold and green and brown. Buttery and soft and warm. But something had shifted and things were not right. Reality had entered one of it’s off-kiltered phases. As she stood there and listened to the voices she could not see, something told her she was not safe there. Her body begged to run at the same time as her feet dug into the soil as if in direct response. A direct act of disobedience.

“Why has she come?” One of the voices caught her attention. It was louder than the others.

“She is our messenger. Her time to remember is nigh,” another voice said. This one was new too and even louder than the previous. All the other voices faded as if they belonged to invisible people that began sauntering off towards the glowy sunrise.

“Her soul craves to go home.” The loudest one continued. “She is old and she is tired. She’s ready to remember what she is and finish her journey.”

“Ah,” the other exhaled, as if it finally understood. “Her light is so warm. I want her to touch me. I WANT herrrrr. I want her NOW.”

Cadaeri kept finding herself lost in listening to their conversations. She knew she should be trying to figure out what was going on. Trying to get them to communicate with her. She should at the very least be assessing if these entities were hostile. For the most obscure reason that she may never know Cadaeri couldn’t manage to move any part of her body and her mind wasn’t panicking as much as it should have been because her attention kept getting sucked into the conversation like a vortex.

“Are you hearing us yet, Cadaeri?” The loudest one asked.

Hearing her name spoken by that ethereal otherworldly voice felt like it shifted something in the center of her being. The voices had been talking to her AND about her. Of course this was true. Things were starting to rise up in her mind. Things long forgotten and still so familiar.

Cadaeri watched the forest grow brighter, the sun rising in conjunction with her fear and resolve. Part of her didn’t want to be there but the whole of her knew that was exactly where she was meant to be and that it was good even though it was unpleasant.

“Cadaeri, Little One, stop trying to understand. You already KNOW. You must only remember. Now focus on my voice and answer my question with yours. Can you hear us?”

“You know I can!” She snapped angrily. Her eyes went wide and her arms suddenly thawed enough so that she could cover her gasp. She hadn’t meant to say that. Couldn’t fathom WHY she would. She had no idea what they knew. She didn’t even know what THEY were.

The Loud One chuckled and it boomed through the forest, seeming to boomerang around each tree and come back to her ears over and over, echoes overlapping so rapidly it drifted into just one singular note. When it finally died down the voice spoke again. “Release your thoughts, Little One. All you have to do is tell them to go away. I must tell you things now and you must be able to hear me.”

Go away? That’s all she had to say to shut her thoughts off? Did she just have to think it? Or must it be spoken.

“Say it aloud, Child. Say, ‘I release my thoughts and command my mind to be still so that I may receive my message’.”

Cadaeri’s mouth opened and the words flowed out instantly, like they had been in her mouth for years just begging for release. Her desire to understand faded away. All she needed to do was observe. That was easy. She could do that. A heaviness spread through her limbs that felt warm and comforting. It felt to be coming up through her feet from the earth itself. Cadaeri became consumed by her senses. She heard, saw, smelled, tasted, and felt EVERYTHING. And she was somehow able to spread her awareness so wide that she could take it all in with equal attention and appreciation.

“Well done,” The Loud One said. The vibrations of it’s voice pressed into Cadaeri’s skin and then penetrated her flesh until she could feel it buzzing in her bones.

“You will go out and you will remind the soul why it chooses to come here and suffer. You will tell it to complete it’s karmic cycle so it may find the release and satisfaction it seeks. For you are but a microcosm of the macrocosm and the Collective is ready to start remembering too. You need not worry about how your message is received, only that you share it. Then you will come back here and we will take you into our roots so that you may return home.”

Cadaeri did not speak but her eyes swelled with moisture. She knew it was time for her to leave this world but she… liked it here. It was pretty and exciting. And she would miss it.

“Your soul cares not what your flesh desires. Your attachment to it is too strong anyway. That’s why it’s taken you this long to break through the veil and reach us.” There was a long pause. “Your path is your path and you will be ready for death by the time you return. If you decide you want to continue this mortal existence you may, but you won’t want to.”

She perked up. “I can stay a little longer if I want to?”

“Yes, child.” The Loud One suddenly spoke quieter. “Now heed our message and give truth to the masses.”

Something rough and jagged stabbed into the soft bottoms of Cadaeri’s feet. She screamed, her back arching violently as she felt her soles being split open. Her newly upgraded level of awareness caused her to be so overwhelmed by the pain that she fainted, but the very things that were burrowing into her bones also kept her from falling over. So she just stood there, standing straight up, falling in and out of consciousness, screaming and crying every time her eyes shot open. She couldn’t tell how long that went on for but finally she came awake, opened her eyes and everything was dark but the pain was gone. After a few moments she realized that she was face down on the mossy forest floor, breathing in dirt and blades of grass. She rolled onto her back and looked up at the sky. The sun was directly above her, winking at her through the canopy of leaves and branches. How long had she endured whatever… that was?

The voices were quiet now but they weren’t gone. She could feel them. She could feel EVERYTHING. And she understood it all. They had nothing else to say. It was her turn to speak. She stood up, feeling every bit of the pain in her feet. She cried and fumbled the whole way out of the woods even though she felt as calm as the forest had looked that morning. She let her mortal body mourn it’s impending demise. She let it beg to live while she stayed as quiet as the trees.

She passed her home in the forest where her coven resided. She kept both hands clamped over her mouth as she snuck past them weeping as inaudibly as possible. Getting to her destination took hours longer than it should have due to the poor condition of her feet. When she entered the town the people there didn’t know what to think.

A young woman fumbling through the cobblestone streets bare foot. Long black hair wild and matted. Dirt-smeared face. A black slip made of silk and lace riddled with rips and tears and souvenirs from the forest. Bloody footprints trailing behind her sinisterly. Some of the townspeople tried to come to her aid but she didn’t stop crying until they got her to the middle of the town where she could sit on the side of their community well. By then everyone was there, drawn by the sounds of her dispair.

They asked her what was wrong and she told them. “I’m just going to miss it.”

They didn’t understand. Nothing she said made sense.

She told them of reality — of the souls desire to suffer for the sake of growth and experience. She knew they would listen but not hear. She knew they would refuse to believe. This was one of the few times in history when Nature allowed proof to be shown. And when she showed them evidence of her new found powers they bound her in rope and burnt her alive. Her ashes were carried by a phantom wind for miles, never touching down until they met the soft soil in the forest, with those tree spirits that were eager to keep their promise.