Chapter 7 - Departing the Haven

After instructing Fen to pack up his more important belongings Laurence walked out of the building and sat down. He looked out over the vista before him and relaxed. This would be his last chance to enjoy the water flowing into the great valley or the rainbows that covered the treeline, obscuring it in bright colours. He knew that it was highly unlikely that he would return to this location whether his journey failed or succeeded. His existence was having far too much of an effect on the surrounding environment, even with all the restrictions he placed upon his hill. The very nature of the work he was doing warped the way that life existed in his vicinity. It was unstoppable, and even Fen had been affected. It was to a much lesser extent than to the rest of the world which had been bathing in his presence for near to an entire cycle, but even so the boy was geared far more to the creation of living objects than anyone Laurence had ever seen before. Every single object that the boy made had a living component to it. It was like Laurence’s odd connection to the nature of time and space.

Twenty minutes went by before Fen came outside with Peter and Rose. He was carrying as many wooden sculptures in his arms as he could possibly hold, while Peter was carrying one or two that the boy had dropped. Placing them down on the ground he smiled bashfully at Laurence before arranging them in order of perfection. As the boy’s skill increased so did the size of the objects he was left with at the end. The first being a frog that was rather crude in form and simple in detail, traveling through the animal kingdom and ending with a simple block of wood with something coming out of it. Even now Laurence could easily tell that the new sculpture would be far and away the young boy’s finest work yet.

“Master,” Fen began. “I don’t really have a way of carrying all these things, but this is what I want to keep with me while I travel”.

“Don’t worry, Fen. I have that covered for you already”. Laurence took out the ring he had made for the boy and placed it upon his index finger. “This ring is called The Pain of Loss. It’s something I finally managed to perfect today. The ring is tied to probably my strongest memory, and will create a shield to protect you whenever you’re in danger. It also has a storage space laced into it, but the space is not a massive one by any means”.

“How do I get into the storage space?” Laurence could see that Fen was excited by the ring. It was rare that he ever gave the boy anything of his own creation, he simply did not want to taint Fen’s perception for his creative path. The boy was in some ways an experiment for Laurence, but in others he was like a son. Laurence would make sure that Fen had everything he needed to be safe during his journey through the tower, as long as there was no impact to the boy’s future.

“It’s relatively simple. You simply focus on the inside of the ring and an image of a space should appear within your mind. Once the image of the space has appeared you can just think about putting the object of your choice inside and it should transport there”.

As he spoke Fen began focusing on on the ring. There was a flash and the flame symbol that crested the ring glowed for a moment before one after the other, each statue that Fen had placed on the ground disappeared into the ring on his finger. The boy smiled and puffed his chest out with pride as he looked at what he had done first time before turning back to Laurence. “Master,” he said, the excitement obvious in his tone. “I did it first time!”

“Well done Fen. Now, have you got changes of clothing and bedding to sleep on?”

“I do, it’s in my bag... Oh no! My bag is in my room!” He yelped and ran back into the building like a hare with a fox on its tail. Laurence smiled and shook his head as he watched the boy scamper off into the hallways of his home for so long.

“Her seemed a bit quiet yesterday, but he's perked up greatly since then,” Peter said as he stood beside Laurence.

“He doesn't see new people often, because it's very rare for people to actually manage to reach my home. Those too weak become fertiliser for the trees, while those too strong are generally uninterested in what I make. Yun is far more reliable than me, so they generally go to find him”.

“Have you spoken to him since...” Peter trailed off.

“Since I came to my new home?”

“Sure, that”.

“No. Last I saw of him was when I told him my plan of making something that could break the cycle and her said he wanted no part in it”.

“That doesn't sound like the person I have heard so many rumours about. Did he not want to help you?”

“I don't... I don't know. I think the idea of breaking the natural order of life and death terrified him. I know it terrified Louisa”.

“Well that's not the best way to end things is it? Will you be trying to get them on board for the journey?”

“It can't hurt to try, but I still need to go home first. I need to ask my father about my origin”.

The two men stood waiting for Fen to come back outside for five minutes before the boy finally returned. He was carrying no more than before he left, but his smile had gotten wider than ever. He was obviously proud of something he had done.

“Are we ready to get going?” Laurence asked his companions. After two nods in affirmation from Peter and Fen plus the expected silence from Rose, they began moving down the hill. It was a different, far more direct route that they were traveling down than the way Peter had traveled up the hill, but Laurence could see that he was still taking care. He did not entirely trust the route they were taking, which was fair. Laurence knew better than anyone how erratic his creations could be. Imperfect revival seemed to warp the nature of anything that it happened to, turning poisons into panaceas and vice versa. The more complex an organism the more drastic and bizarre the warping. He had flocks of animals that were now ugly beyond belief and yet obsessed with order in a way that boggled the mind. So much so that when they discovered that they themselves would never be symmetrical they often went mad. Laurence had found that general revival was easy, if one did not mind the body containing a different person in both spirit and mind.

The journey moved them down the hill, past the various regions that compartmentalised Laurence’s creations and finally as the sun set they got to the bottom.

They stepped beyond Laurence’s restrictions and as the rest of the group began moving away from the hill, Laurence turned back around.

“Give me a second,” he said before he raised his arms in front of him. His fingers moved in the air as two separate symbols appeared in the air, lit by the mana that Laurence was using to create them. Finally his arms fell to the side and as they did the hill he had loved on for so long shifted and transformed into a small piece of paper that floated in front of him. Grabbing the paper, he pulled out his codex and pressed it into a blank page before closing it and turning back around to the shocked faces of Fen and Peter. “It was never actually a hill. I made the place specifically so I could focus my energies on reviving Cleo, and now that I’m beyond that for the time being, I can put the mountain away and keep all my creations from going feral in the meantime”.

Slightly stunned, Peter and Fen followed behind Laurence as he made his way to the nearest gateway into the tower proper. It was time to go home.


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