Summersong

He had come seeking Arduinna , but that wasn't how the Wildwood worked. It had turned him around, spat him out, and made him struggle to empty his swirling thoughts of the beautiful, mysterious Fae woman before it let him get more than a few hundred yards beneath its branches. He walked with his harp in its case behind him, his flute tucked in to the pack at his side along with a pair of sweet seed loaves he had made on his own, practicing what Amalia had taught him, and a small bottle of Valair cider. His rapier hung at his side, as it always did when he went abroad in the woods, as much a part of him as the instruments, though the steel sang a different sort of song.

He didn't think he would need it today, but he was not fool enough to underestimate the Wildwood and its dangers, and there was no telling what he might run into as he went seeking--

Nothing. He was seeking nothing, he firmly reminded himself, and the trees seemed to imperceptibly relax around him as he walked silently beneath their cooling shade, gratefully breathing in the scent of the Green. Phoebe and Remi had mentioned something about a sickness of the Woods, but he had seen no sign of it yet. Perhaps, if today's search didn't pan out, he could investigate it more closely on the way back.

Eventually his rambling amble brought him to a part of the woods he had not been in before. There was a grand tree that rose above the rest of even those towering giants that made up the Wildwood, and the trees around it all seemed to give it respectful space and obeisance. The bard stopped and stared in awe for several minutes, trying to take in the beauty of the ancient bole and the majesty of its spreading boughs. He approached cautiously, but sensing no threat he laid an appreciative hand upon a great root that humped nearly to his waist. This tree had been around long before the Barrier had, he knew, just from the size of it. Beautiful and powerful, it reminded him of someone...

Ah, yes.

With a chuckle to himself he unslung his instruments and found a place to settle on soft moss, his back supported by the great tree's roots. He took his time in the early afternoon sunlight that occasionally trickled down like raindrops to scatter on and around him, tuning his harp and coaxing its tones to rich honey as the songbirds around him added their own music to the day. At last, when he was sure he was as ready as he could be, he licked his lips and began to sing to the tree and the forest around him, hoping they would carry his words to their lady.

"When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair..."

ARDUINNA

"What a beautiful voice you have."

She speaks in tones of honeysuckle and lilac, and her sigh is as sweet as the breeze that rustles through the branches of Mathair.

If Jigano looks up he will see her draped in the mother-tree's boughs, her sheer slips of clothing aflutter like the leaves, her fiery hair unbound. Golden eyes watch, hooded and languid, as the bard coaxes and teases his song from the harp.

"Truly. I see you are not all talk, sweet one. What wonder you bring to the Wildwood with your melody." She grins.

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!

He managed not to jerk at the unexpected words, but the bard still tensed, the notes of the harp lingering in the silence that followed the statement. He knew that voice, though he'd only heard it once, and he forced himself to relax as he tilted his head back to smile graciously at the woodland monarch, at ease upon her living throne. "You are looking positively enchanting again today, great Lady," he murmured, knowing that while flattery didn't get one everywhere, it rarely hurt to compliment those to whom favors were owed.

"Your words are kind, indeed. I will not pretend my skills are humble, but I am glad that they bring you pleasure. You have been much on my mind since last we met... both your beauty and the assistance that you granted to myself and those with me. In fact, I was hoping I might find you amidst your leaf-crowned court." He cocked his head to the side while looking up at her, squinting against a sudden spangle of sunlight across his eyes. His smile was demure but holding an edge of mischief as he coaxed a liquid trickle of notes from his harp, echoing the song of a nearby bird. "One good turn deserves another, as the saying goes among my people. In exchange for the help you provided, I have composed a song in your singular honor, lovely Arduinna. Would you care to hear it?"

Although outwardly confident, there was still a core of anxiety twisted around the warnings he had received from Sam and Ianto, and he waited with bated breath to hear whether she would accept his offering.

ARDUINNA

"I am only as enchanting as the forest that holds me," she murmurs softly, stroking a reverent hand along Mathair; the great tree stirs, only slightly, at her touch. "Unfortunately, that very same forest grows wan and weak, and I am unsure why."

In a spangle of sunlight Arduinna is gone from the boughs and standing among the roots before Jigano, wild and fey and enjoying the tiny flowers that bend towards her bare feet. "A song you say?" she echoes, glancing up at him and giving a smile like the sweetest honey.

"I would be honoured to hear it, bard."

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!

Jigano's dashing smile faded at the mention of troubles within the trees, and he tilted his head in confusion, drawing breath to ask what she meant. Before he could form the words, however, she vanished, only for her voice to bring his head down to watch her in wide-eyed wonder. Had she moved so fast he couldn't see? Had she teleported? Questions that bubbled like brewing tea, eager and curious and reaching for answers the way the flowers reached for the light.

Her personal abilities were fascinating, but her mention of the forest was far more perplexing. His tongue itched to ask about what she meant, but he was not one to keep a lady waiting if he could help it. Jigano cleared his throat delicately, humming his way to his starting note as deft fingers began to dance across the strings of his harp in a new melody, sprightly and warm, but with the occasional dip towards the lower notes, a hint of thunder, of power, rumbling below the lighter tune.

"Then, great lady, I will begin." So saying he drew a breath, and his low tenor soared sweetly through the summer air once more.

"The Lady of the Woods is fair,
With emerald eyes and fiery hair;
With skin like cream and smile so bright
Through Glade and Grove she walks in light.

The Lady of the Woods is spry;
Sly mischief twinkles in her eye.
But for those who’ve earned her time
Her laughter ripples like a chime.

The Lady of the Woods is kind;
Those who are lost she’ll help to find;
Those who would seek she’ll safely lead
To what it is they truly need.

The Lady of the Woods is wise;
Her tongue speaks truth, her ears know lies.
And if you dare lead her astray
The trees themselves will make you pay.

The Lady of the Woods is fair,
She always claims her well-earned share.
You cannot run, you cannot hide
Both Grove and Glade are on her side."

He let the final notes hang trembling in the air beneath the Mathair until the scolding of a squirrel broke the spell, and then he placed a hand over his heart, offering Arduinna a seated half-bow. "I hope you find it pleasing, lady Arduinna. I tried to capture both your brightness and your strength in my lyrics, though no merely mortal words can do you proper justice, I fear."

ARDUINNA

Jigano begins, and oh does he begin. Arduinna sits herself upon a large root bucking from the ground, her silks draping about her as she tilts her head back and closes her eyes to hear the sweetness in his song. Why, but he is a flatterer. And a marvellous one at that. A smile too crooked to be sweet spreads across her face as she hears the truth beneath the pomp, and it is clear that she is pleased with that too.

As the melody slows and fades, Arduinna looks up, eyes near molten with pleasure. "My my, bard," she croons. "What must I offer you, that you will stay and play for me always?" And there was something suddenly serious in her gaze, something hungry that suggested she planned to get exactly that.

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!

She had liked it, he could see it in her eyes and the predatory curl of her smile that sent invisible hackles rising all along his neck and shoulders. Her voice slid around his neck like the forest's vines had tightened around his leg that day they had first met, and he knew with a cold trickle of fear that he had overestimated himself this time.

If he had not received heartfelt warnings from Sam and and heard Ianto's story he might have tried to play off her offer as a joke, coming up with something silly to keep the mood light. Now, though, his arrogance shriveled and it was all he could do to offer a dashing smile and a nod of acknowledgment. "Your offer does me great honor," he said, and humbled was indeed the right word, though not just because of her compliment. "But as the migrating bird would sicken and die if kept in a cage, no matter how gilded the bars and wondrous the company, so too would I, great Lady." He paused but briefly to play a cascade of notes from a tragic ballad across the harp, while he mentally scrambled for something else to catch her attention with, and recalled the worrisome question she had raised before. "Indeed, even as you said your forest grows weak. But what do you mean by that?" His curiosity was genuine, his brow furrowing in concern. "Compared to the land within the barrier your woods are a paradise."

ARDUINNA

Her smile does not fade, even at his pretty words, his attempts to flit and flutter away. "Oh, but these woods are no cage. They are, as you say, a paradise. What bird would not wish to fly through these trees for always, to sing and to live out their time in peace?" With a flutter of her dark lashes, Arduinna slips down from the root to stand before the bard expectantly. That said, however, he is wise in his distraction, and her expression darkens somewhat.

"The forest has come down with a sickness," she says. "I know not what it is, only that the flowers wilt and the trees rot. There is the stench of infection in the air. It has only been since your barrier came down that it has been noticed."

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!

Her smile was a thing of light, further inspiration for the composition of ballads to her beauty, but the perfectly white and even teeth in it were a reminder that foxes were only very small predators in the grand scheme of things, and that there were far more dangerous creatures that walked the woods. "Are they not both?" Jigano asked softly, his fingers continuing the slow drift of music from his harp, idle notes trilling back the birdsongs around them. "Is there not yet another barrier beyond them, confining their reach?"

He looked up to watch her with thoughtful blue eyes as she moved to join him on the ground, her movements as graceful as a dance. Her voice might have held the lilt of song, but her words were serious and he exhaled slowly, brow furrowing as he considered her words. "Something from within, then," he said quietly, frustration and regret in his voice. "Unintended, but still..." Idle fingers turned restless on his strings, finding a more structured rhythm as he hummed to himself before looking up at the Lady of the Wood. "If we were the ones to accidentally release it, I would ask - beg - that we be given a chance to help fix it," he said quietly. "May I please see these sickened plants? And..." He raised a brow at her, wry and rueful as he admitted his fault. "I know we - I - have walked where Delah would prefer I not but... do you think she might be convinced to let some of us foolish humans attempt to work with the Fae to find a cure for this sickness, if their own scholars cannot find one on their own?"

ARDUINNA

"No barriers, not if one knows the way." Arduinna tilts her head back to enjoy the sunlight dappling on her face through the trees. "At least that is how it used to be. The storms are a barrier all on their own, now."

Ah, but he has successfully distracted her with talk of the forest, and she is keen to keep that conversation flowing. "Delah will do as Delah likes," she says simply. "I care not what you decide that concerns her. But you speak of helping. What is to say you will not do more damage? What then, bard? What compensation do you bring the woods if you fail?"

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!

"The storms..." Jigano repeated, grimacing faintly. The barrier might have fallen but that only meant their cage was larger now. Not without reason, from what Safrin had told him and what he had seen of the Voice himself. It galled him that his friends and family, natural and outlander alike, were punished - that he was punished - for the sins of the ancient Ascended godling, and he had chafed against those restraints no less than the others, even as he did against the current ones. Still, he would not deny that in spite of his best efforts, the Spire had been breached and fallen, and the Ascended released once more into the world.

And now there was a sickness of the woods that had appeared at the same time... Coincidence?

Unlikely.

He looked up at Arduinna soberly, nodding reluctantly at the fairness of her point. "I cannot promise that we won't," he acknowledged heavily. "This is the first I've heard of this sickness, so I have no idea what its cause is. Conjecture, yes," he admitted, "but without seeing it, it's only a guess. And I sincerely hope I am wrong." He closed his eyes, drawing in a slow breath before looking up at the Wild Fae once more, his smile sad. "I cannot promise recompense from anyone but myself, fair Arduinna, and nothing I have or am could balance such a debt. I wish to help, and I know others who would as well... but your power far surpasses mine, and that of anyone I know, as does your knowledge of these Woods. If you think that a human touch would only make things worse then I will carry your words back to the Settlement, for those willing to listen."

He tilted his head at her, a birdlike gesture as his touch on the strings gentled to a more soothing melody. "I assume the Fae are already researching their own histories for the time from before the barrier was raised. I can at least peruse the records of the human ancestors of those who lived here, as well, to see if I can find a description of any similar sickness, if you would allow it. Perhaps together our combined knowledge will prove more complementary than our previous encounters with the Fae of the Village," he added with a wry smile.

ARDUINNA

He spins a pretty tune with both instrument and word, and Arduinna does not hide the fact that she is impressed. Jigano dances well around her questions, her probes, her attempts to persuade and disarm, and he will be a valuable ally, she decides, regardless of all else. "Those within the village and upon the Sea of Branches are doing what they can to find a cause and a cure, yes," she says - and unlike Delah, she does not begrudge a human touch.

"Perhaps so, bard. Very well, then. Do your research, and I will wait and I will watch. Let us see what our combined knowledge brings us." Absently she reaches out to stroke a hand over the mother-tree's roots, golden gaze troubled but for a moment as she glances up at it.

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!

He nodded at the information that the Fae were already moving to try and find a record of such a sickness in their histories - and, ideally, a means to treat it. If it was related to the Voice, as he feared (he remembered an evening in the Woodlands, and snow on the ground, and a strange tree that wasn't a tree, made of black stuff and glass, that he had brought Isla to, and his stomach clenched at the thought) then the only treatment might be to raise the Barrier once more... but since the Old Gods had not yet done so, perhaps that was already out of the question. But perhaps their heralds, who had lived with the Ascended godling for so long, would be willing to offer assistance if asked? This was not his world, where mortals could challenge godlings and live to tell the tale...

Well. Excepting Ronin, perhaps. But that good man was still getting used to his new body, and wasn't ready for another grand confrontation so soon.

Jigano shook off his thoughts, fingers finally stilling as he carefully untuned his harp and slipped it into his case. He rose, offering Arduinna a deeply respectful bow, for there was little lightness to be found in this topic, and a great deal of concern. "Would you please show me an example of this sickness? So I will know what the symptoms look like, if I find records of the past that tell of it, or something similar?"

ARDUINNA

Arduinna watches as he puts his harp away - so delicately and carefully, as if it were a child, she decides - and follows him with her eyes as he rises to his feet. "One would think," she says slowly, "that you have never seen rotting wood before. Very well then, bard. Follow, if you would."

Without another word Arduinna leaps to the air, and where once there was a woman now soars a barn owl the colour of moonlight. Swooping in a slow circle about the mother tree, she waits but a moment before leading Jigano away, further into the Wildwood.

It is some time before she pauses, and when she takes to the ground again and straightens up in her two-legged form, it is with great sorrow and pain upon her face. As though the woods here harm her, somehow. Around them lies a broken glade, the trees and flowers withered, the leaves the colour of ashes. "Like old parchment. Like the life has been sucked out," she whispers.

Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown

Table by Sky!