Japeth had given Isabella food for thought and so for weeks she avoided Danny and when at last they met up he was cool and angry. She wanted to pacify him, to tell him about Japeth to make his pain go away, but something inside her stopped her from doing so and so she hung out with him, even went to the pictures with him, but she kept her distance emotionally. She never commented on his drinking, but did not stay with him while he did it. She would listen to his dreams and make the odd positive remark about how he was getting through his grief, but if he did not pick it up, she left it at that and then sat quietly. She did not invite him into her invisible world for she knew he had one of his own, if he chose to go there.
One night he reached over to kiss her when he was drunk and she pulled away. His reaction was instantaneous and angry, he accused her of being a hard, cold, bitch who fed off his grief like a vulture feeds off a dead body. She was shaken to the core, too shocked to say anything and she left the tree without a word and with Danny shouting abuse at her from a distance as she walked home. Her parents were already asleep, thank goodness, so she went straight to bed, but was unable to sleep. She tossed and she turned, at 3 am Danny started texting his apologies every few minutes and in the end she removed her phone battery and went into Raven’s old room to sleep.
Dawn was coming up and she felt as if her whole invisible world had just been torn from her grasp. She called for Icarayus, without any response, she cried out for Japeth and Jonathan, no response, she even got up and went downstairs to make cardamom tea, no comfort there either. She was too angry to call out for Raven for he had created this problem, he was Danny’s friend and he should be the one dealing with Danny’s pain, not her.
How long it took for sleep to settle she did not know, but as her sobs subsided sleep must have come for Raven was standing beside her as clear as day. In his hand he held a lantern and he asked her to follow him, which she did. They walked through the forest back towards the Tree of Heaven, there was a full moon and the stars were bright so she could see well enough, even though Raven was sometimes no more than a speck in the distance. She saw foxes out hunting and small creatures scurrying towards their burrows. She heard owls in the distance and fancied she heard the low moan of the Spectas. She noticed how peaceful the forest was at night and how, without the glare of daylight, the forest floor seemed full of quiet activity and yet completely unthreatening.
Raven was standing beside the tree and she wondered why he was not climbing it, 'Is it because he has no need to climb these days?' she asked herself. As she caught up with him she noticed that there was a door in the tree that she had never seen before and Raven was entering it, with his lantern held aloft so she could see.
Inside was a very small staircase that led down into the tree roots. He entered without another word, although the smile that he gave her before he turned his back was as warm as it was broad. She followed close behind with her heart sin her mouth, she felt like Alice down the rabbit hole and immediately made a conscious decision not to follow that line of thinking, because look what happened to her!
Anyway there was no time to think, Raven was moving at quite a pace. At times she scrapped her ankle on roots that crossed her path, or banged her head on the roof when it became too small and yelped, but Raven’s pace never slowed. He did not stop. At times his lantern swung around wildly, as if he had just lost his footing and she heard him curse, but still he went down, deeper and deeper into the tree roots. The whole place smelt of wet damp earth and she wondered where the worms might be and as she did so a tree root grazed her forehead and she screamed out that a worm had attacked her. This did make Raven turn, but he laughed at her and pointed at a long tendril swinging in the darkness.
After what seemed forever the staircase flattened out and the space widened into a chamber deep in the earth. The tree roots were everywhere still but they were hung with sparkling dew drops which made them look very beautiful indeed. It was like an upside down Christmas Tree with the mass of lights twinkling brightly across the domed ceiling. The floor was covered with a soft moss that made it feel carpeted and there was a distinct smell of chamomile that she recognised from her mother’s usual tea. There was a mixture of small upended tree trunks in a circle around the edge on which was sat a number of, what she could only describe as, 'Little People.'
Although they were all very small and appeared similar at first, they were also diverse individuals which were almost impossible to describe. Later, very much later, when she described the scene to a friend, she described it as looking at a bunch of flowers. Not that each sprite was an individual representation of flower, but as a whole she felt as if she was looking at a group of daffodils, lilies, roses, bluebells, hyacinths, rhododendrons and poppies. There was lots of foliage, ferns moss, bark, branches and leaves of every shape and hue.
Clearly in charge was the sprite that had the energy and the colouring that was most similar to the Tree of Heaven. This sprite was so delicate that it took Isabella’s breath away. It moved and spoke with a fluidity that matched the wind blowing through the tree and each word seemed to settle upon the other sprites like a soft breeze. The whole feeling in the room was one of harmony and yet, Isabella could sense, there was sense of tension and urgency in the air, even though she could not understand their language. It appeared to be more like wind and movement than actual words, but the more she listened the more she felt that given time she would start to understand. It was as if their words lingered in the air.
She stood hidden behind Raven who also waited for a lull in the conversation.
Raven coughed to get their attention and they all seemed to look straight through Raven and directly at Isabella who blushed from her knees to her forehead. Some looked shocked to see her, some a little scared and some pleased.
“My sister is in need of some healing, so I have brought her to you.” Said Raven.
‘No, I am not!’ thought Isabella, but kept it to herself, or thought she did until Raven gave her a look that said, ‘Shut up.’
Two sprites peeled off from the circle, one pink, one green and beckoned for her to follow them. Raven handed her his lantern and sat down at the edge of the circle as if to wait. As Isabella followed the sprites she heard the conversation pick up behind her and the meaning seemed clear enough.
“Their machines are crushing us.”
“Their machines are killing us.”
“We are dying.”
“Help!”
The forest was having a meeting to plan its own survival and she suddenly felt a pang of anxiety for her lovely tree. ‘Whose roots,’ she thought, ‘seemed to stretch for miles.’ She thought back to her conversation with Simmi about humanity destroying his planet and she felt exposed and responsible as the only human being around in a cavern full of sprites and little people. Here they were offering her healing in a place that was under threat from her kind. 'Well,' she reasoned to herself, 'not my kind exactly I would never cut down a forest.' 'But,' there was that other voice again, 'you want all the benefits of your modern life and ignore the cost.'
She shook off these thoughts and followed the sprites through more twists and turns away from the meeting and noticed that they each emitted a light of their own. They did not so much walk as dance in front of her, weaving around each other as they travelled with a constant, excited, chatter between them.
She was beginning to enjoy this underground world and felt very safe when the sprites stopped and pointed to a human size bed of bracken and moss and beckoned for her to lie down. In the centre was a fire made from crystals just as there had been in the main room, and the Sprites busied themselves collecting plants and leaves from hidden pockets within the earthen walls.
The green sprite indicated that she should lie on the bed, and knelt down to lift her legs up and place them gently on the surprisingly soft bed. The sight of this tiny sprite, smaller than her lower arm, lifting her legs up made Isabella smile, she was a giant compared with them and yet here they were acting with such strength and confidence. She put her head back on the moss filled pillow and watched the green sprite lift up a blanket of moss and rose petals and floated it over Isabella until it covered her as surely as her duvet.
In the corner the pink sprite was busy with a rough, wooden pestle and mortar and Isabella caught the scent of camomile, liquorice, rosemary and sage. When she had finished pounding the sprite picked up handfuls of moss and rubbed it around the inside of the bowl and then lifted the moss, shaped it into a collar and laid the collar gently around Isabella’s neck.
The smell was intoxicating, she could feel her eyelids dropping and sleep caressing her as the two sprites took up their positions, one at her head and one at her feet, and started a low chant that echoed around the chamber. Isabella felt herself sink into the soft caress of Mother Nature, like a bulb being planted in soft ground and allowed the deep hum of the earth to transport her to a land of utter peace and tranquillity.
As she woke up the feel of the sheet beneath her felt harsh and unfamiliar, where was the earth? Where was that rhythmic hum that had accompanied her to sleep? She was in Raven’s bed and at first that felt unfamiliar and harsh, but the smell of the moss and the roses remained with her and soothed her even though she could not shake off the memory of the dream and for a long time wished she could just transport herself back there again and stay forever. Even when she made herself a cup of cardamom tea the dream stayed with her like a gentle companion and she went to sit by Raven’s pond hoping that that would continue the spell for a little longer.
When she had gathered herself enough she sent one simple message to Danny in response to his fourteen to her.
“Hi Danny I will always care for you, but I do not want to be your girlfriend. I have too much to sort out right now and I have to do this alone. Take care R xx”
“So are you dumping me then?”
“One kiss does not make me your girlfriend.”
His texts continued, angry, pleading, apologising, negotiating, all of which remained unanswered, but all of which created a painful reaction in her.
Eventually after a few days his texts stopped and an uneasy silence settled around her. She wondered if she had made the right decision and that thought tormented her. The loss of contact with Danny made her feel that something had been broken. She was surprised to feel a deep sense of loss that could not be explained by their brief relationship and although she knew that she had made the right decision, she did not understand the feelings that had erupted inside her.
After a few more sleepless nights and restless days she went to the big house for some comfort and found Icarayus playing his flute to the Spectas. She sat down on the grass and listened and remembered her earth healing which suddenly seemed very real as she lay back on the grass and smelt the roses again. It seemed that if she could remember some of the images, smells, or sensations she could recreate the actual experience and feel some of its benefit. She allowed that thought to penetrate and as it did so the warm feelings that the healing had evoked and the sound of the earth filled her again and she was transported back to the healing sprites.
She told Icarayus of her experience and he smiled, that smile of his which seemed to say, 'I wondered when you would realise ...'
“It is all in the nature of reality,” he replied, “not to mention your concept of time which says that once something is over it has passed into memory. For that experience is one which will remain with you for always, it is visible to me in your aura as clearly as if you were having the healing right now.
"I used to use crystals myself when I walked the earth, I became quite adept at choosing the right ones and laying them out in the right pattern that would allow the colours to merge and flow together. I would create a healing spiral and place the person in need of healing within it, like placing them in a force field I suppose you might say. So the crystals the healing Sprites used on you and the patterns they created have woven their pattern of energy into the fabric of your being, like a tapestry cloak, and when you relive those memories you energise them all over, if you choose to believe in them in the first place. Without belief they cannot penetrate your natural defences. You see your thoughts are real, Isabella.”
That last statement made Isabella freeze as she had heard it before from Aunty May and she had not liked it then either, there was something rather threatening about her thoughts being real, especially when she was caught in a negative spiral as she had been with Danny. Does that mean that her worries about him trying to recreate Raven had been real and if so, could Danny have picked up on them? Was that the implication of what Icarayus had just said to her?
She went silent and Icarayus did not probe the silence, he just went back to playing his flute. This was the first time, she realised, that visiting the big house completely challenged her view of reality. Although she had always known that deep down, she had not wanted to explore the matter too far. She feared that questioning her experiences too closely might burst the bubble of her belief and that would mean that she would never see Raven, or Icarayus or the cathedral again. Did believing something, like thinking something, make it real? If that’s the case then she could think herself rich, or married, or successful? Her thoughts spiralled away with her panic and anxiety rising with each turn of the spiral
Icarayus had stopped playing and was gathering some fruit, so she joined him for a while in silence. When he had finished he was heading for the big house and she asked if she could visit the cathedral again. He nodded and held open the blue mist for her to enter.
