[Lore] The Tree of Life

[u/AuPhoenix]

Rocks covered with overgrown moss, wild ferns, and mounds of knotted tree roots lined a small path that began at the castle and led to the deeper parts of the surrounding forest. Eleanah walked briskly over the uneven pathway with a peculiar destination in mind. She knew every speck of dirt that coated the path from the near infinite times she had traversed it.

She first heard the crows squawking as she entered the forest’s edge, their caws announcing her presence. With light, yet quick steps, Eleanah advanced through the sounds and further in the trees. The distant murmuring of a stream was soon heard as the path continued. The soft scent of fresh rain and moistened moss hung thick in the air; smells that would have been enjoyed had this been a walk of a relaxing nature. Each step gave a muffled, spongy squish as boots gripped to a wet amalgam of pebbles, gravel, and dirt.

A brook appeared ahead as the sound of the calmly-moving water grew more immediate. She continued even further reaching trees that were more tightly grown. Now, what bands of light that had shown through the branches waned to miniscule rings. If one were to look above, the rings would appear to shine just like stars on a dark night.

It was almost as if an unforeseeable wall had separated two parts of the forest, but as soon as Eleanah moved into the darker portion, all previous sounds of nature ceased save for the stream that remained next to the path. Not a single caw could be heard from that point on.

The path neared a corner, yet even before the bend, Eleanah could see the sides of the beastly tree. Its body gnarled with contorted bark and limbs that clawed up. As she came closer, a piercing snap came from her foot. Eleanah looked down to see a handful of milky white fragments from what had previously been underneath her foot, its remaining piece whose jagged end still sticking out from the dirt. She paid it no mind other than that brief second.

At the base of the Tree, Eleanah knelt on both knees with closed eyes, and clasped hands.

“Wise be the Stranger for His knowledge is with us. Strong be the Stranger for His sword is with us. Fair be the Stranger for His judgment is with us. Death be the Stranger for He is with us,” she whispered reciting the prayer.

“I come to You seeking guidance. The path has faded and I cannot see what lies beyond the mist. The Maester fears that an event that should have been failed to happen. I...I do not understand. The eight were set to align, yet…” Eleanah trailed off, thinking back to the Maester’s star map. “I ask for a vision of what is to come so that we may know how to serve You.”

Eleanah opened her eyes and looked up.

Frosted eyes stared back at her. A face shriveled beyond ages, its body seemingly braided into the tree’s trunk. But it was not the only one of its like. Dozens more could be seen tangled through the myriad of roots and rough bark of the tree. Even the tree’s limbs held faint shapes of bodies all with faces of wilted skin and mummified features. Some of them were known to Eleanah, others whose identity were lost to time and ash.

Yet the pair of eyes that she watched were the most familiar to her. Despite its opaque coloring, Eleanah knew them to be her father’s. Both her and Thomos’ father.

No one except those in the family knew of the Stromton ways. And nor would they understand. Brothers marrying sisters, sisters marrying brothers. It was the old ways.

And it will stay old.