Chapter 193: The Silent Forest

"Va’tar." After half an hour of walking down the steps of the Madhouse, looking at the doors, Alice finally made up her mind and rested a hand on the closest one. There was no reason behind it. There was nothing about the door that distinguished it from the others. Rather, it was that she was getting bored.

Stepping through, a cold instantly assaulted her body. Shivering, she quickly grabbed her robes and activated the rune inside that provided warmth, letting out a relaxed groan. "Chesh?" Looking behind her and not seeing Chesh follow, she couldn’t help but shrug and walk forward. Like always, she took a moment to have a look at her surroundings, arriving outside a small hut in the middle of a dark forest. Yet there was something about it, something Alice couldn’t truly understand.

The trees were dark, darker than most, the bark thick and black, looking like it could resist the swing of an axe without damage. Each one stood an equal distance apart, big enough for two bears to walk through side by side, and they towered higher than she had ever seen before, their leaves forming a canopy that hardly let any moonlight through. What little moonlight did get through was different from what she knew.

Rather than a milky white, it was greyer, almost as if the moonlight was dimmed and dyed. "Fascinating." Resting a hand on the tree, she could instantly tell it would be amazing material to work with, but quickly froze, feeling something inside the tree. With squinting eyes, she let the arcane power flow through her body into her hand. Injecting the tree, she felt the power inside.

It was almost completely similar to the arcane, but there was something strange about it. The arcane was usually raw, clear power, able to be moulded however someone wished. Yet within the tree, the power she felt was, whilst almost certainly the same source as hers, it felt corrupted in a way.

’If I attempted to use this power, it would almost certainly fail. Only the one who caused this can use it.’ Taking a deep breath and focusing on the power, she realised something else. It wasn’t just the tree she found, but all of them. Each one had a different amount of the power inside it, all equally corrupted. Taking a hand on the tree, she felt the rest of the world more clearly. The air, although extremely minor, almost unnoticeable if they were not as sensitive as she was, contained the power. The ground she trod on, though only in a very small amount, held the power across the entire forest floor, stretching farther than she could sense, absorbed by the trees like nutrients.

"Where am I?" Kneeling down and resting a hand on the ground, she finally noticed the differences with it. Unlike the green grass of a usual forest, or the yellow sand of a desert, the ground was like ash, the grass looking as if it would crumble into dust if touched, and the soil a canvas that had yet to be painted. Placing a hand on the ground, she let the arcane flow through her hand into it, trying to make her power merge with whatever it was she felt.

After five attempts, she gave up and instead used it to observe whatever the corruption was, it wholeheartedly rejecting her connection. After observing for tens of minutes, she noticed something. All the power throughout the ground flowed from the same direction. It was hard to notice if someone didn’t pay complete attention, but when you did notice, it was impossible to ignore. "Someone’s doing this?" With a twitching lip that formed a smile, Alice let out a light chuckle and walked, following the direction.

Lifting a finger, she created a small orb of fire, avoiding the trees, marvelling at the world around her. Although she hadn’t been to many places, having only just been allowed to leave the Mad House, she had never thought somewhere could compare to it in terms of mystery, yet the lands around her all felt wrong. From the grass and trees to the moon itself.

And finally, when her chaotic thoughts finally came to a stop, she noticed the silence, a silence so deep it had to be artificial. Silence that, if paid attention to for too long, would drive someone insane. There was no wind, nor the cries of the nocturnal animals. Even the insects didn’t dare make a noise. "This place is unbelievable. If I didn’t feel that power, I would assume this place was barren. What is causing all this?"

"Why don’t you find out?" From above, a playful voice called out, and in the darkness, Alice saw Chesh’s mischievous grin looking at her.

"You can feel the weirdness of this place?"

"Yeah, it’s exciting, isn’t it?" Jumping off the tree and gracefully landing on a single foot, Chesh spun and let out a big stretch, looking ahead with pure joy. "It’s an adventure. Everyone always said you have to be careful stepping through the doors, unsure if you would find horror or paradise, but I never understood why they would want to find paradise."

"True," Alice replied with a deep nod. "It’s hardly interesting. If everything is perfect, what adventure is there to find?" Looking through the endless darkness, she couldn’t help but grin. "This, however. I need to know what has happened here. The power inside this land. I never heard of the arcane being corrupted like this. To do so...." Alice’s smile deepened as she realised what it meant. "There must be some insane artefact doing this or maybe a God."

"Wrong." Chesh instantly denied, "How can it be a God if you’re destined to make the world your own? A pretender seems more fitting." Thinking for a second, Alice nodded in agreement, the argument making sense.

"Gods do exist though, Chesh. There are records of them in teachers’ sturdy. They just exist in the immaterial." Alice’s eyes narrowed. "No, you’re right; if a God is in the material world, then it must be a pretender." Looking at Chesh, her purple eyes stared back, and the two shared a smile, releasing what it meant. "We must learn this power. To influence the land so greatly, they must have immense control over the arcane, more so than me."

"There’s something more, how..."

"COME ON!" Her words were cut off by a child’s shout in the distance. Looking at one another, they froze, and Alice quickly undid the light on her finger. Staring in the distance, they saw the flashing of a flame through the trees. Facing her palms towards the ground, a strong gust of wind shot out from Alice’s hands, propelling her upwards atop a tree branch.

’Children?’ She could tell from the shout it was a young boy, and behind him he could see numerous others. Watching and waiting, she carefully listened.

"We shouldn’t do this!" A girl’s voice called out, full of terror.

"Stop being such a coward." The first boy’s voice said back, getting a nervous laugh from the rest of the group. Pulling her glasses out, she quickly slipped them on and activated the magnification rune, zooming in on them.

It was a small group of six, five boys and a girl. At the head was a large boy around thirteen, muscular for his age with black hair. The rest of the group were small in comparison, with two other boys having the same pitch-black hair. As for the others, they all had greyish hair. Unlike her, they didn’t have white skin; rather, it was more grey, almost ill-looking, as if they had never seen sunlight in their life.

"If Lord Goodson finds out..."

"Will you stop crying already?" The boy who led yelled back at the girl, clearly irritated by her incessant worries. "No one will know if you don’t say anything." Meekly lowering her head, the girl stopped herself from saying any more as another boy, the one closest to her, lifted their head.

"But it isn’t a good idea. I know you said you saw something cool, but we must never leave at night. What if the Child is in the forest?" The other boys’ fears got a laugh from the rest of the group.

"The Old Ones are resting you, idiot. They only tell us those stories so we don’t break the rules." The leader of the group snapped back.

’Old Ones?’ Looking to Chesh, they shared a look of intrigue as a memory surfaced. During a lesson, her teacher had told her of the different Godlike beings the Magi had confirmed to have truly existed. ’They have a resting.’ Thinking of the power she felt through the land, it clicked what it could be.

"Chesh, we must ask them about the Child they speak of. If it’s an Old One, maybe I can speak to it." Chesh rapidly nodded in agreement. With the plan in mind, she jumped from the tree, breaking her fall at the last moment with a gust of wind, and slowly walked forward towards the group of children.

"Guys...." One of them said with a shaking voice and pointed towards her. As the group followed his finger, Alice couldn’t help but try to give her best smile within the darkness, hoping they would see it and wave. Instantly, the group came to a halt, shaking where they stood before turning and running.

"WAIT!" Crying at them, Alice broke into a sprint, dodging through the trees, chasing. They only got faster, seeing her get closer, and when she was within range to see her face in the dim darkness, one of the boys paused and turned. Pushing over the girl, the group ran off, leaving the girl to shiver and stare at Alice as tears streamed down her cheeks. Crawling backwards, Alice’s lips curled after one finally stopped for her.

"Hello." The girl’s eyes shook before she screamed, her voice echoing throughout the forest. Yet not a single bird or animal made a sound; the forest responded with silence. "Shh." Placing a finger over her lips, Alice shushed in annoyance, the scream hurting her ears. "Too loud."

Hearing her words, the girl covered her mouth, pushing her palms into her face, forcefully trying to suppress any noise that could displease her. Walking before her and kneeling down, she reached out and pulled the girl’s hands off her face, smiling once more, "Thank you for stopping."

Sniffing the air, a putrid smell filled her nostrils. Alice looked down and saw a small puddle beneath the girl. Her lips quivered, and tears streamed down her cheeks. "Are...are...are...are you going... to eat me? I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I don’t want to become your skin. Please, I’m sorry."

"Huh." Tilting her head, Alice stared at the girl as she continuously repeated herself over and over, stuck in a loop. "Shush." Placing a finger over her lip in an exaggerated manner again, it seemed to only make the girl more terrified as he quickly placed her hands over her mouth again, "I just want answers."