The Vampire & Her Witch-Chapter 1353: Healing Power of the Forest (Part Two)

Impact. The first thing that Ollie felt when Ashlynn touched his chest with the swirling tendrils of energy was an impact like a wave of water from a burst dam, crashing into his body with incredible force.

The pressure of energy pressed Ollie against the bed, and for a moment, he couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.... The pressure drove the air from his lungs, and his hands clawed at the bed’s heavy blanket, desperate for something to hang onto. Something that would anchor him in this world and keep him from being washed away by the surge of energy.

Hot on the heels of the torrent of energy slamming into him, it suddenly reversed course, lifting him up where it had pressed him down. He felt weightless, like he was drifting, floating, carried away by a powerful river current.

He was thirsty, so thirsty, and all around him there was a raging river of water, yet he dared not open his mouth to drink for fear that he would drown. The surge of power scoured his flesh and battered his bones, lifting him up and dragging him down all at once until he was completely lost. All he could see was a haze of emerald green, midnight blue, and deep, dark crimson that kept swirling around him, tumbling him like a leaf caught in the rapids.

Then, ringing out from somewhere far away, Ollie heard Ashlynn’s voice, giving him a direction to struggle toward.

"Withered roots that barely cling to life,

Too long you’ve struggled, starved by sacrifice.

Now drink the power of bark and branch and sap,

Let crimson torrents rage to fill the gaps.

What once ran dry shall surge and overflow,

Hold fast, endure, and let your verdant powers grow!"

Ashlynn’s words did more than just provide Ollie with a direction to orient himself toward. When she spoke, he felt the withered, dry roots of his seed of Witchcraft stretching, reaching out toward the torrents of energy that buffeted him. Like withered flowers left too long in harsh sunlight, her voice offered the shelter of cooling shade while the brittle roots that ran through his body drank deeply from the energy contained within the Blood Acorn.

"Aaaaaaaaaaggghhh!" Ollie cried as the sensation of a tumbling, churning river was replaced by a heat that felt so intense, he thought he’d been set on fire. His veins burned, and faintly pinkish sweat seeped from every pore on his body. He felt the prick of a thousand times a thousand needles, stabbing into his flesh as the energy of the Blood Acorn poured into him.

"Hold on, Ollie," Ashlynn whispered, biting her lower lip as she watched him struggle to absorb the energy that she and Nyrielle had so painstakingly gathered in the hopes of preventing tragedies.

Ashlynn’s pale, blonde hair danced on a wind that threatened to snuff out the candles in the room, and her eyes blazed with swirling emerald green and midnight blue energy as she fought to guide the crimson flow toward Ollie’s seed of witchcraft.

The energy from the Blood Acorn was like a flash flood, and the roots connected to Ollie’s Cypress Seed were like dry streambeds. Too much energy would wash them away, their banks would overflow, and the energy would spill into places it wasn’t meant to flow.

There was no need to worry about too little energy, only that there would be too much, too fast, and Ashlynn struggled against the surge, moving her attention between one set of roots and the next, using her own strength to hold back as much of the flood as she could until Ollie could begin to absorb enough to heal.

It took several minutes that felt like several days, but slowly, Ollie’s strength began to return. The first tendrils of power had reached the Cypress Seed nestled next to his heart, and the energy raging within his body pulsed in time with his heartbeat.

Finally, he could open his eyes and see Ashlynn, her hair whipping in the wind while her skin glowed with wood-grain patterns of brilliant, emerald green energy.

"Drink deep, my Cypress Knight," Ashlynn said, her words echoing in his ears until they drowned out every other sound. "Drink deep and grow strong."

"I. I will," Ollie managed to say. There was so much power to draw in that Ollie had to give it direction, or he’d be washed away by the flood. But like the cypress tree from which he drew his powers, Ollie had his own anchors to secure himself against the flood.

Ollie focused on the mark of the witch on his side, beginning with the central trunk that represented the power of Wood. The Blood Acorn contained rich, verdant energy from the wood of hundreds of trees, and Ollie directed that energy towards his core, strengthening not only his withered roots but his skin as well, gaining the toughness of bark to resist the ravages of the elements and the hurts of the world.

Next, he turned his attention to the power of Earth. The scent of rich, loamy soil filled the air as Ollie covered his exposed roots, giving them soft shelter and a firm foundation. At the same time, his bones felt like they’d grown denser, heavier, like stones that the roots wrapped around, anchoring them against the flood that threatened to sweep him away.

With a foundation of Wood and Earth to rely on, it became easier to confront the next stream of energy surging within him, the raging fire that burned within him. Ollie was no stranger to fire, and he’d long considered the gentle flames of the hearth to be his friend and constant companion.

But the inferno raging within his body was different from anything he’d ever known. It carried with it the Ancient Oak’s rage and hatred, blazing with fury and the desire to destroy the Lothians who had felled its child to carve their throne.

Then, like oil poured upon the flames, Ashlynn’s answering fury washed over him, carrying with it glimpses of the horrifying night when Owain had rained down blow after blow on her fragile body, shattering her hopes of a happy marriage as he tried to beat her to death.

"Noooooo!" Ollie cried as the visions flickered through his mind. The moment Ashlynn learned that Jocelynn had been the one to betray her. Marcel’s soft voice telling her that Eleanor was dead at the hands of the Inquisition and that they’d tortured Jocelynn. Then, like an echo within his chest, he felt an icy cold fury that anyone or anything could make Ashlynn feel that way.

Ollie’s eyes, normally pale, had turned a shade of deep, midnight blue as he found the strength within that torrent of energy to resist the fires of rage that threatened to overwhelm him. He was still furious, still ready to burn down the world and bathe it in blood to put an end to the people who had hurt Ashlynn and the Ancient Oak, but within those hurts, he found a quiet, tightly controlled fury that refused to lose anyone it cared for, ever again.

"Lady Nyrielle," Ollie whispered as he recognized the source of that fury, and buried within that fury, the frustration at being unable to be by Ashlynn’s side as she faced her greatest enemy.

But Ollie could... Ollie could go where Lady Nyrielle couldn’t. He could be the knight that Ashlynn needed him to be, the protector who would keep her sister safe in the battles to come, and more...

"Ollie," Ashlynn whispered as she watched him gain control of the energy of the Blood Acorn. "Now is the time. If you’re going to harness the power of the Ancient Oak’s gift, you have to swear to help deliver its vengeance," she said. "Do you need me to give you the words?" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"No," Ollie said, shaking his head and blinking back tears of fury and frustration in order to meet Ashlynn’s gaze directly. "No... my heart has the words I need... the words you need," he said, reaching out with a hand that no longer felt weak and feeble, placing it atop the hand she pressed into his chest.

"I can speak my oath," he promised, drawing a deep breath while he organized the feelings in his heart into words of power.

"Ancient Oak, I feel your pain,

Your Lothian foes will all be slain.

Ashlynn, Mother, I swear this true,

Where Nyrielle can’t, I’ll stand for you.

Your enemies are mine to fight,

Your loved ones, I’ll guard as your knight.

Till all the debts of blood are paid,

I am your fury, your shield, your blade..."