The morning after Leon’s party arrived at Torfinn’s longhouse, it quickly became apparent to Leon that any notions of his of staying with Torfinn for longer than a night wasn’t going to work out well.  They were so close to his home Vale that Valeria was on edge and terribly restless.  He could hardly blame her, though, for that only meant they were incredibly close to possibly finding out more concrete information about her father’s whereabouts.

For him, it also meant seeing his childhood home once more, as well as finding whatever the hells lay in the east that was so important it made it onto the map in the Cradle.

Leon eventually decided that he’d have to proceed on to the Forest of Black and White immediately, if only to assuage everyone’s nerves.  Elise was disappointed that she wasn’t going to come with, but her first priority was the supervision of the negotiations with Torfinn to trade for silkgrass—plus, the prospect of venturing deep into a wraith-infested Vale wasn’t one that Leon wanted to share with her, at least until she was also powerful enough to not need his or anyone else’s protection in such a place.  So, she stayed behind with the Heaven’s Eye representatives, leaving Leon, Maia, and Valeria to continue on without her.  Leon even ended up leaving Anzu with her to ensure that no matter what might happen, she’d not have to work too hard to return south, should the worst come to pass and they never came back from the Forest of Black and White.

Maia, for her part, wasn’t too thrilled at leaving Elise behind, but she preferred to travel with Leon into the wild and unknown rather than staying behind in Vale Town, while Valeria was quietly ecstatic that she wasn’t also being left behind, even though she did feel for her fire-haired friend.

They set out around noon.  Leon set a hard pace for them to move at, which the other two were more than willing to match, and they reached the mountain pass that led to his home Vale by nightfall.  There, Leon had them stop for the night.  Valeria’s anxiety had only grown as they drew closer, but the last thing Leon wanted was to enter the Forest and be immediately set upon by ice wraiths and their pet banshees.

When the sun rose the next morning, though, he was quick to get his small party moving again.

---

“Wow,” Valeria said, wonder and awe inundating her tone despite her anxious silence of the previous day as she took in her first look at the Forest of Black and White.

Leon felt a small amount of pride as he did likewise, staring out from the hills on the far side of the mountain pass at his old home.  That pride was joined by a feeling of gratification at seeing that the forest’s name was still as ironic as ever, for the seemingly unnatural vibrancy of the colors of the forest was still strong.  Even with most of the Vale covered by the trees, that still meant that what stretched out before them was a carpet of dark greens and pale blues, with the occasional smattering of reds, purples, yellows, and lighter greens showing the forest clearings.

In the distance, they could also see the titanic mountain upon which Leon had awakened his blood, sitting almost in the middle of the Vale with the rest of the Frozen Mountains surrounding it like an icy crown, but most past that mountain either dissolved into the gray haze of distance or was blocked by clouds or the forest canopy.

As they paused to drink in the sight, Leon eventually found his eyes drawn in two different directions.  The first was obvious, that of his childhood home.  The tree cover was too thick for him to directly see the clearing of purple grass where he and Artorias had once lived—it was even not too far outside the range of his magic senses—but he still knew exactly where to find it.  The second direction, however, was toward the far side of the Vale.  He’d never been that deep in the Vale before, but the map he’d found in the Cradle had clearly indicated that there was something there.

[This place… feels wrong…] Maia said into Leon’s mind, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“What do you mean?” he responded, cluing Valeria into their conversation.

[It feels stifling, like it’s trying to stuff my aura back into my body,] Maia replied, her face scrunching up in distaste and discomfort.

Valeria glanced at the two of them, hoping either of them would directly bring her into their conversation.  Maia wasn’t so accommodating, but Leon filled her in on Maia’s discomfort.

“Ah, I can feel something similar, though I thought it was just the altitude or something…” Valeria said.  “It doesn’t seem to be a problem, though, I’m fairly sure that I can still use my magic just fine…”

Leon glanced at Maia, wondering if she felt the same.  Maia only shrugged and turned her attention back to the Vale.

“All right, then,” Leon said, thoroughly confused, but if Maia was so flippant about it, he figured it couldn’t be that big of a deal.  He certainly didn’t feel the same way, and in fact, felt quite invigorated being back in the Vale.  For him, it was a homecoming.  He’d had to leave in the first place because he didn’t believe he was strong enough to survive without Artorias, but if he had the power he had now back then, then he doubted he’d have ever left.  “Keep me appraised.  If you start feeling sick, let me know and we can stop for a while, or even turn back.”

Valeria lightly frowned and Maia remained indifferent, but Leon didn’t think either would stay quiet if whatever was affecting them grew worse.  Without another word, he began to lead the two down the hills and into the forest proper.  Any discomfort they had was quickly forgotten in light of the beauty of the forest.  The route that Leon led them through wound through some of the less dense regions of the forest where the trees had more space between them and more of the colorful flowers and plants could be seen.  Part of the reason he went this way was that it was a slightly easier path to take, but he also wanted to show off his old home a bit.

It seemed to have the intended effect, for Valeria’s head was on a swivel, taking in every sight and sound that she could.  Even Maia looked reasonably impressed, though she remained stoically staring ahead of them and occasionally pulsing her magic senses.

Leon was doing likewise, but other than a pack of nearby wind wolves to their south and a black-iron bear to their north, there wasn’t anything around that would brave being anywhere near beings with their auras.  Leon did happen to see a few of the gnarled, twisted trees that housed tree sprites, though, and he steered their group clear of those.  He quite vividly remembered the last time he saw someone grabbed by one of those monsters and he wasn’t keen on seeing it again.  Of course, he didn’t let his guard down at all, even with his magic senses.  Tree sprites could be in just about any tree, they were only twisted after a long period of habitation, and besides, just because Leon knew that just because he couldn’t see a threat didn’t mean it wasn’t there.  He couldn’t see hide nor hair of the ice wraiths or their banshees even with his powerful magic senses, but he knew they were out there somewhere.

“Ooh,” he heard Valeria gasp from just behind him.  When he turned, he saw her captivated by a bright blue flower that was slowly unfurling before her eyes.  It had more than two dozen vaguely heart-shaped petals that folded in on each other and covered a golden disc petal that glowed like the sun in the sky.  Even more interesting, though, was that it glowed with a detectable amount of light magic.

“I’d be careful touching that,” Leon warned as Valeria’s hand began to reach out for the stem, “it looks pretty and can be used in the production of healing potions, but in its unrefined state it's quite poisonous…”

Valeria grimaced and hurriedly pulled back.  “Hmm.  I just thought Elise would’ve liked it,” she said.

“I think she would, too,” Leon replied.  “Think we should try and take it back?  It could probably survive a while in one of our soul realms…”

“Is it a problem if it’s poisonous?” Valeria asked, her voice dripping with apprehension.

“Not really, with our power, it would be a minor inconvenience at worst.  But up here, even a minor inconvenience can get you killed.”  Leon waved his hand and pulled the flower into his soul realm, along with about a foot of dirt in every direction of it.  He also grabbed a few more of the same flowers that were growing nearby, just in case Elise wanted to breed them.

“This place is beautiful,” Valeria said as they turned their attention back to their journey, her mood quickly souring as she remembered why they were there.  “I wish we were here under better circumstances.”

“As do I,” Leon replied, his tone turning grim.  “Let’s keep moving.  We’ll reach our destination soon…”

Valeria nodded, and the three shot off again deeper into the forest.  They didn’t stop again for a while, not even for other gorgeous plants and flowers that Leon knew Elise would’ve killed to get her hands on.  It wasn’t until they came within range of the Divine Scar that they again stopped.

The massive crevasse carved into the western regions of the Vale was nearly impossible to miss since it ran for miles and was wide enough that even at the seventh-tier, Leon wasn’t sure he could leap across its wider portions further to the south.  It was quite possibly the one thing he was most looking forward to showing off, and not even the search for Justin or the prospect of seeing what had become of his old home was enough to stop him from stopping for at least a few minutes.

Besides, he hadn’t seen or heard any evidence that would support his guess that Valeria’s father had come this far north since leaving Teira.  Torfinn hadn’t heard anything about Justin or his people in Vale Town, nor had Leon seen or heard any sign that Justin had passed by this way.  So, despite the importance of their task, Leon found himself having to work to maintain his motivation to keep going at a swift pace as every fiber of his being screamed at him to slow down and relish the feeling of being back home, to breathe in the air and feel the trees and maybe hunt for a bit, just like he used to when he and his father were the only two humans who lived up here.

Valeria and Maia’s reactions to the Divine Scar were fairly understated.  It was certainly a thing worth admiring, but neither of them paid it too much attention—it was just a canyon, after all, even if it didn’t seem entirely natural.  Leon was a little disappointed, but he got them moving again only a few minutes later.

However, as they passed around the thinner northern tip of the Divine Scar, Leon felt the attention of the Thunderbird pass over him for a moment.  He slowed a bit, expecting his Ancestor to speak to him, but he heard nothing but silence from his soul realm.

As quickly as it appeared, his Ancestor’s attention pulled back.

Confused, Leon shot one last glance over his shoulder at the Divine Scar as he left it behind, wondering just what in the hells had drawn the Thunderbird’s attention like that.

‘Unless she was just checking in?  I suppose the easiest explanation is usually the correct one…’ Leon thought as he put the matter out of his mind and focused back on the task at hand.

They didn’t have much farther to go once past the Divine Scar.  They had to turn south-east for a few miles, but even in the dense Forest of Black and White, the three mages made great time, and Leon knew exactly where to go.  It wasn’t long before Leon was slowing them down for a final time.

“This is it,” he said as he brought the party to a halt in a small clearing that had a distinctive boulder poking out of the ground in the center.  It was the early afternoon, they had plenty of time to give the remains of his compound a fairly in-depth investigation. “About a quarter-mile east is my old home…”

Instantly, Maia projected her magic senses eastward, but she didn’t say anything more.  Leon had projected his magic senses in that direction several times to ensure that they weren’t about to walk into a trap, but other than that, he hadn’t taken a good look at his old home.  The nearer he drew to it, the more nervous he got about what he might find.  All he’d been able to bring himself to do was to give the remnants of the old compound the most cursory of inspections for any magical auras.  He’d not been able to sense any, nor had he sensed anything that might tip him off to any measures taken to conceal anything, leading him to believe that the place was as deserted now as it had been when he’d left.

“Let’s take this slow,” he said, “we don’t know what we’ll find.  First sign of danger, we’ll fall back into the forest.  We’ll use this place as a meeting point if we’re separated.”

Valeria took this deadly seriously, and she gave him a stony nod.  Maia, on the other hand, gave him little more than the briefest of smiles, her confidence in her power giving her complete certainty that they’d find nothing they—or at least, she—couldn’t handle.

Leon hoped that she was right.

Without another word, they ventured one last time into the forest, taking a much slower pace.

Leon kept his eyes open and his magic senses projected, on the lookout for anything that might signal a threat.  But no threats showed themselves, nothing stood out to him, the forest seemed peaceful.

And then, finally, after more than four years, Leon caught sight of his old home with his own eyes through the trees.  The grass was the same shade of vibrant purple as he remembered, the air still tasted as sweet, and the walls of the compound he’d grown up in seemed just as safe and sturdy as they’d always been.

He felt tears start to form in his eyes as the three of them pushed forward into the purple grass clearing.  It almost felt like his life was flashing before his eyes, for with every step, a new memory of his childhood sprang to the forefront of his mind.

Returning home with Artorias with a fresh kill.

His father’s proud smile the first time Leon saw through a feint during their training sessions.

Artorias teaching him to shoot a bow by making wooden targets and hanging them on the trees that flanked the clearing.

The feeling of elation he had when he first ascended to the first-tier at the age of nine.

The diligence with which Artorias made sure Leon knew how to read, write, and do basic math.

The sight of his father’s corpse, his skin ashen gray, his body motionless.  The incision he had to make to put the Heartwood seed into his chest.  The grave he’d had to dig.

With that sobering thought, Leon refocused, and almost immediately, all of the things that made this no longer his home stood out.

The most obvious thing was that the wall he could see was the only side of the compound’s palisade that was still reasonably intact.  One side had been almost cut in half from an attack by one of Artorias’ killers, while the other two looked like they had been torn asunder by something trying to break in, and all the inner sides of the palisade were scorched—obviously touched by the fire Leon had set when he left.  As a result, Leon’s small party didn’t have to jump over the walls or take the tunnel to get inside, which was just as well for Leon could see that it had collapsed sometime in the years he’d been away.

Upon entering the compound proper, all romantic thoughts Leon had of returning home vanished.  His home was a ruin of burned timber, little more than a few piles of scorched and broken wood and stone.  It seemed that the fire enchantments failsafe’s that Leon had used when he left had done more than he’d thought, rendering his childhood home little more than a pile of charcoal, even though the walls had remained largely intact.

Leon’s heart sank as his mood soured.  All elation he had at returning to the Forest of Black and White evaporated, leaving nothing but the cold and cruel reality of what this was.  His home was gone, and it would never return.  He may have modeled his Mind Palace upon it, but the simplicity and security of his time spent here were gone forever.

But then, as Leon took a few steps forward, his feet carrying him to the pile of stones in the center of the ruined compound, the remnants of the obelisk that had stood at the center and kept the compound safe through its enchantments, the cairn that Leon had built that served as his father’s gravestone—which seemed to have been mercifully untouched by anything, whether time, the fire, or anything else that might’ve wandered through—he saw something that almost managed to release those tears in his eyes.

A sprout about as tall as his knee was sticking out of the rubble, with dark brown bark and a handful of bright golden leaves.

The sapling of a Heartwood tree.

The seed that Leon had planted within Artorias had taken root and now grew out of the earth.  Leon fell to his knees, his hands reaching to brush at the leaves.  But he caught himself, not letting his fingers come into contact with them.  It was surrounded by death and destruction, the ashen remains of his childhood, but the sapling, glowing in the light of the afternoon sun, its leaves radiant and shining with life and vitality, was as sacred to Leon as anything possibly could be.  He couldn’t touch it.

Valeria and Maia were staring at him, their eyes boring holes in his back.  Leon pushed himself back to his feet and stepped back.  He was about to address them when he felt the Thunderbird’s attention again, and he almost asked her what it was that had captured her interest so.

But then, Valeria’s head suddenly turned and her expression transformed into one of horror.  In one of the corners of the compound was a mound of ice, hidden by some of the foliage that had given Artorias and Leon’s baths some privacy.

“RHEA!” Valeria suddenly shouted, rushing over to the hidden ice.

Leon was suddenly put on edge and his sword appeared at his hip.  He hadn’t seen any auras around, so he’d thought they were alone.  But when Valeria stopped and stared down at the ice, Leon relaxed and recalled his weapon into his soul realm.  His magic senses weren’t picking up on any threats in the area, and it was pretty clear that what she was looking at wasn’t something that was going to try and attack them.

But this close to it, he was just able to see barely visible through the ice’s near-opaque surface a blond woman lying on the ground, a hole in her chest, her eyes opened in terror, an arm partially outstretched as if she’d been frozen in the midst of trying to defend herself and fallen over.

There was no question in Leon’s mind that she was dead.

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