Forest
The woods between the old castle and the ruins of the manor are not particularly thick. Tall beech trees rise up like pillars, smooth-barked and devoid of low-hanging branches, giving the woods a cathedral-like aspect. There is little underbrush, and the forest floor is cushioned by leaf-litter.

Away from the others and free of having to focus his attention outward, Axel lets mind – or minds – look inward. To anyone who might have been watching, the bird-man would seem to suddenly go slack, eyes unfocused, expression vacant as if his soul had fluttered away.

I don't understand.

They protect the clan, but the clan does not protect itself.

They won't sacrifice it.

Axel wanders among the trees, his thoughts echoing in his head in a duality he can't express to others. Alone, at least, he can seem mad.

The breeze rustles the leaves high above, but doesn't say anything helpful. From a little ways to the south though, Axel can hear some humming.

Instinctively drawn to people, Axel's head turns, and he begins towards the sound reflexively.

They were angry.

The humming comes from a figure hunched down near the roots of a tree, dressed all in black. A basket full of spotted mushrooms sits on the ground next to it.

Axel stops amid the trees, not trying to hide himself, though in a way Axel may be less aware of his presence here than the figure in black. Only his empty stare suggests that he realizes that he is not alone.

Have I failed them again?

The figure sits up, and isn't immediately recognizable to Axel. The graying hair, held back in a bun now, had always been hidden by the imposing pointy hat before, but the face is familiar. "Oh, hello there Axel," Isolde says, smiling. "What brings you to the woods today?"

They are calling me.

She is strange to me. She is …

Axel continues to stare, unmoving, as his mind processes this knock on his mental door.

… Not one of them.

Another.

Isolde.

"Stonebarrow. I am in Stonebarrow," Axel suddenly says as his eyes focus on the witch. "You are Isolde."

The Kadie woman stands up and brushes off her apron-skirt (which is, of course, black), then gives Axel a worried look. "Hmm, still having trouble focusing, are you? Come over here," she says.

Axel walks over as directed, partially because he's curious and partially because he's still kind of intimidated by her. "I wasn't expecting to find you here. I was thinking," he tells the witch.

"Well, thinking… that can lead to all sorts of trouble you know," Isolde says, and looks the bird-man up and down. Finally, she reaches out the tickles his ribs. "Coochy coo!"

She might eat me.

She will not be pleased with my mistake.

Why is she …

The bird-man suddenly giggles when tickled! It catches him so completely off guard that he tries to stop the witch out of reflex – because he probably wouldn't if he thought about it! – stumbles, flails his wings, and falls over with an indignant squawk.

"Ah, well, that's a good sign!" Isolde claims, and picks up her basket. "You seem to still be attached to your body, for the most part. That's very important, you know, my little fledgling tengu."

I don't know what that means. I think I have been insulted?

Must smile anyway.

The bird-man smiles awkwardly, still half on his side with his wings all askew. "I may be missing some pieces," he answers distractedly. "Falling over and … giggling? … makes me feel strange."

"The important thing is that you feel something at all," the witch notes, and offers a hand to help the man up. "It keeps you grounded here, in the world of the living."

Hesitantly the avian fellow takes the woman's hand. She's one of the few people in Stonebarrow who actually stands near his height – and the only one he's met who stands above it. "You seem different," he tells the woman quietly, peering at her intently as he gets up.

"That's because I am different," Isolde says, with the sound of someone stating the obvious. "I'm a witch. Like you, I walk the line between two worlds."

Axel suddenly grins lopsidedly, head tilting, after watching the witch a moment longer. "Walking between the worlds has a lot of things to trip over," he tells her.

"Ah, that's better," Isolde says, grinning. She motions for Axel to follow her, as she moves on towards another tree. "So, what has you out here, all alone, thinking?" she asks.

Obediently, Axel follows along, unaware of just how easily he seems to do that. "It is better. You made me laugh," he remarks, then suddenly adds, " … inside! Not outside," which seems, to him, an important distinction. It takes him a bit longer to comment on why he was thinking, because he seems to need time to think on that, too, but eventually he answers, "I might have hurt someone. Many ones. Gunther may be punished because I harmed Parsley by mistake. My solution has brought worry too. I'm confused."

"Well, I'm a bit confused too by that," Isolde says, taking a checkered cloth and a flat stone from her apron, with which she collects some purplish fungus growing on the bark of the tree. "Despite all appearances, I do not know everything that occurs in Stonebarrow. Now then, is the problem that Gunther may be punished, or that you may have hurt Parsley?"

"Both. I should not hurt anyone. Not in that way. I'm not … used to the … concept of … mistake? I can't understand them. But I know them better. They are more familiar and more distant. They … " the man's wings rustle agitatedly as he fights with concepts that he can't express in to words, or even into thoughts. He makes a vexed avian noise, then settles on, "I am struggling with everything, but more important than anything is that I must be useful. I MUST." Must is said with such sudden desperate vehemence that Axel seems surprised, but also certain in the way he nods to its truth.

Isolde gives Axel a sympathetic look, then asks, "Where you trying to do something to Parsley that went wrong and hurt her?"

The man nods, leaning towards Isolde, "Yes! That is the idea. I made a mistake. She thought I was interesting! She saw that I could do something I did not know I could, but then I did it and I thought it was always there! And she asked so much I could not control it, and I burned her."

The witch is silent for a moment as she wraps up the fungus-filled cloth and puts it away. "Is that really what happened, Axel?" she finally asks, in a tone of voice that suggests the man is overlooking something.

The man leans away, frowning thoughtfully. His wings flutter as his expression blanks, two signs he's thinking about something. Then he answers, "I thought I could do something I remembered doing. To … "reach," and "touch," and replace what was missing by a part of myself. I reached too far, and I nearly lost us both."

Isolde smiles now, and says, "Ah, I see now. You did not hurt Parsley, Axel. Otherwise you wouldn't still be here, because your contract with our Spirit would have been broken. But I know Parsley, and I know how spirits use magic. Which is something Nadyenka is still learning."

"You know my name," Axel says with awe in his voice, and a little surprise. He mouths the words for a moment, feeling for the first time the name used in a context that suggests it is something other than part of the Axel-Nadyenka whole, something other than just a surname. He suddenly smiles, and he looks, if anything, a little soothed by the revelation. He also looks attentive, possibly suddenly wondering what other magic knowledge might leap from the witch's mouth.

"Spirits are creatures of magic, and as such are very good at moving it or transforming it from one place to another," Isolde explains, while moving on to look at the next tree. "They aren't so good at actually manipulating it in complex ways though. Otherwise, they wouldn't need witches, sorcerers or priests, now would they?" she asks with a smirk.

"I think I understand," Axel says, sounding rather like he really does understand. "I feel as though it is different than it was before, and that might be why."

Nodding, Isolde circles around the next tree, examining it for anything useful. As she does, she says, "So, Nadyenka 'reached out' as you say, and probably frightened the poor girl and strained your own connection. Parsley would have pulled away, or pushed him out, I imagine. The backlash of that probably caused you some pain, or physical distress, didn't it?"

"I started crying and then passed out," Axel admits, though he doesn't sound embarrassed. Just focused. An unusual trait for him. He glances at his right wing and reaches over to pick at a burr as he adds, "I had a nightmare."

Isolde looks up from her examination, and asks, "And when you awoke, Parsley was probably holding you, wasn't she? Any other girl would have run away."

Axel nods slowly. "Yes she was. I was grateful – later. When I awoke I wasn't there. I mean, I was … in my dream. Or, no, the dream had ended but I couldn't leave it. I thought I was still there. I don't usually have that problem anymore, but I think the strain made it difficult. It was like that at first."

"It must have been very confusing for you and Nadyenka," Isolde says, and decides there is nothing of use on this particular tree, so starts towards another one. "And seeing you in distress, Parsley of course wanted to help. She genuinely wanted to make you feel better, for that girl has a heart bigger than her brain… and she's a smart girl, so that's a pretty big heart. She offered you that, and Nadyenka used it to help you recover. You didn't do anything to Parsley, she took on your distress of her own will."

"But she was dehydrated. That's what I meant first, that was the harm. I thought it was my doing, somehow," the bird-man explains as he follows along. "Parsley helped me see I could do that, and although I don't remember much, I assumed I did it to her. Maybe when I was resting?"

"Spirits are good at moving and transforming energy," Isolde repeats. "The dehydration was probably a manifestation of the transfer. Perhaps because you were in a state of… panic, distress, and so on… it was a bit harsher than if you were lucid. Nadyenka had an entire community to draw on before, where a little bit of life from a large number could add up to a lot of life for a single person."

"I can still feel them, sometimes," Axel says sadly. He looks at his hands, flexing them, perhaps seeing how much he has changed, and maybe indirectly how much everything has as well. "Stonebarrow is not the same. I don't think they would be the same, either, if we were together. It feels lonely. Strange, and lonely. Like waking up from a dream, to see I'm one of my dream's characters."

"Welcome to the living world," Isolde says, making a grand sweeping gesture with her arm. "It is sometimes lonely, sometimes cruel, but above all… it is alive."

"Maybe it's a funny kind of blessing. Before I dreamed, and I was everywhere, but I could only change a very little. I even knew why they did what they did, because they told me, even if they didn't know that. But they were a part of me, my body I never understood. Now I understand, and yet I understand less too." The bird man's head tilts. "Maybe it is a double edged sword. Am I thinking too much again? I didn't do that before. I'm not sure I like it."

"There is always more to learn, and Nadyenka's old universe was much smaller and simpler than the one you now must navigate," the witch says. "And yes, sometimes you can think too much, especially if you think upon things you really have no control over. Sometimes you just have to accept things as they are. Now… what about Gunther? I assume you mean young Gunther Kettenrad?"

Axel nods through the advice, and he seems to take it to heart because he abandons his vocal reflection review and answers the question immediately. "When Parsley was dehydrated she sought help. I could not help her, I didn't become aware she needed help until after she had it. But I learned what happened: Parsley found Gunther, and Gunther brought her inside the Kettenrad home, full of books and strange things. Gunther was accused of a great crime by a female member of his clan, and now he may be exiled." Axel frowns. "I don't understand this. They value the old books over Gunther?"

Isolde pauses, and then sits down with her back against the trunk of a tree. "That is a bit more complicated, Axel. It is not a matter of value, but one of trust. The clan Wingnut is… in an unusual position in Stonebarrow. It is slowly dying out, because the other clans are deliberately starving it, in a sense."

The man nods, opens his mouth, pauses, then stares at Isolde as he considers his words more carefully. "Perhaps I understand why without meaning to. In Gunther's defense I suggested something I remember: using delicate knowledge to force an outcome. I remember it is a bad thing, but I weighted it against Gunther's welfare, and I decided he was more important. The others were mad. I did not mean to upset them, but I think now I was upset. Angry?" He shudders, feathers rustling. "Anger is an uncomfortable feeling, but familiar, in a way. It's like fire, like I am like fire, but it is … less akin to life. It is closer to sacrifice."

"You suggested the use of force, in a sense, to make the others not exile Gunther," Isolde says. "That would have caused more damage than good though, Axel, because you cannot force someone to change their thinking. It would only have led to greater resentment towards Gunther. The Wingnuts are singlemindedly protective of their past, you see, because deep down they know that they have no future."

"I can see why the people here pra- … No, go to you for guidance. You are very wise, powerful in a way I am not." Axel scratches his head towards the end of his compliment and then, very awkwardly, takes a step back and extends his wings as he offers a very clumsy sort of bow. When he straightens he adds, "Foresight. That is the word. I must learn foresight."

Isolde nods. "Wisdom is not cheap, but is the result of making a lot of mistakes, and learning from them. You will make mistakes, Axel, and you must accept that. It is the only genuine path to wisdom."

"Oh good. I am already on the path then." If that's meant to be a joke at least half of Axel seems to not get it, because he doesn't grin. He looks rather serious again, then he looks curious. "Does … HE," he looks around carefully, "make mistakes too?"

The witch grins, and wags a finger. "HE doesn't do anything, and no witch will ever admit to making a mistake. Sometimes the appearance of wisdom is useful too."

Axel seems about to comment on "he doesn't do anything," but seems to think better of it. Instead he smiles, and says, "I think looking wise will need a lot of work." His head tilts. "I see now. Having a wise witch is kind of like looking wise." His eyebrows raise in comprehension.

Isolde reaches into her basket, and takes out one of the speckled mushrooms, which she hands to Axel. "Bake this over a fire, then let it cool. Eat the cap before you go to sleep, and you will not have any nightmares," she says.

"Very wise of you." Axel accepts the mushroom and, not having anywhere to put it, fidgets with it. "Thank you for talking to me. I am more confident that I can help Gunther in a meaningful way, now. And I feel better." Then he steps forward and tries to give Isolde a big hug, because it's what Parsley would do.

Isolde stiffens, then relaxes into the hug. "Remember, you can only offer Gunther help. He has to accept it, or request it, before you can give it."

"Oh," says Axel with a sudden disappointment, as if his plans had been somewhat damaged by this new rule. "I will think on that. I'm not used to all this … permission. It makes me ache."

"Yes, well, we can't all be witches and go poking our noses into people's business," Isolde says. "Whatever decision Clan Wingnut comes to, it must come to without interference. It will tell us much about the balance of power within the Clan and what direction it is headed in, and then we can decide on whether to do anything about it or not."

Axel leans back from the hug and nods understandingly. "It is all more complicated than I see I imagined. That is strange, because what you say does not seem exactly new to me. It must be the part of me that's human, and mortal." He smiles as if to say it's rather odd. "Oh, I have been thinking on a way to help Parsley. To make … I mean, make if she wants it … her better. Happier."

"She likes carrot cake," Isolde offers, after a bit of thought.

"Carrot cake," Axel repeats consideringly. "It would need carrots … " he rubs his chin and pauses a little too long before finishing, " … and cake."

"At a minimum, yes," the witch agrees, grinning madly. "But try not to over-think it, Axel. There is a bakery in town."

"A bakery! I will offer to … hm, trade goods … " Axel pauses again, and this time he seems to have no answer – however bad.