The clearing had gone strangely quiet.
Kaelen stood beside the sleeping tree, staring at his own hand.
A moment ago, that hand had held the will of the entire forest still.
He could still feel it.
The roots beneath the soil. The insects hidden beneath bark. The movement of leaves high above him.
Everything had been there.
Everything had answered.
Kaelen slowly turned his palm over.
His fingers looked ordinary.
They were still his fingers. His skin. His nails. Nothing about them suggested what they had just done.
Yet he knew what had happened.
He had reached into the forest without moving.
He had felt the tree's rage.
He had felt the hunger beneath its bark.
Then he had simply told it to sleep.
And it had obeyed.
Kaelen swallowed.
"How?"
The question came out barely louder than a whisper.
He looked at the tree.
Its enormous branches hung motionless now. The twisted roots that had been tearing through the earth moments ago had become still.
Peaceful.
