At two different points of the city, a few hours after the conclusion of the All-Tavern's tournament, two people were troubled in their sleep. Gennadiya was awoken by the whispers of Ymiden, still just a few days from the advent of his season. She heard him whisper in her ear, "There's a child being reborn at the Brawling Tree, within the Lightning Dome. I bid you go and offer comfort." It might've been her imagination, the strange mania that often followed a fitful sleep on awakening. But Gennadiya knew her Patron's voice. And she had her instructions.
Somewhere else in the city, Vivian was sleeping off the activities of earlier in the trial. The red that had stuck to her collar, now floated off of her jacket, and then landed beneath her nose. The blood red petal rested there for a moment, then trembled, and sent a shock through her. She saw the Changeling's Boneyard, and instead of walls of water, there were walls of fire, as high as a expansive cavern. She felt the heat, and all at once was startled to wakefulness.
Then the leaf floated away from her face, and back toward the fabric of her jacket, where there it stuck.
She had a feeling something was happening at the brawling tree, or perhaps it was just the strange behavior of those petals that had fluttered so wildly through her rroom. Either way, it was her choice whether to continue resting or follow up on this strange anomaly.
Whether they arrived or not, things were afoot beneath the Willow Tree that was colloquially known as the Brawling Tree, for its healing effects upon fighters who participated in battles beneath its branches, in the Lightning Dome Arena.
A murder of crows, scores, maybe even hundreds of them all fluttered through the branches, making a raucous sound among the lot of them. One of the larger crows, no doubt a leader among the Murder, was tearing at a stringy piece of flesh, which had attached itself to the tree. Then it flew to the top, and began rustling leaves. All of the birds began rustling the leaves, until they began falling off, almost faster than they could regrow. It might've seemed to anyone looking on that they were trying to strip the tree bare.
The glowing leaves coalesced and began sticking to the stringy piece of flesh that was hanging from the tree. Eventually, they formed the figure of a small woman, as if growing the person as a fruit from the tree.
The glowing leaves began pulsing around the bloodied scrap of flesh. Began undulating, as if it was trying to breathe life into the shape it was forming. Within a few bits, the glow subsided, and the dead leaves of the Brawling tree, grown red, fell to the ground like a piece of paper merchet. But this had heft to it, enough that it semeed to have the full body of a person inside of them. Inside the leaves, a body came back to life, not knowing who she was, or where she was.
The murder of crows took flight, but not before the largest among them gave a strange look to the leafy construct that lay on the ground. It swooped down, and tore a bloody gash in the shoulder of the husk, leaving a wound that bled freely beneath the layer of leaves.
Then it was gone, along with the rest of the murder.
