Heart of the forest

The heart of the forest is an object buried in the earth near Sınır Sapı in the campaign Zincirsiz ("Unchained"), the physical seat of the forest's fey spirit, Aqua. Its name, matter and form were not known to those who first spoke of it.¹²

The town's plenty

The governor told Jonathan River what Lady Teresa had said of it: a gift of the forest spirits that brought flowers, fruit, clean water and plenty, and made the settlement grow. Teresa had warned that taking it away would bring slow decline, death and departure. The governor did not know where it lay. The being that spoke through Captain Markus wanted it but said it could not take it with its own hands, and claimed that inborn magical gifts appeared unusually often in the region; the man who signed as V doubted his own habit of tying all the town's prosperity to it.³⁴⁵⁶

What the wise said

Fundin Alsakal remembered, from an old talk over drink, the words "the heart of the forest" and a fey said to have died. Ektelyon explained a fey heart as the physical form of a forest spirit's spreading itself through a region it loves: a heart grown into the roots near the centre, unlike the heart of a human or an elf. He had seen laboratory specimens in elven academies but never one grown in place. Its union with a land does not work the same everywhere, and may bring bad or confusing effects as well as plenty. Where the spirit's influence lingers, he thought it more a life changed in form than a death, but said his learning could not settle it.⁷⁸⁹¹⁰

He knew no single way to use it. Jonathan proposed searching the lushest woods and most fruitful fields, closing on the centre as its effect grew stronger, and Ektelyon thought this a sound start, though he did not know whether the laws of Galevan held for such a heart. Fey remains are held to be among the sources of things not made in the material world, and the fey are creatures of chaos and changeable danger.^1112131415

Teresa's plan

Teresa said that she knew where the heart lay and that a dense part of the fey's spirit dwelt in it, and that it keeps those it does not count as friends from coming near. Her plan, which Jonathan accepted again, was to go to the heart together, bring the fey out of its neutrality and turn the workings of the forest against the enemy. If the fey consented, she would hide with the heart and guard the town while the two fought, and withdraw if they lost; moving it against the fey's will would be hard and unpredictable, and she would agree to destroying it only when every other hope was gone.^216171819

Lent to Jonathan

At their meeting, Aqua said she could give her heart. Through the bite of the great snake on Jonathan's chest, a dense piece passed into him, travelled through his body and settled under the nail of his little toe. Aqua told him not to cut that nail: once the creature was dead, Teresa could take the heart out, and control was to pass to her. If he could not kill it, the heart would rise up and kill him.^20212223

While he carried it, his sense of nature deepened: he could pick out changes far off, understand scraps of animal sounds and see in the dark. The sight depends on focus and on the natural links around him; in a cave stripped of living things and plants it was narrow, widening again when fireflies came, and at his last focus it was drawn aside to the face of the enemy.^2425262728

Spoiler: After the huntGösterAçık ettiği: Zincirsiz #18 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

When the mind flayer died, a green-white glowing shape rose from Jonathan, gave thanks and dispersed, healing his four companions. Later Jonathan passed the heart to Teresa by laying his hand in hers.²⁹³⁰³¹