Chapter Eighty-nine

Waiting and Accelerating

Two of the four guards quickly took the lodestones out of the temple, while the other two led us to an area to rest after having been within such extreme pressure. I talked with Sephra about what had just happened and what to do next time. Neither of us were happy with the wizard.

"I vote we just leave Jörgen," Sephra said.

"The problem with that is that he has dimension door," I said. Though he'd abandoned me at first, he had waited for me before using that spell. I probably wouldn't have made it otherwise.

"Do all of us have to go down there, or could just two go down there?"

"Jörgen was the one guiding us to the stone with his spell, though others of us can cast it. I could hear the kraken coming when no one else could."

"Do you have Jörgen's spell? The two of us could go down together."

"But we'd need Ari'yasa's staff."

"We could wait for you to attune to it. If something goes wrong, either all of us are screwed, or only two of us."

"That's a good point," I said. "We're going to need more resistance to cold potions, can we get the potions again?"

Sephra wanted to know if someone could cast a spell to let us speak telepathically. I mentioned our earrings, but she didn't even want to whisper. I mentioned that I was going to have to speak to cast any spells anyway. Jörgen did have a spell that could make someone better at a skill, which could be useful for me paying attention to our surroundings.

Sephra suggested that Jörgen could conjure an elemental to distract the kraken, but I didn't think there was anything that would keep it occupied long enough for us to get anywhere. If the kraken became aware of us we were just going to have to get out of there. We were going to have to be super stealthy.

We needed to ask the council if we could have more potions. Hopefully, we could convince Jörgen to stay because he would be involved in the plan by casting his spell to help me hear better. And we'd want one of Melima's nets to carry the stone.

Sephra mentioned that she could cast her darkness spell, and could lead me in the dark, making it so our spells wouldn't be visible. I wasn't the biggest fan of only two of us going—that meant fewer ears in the water—but I also didn't want to put more people in danger than we needed.

Sephra was liking the idea more and more, because it would be easier for us to get out with fewer people. And there was less of a chance of someone messing up, especially Jörgen. I was still so mad at him. I'd never been so mad at one of my own friends. We were worried that he might not be okay with being left out of the mission, but I was prepared to tell him he was not allowed back and tell the guards not to let him in if he tried to follow us.

Sephra was adamant that even if we couldn't get more potions, she wasn't going back the same day. She didn't want to deal with the kraken being awake and aware of us and was willing to deal with the cold.

There was also the option of having Melima cast her invisibility spell on me, so when I cast my spell when we first got to the Plane, I could cast my spell without being seen. Sephra's darkness would cover that anyway though.

I was getting more comfortable with the idea. Having more people in this situation wasn't necessarily better. It was amazing to me how much I was used to working in a group. There had been a time when I would have gone by myself to do it.

Sephra mentioned that even if we got swallowed, she could use her dimension door spell to get us out, as long as we both got swallowed. We'd hold onto each other the entire time. I thought of a couple spells I had that could make Sephra a little more durable in case we got swallowed, but they wouldn't do much.

We wouldn't have Jörgen to get the stone out of the ground, but we could probably bring a shovel to get it out if it was buried.

Melima turned to us, pale-faced. "My father has just spoken to me. He says that there has been an attack, that two of the White Guard have been wounded. We need to make haste in our journey because time is running out and to please return soon. I asked him 'where was the attack, who attacked us, where do you need us? After the Water Elemental Stone, the next one is Fire? On the Elemental Plane? Is that what we're doing? What do you suggest?' and he hasn't responded yet."

She wanted to go right back in and get the last stone, but I reminded her that wasn't the best idea with what had just happened. I rehearsed the ideas that we'd had. "What Sephra and I have just been discussing is the idea that just she and I go in, that way there's less of us in danger, less of us potentially doing something to alert the kraken. She could cast darkness and then we're not going to let off any glimmers of light no matter what spells we cast, unless we cast something huge outside of it. She has dimension door, so she could get us both out— we realized that even if we get swallowed, she can dimension door us out of the creature to safety, and then I would use my spell to find the next closest stone."

"How do we know if something wrong happens?" Melima asked. "Can we still communicate through the earrings?"

I shook my head. "We have to be on the same plane of existence, and within so many feet of each other."

"I'm concerned, group, about this message my father sent me. It sounds urgent, and if we can get the Astral Stones now, and give our word to come and get the last lodestone later, I think it's worth a conversation to see if they are able to accept the two we have already given them, go and address whatever immediate concerns are happening, and then come back and face the kraken again when he is less aware of what is happening, if that's a possibility, I think we can look at it as well. Finding an agreement. I just need to know— I just need to know, something is happening with my dad, something urgent is happening. That's an option that we can talk about, asking them, 'hey, we've gotten you two, and something has come up. Can we address?'"

"I think that's fair," I said. "We're going to need some time to let the kraken settle down anyways. I got thinking, one concern we had is that we only have one other potion that you had bought that provides cold resistance, but as long as we wait an hour, there's that ring of Sindus' that provides protection against cold. I could attune to that, or Sephra could, and then we'd only need the ring and the potion. Because it's only going to take ten minutes anyways once we get in, so even if we only wait a couple of hours."

"Oh, so just with you two going in?" Melima asked.

"Right."

"Alright," Melima said, "I'm supportive of you guys doing it on your own. I'm concerned that we will have no way of knowing if it goes south, that's my only concern. And then finding it, actually being led to a stone quickly like we were before."

"Jörgen cast locate object, which is a spell I also have," I said.

"Okay, which is why you would be going."

"Yeah. That's pretty much the reason I'm going, because I have that spell and Sephra doesn't."

"Can you guys do dimension door to the object?" Melima asked. "Like, instead of swimming to it, do dimension door to the lodestone?"

"The problem is, the spell only gives you a sense of direction, it doesn't let you know how far it is," I said. "We'd have to have two people and try to triangulate."

"Could Jörgen go?"

"We... don't really want Jörgen to come." I was still really mad at him. It surprised me, because I'd never really been mad at one of my friends before. But then again, I hadn't almost been killed because they had been stupid before, either.

"You didn't die," Jörgen said.

"Yeah, but we were this close, Jörgen."

"You didn't die."

I glared at him. "I'm watching you, wizard."

"The Tree was attacked," Melima said, staring into the distance. "An army of fey, giants, and cultists. Yes, the Fire Stone is the last Stone. Please get the Stones and return."

"We need to verify that actually came from your father and isn't a trap," Ari'yasa said.

"It was him," Melima said. "It's hard to use a spell that changes your voice, and very few people know about what we're doing." She reiterated that we should ask the council about promising to come back and acquire the third lodestone later.

Melima talked to a guard. "Hey, I think we need to meet with Aleena before we move on. How soon can we get an audience?"

"Well, we can try. She's currently meeting with some other people, it might take a couple of hours before she is able to meet with you. But if you'd like, we can put in that request." Melima asked what we wanted to do in the meantime, if we wanted to try to get the last lodestones.

We found the two council members who were holding our Astral Stones and they freely returned them to us. Melima asked Marnalore how long the city could run on the two lodestones we got for them. The captain winced. "With the three we've been using, we've basically been running on borrowed time. Their failure has been imminent for some time. We sent a party in to retrieve lodestones just a few days ago and they did not return."

That might explain the skeleton we'd found, but it might also have been from a previous group. Melima sighed. "It sounds like we need to get the stone."

We went back to our dwelling to dry off, and I played around with the ring of warmth, getting used to its magic. Melima asked how long we wanted to wait before going back, and if we needed to take a nap beforehand. Sephra and I had only cast one spell each, and no one had gotten hurt, so we only wanted to wait a couple of hours, or until we could talk to Aleena.

"See, no one died!" Jörgen said.

"Barely!" I said. I held out my arms. "It was this close to us. We barely got out!"

Sephra had been quiet since we'd left the temple, but she suddenly spoke, staring at the floor. "Guys, I feel like something inside of me is missing. I can't tell what it is, but something doesn't feel right."

Melima nodded, mentioning that she felt the same thing. I paused, I felt it too, similar to when I first couldn't fully rest with my trance, but slightly different. It was like some piece of me was missing, some connection was blocked.

We sat in silence for a while, the three of us trying to tell what was going on. Finally, Sephra looked up. "It's my fey ancestry. The protection it provides is gone."

My heart sank. I could feel it, she was right. Now, not only did we have to sleep, magic would be able to put us to sleep. Not only that, but our resistance to being charmed was gone. The things that made us unique as elves were starting to disappear. Another part of the ritual had probably been done at the Eternity Tree on the Material Plane, meaning that there was only one left that needed to be done to complete the ritual and release Loltha.

"Alright, hosers," Melima said. "We're running out of time!" And our abilities are getting stripped, and I think we should get back as soon as possible."

"I think we should ask Aleena if she's feeling these effects," I said. "I know she's an archdruid and probably doesn't feel them as acutely, but she's still probably being affected by them."

"Do we know for sure that this is Sephra's mom doing this?" Melima asked. "Can we try talking to her or anything?"

"She doesn't care," Sephra said, her voice bitter. "She gave me up for this mission, she doesn't care."

"Well, it's your choice, Sephra," Melima said. "I don't want to set you up with a connection with someone who will hurt you."

"I just don't think my mom will respond. If she really cared, she would have reached out to me a long time ago."

"Well, I can't wait for her to see your bad-A self now, without her darn help."

"And two," I said, "these things have also got to be happening to her as she's doing them."

"That's what I was saying!" Sephra and Melima said simultaneously.

"She's a drow," Sephra said, "but as Ari'yasa said, maybe she's found a way to not be affected."

"That's why I want to know as well," I said, "if Aleena is being affected. All of us have High Elven blood, so we don't know for sure if it is affecting drow." It hadn't occurred to me until then that we all shared that heritage, we all looked so different.

We discussed a little more of what our plan was. I asked Melima to hold the Earth Stone while I was on the Plane of Water. She shook her head. "No. I wanna be in there with you. I don't want to be left defenseless if you guys need help. Even if I'm just on the inside, helping you guys to hear, see, feel, I don't feel comfortable letting you girls go in without extra help."

"You'd just be at the portal, being an extra set of eyes?" I asked.

"Fine. But I will be there."

"I'm liking this," I said, "to just have an extra set of ears next to the portal."

Because Sephra would be the only one that would be able to see in her darkness, we came up with a code to tell each other what we could hear or see. One hand squeeze would be to stop and listen, two squeezes would mean danger.

Ari'yasa told Melima to use her new mariner's armor to resist the cold while she was in there, since she wouldn't be going in this time.

A few of the party went out for a little bit to talk to people while we waited, but I stayed, focusing on the ring. They came back with reports that all elves—including drow—were feeling a little bit different, and had been needing to sleep. I shook my head. How did Sephra's mom think what she was doing would help the drow get even with the other elves if they were all being affected the same way? Did she know that what she was doing would release Loltha? King Caylus hadn't seemed to think so, but I started to wonder.

Finally, we were summoned to speak with Aleena again. She confirmed that yes, she too was feeling the effects of the ritual.

"Is there any way someone could shield themselves from the effects of the Tree?" Melima asked.

Aleena thought for a moment. "I know there are a lot of very powerful magics out there, but it would take an extremely powerful ability to counteract that effect. If it's really being— because our abilities are being drawn from the Tree itself, that's our connection to our ancestry, to the original elves, it would be extremely hard to keep that ability."

"How would someone do that? If you say strong magic, what are we looking out for?"

"That's a wish spell," Jörgen said. "That could be a wish spell." That was alarming. I'd heard of the power of the spell, though not exactly what it could do, other than it was extremely powerful and could cause major havoc if not used correctly.

We were talking to Aleena already, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask a question I had then. "Since we're going against somebody who potentially has these powers, to prevent ourselves from losing any more of these abilities, to protect the Eternity Tree, do you have any advice to protect the Stones in general? We keep them hidden as much as we can, but are there any other suggestions you have for us?"

"Definitely keep it hidden, do not let it fall into their hands. The best thing you can do, if this is the case that you are using them to counteract these rituals, work as quickly as possible. But I am not going to give up my Stone just because of this. You must complete the task you have been given."

"Would you come with us?" Ari'yasa asked.

Aleena shook her head. "I have been guardian of the Stone and my city for four-thousand-five-hundred years."

"Well, the Stone and this city will be no more," Melima said, "effective however long we have, unless we have the Stone and can do the ritual."

I rubbed my forehead. Melima was pushing too hard, we were about to go back to get the last lodestone anyway. We didn't want to ruin the trust we'd already gained. Melima continued, "Aleena, may I rephrase. I'm not asking you to leave, I'm asking you to trust us. I'm asking for this Stone so that we can counteract the spell that is going to destroy the world as we know it. We are on the same playing field in a willingness to protect the things that we love. And protect the people that matter most. Your city is included in that, and we need your help in order to accomplish this task. Since you refuse to leave the city—which I honor and respect—I need some compromise. Our entire world needs a little bit of compromise with this Stone. But we will bring it back, we'll give you something else in exchange until the time comes, but we need your help, we need your Stone to complete this task."

"Trust that I do worry, but I have been around a long, long time. And the city has remained hidden for a very long time. And only those who have gained trust are even given access, and even less trust must be earned. And this small task, this one thing that we have asked you to do, will earn the trust enough for me to entrust my guardianship that I have done for the last four-thousand plus years to you."

She turned to Ari'yasa and I. "Would you give them up lightly to anyone?"

I shook my head. "I am more than willing to finish this task."

"From what has been told me, you have brought two— one remaining. Good luck."

I paid attention to how I felt as we left the council chamber, confirming what I thought I'd felt last time after being near the Water Stone. I felt stronger, like I could take harder hits in battle or move faster to avoid taking hits. I mentioned it to the group, and Ari'yasa mentioned that she felt lighter on her feet. "I want to take care of a rock!" Melima said.

It was mentioned that there were two more Stones that we'd need to choose guardians for. Melima wanted to have the Water Stone, but admitted that fire was probably more her element. I agreed. "That's what I was thinking, I thought it would be appropriate for the Water Stone to move from one drow to another, and fire better fit your personality."

We went back to the temple to get the last lodestone. Sephra and I started getting ready to go back in the water, and Jörgen cast a spell on me to help heighten my senses. I reluctantly handed him my Stone, since Melima was now coming through with us. Sephra took the potion to resist cold, while I put on the ring of warmth and Melima secured her armor.

We decided everyone would go down into the pool, Ari'yasa and Jörgen waiting on the Material Plane side of the portal, where Melima could grab them if needed. Sephra cast her darkness spell, linking arms with me when she was done. I grabbed Melima's hand and we stepped forward through the portal, entering the cold water of the Water Elemental Plane and its tremendous pressure.

Sephra squeezed my hand twice, the signal for danger. There was already danger? I passed the message to Melima and started stepping back. Something displaced a lot of water right in front of us. Melima stepped back, yanking us back through the portal and the warmer water of the temple.

Sephra dropped her darkness spell, revealing the rest of our party. I looked at her in alarm. "What was going on? What happened?"

"Oh, he was right there, and he tried to grab me," Sephra said, calmer than she probably should have been.

"Okay," I said, eyes wide. "We should probably wait at least a day."

She nodded, holding her hands about shoulder width. "His eyes were about this big." She held her hands out as far as they could go. "And they were about this far apart."

We went back out of the pool, reporting to Marnalore what had happened. She recommended that we wait at least another twenty-four hours. After having gone in twice, the creature would probably be waiting around for a while, waiting for a meal.

Jörgen suggested waiting at least a couple of days, but with the message from Melima's father, I knew time was not on our side. Jörgen did have a valid point though, if we even peeked back in too soon, it could extend the time we'd have to wait for the kraken to leave.

I asked the others what their opinions were. Sephra was willing to wait just twenty-four hours and go back. I suggested maybe twenty-five hours, in case it had a good sense of time and would leave after waiting a day.

Sephra confirmed that we needed all four Astral Stones before we could do anything with them, then asked who would hold the Water Stone once we had it. I smiled. "I think it should be you."

"Really?" she asked, a touch of awe in her voice. "Is there a negative thing to holding these crystals? I think I remember something about it ages you?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Mine, because of the protection that was on it in the crypt, as long as I have it, it takes that much time off of my life."

"But not all of them do that?"

"Not all of them do that. Obviously, because Aleena is four, five thousand years old or somewhere around there."

"Yeah, that would make sense, she couldn't do that if the Stone did that."

"So, with yours, could we just give it back to the druids and have them take care of it?"

"With mine, I'd rather take it back myself."

"What?" Sephra asked with alarm.

"Well, not by myself, I'd take someone with me."

"You want to go back? I had so much anxiety in that tunnel!"

"Well, at that point, we might just be able to teleport there."

"Right, because we'd know where we're going. Would we have to fight that guy again?"

"Probably not to return it. I'd hope not. 'Here, we're returning this.' 'Let me fight you.' 'Why?'"

Sephra laughed nervously. We'd have to figure out what to do with that once we'd stopped Sephra's mom.

We realized that we'd need more potions to go in again, at least one for Sephra, hopefully for Melima. We asked Marnalore if we'd be able to get a couple more, and next time, Sephra would poke her head into the portal first before we took them, to make sure the kraken wasn't waiting for us.

She agreed to try to get more for us, rather reluctantly. A few hours later she came to our dwelling with two more potions. We tried to settle down and prepare for our next attempt in the morning.