Chapter Ninety-two

Investigations at the Tree

I felt better the next morning, but still not completely back to normal. We had breakfast with the royal family, and King Moonfeather let us know that Aurel would be coming, but it would be another day before he would arrive. Melima wanted to talk to the mage we'd captured, but with how the last interrogation went, I didn't think we'd get much more out of him, or might jeopardize the options Sephra had created for us with him.

We decided that we'd go visit the Eternity Tree while we waited for Aurel. We talked about Ari'yasa teleporting us through trees, but she'd have to remember a specific tree in the area to use her spell. If she couldn't remember one, we might have to walk there and have her teleport us back. Jörgen said he could teleport us back, but his spell used up materials. Melima remembered that her dad had a teleportation spell.

She came back after asking him, reporting that he'd be able to come with us in about an hour. He met us in about that time, but instead of wearing his royal robes, he came in older, travel-worn robes. They had more earth tones to them, rather than the blues and silvers he usually wore. He carried a spellbook and had a component pouch on his belt. They were definitely adventuring robes. How fun, he was coming on an adventure with us! Even if it was just a short, relatively safe one.

"Where have you been? And what have you been doing?" Melima asked.

"This was me when I was your age," the king said, smiling.

"That doesn't explain anything. When you were my age, you were frolicking around with a woman who turned dark. Do you want to explain more about all that?"

"I've told you before about the adventures that I had before and how I met her. That's the whole idea."

"So, why are you adventuring now? You're happily married now—with kids—and running a kingdom. What are you doing?"

"Well, you said you wanted me to take you down there. And the dangers that have been faced recently at the Tree are real, so I wanted to be prepared,"

"You think we're going to see her," Melima said with a sing-song voice.

The king ignored her comment. "We're not taking a contingent of guards with us, I just want to be prepared."

Melima nudged him. "It looks good on you."

He smiled back at her. "Before I became king, this is what I loved."

He had us step into a private study that adjoined his bedroom, saying he was ready to leave if we were. He traced a sigil in the air, then I felt like I was being pulled forward. Suddenly, we were all in the training field north of the camp of the White Guard. We were greeted by the wizard who had alarmed Sephra last time we were there, and he led us into camp.

There were fewer of the Guard around the camp, about half of what we had seen previously. The atmosphere wasn't as jovial as it had been before. Walking to the Tree, we found all the missing guards were on duty, they were keeping a stronger force at the Tree since the attack.

Most alarming was the scar. It reached nearly halfway up the Tree and the tendrils had wrapped more around the base. It made my stomach sick to see it. The Tree still glowed where the scar wasn't, but not as brightly as I'd remembered.

The members of the Guard patrolled around the Tree methodically. Some wore their armor, while others wore bandages on their arms or had cuts and bruises visible on their arms and faces. Their bodies had taken a beating, but so had their pride. The stoic way many of them had held themselves with had been replaced with unease and concern.

Nieven approached our group, giving King Moonfeather a strange look. A look of recognition crossed his face and he greeted him with a deep bow. He paused on his way up. "What are you doing here?"

The king motioned to us. "They have been off and I sent them word a while back, and now they would like to see what has gone on here."

Several of the Guard turned to us with curious faces. One gave us a smile and a wink. It was Murios. A large bandage wrapped around his midsection. he'd recovered enough to return to his duties, but obviously it was not yet a full recovery. I imagined it was the same way for most of the Guard.

Melima stepped forward. "What do you know so far? What have you discovered? What can you tell us?"

Nieven explained that late in the evening they had been going through their shift change. Each person was supposed to wait for their replacement to come before they left their post, but they had grown lax with their practice. That meant there were fewer guards at the Tree when they were attacked. There were fey creatures—including the rock satyrs we'd encountered before—but also ogres, hill giants, fomorians, and something attacking from range in the trees.

Most of the Guard were drawn out into the northeast forest to combat the ranged attackers. After they had left, a smaller group came from the southeast and attacked the Tree. Nieven motioned to Murios. "From what we've been told, that party had several mages and seemed to know what would take them out quickly. While the rest of the Guard was gone, the enemy party knocked out the remaining forces and performed a ritual on the Tree."

They didn't know how long the ritual took, but the rest of the Guard had only been gone for a little over five minutes. They found the four guards that had been left behind lying unconscious on the ground. The bulk of the Guard had driven the larger group away towards the mountains, but it seemed they had only been meant as a distraction.

"Out of all that happened, nobody witnessed anything that happened at the Tree?" Melima asked. "How did you know a ritual happened?"

"When it originally happened, and word came that Murios had fallen, I immediately came to the Tree," the king said. "I surmised, based on what we know, this was the location of the second ritual."

"The second one? Where was the first?"

"It would have happened in the Feywild," her father replied. He leaned in closer to our group. "And I believe, with what is needed, the third one will be needed to be done in the Shadowfell, somewhere."

"The Shadowfell?" Melima asked. "Does anyone know how to get there?"

"I am unfamiliar," the king said, "I do not possess that ability." He pulled us to the side. "I would remind you that our goal right now is not necessarily to stop her, but to reverse what she has already done. Once we have done that, we can worry about stopping her from doing it again."

We started looking around the Tree, looking for clues as to what had been done, or anything else we might be able to learn about who had attacked it. I cast my spell to detect any magic around, but didn't notice anything different from last time. Sephra noticed something shimmering on the side of the Tree, more than what it already glowed with. She wiped her hand on it then looked at her hand. She showed us what she'd wiped off— diamond dust.

Ari'yasa noticed a patch of earth between two roots that had been recently disturbed, the soil not as compact as everywhere else. I pointed it out to Nieven. "Is this something that one of the guards did?"

He came over and looked at it, then let out a shrill whistle. "Has anyone done anything to the earth around the Tree? Any enchantments that were placed beyond what we did?"

All of the Guard shook their heads. Jörgen cast a spell on the spot, raising out a pillar of soil from the ground. I noticed a slight glow about a hand width from the top of the soil. I pointed it out, "there's something right there!"

Melima rushed over and grabbed the object I'd seen. It was conical, sharp, and stained red. I recognized immediately what it was— a dragon tooth. It glowed with magic and still had all of the root. The dragon was probably still alive, and it was probably a metallic dragon.

I took it from Melima, analyzing the still intact root. Normally it would quickly disintegrate when a dragon died. I felt something wash over me, trying to enter into my mind. The amulet of the Platinum Dragon seemed to push the attack away, and I dropped the tooth. Whatever had been done in the ritual had attached a dark magic to it. "There's something really wrong with that tooth," I said. "Nobody will want to handle it for very long, and we probably don't want it around the Tree."

King Caylus regarded it with concern. "This is definitely from the ritual," he said. "The three items that were needed as part of the ritual—from what I've learned about this—were diamond dust, a tooth of an ancient dragon, and a drop of their own blood."

Captain Nieven made a different whistle, and the wizard that had frightened Sephra last time came and picked it up with an ethereal hand. He looked at the captain. "Well, we have some options, but I don't know whether it will make things worse by taking it away from the Tree, or whether it will make things better. I don't know. My suggestion would be to maybe only take it as far as camp, and if we needed to, I could keep it in my box."

The captain looked at the king. "Do you think that would be wise?"

The king thought for a moment. "I think it would be better if it were back at camp, but I don't necessarily want to make it leave this plane of existence. And the magic that some of your items that you have…" He looked at the wizard. "We don't want to make it leave this plane of existence."

"That's probably the better idea," the captain agreed. "For now, let's take it back to camp and put it in one of our safes." I watched the Tree as they took it back to camp. There didn't seem to be any change to the Tree, which was a relief.

As I watched the Tree, something caught my eye up in the very top of the branches. Vax was perched up there, guarding from above. I briefly made eye contact, and he ducked behind a branch, out of sight. I watched where he went, and after a moment he peeked back around. He flipped out his dagger, tapped the top of it, and nodded. I gave a slight nod of gratitude in return. I was hoping I'd be able to ask him about that. It made me feel a little bit like I was communicating with my father, even if we had no idea where each other were.

"I think it's relatively scary that simple thing could happen," Melima said.

"There's a spy!" Jörgen said.

"What he is implying," Melima said, taking a deep breath, "is, have all the guards been interviewed? Have they been questioned?"

Both Captain Nieven and the king answered that most of the Guard had been drawn out to battle, leaving four behind to keep watch of the Tree. Those who had been left were Murios, Tiriana, Syvis Daethana—a newer Wood Elven sorcerer—and Vax'ildan. Almost all were people I had some kind of connection to, and with the exception of Vax, all younger members of the Guard. When they had been questioned, they reported four or five powerful spellcasters attacking them that had quickly rendered them unconscious.

King Caylus brought our party together, out of earshot of any of the Guard. "This ritual was performed here. Wherever the ritual was performed in the Feywild, the objects that were needed for that particular location will be at that location. That's how you'll know it's the right location. But based on what I know, this does confirm…" He looked at Sephra, then Melima. "She must have been here if she's the one doing the rituals, because it's her blood that would have been needed for the ritual."

"I don't know, I kinda know someone that is related to her," Jörgen said, eyeing Sephra.

Melima grabbed Sephra by the shoulder. "You know what? Discussion closed. We're not bringing that up again. But I think that the White Guard isn't as pure as they say they are." It made my stomach knot. Vax was by far the most skilled that had been left at the Tree when it was attacked and didn't like to talk. Did he have something to do with it?

I looked again at everyone at the Tree. Everyone appeared on high alert—maybe most especially Vax—but also all had a bit of embarrassment to their demeanor. They'd been bested, even after we'd warned them about a distraction strategy!

I asked Nieven, "it was mentioned that E'ran had to resurrect someone. I'm curious as to who that was?"

He looked uncomfortably at Melima. "It was Murios. We found him soon enough that it didn't have to be a full resurrection and he could use lesser magic, thankfully. He was only expired a short time."

I'd had a feeling that's what had happened, and everyone was dancing around the fact with Melima around. She was surprised, but otherwise took the news well.

King Moonfeather finished up a couple of other questions, then we returned to the camp for him to cast a spell to get us all back to the palace.