28: The Eternal Alchemy

Dry Top was a strangely exquisite place, full of hidden wonders, once you got past its dusty and barren surface. Of course Caoilfhionn loved the oasis, to see sunbeams shooting down between great branches of the palms that reached towards the canyon banks, the sudden lush misty atmosphere after the dreadful parched feeling the rest of the valley had, the pink moas with their shining feathers, the kindly skritt and his little garden.

But there was more – and besides the soft sweeps of wind-carved red sandstone, or the towering majesty of the great pillars of harder stone. The ley line cavern was like nothing he'd ever seen before, and the first time he saw it, his breath was completely stolen away. The shimmers of magic dancing through the cool air, delighting his soul, was only the final layer of enchantment of the cavern's beauty. He could hardly sum up in words how amazing it was. Kasmeer agreed with him, and he was glad to have someone who knew how he felt.

It had been some weeks, though, since they'd left Taimi in the Cavern of Shining Lights, and many terrible things had happened in that short time. Fort Concordia and Fort Salma had fallen to Mordremoth's vines, shattered from within, and Marjory's sister Belinda was dead. But their quest continued, and so Annhilda and all of Hope's Legacy except Marjory assembled at the Cavern with Taimi and Wegaff, who had been studying the place.

Taimi, in Scruffy, led them eagerly to a great cavern on the western side, round as a dome, with a strange low black pyramid in the centre and a great floating cube overhead. "This is so amazing!" Taimi gushed, pointing inside the pyramid to a… Caoilfhionn couldn't tell what was in there. A low platform in the middle, which looked sort of like a very hard bed, surrounded by strange emitters that still glowed a little. "Looky look look! Can you believe your eyes?"

They all stared. Rox spoke first. "Uhhhh. What is it?"

Taimi clucked. "It's Omadd's machine, you simpleton."

"Hey," Braham scolded her. "Rude."

"Sorry," Taimi said. "But it's the very device that showed Scarlet the Eternal Alchemy. It still works!"

"We think," Wegaff put in. "Everything appears to be functional, but we have not tested it, of course. Though not for someone's lack of attempting recklessly." He coughed and did not look at Taimi.

"Can I blow it up?" Rhyoll asked. "That thing's gotta be dangerous."

"Absolutely not!" Taimi cried indignantly. "Think about what we could learn. Besides, my mind is far more resilient than Scarlet's was."

"How do you know?" Damara said. "We could have a crazy Asura running around next."

"I've been reading her notebooks, duh."

"Umm, I don't think you should mess with it," Kasmeer said nervously. "I'm inclined to agree with Rhyoll. What do you think?"

Annhilda bent over and peered at it from outside, hands on her hips. "It looks like Scarlet added to it. Some of the parts look different, newer."

"Yes, I recognize Omadd's work," Phiadi said. "Wait, if she rebuilt it, did she go in it again? Sheesh. Should've quit while you were ahead, lady."

Rhyoll growled. "That makes me even more nervous. What exactly do you know about this device?"

Wegaff cleared his throat. "It was allegedly designed to affect the mind, to open it to new awareness. Scarlet wrote that when she got into it, she claimed she saw what we Asura call the Eternal Alchemy."

"What else?" Annhilda asked.

"It broke Scarlet's mind," said Kasmeer. "After she used it, she was never the same. It's as if it opened the door to insanity."

"She committed her first murder after using it and escalated quickly after that," Wegaff said.

"Yes. This machine started her on a very dark path," Caoilfhionn said.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Kasmeer. "We can't let Taimi near it."

Damara nodded. "For her own good, I agree-"

"Taimi!" barked Rhyoll, and they turned to see Scruffy slip through the opening on the side of the pyramid.

"Oh no!" cried Kasmeer. "We have to-" A wave of energy emitted from the machine, knocking them all back.

Rox bounced up, hurrying back forward. "Don't touch anything. We don't know what – Taimi!"

Taimi screamed, and Caoilfhionn could not tell if it was a scream of pain or excitement, but either way – they could not let her subject herself to these unknown horrors, even if she were eager to! He ran forward, ducking as another wave of energy blasted out from it.

"Can't get close," cried Braham. "That thing is shooting off too much lightning."

Caoilfhionn had skidded, but he hadn't been sent head-over-heels like he had the first time; he threw his own shield of lightning around him, hoping it would protect him. Kasmeer saw what he was doing and added her powers to his, doubly protecting him. He charged into the chamber, past everyone else's anxious shouts, grabbed Scruffy's arm, and threw all his body weight into it. The golem weighed many times as much as he did, and he had no business moving it, but he'd found the right torque and put magic into it, and Scruffy went tumbling out of the door again.

But then the emitters in the chamber, glowing brightly, fired all at once-

He was surrounded by… by darkness filled with lights, all coming at him too fast to take in, and yet slow, as if he were wading through deep water, stumbling along an invisible road in a void of blue and green and black. Ahead of him was the brightest light of all, filled with patterns he could… almost… make out…

It was his Mother! Beautiful, strong, symmetrical, she seemed to beckon to him – and then he was falling, falling swiftly, into her, through her…

He and she were joined, at the centre of Tyria, and the dragons orbited them. He could see everything, as if he were no longer flesh and bone but a spirit – a god, even. For an instant, he almost understood-

There was a growl that shook the foundations of his perception, and Mordremoth dove out of orbit, hurtling towards him-

He heard a cry in his mind. "Caoilfhionn! Caoilfhionn!"

"Mother!" he called back, reaching out, he didn't know where. "Help me!"

He had the sensation of warm, soft petals closing about him, embracing and protecting him, just before something like gigantic teeth snapped at his heels. And yet those teeth were so much stronger than the petals…

And the world became a poisonous green.

Awareness was a strange beast – one moment he was experiencing the entire cosmos, filled with unimaginable terror and elation, and the next he felt a cool dry sandy floor beneath him, and the voices of his friends overhead.

"Hey!" Annhilda was calling him. "Caoilfhionn, are you okay?"

"I think he's dead," Braham said from further back.

"What? No." Kasmeer sounded indignant. "He's alive. Don't be silly."

"Don't even joke about that," Damara said. "Oh, Gods, he doesn't have a pulse!" He felt her fingers on his wrist, then his neck.

"Sylvari don't have a pulse," Annhilda reminded her.

"Oh, right…"

He opened his eyes, carefully. "I'm… I'm all right. I don't appear to be dead, at least."

"Oh, thank the Gods," Damara said. "We were so scared."

"Tell us everything!" Taimi shouted from atop Scruffy. "What did you see?"

"Take it slow," Rox said. "Once it had you, we were afraid to just yank you out."

"Then you started screaming, and we had no choice," Kasmeer said.

He sat up, and Annhilda helped him. "Take deep breaths," she said. "Relax. We got you."

"It was incredible," he gasped out, shaking.

"What was? What are you talking about?" Annhilda sat down beside him, keeping him grounded against her body as if he had hypothermia, and the others clustered in closer until she glared at them to give him some breathing space.

"I had a vision. I saw it. The Eternal Alchemy." He knew he sounded like a raving lunatic and yet nothing mattered but getting the words out as swiftly as he could.

"You what?" Phiadi demanded.

"You're going to have to explain," Rox said. "We don't understand."

"I'll try," he said, staring at his outstretched hands as if they could help him. He hadn't even perceived that he had hands while in the vision. "I saw how Tyria is woven, and… I'm tied up in it. Somehow."

"Okay, I think you need to rest a while," Damara said, overly gently. "Do you hurt anywhere?"

"Do you think he's lost it?" Phiadi muttered to Wegaff. "Think he's gone like Scarlet?"

"Maybe we shouldn't have stuck another Sylvari in there," Wegaff muttered back.

He mustered his strength, sitting up straight and staring intensely at them. "Listen. Vast energies flow through and around Tyria, and I saw a dragon. It… um…" The terror came back to him in a flood, and he swallowed.

"It what?" Braham said. "What did you see?"

"It was part of the workings of the world," Caoilfhionn stammered out. "It came at me."

"That sounds like a terrible nightmare," Kasmeer said sympathetically.

"If it hadn't been for my Mother – I saw the Pale Tree at the heart of a vast moving puzzle."

"Like Scarlet," Phiadi said.

"Yes… But she protected me. She called out to me."

"What do you think that means?" Taimi said eagerly.

Finally, his shaking was starting to subside. "It means we need to talk to her."

"What can she do?" Rox asked. "She's a tree."

"She's the Pale Tree," Caoilfhionn said, smiling. "She's magical beyond imagining. She can access the Dream."

"And what exactly will that do?" Taimi asked, making notes.

"Er… I'm not sure yet. But she will surely know a little more than we do now."

"All right," Annhilda said. "Sounds good to me. In fact, let's get all the leaders of Tyria in. Knut, Queen Jennah, Trahearne, everyone. It's time to talk about Mordremoth."

"We'll have to have them meet at the Grove, then," Damara said. "She can't exactly go anywhere, can she?"

"She has an avatar which she can project to talk with us her children within the Grove," Caoilfhionn said, "though she mainly keeps to the Omphalos Chamber – she has too many children to speak to all at once." He managed to laugh. "But I don't know that she can send it traveling, no."

"Then we drag the bear out of his den, and nicer invitations for everyone else," Annhilda said. "Who's staying with Taimi?"

"Thank you for realizing I'm not going anywhere," Taimi said.

"I am, again," Wegaff said. "Caoilfhionn, I'm going to need you to give me as detailed an account of your… experience as you can before you go, because I've got a new theory about dragon magic and it's not a pleasant one."

"I will do my best," Caoilfhionn said sombrely.

"Everyone who wants to help chivvy world leaders, we'll meet at the Grove tomorrow," Annhilda said. "Caoilfhionn, you better rest. See you all later."

Caoilfhionn led his friends towards the Omphalos Chamber, but nearly all of them stayed below. Only Annhilda, as his guild leader, came with him. Warden Lochin gestured them forward with a most warm welcome.

"My child," said the Pale Tree. "What a delight to see you looking so well."

"Hello, Mother!" Caoilfhionn said, bowing; Annhilda copied him. "I am glad to see you too."

"It is a joy to see you again. Your visits seem to grow longer apart with each passing season."

"For me too, Mother. But I have been very busy. This is my guild leader, Annhilda."

"Greetings, Annhilda," said the Tree. "You are most welcome here. I hear you take good care of my son."

"He's a valued member of our guild, and a good friend," Annhilda said. "Thanks."

"But tell me, what brings you here seeking my counsel?"

"Two things," Caoilfhionn said. "First, I had a vision. You figured prominently in it."

Her large expressive eyes widened. "I'm intrigued. Tell me more. What was it about? Where did you have this vision?"

"In an Asuran device Scarlet used to see the Eternal Alchemy. I saw it too."

Distress crossed her face. "What dangers have you been toying with? Such things were not meant to be seen. They will crack your mind."

"Do you not remember it yourself?" he asked anxiously. "I heard your voice, and called out for you."

The Pale Tree knelt before him to look into his eyes. "Well, my child, the one thing you must never forget is that I stand between you and the greatest darkness you'll ever know. A vast darkness intent on consuming all that we hold dear."

"What do you mean, Mother?"

"There are those who reject my protection. It leaves them vulnerable in ways they cannot imagine, in ways they never were before." She shook her head, and pollen fell from her petals in a faint sparkling shimmer. "I shield you as best I can, and will for as long as I can."

"I know, Mother, and I love you for it." He smiled at her, then remembered. "But wait – you're talking about dragon corruption. We're immune to it, aren't we?"

"Yes, in the past, my children have been immune. But Mordremoth's corruption is powerful, and just as Zhaitan created the undead from so many creatures, so Mordremoth's corruption can change you."

That sent a chill through him like nothing else. "Is that what happened to Scarlet?"

"I believe she opened herself to it when she let down the wall of her mind. Mordremoth's corruption seeps in through the cracks in our willpower. Do not follow in her footsteps."

"I won't, Mother. I will be on my guard."

"Yes, I know." She smiled and stood again. "So tell me, what is the second half of your quest here today?"

"We need to discuss Mordremoth's activities," Annhilda said, and summarized all they'd witnessed in the last few weeks. "It's reaching incredibly far, incredibly soon – Scarlet only woke it up a couple months ago. I recommend getting the world's leaders to join ranks against it now, while it's still sleep-addled."

"I see," the Tree said gravely. "A summit, then. I could host such a gathering, if you can convince them to come. Who do you plan to invite?"

"Knut Whitebear, of course. And a leader from each of the other races."

"And Trahearne, as Marshal of the Pact," Caoilfhionn put in.

The Tree smiled. "Of course. He has been away even longer than you have. Though I imagine he will not be able to stay long. But I will leave it in your hands while I prepare here. I am glad you brought this to me. I am happy to help you."

"Thank you so much, Mother," Caoilfhionn said. "We'll get it done."