By noon of the next day, they had gotten to the top of the vale. She was feeling a little groggy after her interrupted sleep the night before, and woken up nauseous again. Still, she managed to keep down a few wild fruits they found growing on a vine near the Mosstone and by the time they had climbed the final feet to the top of the gorge, she was feeling more or less herself. They stood, looking into the flames ahead. She could smell the apprehension coming off of Safiya.
"Wait here," Adahni said, looking back at her companions, "There's no reason for the rest of you to come in with me."
"What if he attacks you?" asked Gann.
"I have a jar of icy evil under my arm," she said, "I'm not that worried. Like Okku said, he's just a little thing. A bug. I can squish him."
"Let me come with you," Okku said, "I don't feel the heat or the flame. I would have a word with Shape of Fire before we dispatch of him. I don't dispute that we must do it. If anything it's doing him a kindness. But I would have a word."
Adahni looked at him oddly, but she did not protest as he followed her beyond the dark and smoky veil and into the burning grove. She willed herself to keep her eyes open. The heat didn't get to her so much, but the smoke grated against her lungs and eyes until both felt red and raw.
"Why?" she asked, hoping a conversation with the old bear might distract her from the discomfort.
"Why what?" Okku said.
"Why do you want a word with Shape of Fire?" she asked.
"Because I want him to know that it was not I that put this curse upon him," the old bear said.
She was silent a moment, hoping she would not have to ask him to continue. He obliged her, his voice rumbling and creaking on behind her, reminding her that he was there though she couldn't see him for the smoke.
"Shape of Fire used to be a man," Okku said, "A tracker. His name was Nikolai. That's all I know of him, other than he was once in the employ of a carrier of the curse you now bear."
"A spirit eater?"
"Yes," Okku said, "The first I ever encountered."
"Not the one who spared you," Adahni said.
"This one, too, spared me," he said, "How do you think I was around for the next one to so nobly pardon me? It was centuries ago. Nikolai found me, tracked me down even in the frozen wasteland where I hid for fear. I had heard the whispers on the wind of the Spirit Eater and hunkered down in the frozen wastelands, hoping he would not find me."
"But he spared you. Why did he spare you after he went through so much trouble to find you?"
"I told him of the Wood Man," Okku said, "I told him that the Wood Man was a much older and more powerful spirit than I. Nikolai the Tracker knew the area, and took him to him."
"You sold out the Wood Man?" Adahni asked.
"I knew that the Wood Man would be no match for the Spirit Eater. I sent him to his death. I did not know that his wrath would fall upon the tracker. He cursed him to burn for eternity, damned him to this fate you see here. That is why I said it might be a kindness to kill him."
She could see him in the corner of her eye, dancing around the treetops. She could feel his eyes upon her, though they were nothing but two cinders.
"Is that why he's burning the grove?" she asked, "To get back at the Wood Man?"
"With the blight, and the frost giants, it might be enough to fell even the Wood Man. I feel responsible for it," he sad, "It is why the next time a Spirit Eater found me, I offered myself. It is what made his sparing me so noble, and what has led me to follow you."
"You didn't intend this to happen," Adahni said, "Come, what would you have me do."
"Free the orglash," he said.
Adahni took the jar in her two hands, the cold scorching her hands like fire never could. She threw all of her strength into it, and the lid came loose. The essence poured forth with a life of its own, swirling around her head in a tornado of cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and let the jar fall and shatter on the ground. The glowing branches of the burning grove blackened and cooled, the roaring flames shrank and fizzled, and the Shape of Fire stopped dancing. He fell from the treetops, and she could see as he fell the demon become a young man, the young man become an old man, the old man a corpse and then a skeleton, and then but dust, raining down on them with a sigh.
"Well that was simple," she said.
"Indeed," Gann's voice said from behind her. She turned. He had caught up to them, and was examining one of the charred trees. He snapped off a blackened branch, "And I think this will do quite nicely. This ought to get Chauntea's attention, don't you think?"
"I'm glad one of us was thinking about that," Adahni said, "Before we trekked all the way back into center of the forest."
"That is the benefit of having a companion like me," the dreamwalker said, "Is you can have more than one brain at once."
"So you're in my head now?" she asked.
"We have shared a real dream, a lucid dream," he said, "So yes, you could say that I'm in your head. And you are in mine, if you cared to take a look."
"You're thinking about fish," she said. She didn't know quite where she came up with that, but when she looked at the hagspawn's face, with its inscrutable expression, the only thing she could think of was a nice roasted salmon with lemon on the top. She could smell it, even, and her mouth watered.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm hungry."
She looked away from him, and all of the sudden the smell of salmon in her nostrils had turned rotten, making her stomach revolt, lurch, and she fell on all fours in the snow, heaving up her breakfast.
"Gods almighty," she gasped as the waves of nausea slowly abated, "This curse is going to starve me to death in more ways than one. What kind of cruel sorcerer invents a curse that makes you hunger for spirits and then makes your body revolt against you?"
"Once we make our way to the slumbering coven, we may find out," Gann said, "But for right now, we are in Ashenwood, and it would be foolish to wander far from it before we have had the opportunity to speak with the Wood Man." He strode up to her, completely nonplussed by the vomit that had dribbled down her chin, and picked her up. She let him half-carry her back to where Kaelyn and Safiya were waiting. The two women were lying on the grass close to the edge, staring at the sky, evidently finding shapes in the clouds. Safiya had such a peaceful, serene look on her face that Adahni was sorry to rouse her from her revery.
"I hate to break it to you ladies," the hagspawn said, "But we're heading back into Immil Vale. We have a favor to ask of Chauntea."
"You have found a third thing free of taint?" asked Kaelyn, "What is it?"
"A tree branch that has been cleansed by the fire of centuries," Gann said, "No taint here."
Safiya and Adahni snickered, and Kaelyn rolled her black eyes at them. They made their way down, and around, and down, and around, until they arrived at the great red tree. Adahni accepted the three things – the vial of water, the leaves, and the branch.
"Could you leave me alone?" she asked, "I don't pray much, and I think knowing one of you could hear how stupid it sounds might throw me off."
She turned around, but realized that she was alone. She was also no longer in the Immil Vale. The red tree still stood before her, but the grass beneath her feet spread out indefinitely in all directions. She whirled, wondering what on Toril was going on... and then she saw her. She was very tall, brown-skinned and black-haired like Addie herself. A garland of roses was entwined about her head, and as she walked she carried with her the smell of autumn and the harvest. The goddess strode across the endless meadow, a mysterious smile spreading over her lips, and her teeth showing brilliantly white against her brown skin, "Hello, my daughter! I was hoping you might come visit me."
"Me?" Adahni asked, "I'm not a follower."
Chauntea laughed, a sound like the wind in sheaves of barley, "I am the mother goddess. You do not have to follow my order to be my child. So, you have come to me at the Red Tree. That must mean you want something." Adahni stood, half in terror, and half wanting to throw herself into the goddess's arms and beg her for help.
"The blight in Ashenwood," Adahni said, finally, "Please, I need you to fix it."
"You are crying, my child," the goddess said. She reached out a long, tanned finger, and brushed a tear from Adahni's cheek.
"Please, Mother," Adahni said, "I need you to fix it. The Ashenwood. It's my only hope."
"It is done," Chauntea said, "Come here, my daughter. It is not all so hopeless as that."
"What?" Adahni asked, and all of a sudden she was wrapped up in an embrace that smelled of sweet hay and oatcakes. It was something she'd never felt before... a mother's arms around her.
"Mother..." she sighed, and totally lost her cool. She sobbed noisily into the goddess's bosom, "Mother I'm sick and I don't know why."
"Life is unfair, my daughter," Chauntea said, "Yes, you are carrying so many burdens. Yours is a difficult path indeed!"
"I need you to tell me," Adahni said, "I mean, this isn't my Red-Tree request or anything. That's definitely for the blight on Ashenwood. But... since you're here."
"I can try to give you the answers you need," Chauntea replied, "Consider this a bonus favor."
"I need to know that there's a reason for this," Adahni said, "A higher purpose. When I fought the King of Shadows, I could do it because I knew that if I did not, the world and everyone in it would come apart at the seems."
"That it will consume your very soul does not give you reason enough?" the goddess asked.
"Put yourself in my position, the path I've walked, the life I've lived," she said, "Do you not see how it might be easier for me to just let it go? Let it take me, and just fade into nothingness?"
"You have to understand that it is difficult for me to put myself in a human's perspective," the goddess said, "That's a strange question you've asked me. And, unfortunately, it is not for me to answer."
"Very well," Adahni sighed, wiping the tears from her face, suddenly embarassed.
"But you should drink tea made from mint and the herb known as Chauntea's grace," she said, "It'll help the nausea. I think you'll feel better once you've eaten something."
Adahni chuckled, "Thank you."
"Don't worry about it, my daughter," Chauntea said, "You've got many, many other things to worry about."