Mato Mato approached the stone circle Ali had crafted in the ter of the library atrium, his eyes following the majestic sweep of the Elder Tree s upward and vanishing into the darkness far above. The voices of his friends sitting nearby washed over him. Politics, pnning, and talking. He could hardly even follow the threads of their discussion or the details of their debating. He gazed up at the tree, taking some measure of so the sheer solidity and massiveness of its presence.

  I feel like a mouse o this thing. Or maybe an ant.

  He sighed. I wish we could just fight this blight, and the cil. It would be so much simpler. It was a battle – that much was obvious – a was ohat could not be won by brawn and cws.

  He hadn’t even been useful when Ali had created Lira’s Forest. He had promised to help her grow her forest – and that desire still burned within him. The rightness of it called out, resonating with his soul, or mana. Or whatever. I was useless, Lira is so much more experienced. Even Basil had done more for the forest than him, saving the as with his incredible magic.

  “Deep thoughts, young Druid?” Lira’s voice resonated softly from nearby.

  He jumped at the sound, f down a quick rush of guilt at his thoughts of envy moments ago. “I…” he began. “I wish I could help them,” he said, hanging his head. “But I have no sense for cils and politics.”

  “Perhaps you help in another way?” Lira suggested.

  Mato raised his head and looked at her, meeting her eyes, and the gentle smile on her face.

  Lira pced her hand orunk of the giant magical oak. “Do you wish to learn from the tree? It teaany things.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nature is bance,” she said, her voice calm and resonant as she gazed at the giant tree. “Life is banced by death, growth by decay, the violence of d tooth trast against the restoration of the trees and pnts.” She looked at Mato with soft brown eyes, depthless pools of wisdom and experience. “You have the sense of one who has too much tooth and cw, and too little life,” she observed. “The tree teach you bance.”

  Bance? His mother had spoken of it often, but he had always dismissed it as a Druidinerism. But now I am a Druid, and I still don’t get it. What am I? What am I supposed to do? His head hurt just thinking about it.

  “If you choose this path, I help you uh the tree while we take care of this cil business. It will take some time,” Lira said.

  “I don’t want to leave my friends to deal with this by themselves.”

  “Your loyalty is admirable,” Lira said. “However, yrowth will help them far more.”

  “That’s a lohing, though,” Mato answered. The challenge Ali faced was immediate and dire.

  “I think you should do it,” Ali said as she joihem beside the tree. “I appreciate you wanting to stand with us in support, but if this makes you strohen that helps us more. The patronage of Lira’s mana is a priceless gift.”

  “I think so too,” said.

  “You are not really suited for a battlefield of words,” Malika offered. “Trust us for this one.”

  They’re walking into a fight for me. But it was a fight he didn’t uand. There was ohing he did uand, though. Turning to Lira, he asked, “I think your offer would be better for Ali. She also has nature mana, and she summons trees like this o’s a good fit, isn’t it?”

  “This is how Lira taught me to wield my nature mana,” Ali answered. “But I lost the mana e when I reserved in my mother’s spell – that’s why I thought she was dead.”

  “Once severed, a patronage ot be recovered,” Lira said, sadoug the er of her eyes. “But do not mourn overmuch for that which has been long lost. Many paths exist for you to grow, and this is but one."

  Turning to Lira, he bowed his head and said, “Please teach me, then.” If Ali couldn’t be directly from her mana and experience, he would just o get strong enough to help her and the others himself.

  Stepping up to him, the a Dryad pced a small hand on his chest and looked up to meet his gaze. Then, she pushed. Uo resist, Mato floated backward till his back pressed up against the bark of the enormous tree. “Try not to resist it. uning with the tree will feel fn at first, but it is well worth the effort,” Lira said as her hand lit up with a pulsing emerald-green aura.

  The pressure from her hand on his chest grew stronger, and to Mato’s surprise, he felt his back sinking into the tree trunk as his flesh began te with the wood. Lira took aep forward and pushed him even further. His arms and legs began to stiffen up. There was no pain, just the terrifying sense of being submerged in the heartwood of the oak. Panic flickered around his sciousness growing in iy as his head finally sunk into the vast expanse of the tree.

  I ’t breathe! He struggled, but his body wouldn’t move in the custrophobic darkness. He was buried alive inside an oak tree. The panic raged through him.

  I o get out!

  Suddenly, his chime sounded.

  Lirasia offers her patronage.Mentor Patronage – LirasiaTraits: Nature, Wisdom, Vitality, Domain, Perception, Shapeshift, Knowledge, Regeion, Pnt, CharmExperience gain is increased for as aligned with your mentor, or uheir supervision. Gain additional skill unlocks and advances aligned with your mentor’s traits and experience.A portion of your increased experience is awarded to your mentor, increasing their reputation.Entment – TitheAccept this patronage?

  The notification chime interrupted his paniehow providing an anchor for his mind to tto. His mother had always warned him to be careful about accepting just any patronage, however, this was the a Dryad of the Lirasian Forest, and he desperately wao learn all that she could teach him. His instincts told him she could help him bee stronger in ways he could not even perceive as yet.

  Stuck deep ihe tree, uo breathe or even feel his body, a not needing to, he accepted Lira’s offer.

  Your Patrons have been updated.You have learhe Pnt nguage.

  In his bizarre sense of disembodiment, he suddenly ected with the tree. It wasn’t unication in the sense of a normal nguage where he uood meaning and cepts, but more like a union, a sharing of being. An experienpathy and i, not unlike his Beast nguage.

  He quietened his mind as best he could and tried to hear or feel aion, finding ess ing to his mind with surprising ease. In the dim periphery of his awareness, he sensed a slow upward flow. He reached towards it, and it slowly grew more promi. For an ierminate length of time, he g to it as a drowning person to a floating branch.

  Eventually, his mind began to settle, to rex. The flowiion persisted but he was now aware of it beginning far below him and rising far above.

  That’s not quite right. I am below… and above? His mind struggled briefly with the strangeness of it. Choosing to trust Lira’s words, he embraced it instead of resisting. The sensation was like he was growing upward and downward along the flow. As his awareness was drawn upward, he split several times, extending outwards. The further he grew, the more he split until he reized himself in the shape of the tree.

  The flow is the tree’s esses sap and its mana.

  As his awareness flowed out through the leaves above, and the roots below, he simply existed. He was the tree. He was the flow of mana and energy. He was the shape of the tree. He was the wood and the bark, part of an enormous, plex and vital living anism. He didn’t sehe tree trying to show him anything. He simply became the tree.

  It was impossible to know how long he remaihere iree’s embrace, but a while ter, his mana began to flow out from his leaves. Slowly, it emerged into the world around the singur existence of the tree. As it flowed outward, he could perceive the air around his massive brahis was no ordinary tree; he could sehe Dryad’s mana within it. In a very real sense, he now uood – it wasn’t the Dryad’s tree. The Dryad was the tree. And the tree was the Dryad. It was Lira that cradled him within the nurturing embrace of her mana.

  Taste? See? He couldn’t find a word for how he was sensing the world. How does a tree perceive? As his mana and awareness expanded, he entered aree. Then another. Shapes? That must be a pilr in the library. Those must be the floors. His mana began te wider and wider, showing him the giant cavern with Lira’s new forest, the library, and the ruined city of Dal’mohra beyond.

  His awareness ceased to grow, but still, his mana poured out. He simply watched as it nourished the pnts within his awareness, causing them all to grow, and the wisps to daheir joy at his gift of magic.

  He could do this? Incredible. So, so humbling.

  Mieriel Mieriel walked briskly dowreet toward the garrison headquarters, but beh her calm exterior, her heart and mind were in turmoil. Meeting with Aliandra at the underground shrine had left her frayed and shaky. She had agonized over it fes after she and Vivian had interrogated the Fae – the memory hung like a lead weight around her neck, getting worse and worse every time she met her at the guild. It wasn’t that she was shy about using her css or skills – and it was true that the ethics behind them were sometimes murky – but with the Fae girl, Mieriel knew she had stepped over the line.

  Earlier today, she had chosen to apany Vivian underground and suddenly found herself face-to-face with Aliandra, stammering over an apology. I was not prepared. She had deliberately withheld using any of her active skills – not that it would have mattered, Aliandra’s mental defenses were as strong as granite now – but Empathy assive perception skill. When Aliandra had ignored her apology, Mieriel had been subjected to the rage leaking out from under her cool exterior. But that rage was c fear and a feeling of viotion, and that was what twisted unfortably in her gut.

  I did that. I made her feel… that.

  It was horrific.

  She g the dour squat gray building that was the garrison headquarters. Here I am, walking into the lion’s den for a st ce at redemption. She paused briefly in the alleyway, casting about with her seo ensure she was not being observed. With a thought and a trickle of mana, she switched her outfit with one ie ring and stepped back out into the street as a er, plete with a bucket, a mop, and several dirty rags.

  Garrison ander Gerald Brand was her first target. After she visited the garrison headquarters, she would scout both Jax Hawkhurst and Hadrik Goldbeard. Donel Novaspark was the one person on the cil she was afraid of – the lightning mage had far too much wisdom and many defensive magical tris. Well, she had been afraid of Roderik Ice too, but Aliandra had killed him, thank goodness.

  She opehe door to the garrison headquarters and walked in with the fidence of someone who khey were invisible to all the important people. It didn’t hurt that she was feeding a tinuous trickle of mana into Inspicuous Presence.

  Empathy bined with Heightened Perception quickly told her that her entrance had goirely unnoticed by the entire room, or at least it had not impacted anybody’s attention. She busied herself dusting various things while she ranged around with her augmented senses, searg for clues.

  Ss of versation could be heard as she briefly pushed her awareness into ferens aing spots using quiatches of Astral Proje. It was an easy role for that skill – she could simply pretend she was focused on ing a table or something and then disect her awareo elsewhere nearby for a few seds at a time.

  There he is, she thought, finding the ander in a briefing room with a couple of aides and a messenger. With the assumed fidence of her role, she opehe door and walked in, brandishing her bucket and rags, a about ing the side tables, drawing scarcely a gnce from the people clustered around the fereable.

  “What do you mean, none of the scouts returned?” ander Brand asked. He spoke calmly, as always, but there was an undercurrent of frustration that her skills could easily read. This was clearly a persistent problem and something he seemed to be at a loss to fix.

  “They were set to report yesterday, but none of the scouts sent south have returned,” the aide responded. His emotional state was worry and fear – mainly at upsetting the ander. She moved to shining a steel water jug, fog carefully on her skills.

  “I o know what is going on down there,” the ander tinued. “With the Torians making noise in the north, they must be hiding something signifit. They don’t just move without backup.”

  Just then there was a sharp rap at the door, and it opeo show another aide.

  “Excuse me, ahe mayor is calling for the full town cil to be present tomorrow m.”

  “What for now?” Brand asked, annoyance flickering across his mind.

  “The trial of the dungeon, and the group that killed the Town Watch.”

  The ander sighed. “Do we know who they are?”

  “Aliandra Amariel, Mato Bahr, Malika, and Avery,” the aide responded, reading off a page he was holding.

  “Oh, them,” ander Brand answered with a strong fsh of surprise. “The Fae, Bjorn’s son, the Torian refugee, and the Half-elf.”

  But to Mieriel’s surprise, the ander’s tistered respect, rather than aoward his memory of them.

  He will listen to ’s scouti. With the amount of credibility he seemed to be assigning them, he would take the report seriously if he knew where it came from. Furthermore, he seemed very anxious to get any information at all about whatever was killing the scouts to the south.

  This is enough, she thought, already charting her exit.

  Aliandra Ali gnced over the piles of paper with copious rewn across the fereable, and the profiles pinned up on the wall. There was one profile for each of the cil members, c everything they knew about each of them. Cradled in her hands was a deck of fshcards Mieriel had kindly made to help her memorize the details and affinities for each of the cil members. It was a bit of a waste, given her Sage of Learning skill, but holding the deck gave her hands something to do.

  They had all snuto the guild as soon as night fell and it got dark outside, and they had been cooped up in this feren for hours. Ali felt the time tig away relentlessly toward the iable deadline of the trial which had been scheduled for tomorrow m.

  She had to admit though, that the bination of Mieriel’s intelligehering, Ryn’s anizational skills, and the bined political savvy of Mieriel, Vivien, and Lira, they had aplished a great deal. One question remained: would it be enough?

  The door clicked open, and Ali looked up to find Viviaurning.

  “Were you able to vince him?” Lira asked.

  “Yes, he agreed,” Vivian said, sitting down.

  “vince who of what?” Ali asked.

  “I asked the mayor to operial to the public,” Vivian said.

  “What? Why?” Ali blurted out. Not only was she to be put through the wringer, but now there would be spectators?

  “It is part of our strategy, dear,” Lira said. “If it were just the cil members, then the death of Roderik Ice would weigh heavily against you. But the hat you killed him should win the average oo our side.”

  “But they don’t vote.”

  “Correct,” Vivian said. “But some of the cil members care about the opinions of the townsfolk. It is good leverage. It also works with the food she s.”

  “I see,” Ali said. She had offered to help out with the food she, so their scheme made sense. However, bands of ay cmped across her chest at the thought of defending herself in front of such a rge audience. “ we at least have Mieriel in the crowd then?” Ali asked. If she was forced to have a big audience, having a mind mage to feed her information would be an incredible tool.

  “Now that’s a fantastic idea,” said.

  “Unfortunately, the cil would never allow me in,” Mieriel said. “And I’m not strong enough to ceal myself from Donel Novaspark.”

  “You’re not?” Ali asked. Losing Mieriel during the trial would be a huge loss for them.

  “I ’t even hide from you anymore,” she admitted. “And Donel is reputed to be in the ies.”

  “Ok, summarize it for us, Mieriel,” Vivian said.

  “Vivian is a yes,” Mieriel said. “Gerald Brand seems to still trust you guys from your tributions to the Goblin siege, so if you provide the scouti on the Neancer’s forces, he is likely to be our sed yes.”

  Ali was a little surprised that Gerald Brand remembered them, and that he was favorably disposed to them, but Mieriel seemed certain.

  “The mayor is our yes,” Mieriel announced. “Provided you’re certain you solve the food she?”

  Ali nodded. With Lira, and Eliyen, and the help of some of the refugee farmers, she was certain they could turn the ashen former forest cavern into an impromptu farm that would produough food for the eown.

  Ali shuffled through the fshcards till she had the one for the mayor.

  William TurnerAffiliations: Mayor of Myrin’s KeepMajor : Feeding the town.Expected Vote: Yes.

  She had only met the mayor once, but she had met his son Aiden many times, including when she unlocked his css and at the guild. He was not going to be an automatic yes like Vivian, but everyone was certain she could win his vote by to feed the town.

  “And for the cil members opposed, Bastian Asterford is going to vote no for certain. He won’t stand for the death of a noble.”

  Bastian AsterfordBastian’s job is to represent the ’s i in Myrin’s Keep. He is a noble of the promi house of Asterford. Affiliations: New Darian Executor, NobleMajor s: The death of Roderik Ice, and his son Donavan during the css trial.Expected Vote: No.

  “I was uo get any intelligen Donel Novaspark, but just going by her reputation, she will be hard to budge,” Mieriel tinued. “We expect her to vote no, also.”

  Donel NovasparkReputed to be a person of high iy and exceptional power. Affiliations: Founder of the Novaspark Academy of Magis: unknown.Expected Vote: No.

  “Hadrik Goldbeard is a typical Dwarf. Rowdy, loud, loves his ale, and is also incredibly stubborn,” Mieriel said, reading off a page of handwritten notes. “We expect him to vote ierest of the – therefore no. I should point out that there is no love lost between him and Jax – the two of them often fight in cil meetings.”

  Hadrik GoldbeardVery strict about his duties and a strong advocate for the w.Affiliations: Tax Collector for the New Darian , BankerExpected Vote: No.

  “That brings us to three votes each, with the tiebreaker going against us. So, we must win over Jax Hawkhurst – of all the cil members, I believe he is the most flexible. He is entirely self-ied and be swayed with enough money. I suggest buying his vote. I am aware you sold Magicite to Weldin Thriftpenny, I assume you’re able to make more?” Mieriel paused, gng across the table.

  “I ,” Ali firmed.

  “Then I suggest mentioning the need for a mert pany willing to sell Magicite outside of the town as a way of hinting at a deal with him. Everyone will know what you’re doing but, because you’re not ht bribing him, they won’t be able to say much. Hadrik will be pissed, but we’re expeg him to be a lost cause anyway.”

  Jax Hawkhurst A man of flexible morality, politically ected, mastermind of a criminal syndicate. Affiliations: Hawkhurst Trading pany, Town Wats: Personal profits.Expected Vote: flexible.

  “But he’s a criminal,” Malika objected, clearly upset about the clusion. And, in Ali’s opinihtly so. While Mieriel said they would not be ht bribing him, it retty btant. A Magicite deal would make him incredibly wealthy, increasing his power.

  “I know, but I don’t see any other choice,” Mieriel tered.

  “This ot be our strategy,” Malika doubled down, rising from her chair and spping the table with the ft of her palm. “He supports the Town Watd all the violend intimidation they infli the on townsfolk. I ’t believe we will have to get in bed with him. Ugh!”

  “I’m open to any ideas, any different approaches,” Mieriel said, undaunted. “Remember, if Aliandra is found to have nhts, yuments of self-defense will be void, and you will all be sentenced – probably to death. Most of the cil see the Town Watch as a necessary evil and will vict you of killing representatives of the w. At best, Vivian will be able to protect you while you flee town, but you will be outws everywhere in New Daria.”

  “That’s absurd, they are the criminals!”

  “Many of them are not, even though I agree the leadership is corrupt.”

  “What about Donel Novaspark? You wrote that she has high iy, that’s a good thing, right?” Malika asked, seeming desperate to find an alternative. But Ali could tell what the answer was before Mieriel even started.

  “I couldn’t get close to her, but the rumors show that she has been outspoken about the dungeon below Myrin’s Keep, advog for culling it quickly to restore the safety of the town. In this case, her high iy means she will not easily be swayed from what her morals dictate. She perceives a threat, and that is bad for us.”

  “What about Hadrik? He cares about moht?” Malika said. “If we have to stoop to buying a vote, ’t we buy his instead?”

  “He cares most about the w, and he will vote acc to the ’s poli this. New Daria’s royalty generally disapproves of dungeons, going so far as to even forbid operating or exploiting subjugated dungeons for profit.”

  The argument raged bad forth with her side letting up, but Ali tu out. Buying Jax Hawkhurst’s vote – for that’s what the pn really was – seemed to be the only way to win the cil’s approval. If the cil granted her person-status and the prote of the w that went with it, her friends would be safe. Their argument that they were trying to defend her would be valid, and the deaths of the Town Watch would be sidered necessary to defend themselves and her from harm. This would be easy tue with the testimony of Aiden and his group.

  But the thought of w with the crime syndicate boss that had hurt Malika so mud inflicted so much hardship on the people of Myrin’s Keep left her feeling dirty, un, and fouled to the core.

  “Malika, I’m really sorry, but I think I o do what Mieriel suggests. I hate the idea of helping him, but I ot go into the trial knowing there might have been a way to save you all and not take it. I know you will never be able to accept w with him, but it’s not your itment to make, it’s mine. If all it takes is selling him a ton of Magicite, I would much rather you lived.”

  “I ’t believe this,” Malika excimed, getting up and st out of the room.

  Ali’s heart sank. I’m sorry, Malika, this is the only way. I hope you see it eventually. She was not at all objective in this; it was her life at stake too. She was terrified of fag another Roderik. But Malika was obviously very deeply hurt by her decision, and she had no idea how she would ever make it up to her.

  If only there was some other way.

  timewalk