”Dee, where did you vanish in such a rush? Are you alright? Is something wrong?” Noyala bombarded Dee with questions as soon as she stepped through the portal. The questions came to a halt as soon as she noted another person following Dee out of the portal. “A High Elf?” She voiced the obvious question.

“An Unseelie Sidhe.” Faylen replied with a statement. She and Dee had made two jumps with portals to reach this place and Dee had mentioned they were here to meet someone. That someone was apparently this woman.

“Noyala, this is Faylen my….” Dee halted her words seeking for the appropriate word to use while introducing Faylen.

“The next words out of your mouth better not be mom or any sort of mother figure.” Faylen said firmly. She realized that the relationship between her and Dee was a bit undefined, and decided to tease her a little.

“…my sister?” Dee’s voice rose questioningly. Faylen returned the question with a raised eyebrow. “My big sister.” Dee finished her statement.

“Good enough for now.” Faylen decided to let the matter go.

“Faylen, this is Noyala my…” Again Dee had some trouble defining her relations with the Sidhe woman.

Now it was Noyala’s turn to raise her eyebrow in half-question half-amusement. “Let’s say a very special friend. A pleasure to meet you.” Noyala decided to give Dee a bit of help. Her tone made it clear though that the word ‘pleasure’ was not quite right as a word to describe the meeting.

The two shook hands a little unwillingly, with a spark of competition in the look they exchanged. Neither was entirely sure what the exact nature of the competition was, but the game was on nevertheless. The relations between the Spring and Winter courts were currently very strenuous, and while neither of the women was officially part of the court, the animosity had filtered through to them. Even without the current crisis, the High Elves and Unseelie didn’t really get along. The High Elves imagined themselves as the peak of elven kind, while the Unseelie viewed all elves as the lesser cousin. Even those that didn’t hold such prejudices were infected by the animosity.

It didn’t help that both of them could also feel the differences in nature between them at first glance. Faylen had become a templar for a reason. She was very much a person of light, order, and law, who sought to defend those weaker and less fortunate than herself. While her idealism had suffered a dose of realism when she got older, the basic ideas did not go away. Noyala, on the other hand, was a very complex person, but at best she could be described as a being of shadow and change. At worst she was just the type of person Faylen and her kind fought against, someone who worked in the shadows and on the wrong side of the law.

Noyala had not advertised it to Dee but her actions as a shadow of the court had often ended up causing suffering to just the type of less fortunate people Faylen sought to defend. It wasn’t Noyala’s purpose to cause suffering to innocent people of course, but she followed orders and her actions had consequences. As an example, a noble she shamed out of office might have been a benevolent ruler of an area who simply had the wrong political affiliations. And while Noyala didn’t seek to cause suffering, she didn’t exactly go out of her way to avoid it either. She was a driven person more interested in ultimate goals than the road to get there. That’s before mentioning the fact that she was, in essence, an embittered person seeking revenge no matter the cost.

It didn’t help that both of them also thought the other to be a bad influence on Dee. For Noyala, Faylen represented the order that Dee was now making a break from, a being of light that Dee was unsuited to become. Faylen, on the other hand, compared Noyala to the assassins she had saved Dee from so many years ago. It wasn’t the same of course, but Noyala had enough similarities that the comparison was inevitable.

So it was no wonder the two hated each other at first sight. Part of the competition between the two was about Dee and her future. That in itself was a little weird since neither of them wanted Dee to necessarily become anything specifically, but they thought the other one would take Dee on the wrong path. No matter what Dee ended becoming in the future, that way was the wrong way.

“So you never did answer my other questions. What did the person on the other end of the Orb of Secrets have to say? Unless I’m totally mistaken, you were talking with the leader of Zabaniya, right?” Noyala returned to her earlier queries. Her oversharing of information was fully intentional as well.

“Wait, what? Are you in contact with Zabaniya again? And talking to their leader at that?” Faylen asked suddenly with a worried tone. “That can’t be a good idea.”

Dee grimaced. She had known Faylen would not like the idea. She had not planned on saying anything, but it didn’t take long for it to get out. ‘Why did Noyala have to blurt that out? One would think she would have a little more discretion.’ “Saying that I’m in contact with them is blowing it out of proportion a little. They have tried to make contact on few occasions. They have their reasons. I won’t claim that I can certainly handle them since you never know what happens. That said, I am being as careful and distant as I can be. And for the record, they were the ones who informed me that you were in danger.”

“I almost hope that they hadn’t.” Faylen mumbled before speaking more clearly. “Nevertheless, you should avoid any contact with them. Who knows what kind of hold they still have over you? They kept you for so many years that it’s impossible to say their control is fully gone. And I’m sure they didn’t just provide that information about me for free.”

“Their leader mentioned that informing me and me saving you suited their purposes. I’m sure they had plenty of other ideas, one of them being an attempt to force some sort of goodwill on me, but I’d like to think I’m not easily fooled. The fact remains though, that they did provide me that information and that information helped save you.” Dee stated. She wasn’t about to trust Zabaniya either. They would try to use her, but that allowed her to try to use them in turn. And she certainly didn’t feel like she owed any favors after all that she’d been through.

She then proceeded to explain the chain of events to both Noyala and Faylen. “I’ve heard of those Authorities!” Noyala exclaimed once Dee explained the fight. “They’re a group of Authorities that always go together and the more of them are together, the stronger the holders become. You were lucky to meet only two of them.”

“I had my hands full with just two, so I’m not sure how lucky I was.” Dee muttered more to herself.

“Well the Authorities should’ve found new owners fairly recently. I’m not entirely sure how many of the Authorities there are in total, but I know there’s at least eight. Once a large enough number of eligible people appear, the Authorities are granted to the new owners and not all of them find owners at the same time. The last living member of the previous owners usually trains the next generation. If the freelancer’s guild has brought them to the forest, that can shake the balance of power in a major way. “Noyala frowned. “I was under the impression that the new owners are not part of the guild though.”

“Are you always up on the details of every Authority?” Faylen asked sarcastically.

Noyala grinned. “Information is power in my field. Besides, I don’t know about all Authorities, not even a fraction of them in fact. Just those that are most famous and the owners of which I might run into in my activities. And in this case, it wasn’t just the Authorities but their new owners that caught my attention. Valkyries aren’t exactly the most common beings on Pantheon.”

“So those were Valkyries.” Dee said thoughtfully. No wonder she didn’t recognize their race. There was also the fact that the Authorities were such a large part of their being that their race was somewhat obscured. Some Authorities like hers were almost invisible, while the two she had faced earlier were completely tied with theirs. Maybe these were the so-called Hero Authorities she had heard so much about?

She was just about to ask when Noyala suddenly slumped on her knees holding her head, while Faylen looked around her as if she had just sensed something important. “Noyala!” Dee called her name while rushing to help her friend. She didn’t have to ask what was wrong because she could see it with her special sight. The curse inside Noyala was acting up and growing.

“The forest. It’s…angry.” Faylen muttered distractedly, feeling the nature around them.

“What?” Dee looked at Faylen in confusion. Despite her special ability to see the flow of energies, and her ability to blend into the aura of her surroundings taught in this very forest by her ranger trainer, Dee had never formed the kind of connection with the forest that the elves and Sidhe did. Her race was simply unsuited for it. She couldn’t see or feel whatever the two others were feeling.

“We…we have to go to the meeting place with Razark.” Noyala managed to squeeze out. “We need to move. The enemy is trying to find me, and is using the curse to do so.”

Dee could feel Noyala growing weaker and thought against moving around at the moment, but she wasn’t about to argue when there was something going on that she had no knowledge of.

“Someone has attacked the forest.” Faylen supplied from the side. “I don’t know why, but it’s taking its anger out on your friend.” She looked at Noyala with suspicion. “What did you do?”

“Later.” Noyala said with some trouble. “I will explain later. I suspect Razark has a story to tell us first.”

----------

Dee was not happy. The mana in the forest was very chaotic and that had thrown off their portal from their intended target. It took almost half an hour to trudge to the meeting spot through the forest, exasperated by the fact that Dee had to carry Noyala and couldn’t really fly with Faylen along with them and their need to avoid revealing the place they were meeting at. Her displeasure vanished as they reached the meeting place though.

Razark looked largely unharmed, but his appearance was rather ragged and his already generous clothes covered barely anything with how torn to shreds they were. He looked up as the trio approached. “I see we have some new company. Faylen Arazana I assume? I can see why you would be present.”

“Faylen Sarfina, if you would.” Faylen corrected and gave a salute. “Lord Razark.”

Razark waved the greeting away. “I’m not actually part of the order anymore, though I would assume that little bit of information might not have been spread around yet. It will be after today, I’m sure.”

Dee set Noyala down gently and noticed that her situation was stable for now. “Mind explaining what just happened? The whole forest is roiling, and Noyala’s curse is acting up.”

“The short explanation is that I gained access to one of the larger groves I talked about last time. The long explanation is, well, longer.” Razark shrugged.

“Oh, I have to hear this.” Faylen said firmly. “What exactly are you trying to accomplish by breaking into the groves?”

“Long explanation it is then.” Razark said with a grimace. He explained their mission and their guesses briefly, before going in depth about the groves. “So I monitored one of the larger groves for a few days. I suspected that someone has to have access, and I was right. Some sort of druid approached the grove this morning. I’m not sure druid is the right word to describe them actually, seeing what came later.”

Noyala coughed up and spoke up. “Each grove has a druid of their own. I would describe them more as dark druids myself.” Druids were users of nature and life magic, or servants of nature deities. Dark druids commanded nature as well, but their methods were much more unorthodox.

“That’s a good name for them.” Razark nodded in agreement. “Anyway, the druid wasn’t alone as he approached the grove. Instead, he had a string of prisoners in tow. The prisoners were mostly of races other than elves. By what I saw, they appeared to be from the cities outside the forest that had revolted. The grove let them inside for an hour, and the druid came out. Alone, and carrying the chains that had bound the prisoners before. Didn’t take much to imagine that there was some foul play involved.”

Dee frowned in thought. “We suspected there was a third party involved with the rebellions. Surely the druids weren’t behind the revolts, for what purpose exactly? To gain prisoners? Why do they need prisoners? I’m sensing the prisoners were not just executed.”

Razark nodded. “You’re right. On all of that. I had the same suspicion and needed some information anyway. So I caught up with the druid and squeezed some out of him. Yes, they were inciting the rebellions though not personally. They had some underlings or something do it. He didn’t explain the exact reasoning, but they needed more prisoners for some important purpose, and they couldn’t use elves and Sidhe for reasons that should soon become clear. Earlier the druid had used a drop of his blood to open a path to the groves without inciting the forest to react violently. I can now confirm that the guy didn’t have to be alive for the same effect.”

Dee looked at Noyala for confirmation. She suspected her friend knew much more about what was to come. “Keep going, you’re on the right track.” Noyala prompted.

“The insides of the grove were filled with life and nature mana of course and all plant life flourished. It would’ve looked quite idyllic in fact if it weren’t for the skeletons scattered around the grove. Thousands of them. In the center was an ancient Treant sucking the life out of the latest batch, who were all dead at this point. The Treant was filled with the same nature and life elements, but there was something twisted about it. It looked more like a giant skeleton made of magical wood than a normal tree, and there was a distinct tang of darker elements mixed in its aura. It was also channeling much of the power somewhere else. It either thought of me as a threat or another snack, as it attacked immediately. So I killed it. The Treant alone was bad enough, but the grove didn’t take kindly to being trampled and the Treant dying, hence my appearance.” Razark explained.

“No.” Faylen moaned with a voice filled with emotion. No one was sure which part was the most upsetting to her, the twisted groves or one getting destroyed.

“I’m guessing this has something to do with your curse acting up.” Dee asked Noyala.

“Yes. The forest assumed I was the one attacking the grove. Not without reason, since I had done it before. So it tried to locate me and strike back.” Noyala explained. Dee could sense Noyala would have less strength going forward even after recovering from this moment of weakness.

“I didn’t get cursed like you though.” Razark pointed out. “I was a bit worried about that, truth be told.”

Noyala looked at Razark firmly. “That’s because you attacked one of the major groves. I went straight at the heart of the forest inside the capital city. Also, while the forest has power, it can’t keep cursing every immortal that shows hostility. It’s busy keeping my curse in place. Now it’s also trying to compensate for the lost power from the ancient Treant’s death. Some of that lost power is being drained from me.”

“So if I attack more groves…?” Razark questioned.

“Then I’ll continue to grow weaker, yes.” Noyala finished.

“But we can’t let this continue either.” Razark said somewhat helplessly. “I’m guessing this is why we were sent here by the grandmaster.”

Before Noyala managed to answer Faylen suddenly groaned with despair. “My family! I’m pretty sure they’re involved somehow. I didn’t know what they were doing until you mentioned the prisoners, but now a hundred things are coming together.”

“Your family is involved? There are noble houses doing this?” Dee asked in surprise, things suddenly starting to fall into place.

Noyala gave a mirthless laugh. “How do you think they get the prisoners? It’s not like the druids alone can go roam outside the forest to seek enough prisoners. We’re not talking about one or two people here, although with the king about to die the forest needs more power than ever. The only people that know about it are those involved. That’s why your grandmaster was forced to silence. He knew about it, but can't do anything about it because his hands are bound.”

“Then how did you get mixed in?” Dee asked.

“One of my targets was among the prisoners.” Noyala replied with a sigh. “That’s the mission I botched originally. I entered one of the groves in secret to find him and found out roughly what Razark did, though I had more previous knowledge to draw on. I put two and two together and tried to attack the main grove to blow the whole thing open and to give my people the reason and chance to leave the forest. That didn’t go well as you might imagine.”

“That’s why you don’t want to talk about it, isn’t it?” Razark suddenly realized. “It’s a shame for your entire race and would bring about the ire of all the surrounding races if they found some of your nobles were involved.”

“It’s not really something you talk about casually, is it? And it’s not just nobles. Where do you think the king and queen get their Authorities from? The two are the chief protectors of the main grove.” Noyala pointed out. “What do you think would happen if everyone knew that our rulers not only knew about it but actively participated and benefitted from it? Oh, and don’t forget the best part. This mana filled environment that so benefits our races? Yeah, it comes with a price. Those living in the forest donate years of their lives back to the forest in return, and their bodies are usually buried within the forest when they die. Don’t think the forest doesn’t claim those as well. Such useful fertilizer for power.”

“A magical forest that is supposed to represent life and nature, but is, in fact, a secret empire celebrating the power of death and stolen life.” Faylen muttered in shock. Lucky for her she had left the forest early to escape her family. Otherwise, the world would be crumbling around her right about now.