The night before Dee and Noyala were supposed to return to the forest, Dee found Noyala standing on a balcony overlooking the Four Winds’ capital city. The area controlled by the community was rather vast and there were several smaller cities surrounding this one. All the members of the four races were either in sub-communities around Pantheon or in this area they controlled. In general, the community didn’t build fancy structures, partly because they planned on moving on to the second circle, though this place served as their seat of power so it had a bit more pomp. Not that the other buildings lacked intricate decorations, the Jun especially were consummate artisans and everything touched by them turned into art. Thus the scenery was rather beautiful.

The two hadn’t had much chance to spend time together since coming here. They had been growing close before this, but now there was something between them. On one hand, Noyala was still recovering from the curse flaring up, as well as trying to get used to her once again reduced capabilities. On the other hand, Dee had been otherwise engaged. Nevertheless, the times when Dee had sought Noyala out, the Sidhe woman had been withdrawn.

“Will you tell me what is wrong?” Dee asked as she walked to stand next to Noyala.

Noyala gave a small shiver and turned to look at Dee. “I’m simply struggling with the inevitable separation between us.” She placed a hand on Dee’s cheek. “You know there’s something growing between us, but you also know it can’t end well.”

Dee placed her own hand on top of Noyala’s on her cheek. “Yet you seemed ready to take that leap before now. What has changed?”

Noyala sighed. “This thing with the heart of the forest. I knew I would have to deal with it eventually, but that eventually is becoming sooner than I anticipated. I thought we would have time. Time to fall in love, time to act on that love and time to enjoy each other. Even if we would be separated eventually, at least we would have that. Now though? Now there doesn’t seem to be time.”

Dee looked at Noyala deep into her eyes, prompting her to continue. “I truly wish you would allow Razark to do this instead of taking part yourself. You know I aspire to lead my people away from the forest. I know you can’t stay with us permanently but at least you could stay a while and visit. If you go to the heart of the forest, you will become a pariah to my people. There’s no way my people would let someone like that to spend time with their queen, not to even mention romantic involvement. They would either hunt you down or bury me.”

Noyala placed her forehead on Dee’s. “You know I have feelings for you, but if you force me to choose between you and my people, I will have to choose my people. If you go there, we won’t be able to be together.”

Dee was torn. Even if she did not go, they would have to separate eventually. Even if only Razark went, she would become a pariah by association. And did she want to allow Razark to go there alone? This was her mission too. This would also help Noyala get free and possibly save her life. Did she dare to leave it just to Razark? What if Razark was not enough? The Tree of Life had already cursed one immortal.

She also didn’t dare to admit even to herself that there was a hunger inside her. Something within her told her that if she went to the heart of the forest, there she would find a feast prepared for her. She would find strength there. She might even find answers and solutions to some of the problems plaguing her. She didn’t know where that feeling came from, but she had her suspicions. Certain group of deities was dropping hints again.

----------

Dee returned with Noyala to the new meeting place they had set with Razark, who in turn had disappeared when they left the forest, mumbling about reinforcements. The previous meeting place was ruined by the forest seeking Noyala after all. Even now the two were prepared to leave on a moment’s notice if the same happened, but hoped that the forest had other worries for now. Noyala was resting and trying to hide her presence from the forest via magical means.

Razark finally showed up through the old dilapidated teleportation gate with three other people in tow. One of them Dee recognized, which made her try and run away as soon as the old man stepped through the gate. Despite trying to utilize Lumen’s power to speed herself up, the old man caught her by the hood before she managed to escape. “Where do you think you’re going dummy disciple?”

Dee squeaked rather ungracefully. “I thought I was promoted to Dee from dummy disciple?”

“That was before going along with the idiot disciple’s harebrained plans. Also, you aren’t immortal yet, so you just got demoted.” The old man replied with a wide smile.

“It hasn’t even been a year!” Dee protested. Becoming an immortal in less than a year was an impossible task. In theory.

Dee decided to just give in and change the subject. “So what brings you down your mountain? I was under the assumption you never left.”

The old man, still holding Dee by the hood, harrumphed. “I usually don’t. But then the idiot disciple tells me he’s finally ready to break his bonds and become his own man again. Something about finally getting the right opportunity and something else about possible revenge. Other malarkey like that. What matters though, is that he’s ready to move on from his past, and maybe he’ll finally progress if he looks to the future instead. As his master, I thought that warranted a slight visit and a helping hand.”

The other two newcomers wore the armor of the scouts, but the armor was clearly new and the two were somewhat unused to it, as revealed by their slight movements to try and have the armor fit better. One of them was a female dwarf and the other was a male saurian. There was something odd about the two. Dee tilted her head in thought. They gave off a similar feeling to Razark and the old man, but not quite. She had never really got the hang of telling immortals apart from others. Some of them let their unique nature shine, while others hid their power. She could not see the soul space with her abilities, so she had no surefire way to tell the difference.

“I see you noticed.” The old man quietly said. The two were both looking at the two people talking to Razark, arguing about something. “Tell me what you feel.”

“I feel…that there’s something more to them than meets the eye. Which is odd since my eyes see almost everything. You and Razark have a similar feeling, but much more so. Those two feel…like there’s something more, but that there’s also something lacking.” Dee quietly muttered her observations.

The old man took a surprised look at Dee. “Very good. I didn’t think you’d get that much. Immortals develop a natural feel for others of our kind, so unless they have a method of hiding themselves, just like I suspect that little Authority of yours can, we can recognize each other. Within certain limitations. The difference you’re feeling is because there are immortals, and then there are immortals.”

Dee looked at the old man with a confused frown. “Explain.”

“There’s a qualitative difference between immortals and others, even if the others can be theoretically more powerful than fresh immortals. That difference is the soul space. Soul spaces are not created equal, however. Those two barely qualify as immortal, and will never become anything more. They have a totem in theory, but they haven’t actually even properly started forming one and they couldn’t even if they tried. Even the idiot disciple is much further on that path. Remember this. There are immortals, those that have their soul spaces and little else, who have gained greatly from the transition but could still lose to a non-immortal skilled and powerful enough. And then there are immortals, true immortals that have expansive soul spaces and totems that can help sweep the floor with anything weaker. Keep the difference in mind. It will prove useful to you very soon.” The old man explained.

The trio approached them, their differences seemingly settled. “Dee and old man, these are my fellow Blades that used to be scouts in the order. Once a scout, always a scout. Hopefully, when we make the break with the order, they will follow. Their names are Dagnal and Accirlashk.” It was not hard to connect the names, Dagnal obviously being the female dwarf and Accirlashk the male saurian. The guttural sound in the latter name was not designed for normal humanoid vocal chords.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be one more of you guys.” The old man pointed out.

Dagnal snorted in half-amusement, half-disgust. Disgust at the missing person and not at anyone here. “Yeah, there is. However, you can’t really ask an elf to attack the heart of the forest, now can you? He’s an ally and a friend, but there are some things he would find too hard to swallow.”

Razark cleared his throat. “Anyway. This old man is my master, who shall remain nameless until such a time he deigns to give you his name. As a side note, I’ve only heard it once myself so don’t mind it. And this young lady is my disciple, Haydee. Just call her Dee. They will be helping us with this fools plan of ours. The Sidhe woman laying down there and resting is Noyala. She is the one I mentioned being cursed and will not be coming with us.”

“Are you sure it’s wise to take your disciple along? She is rather young as you pointed out.” Accirlashk pointed out, not because he assumed Dee was weak. No, he actually assumed correctly that the reason he could not sense her power was because she was strong, not because she was weak. Still, she was too young to be an immortal. Much too young. Even her current level of power was almost unheard of for one so young.

“She might not be immortal, but don’t make the mistake of underestimating her. If the two of you fought, I’d bet my money on her.” Razark countered. That brought some laughter from the two others, though notably the old man and Razark were not laughing. They knew better. Razark actually wasn’t entirely sure it was a good idea to bring Dee, but he also knew that not bringing her would make her really cranky.

“That said, she’s watching over her friend and we still have a lot to do before the time comes. The forest is teeming with people trying to kill each other, and things will get even worse if they find out we are here before the time comes. It might very well be that she will not come along due to the circumstances.” Razark decided to hedge his bets a bit, just in case.

Dee was not sure how to feel about that, but another thought occurred to her, one which she presented to Croestia silently. ‘If the immortals can feel each other to an extent at least, why can’t they feel my domain and totem? I have the Authority, yes, but I wasn’t using it all the time when I was being trained.’

‘That is a very good question. Something to do with the fact that you’re not really connected with them yet, maybe?’ Croestia suggested. Something to think about.

----------

The group had spent some time infiltrating the capital city of the seasonal courts. With the foreign armies tromping around the forest in addition to the armies of the courts, the guards of Seldarassine were on high alert. A mixed group like theirs would draw a lot of attention, hence why Dee in her Dark Avariel form had entered the city first and secured a hiding place before the others slipped into the city in secret.

The city of Seldarassine was much more like a stereotypical elven city in a forest. Since this was the heart of the forest, the trees were gigantic. The elves and Sidhe had built their houses mainly on the branches and inside the large trees. Some were high up the trees while others on ground level. Several magical lifts and wooden walkways connected the buildings together, while the only thing out of place was the large stone wall protecting the city. Despite their connection to the forest, the magically reinforced stone was still much better when it came to walls.

The city itself was smaller than you would assume from the capital, but all the four courts had their own capital cities, so this one was more ceremonial than anything. Of course, there would be commerce, inns, stores and other necessary facilities for traveling visitors and nobles that lived in the city. This necessitated the presence of servants and more common people and more services for them. Still, the amount of permanent inhabitants was smaller than in the other capitals.

The whole city was built around a large central grove. There was in fact two groves in the center of the city. One was open to the public and the place where many ceremonies were held. The other was at the center of that larger grove and was surrounded by guards and defenses. The latter one was the group’s goal and was most certainly not open to people. It also seemed to have a sort of spatial bubble surrounding it. Noyala explained that the Tree of Life was so large that it would dwarf the entire city. It would be problematic in many ways, which was why it was enclosed in a spatial bubble to hide it. The bubble also hid the more nefarious activities happening inside, even though that was not the original purpose.

The group scouted their opposition and decided to lay in wait for the best opportunity. This opportunity actually came sooner than expected, as they had only been in the city for a day when the word came that both the order and the freelancers were marching their armies towards the city. Their intentions were not clear, and the courts all moved their own armies accordingly to meet near the city. Everyone was fairly certain that none of the parties was silly enough to attack the city itself, and the moves were more posturing than anything. Fairly certain was not the same thing as absolutely certain though. As a result, the city was forced to thin out the guards outside the grove to prepare for any trouble.

It had been a week and a half since the death of the king so the ceremonies were drawing attention as well, and the queen was growing weak. With the grove's defenses so obviously weakened, the four immortals of the group left the hiding place and moved towards the grove. Dee stayed behind to look after Noyala, who in turn was not in a condition to make any offensive moves. The proximity to the heart of the forest was clearly not good for the Sidhe woman.

Dee was sitting by Noyala’s bed and holding her hand as the latter was resting. She had been reassured by Razark’s reinforcements, especially the old man, but she was still worried both for Noyala and the four who had gone on their mission. She also felt the pull of the power in the center of the city. She could suddenly feel huge fluctuations of power. The weird thing was that those fluctuations didn’t come from the heart of the city but from outside. Apparently, some of the forces outside the city had come to blows.

Obviously, Razark’s group had decided to take advantage of the distraction as more fluctuations power came from the center of the city. These fluctuations were both more powerful and more controlled. Someone less able to feel the power might have missed the amount of power involved, but Dee didn’t. Within minutes the fight both outside and inside the city gained in intensity.

Noyala grabbed at Dee’s hand. ”Don’t go. I know it calls to you, but don’t!”

Dee was about to reassure Noyala, but Noyala suddenly screamed in pain. The power of the curse surged in intensity. It was obvious the curse was drawing power from Noyala once again. Slowly but surely Dee noticed Noyala’s power being drained, and this time it didn’t seem to be stopping. Last time the flare-up of the curse had been short and intense. It didn’t take much to figure out why. The Tree of Life of was under attack, and it was drawing on any and all power it could to defend itself. Now they were on a timer. Either the attacking group would manage to strike at the Tree before it drained Noyala completely, or Noyala would die under the stress.

Dee could either stay here, possibly sharing Noyala’s last moments, or she could go and join in on the attack in an attempt to bring a faster end to the struggle. She would also be throwing away of any chance of them staying together. She resolutely removed her hand from Noyala’s, who in turn looked pleadingly at Dee. “I have to go. You know that.” Dee lowered herself to lay a kiss on Noyala’s lips. “I will make sure you survive this, what comes after will come after.”

Dee exited the room without turning back. There was a problem. She had no way to access the grove, as the amulet had been given to Razark. There was a chance of an amulet being left with the bodies of the guards outside the grove, but that was somewhat wishful thinking. The guards might not even have an amulet like that. There was another possibility. Her portals worked in a way separate from the normal laws of portals. She might be able to create one within the spatial pocket of the grove. The only problem was, she was so close and had to be so precise. She could jump further away first, but that would only make the precision part even harder.

Dee focused her everything to try and force a short-range portal like that into the destination of her choosing. The portal was refusing to form. The powers involved didn’t really react well to being forced. With another attempt, she tried instead to weave some of the death energy inside her and connect it with the largest source of such energy within proximity. Now the portal felt like it was starting to form, but it was still not viable.

From somewhere above her came a burst of what felt like energy similar to the one inside the Astral Sea that filled the space of the portals. Dee didn’t know where such energy came but knew someone had decided to give her a hand, and she wasn’t going to refuse the help. The portal formed and the trip was the shortest she had ever experienced. It was also tumultuous as the portal was not supposed to be used quite like this, but Dee didn’t care.

As soon as she exited to the other side, she came to a battlefield of sorts. Three immortals that she knew were fighting with a dozen Treants that were throwing spells at them. The fourth immortal, the dwarven woman Dagnal was behind the three others, nursing an injury. The weird thing was that they were being pushed back. The Treants were not immortal, yet the four were being pushed back. It took a moment for Dee to figure out why. The enormous form of the Tree of Life stood at the center of the spatial pocket and was channeling some power that was suppressing the power of the four immortals. The four didn’t have a curse like Noyala, but they couldn’t use their full strength either, which made the battle with the Treants more equal than it should be. The old man was doing the best, as he cut down one of the dark beings.

The old man noticed Dee’s appearance but signaled quickly for her to stay back. Instead he mouthed that they could handle this and that she should attack the tree itself instead. Dee nodded and stealthily moved around the perimeter of the tree. Once she did attack, the Treants would notice and she had to get some distance. It turned out she wasn’t the only one to have that idea.

“You can come out. The tree has already told me of your existence.” The shouting voice sounded like an elderly woman. And Dee saw the Winter Queen standing in between the tree and her.

Dee walked out of the shadows and prepared for battle. “You’re not going to stop me.” She said simply.

“I don’t have to.” The queen said, looking much older and much feebler than she had just a week ago. Not that Dee could know that. “You can’t hurt the tree even if I don’t stop you. That said, I will do so anyway. Why couldn’t you just have taken the mission and killed either one of the targets? We would have a much smoother succession and this whole problem would’ve gone away. I already found a way to pass the Authority along, and could’ve lived for a thousand years longer.”

“I don’t have time for your complaints. I’m on a timer here.” Dee knew she would have trouble hurting the tree and even weakened the Queen was a formidable opponent that would take time to kill.

Time Noyala didn’t have.

The dragon inside her seemed to have some idea what to do though and was struggling free from inside her.

So she simply let go.