I eventually came right out and asked the shamaness her name, tired of thinking of her as 'the fox lady'.

"Siroka" she said, the name being surprisingly soft sounding for a mouth with such sharp teeth "I lead our defenses at the lower entrance. Their mage was able to overcome us long enough to capture our group, though they lost more than a few of their own"

"I'm guessing you were meant to be dinner?" I asked, going for blunt since there weren't many ways to be subtle about asking if someone was going to be eaten later.

"Yes" she said, a soft growl following the word as a couple of the foxes around her made odd hissing, spitting noises "It is what they do. This is their third, and most successful raid since the Tree's decline"

Ok, that was like the third mention of the tree, so I went ahead and asked. "So, what's the story with the tree?"

"Subtle Jake" Maria said with a laugh. I guess everyone likes Maria since Siroka kind of smiled at her and said "No need for subtlety your majesty. If he had not asked, I would have had to get more pointed in my statements"

I chuckled, both at her honesty, and at the look on Maria's face at the 'your majesty' thing. I could tell she liked it, but was also self-conscious about the whole thing.

I twitched when Siroka reached over to take my hand, but didn't react otherwise as she held it and said "The Great Tree is a gift from the goddesses. Before the Dragon's arrival, the dwarves had built their roads through what they called Mora Rosel; the Cavern of Lights. It was named so because of the jewels that are embedded in the ceiling, which glow with the suns light during the day, and the stars light in the evening. A great waterfall brings water, so the dwarves tried planting many things, but of the trees, only the night oaks would take root. After the Sundering, these were the only night oaks left, but that is a different tale"

This was super cool, and I was fascinated as we listened to her. I kind of felt bad that Susan's group was missing the whole thing, but this was definitely going to go up on the tavern wall after we got back.

"The Buried Forest was born, and it quickly spread across the cavern" Siroka continued "It was not long before small creatures began to make life there, which drew larger creatures that hunted them. To preserve the peace and beauty of this place, the dwarves wanted caretakers to maintain it. My people had suffered greatly at the orc's hands, and there were very few of us left when the dwarves made their offer"

Everyone had kind of slowed down and bunched up as they listened to her, and I exchanged grins with Bob when I checked behind us.

"The goddess Tessa had gifted our people with a seed from a Luminia, one of the great trees that the elven city of Alai'Naki had been built upon. Our elder mothers had carried it for generations, and when they arrived in the Buried Forest, finally planted it" her voice had gotten that story telling cadence that Bob used, and even her own people were hanging on her words.

"To offer their own blessing, the dwarves placed a statue of Tarra, and one of the Hainar stones that allowed the cities to speak over great distances. The luminia grew tall and strong, the mana of the Hainar stone feeding its strength" she looked up at me, then around at my group to say "A luminia tree is blessed of the goddess Tessa, and protects those who plant it from any who would do them harm. With the power of Tarra's blessed stone, the tree held sway over all of the cavern, protecting my people and the dwarven travelers from any who would harm us"

"The dragons arrival changed many things" she said solemnly, getting soft sighs from her people "They did not threaten my people, but the dwarves had built their cities upon the mountains, rather than under them as was their practice for millennia. They defended their cities ferociously, but in the end were forced to flee. For tens of tens of years they tried more than once to reclaim what was theirs, but eventually they ceased coming"

Her pause this time was definitely like the ones Bob used.

She drew in a deep breath and said sadly "Then came the Blight. The war amongst the elves had been an ugly thing, but nothing to the horror of the blight. Everything it touched would eventually wither and die, and if sentient, would rise again. The elves fled, leaving this land to its fate, and if not for the humans, this land would be only for the dead"

Everyone walked in silence for a while, and I noticed that Siroka was holding Maria's hand too. We exchanged looks over Siroka's head, but didn't say anything.

"The Ceremony of Sacrifice halted the uncontrolled spread of the blight, but the cost..." she shook her head sadly, but continued "Sadly, their sacrifice only slowed the undeath, as many of the more powerful undead began to find their way into the unblighted lands. You need not hear of the many undead armies that entered the forbidden lands, and of the dragons who found themselves threatened by this, but one attempt partially succeeded. A Lich Lord was defeated by the dragons, his army destroyed, but he escaped and took hold in the lower levels of Lor Frell, and over the decades has begun raising an army of dwarven druagr"

Oh crap. Undead dwarves.

"This would not normally effect my people for many years, as the roads from Lor Frell are not easily passed, but Lor Frell has a Haiden stone" Siroka looked up at Maria for a second, then said "The lich lord does not understand what it does, but he is part of the blight, and the blight has begun to corrupt the stone" she sighed again and said "and because of this, the corruption is being passed to our stone, poisoning the Great Tree"

That kind of ended story time, and we reached her home about an hour later.

I'm not sure I could ever describe the Mora Rosel in any way that could do it justice, but my first thought upon walking out of the tunnel was 'Hey, we're outside!'.

The cavern probably wouldn't have been possible in real reality, because it was so large that the ceiling was probably five hundred feet above us, and the far side was at least a couple of miles away. Siroka's description of the stones in the ceiling made a lot more sense when I saw them myself. There were thousands of points of light scattered across the ceiling, each of them glowing like a very small sun, giving the illusion of actual daylight.

We walked out of the tunnel and into an open area, with the stone roadway continuing straight ahead of us, through a path cut through the forest. The forest began about a hundred feet away, and we were in a half circle of stone and grass, with the cavern wall towering upward behind us. The tunnel was encircled by a wooden, ten foot wall of wood, that appeared to be stacked rather than upright. Twenty or thirty Vulpa stood with swords and bows behind the wall, and there was a lot of cheering and a surge of foxes in our direction when Siroka and her people followed us out of the tunnel.

Maria stopped beside me, her head turned up as she stared at the lights shining overhead "My god" she said quietly "it's beautiful"

The rest of our group joined us, all of us looking around in awe. The trees looked like 50 or 60 foot oak trees to me, but about half way across the cavern, a huge tree towered half way to the ceiling, its branches spreading to make a wide canopy. It was green, but there was a golden tint to it that made it kind of gleam if you looked at it for a few seconds.

"Luminia she called it" Neara said softly from behind me "It's like someone created paradise down here"

"I don't suppose you'd put a portal down here?" Rayna asked, getting Bob to nod and say "Be a pain, but my god, look at this place"

There was a kind of steady rumble, like continuous thunder so far away you could just barely hear it, and when I cocked my head to see if I could hear it better, Dalmar said "Waterfall. Must be on the other side, behind the tree"

"Be welcome" Siroka said as she walked up with a couple other vulpa. She smiled at our expressions and added "It is a twice blessed place, and we rarely have guests any more, so please, let me show you our home"

The road through the cavern was straight, though we crossed two stone bridges on our way to the great tree. The river they crossed wasn't very deep, maybe three or four feet, with stone lining the side, and crystal clear water that showed the glittering stones and sand on the bottom. Based on the way the river seemed to flow, I think we crossed the same stream twice as it wound in a serpentine pattern through the cavern.

With the forest lining the sides of the road, you couldn't really see the sides of the cavern, reinforcing the impression you were outside. It was comfortably cool, and a soft breeze seemed to come and go, almost as if the whole place was breathing very, very slowly.

There were a lot of small creatures that scampered and rustled through the bushes or between the trees, but the thing that hit me the most was the bird song. Not a lot, and I hadn't actually seen one, but there were definitely birds living in the trees.

The great tree dominated the sky ahead of us, and only seemed to tower higher the closer we got. We were under the outer reaches of its canopy when the road stopped and split to circle to the right and left. Siroka led us forward, off the road, and along a small, moss covered path, toward the great tree. The freed vulpa surged forward at that point and dashed ahead, yelping and barking in their language, leaving us to follow with Siroka.

"There will be much celebration that we have returned safely" Siroka said, reaching over to take mine and Maria's hands again "Tonight we will rest and enjoy ourselves. Tomorrow my people will show you the paths through the Buried Forest"

The base of the tree was probably one hundred feet in diameter, and there was a grassy lawn that encircled it for quite a ways. The tree had a staircase that wound its way around and up, into the branches that started about the top of the other trees. Little houses seemed to be scattered everywhere in the tree, with rope bridges and platforms giving the impression of a web that was woven throughout the canopy. I didn't think there were a lot of the vulpa, less than two hundred based on the ones I saw and the extent of the village above us, but they seemed to flow and scamper down from the tree to meet the returning group.

"This seems so different from the way things are above ground" Neara said softly from my right. We came to a stop outside the mass of happy vulpa, and she added "What if we hadn't rescued Siroka and her people, would we have just come here and fought our way through?"

Good point. Until now, everything had been kind of black and white, them and us, monsters and people.

"No" Dalmar said, turning to face our group, face serious "I wouldn't have attacked if they didn't, and I know Maria and Jake definitely wouldn't have. Don't doubt yourself about this. You're in this group because you are the good guys, and you'll know the bad guys when you see them"

"I generally go with the, if it wants you to be dinner, bad; invites you to have dinner, good" Bob said with a grin

"That is also my people's thoughts" Siroka said with a bark of laughter "so please, come and have a meal with us"

The light began to dim as the vulpa started a bonfire and began cooking food on a couple of smaller fires to the side. I found a spot out of the way, then laid back and looked up and out to watch the lights slowly dim from a warm yellow glow, to small points of light that looked remarkably like stars. The waterfall sounded louder here, but not so much that you really noticed it unless you stopped and thought about it. I was lying there, thinking about how nice it would be if Mary were with me, when I drifted off to sleep.

My thoughts had me dreaming about being with Mary in our forest, so when Telina showed up, I had the blanket spread below us. Mary gave me a quick kiss before fading, and I just waved for Telina to have a seat next to me. She grinned as she gracefully sat down on my left, then leaned back to prop herself up on her arms before saying "Mora Rosel. A source of great pride for my sister Tessa"

"Rightfully so" I answered "it's a truly beautiful place"

"The Haiden stone needs to be cleansed" she said as she tilted her head back to let the sun shine on her face. She was a bit of a tease. Her eyes were closed, but she grinned as she waited for me to say something

"I thought I would try casting a blessing on it, though I can't imagine that would last that long" I finally said

She nodded, then opened her eyes to say "Twice should be enough. Once after dawn, then again after midday. This should cleanse it, but to block the blight from returning will require the efforts of the Guardian Queen. How she does such is her responsibility, as I do not know how my sisters have shared their power with her"

Someone didn't like being out of the loop, I thought, grinning as she rolled her eyes.

"The vulpa and the cavern are not areas in which I exert influence" she said "but we are needed to force the blight from the stone so that Maria can bring her power to bear. Destroying the Lich would accomplish this, but the delay would be detrimental to the vulpas, and my sisters have asked this of us"

"Would have done it anyway" I said with a shrug "I like them"

"You still have far to go to reach Lor Frell" Telina said, turning to smile at me "something a certain group of eternals will find uncomfortable"

Her smile was seriously mischievous, so I chuckled and said "Jeff's group? They having problems?"

"Quite. It takes very little power to change small things. Small things that can discomfit very greatly" she said with a laugh "The mage has even done me the honor of telling everyone that it was a priest of Telina that cursed them for breaking the agreement"

I shook my head at Siril's odd way of looking at things. I mean, why advertise your stupidity?

"Why do you seem to enjoy this so much?" I asked, still confused about the real benefit here. I didn't see how this would draw in worshippers.

"Because my priest" she said, her grin fading slightly "your fellow eternals are beginning to think that goddesses might exist. Your people affect the very fabric of our world, so having them not only believe I exist, but that I have power to punish them, will open many doors for us"

Oh. Ok, that...well, that made sense. It was the same reason Maria and her people gave the other goddesses options, belief that the goddesses existed.

No one bothered to wake me up, so I missed the party and found myself still in the same place come morning, not that I was complaining. Waking up and watching the ceiling slowly turn from twinkling starlight, to soft sunlight was fascinating. The group drifted over as I pulled out my pan and made myself something to eat, and after about half an hour, we had the whole gang sitting in a comfortable circle.

"Maria and I need to do something about the stone" I said after putting my pan away. Everyone sat up and paid more attention as I looked around and said "That will take most of the day"

"Telina visit?" Maria asked, and at my nod, said "Ok. Then we probably should split up and do some exploring. Dalmar needs to find our path out of here, and I'd like my people to see if there's anything we can do to help the vulpa and maybe explore a little"

"We should be ok in groups of two" Dalmar said "That'll let us cover the most ground. Our exit is by the waterfall, but there are three of them, so I'll need to look them over"

"Ok, then Anna and Neara, Bob and Rayna, you guys head in different directions and see what you can see" Maria said

Siroka stepped off the winding stairs and came over to join us, sliding in next to Maria and saying "How can we help you?"

It didn't take long to fill her in on our plans, and she rounded up some of her own people to act as guides for ours. Anna and Bob's teams headed out immediately, both groups excited to do some exploring, but Dalmar said he wanted to see the stone, so he and Diana joined us as Siroka led us to the waterfall side of the tree.

A man sized statue stood a couple of feet from the tree's trunk, depicting what I guess was Tarra holding a stone the size of a pineapple. It wasn't round, or even smooth like I had been expecting, but more like a chunk of quartz without the flaws. The statue depicted a dwarf woman, the first I had seen. Like Dalmar, she was proportionate, and looked like a short, pretty, woman. No beard, and a surprisingly nice figure, though it's not something I would probably tell her in person since the stone was in her left hand, and a warhammer was in her right.

"In times past" Siroka said as we gathered around the statue "one would hold their hands to the stone, and if someone was touching another, you could speak to each other. There were four stones, and no one has spoken from the other three in my lifetime"

The stone had a slight glow, but when Maria pointed, I could see tiny black flecks seeming to float inside the stone. Siroka nodded and said "The poison of the blight"

She stepped over to the big tree, and pointed to a small patch of slightly darker bark, saying "You can see this throughout the tree now. The more they grow, the less damage our enemies suffer when entering our cavern. It has gotten so that at the entrances, they take no damage at all. We would withdraw to the tree, but the drakelings and goblins destroy the trees if we do not defend them"

"Goblins?" Diana asked.

Siroka nodded and said "Two of the descending roads lead to areas the goblins have claimed. They have grown braver as the tree has declined"

"Well" I said, rubbing my hands together as I stepped in front of the statue "Might as well get started" I wasn't really sure how to go about this, but I put my hands on the sides of the stone, flinching a little at the stinging sensation. This wasn't the Telina and Jake show, so I just said "Blight begone!" and cast the blessing.

This one was different from the norm, with the glow from the stone quickly ramping up, but also a high pitched scream coming from it that made everyone but me take a step back. Ok, that was on the strange side. I stayed where I was until the glow slowly faded, then let go when it looked like it had returned to norm. When I looked closely, I could see the black flecks had suffered serious attrition.

"Wow, that was freaky" Diana said with a strained laugh

"Many believe the blight to be a living thing" Siroka said, the doubt in her tone clear "but I had never thought that until now"

"Blight begone?" Maria asked with a giggle, getting a chuckle from Dalmar. I shrugged and said "Telina and I are just the support team on this, so I'll leave the full invocation to you"

I told everyone I would do another blessing after lunch, then it would be Maria's job to finish it out. Dalmar and Diana were thinking of heading out when Siroka said "You are doing so much for my people, is there anything we can offer you in thanks for your efforts?"

We all exchanged looks, with Diana and Maria finally shrugging, so I asked "Information?"

"Of course" Siroka said happily, sitting down and gesturing for us to take seats "What would you wish to know of?"

I took the lead and asked "What can you tell us about magic and how a smith can enchant the things he creates?"

Siroka cocked her head as she looked at me, then over at Dalmar before saying "Life is an endless cycle, this I am sure you know. Mana, or magic, is part of that cycle, no different than the heat from your fire, or light from the sun"

She raised her arm and gestured to encompass the cavern while saying "But fire and light require that other things of nature be destroyed to create it. Mana does not. Mana is gathered, willed to a specific use, then returned to the sea from which it was drawn"

Reaching out to touch my armor, she said "This armor is enchanted in such a way that it draws upon the sea of Mana to do special things. If Loser commands its use, the enchantment pulls again upon the sea to replace what was used, much the way a mage does"

She paused to let us consider that, then said "Unlike us, the goddesses live outside our world, and they are...vessels, that are both made from mana, and filled by it. To fill that vessel though, requires others to pour the mana into it, and this is done by acts of faith by those who worship her"

Ok, that made a weird sort of sense. Maria and Dalmar both gave slight nods, so Siroka said "The act of will that causes mana to do something is different than the act of will that causes an item to be capable of doing such a thing" she gave her teeth filled grin at our looks.

Her small hand pointed at Dalmar's hammer as she said "The hammer is not sentient, so cannot command mana. The magic that it does is caused by an act of will during its creation. Unlike a rune..." I twitched at the word, but didn't say anything "which is a closed loop, the hammer was left open so that it may draw upon the mana sea"

My twitch must have been noticed, since she looked at me and said "Runes are believed to be the language of the gods, but when used by a priest, are like balls of glass, filled with mana and commanded to perform a task. The ball must be broken before the mana inside can be used, and this leaves nothing behind to once again be filled"

Well, except for the retention rune, but I got her basic concept, so just nodded my understanding.

"For a smith to enchant something" Siroka said "one must have a Focus" she gave us her foxy grin again and added "The focus can be anything, but it is specific to each person. A stone. A twig. Even an animal or plant could be your focus, but it allows the smith to embed his intent into the thing he is creating, while leaving the loop open to draw upon the mana sea"

The four of us exchanged looks, then shrugs before Dalmar asked "And where do you find this focus?"

"An Arcane Smith is a rare thing, because only a few are granted a focus, and it requires a seer to see what it is" she paused, then shook her head before adding "A seer is a smith who has a vision from the goddess Tarra in your presence. A priest of Tarra can reveal who this smith is, but since they are no more, one who wishes to be an Arcane Smith must travel the world seeking his seer"

"Holy shit!" I said, grinning at an equally excited Dalmar, before we said simultaneously "Forgemaster Grevlor"

"It appears you know of your seer?" Siroka asked, her head canting right and left the way it did when she was studying something

"The goddess Tarra sent the name to Dalmar" I said "though we didn't know why at the time"

"Wow, that worked out well" Diana said with a laugh, drawing one from Maria, who said "Pays to be friends with the only priest in existence" At my sour look she giggled and stuck her tongue out at me before saying "Don't be grumpy, no one likes a grumpy loser"

She didn't!

Everyone except Siroka burst into laughter, and even she smiled at me, making me wonder what my expression had been. Giving Maria a fake scowl, I said "Payback. It'll happen"

Siroka must have decided she had given us enough information (which she did), and decided to go do something vulpa related. Dalmar and Diana headed out at the same time, leaving me and my future victim alone.

She giggled a couple of times, but when I laid back in my lazy day pose, she scooted over to lie next to me. I had my hands behind my head, while she laid sideways, head propped on her right hand as she chattered away. I was deep in thought about important stuff a while later when I woke up, feeling something in my hair. I opened my eyes to find Maria sitting beside me, running her fingers through my hair. She pulled her hand back and looked down at me seriously for a moment, then grinned and said "Time for the Jake and Telina show again"

I chuckled at the wording, and stood up to stretch, and did a restore. This kind of reminded me of my picnic spot, and If I could bring Mary here and set up a hammock, this place would be heaven. I made a mental note to invent the hammock if no one else had. Enjoying doing nothing to the fullest is all about the preparation.

Maria stood beside me, watching closely as I set my hands on either side of the crystal and said "Blight Begone!" as I once again cast the spell. Things very quickly got ugly.

"What the...?" Maria yelped as white light flared, then dimmed as actual flames engulfed the stone...and my hands.

The pain was freaking incredible, but this is when being a stubborn, vindictive, asshole comes in handy, because I clamped on harder, feeling something's anger, hate, and pain pointed at me, and cast another damned blessing at it as I screamed "Eat this!!!"

The white light flared up toward my armor's nuke level as the flames tried like hell to turn my hands to ash. Sam's head actually reared back and he struck at the stone like he was going to bite it. It seemed like I stood there screaming in anger and pain for a long time as I felt the blight screaming back, but Maria said later that the whole thing lasted maybe one minute. The flames disappeared first as the presence faded, then the light dimmed back to normal stone level, and I collapsed to my knees, unable to move my darn hands off the stone.

"Jesus Jake, what the hell was that" Maria yelled, reaching out to hold me up. My head was hanging down, and my health was below a hundred, but I scrounged up enough will power to cast a healing on myself, hissing in pleasure as the pain in my hands faded away. I did another one before my hands would come free and I could stagger to my feet. Sam was his normal decorative self, but I had definitely seen him attack the stone.

"That was...owie" I muttered, getting a giggle from Maria as she hugged me tight. I returned the hug for a moment, then stepped back and did a third healing before saying "Wow, we are definitely not going to be doing any blessings in the Desolation"

"No shit" she said with a laugh, her hands still clutching my arm as she checked me over "That scared the living shit out of me"

"I'm thinking I need to get Bob on this blight thing sooner rather than later" I answered, studying the stone and finding no sign of the black specks. Looking at Maria, I said seriously "The damn thing fought me, I could feel it. Whatever the blight is, it's strong as hell"

"Many have said it is the life force of the necromancers who cast it" Siroka said from behind me. She must have seen what happened, because she gave me a concerned look, then nodded when she saw I was ok. She kind of leaned in and gave a quick sniff of the stone before standing back again and saying "It appears to be gone"

"For now" I said, giving Maria a questioning look. She smiled and got a determined look as she knelt in the same spot I had just been. I wasn't sure what she planned to do, and watched closely to make sure the damned blight didn't set her on fire.

She cupped her hands like she was holding something, then brought them to her face and blew gently, like she was blowing dandelion puffs away. I didn't see anything happen, but she lowered her hands, then turned them like she was setting something on the dirt in front of the statue. Her hands stayed there as a multicolored glow started, reminding me of one of those fountains that had all the colored lights.

Seconds after the glow started, a small green shoot pushed up out of the dirt, then continued growing as it slithered to the base of the statue and began climbing upwards. It wrapped around a couple of times before reaching the shoulder and slithering along the left arm until it reached the stone. There it split into four smaller vines that encircled the stone before stopping. It was another second before four blooms burst from the vines, surrounding the stone with four, four petal flowers that reminded me of tulips, but each flower was a different color. Red, green, yellow, and blue. I realized they matched the vine diadem that Maria wore, and that each flower represented a different goddess.

It was...beautiful, though that didn't really do it justice. Real reality just didn't have things that glimmered and glowed with its own power. I looked up when I realized the big tree had the same colors shimmering through it, though they only lasted a half minute before fading again.

"Thank you your majesty" Siroka said, leaning down to rub her cheek along Marias, then standing back again as Maria stood up. She reached out to stroke one of the petals, then sighed and stepped back to take my arm and lean against me as we looked at what we had done.

"Seeds of power" Maria said softly "blessed by four goddesses, and given to me to use for the good of Tarinath. There is no better place to use one I'm thinking"

"Yeah" I said with a nod, looking around the cavern "If you had to fight for something, this is what it should be"

-------------Author Note

Hey all,

Traveling for a week, so thought I would try to get a chapter out, even if it's a little shorter.

Feedback is greatly appreciated, and leaving a review or rating helps a lot

Thanks,

S. Zaplosky