“So that is what it is like to talk to other people! I think I can see now why they all seem to like being around each other. They were all so different and talking to them was so much fun, but they seemed a little weird. First why did they have to be so slow? I mean I was in a bit of a rush to meet them as they were interesting but when I rushed them, they didn’t seem to be able to keep up. Is that normal or was it me? Also I’m not sure if they were just really surprised or if they were rather dumb. I have a feeling it might have been me but I don’t know-“

I was cut off by a pulse of suppressed irritation from Mel that made me realize a few things. I had been talking out loud so that I could share my thoughts with her but in my excitement, I had been speaking as fast as I could which was making it hard for Mel to keep up with me. She wasn’t mad because I was talking, in fact she implied that she enjoyed it when I spoke to her, she was just irritated that I wasn’t allowing her any time to respond or reflect on what I was saying.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to settle my excitement a little before speaking at a more normal pace. “Sorry Mel I didn’t realize I was doing that. Now that I think about it I might have been doing that to Lilly and the others as well. Overall, I think the meeting went well but the whole experience was more than a little strange for me.

At first, I was super excited to see other people especially since I was able to tell that they were following the rules. I really wanted to talk to them and learn everything about them but I feel like I was so easily distracted. They all had so many things that I hadn’t seen before and plus the new class is still something I haven’t learned how to manage yet so that was another distraction.

One thing that was a little strange was that as I talked with them it felt like things were being plucked inside of my missing memories. I found myself responding a few times with an answer that was perfect, but it would come from a part of me that I didn’t know was there. Perhaps I interacted with others in that way before and was only able to glean those hints of wisdom due to new interactions? Even with that though it wasn’t the biggest surprise that came up.

Each of the people were interesting in their own way. Lilly is a pretty devoted druid as far as I can tell but she has a serious problem and I think I know what favor she will ask from me the next time we meet. I don’t entirely know why I have the desire to make deals with people but that too might be something from my past that I am yet to rediscover. I seem to have a deeply ingrained desire to help people get what they want but at the same time I feel obligated to charge some sort of price for it. I think that might be why I was reluctant to share much information with them because doing so without a price would cause something bad to happen.

The metal man was a strange one for sure. He wore a shell, but it didn’t seem to be a part of him, well not completely. It was connected to him by magic. He said it was like the shells that the drakes wore but his seemed pretty weak, I do hope it gets better. He was probably the hardest one to pin down and I really don’t know if he will come to meet me again and if he does I’m not sure what he would ask for.

Now the other one… Adam, I think it was, seemed pretty fun. He made a few jokes and had a really pretty bow. I’ll tell you Mel his bow made mine look like just a collection of sticks! I thought mine was good but I was glad to see something that was truly amazing so that I can make my next one better. After seeing his bow and learning how they should sing I think I am getting close to being ready to make use of the branch the old heart tree gave me. I think I will make one more practice attempt and then try to make use of that gift.

The real shock of the meeting came from Mya. Just looking at her triggered all sorts of things in the missing part of me. I could have sworn that we had met before but apparently not. I am a pretty distinctive person after all so I would hope that she remembered me. As it seemed fairly clear that we hadn’t met before it must be something else. I would almost say that I had met someone very similar to her but that doesn’t feel right. Something inside me just tells me that she is really important.

She had a song that was beautiful and happy and I feel really bad that I was forced to change that due to her being cursed and all that. You know I think that may have been my first real bargain. She gained the knowledge and proof that she really was cursed but had to pay the price of carrying that knowledge and trying to deal with it. I know it almost broke her but that strange part of me I still can’t find was able to help me guide her to a point where she wasn’t completely lost.

I really enjoyed helping her but in the process of doing so I got these really strange feelings. It was all warm and tingly and it made me want to help her more but I don’t know what it means. Do you have any idea what all that was about Mel?”

After rambling for a while I finally come to a point where I need to ask Melody a question. Feelings and that kind of stuff are all so new to me what with missing my memories and all so I often lack the words or ability to know what I am feeling. In response to my question Mel just sends feeling of great amusement and the sense that it is at my expense.

“Hey that’s not fair! Don’t be like that! You know what, fine keep your secrets I’ll figure it out just you wait and see!” I shout while Mel just keeps laughing.

“Putting that aside there were two very important issues that did come up during that meeting. First it has become clear that the missing parts of my past are far more important than I have realized and it is time for us to start trying to find some answers. There is knowledge there that has both importance and power. If I want to be my best me I will need to start getting some of that back.

The next issue is that I told them to meet me in my home. I know that the entire forest is like a home to me but there is still not really a true place that I call home. The closest would be the Twilight Grove but even then, that place isn’t really mine. I feel like I need a place that I can claim truly as my own and I would like that to be the grove. I don’t really know how I could claim it but I have a few ideas.”

Several days pass by rather quickly as I travel back towards the Twilight Grove. Most of the time is spent talking with Mel and trying to analyze everything that happened during the meeting. I also go into more detail about the plans that I have to claim the grove. I feel like the talking helps to settle my mind a bit and I notice myself growing calmer and less erratic. I also spend time taking care of the phoenix egg, feeding Mel, and trying to get a better understanding of my Spellsinger abilities.

So far I have been able to figure out that the class has helped to attune me to the world to a much greater degree than I had been before. It is this attunement that allows me to hear the songs that each thing has. After being able to hear those songs I am able to link to them and encourage them to change. I still struggle with the changing part as I tend to try and imprint my own desires onto things but I can sense there is a deeper level to the changes. I will need to become better at using the ability or merge more fully with it but I feel that something is trying to guide me to make the changes in a specific direction.

At long last the mesa that sat at the heart of the forest came into view. The sight of it stirred up many emotions within me. Most of them I didn’t understand but among them was definitely relief to be back as well as a little bit of sadness. The latter didn’t make much sense to me so I decided to just ignore it for the time being and to focus on the happiness of coming back to the place I had started to think of as home.

Upon entering the Twilight Grove for the first time since the start of my adventures I was once again struck by the ethereal beauty of the place. This time rather than just getting lost in the sight of the beautiful but mostly bare cave I looked at it with a critical eye. The cavern was large with the crumbling temple on one side and a small stream cutting across the center and forming a small island that used to house the heart tree. Taking in every detail I started to ponder how I could turn this place into my home.

“Well Mel what do you think? I like this place but it’s still not quite fit to be called home yet and I can tell it doesn’t belong to me yet. I’m fairly certain that if we do it right then this place will become ours. I’m not sure of everything that we will need to do so I say we just start working and hope it becomes clear as we make some progress.” Discussing my ‘plan’ with Mel helps to break me out of the rut my thoughts have fallen into and a small pulse of approval from Mel helps me to think I am going in the right direction.

“Alright so now we just need to figure out everything we need to make the place feel like home. First would probably be somewhere to sleep since I don’t want to just lay on the ground. We could go for something simple out of stone with my earth magic but that doesn’t seem to fit the feel of this place so I think we should go for a house made from a tree. I should be able to grow it hollow and we can work on the interior a little later. I want to place that over by the temple so we can section off that space.

Next, what should we do with the center island? I think we should leave it as it is for when we finally make you into the next heart tree. That will be a good place for you to be and will allow you to grow as big as possible. I think I might either make the island smaller or the moat around it larger. If I do that I can add a second smaller island between it and the main area. That would be a good place for me to meet others that come here so that I can do business with them before they could have the chance to get too close to you.”

The idea of other people getting right up to Mel once she became the new heart tree bothered me immensely which lead to the proposal of the small island. This idea was very appealing to me since it would allow for me to meet other people while off of the main patch of land but still have some separation between Mel and the meetings. The place would be ideal for making deals since having the heart tree close by would allow for some of its power to be used to ensure that both parties upheld their end of the deal.

“If we really are going to do that though I am going to have to rework how the water flows through here, although I would probably have to do that anyway to do the other thing I want. The last idea that I really had to make this place our new home was to turn most of it into a garden. I loved being in the forest and around all those plants especially in that garden that we found around The Moonlit Tower, that place was sooo beautiful. I really want to turn this place into something like that just better. I have been collecting seeds from all the interesting plants that I have seen along the way so all I will have to do is plant them and change the landscape a bit before growing them.

Finally the last thing I can think of is a nice place to bath. It feels really nice to be clean and I do love just sitting in the water, oh also it should be warm I’ll have to find a way to make the water warm so that I can enjoy it more. I do enjoy a cold bath from time to time though so maybe I will make two pools.”

The last suggestion makes Mel send me feelings of laughter as I go on rambling for a short time. With my ideas for the Twilight Grove finally laid out I look out over the cavern again and slowly start to see what I want it to become. My minds eye paints a beautiful landscape. A garden raised on tiered pillars of earth form a ring around the central two islands. Hidden among the plants and trees are small creeks for irrigation and a few small waterfalls because who doesn’t love a pretty waterfall. Along the back wall a large tree grows next to the remains of the temple, the tree that will soon become my house.

The scene is beautiful and I can’t wait to see it come to fruition but there is still one thing that I can’t see quite yet. At the very heart of the grove where Mel will grow is a blank space. I can’t yet see what she will grow to be and a small feeling tells me that she hasn’t quite decided what to become yet. The feeling also tells me that the answer will only come when it is finally time for her to grow.

“Alright Mel let’s get to work!” I chirp happily. With a vision of what I want in my mind I start walking around the grove to mark out boundaries of where I want everything to go. Using one of the last sticks I have in my storage I start marking out where I want the towers of earth to be and where the streams will go. Along the way I begin planting seeds of different plants and trees. Most of them are pretty while others have fruits that I really enjoyed and a few are even poisonous. Those last ones I spread out among the other plants. At first I thought it would be a good idea to put all the poisonous plants together but now I feel like that would be too much bad energy all in one place so I spread them out with the other plants to balance things out.

While it is hard to tell time inside the grove due to the lack of sun the process of marking and planting takes me days. When I am finished and standing on the heart trees island I finally realize just how much work I am going to have to do to make my dream become a reality. Just the amount of mana it would take to grow all the plants was enormous not to mention how much it would take to reshape the environment to the extent that it needs to be.

“Well Mel we may have a slight problem. There is no way I am going to be able to do all of this with just the mana that I have in my mana pool. I am going to need to do it all at once or the water flow will be even harder to fix so we need to find a way to store mana up. I could draw on the forest’s reserves but I feel like using that to create something personal would be wrong and I also don’t want to be in debt to the forest for that much power. So how can we get that much power?” I ask more to put my thoughts into words than to actually ask for Mel’s assistance.

Mel responds to my musings with a small huff of irritation before sending a string of memories and images across our bond. I watch as scenes of me manipulating the ambient mana flash across my vision ending with the scene where I took over Lilly’s spell by flooding it with my own mana. The scenes give me a flash of inspiration and the missing piece of what will truly make the grove mine clicks into place.

“It’s about my mana isn’t it!” I shout before continuing. “I was able to use all those spells and even steal Lilly’s because I overpowered them with my own mana! If I want this place to become mine then I will have to do what I did to Lilly and fill this place with my mana. That will give me enough power to begin the reshaping and soak this place with my power so that I can claim it!”

Looking around my enthusiasm begins to drop slightly. “This place sure is huge. It is going to take a lot of mana to get this done.” I pause for a few moments before sighing, “Well I guess there is no time like the present to start I just need to get a few things in place and then we can begin.”

Sitting down in the exact center of the heart tree island I take the phoenix egg and set it in front of me. Focusing intently I shape some mana and after a few moments a small fire starts around the egg. Fire is still really hard for me to make since I don’t understand it yet but this is something I can do. The small blaze is sustained by my mana and after a few adjustments I am able to get the size and temperature to a point where the egg seems happiest. I also put out enough liquid mana to surround Mel in a small bubble and set it to keep drawing on my pool to sustain itself.

With these preparations in place I get ready to start filling the cavern with mana. I could do it by repeatedly emptying my own mana pool but that strikes me as a bad idea. I want to be able to respond to any threats that may appear so I decide to only empty a quarter of my pool to start and then redirect all of my regeneration into filling the room. Using this method would allow me to keep up my reserves for an emergency but still make the fastest progress possible. To maximize my regeneration I would need to go deep into meditation thus the need for my preparations.

As I started to sink into meditation I focused on drawing mana through my channels and bringing it to the surface of my skin. Unknown to me beads of mana started to coat my skin like drops of sweat before evaporating into a vibrant shimmering mist. Once I finished emptying a quarter of my internal pool I focused on my regeneration and forcing it to act in the same way as I had just expended part of my internal pool. The world around me faded from my perception as I sunk deeper into meditation than ever before.

I found myself once more in my mental plane but this time it felt a little different. Rather than feeling like I was inside myself I felt almost like an outside observer. I could see a small thread of mana representing my regeneration flowing into a glowing figure that represented me while three threads flowed from the body to the egg Mel and the surrounding environment.

While in this stat I was able to notice something that while not really a problem was somewhat concerning to me. I was so deep in meditation that my regeneration was starting to outpace the ability of my channels to output the mana. Deciding that this would be a good time to make some more adjustments to my body I directed mana to start flowing into the enhancement matrix and watched as a small amount of mana began to saturate to figure in front of me. The amount was small due to me not wanting to overdo it like the skill had warned and I was careful to watch that none of the cells were oversaturated with mana. I regulated the flow so that the flow in was just slightly less than what the cells were absorbing and utilizing.

After playing around with the enhancement matrix for a little while and tweaking it to my satisfaction I began to work on my mana channels. I needed them to be improved in a way such that they could move larger amounts of power much faster or the process of claiming the Twilight Grove would take too long. From my previous experiences in this area I knew that I could no longer just expand the size of the channels so how could I improve them?

A large number of ideas passed through my mind before I decided on one that I thought would be the best. My channels were currently set up similar to pathways for water to flow along so I needed a way that would allow for that water to flow faster. I couldn’t expand they’re size so I would need to increase the flow rate. If I wanted to do that in the closed system that was my mana channels I would need to increase to pressure of the system. Following that logic if I wanted to increase the pressure I would need to reinforce the system.

Right now my mana channels were similar to my circulatory system in the way that they were slightly membranous tunnels filled with liquid and increasing the pressure under the current design would cause them to burst. I needed something stronger and since I knew that mana could pass through solid objects with my understanding of earth magic I decided to make the membrane surrounding my channels and core solid. Drawing again on my understanding of earth magic I looked at dozens upon dozens of mineral designs before deciding on one that looked the best.

My chosen material was something called mananite and it had quite strange properties. In ist natural state it became nearly unbreakable so long as it was suffused with power. The mana filled the molecular bonds and kept them from being shifted. However when the material was supplied with mana at a particular frequency it became much easier to shape and mold. This material seemed like the best to me because it could become indestructible with my own power yet still ablow me to move around by making parts of it pliable.

Starting with my core I began the excruciatingly slow process of building a mananite crystal structure particle by particle with pure mana. For this process I drew from my reserves still allowing my regeneration to fill the cavern. The process was laborious as I wanted no mistakes to be made during this alteration and even in the timeless void of deep meditation the process seemed to take forever.

At long last all of the channels inside of my body including those for my healing and enhancement matrices were encased in a layer of mananite. With that done it was finally time for me to start ramping up the pressure. Going back to my mana core I focused on the spinning liquid and started forcing it to spin faster and faster. As the speed of the liquid in the core increased all of the liquid mana compressed further and forced the mana flowing through my channels to flow even faster. I continued to do this until everything was going about three time the speed it had been before. This I sensed was the current limits of my ability so I stopped and watched happily as my new high flow channels were able to easily keep up with my regeneration. I sensed that they could do much more but to do that I would need to improve my regeneration.

Deciding that I might as well try to figure out where my regeneration actually came from I sank deep into my core until I was able to locate the threads of incoming mana. Latching onto the largest of those threads I began to send my consciousness down it.

The damn thread was hard as hell to follow. It kept twisting and turning, doubling back and crossing itself. There were multiple times when I got lost and had to start all over again. Curiously after following the thread for some time it left my body. Now more determined than ever to find where all my mana actually came from I doubled down on my efforts to find the source. I followed the thread as it meandered its way through the grove around me and was surprised to see it went into the temple where I had first woken up.

Now why would my mana come from this old temple? Is it just because I woke up there or is it something else? This needs further investigation. Following the thread into the temple I watched as it went up the stairs and proceeded to wrap heavily around the alter where I first woke up before traveling on and ending at the large wall of dark crystal. That’s where I first saw what I looked like! Could it be possible that there is something behind the wall? This definitely raises a lot of questions about what this place actually is let’s see if I can follow the thread a little further.

Putting action to thought I tried to follow the mana through the crystal. Emphasis here should be put on try because as soon as I tried to follow the trail through the crystal wall a large array of circles and runes flashed into existence and I was blasted back away from the wall.

What the hell was that! That thing is protected by some serious magic, I saw at least 15 circles there 15! That level of protection is insane. I don’t think there is any way for me to get through that in this state I will have to go back and try to get through once I finally wake up. With protections like that the mystery of what is behind that wall and what this temple is has definitely shot to the top of my list of things to figure out.

I was about to try puzzling out more of the temple when a faint tugging and stirring sensation pulled at my consciousness. Whatever it was it felt important so I followed it. The feeling brought me back to my body and looking around for the source of the feeling my attention was brought to the phoenix egg. The feelings it was sending were a mixture of happy, excited, and panicked. Then new phoenix was ready to hatch but something was wrong. While the fire and mana had nourished its growth the missing connection to its mother was keeping it from attaining the strength it needed to fully hatch.

Instinctively I knew that just breaking the egg to get it out would be catastrophic so I started searching through everything I knew that would have enough power focused in life energy to help and came up with one solution. I needed one of the primal songs and it would have to be the song of light. I had felt myself getting close to figuring it out but there was still something missing and now I was on a timer and a short one at that. Knowing that I would not find the missing link while in meditation.

The first thing I noticed upon opening my eyes was the oppressive aura of mana filling the cavern. There was so much ambient mana floating around that the cavern could no longer absorb it so it hung in the air like a glittering fog. Guessing that I had to have been out for days if not longer.

“Mel I’m back but we don’t have time to go over much right now.” I say hurriedly as I get to my feet. My muscles are sore and aching from sitting so long but I ignore the slight pain and send a pulse through my healing matrix to fix the issue. I can feel major changes in my body and the notification light is pulsing incessantly trying to get my attention but I ignore all of it. “Alright Mel time is short and I think I’ll need your help on this. We have a song to sing, a phoenix to save, and a home to build. Let's get started.”