“That’s not ominous at all.” I muttered to myself, the vision I could see with my eyes just as disturbing as I had anticipated. We had managed to get close to the valley Elder Brightsun had told us about the day before and during the night, Lenore and I had used our magic in an attempt to gather information. Sadly, it had remained an attempt, the only thing we had been able to truly find out was that there was a strange forest in the valley, covered by an impenetrably dense cloud of mist.

We had carefully tried to pass the mist but nothing had worked, at least so far. Nonetheless, we had continued our journey and now, a good two hours after starting the day, we were near the valley in our physical bodies, looking at the imagery we had seen last night.

Somehow, the bright morning-light made the whole image even more ominous, compared to the shadows of night, turning the mist into an almost glowing barrier of white that covered the sky.

“It’s covering the whole valley.” Lenore told me, as she landed on my shoulder once again.

“Too bad, no way to cheat by flying in.” I chuckled, having anticipated the result. Nobody who would put up a barrier that shrouded the whole mountainside would leave such an obvious opening. Even the valley gave me a strange impression, the floor quite level until it got to the slopes on the side, only that those slopes weren’t gently rising but steep, almost like vertical walls, rising high into the sky. As someone who had lived between massive, artificial structures all my life, the valley felt more like an area between two high-rise buildings than a natural formation.

“Let’s see what it looks like with your sight.” I suggested, knowing that Lenore had deliberately avoided using her special vision until she was with me, just in case something happened. We had suffered for trying to peak behind the curtain before, so we had decided to be a little cautious.

In this case, that meant that she was sitting on my shoulder and I was merely looking at a stream of consciousness I received from her, instead of directly linking my mind to hers. If her mind got shut down from information overload, hopefully the stream would fade before I could get in trouble, too, allowing me to help her out.

When there was no distress coming from her mind, I fully immersed myself into the stream I received, only to be disappointed. Well, in a way, what I saw was both disappointing and incredibly impressive. Where normally, magic was emitting a glow, radiating out energy, the magic in the valley was barely visible, especially given the power we could feel. It was contained, incredibly powerful and covered everything, the walls, the ground, the trees and, above all, the mist.

But even with the power we could feel, it was nigh impossible to figure out what the magic was supposed to do or even which elements the spells were composed of. Compared to the valley, the spellwork was a beautiful work of art, tightly woven into the Astral in a way that I could only marvel at. Never before, had I seen such a perfect work of magic, causing me to get more absorbed in the images the more I looked. It was marvelous. It was awe-inspiring.

It was frightening.

“We found a small shrine carved into the walls.” Adra told me, jolting me out of my reverie.

“A shrine?” I asked, frowning at the revelation. Knowing that there was a religious component to this place made me cautious, especially given the incredible spellwork.

“Yes.” she nodded, pointing towards the wall, “It is dedicated to Zeus, King of Olympus, but I don’t think it has been used much in the recent past.” she added, not assuaging my worries.

“Show me.” I told her and began walking towards the direction she had pointed.

“There was also an old camp-site nearby.” Rai added, prompting me to raise an eyebrow, feeling that traces of relatively recent activity were more important than a shrine that appeared to be old.

“Not sure how old, but old enough for all traces but those of a campfire to have vanished. I would guess that it has been at least a week, maybe more. Hard to say and depends on the weather.” Rai continued, not helping with my worries. Part of me just wanted to leave, to let the place of power be, but it was a small part, the rest of me was curious, wanting to find out what it was and, if possible in any way, make it mine.

We stopped at the old camp-site but given that Rai and Adra had failed to find any information, I didn’t even try. There was a round spot of black soot and aches on the ground, but that was all that remained. Looking at things with Lenore's sight didn’t reveal any additional information, making me shrug as we continued on to the shrine.

The shrine appeared to be simple on the surface but looking closely at it, I was impressed, again. Where the rock of the region was mostly dark grey with some reddish-brown mixed in, the shrine was a lot lighter in tone than the surroundings. What made the stone impressive was that it wasn’t constructed but carved, directly into the valley, in a way that made me certain it had been done with magic. Or at least aided with magic, by transmuting the stone in some fashion, to create the contrast I was looking at. But I was also able to see why Adra thought the shrine hadn’t been in use for a while, there was some dirt and dust on it, even some moss growing.

Not touching it, I looked it over, a relief of two pillars holding up a triangular roof above an eagle with spread wings and two lighting bolts, relatively simple imagery and I could see why Adra thought it was dedicated to Zeus. The eagle was his animal after all and lighting bolts were his weapon, at least when looking at the olympian gods. Without a lot of research, and knowledge which myths Pantheon had used in their work, I had to trust the natives with their lore.

Together with Lenore, I looked at the shrine for magic but there was nothing that stood out, it wasn’t more or less magical than the rest of the valley, leaving me without any actual knowledge but some inference. Unless someone had gone to a lot of trouble, the valley was connected to the olympian pantheon, especially Zeus, which didn’t fill me with confidence. On the other hand, I had managed to stumble into a place where an olympian God had hidden that soul-trap shortly after starting, so there might be opportunity here.

“We’ll have to be careful.” I told the others, getting nods in return. Where I could return from death, it was a different topic for my companions. I didn’t want to lose any of them, least of all Sigmir. But at the same time, the whole journey we were on wasn’t without danger, so turning away from an opportunity to gain power without at least taking a look wouldn’t help in the long run.

“Agreed, I want to see what is in there.” Adra admitted, looking into the misty forest with a strange gleam in her eyes.

“What can you tell me about the trees?” I asked, realising that plants were her thing, just as Ice was mine. Not that there was any, even the mist frustrated gentle attempts to probe it with my Ice-Magic. It seemed to be an entirely different thing, compared to the mist I was using.

“Kotinos, I think.” she replied, after a few moments of thought, before continuing, “But they feel strange, distant. I can normally get a good feel for trees and the wild but here, there is something confusing me.”

Shaking her head, she took a few steps closer to the mist, before turning back to me, her forehead creased into a frown.

“I truly have no idea what is going on with those trees but they are ancient and filled with power.” she told us and I could hear the hunger in her voice. She wanted that power, to take it just like she had taken the power that Tegi had within her tree. Most of the time, she was less aggressive when it came to advancing her power compared to myself but when she saw an opportunity, she was just as greedy as I was. Luckily, we were greedy for different things, not bringing us into conflict with each other.

“There might be a source of power in there, sustaining the grove.” she added, the hunger in her voice telling us just how much she wanted that source of power.

Looking over to Sigmir and Rai, while they didn’t appear to be filled with the same excitement that had gripped Adra and me, they gave me nods of approval, which I returned.

“Let’s go in there.” I announced, allowing Adra to take the lead, as she often did, after reminding her to remain vigilant. There might be danger here and if we mucked up, the opportunity we were looking for might turn into fatal danger.