Facts lead to conviction, and conviction leads to closed-mindedness. This is the enemy of progress because we stop questioning possibilities. Sometimes, we need someone to slap us in the face to break us out of this rut, this inflexibility of thought. I wish I’d learned this lesson sooner…

~Dagda, the All-Father, Chief of the Gods

As he collapsed on his bed at the inn, he regretted not finding Song Xue. He knew she was with Mara, but it didn’t stop the dread he felt. The confidence he had in their relationship was solid, but he felt as if he let her down, hurt her, and that tormented him. He thought of a gift, something he could make for her, because he knew their time together was drawing to a close, at least for the next few years. Regardless, he’d see her tomorrow at the cookout on the beach. It was supposedly an event worth attending, and they only held it one night a week.

Even before his eyes were closed, he felt Soul Burn reaching for him. The pull was so strong that he’d felt it even before he reached his unconscious state. Panicking, he tried to struggling and keep himself awake, but all he ended up doing was flopping on the floor before he was pulled into the black flames. Screams echoed through the void as if coming from his aura, which was growing brighter and brighter. Then he saw her, the fae queen, and the pain stopped. She pointed toward a sign and the village behind the sign and then mimed something he didn’t quite understand.

Her little hand gripped part of the void, and then she proceeded to eat it. Her hands went out like claws, and she closed one eye while turning the open one to glare at him like a monster. However, her tiny little face was so adorable that Crow ended up laughing instead. So she stomped her foot angrily and waggled her finger at him before miming again.

“The monster in the fountain?” Crow finally understood, and she nodded. Then she pointed at the village again and mimed like she was on fire and danced around trying to put herself out. “That’s the village that was on fire?”

Her little head nodded vigorously. Next, she pointed at her mouth and then pointed toward the village while using her hands to mime speaking.

“You want me to… tell them about the monster?” He asked, and she held up her thumb. “Who are you?”

She stared at him for a long time and then finally flew up to his chest and touched where his heart was. But she hesitated, as if unsure how to explain. However, her eyes lit up, and then she pointed at the river running alongside the town. Back and forth, she pointed at his heart and the river.

“Heart—” Lily shook her head. “Soul?” A nod. “Soul river?” Her little hand tilted back and forth.

“She is a fae princess. I never thought I’d seen one again,” a middle-aged man from the village explained. Crow wasn’t sure when he had arrived, but his plain clothes, trimmed beard, and kind eyes put him at ease. “A fae princess used to be common for the Draoidh, but time changes everything.”

“Senior, where does she come from?”

“Tuatha De Danaan. Most think it is just a name representing the Draoidh pantheon, but it is a primordial world. Created before the lower and upper realms and carved out of the void by Mother Danu, our only primordial goddess. There are eleven more primordial worlds. All of them are part of the Uru.”

“I’m not familiar with that word. What does it mean?” Crow asked.

“Uru is from the language of the ancients and means Eclipse. Each of the twelve primordials is represented by the Towers of Day or Night. The Draoidh belong to the Tur Brueg Meallta—”

“The Tower of the False Dawn?” Crow asked suddenly, excited by this bit of information. “Is that the same tower we call Tur Briste?”

Crow’s quick mind surprised the older man, especially how nimbly the boy linked those two things. Now he wasn’t sure if he should speak further. In the end, the damage was already done. “It is. The Tower of the False Dawn is characterized by the light before sunrise. We have always represented the concept of hope and life, but ironically, we are one of the six Towers of Night.”

Crow tried to digest all that and then shuddered. “So there are eleven more towers?”

The middle-aged man laughed. “There are over twelve, but these twelve are the core of something bigger. You aren’t ready for that knowledge. You should know that the tower isn’t really shattered. That is misinformation to disrupt your cultivation momentum. Primordials created the original tower, and only they can break it. That war shattered the tower’s walls, which were made by powerful cultivators. Those walls were primarily to prevent cultivators from exiting into the void. You don’t need the tower to reach the upper realms, but they felt sealing the void around the tower would prevent lower realm people from sneaking in. The Tower of the False Dawn is perfectly fine.”

Lily’s little hand smacked Crow on the nose before he could respond. Seeing the angry fae prince pointing at herself, Crow grinned sheepishly. This conversation started by trying to find out who she was and devolved into something else.

“And Lily? Where does she fit in with all that?”

“Oh, she doesn’t. She is from Tuatha De Danaan and is your… gift? The fae princesses are formed when a child of the Draoidh has a powerful enough soul to sustain one. Even in my day, there were few as young as you that could reach that level. Primordial worlds are alive and within their bodies are veins called Spirit Rivers. Souls that cannot be contained in the lesser worlds will eventually make their way to these rivers and await rebirth. Still, the more powerful a soul, the longer it takes to reincarnate. Now, the fae are created from the essence of these Spirit Rivers, and the princesses are given a sliver of will from the primordial planet. They only lack a soul, which is where you come in. It is your choice to accept this gift, but if you do, she will need to use your Soulscape and will feed off of it until she can form one of her own. Tuatha De Danaan has gifted her to you, but it is your choice. Accept her, and she can survive within your Soulscape, and you will guard her with your life. In return, she will be your guide.”

“Guide to what?”

“Tuatha De Danaan, dummy. No one can reach a primordial sacred land without approval and a guide. However, you aren’t anywhere near powerful enough yet, but you should that few ever reach that level.”

Lily was flying in front of his face, wringing her hands together. Her little face scrunched up in worry, and her eyes were watery. It was a heart-wrenching scene.

“Why are you hesitating?”

“I’m afraid if I accept her, my Soulscape will kill her,” Crow said honestly, and the older man walked over and touched Crow’s head. He felt ominous energy, more powerful than anything he’d ever felt in his life, reach through him like he was water. The moment it touched upon his Soulscape, it pulled back, and the older man hissed.

“Soul Burned? No wonder you made it to this place and have such a powerful soul. What monster cursed you?”

“My grandfather,” Crow frowned but answered truthfully. Lily started crying because her empathic nature sensed Crow’s hurt, both physical and mental.

“You have a soul refined by fire and calamity—this is not a bad thing. Your powerful soul is the reward, which is hard to quantify. You should get rid of all thoughts of banishing this fire within you. It is much too late for that. Soul Burn is now part of you. As a Draoidh, didn’t you ever learn the founding principle of our magic?”

“I—yes.”

“What is it?”

“Magic of the natural world, powers of the elements, carry a will of their own. As a Druid, we must learn to harness this power, and the first rule is to embrace it for what it is…” Crow almost used his father’s voice to lecture but then realized what he’d just said.

“You see the problem now, right? You’ve spent all this time trying to fight against fire, expel it from you, control it, and forgot the first rule. Soul Burn is fire, and one aspect of fire is to cleanse. That is why your energy is so pure, and your soul is so strong. It has been refining your body, mind, and soul. The process is slow because you are weak. You are attempting to a pile of sand one grain at a time because that is all you have the strength to do, but each grain means you are one more grain closer to completing the process.”

Those words rooted Crow to the spot, and it was such a simple observation and truth that he felt like punching himself in the face. Having a Sage’s Mind, and memorizing all the things he had, and even his comprehension—yet he was jammed up by something so simple. He flushed with embarrassment.

The middle-aged man laughed. “It is good to be humbled. Remember, the only true wisdom is that there is always something to learn. Never get arrogant, or you’ll end up like me, stuck on this fragment of time, unable to leave. My hubris brought me down.”

Snapping his fingers, Crow rudely pointed at the man in his excitement. “You-you’re Dagda’s descendent! You look just like his statue.”

“Wrong. I am Dagda. Why do you think I knew so much about your little friend there and the primordial world? Speaking of, your Soulscape won’t harm her, but she might transform because of it. Absorbing the soul force of other living things does that, so she would have changed, regardless. Interestingly, they gave you a Lightning Fae, considering the major aspects of your Soulscape is has Fire and Wood, a Lightning Fae is odd.”

“Lily? Do you want to join me?” Crow asked, and the little fae wiped the tears off her cheeks and nodded. She held out a finger, and he did the same, trusting her without reservation as she entered the Soulscape. He hadn’t been able to reach that place ever since it formed with the help of the Hell’s Seed. While the Soul Burn didn’t abate, Crow felt the cooling effect of the lightning within his soul.

*Thank you.* He heard faintly and then felt warmth suffuse him, but it wasn’t from fire or anything malignant. No, this felt like a hug—warm and inviting. Several breaths later, he felt a slight pain within his soul as if it was pinched, and then he felt her. She was a mysterious presence within him, but he knew even if she left his body, it’d feel as if it tethered her to him.

“Do you know what we call those with a fae princess?”

“No…?”

“A god-elect. I was like you once long ago.”

“You weren’t born in Tuatha De Danaan?”

“I wasn’t. No gods were. Only Mother Danu originated from that sacred land. The rest of us were like you, but we were born immortal, unlike you. So we had all the time we needed to reach the stage of a god. You do not. I have to ask, young Draoidh, why did you come to ******? Ah, never mind, can you read that sign?” Dagda asked, pointing at a sign in front of the village.

Crow turned to read the sign, but then his eyes caught on a site behind it. It was that fountain. There was no way he’d mistake it. Only it wasn’t what he thought it was. It was issuing out an electric blue liquid that had a thicker consistency than water. It was something he’d only heard about in legends.

“Is that a mana fountain?”

“You are well-informed, young one, but you need to answer my question now,” Dagda’s words turned hard.

“Sorry, no, I can’t read it. I’m here to warn you.”

“You?” Dagda’s booming laugh caught the attention of others. A half-dozen people were standing around Crow now. “What warning would you like to give?”

“It’s like this…” Crow explained his previous visits to this place, the monster. After several probing questions, Dagda stopped laughing and turned toward the others with a startled expression on his face. He ended his explanation with a question. “Can you tell me where I am?”

“We cannot explain—wait, we can, but we won’t. Do not think I look down on you, young Draoidh, rather you should consider this a kindness. I will say that it is a fragment stuck out of time, and that beast in the fountain is a void beast called the Devourer. The penance for my hubris is that the Devourer wants to consume me, and as long as I live, it’ll continue to follow me. So I lead it away from civilized worlds and realms. I’m only telling you this because if you come across this beast again, close your eyes and retract your mana. Endure, and it’ll move on. If you can’t, it’ll consume you. You should always fear it. Understand?”

“Yes, senior.”

“Good, Meg, do you want to gift the boy knowledge? We owe him something for his warning.”

An old lady turned toward Crow. Her eyes were white without a pupil or iris. He couldn’t look away once their eyes locked, and despite being unfated, he felt connected once more to the web of karma and fate. Within it, he saw a three-headed crow riding on a bear filled with lightning. Loping beside them was a massive white wolf, and Crow felt a connection to it as it turned to smile at him. On the other side was a purplish-black lioness, and somehow he felt the vastness of the void on her. Above flew a snow owl.

He knew all of them, but not in this way. Ahead, he saw the lioness split from the group, and he knew she was following the crow while the wolf and bear went off on their own. Only the snow owl remained behind, but he could sense it was wounded.

The convergence he felt in the future, the reunion of friends, would happen, but not in the trial. Otto and Song Xue would wait at the end of the trial, in a town built for those who had newly formed their Shields. The vision seemed simple, but there were many profundities that Crow would need time to decipher. One thing that surprised him was that on his own journey, Mara was with him.

“How?” Crow asked.

“You are unfated, but your existence hasn’t been around long enough, so your friends aren’t blocked to my sight yet. A powerful seer can extrapolate from what is seen and unseen. I have a feeling you knew most of this because of your encounter with the Devourer. Consider that vision a gift. In exchange for your warning, I will give you a warning, too. One you should tell your elders. The Vodun, the ones you call Witch Doctors, are divided into two factions. They shouldn’t trust either side. The Vodou, who will arrive with the Beastmen, will be an ally until the current crisis is over. However, they are now a people without a home and will aim to take one by force. Sadly, I cannot see a way out of this betrayal. The Vodun will win their bid for land, but it comes down to the Druids or the Beastmen. They’ll turn on the Beastmen first, provided you don’t warn them. If you warn them, then the Vodun will take your lands and even shackle Mugna.”

“Then what do I do? I can’t let the Beastmen get slaughtered like that.”

“They are a roaming people, so they never had a firm grasp of their land, nor their guardian,” Dagda stepped in at this point. “My advice… offer them the northlands. There are plenty of beasts in those forests, and it is a place much more agreeable to their nature than the savannahs and deserts they live on now. It will strengthen the Droaidh, and with them providing your people with beast cores, you’ll regain the ability to merge.”

“Merge?”

“Become your totem. Are you not the crow? What if you could turn into one? The Draoidh had this ability, it existed as part of our bloodline, so it should still be there. Have that kid, Mugna, give you the technique.”

“Young Draoidh, tell your elders that this war only two outcomes. Victory or death. There is no chance for peace, and no matter what honeyed words they use, do not believe them. There is no other outcome in my vision, but I admit that there is still a slight possibility with you present. I recommend you avoid taking part in this war.”

“She is right. Unless your seers cannot find a way to success, avoid it at all costs.”

“That is a hard request to follow,” Crow sighed. “I-I can’t watch my friends and family die.”

“Unfated mess with predictability. If your people see a path to victory, you might take that way,” the old lady said in a softer tone. “Your role might be bigger than that war. I, too, am Draoidh, and I do not wish to see my people killed. I’m telling you this, so they have a path to survive.”

Crow finally slapped a fist to his chest and bowed respectfully toward the old woman. “I understand and thank you for your guidance. You are right. I am both a blessing and a curse. It is safest if I’m not interfering.”

Dagda slapped Crow on the shoulder and smiled at him. “Remember, you can only resist the natural world for so long before it eventually gets its way. The best you can do is embrace who you are and your place in it. This doesn’t just apply to your Soul Burn, but your journey ahead too. So, by root and limb, you need to do your part to protect the Order.”

“By limb and root, I’ll do all I can.”

Crow’s eyes snapped open with a dagger pressed against his throat.