The Second Law of Magic is framed thus, The magnitude of a magical working or spell, is dependent on the amount of mana provided by the spell’s originator as well as the flow rate at which it is availed. This explains why prodigious amounts of mana do not a grand magus make. It is useless if the speed conveyance from a larger mana well is too fickle for the spell it was meant to empower- Wysterl Weisermann. The Fundamentals of Magic.

Eryth, it seemed, was poised to break Arthur’s neck in other ways aside from whiplash injuries. Actually, scratch that, the number of things that had upended Arthur’s world view were enough to give him whiplash.

One thing Arthur asked though, was how he could’ve missed such a big tree that might have been visible for leagues around? It even had its own micro-climate and everything.

It all boiled down to faerie magics of old. There were no creatures more adept in the art of charms and illusions than the faeries themselves. Thus, it followed that, as progenitors, the race derived from them would get a bit of their gifts as inheritance.

That was what enabled the Aesylvani free city states to hide a tree a whole Yggdrasil level of big in plain sight. Misdirection wards were also used to make sure that no oblivious fliers would go splat on the ginormous oak.

The temporal displacement, whose after effects they felt as turbulence was also a function of faery magic. Whole sylvani cities had their own time zones, removed from the rest of Eryth. A day inside a time bubble in Lysfall was two outside of it.

It was virtually cheating to have long lifespans and then have all the time in the world. And then the other fact that Arthur stewed over, was the fact that Aeskyre’s library might have been a bit out of date… by a couple of centuries too.

The sylvani were half-elves; the aforementioned is what they called themselves. They hated being called half of anything because they were prideful people. That was another thing they seemed to have inherited from their forebearers, the elves.

It was understandable to see themselves as an accomplished civilization, more so when compared to the humans who were lagging behind.

For one, they were united despite their free cities and then secondly, their magic was something every mage would have loved to study.

Like the runecraft that coexisted with living trees and made that organic sentient home motif possible. If Arthur could glean a little of their magic—

“We’re here,” their rider announced as their gondola banked close to Eik’hjerte. Their escort pulled away with the dexterity and flair of fighter pilots as their mounts trilled. Arthur craned his neck to catch glimpses of the air traffic moving to and from the tree.

There were so many wyverns flying in and out it practically looked like a hornet's nest. Some hauled cargo draped in tarps, others were doing familiar aerial maneuvers while again others ferried gondolas like the one they were riding.

Szephia’s telecry chimed, indicating an incoming hail. All Arthur and Nora heard and saw were a couple of yeses and nods as the sylvani [Mage-Scout] conversed behind a privacy ward.

When Arthur felt the ward drop through his mana sense, the girl regarded them and kneaded her brow as if someone had dumped a load of paperwork on her in-tray. Which it turned out, they did. She had to make sure the two of them went through security checks before their appointment with the Warden on duty.

In terms of hierarchy, Szephia was somewhere between the lower and the middle of the totem pole. Mage-Scout was her class and her rank designation was first class.

There were scouts, rangers, wardens and at the top, sentinels and then the seneschal who reported to the sylvani queen. Whoever Arthur was going to meet was in middle management.

‘Just peachy, everytime I meet an institution or a group of people, it's always escalating to the big man…just peachy,’ he pursed his lips. Nora gazed at him and smiled and he responded with a smile of his own. Szephia was looking at the giant tree with a scowl on her face.

‘Everything is going to be fine, I hope. I'm not alone this time.’ Arthur thought. He hoped that the sylvani were too honorable for their own good to pull a fast one over him. His gaze turned to their approach as the gondola began its descent towards a landing platform .

It was similar to an aircraft carrier, only what was parked on the sides was wyverns reined to posts on the platform while a beehive of activity went on around each of them. Arthur saw more species of faerie wyverns; compared to their drab feral cousins they sure were a sight for sore eyes.

As the gondola came in for a landing, there was that slight turbulence again...though subdued they barely felt the motion.

As they turned around, with the front view to where the boundary of the Eik'hjerte would be, both Nora and Arthur were astounded to see a blur of colors as if they were still in motion even though they were stationary. Szechia smirked knowingly. They'd entered another temporal barrier.

Walking to the main entrance, Szechia and her entourage were the target of much rubbernecking from other sylvani on the platform. The wyvern landing bough, as each floor of Eik'hjert was called, continued to buzz with activity as the trio went on their way.

She could see her wards eyeing the scenery with a gleam in their eyes, more so the human who seemed interested in the wyverns; he seemed contemplative.

Despite that, she was still sour about being saddled with the responsibility of 'watching' the human and what she assumed was a half vampire.

Even though she held no prejudice against the girl she still thought it prudent that she cover herself with a hood.

So far, only her aunt knew she was a dhampir. The warden she'd gone with, after a troop of sylvani scout recruits had an encounter with the mythical fairies had not even detected that she was a dhampir.

Either she did a very good job of hiding her aura or her companion’s aura had smothered her to the point it wasn’t detectable. That could happen. However, if it was the former, then she would have been a very dangerous individual who needed to be watched.

Nonetheless, she felt proud, as any of the sylvani would be, to showcase the magnificence of what her people had achieved.

‘Hold on,’ she frowned, coming up short. Arthur and Nora followed her lead, coming to a stop to either side of her. ‘ Rot! Airheaded auntie didn't give me a pass; how am I going to get into the Over Watch?’ she thought, panic setting in.

“Uh, Miss Szephia…Is anything the matter?” the dragon-touched asked her. He must have caught onto her hesitation.

“ Not at all, “was what she said with a smile, as she hurriedly schooled her depression. The dhampir besides the man frowned under her hood. She swore, ‘Moth rot! If this is one of Auntie Sel’s pranks I swear. Maybe I should walk right in; I’m Court elder Selessia’s niece after all.’ the sylvani thought as she resumed her walk.

Their sylvani acquintance seemed to be slightly unsure.

Even Nora noticed it too, Arthur observed and that part about reassuring them that everything was going according to plan had evidently been a lie as Nora shared a look with him. Nonetheless, they kept following her, but not incautiously; they were potentially, in enemy territory.

Two ornate double doors loomed over them, various aesylvani iconography and symbols displayed for all to see. They were covered and inlaid with what seemed to be a silverish blue metal which Arthur realized was blue mithril.

“Erm, master Arthur must be the only dragon touched to visit Eik'hjerte in a millennia.” Szephia started. Nora didn't show any outward that she lied this time; Arthur took her at her word. “It's kind of a big deal,” the girl continued, smiling uneasily as they passed the threshold of what was the main entrance.

“ Though, other races have been here in the recent past, you’re the first human, in five hundred cycles,” she said the last part almost as a whisper.

There, Arthur felt something he'd encountered only twice when he found himself on Eryth. An invisible barrier seemed to examine them as it washed over them like a wave. It wasn't invasive in the way that made them feel like little ants crawling on the inside of their skin. Rather, it felt like a viscous film, unclingly that seemed to enter into every pore of their skin like a cleanser, leaving them rejuvenated and fresh.

Szephia seemed to sigh in relief once they’d gotten through the ward and seemed to murmur a prayer in aesylvani. However, stepping past the threshold knocked the breath out from both first time visitors. As they emerged into an atrium, the din of aesylvani in the air assaulted their ears. Sylvani in various garb were moving to and from apse-like recesses set all around the room.

Arthur would have thought it a circle but it was in fact, an icosagon. Each recess was indented into one of the twenty sides with a small flight of stairs. Groups of sylvani, caught in their conversations seemed to emerge, before disappearing into another. Arthur noted that they seemed to tap their badge-like telecry’s before motes of prismatic light overtook them, disappearing from the bottom and then vanishing upwards in a flash.

“ Is that a…” Arthur wanted to say teleporter but clammed up just in time. Szephia shook her head and muttered, “faerie ring, not rift gate. ”

“ Let's go before my luck runs out,” she exhaled. Arthur didn't seem to notice, because his gaze was drawn to the vaulted ceiling where, stained glass depicted three women

‘Goddesses,’ Arthur realized.

They had nimbus surrounding their manes of hair, one white, one mauve and the last had a blue one. Two faced one another, while one, the one with white as her theme stood in the middle. She was the one who caught Arthur’s eye.

She wore a flowing off shoulder gown clasped on one side with a silver crescent, one hand had a stave, whose focus seemed to be made of an infinite number of fractals that hurt to look at. It seemed to change patterns as he looked at it.

On her other hand, she held an unbalanced scale. Arthur blinked, it was almost too familiar. She would’ve been a knockoff of Justice, were it not for the stave and a cat-owl hybrid on her shoulder.

Arthur almost thought he saw the stained glass rendition of an aesylvani goddess smirk even as he tried to watch his step, climbing onto one of those faerie rings.

They were also a twenty sided polygon, marked with crisscrossing lines of runes. The runecraft seemed to run into one another, intersecting in parts, and concentric in others. His rune lore came up short, unable to glean anything from them.

There was no power source that he could see, yet the construction was live, humming faintly to his mana sense. He was sure there was some sort of rhythm in the way the mana hummed, if it even had a sound. He shook his head ruefully,

‘Voices talking in my head, now energy sings too. You know what? Maybe it does, just we don’t hear it as much as see its effects…”

“ Three to oversight, bough fourteen,” Szephia said as she tapped her telecry badge twice.

‘Three to beam up was right there,’ Arthur grinned as a couple of nostalgic memories made themselves known. Arthur knew what to expect, or rather he thought he did as he clenched stomach in anticipation of a lurch. He felt his locus affinity inundated with its attuned mana then reality seemed to bend.

He caught the tail end of the sylvani girl’s frown as she looked askance. Arthur stumbled, catching himself as they reappeared on the so-called bough fourteen. Only, it was the wrong antechamber as Szephia cursed; and they had a not-so friendly welcoming committee.

There was shuffling and the groaning of wood and string as arrows were nocked. Commands issued in aesylvani shouts split the air, light was shining in his eyes. It was familiar and yet not, his breath hitched.

Arthur was not staring into the muzzle of a gun, no, what was around him were runic arrowheads, glowing menacingly as they promised destruction.

He didn't have to activate his mana sight to see the mages already prepping their spells on their fingertips while others yet stacked spell matrices on top of already primed magic. All of it was in aesylvani. But they were in danger.

Szephia seemed to come to her senses the fastest, as she shouted back at her compatriots to lower their weapons and dispel their magic. She even invoked her special privilege as a fae-touched, surprising Arthur who hadn't known there was such a thing.

The situation de-escalated somewhat but there was still some lingering tension in the air. While using her fae-touched designation was viable, the circumstances were not in her favor. Fae-touched or not, the Bough warden outranked her several times over.

“Bough Warden V'ernon tell your men to stand down immediately. What's the meaning of all this?” Szephia addressed the sylvani in charge red in the face.

”Night walker,” he sneered as his hawkish gaze passed over the trio, then lingering on the hooded Nora more than most. There was a gasp of realization from his retinue as bows and spells were hastily rerouted towards the dhampir.

Nora didn't move from her spot but her posture changed to that of a cornered animal. Arthur also prepared his spells ready to deploy. [Wind Shield] in his left and [Thunder Bolt] in his right.

Inwardly, he thanked Aeskyre for teaching him how to dual cast. Though his right arm throbbed with phantom pain from the last time a spell backlashed on him.

It was hard to hold two spell matrices in his mind, even though the world was the one acting as a temporary buffer. He had to keep the magic in his mind's eye; he provided the deployment command.

If you compared casting spells to a print job, then the World was just the printer and his mind the system unit sending or withholding a job request..

“And human,” he narrowed his eyes, as his gaze whirled to land on Arthur.

“I'll have you know, they're under my Aunt's protection.”

”Ho? Is that so? Where is your documentation, for all I know you could be under the nightwalker’s leash, “ the Bough Warden said, voice laced with acridness. “ And that human, over there might as well be her thrall,” he added, a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

“Hey hey...lets be civil...she's not what you think she is” Arthur butted in when he realized where all this was going.

“ Huh? The thrall speaks?” the warden shook his head and then tutted in dismay. “ All the more reason to put it down too before he becomes a Turned”

‘Feck it, they’re not listening to reason. This is all a set up,’ Arthur’s eyes went wide as he met Szephia’s helpless gaze. The sylvani girl was torn between defending them, which meant going on the offensive against her own people.

’At least they're coming through the front…’ Arthur thought as he waited for things to go to the Pits in a handbasket. He shared a look with Nora who was also resolved. With no knowledge of the surrounding, porting away seemed to be a fool's errand. With no way to know how far the drop from Eik'hjerte was, and without Arthur's hoverboard, they were in a tight spot.

“ Fae-touched Szephia…” the Warden said. “ Stand aside…else we might have to consider you Turned” the last word was said with cold finality even as the Warden raised their hand. Something wasn't adding up even, there was no remorse or hesitation even if one of their own wws caught up in the crossfire.

Szephia didn't move. “Very well... Archers! Mages—“

” It wasn't my idea to come to whatever you people call this outfit,” Arthur called to the Warden. His jaw was set and even as He squared up to the, 6 foot something sylvani in uniform and a cuirass, he barely blinked. The Sylvani Warden Captain had one hand on his spell sword. The sylvani man completely ignored him.

‘Well curse you and your top knot Legolas!’ he swore internally.

Arthur had no weapons. Well, he had one in his Inventory; the mithril sword. However, he didn't fancy his chances with it even as he eyed the way the muscles rippled underneath the sylvani's tunic.

If he drew out that sword, things would only go worse from there. However, he had his magic. And the atmosphere was turning prickly as his aura mirrored his emotions. He'd really had enough people walking all over him.

“Last chance to rethink what you're about to do, I'm sure this is all a big misunderstanding,” Arthur said. His eyes took on swirling motes of gold as he activated his mana sight. The magical aura within the ginormous tree was mostly green but Arthur had no time to think about it because the Warden had already pulled down his arm.

“ Fire at will! [Aggregate Volley]!” he bellowed. Arthur moved, even as his mana sight traced the wisps of mana being channeled towards spells.

He knew where they'd go, and roughly what kind of affinity they would have. Most were Aer and Aqer; some were like the latter but the way they manifested was different, more dense even.

‘Ice!'Arthur realized. “Nora ,”he shouted, “Come to me!”

Then a hail of ice spikes and arrows blotted out all illumination. Half went towards Nora, whose countenance was grim , half tracked Arthur even as he moved. Fate hung in the balance as Arthur once again stared at his mortality in the face.

Temperature dropped precipitously in the hall, even time seemed to freeze.

Nora disappeared into motes of darkness, reappearing by Arthur's side. Arthur let loose his [Wind Shield] dumping as much mana as he could into the spell. The multitude of ice spikes and lances broke against his barrier.

Arrows were redirected or ripped away from the air, several enchanted runeheads broke through, [Seeker Shots] going in for the kill. But he never released the spell matrix for [Chain Lightning]. When it came down to it, the phantom of blood on his hands still haunted him.

However, Szephia snapped out of her stupor and stepped in, throwing her [Wind Blades] which bisected the arrow shafts in mid air. But for all their concerted efforts, they were only two mages against two dozen.

Arthur prepared for incoming shrapnel even as he shielded Nora with his own body. It was that compunction every male felt, that they had to step up and do something heroic, even if it was stupid. But the arrows never landed. Then there was silence.

“Arthur Sturmdrache, or perhaps, I should call you Arthur Tyrell O'reilly, Scion of Sturmdrache.” Arthur felt two palms on his cheeks. He opened his eyes, realizing he'd scrunched them closed.

His own back was turned to the volley while Nora was in the midst of his embrace. But the woman, or if she could be called one, was a stranger. The voice had come from her and not Nora who was frozen, as was everything around him.

“[Lost Worlder], tell me. Why do you defend her so?” Emerald pupil-less eyes stared back at him. The woman was incorporeal, seemingly having passed through Nora's body.

”Huh?” Arthur asked befuddled, he turned his head around. Everything, from the arrows and spells in the air, to the Sylvani mages caught mid-cast seemed to have paused. Time had stopped.

“Who are you?” Arthur asked. He was the only one who could move in that space.

The woman laughed as she swam back in the air. Her tresses of green hair billowed, as if ruffled by an unseen breeze. Arthur smelt the aromatic fragrances of spring and other woody scents. The woman's complexion was something between green and brown, of a sapling growing into a young tree.

“First, my answer,” she giggled, as if his bewilderment was amusing. Her eyes crinkled with mirth, as she continued to frolic through the air kicking her bare feet. Her ethereal dress, trailed behind her, betwitching folds swirling like an exotic tropical fish with flowy fins. Some of the folds brushed by Arthur’s face.

“Isn't it only right that one good turn begets another?” Arthur asked. “She was willing to turn her back on her Clan for someone she'd just met because she had a dream to see the outside.”

”Hmm, ” the woman hummed, dimples forming on her cheeks. She tapped a long fingernail on her pursed lip, as she stared at something unseen. ”Pity…”

“What?...”

“‘Tis but the truth, young one.” the woman chimed, her expression now unreadable. She gently floated, almost lethargically towards him, phasing through Nora and stopped in front of him. She was directly in his face, caring nothing for propriety or personal space. But that was a small matter compared to the way she moved through matter like a ghost.

“I would've given you a boon for your foolhardiness, but one does not reward naivety” she smiled, again twisting away in a gossamer pirouette through the air..

“What are you?”

“Ever the curious one Arthur Sturmdrache,” she grinned. “Never did I say I'd tell you once you answered my question, did I?”

’What do you want?’ Arthur left unvoiced. Somehow his pride felt wounded as if he’d been taken for a joyride. He could barely move his body.

To his surprise, the woman quirked her brow, and said,“Wrong question...what is it you want?”She tapped his forehead with her finger. It made contact and Arthur flinched away as if expecting her to poke through his brain.

‘Damn, can’t have my mind to myself can I?’

Not one to shy away from taking favors from powerful entities, he voiced his thoughts.

“Freedom—freedom to do what I want” Arthur sighed in resignation. Everything that happened after he landed on Eryth had been one rollercoaster after another.

”Hahaha,” she chortled. “Not power? A boon perhaps?”

“No,” Arthur shook his head.``I have more power than I know what to do with. All the power in the world is nothing if it won't help me, or those close to me” he added, meeting her unnerving orbs of emerald.

“Wise!” she tapped his head again. “For that…mmh,” she had that faraway gaze again.

” A Pendant of Verwandeln for your daywalker,” she muttered. A light shone on Nora's chest, as a small gem, emplaced in a trifoliate leaf appeared. A small chain draped around her neck, briefly shimmered into existence before it disappeared.

“ A way out of this mire,” she snapped her fingers. Space twisted on itself, Arthur felt that lurching motion he associated with translocation magic. Their scenery changed into another hallway, where only four of them were. Yet time had still stopped for Szephia and Nora. Only the mysterious feminine entity and Arthur were outside of time. Well, Arthur could only move his head.

“Mmh, and that old sprog who set all this up should be meeting up with you soon”

“Wait what?”

“Oopsie, I have already meddled far more than I was supposed to,” she mock-gasped. Then she feigned a yawn, pretending that she was sleepy as her outline begun to blur,

“Hey,... wait!” Arthur cried out but things were already well in motion. Motes of magic drifted off her skin...then she burst into a confetti of colors. Time resumed. Szephia stumbled mid-run.

“Arthur?” Nora was looking at him with wide eyes, as she held the pendant on her bosom.

“What on Ea–,” Arthur almost blurted before catching himself. “What on Eryth was that?”