Leon’s anxiety for his people was immense, but his curiosity was powerful, too, and with the threat that the roots posed, he couldn’t help but take a moment to investigate them before trying to continue further into the research facility. He knelt down by the largest one left—all had been quite thoroughly devastated by his fire, but there was still more than enough left to examine.

The one he chose was still about ten feet long—or, at least, ten feet of root was still sticking out of its attached human skull. Its end was scorched black, but the closer to the skull it went, it lightened into a healthier brown. The root was frozen and emitted no magic power, but Leon still maintained a healthy doze of caution as he knelt down before it.

[What are these things?] he asked those still with him.

[A parasite of some kind,] Xaphan immediately answered, his crackling voice laced with disgust and disdain. [Burn it all away, leave nothing behind.]

[A good idea,] Leon whispered in reply, though he made no moves to do so immediately. [Are these researchers?] he wondered.

Leon wasn’t expecting an answer given the advanced state of decay—there was quite literally only a few bones and dust left, after all—but Nestor furnished him with one anyway. [Doubtful,] the dead man said. [The minds stationed here would’ve been evacuated. To do otherwise would be unthinkable—even those who evacuated from this plane after my father’s death would’ve made room for these people. I would chalk these bones up to be a skeleton crew of slaves left behind to maintain this facility in case of our Clan’s return.]

Loen frowned, but didn’t immediately respond. He simply examined the skull as best as he could. He was no medical professional, but as far as skulls went, it didn’t look that bad. Given how old it had to be, he found that in itself to be noteworthy. The only damage to it that he could see was the missing lower mandible and the hole that the root had made as it smashed through the top of the skull.

[What’s more,] Nestor continued, [I can’t imagine that any of my subordinates would’ve been so foolish as to handle dangerous material like this without the proper precautions. If they were left in charge of this place, then whatever these things are, they would never have gotten free.]

[I’m sure,] Xaphan spat. [If there’s one thing your people excelled at, it was building prisons. But you also can’t say what happened here, though, can you?]

[We also excelled at putting things in prison that deserved to be there,] Nestor shot back, completely ignoring Xaphan’s question, and Leon felt a brief flash of anger run through his contract with Xaphan. [Anyway,] Nestor continued, [I would put money on these being slaves. They were either test subjects, or after they were left here on their own, they showed just how worthy of their station they were by messing around with things beyond their ken, infecting themselves with this stuff when they did.]

Leon quietly nodded. He could easily see what might’ve happened: those left behind might’ve accidentally released something dangerous that his Clan’s researchers were studying, and whatever they released then got loose into the forest somehow. It then formed some kind of central intelligence—if Xaphan’s theory was correct, anyway—and spread itself throughout the forest. However, it didn’t appear to spread any further than that, and remained in the Prota Forest, living unseen thanks to its powerful ancient wards.

[What’s wrong?] Nestor asked, pulling Leon out of his thoughts. [You don’t have something terribly naïve to say to all this? I was hoping you were going to get indignant about the Clan’s practices… Are you finally coming around to understanding your true place in the world? Above that of the unwashed, illiterate masses?]

He sounded disappointed, but Leon didn’t care. [I’ve made my feelings on our Clan’s practices well known; do you need me to constantly repeat them? This doesn’t surprise me, dead man, but I think I’m starting to grow used to the ways our Clan ruled.

[And, for what it’s worth, those who now inhabit this plane are quite clean and literate. Maybe you should get out more—oh, wait, I forgot for a moment that you can’t.]

Nestor clicked his tongue—or mimicked the sound—and went quiet. Leon just turned his attention back to the nine roots and the remains of the nine skeletons. He took it all in for just a few more seconds, then stood up and filled the room with blazing fire. The last vestiges of the roots were incinerated, and the skeletons were rendered ash. When the fire died down, the room was completely empty, save for a door to Leon’s right.

Leon sighed, then made his way over to the door. What had happened here was likely terrible, but he couldn’t dwell, not when his people were still missing.

When he reached the door, he was genuinely surprised to find that the runic circle next to it was still functioning. He pressed his hand against it and the trapezoidal door slid into the floor, revealing a bright corridor behind it.

‘This place still has power?’ Leon thought in amazement.

Indeed, as he stepped out into the corridor beyond, he felt like he was stepping back into the top floor of Nestor’s lab, which had been quite well maintained by his golems. The trapezoidal walls his Clan loved were aglow from the white fires burning in the corridor’s lower corners, filling the corridor with soft, indirect light. Spiraling down from the top corners, giving the corridor the illusion of being square-shaped, were murals of projected light depicting various events in his Clan’s history that he had no hope of actually identifying. Heroic figures facing down hordes of ‘unwashed masses’ as Nestor had just so generously called them, his Clan easily distinguishable as they stood over their conquered foes. Beasts and men of all shapes and sizes knelt before his triumphant clansmen, subjugated.

Other murals showed alien landscapes and scenes of such idyllic beauty that he could scarcely imagine them as real places. Only the Forest of Black and White could compare to the panoply of colors in the depicted palaces and gardens, in Leon’s experience.

What was a little more disorienting was that the ceiling had been enchanted to resemble the sky as it was above the ruins, and the resemblance was perfect. ‘Natural’ light thus spilled into the corridor, giving it an open feeling, greatly alleviating the cramped and tight feeling that being underground might otherwise give.

What left him speechless even more than the beauty of the decorative enchantments, however, was the power that he could sense flowing through the walls. These projected murals weren’t just a result of some lucky piece of magical engineering that had managed to not decay with the rest of the facility, for if what Leon could sense was accurate, there was enough power flowing through the walls that he had to assume a significant portion of the rest of the facility was intact.

“Wow,” he whispered aloud. But he quickly shook himself out of his slight fugue and focused. He’d originally found the facility thanks to the pulsing magical signal that he’d noticed, and even though there was a lot more magical interference down here thanks to all the active enchantments, he could still feel the pulsing signal from not too far away.

[Our Clan’s engineering at its finest,] Nestor said in bragging admiration as Leon started hurrying down the corridor. [Look at all of this, Leon. Look at what we were able to build, and how long it’s lasted, even with substandard maintenance. We conquer because we’re strong, and a place like this, even if it’s not meant to be seen by the common folk, is an expression of that strength.]

[Yeah,] Leon replied, not really paying any attention. [If you don’t have anything useful to share, I’d prefer if you didn’t distract me by waxing poetically about our right to conquest. Do you have anything useful to share?]

[Understanding our power and the ways we expressed it is useful, you fool,] Nestor grumbled, but he didn’t say any more.

[I’d tentatively agree,] Xaphan said, surprising Leon enough that he paused as he carefully made his way down the corridor. [There’s a certain logic to building grandly whenever possible. Such a visible expression of power can do wonders for your reputation. It makes you look strong, and if you look strong, then people will follow you. Build grandly, and people will be cowed and impressed. They’ll do what you want them to do that much easier. I’ll not harp on too much about it, Leon, but know that whatever you build represents you. And me, by extension, so when you get around to building, make sure it’s worthy of us.]

[… I’ll keep that in mind,] Leon responded, taking the matter a little more to heart with his demonic partner weighing in. [Now, can I continue, or are you two going to lecture me some more?]

[You need a good lecturing or a thousand,] Nestor growled.

[Keep going,] Xaphan said. [Find whatever it is you’re looking for here, then leave. And burn that tree down before you go, I guarantee you that it’s the source of all the problems this forest has been facing.]

[I wonder…] Leon responded without elaborating as he continued down the corridor.

He didn’t have to go much farther before he found himself at an intersection. He had three other ways to go, and while he could see doors on either side of the branching hallways, he decided to go right, choosing to continue following the pulsing signal.

Leon continued down the hallways for a few more minutes, finding nothing new of note. However, out of curiosity, he poked his head into a few more rooms. For the most part, what he found was profoundly disappointing—a whole lot of nothing. At its most insulting, he found nothing but dust and darkness, but in two rooms he found more skull roots and had to burn them to ash. One room had even collapsed, and evidently the nearby river had found a way in. Leon had to use his water magic to prevent the entire research facility from being flooded before he was able to slam the door shut.

Still, he’d dreamed big when he envisioned what he might find within the research facility, and all of this nothing had him feeling fairly dejected. It seemed that all physical records of what had taken place here had been either taken around the time that his Clan left the plane, or had rotted away in the meantime. Even the lab equipment that he might’ve expected to find in the any of these rooms was nowhere to be found.

Finally, he approached the area where the pulsing had come from. It had taken surprisingly long given how close to it he’d started, with his point of ingress being at the extreme edge of one wing of the facility, and the pulsing coming from a parallel wing. But, eventually, he found the room that he was certain the pulsing was coming from.

The hallway leading up to it was smaller and far less decorated than the others, with Nestor telling Leon that he’d entered the maintenance section. There were no labs ahead, but at this point, Leon was hopeful that he could at least get a look at some of the lab’s remaining enchantments while he was there, and maybe he wouldn’t have put his people into grave danger for nothing. The maintenance section was more conventionally shaped than the rest of the facility and had none of the decorative enchantments lining the walls with murals or showing the sky on the ceiling. However, the doors were much more securely locked, which Leon found out when he attempted to enter the room that he could feel the pulsing coming from.

[I think I can get through this,] Leon said to Nestor, [but can you shed any light that might speed this up?]

[Why don’t you try to get through it first?] Nestor said challengingly.

Leon, barely able to contain his frustration and impatience, simply replied, [My people are still missing.]

He didn’t say any more, and he luckily didn’t need to, as after a moment of letting his words and tone sink in, Nestor guided him through the unlocking process. Leon had to remove a nearly invisible panel from the wall nearby, and from there it was a fairly simple matter of adjusting some enchantments to get the door open.

What awaited Leon on the other side of the door was a dark room, lit only by a number of glowing runes covering several control consoles.

[A control room?] Leon wondered ‘aloud’ as he walked in, but before Nestor or Xaphan could respond, a voice suddenly shouted from just to his right.

“Someone? Oh, my senses did not deceive! A rescuer has arrived!”

Leon spun on the spot, his sword appearing in his hand as his lightning raced through his body. However, when he laid his eyes on the thing that had made the voice, he paused and didn’t attack.

He stared down at another skeleton, its skull busted open by a thick root. The skeleton, like most others, was little more than dust aside from a few fragments and the skull itself, and the root had twisted and bent and thrust itself into the wall through another wall panel.

“Greetings!” the voice said again, and Leon saw the root vibrate slightly in time with the words.

The voice was friendly enough, though, so Leon relaxed a hair and asked aloud, “Hello?”

“Yes, greetings!” the voice repeated. “If it be no trouble, could you—oh, where are my manners? Apati is my name!”

Leon frowned as he took in the sight, not trusting any of this for a moment. However, to Nestor he asked, [What… What?]

[I don’t recall any ‘Apati’,] Nestor said, his tone judgmental. [Then again, I hardly kept track of anyone except the highest ranked of those stationed here. This place had a staff of thousands, including the slaves.]

[Uh huh,] Leon grunted. [Just skimming over the talking plant, are we?]

[It’s not entirely a talking plant,] Nestor admonished.

[Yes, human,] Xaphan added. [Concentrate your senses; you’ll notice that here’s a magic body encased within that thing.]

Leon did as suggested, and he did detect a presence around and within the root. It wasn’t much like anything he’d ever sensed before, but it felt to him like a mass of magic power was clinging to the root, growing into and within it just as the root seemed to have grown within and out of the skull.

“Has my form taken you aback?” Apati asked. “I understand, but I didn’t think that I was the only one…”

“Who are you?” Leon asked.

“My name has been given already…” Apati replied.

“Yes, but not who you are,” Leon shot back. “Your position and reason for being here, what were they?”

“I held the honor of being Chief Essential Technician here!” Apati declared.

“’Essential’?” Leon asked.

“Yes!” Apati replied.

More helpfully, Nestor explained, [Most technicians maintaining facilities like these aren’t ‘essential’ and can be replaced at any time for any reason. Those few who can’t be replaced so easily usually maintain and operate very specialized equipment, or are otherwise essential to the running of the facility.]

Leon hummed as he processed that information. “So,” he said to Apati, “you were one of the important staff members here?”

“Yes, I was!” Apati replied, the root vibrating a little more excitedly now. “This research facility couldn’t have continued if it weren’t for me!”

“That’s interesting…” Leon said, though he greatly doubted this. “What… what is all of this?” He gestured to the root, though a moment later felt a little foolish, for he could see no eyes on the root.

Apati, fortunately, seemed to understand what he was asking anyway.

“Things at this facility were fine until we heard about King Jason’s assault on the Grave Warden’s palace… some time ago. I don’t know how long, but it’s been quite some time. Most of the staff departed after the devastating results of that attack came back, taking just about everything they could that wasn’t nailed down. A skeleton crew was left to destroy everything else. I was in charge of that crew. Some of the experiments that were being conducted here breached containment, and this is the result. By the way, I don’t suppose you could tell me how long it’s been? Or… your name, maybe?”

Leon almost responded immediately, but then he took a moment to think it over. This was one of the facility’s original inhabitants, so he wondered if he shouldn’t alter his intended introduction a bit.

“I’m called Leon,” he said. “I’m a member of the Thunderbird Clan, and I’ve come to reclaim this facility for the Clan.”

As proof, he conjured a little bit of the Thunderbird’s power, letting it arc around his fingers.

“Oh, happy day!” Apati replied. “I’ve waited so long here for rescue that I’d lost all hope! Honestly, it’s been so long time has practically ceased to mean anything at all!

“Well, things were pretty bad,” Leon said a little awkwardly. “But better late than never, right?”

“Right you are, my Lord!”

Leon clamped down hard on his urge to correct the root-man. He could endure the form of address for now.

“So,” Leon said as he knelt down next to the root—though not too closely, and he made sure that his body’s defenses were up and prepared to resist anything that might at all that might try to harm him, “how much is left here that can be salvaged? Do you know? Can you even move as you are, or do you need some help?”

Apati replied, “I managed to attach my magic body to this cerebral root that killed me, but I can attempt to attach it to something else. The root might become hostile the moment I release control, however…”

“I can deal with it,” Leon said confidently as he prepared his fire scalpel. He’d cut the root to pieces before it could move as soon as Apati wasn’t connected to it anymore.

“I was a little more concerned with my being, my Lord,” Apati explained. “Your power and safety are clear, but I don’t want to be caught up in anything; I daresay that a stiff breeze would be the end of me right now! I need a vessel to attach to, or I’ll cease to be!”

[I wouldn’t trust him,] Nestor advised, [but it looks like if there’s anything at all to be found here, then this is our best chance to find it.]

[Agreed,] Xaphan added. [Just… don’t bring him in here. Keep him out there.]

[That’s the plan,] Leon said as he conjured a small emerald from his soul realm.

“Would this be sufficient?” he asked.

“Temporarily,” Apati replied a little cautiously, though Leon understood that. Nestor’s ruby had required some work done on it under the direction of the Thunderbird to properly contain the dead man, and this emerald was wholly unenchanted.

Leon explained with some embarrassment, “I’d prepare it better, but I’m in a bit of a hurry; my comrades were separated from me, and I need to find them.”

“No need for that, my Lord!” Apati replied. “It’ll do, then! Please, help me, and I’ll do everything within my power to aid you in your search for your comrades!”

Leon grimaced slightly, but Apati wasn’t a threat as he was. So, he laid the emerald on the floor and scooted it a bit closer to the root.

Apati didn’t wait for long, and, with Leon watching in fascination, carefully disentangled himself from the root and darted into the emerald, which began to glow with arcane light. The root began to writhe, and Leon waste no time in cutting it to pieces, then using his lightning on the remains.

“Now, then,” Apati said, his voice now coming from the emerald, “we have some work ahead of us, don’t we?”