Tad put her down smiling, then looked around as he heard a grunt of pain from Lamruil, who was slowly climbing down from the branch he had been positioned on.

"Kid, I'm going to need a hand down here, " projected Jack.

Tad walked over to the pathway's edge and looked over the balustrade railing. Below was Jack standing in knee-deep water near the wall. He was covered with smeared blood along his right flank and looked up at Tad.

"Jack, You can't swim?" projected Tad back.

"No, I can't swim," said Jack with annoyance in his projection.

Tad nodded, "Along the wall behind you towards the cathedral is a stairwell leading up. I'll have the constructs remove the stones placed there to open it for you. " He sent a command for two of the constructs to move the rocks on the stairwell leading up from the water's edge. The remaining four he ordered back to the city to patrol again.

Tad moved away from the edge to where Lamruil was holding his arm. The skin on his hand and forearm were dark from burns, and there were cracks along the edge with blood slowly seeping from them. Zanna was already there casting a healing spell on his arm. One Tad didn't recognize. How was she casting healing spells?

"What happened to your arm?" asked Tad as he came closer.

"One of the arrows disintegrated when it failed to hold the magic from the bow. I almost fell off the branch when it happened. I couldn't shoot for a few minutes there if you didn't notice, " said Lamruil. Tad watched the burn scab up, and the damage mend itself. Lamruil flexed his fingers a few times as the healing took hold.

"I did notice you were taking your time. I figured you were taking another long elvin nap," said Tad ribbing his friend.

"I would have preferred a nap. What in the hells was that thing? It was huge," asked Lamruil.

Nico had come up to the group and was listening.

"That I think it was a devourer. We will have to ask Maximilianus or someone from the Library to know for sure. The same one trapped me in the demon fortress, " said Tad.

Zanna had been listening and holding her hand against the Fey Tree roots. She looked up when Tad named the creature. She stared at him. She hadn't spoken other than to shout at the void creature. "It is the harbinger of dark forces," she said.

"Have you seen one of those before? " asked Tad.

Zanna got an odd look as she lifted her hand off the Fey Tree root and straightened. "I saw one lead a force of dark elves from the dark pathways and other creatures against the Averraen in their Primal Tree cities. There is some deep magic here, Tad. I must commune with Gweleth. " Then Zanna turned and walked up the steps back into the temple.

Lamruil raised an eyebrow at Jack, curious at the changes to Zanna. "Commune with Gweleth? "

"She is the new high priest of the goddess. Something must have happened while she was in the Cocoon in the temple." Tad looked up and didn't see the goddess above the valley. The magic shield looked again like a pale blue shimmering in the sky above.

Tad took a deep breath. He probably should be communing with his goddess as well.

"Tad, have you seen Scekan? He isn't sleeping. His eyes are open, " said Nico looking at the God of Monkeys. He still looked like a huge gorilla with orange-tinged fur.

Tad saw the god's eyes staring up at the limbs of the tree above, not moving. Tad walked over and reached to place his hand on the god's hairy arm.

Gweleth spoke in his mind loudly, "Do not touch him. " Tad drew back his hand.

"What's wrong with him? " asked Tad of his goddess's presence in his mind.

"The void creature did something to him. I did not know this was possible, he is still there, but there is magic I've not seen before binding him still. I do not know what will happen if you touch him, " said Gweleth. A glow slowly started to form around Scekan. It grew brighter and brighter till Tad had to turn away from the light then it faded. Scekan was gone when Tad looked back.

"I have taken him back to his own realm in the fey planes. He will be safe there. This bodes ill, Thaddius. " her voice changed, then sounding regal and commanding, "Thaddius Rockgrip, my champion, I charge you with finding what this magic is and from where it came. I will assist you in this task, but I believe Scekan is not the first god to have fallen into this magic. We must find Samphire and the cause of this, " said Gweleth. She didn't wait for Tad to respond before leaving his mind.

There was a tightening around Tad's chest and soul when she spoke those words of command. He had no doubt he would follow her command to search out this magic's source as he turned back to his friends. They stared at the now empty spot where Scekan once lay.

"Let's go help Jack up the stairs. We need a plan. That was another trap set for whoever came for Samphire, and they were not expecting us. " Tad frowned at the Gate of Stars. He walked toward the stairwell where the constructs were moving the boulders blocking the way up from the lake.

Kettle chimed in, "Tad, you have another quest. "

Tad just nodded.

***

The three men were sitting around the cook fire on the benches from the tables, talking. Naula and Terri fawned over Lamruil's now healed arm as if it was still hurt.

Tad shook his head while Nico rolled his eyes. He was certain Lamruil was talking to the elvin women in his soulscape.

"Well, we learned something today, " said Tad pausing, "Magic gateways go both ways. We will have to be much more careful with the Gate of Stars. "

Kettle projected to Tad, "You need to stop reacting and plan. You've been running around like your on fire. Stop it. What did you think would happen if you messed with powers that could hold a foci god? Did you think it would be so simple? "

Tad thought about that. Kettle sounded different. Then he projected his soulspace. He was standing in the middle of his soulspace cathedral. He cast a spell and willed his mind to view his soul. He had done this when Zanna had been more demonic, weakening to her succubus side. This time he pointed it at himself. He saw his soul. It was large, not a blob, more like a large stone the size of the quartermaster's wagon. It was yellow, and around his soul were thin chains of the family curse Jack had told him about. He could see the ends extending off into the distance of his space, and he could feel them pulling him ever so slightly. He thought he heard a voice for a moment when he concentrated on the curse. A deep, menacing voice was calling him. Tad broke away from viewing the curse. He wasn't ready to take on this test. As he stood there, he wondered if his reaction to all of this was somehow linked to this curse? Was it causing him to act rashly? He knew it was there. Was there still some other magic on him from Samphire? He was fairly certain this curse was manipulating him somehow after hearing the voice.

Kettle's avatar appeared next to Tad as he viewed his soul. Kettle was taller, and well less Kettle like not as round. He had definitely changed somehow.

"Kettle, I think this curse is making me do things I wouldn't normally do. You pointed out something obvious that, for some reason, I should have known and kept in mind about Samphire and the powers that hold him," said Tad.

Kettle walked around Tad's image of his soul. The rock was several feet taller than Tad in this soulscape. Kette stopped when he got to the curse and its link going off into the distance. It looked like a thin chain to Tad, and he wondered if Kettle saw it the same way.

"It is possible. I'll try to warn you the next time I think it influences your judgment, " said Kettle.

Tad looked at Kettle, "You look bigger. You've changed. "

"I have. I found two working sub-minds that are compatible with mine. I can now put more effort into deciphering these archives in the World Egg and do more complex things. You should come to look, " said Kettle.

"Give me a few minutes, " said Tad as he looked over at Zanna, kneeling at the stone altar at the end of the cathedral. He watched as she stood slowly from his point of view and walked through the wagons over to the cook fire.

She picked up some of the mushroom cakes and came over to sit near them.

Tad waited, but she didn't speak. She ate while looking back at the three men and two elvin women. All of them were looking at her. She sat as if the extra attention wasn't bothering her.

Tad left his soulmancy space, raised his eyebrows, and spoke first, "Well?"

Zanna looked back, "What?"

"And? Where did all that healing magic come from? What happened? " His brow furrowed at her lack of awareness that they were waiting for her story.

It took a few moments, "I was away, " said Zanna.

Tad used his soulmancy on Zanna. She was different, before, her demon half felt like a bee about to sting him like most demons. Now she felt less so to his soulmancy, and there was more presence there.

"Zanna do you mind if I look at your soul? " asked Tad.

She nodded affirmation, and Tad moved to his soulspace and cast the magic needed to examine Zanna's soul. He was interrupted just as he finished when Zanna appeared in his soulspace. She looked around and up at the ceiling, then back at the windows.

"So this is what it looks like? " asked Zanna.

"Zanna? How, what? Where did you learn to do this? " asked Tad.

"On my trip. It was quite interesting once I got used to it. I learned a great deal. It took a few months before I realized what must have happened. Once I did, I was more attentive to Esta's schooling and other magics she was learning, " said Zanna as she walked over to the window with the now taller Nightmare ponies depicted in the glass.

"So you learned soulmancy? How? You were in the temple for only a few days. Not months," said Tad.

"I do not know. Gweleth said she was tasked to save me, and she did what she thought would be best. She sent me somewhere to learn to be something other than a child of a demoness, " said Zanna as she tapped on the glass.

"How much soulmancy did you learn? " asked Tad.

"Oh, not much I expect compared to you, but enough to talk to others if I need to. I run out of energia very quickly, though. I felt you directing magic at me and decided to see if I could reach you through it, and I appeared here. " said Zanna.

"Hmmmm.. well, you can come along then. I'm going to recast this so we can see what's going on with your soul now and how far the chaos has gone," said Tad as he continued with this spell taking both of them forward to where Zanna's soul existed inside her body.

Tad was more than a little shocked, whereas before, there was a soul blob with chains of chaos ripping and pulling it. Now was a large soul pulsing with life mana and the chains of chaos were nowhere to be seen. Tad looked around. He could see the chaos outside the area where the soul resided, but it no longer controlled or strapped Zanna's soul down. And her soul had grown into what he thought was starting to look like a tree. He tried, but he could sense no chaos mana in her soul.

Tad hmmmmmmed some more as he looked at it, walking around it.

"What's wrong? " asked Zanna with concern in her voice.

"As far as I can tell, nothing. Everything that was wrong has," he paused for a moment, " changed. We should talk to Jack about this. " said Tad.

Tad heard a strange female voice in his soulspace speaking an archaic version of elvish, "See Zanna, I told you there was nothing to worry about. "

Tad jumped at the new voice, looked around, and summoned the soulmancy version of Galadinidú into his hand. He looked around more, trying to find the voice's origin.

The voice spoke again, "I like him. Very brooding and easy to spook."

"Who is that voice?" said Tad looking around.

Zanna smiled, "That is Esta." Then she tapped her head just below the small horn at her hairline, "I think she is in here. Oh, and in the Fey Tree too. Gweleth said she owed Esta a favor for a kindness unasked for, Esta is your new tree spirit. "

Tad's stance eased a bit, "Esta? Why is she speaking like that?" The image of Zanna's soul left when Tad let the spell elapse. They were standing in his soulspace again.

"I asked Gweleth what happened to me. She explained it. I think she sent me back in time, at least my conscious, not me. I was always here. She said she needed to fix me. She also said I shouldn't be angry at you. I'm not sure why she said that. Did you do something I should be angry about? " asked Zanna.

Tad gave a half-smile, "I don't think so. Well, I hope not. Back in time? I didn't know that was possible. I have a lot to learn about magic and goddesses. Esta is from this other time? " asked Tad.

"Yes, well no, I think she died when she released the spirit from her Primal Tree. It was their home. Esta is a type of elf I'd never seen before Gweleth sent me back. Averraen is what they are called. They are elves with wings, and they lived high up in the tree city, protected by their tree spirit. Except this was the last one, and the void creature similar to the one we fought today destroyed all those cities. " Zanna got quieter while she spoke about this, and Tad saw tears in her eyes as they moistened retelling the story. She continued for a few minutes talking about the war and how the primal trees each fell one by one to the forces of darkness.

Zanna looked up at Tad, moisture in her eyes, "Tad, I'd like to go back there. Really go back there. I need to see if any of them survived. Also, Gweleth asked me to find the seeds if any still existed. Primal Tree seeds. Tad, I think she was the tree spirit Esta released, " She took a deep breath.

"Of course, I'll go. I need to help Jack first, and there is this undead valley problem too, but of course, we will go there," said Tad stepping forward to give Zanna a hug.

She pulled away, smiling weakly. Tad had a brief look of surprise on his face.

Esta's voice spoke again, "I'd like to come too!"

Tad wasn't sure how a tree could travel, "If possible, we will try. Zanna, can you will yourself out of my soulscape, please. It can be an unpleasant experience if you are here when I close it. "

She nodded and disappeared. They were both by the fire still. Lamruil had left with Terri and Nuala. He could see them talking over by Jack's wagon. Nico was nowhere to be seen. They must have gotten tired of waiting for him to exit his soulspace and pay attention.

Tad looked out and could see the sun was already going down over the edge of the valley. The people who had been working on their new homes in the city were starting to trickle in for dinner.

"Zanna, I need to go see Kettle. Can we talk more after dinner? " asked Tad.

She nodded and stood, walking towards the stairs to the lower temple.

Tad went to the World Egg and up the stairs. He stopped at the entrance. He heard talking inside.

One voice was high pitched, "I don't' understand the way you say you do more work around here than I do. Of course, I do more work. You are constantly messing things up. "

Another voice lower with a slight rumble with its R's spoke, "That's preposterous, I do most of the work. You are just trying to take credit for my success. Why can't you just go dry up somewhere? Kettle can you tell him I do most of the work."

Tad stepped into the World Egg and stopped, a bit shocked by what he saw. Sitting on the edge of the small stool attached to the floor were two small automatrons. Well, he thought they were automatrons. They were made of Bismuth metal. They looked familiar somehow, they both had small miner hats with candles going attached to a reflective metal front plate, and they wore metallic workmen's clothes. They each had a small metal tube slung over their back. Tad thought the tool on their back looked like a larger automatron finger, hollow at the tip.

"Kettle, who are these.. wait a second. They look like those characters from my old book. Are those the Bicker Brothers? " asked Tad.

Kettle projected back with a cheery voice, "Great, I'm glad you recognized them. I was worried you had forgotten!"

"What are they doing here, and wait, what are they? " Tad looked at the two diminutive creatures. They could be two feet tall at most. He remembered reading that child's book long ago while Kettle held it for him and Bubbles gave him light to read by, The Bicker Brothers was one of his favorites.

"Well, I found a lot of lesser minds that I couldn't use for myself directly, but I managed to make smaller versions like this that I can kind of control. They aren't smart. Well, they can be smart. They just are more like those constructs you command. Well, they are not really like that either. I control them, but they can be given instructions to do things without me having to move their arms or bodies. These two are going to use the melder fingers I took of the automatrons that built most of that sand platform up on the cliff, " said Kettle.

"What? Can you make more sand platforms? Like that half-finished building up there? " asked Tad.

"Yes, well, no, the sand is starting to become loam or dirt or something. No, they are going to clear those sewer and water pipes Herman told us about. If we can do that, then we can supply water directly to the fountains in the city. They are going to remove the sand and debris and repair the ceramic piping. Those tubes on their back are melders. They can add and remove material, specifically rock, sand, gravel, and stuff like that. It can't affect harder things like iron or living things. They can also help rebuild the fountains, I think. I'll have them try tomorrow. I'm still experimenting with how much energia they can absorb and how much work they can do. Luckily mana here is really plentiful. I've been reading some of the scientific knowledge in the World Egg archives in here. I don't think any of that stuff will work anymore, but the structures might. We will see. I'm going to make a few more of them to see how many I can control at once and give direction to while they work, " said Kettle.

"I thought you were just making yourself a body? How is that going? " asked Tad. He really wanted to see his friend out of this artifact for a while. He sounded a little crazy.

Kettle's voice got a serious tone to it. "I did. I can see and interact with things through the minotrons. I don't think I can ever leave here again, Tad. SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ME." There was silence for a few moments. "It happened when I attached to the artifact and closed off that door, leaving my body. If I try to extract myself now, I might cease to exist. " Kettle sounded rattled. He had shouted in Tad's mind.

Tad thought about that as frown lines creased his forehead, "You mean you are stuck in here!? " Tad sighed, then took a deep breath. He continued speaking, trying to encourage his friend, "We will make do, work with the minotrons. Are you calling them minotrons? Anyway, keep trying. Perhaps once you get more familiar with making those, you can find a solution. If we have to, we can ask Orion."

Tad went into his soulscape and reached out to Kettle. "Can you close the door, please? I know Jack said this was a stronger version of my soulscape, but let's be careful. " He was thinking about the trap he had walked into a few hours ago. He was lucky they were all still alive. And at no point did he think it wasn't luck. If Zanna hadn't shown up, they were going to be wrecked by that Void Devourer.

The entrance shut, and Kettle appeared in his soulscape.

"Ok, tell me what changed in my book, " said Tad.

***