Indra Lichenwind.

  30th light of Quintetas, 1492.

  ***

  "I'm so excited! I wonder how much everyone has changed! I bet their parties are, like, super crazy!"

  "Yeah." Mary chuckled wryly, gesturing around the woods to the few humans present. "Like ours."

  "Druids rarely form large parties," Scarlett chimed without delay. "He'll understand."

  "Is there any reason we have yet to depart?" I asked, looking around the forest.

  "We're waiting for someone." Came the simple reply. And so I waited. Soon after, however, two humans appeared as if from thin air. Rangers, by the looks of it, and they were searching for something; or someone.

  "This is the spot, yeah?" Asked a human woman with a husky, almost coarse voice and wild auburn hair.

  "Yeah, hold on." The other one said, sweeping her thick braid around as she took off her pack and began fumbling inside. "I wanna try something."

  Growing impatient, I looked over to Scarlett to inquire about their identity when the first one cautiously approached, taking a took a long look at Mary before speaking softly. "Hello, little doe. Have you seen my friend?"

  It was then that the little moth fluttered from my beak to land on the human's brow. "Hi Toni!" she chittered, though I doubted the ranger could understand her as easily as I.

  "S- Scarlett?" The girl with the bag asked, clearly bemused by both the sudden appearance and her companion's raucous laughter. "You know, when we said we wanted to travel together, this isn't what we had in mind." She pouted.

  "Not to worry," I chirped, casually morphing from a songbird to a giant eagle. In turn, Mary turned into a small monkey and grasped onto my back while Scarlett clung to her fur. Much to my surprise, though, the rangers took flight on their own power. And at great speed.

  High above the clouds, they met with more of their kind. Thousands of them, from what I could see, all led by other classmates of theirs, from virtually every country in the peninsula.

  "Come on!" The small monkey on my back hopped in frustration, pointing to a few streaks in my peripherals. "We're falling behind!" Speeding up, I cleared the borders of Ligin and looked below to see strange contraptions, as well as things that could only have been described as elven technology. Wagon-like constructs that flew on columns of fire, or... things filled to the brim with arcane energy.

  We passed deeper into Vruria soon after, and a streak of lightning bolted up to the sky to take point in front of us, dancing from cloud to cloud like an erratic storm giant. A little way more, and columns of dust could be seen far below, appearing like great migrations or stampedes flowing out of Mazi. And several more of those things could be seen in both Nevstan and Bakewia, converging toward the same point beyond my beak: Shujen.

  Unease crept up my spine when the region loomed into sight. How different it was... the feelings it invoked were indescribable. Foreign or exotic, and yet not as offensively unnatural as it would seem. Every plant seemed to be charred black, as if a great wildfire had swept through the region. Yet grasses and brush were seen clearly beneath the carpets of thick smoke; perhaps from some unknown effect or the virulent flowers themselves, glowing with arcane and often holy energy.

  As we grew closer, I recognized the peculiar vibrancy of the flora. Only after did I notice the stench of death that followed. Yet it poured not from the deep chasm found where Nydorden Halls used to be. It came from that holy blizzard roiling around that sphere far above.

  There were many people standing beneath that whirlwind of snow; and a few- my brother and his cohort- standing beyond. Many students of the Bodhi Tree and what seemed to be thousands more who were not; all mingling around the shores of Shujen Bay, near a much different looking Champion and what could have only been his party.

  Scarlett and Mary rushed to them at once. The former to Amun and the latter to a slender human with shoulder length locks, sitting in a floating chair. Edward Pascal, his name was. A Grandmaster Artificer.

  'Curious.' I noted their embrace. Then turned toward my brother just as Amun approached, gesturing to his party.

  "Blude." He pointed over to a Gerdian wearing a fine suit and an elaborate headdress, who introduced her companions as Redd and Sam; both dressed similarly, albeit with different colored tunics beneath. A human boy with red and white hair and a metal or bone arm was introduced next; Wilson Koorb. The name rang a bell, but I could not ponder it before I was introduced to a halfling with black veins sprawled beneath her tanned skin, Rickley Ravenbrook; and then to a curiously tall goblin in fine clothes, Leary, the faithful. And then…

  "Reina Featherfall!" I rushed forward, spurred forth by all things relief, worry, and bemusement.

  "Oh!" She turned, smiling awkwardly. "Hello, Lady Indra. It's... been a while. G- good to see you again."

  "Good to see-" I stammered. "Last I heard, you all died! I-"

  A proverbial slap ended my words before they could be finished, sealing my mouth in favor of my eyes and ears, throwing apologetic waves in protest of the crowd's deafening silence and the embarrassment it brought me. Not because of their stares, but how they turned back to their business without a care.

  "Well, I was exiled and then murdered." She corrected with an eerie cheeriness. "By my parents! But before that," she then gestured to Amun and the few others who remained. "I made a pact."

  "So then." I turned to Amun. "The Feathered Grove's curse was your doing?"

  "The Duskwoods Reina spread before she left are not cursed." I heard a voice from above and gazed to see a familiar and different set of faces drifting down from the heavens like celestials.

  "Death, toxicity, and pestilence are nutrients to the Duskwoods. They purify tainted lands before dying, becoming nutrients so nature may reclaim those lands. The Blighted Woods are cursed no more. The Feathered Grove was never cursed."

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  "Olga!" I gasped, rushing forward to meet her. She looked the same, of course, but much younger and with a golden tint to her red hair. She had black- almost purple freckles dotting her cheeks and nose, and the same golden radiance found in one of Amun's eyes could be seen in hers.

  The students, and even the ones who weren't students, began greeting her in a way that implied they'd seen her more recently than I have. And the same went for Doyle, floating beside her. His skin was pale, almost like a vampire's, the silver hair indicative of all Nimbuans was tinted with that pale blue light, and his eyes had the same bestial glint like the wolves Amun kept at his sides.

  "I cannot refute your words, I suppose." I sighed, meeting Olga's eyes. "Indeed, those… Duskwoods are no more. Life has already begun anew in the region. It makes me hopeful about your arrival in Redagh."

  "Yes, yes." Amun sighed impatiently, waving the matter aside. "Now, if we're done waffling, we've got a schedule to keep."

  "All of you cannot go to the Tree." I stepped in. "Only the graduates."

  "Oh, you misunderstand, Indra." Amun chortled boyishly. "We're here on behalf of the Legio Noctis. I was invited by Zorrenor to join the Optimus Regni for the festivities. As a guest."

  "To be a guild master, you must have a deeply rooted divine tree and have a functioning core annex constructed." I turned to Corym, wh. "Has he-"

  "He has not yet learned anything from us."

  <<"Indeed!">> A pompous voice suddenly echoed our mother tongue from the whirling blizzard, inflected with the same tones and accent as our peer. <<"He learned it from us!">>

  We all turned to see two drow appearing from the fog. Both held similar features to Abbot Eiriol, yet only one was dressed as a monk. And next to them was a… limbless body, wearing a blue tunic. The bemusement such a sight yielded was cut short by Thalion, my very nephew, dancing in my peripherals. I turned to see the familiar act of him dipping low, casting and knocking and arrow, then diving to the side as his arcane arrow soared at blinding speed, morphing into the likeness of a striking snake with little mercy or hesitation. An unruly display, to say the least, but one easily deflected by the monastic drow, shattering the spell with hardly a motion, only a flare of his strange, grayish purple ki.

  "Careful. That's my cousin you're attacking." Amun grimly stated. "Wouldn't want that to be strike three."

  "You consider all drow your family?" Corym sneered, his brow furrowed with the utmost indignation.

  "Only those of House Za'Darmondiel." Amun shrugged, throwing a dubious smile at my brother. "So, in a way, yes. I do."

  "Y- you are of that house?" I gasped in disbelief.

  "Confirmed from Lilith's own mandibles." He nodded as another figure loomed from the fog. "Well." He then shrugged. "Her avatar's mandibles. Etyl Za'Darmondiel is my aunt. My mother's baby sister. Or, to put it another way…"

  "Telin's Champion, Amun Za'Darmondiel-Nox, is my great-grandson." Declared Abbot Eiriol with levels of pride that were outright uncanny for a monk. "One of many."

  "Yeah..." The brooding knight of lightning, Toril, the Storm Thief, squinted hard. "I did think the likeness was similar. Huh, crazy." He turned back to his steed, chuckling in disbelief. A steed that stole the eyes of everyone present. Except Corym's, strangely.

  "You met the Queen Demon Spider's avatar?" He gasped this time.

  "I voided the Queen Demon Spider's avatar." Amun corrected him in the most casual tone. "Now, she's scheming to come after everyone and everything I hold dear. I suppose Caelarin can relate to his dear sister in that regard."

  Corym's face upturned in a way I hadn't seen in centuries as he stepped forth, spitting like a child. "And for good reason! Unicorn Slayer!"

  "Not so, brother." I said, and pressed on before he could continue. "The unicorn, Carbury, is friends dearly with Scarlett and Mary. Undead shadow or not, he spoke the truth to me. It was Scarlett, whom Carbury first spoke to, demanding to see the leader of her group, Amun. He lowered his horn to Amun and tried to run him through. There was no malice in taking his life. Only self-defense."

  "Yet the life of a unicorn was taken all the same!"

  "Look at that creature, brother!" I pointed beyond the knight, to the griffon of vibrant blue feathers greedily chewing on horse meat, charred brown from the discharge of its lightning. That is a creature born from a God of Nature! And so too are they!" I pointed to the many wolves surrounding him and the owls perched on his shoulder. And then to the druid girl standing beside her artificer of interest. "Her Druidic power comes not from Caelarin, brother, nor the Marulean or Betrathian Gods, it comes from Him." I pointed at the champion. To draw your blade against him is to threaten the extinction of this new life spreading across the realms."

  "I have nothing against Caelarin." Amun said flatly. "The Rharian Kingdom, however, is a different story, considering the son of your regent killed one of my citizens. Ranren was killed soon after, however. Thus, if it is your wish, we can bury the hatchet here. As it stands, I have no intention of fighting or making enemies when I come to visit you, Corym. My only aim is to learn what you have to teach me and be gone."

  "That is not up for you to decide." Corym sneered, and I couldn't help but notice the countless visages sneering at him in kind. Every visage, it seemed. Except one.

  "Regardless." Amun sighed, turning to me with rolling eyes. "I'll be coming to visit you soon, Indra. I'm eager to see what the Faewoods has to offer."

  "And I'm sure They are eager to meet you as well." I shuddered at the thought, then assumed my giant bird form before he could question me. And though question me he still could, he took the hint and turned away from us, remaining behind with his followers while we took flight. Much to Corym's delight.

  I kept my eyes trained back while we departed and swore I saw many- most of them disappear. Yet the clouds seemed persistent in keeping such things from sight, so I flew higher. Only for Abbot Eiriol to ascend next to me, rightly assuming we had questions. And so we asked. And so she told of what transpired in Nydorden Halls and the drow city below. Of how Amun left halfway through his monastic training to form his Troupe and how the one called Etan was birthed to be his teacher, and thus he went with him as a member of his troupe. She told us of how Lilith and her high priestesses attempted to ally the Champion with the Demon Spider. Of how they interrogated and tried to transform Etan, Amun's Champion, into an cursed abomination. She told us of the great battle between a dragon, devils, celestials, and drow that saw Zimysta's destruction. Of how every drow in Zimysta was forsaken by the Spider, only to be accepted by the Elven Devil, becoming his faithful followers, his dedicated legionaries, and the free drow of his empire.

  Then she told us of the most important thing of all - a warning.

  "Before voiding her avatar, he cursed the Queen Demon Spider."

  "Not even he is capable of such things." Corym spat.

  "You should know better, Corym. After all, you witnessed it, just as Indra and I had. You saw how Amun, my great-grandson, spoke to the Emperor of Polaris like one would a child before his ascension. You should know mortals and the stations they created for themselves matters little to him, for you have witnessed it. Thus, you should know that such indifference now applies to the Gods themselves. More importantly, you should know, our title, Elg-Horr, was not apt. He is no mere destroyer. If anyone or anything threatens Amun himself, he will have his fun. He will tease. He will fight. He will play with his prey until he gets bored. And then his devils will you torture your soul until they get bored. However." Her tone grew deeper. "If anyone or anything threatens those he holds dear, killing- destroying their very reality would be the most preferable outcome. So too is that the least likely outcome, however, because Amun will change every aspect of their reality; ripping, flipping, tearing it asunder, inside and out. And only then will they be allowed to die.

  "But only in death does their true punishment begin. Amun Za'Darmondiel-Nox speaks the language of Archdevils, Deep Abyssal, and he speaks it with Zefroth's tongue. So yes." She turned her gilded violet eyes to Corym and nodded grimly. "He can."

  Punctuating her words, she took a final look back to the former Shujen Kingdom, now conquered by forces of death and darkness that reached from the skies to the Darkworld, then turned her radiant eyes back to me. "Make sure you tell that to the Faerie Courts. Not even they are safe from the power of change. Nor are Caelarin and Faenya. Much less you."