Bjorn.

  "Kaida, why are you here?" I asked her. I have very clear memories of Kaida living a long life and dying a good death. How is she standing before me now in the flesh?

  She smiled and held out her hand, as I took it she said, "Magic!" She laughed. I nodded and laughed with her.

  "I am not who I used to be. I have memories, but I am a mortal man now." I told her.

  "Of course you are. But, Bjorn you know what has come, right?" She asked me.

  "Coming, you mean." Cal said behind me.

  I turned around realizing I had forgotten about the others. Kaida shook her head. "The time of waiting is no longer." Kaida said sadly. "Bjorn, I am only here for one thing, to give you and your sister..." She said the word sister with a small amount of disgust " To give you both the power you will need for that. Great magic requires sacrifice." She sounds proud, yet sad at the same time. She pressed her hand on my chest, "However, you need to see something first..."

  She motioned to the others to come forward, "Sit, sit because this will take some time. You are safe here." She slowly say and crossed her legs, staying inside the circle. "Oh hell, I wish they would have at least given me a younger body to live in while I wait for my death, again." She winked at Pepper who wanted so badly to help Kaida sit. Kaida kept motioning for her to go away. "I knew a Dryadalis quiet well once."

  "Oh? What was his name?" Sullevan asked.

  "Hello, you are quiet the old Dryad aren't you? Beautiful forever I suppose." She smiled at Sullevan and paused.

  "Kaida?" I asked,

  "Come on then, I told you its been a long time, I can enjoy the spoils of your arrival!" She winked at Sullevan which made him smile. Pepper was covering her mouth stifling a laugh beside me.

  "So Kaida is it? Who are you?" Cal asked her.

  "A dear friend from another time." I said happily. "She can be trusted."

  "There's no time for familiarities. Bjorn, ?deleggeren's influence is heavy here. One of your own walks among you unknown, and he has been helped by one close to Ota. He knows it, do not be concerned." She assured me seeing the worry stretch across my face. "I had expected Amaia to be here with you today, however. Ota will deal with his end, but it leaves his ranks short in the fight to keep ?deleggeren and the Ud?de away." She reached for my hand, I gave it to her and she squeezed it. "I am sorry you have been reminded of your past." She said to me. She knew I was torn about it all. How I really felt. The look in her face said so. I nodded and said nothing.

  Pepper gave my arm a squeeze after and whispered, "Bendithion gyda chariad." I didn't understand her so I just smiled.

  Kaida pulled a pouch off of her hip and started to empty the contents into her lap. "We are going to take a little journey." She smiled. Sage, dogwood, a small purple mushroom, a handful of some kind of grass, a few seeds.

  "Visio?" Sullevan and Cal asked together.

  Kaida grinned, "I am impressed! Good to know magic hasn't gone to downwards after all this time." She was preparing the herbs, along with the leg of some winged creature, wrapping it with a leather rope. "This is going to affect everyone in this room. " Without giving anyone any chance to object she tossed the package into the fire with a smile. "Ready?"

  Pepper coughed as the smoked filled the room, "Did we have a choice?"

  Between the chuckling and coughing no one noticed the room changing. A meadow of golden wheat, a young girl wearing a plain white dress, five or six years of age was dancing in the sun singing to herself. Standing just in front of us was a woman with a red cloth tied over her eyes. Her straight long black hair blended in with her black dress. She was pointing to the child silently. I walked over to her and stood by her side.

  "Who is she?" I asked her.

  "She is the only one of her kind." The woman's voice was rough and quiet.

  Sullevan and Pepper came closer, Cal was hanging back with Kaida waiting for her to take his arm. She did and they both slowly started walking towards the child.

  "What is she?" I asked the woman in black.

  "A child that knows nothing of why she was created." She told us.

  "Is she Ud?de?" Sullevan asked the woman. He was watching her dance, listening to her words.

  "Half of her, yes. The other part is Verge." She turned her face towards me.

  "Verge? But how?" I couldn't understand how it could be possibly. Verge was the race of the gods. The guardians of Nef.

  "?deleggeren." Whispered Kaida.

  The woman in black placed her hand on my cheek, "She is Ragnar?k."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "A child?" I heard Pepper asked sadly. "The child is the end of the world?"

  "She is called Kora. She knows nothing of what she is meant to do, Aadi." She started to walk towards the girl each step fading a little each step, "She needs you now." The woman was completely gone before I could ask more questions so I turned to Kaida.

  "Kaida? What am I supposed to do?" I asked her.

  Holding onto the Cal's arm she to was fading slowly. "I was only here to bring you to the fate. To hide you. You must find that child, she is the one that ?deleggeren will use to destroy this realm, Nef. And all others after that. Amaia and you, you have the power to stop ?deleggeren, but that girl has the power to change the world. Not just for the Awakened, for the Dryads and the bloody normies as well." She smiled and stepped to me, taking my hand.

  "I do miss our dinners and conversations." She smiled and leaned up kissing my cheek, fading as she did. Gone back to where she was meant to be.

  The field slowly changed back to the damp, dark cave only lit by the fire. The circle Kaida stood in was now empty. "Kora." I heard Pepper whisper. "Why do I know this name Sullevan?" She turned to him confused.

  "Because Kora was the name of the first Eladry." Sullevan said.

  "Could they be connected?" Cal asked.

  "I can not see how, unless she is Dryadalis herself in anyway. The Fate said she was Verge and Ud?de. She is a god. A new kind of god. What would connect her to the Dryadalis?" Sullevan said.

  "The Eladry were born of Terra's magic. Essentially making them the children of Terra. The Dryadalis born from the Eladry." I thought out loud. "The girl is the daughter of Terra."

  "Terra? She would never." Pepper objected.

  "Not by choice." Cal said. Sullevan nodded his head in agreement. "What if ?deleggeren made it happen?" He said. "What if the great mother was forced, or tricked in some way?" He was whispering to himself. "This would explain much. Why the mountain of Nef is where ?deleggeren chose. My god, he's been here with Terra the entire time." He shook his head.

  "Sullevan?" Pepper spoke sadly. "Has Terra betrayed us?"

  "Never!" Sullevan said angrily, and started to make his way out of the tomb. "Never..."

  "Du der, drep den ormen!" A Ud?de guard order another. The guard shoved a sword into the chest of a sickly looking dryad man in chains. "Please, please no!" The man begged as he died.

  Terra shook her head sadly as she watched another one of her people slaughtered. The chains around her neck, wrists and legs had cut into her beautiful green hued skin, her golden blood crusted around them. The chains themselves made from the metal of Nef and enchanted with magics only the Ud?de used were enough to keep her from using her own powers and leaving her jail. Her child, her daughter she has never held, stolen from her by ?deleggeren, after forcing her to become pregnant with his seed, and birthing the girl alone. She knew ?deleggeren needed her. He needed the child to do what he could not. To destroy the Verge. Her kind. The only ones who have ever stopped the Ud?de. It was Terra and Ota who created Amaia and Aadi, creating the power to destroy the Ud?de for good. At least they thought they had destroyed the Ud?de. Shut away in their realm they became strong again. Sought out their revenger against the realm of Nef. Against the Verge. The gods.

  "Terra, Terra, Terra." ?deleggeren stepped out from a shadow. "Your kind is always making trouble for me. Why?" He asked laughing. "Why can't you all just die?" He was dragging the body of a woman Terra thought she recognized. The woman's hair was long and blond, soaked with blood. He tossed her body effortlessly in front of Terra.

  "Sage." She said sadly. "I'm sorry." Sage was another god, the wife of Gorn. Gorn would be enraged by her death, something Terra bet ?deleggeren was counting on.

  "You are sorry? Why? Things are going so well for me. For our daughter." He kneeled in front of Terra. "Don't you want to ask me where she is? When will you see her?" He asked amused. "Not today? Hum. I supposed you are learning."

  He was never going to let Terra see her. He had no intentions of it.

  "Does our daughter even know I am alive?" Terra asked ?deleggeren.

  "No, but then I did tell her you were dead." He laughed.

  Terra shook her head, tears falling from her eyes. "She is apart of me ?deleggeren, there is good in her. Her power also comes from me. From Nef."

  ?deleggeren let out an enraged yell. "Her power comes from Nef." he said in a mocking tone. "Her power comes from me! Comes from what I teach her!" He slapped Terra's face. "Nef will be destroyed soon enough. Destroyed and forgotten!"

  He turned and walked away from Terra disappearing back into the shadows.

  Terra curled against the stone wall. She wasn't sure where she was being held. She felt alone and worried for her child. Did Ota not notice her absence? Did no one notice? Have the Dryadalis given up on her? She questioned and doubted these things thousands of times over her captivity. Why has no one come for her? She heard a fate sound like wind blowing in front of her. She looked up to see a fate standing there.

  "They are coming." The fate said to Terra. "Do not give up, Terra." In the same second she appeared the Fate was gone.

  "It's been so long, is it to late?" She questioned herself out loud.