Path of Dragons

Elijah stood in front of the tree, unsure about his plan. In his head, it all made sense, but now that he was looking at the thing, he doubted it. Not the viability of the intended product – he felt certain he could do something worthwhile – but rather, his doubts centered on whether or not he had the right to destroy something so vibrant. He wasn’t so deluded that he equated killing a tree to murdering a person, but there were notes of that line of thinking in his mind.

It would be so easy to ignore them, but he was a Druid, wasn’t he? Didn’t that mean he had a duty not to do that?

“This is acceptable,” said Nerthus.

“Huh?” asked Elijah turning to see the spryggent standing behind him. “What do you mean?”

“I can sense your doubt. These trees were created for this purpose. There is no shame in using them,” he stated. Indeed, Elijah had asked Nerthus to grow the trees to his specifications, using acorns from the trees that ringed the grove. They’d marked the original boundaries of his Ancestral Circle, and as such, they were infused with more potential than any other trees on his island – excepting the ancestral tree itself. And their progeny was almost as special. “If it still worries you, know that this will not kill them. So long as their roots remain, they will grow once again.”

Elijah sighed. That was true, too. Still, his doubts remained. He’d once grown angry just looking at the deforestation associated with Ironshore, and now he couldn’t help but feel like he was on the verge of doing the same thing. It should have disgusted him. And yet, it didn’t.

And that was worrying, largely because it signified that he wasn’t really sure what being a Druid meant. Maybe the answer was that it didn’t mean anything. Perhaps all the influences he thought he’d felt in the past few years were in his head.

That frightened him.

But the reality was that the moment he’d asked Nerthus to nurture the trees, he’d become committed to using them. Because if he didn’t, Nerthus would doubtless rip them up by the roots just because they didn’t follow the pattern he wanted the grove to follow.

So, without further delay, he knelt before the trees and got to work cutting them down. The trio had grown around one another, their white-barked trunks inextricably intertwined and nurtured on a steady diet of ethera. As a result, they pulsed with energy that exceeded that of any other tree in his grove – again, excepting the ancestral tree at its center.

The trunks themselves weren’t large, only reaching a diameter of a few inches. Yet, they were harder than they had any right to be, so it took Elijah nearly an hour to fell them. When he finally did, he saw the thin, blue veins running through them, linking each of the three trunks in a way he didn’t truly understand.

But he knew enough that he could work with it.

The trees were somewhere between being saplings and reaching maturity, so they were around eight feet tall. That would be enough for Elijah to work with. So, once he had them in hand, he headed to a spot within the grove that Nerthus had made for him. The spryggent was nothing if not anal about what grew within the grove, so given that Elijah meant to consistently flare One with Nature as well as Nature’s Bounty, he’d made a place just for that.

Settling in, Elijah got to work.

The first step was to remove the limbs, which he set aside for later. One day, he’d use them to create lye, which he hoped would make for better soap. But for now, he only wanted them out of the way.

Gradually, Elijah kept working, stripping the bark, then sanding the intertwined trees smooth. Altogether, they were more than six inches in diameter, so he had a lot of work ahead of him to pare it down to size.

Days passed as Elijah sanded and whittled, eventually coming up with a straight, white staff that was about two inches thick and six feet long. Thankfully, he didn’t have to go through the effort of straightening the shaft, so the next step was carving it. Using a series of small knives and files he’d bought for just that purpose, Elijah did just that.

Along the way, he lost track of time, though on more than one occasion, he took breaks to either repopulate the cultivation cave or help Miguel with his training. Eventually, Miguel took the next step in cultivation, attaining what Nerthus referred to as a Guardian Core. It wasn’t as powerful as Elijah’s Dragon Core, but it was one of the best paths Miguel could hope to take without getting outside help from an elder race. After that, Miguel headed to the mainland to begin his leveling process.

Meanwhile, Carmen kept at it with the Great Forge, throwing herself into her work in order to distract herself from the fact that Miguel was going off into the wilderness where he would be forced to risk his life. That wasn’t what any mother wanted to deal with, but knowing that she couldn’t stop it, she had chosen to focus on her work. Judging by the conversations she and Elijah shared during that time, it didn’t work.

Day by day, Eliijah’s staff took shape. He didn’t dare think too much about what he was carving, but he couldn’t ignore the designs that took hold at the end of his knives. Still, he did everything he could to keep his influence out of it. It was better to let the process dictate what it would be.

In the end, it took five weeks for Elijah to finish the carving, and even then, he thought he’d rushed it. If he’d had another couple of months, he would have not only been much more meticulous in his efforts, but he would have further infused it with his ethera.

Still, he was happy with the design.

The staff was straight, ending up at a little less than two inches thick. The design made it look like a Celtic weave, which bared the glowing ethereal veins. At the top was a coiled dragon, with an intricately carved head that was as detailed a piece as any Elijah had ever created.

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But the staff wasn’t finished.

He still needed to seal it.

Fortunately, he had plenty of wax from Nerthus’ apiary, so after cutting it with some mineral oil he’d bought in Ironshore, he went to work sealing the staff. The process wasn’t a short one, and it required him to leave the staff for as much as twenty-four hours while each coat of the sealant soaked in and dried. During those times, he finalized his preparations for the Trial.

He visited Argos to collect his pork jerky, and while he was there, he met with Sadie and Dat. They both had been occupied with their own preparations, but Elijah was surprised to find that Sadie had spent quite a lot of time healing people at the Temple of Virtue.

He also stopped by to talk to Delilah, where he learned that both she and Isaak intended to participate in the Trial as well. Elijah didn’t much care for that, but he knew better than to try to talk them out of it. As it turned out, Atticus was going, too, though he made it clear that he had no intention of fighting.

“If things get rough, I’ll be out of there in a hurry, my friend,” he assured Elijah, clapping him on the shoulder with a laugh.

Soon enough, though, Elijah had done all there was to do. He had all the supplies he could carry, and he’d even broken in his new armor. All that was left was to complete the staff, but even as the day of the Trial crept closer, Elijah refused to shortchange the project.

It was only on the day before the Trial was supposed to commence that he finally finished it, getting the following notification:

Congratulations! You have created a unique item [Staff of the First Dragon]. This item will serve to enhance all spells by significant degree. Overall Grade: Complex (High) Enchantment Grade: C

Elijah pumped his fist in celebration. The staff had turned out better than he could have hoped, though he still wasn’t certain what it would do, exactly. He’d need someone to analyze it for that. Thankfully, he knew a dwarven Tailor who had an item that would allow for just that. So, he took on the Shape of the Sky and flew to Ironshore. He landed in the middle of the street outside Mari’s shop, which caused a bit of a ruckus. He was too excited to worry about that, though, and he quickly hurried inside.

Of course, Mari wasn’t one to be rushed, and she glared at him with disapproval before agreeing to let him borrow her analysis apparatus. Once she did, Elijah wasted no time before holding up the small piece of what looked like ordinary glass and channeling some ethera through it.

That was when he got a little more information:

[Staff of the First Dragon] A staff created by the Druid Elijah Hart from the trunk of a juvenile ancestral tree. It is infused with his ethera, binding it to him the moment it was created. +20 Strengh, Dexterity, Constitution, Ethera, and Reneration Effect: Enhances all spells by 25% Effect: Increases the effective radius of One with Nature by 70% Ability: Rejuvenation – Use stored ethera to fuel a single cast of Soothe. Cooldown: 1 day. Usable in all forms.

It was beyond anything Elijah could’ve hoped to create, and as he read one benefit after another, he very nearly dropped Mari’s analysis glass. The attribute bonuses alone were extremely powerful, but then it also increased the effect of all of his spells by twenty-five percent? And it nearly doubled the radius of One with Nature? And that ability? It was a perfect addition to his toolkit.

“Thank you,” he said to Mari, handing the glass back to her.

“I hope you got good news. That Trial sounds a bit dodgy. Mark my words – people are going to die in there,” she said. “And for what it’s worth, I hope it isn’t you.”

“Really? I didn’t think you cared about me at all.”

“Of course I do. You’re my best customer,” she said. “Now, get out of my shop. You’re scaring everyone off.”

“Awww. I’m touched,” he replied with a grin. But at her glare, he quickly ducked out of the shop.

After that, Elijah made the rounds, saying goodbye to everyone he was close to in town. That included Ramik, Carissa, Biggle, and even Gavina – who wouldn’t even answer her door. Instead, she just pretended like she didn’t hear his knock, even going so far as to innocently whistle.

Finally, he bought a veritable feast from the Stuck Pig, which he brought back to the grove for the evening meal. That night, he and his family – including Nerthus and Colt – had something of a going away party. Miguel had already progressed to level eight, so he would be getting his class within a couple of weeks, which was the source of some excitement. The possibilities dominated their discussion for quite some time as Miguel animatedly detailed everything he’d been doing since being let off his leash. He clearly took quite a bit of joy in the retelling, though Carmen didn’t seem too enthused to hear that her son had been risking his life.

In Elijah’s case, he wasn’t certain how he felt. On the one hand, it was good that Miguel was gaining enough power to protect himself, but Elijah would have been lying if he said he wasn’t worried about his nephew. In the end, he could only trust that the young man would be smart about the risks he took.

Before Elijah knew it, everyone had gone to bed, leaving only him and Nerthus sitting in the grove.

“You’ll take care of things while I’m gone, right?” he asked.

“I will,” Nerthus assured him. “Anyone who comes to this island with malice in their hearts will rue the day they chose their path.”

Elijah believed the spryggent.

So, without further ado, he retreated to his treehouse, where he checked and rechecked his supplies. He didn’t intend to leave anything behind, so he spent hours going through his lists.

He didn’t bother sleeping that night. Instead, when dawn came, he gathered his Ghoul-Hide Satchel, said his final goodbyes to Carmen, Miguel, and Nerthus, then headed toward the Branch in Ironshore.

There, he waited alongside Kurik, a few Tradesmen and Merchants he didn’t know, as well as Nia and Robolo. The latter two couldn’t meet Elijah’s gaze, probably because they remembered what had happened the last time they had grouped up with him. Hopefully, this time would be better.

The timer ticked down until, at last, the Branch began to glow. Then, a notification flashed before Elijah’s inner eye:

You have been invited to attend the Trial of Primacy. Please report to your local Branch of the World Tree if you would like to participate. Invite expires in twelve minutes.

Elijah wasted no time before placing his hand on the Branch. The moment his fingers made contact, his senses went dark as he was whisked away to the Trial of Primacy.

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