Gladesbale Grove Book 3 - Chapters 67,68,69

Chapter 67

Forbidden Techniques

Mark led the way through the forest, finding a clearing that was rather secluded. It was considerate of him to be far enough away from the mortals so as not to disturb their days. With a wave of his hand, the landscape changed. It turned from a normal clearing to the inside of a bustling tavern. The smile spreading across the goblin’s face was devious.

“This is all an illusion, buddy,” he said, finding a chair and sitting down. He snapped his fingers, and the barman came over. “Two of your finest ales, please.”

The barman bowed and disappeared to pull fresh beers for both of them. Rud didn’t know exactly what was going on, but everything around them certainly did look real. He drummed his fingers on the countertop and even kicked at the ground. It was all solid and real, so far as you could tell.

“Are you sure this is an illusion? It’s a pretty convincing illusion.”

“That’s part of one of my classes,” Mark said, flipping a gold coin to the barman as he brought the drinks over. “It’s called Creation Mage. Can you guess what it does?”

“Does it create things?” Rud asked.

“Wow, you catch on quick, don’t you, buddy?” Mark said, taking a long drink of his beer. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever had.” 

Red took a drink of his own and had to agree he wasn’t much of a beer guy to begin with. The imagined booze he had been served might have been the worst he’d ever had in his life. He pushed it away and winced.

“If you’re the one who created it, doesn’t that mean that your beer is the worst beer you’ve ever had?”

“Details, details,” Mark said, waving a dismissive hand. “Anyway, I was going to teach you how to be super powerful for no reason other than I think it’s pretty funny. Are you interested?”

“I mean, yeah, of course.” 

“Okay, so you’ve got what we call an absolute excess of attributes and nothing to do with them, right? And you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Man, I’m stuck at rank—whatever rank you are—and if I could get to those higher ranks, I’d be even more powerful.’ Well, what if I told you you could do exactly that?” Mark asked.

Rud nodded eagerly, leaning over the bar and staring directly into the goblin’s eyes. “I’m still very interested. Do I need to sacrifice a virgin or something?”

“No, but that might not hurt. Do you have any of those around here?” Mark asked.

“I’m pretty sure Billy has been unlucky in the department of love in the past, and perhaps the Grove doesn’t truly need him.”

“No, no, that won’t work. Anyway, it’s pretty simple. Think about those attributes as motes of power. Just like that power I feel swirling in your chest. Your soul is just a bunch of little dots of celestial energy. What if I said you could sacrifice some ill-gotten attributes for mock ranks?”

“Sounds… like a thing. I really don’t know. I’m just a little guy who makes tea and stuff.”

“Yeah, you are pretty little, aren’t you?” Mark said, tussling Rud’s long hair. “So, I’ll teach you the technique, but there’s something important you have to remember. This will only work for those ill-gotten attributes. You can’t take your base attributes and throw them away like that. What I’d recommend you do is take those attributes you’re not likely to use from something like—Oh, do you guys have strength here? I doubt you’ll need that much strength, or maybe dexterity?’”

“No, we don’t have dexterity,” Rud said with a shrug.

“Well, whatever else you don’t need, just take that and toss it into this little pool. Then it’ll give you a mock rank, depending on how much you feed into it.” 

“This isn’t illegal, is it?” Rud asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Illegal? I write the rules, buddy,” Mark said, clapping him on his back. “Well, my boss writes the rules, and I go over them and make an addendum. Now, this should be fine. You’re supposed to get powerful anyway, so the threads of fate are fine with you getting super strong. What do you say we down these disgusting beers and get to work?” 

Rud would have been happier if the beer had any effect on him, but it didn’t. He much preferred his tea, which gave him a tingling sensation in his chest. Now that he thought about it, it might have been a heart attack. But with as much Vigor as he had, he doubted it would affect him too much. Instead, he got to work on the technique the goblin spoke of, as the druid had just received so much agility that he had absolutely no idea what to do with it. He decided to focus on that. And so, in the imagined tavern, he began work on this technique.

“The first thing you’re going to want to understand is that this whole system junk is nonsense,” Mark said, tapping his knuckles against the table. He snapped his fingers, gaining the attention of the bartender. “You guys got tequila? No, whatever. Everything you’re messing with now is kind of like a wrapper. Today, we’re going to peel that back and get to the juicy goodness of what the system actually is. Some people call this cultivation. Other people say it’s the gathering of celestial energies. Hey, I just call it getting stronger for the sake of getting stronger. I fought a dragon lord once.”

“Oh, neat.”

With a wave of his hands, Mark melted the scene before them. They were now standing on a barren landscape that looked like a desert, with rocks scattered here and there. The sun shone overhead, and the sound of an engine blared in the distance.

“This is a world I was trapped in for a couple of years,” Mark said, scratching his scraggly chin. “This is one of the ways I learned this technique. When you’re alone with only a talking bookshelf to keep you company, you get bored, so you come up with stuff. That’s when I figured out I could use my excess attributes to strengthen myself. Now, let’s focus on the concept of agility and try to integrate that into our soul.”

Although it took him a bit to get used to it, Rud was faced with the fact that this technique of introspection was very similar to his domain practice. As they went through the first layer of the technique, the druid couldn’t help but think he would have figured this out on his own. Surely he wouldn’t complain; the details were difficult to understand, and Mark seemed to have the key.

After the first two hours, the goblin broke him out of his concentration and smiled down at him. “Have you done this before?” he asked. “Are you just some kind of hidden genius talent?”  

“This is very similar to something I’m already doing,” Rud said. “It’s the control of my domain, my command over the sacred grove and all that.”  

“Okay, well that makes things easy. This shouldn’t take more than a couple of years, I think.” 

“Years?” Rud asked. “No, I’ve gotta be at the longhouse for dinner. I’ve got stuff to do.”

“Hah! Have you been paying attention to anything? TIME MAGE, BABY!”

***

True to the goblin’s word, it took a few years, although it didn’t feel like that. Once Rud had fallen into a constant state of pushing himself to do weird meditative stuff, he felt time slip away. Days meant almost nothing after a short time, and then weeks and months passed. They went between imagined worlds, all within a time dilation field directly in the grove.

This wasn’t the sort of technique a person mastered overnight. The first point took about nine months to get into his imagined pool, and it was another two years before he could do so reliably. Why Mark had taken this amount of time to work with him was hard to say. Rud was only certain of one thing. He was glad when the day came. When the goblin proclaimed the training complete.

“Wow. Great montage,” Mark said, clapping a hand on his back. “I should warn you about the time-dilation, though… You’re gonna puke. A lot.”

“Oh, good to know…”

During the training, the landscape had shifted from desert to forest, from cities to places on Earth that Rud was certain he recognized. It was all a bit too much, and yet he still found himself falling into that familiar pattern. He was now ready to resume the flow of time and put this new technique to use. It still required quite a lot of concentration, but he could apply a point to that pool, strengthening his soul. He planned to explore the details of this later and was eager to get back to his own world.

“Anyway, here we go,” Mark said, waving his hands.  

Rud felt as though he had been traveling a hundred miles an hour and then pulled to a stop in a split second. He fell over, rolling on the forest floor and gasping for breath. Only a moment later, he vomited, releasing the contents of his stomach—contents he didn’t know were there. And yes, the goblin was right. He puked a whole bunch and was not happy about it. But when he came to, he felt the familiar energies of the grove and smiled to himself.

“Now we can finally put that practice to use,” Mark said, helping Rud get to his feet.

“What do you mean? Didn’t I already put like 20 points of agility into my soul?” Rud asked.

“That was all in that illusion, baby,” Mark said, cackling. “Yeah, that’s right. I even tricked your system. But I’ve got something to take care of. Exactly 42 seconds have passed here since we’ve been gone, so you basically, didn’t lose any time. Mark out.”

The goblin wizard vanished in a flash of light, leaving Rud feeling more confused than he had ever been in his entire life. He checked his attribute screen to see that Mark had indeed tricked the system into thinking he was using this new technique. Every point of agility he had converted into that soul energy was gone. Now, he had to do it all over again. But a smile spread across his face as he considered the implications. He had the training; now he just needed to apply it. With every dungeon taken care of for the day, he retreated to what had become his favorite place in the grove, the section where he had planted Elm’s tower was pleasant. The sound of water slowly rippling and fish striking the surface was soothing. Along with the sound of the breeze blowing through the trees above, he was put into a state of complete relaxation that made him realize how stressed he had been in that illusion.

“That’s a disturbing sensation I’m detecting within you,” Ban said, speaking into Rud’s mind.  

“You have no idea. I just lived another life,” he responded with a grunt. “If the Goblin Wizard offers to train you, please decline.”

“Duly noted,” Ban said with a laugh. “But seriously, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just want to actually put this technique to the test.”

The funny thing about Mark’s attribute technique was the extraction part. Rud’s attributes weren’t technically his. But his artifact weapon was part of his soul, meaning they were. It was a contradiction that the technique didn’t care about. It worked no matter if the attributes were a part of the staff or not.

Rud took another steadying breath and focused inward. He felt the magical energies he had been trained to detect. He sensed the flavor of Agility and then felt the depth of his soul. It was all very boring, and he was glad he got to skip the early stages of this process. Although it had all been an illusion, his body couldn’t be convinced. As far as it was concerned, it had endured the training, increasing his ability to sense and manipulate these energies. He pulled his Agility out, focusing on ten points at first and allowing that power to mingle with his soul. Once it was all mixing, he opened his eyes and smelled a familiar floral scent. Looking to his left, he found Elm dipping her toes in the water.

“How long have you been there?” Rud asked.

“Not long,” Elm hummed. “Decided to copy you and take a break.”

Rud pulled in another long breath. It would take an hour or so for the energies to mix. Then the system would be fooled into thinking that excess Agility was a part of his soul. He wondered if his attribute screen would have the same text he had seen before…

“And a break you shall have,” Rud said, kicking his boots off and putting his feet in the water. “Bah! That’s cold!”

Chapter 68

Augment Rank

“Sounds like a forbidden technique to me,” Elm said with a frown.

The energies within Rud's soul roiled. They crashed against each other, warring within his chest as he explained the situation to Elm. She had approached it in the way she did most things: with cautious optimism and equal parts skepticism. But the druid wouldn't blame her. This was uncharted territory for anyone he knew, and the full magnitude of this technique was still yet to be felt. In the druid's mind, this was perfect. This was a way for him to recycle those excess attributes he truly didn't need. While it was nice being more agile, he didn't need to be 74 points agile.

“All's well that ends well,” Rud reassured her. “The time cop is already here, so if I was going to get in trouble for doing this, it would have already happened.

“So this is a way to fake rank,” she said.

“It’s a way to mimic it, but from what I understand, this won't be like the real thing. It won’t be as powerful as when I gain real ranks, but this is a way for me to at least pretend. Seeing as my Sacred Tree already shot up to Rank 5, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and there’s simply no way for me to get that many skill levels in such a short amount of time. She can do it because she’s using a different technique, so I need more of my own.” 

“I think the plan is good.” Ban's voice echoed over the lake. It wasn't the psychic form of communication she typically used. She was speaking directly into this part of the grove, which she normally didn't.

"Oh, fancy seeing you here," Rud said, grinning as he looked up at the sky. It was a rare part of the grove where he could actually see the clouds above them. “See? Even she likes it.”

“The technique you're employing is similar to my own,” Ban said, “except I'm using raw energy to accomplish the rank increase, and it's a true rank increase.”

"Well, I'm just saying we should proceed with cautious caution.” Elm shifted uncomfortably on the spot, as though she was suddenly the odd man out.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Rud said. “I'd still have my eyebrows if I exercised more caution in my life, so I'm more than happy to consult you on the best way to move forward.”

That got a laugh from both Elm and Ban. When the laughter died down, Rud found himself once again alone with that feeling of fullness in his chest. It was almost done processing the attributes he had fed it, and he was extremely eager to see the results. Best of all was the reaction of his staff. In the illusion, it was completely unresponsive. But here, it practically sang with possibilities.

While they waited for the process to complete, Rud, Elm, and Ban chatted about various topics. They discussed the progress they had made and how many more strides they would need to take to accomplish their goals. Things were certainly going well, but there was always room for improvement. The wizard, in particular, had been spending so much time helping the grove that she had barely had time for her own studies. That was something the druid promised would change once everything was stable. For now, she would just have to endure, as they often did within Gladesbale Grove.

“There it is,” Rud said, taking in a steady breath and letting it out.

Within his chest swirled the fresh power of a new rank. He was instantly reminded of when he had achieved Rank 1. Although he knew it was less potent than a true rank, he couldn't help but think it was close enough to the real deal that he didn't care. He had spent 10 attribute points and turned them into one fake rank, but the physical effects he could feel weren't the only thing. He was ready to open his attribute sheet and inspect it.

Elm gasped in surprise. “I can really feel it.” Her magical senses cascaded over him, probing toward his soul to detect some difference from before. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were Rank 2.”

“Let me read my sheet out for you,” Rud said, opening it and smiling widely. He read it for both Ban and Elm to hear.

[Rud]

Main Class:

Rank 1 Level 3 Druid

Subclass:

Rank 1 Level 1 Grove Custodian

Augment Rank:

1

Attributes:

Health: 350

Mana: 746

Strength: 48

Agility: 64

Vigor: 62

Mind: 106

Affinity: 59

Titles:

[Keeper of the Gladesbale Grove]

"There it is," Rud said. "My augmented rank. That just adds to my main class's rank and then affects all the different attributes. I've got more health and more mana to deal with now."

"Not to mention, each of your attributes will function at a higher capacity—a 25% increase," Elm said with a shrug. "It depends on the class and the person, but that's the baseline."

"I'm very proud of you," Ban said. "How many augmented ranks do you plan to get?"

Rud smiled to himself. “More than any person should, that’s for sure. I want to match your rank at the minimum, Ban. Then we’ll see what the system lets me get away with.”

The duo remained at the bank of the lake for quite some time before Rud had to excuse himself. He wanted to ensure the party led by Barrow had everything they needed. Of course, they had fled from the underground city when the phylactery was detected, but there was still work to do in banishing the ghosts. As the druid descended the spiral staircase, checking it for integrity as he went, he didn't detect any ghost specters or ghouls.

"Howdy," Rud said, waving as he set foot in the ruined tower and spotted the three members of the original party. Both the cleric and paladin were hard at work creating holy seals while Barrow picked at his teeth.

"Oh, hey, Rud," Barrow said, waving and beckoning him over. "We're almost done here. I think.”

Raze looked up, making a rude gesture.

“Maybe not…”

“As long as the ghost problem is taken care of.” Rud looked around, doing his best to see, hear, or otherwise feel the ghosts. But none of his senses could detect them. Not even taste. “Doesn’t seem like a particularly bumping area for the ghosts.”

“I suppose you need the magical sight,” Barrow said, jabbing a thumb back toward those who could see the ghosts. “According to those two, the area is thick with them.”

“Do these ghosts cause any problems? Can they manifest ectoplasm, move books off a shelf, or otherwise annoy most sensible people?”

“They can manifest negative energies,” Oak said, sounding annoyed as she tore herself away from the holy circle. From Rud’s estimation, she had completed it at least. “That energy can have a corrupting effect, setting everything off balance. If the density of their power grows too great, the ghosts will eventually manifest themselves. There are whole classes dedicated to finding and banishing ghosts. Compared to them, I just dabble.”

“We’re happy to have you here.” Rud’s goal was now to smooth it all over. “Way better than those stuffy ghost specialists.”

“Always trying to butter me up,” Oak said with a wink. “We’re close to being finished down here. Actually, once you removed the lich’s energies, the rest fell into place quickly.”

Rud wouldn’t consider the lich problem completed just yet. Just as he didn’t trust that the cursed objects were sorted. These were high-threat projects that might explode at any moment. By comparison, the ghosts were boring.

“So, what are you doing down here, Barrow? Moral support?” Rud asked.

“Sometimes the ghosts manifest,” Barrow said. “I mean, we were doing this one banishment on that island… What was that island called?”

“Crowfoot island,” Oak said.

“Right. Pirate ghosts,” Barrow said with a shiver. “Can you imagine? They were all manifesting and everything. Oak had blessed my blade, so I sliced through an army of the things.”

“The bad thing is, they regenerate,” Oak said. “Those pirates were bound to a beached ship. They kept coming back even after we banished them. Took seals just like these to deal with them.”

“And to think. We haven’t done a ghost job since that one,” Barrow said with a wistful sigh. “Truly, ghost jobs are far less risky than the jobs we’ve been doing.”

Rud fell into the background of the conversation as Oak and Barrow talked about their adventures. He really couldn’t relate. Even as he worked on increasing his own power, he had no intentions of using it as a means to do adventurer things. The life they talked about on the road was unappealing. Long days without access to hot baths, dwindling stocks of tea, and no fresh food sounded awful. He would leave all that to the professionals.

But once the druid was done checking on the trio, he walked circles around the tower and the area below. There were sections where the wood he had grown to reinforce spots had crumpled under the unimaginable weight above. Growing a few new trees on the surface and pulling their material downward helped with the effort. Going up and down the massive staircases was made easier now that he could pretend to be Rank 2. He was barely winded as he went down for the third time.

“I could do this all day!” Rud proclaimed, swiping his staff through the air as he cast his Shape Plant spell. The roots of a tree obeyed his every whim, snaking to create bolstering columns throughout the tower. He then worked on clearing away the debris in the main part of the city, but it was nearly hopeless. The area had collapsed in too much, and there was little hope of saving it.

The only thing of value in the underground city was the giant crystal, which was still safe, and the various artifacts that could be found here. If Elm wanted to get her hands on those, she’d have to do a bit of digging. Or get someone to do the digging for her. Once he was done screwing around there, it was time for an observatory report.

“Anyone interesting on the horn at this hour?” Rud asked, allowing his Farsight vision to glaze over the skies over the Grove.

“Depends how interesting you find me,” Jim said, his voice coming through with quite a lot of static.

Rud smacked the side of his radio, which caused it to hiss quite a lot before calming down. “Cool! So, who are we inducting next?”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that,” Jim said. “Bendybrook Grove was actually a hard one. Basil has the opinion that we should go for Harg’s Grove next, but I’m unsure. Aegael would be tricky, although not as hard as River.”

Rud rubbed his chin. Getting a Grove into the fold wasn’t difficult because it was hard to get them the supplies. The hard part was getting in contact with the custodian or their guardian and making sure everything was cool. His vote was for Harg since…

“Harg is a homie,” Rud said. “I think we should go for him next.”

“Works for me,” Jim said. “Should I pass that desire up the chain of command?”

By that he meant speaking to Bent by proxy, of course. Which was hard, since the stag spirit often didn’t respond. Rud bit his top lip, looking a lot like a Shih Tzu as he thought. “I have a bad idea.”

“What?”

“I’ve discovered a new talent,” Rud said, shivering as he thought about the stag spirit and his Grove. “I can talk to Bent.”

“You… You can do what?”

Chapter 69

Mind-Rending Horrors

Rud was a big fan of bad ideas. Those were the most fun ideas, in his experience. But even he knew talking to Bent directly would result in only one thing: him a gibbering mess. But the progenitor of the Groves had left a little clue during their last meeting. The druid pulled on every speck of his RPG knowledge, pulling a fair bit from Jim, Maria, and Kiara as they chatted over the radio. A few hours later, he had the foundations of a plan.

Slamming his fist on the table in the longhouse, Rud shouted, “I need someone who can use psionic attacks!”

The sound of his weak strike on the table echoed through the room. It wasn’t for a lack of Strength, but of lacking conviction. There was no one inside the longhouse to hear him, though.

“Are you talking to anyone in particular?” Tan asked from across the room.

Rud turned, spotting the talking piece of furniture. His eyes glowed a shifting shade, going from green to blue, then settling onto red.

“There’s usually more people here,” Rud said, looking around.

“Psionics? Why?” Tan asked. “Psychic attacks aren’t exactly common, and their uses are minimal.”

“I need someone to scramble my eggs,” Rud said, poking a finger at his skull.

“You’re sounding a lot like my master…”

“Come on, you time-traveling futon,” Rud said. “You gotta know something.”

Tan grumbled, waddling over near to the fire and settling in there. A pair of black, spectral limbs shot out from his sides and he stirred the coals. “Mark thinks you’re worth helping, although I don’t know why. I’ve known him a long time, so my guess is that something is wrong with this timeline. He’s likely trying to shift it in the right direction, even if he would never tell you that was his plan. The threat we detected is likely to blame and he thinks himself a genius that can fix it on his own.”

“Sounds like a smart goblin.”

“He’s an idiot fool that no one likes, and also he smells bad,” Tan huffed. “The man thinks he’s smart because he got lucky exploiting time-dilated dungeons. Anyway, I suppose I can help. But I need to know your plan.”

“Okay. There’s this eldritch deer on our planet that made all the Groves, and I wanna talk to him.”

“Scrambling your brains seems like a strange way to accomplish that goal.”

“He dropped me a hint the last time we talked. He said I wasn’t… uh… attuned to the psychic rhythms of the world? No, that’s not it. He said something about my brain being too squishy, so I wanna make it less squishy.”

“You’re looking to increase your resistance to psychic attacks. Now you’re making more sense,” Tan said. “I’ve trained archmages. Forged leaders that went on to lead kingdoms and conquer worlds. Perhaps I can manage some psychic training… How are you with pain?”

“Love pain.”

“Nightmares? Unimaginable, mind-rending horrors?”

“Oh, yeah. Love those.”

“You’re not even remotely adept at dealing with these things, are you?”

“No, but everyone has to start somewhere. How do we start?” Rud asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

Tan turned, the light red color of his glowing eye-things having gone a shade of crimson. “We’ll start with clowns and work our way up.”

Rud swallowed hard as the world went black.

***

Why was it that both Mark and Tan did funny stuff with time? And why was it that both of them delighted in putting Rud through such torturous trials? The druid knew he should’ve been appreciative for the help, but starting at the clown level of psychic training was devious. For this kind of training, he had absolutely no idea how much time passed. He fell into some black void, was chased by clowns for a while, then bidden to take a break by a pleasant-looking seaside cafe.

They even served coffee, which was awesome.

Tan shuffled over, his wooden feet thudding against rough stones. “You’re some kind of idiot savant,” he said.

Rud wasn’t sure how to take that. “Thanks.”

“The things you saw were meant to drive you insane,” Tan said. “I kept having to ramp them up, since you wouldn’t stop giggling.”

“I mean, when the clown turned into the double-clown, that almost got me.”

Tan stayed silent for some time, allowing Rud to enjoy the imagined scenery. He understood that both Tan and Mark had an affinity for illusion magic. While he didn’t understand much of the arcane arts, he knew enough to make connections. That must’ve been their foundation. Before they got super powerful, becoming time gods or whatever, they were illusionists. That school fell close to what Jasper could do, although there had to be some serious differences.

“This Grove you speak of, it changed your mind. I had to probe pretty deeply, but you don’t have a brain even remotely similar to an Earth human’s,” Tan said.

“Sounds like a good thing.”

“Maybe. You’re naturally resistant to upsetting images and psychic damage. Your mood is always lifted, and it makes me wonder. How powerful is this stag you mentioned?” Tan asked.

“I think he’s gotta be pretty powerful,” Rud said. “No idea the extent of his power, or how he even ranks in this world.”

“He’s number one,” Tan said. “As in, the single strongest mortal thing here… for now.”

“Let’s get down to brass tacks,” Rud said, tossing a stone into the ocean. At least he tried to, only accomplishing getting it half-way there. The rock rolled along the sandy shore, finally settling just before the waves. “Is my brain good or bad?”

“You’re naturally more resistant to psychic intrusions,” Tan assured him. “Which means our training will be very fruitful. We can proceed all the way to triple-clown and beyond at the start.”

“I might be immune to your psychic damage, but the emotional damage is lasting.”

“Suck it up,” Tan said. “You asked to get stronger, so deal with it.”

“Yes, sir. Can we get some coffee before we start, though?”

“You realize you’re just laying on the ground back in the real world. None of this is actually happening.”

“Sure. But the coffee still smells good.”

Tan sighed. “Fine.”

***

Resistances to something like psychic attacks had just been a theory Rud had. He thought it might’ve been a hidden attribute somewhere, but it worked more like a muscle. The more he was exposed to intrusive attacks, the more he resisted it. He realized quickly there was no better torturer than Tan. Even though he had absolutely no clue how much time had passed in their little bubble, he endured endless clown intrusions.

It took a while for Rud to realize what was happening. Tan thought he was afraid because he himself was afraid of clowns. After he explained that to the torturous piece of furniture, their progress was swift. The most shocking thing of all was how little time it took to get him to a state where he had doubled his natural resistances. That quickly grew to heights the druid truly couldn’t understand, but he was happy for the boon.

“If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what will,” Tan said, finally dropping the illusion to reveal the empty longhouse. “How does it feel?”

“Like my brain is swollen.”

Rud felt a ripple of recognition from somewhere. “Daddy is mad,” he said, looking around. “Or maybe happy? Hard to tell with that guy.”

“You weren’t kidding,” Tan said as a series of magical arrays appeared around him. They all sizzled as though holding back a tide. “I believe we drew too much of his attention. Let’s hope that training paid off.”

Rud winced as he felt Bent tugging at his mind. This time, it didn’t fully take him and he felt a flash of amusement on the other side. This was some game for the leader of the Groves to play. The druid knew that since their first interaction. He wasn’t malicious, just so powerful he didn’t know when he pulled too hard. But the game they played wasn’t one of complete denial. He allowed himself to be taken a moment later, ceding to the power of the stag.

A moment later, he was back in Bent’s Grove. Those massive trees loomed overhead, as intimidating as ever. The shadow of a stag stood before him. It wasn’t a solid thing, but much more realized than the last version of Bent Rud had met.

“Things are officially interesting,” Bent said, a tone of amusement in his voice. “I can now speak to you with about a quarter of my true self. That’s some serious progress for about… twelve seconds of training. Time mages?”

“Time mages,” Rud confirmed.

“They’re bound to get in big trouble for this one,” Bent said with a laugh. His massive stag form moved across the mossy blanket, pawing at the ground here and there. “Have you done this to usurp me? No, I feel no threat from you. You’ve done this to speak to me? Hah! You amuse me, little one.”

“Thanks!” Rud said, bowing. “With how many clowns I had to endure, I thought I’d get at least fifty percent of your true self. Guess I’ll settle for a quarter.”

“Your Sacred Tree can only endure half. Count yourself among only five other people that can endure me at this level. So, you want to talk? About what.”

“I need you to get a message to Harg’s custodian.”

Bent cackled. “You endured torture just to pass along a message? Truly, you are a mad little druid. I like you more by the moment. What is your message?”

“I need to know what they need to make an observatory. I can send a portal their way with all the junk they need, but communication is impossible.”

Bent didn’t exactly laugh. Rud felt his amused feeling ripple through the Grove, which ended up feeling more haunting than anything else. “The more I learn of you, the more interested I am. Why don’t you ask me to give them the materials?”

Rud had to think about that for a bit. Asking Bent directly for the things he needed had never crossed his mind. The dude who had started the Groves was so far above them that it seemed a task too far beneath him. Yet delivering messages wasn’t? He shook his head, attempting to make sense of it. Bent was laughing again, filling the Grove with that sense of amusement.

“It seems there are certain things you’re not good at,” Bent said. “I tire of this conversation. I shall establish communication for you. Your progress is satisfactory.”

Rud was snapped from the strange form of communication in a way he would describe as ‘not even remotely pleasant.’ One moment he was talking with the shadow of Bent, and the next he was gasping for air on the floor of the longhouse.

“Well, that looked painful,” Tan said, reaching his spindly hand out.

When Rud took the creature’s hand, it felt cold. Not just the normal kind of cold, but the kind that sucked a person’s soul out. Although he accepted the kind gesture, he shivered afterward. “Looks like we’ve got our support from Bent!”

“See?” Tan asked, pointing an accusatory finger. “That’s what I’m talking about. You should be a quivering mess.”

“Who has time for that?” Rud asked. “Bent said he’d send a message. I just gotta figure out how he’s going to send that message…”

From the rafters of the longhouse, a delighted hoot issued. “There’s a letter in your observatory,” Nulsa said.

“Heh. See?” Rud asked, straightening his cloak. “All's well that ends well.”