Pleading to the Elderwood

Dear Celeste

I am Lady Lyraen, Emissary for the Elven Court. I am writing to you today to ask for your help. To be completely blunt, we need the Shield of Elderwood. Deep research has led me to believe the same dark threat you two battled together 100 years ago has returned. I reviewed the early reports of the ritual sites near the groves and little Ivywood. They contained very similar traits to a cult near the human capital of Komodo. They were trying to control the magical essence of the land. I felt the corruption within the world's energy myself and we need the experience and information from those who have faced it before. I couldn’t find the location of the Shield and history doesn’t say where he went, but you were there beside him since the very beginning. So, I am pleading with you. Please help us. Please help the future of Vrumulondun.

The leaves gather thick around the roots of the Elderwood

Dear Emissary to the Elven Court

How dare the Elves look into my history with the Shield. If your research skills were as great as you believe them to be then you would know exactly the pain the court has bestowed onto me and my family. You know exactly how they look down on halves like me. I don’t believe even after all this time, they have accepted that the Shield of the Elderwood was a human. They probably see it as a stain on history. I have no trust or favour for you or your kind. The Shield is gone. A piece of me is gone. I will not do anything without him. Please do not contact me ever again.

Snowfall disturbs the creatures protected by the Shield

Dear Celeste

I am truly sorry to hear that. The loss of the Shield is a major blow to the world and to the elves, and to you. I may be an elf but the pain of losing one you love never disappears. No matter how many memories you create, no matter how many years your lifespan is.

In regards to how the elven council views your kind and even humans. I understand. Maybe better than most. Their perspective is truly lacking. I do not agree with it. You may have gotten the wrong idea. I may be the Emissary but I am not doing this for the council. The research has been done in the shadows with one other person. A human named Zane. If the council discovers the true danger of what is lurking. That we have done this research in secret, they will panic. They will punish us and strip our political positions. Even end up blaming the humans when there is history of them doing the exact same type of corruption and summoning at the groves long ago. Hypocrisy and further disruptions of our species working together is what I am actively trying to avoid.

I learned of the pain they caused you through our research. How your memory was altered by their magic and how they made you believe something that wasn’t true. I can’t imagine how a revelation of such a betrayal would feel. What I couldn’t find was why. Why were they so scared of your family? Why were they so insistent on keeping your mother locked up? I want to know why. It could help us. We can make your past, your pain and experience, a weapon this dark enemy could never see coming. Please help us.

Whispers of unknown enemies within the land travel in the wind

Dear Lady Lyraen

I lost so much. We lost so much. A grove guardian was killed. My shield lost his life protecting us. Are you saying it was all for nought? You say you understand but I have no reason to believe you. Schemes and plots and lies are all anyone in a political position knows what to do. My shield was like a light who shone so bright people just couldn’t lie to him. They got sucked into his way of thinking and how honesty was a weapon in itself. There is no way you could ever understand. My mother was imprisoned by the shadow court while the public face was manipulating the political landscape to summon this shadow. This entity, just to control it. Couples stripped of their memories, merchants ripped from their lives and families. This was all happening under your precious council. Even my shield. My Tenuis was a victim at the start. You speak of pain and memories but what if they were taken away? Starting from scratch lost in this world. I dare you to do it. I dare you to walk the path of the shield and see if you could end up as honest as him. I don’t trust you.

The crows have gathered

Dear Celeste

This is Zane writing to you. My mentor still holds her position as the Emissary so apologies for the misunderstanding of how official this communication seemed to be. Elven need for positions and power can be condescending in a way. They need it to structure their long lives and put others in categories. What I surmise through the scattered reports from your time near the groves is that you were the tactical mind to the shield. His eyes to detect manipulation and tactical prowess, since honesty alone can only get you so far before you get stabbed in the back. This type of mind is born from survival. A situation I know intimately. You and the shield made a perfect team. He trusted your insight and intuition. He trusted you, enough to lay down his life for you. What is your role in helping prevent what he fought so hard to keep at bay? His memory lives on in you. We have information you need to do that.

You don’t need to trust us. What I need is for you to understand. Lady Lyraen taught me how to guide magical energy, yet when I tried, I sensed a dark thread that was feeding on the members of the cult. I followed that thread downwards. A hunger.

Celeste, the shadows have a source, deep in the core of this world. Almost alien. When I felt it, it was vast, ancient. Calculating. We may need the shield of Elderwood but we also need your mind. The elven council ignores the consequences of their actions. A darkness grows with a hunger that can’t be filled. It will swallow the forest's consciousness. Our memories ,like tenuis. Like the memories they stole from you. Gone. The Elderwood your partner died to protect needs you again. The pieces are on the board. Will you move into position to win or will you let the groves burn.

Time is running out, the trees never forget

Dear Zane and Lady Lyraen

You both remind me of Tenuis and I. He first came to me to learn if magic was possible for him. A curious mind with no memories. He was leaking like a broken faucet. His magical energy seeping out uncontrollably. I have never seen anything like it and he was so unaware. Like a child that didn’t know he was bleeding. That brings back memories.

Zane, your assessment of me is close, which means you know that I can see what you’re trying to do. But I concede. I need to do what I must to help protect the Elderwood and make sure the pain from these memories do not repeat for those who are creating new ones at this time.

I don’t need to trust you but you know more than someone trying to set up a trap for me. Only the grove guardians, the shield and myself saw how the entity fought. How it affected the lands and the trees. A leech. A deep need for consumption that could never be sedated. If it is truly rebuilding again and the shield isn’t around, then I suppose it is up to me to do what I can. I want to hear both your stories and what you have to say. Let’s meet.

Come to Grove #5, it is 2 days travel northwest from Little Ivywood. I’ll alert the guardian there that you will be arriving. Otherwise you will never be able to enter. Let us talk there where no one can hear us. I also doubt you can lie in front of the Shield of Elderwood when you do tell me everything.