'Do what's right, Eirwyn,' Micus said gently, coming to stand before her. He took her hands in his to show that, despite the harsh circumstances, he still cared deeply for her. 'Tell us what you know of his destination.'
Eirwyn smiled then, and her eyes returned to that warm, comforting look. But her words belied her expression. 'I told you, Micus, what's right and what's lawful aren't always in accord. The fact that you have yet to learn that very important lesson tells me you didn't spend enough time with Tauran. Perhaps you are not the friend of his I thought.' With that, she pulled her hands free.
'Nonetheless,' she said, 'I hear and obey the ruling of this body. If a law has been established that I am beholden to this Council, then however unjust I perceive it to be, I accept its jurisdiction. You may punish me for my crimes.' She laid her mace down upon the floor at her feet. 'May Tyr in his wisdom see fit to overturn your decision.' She bowed her head once more.
'Eirwyn!' Micus said, pleading with her. 'This is madness!'
The elderly angel did not answer him, but Micus could see her eyes glisten with the beginnings of tears as an escort of archons led her away.
After Eirwyn departed, Micus turned to face the Court. 'I did not expect that,' he said, feeling helpless. 'I fear that with Helm's death the foundations of our society, the very tenets of our existence, have been shaken far more than I believed.'
'Indeed,' the High Councilor said. 'This is not a unique case. The entire Court struggles to make sense of the tragedy of the Watcher's passing.'
'Without Eirwyn's knowledge, my hunt is all the more difficult,' Micus said. 'How shall I proceed?'
'Eirwyn is not the only citizen of the House with great skill in divination,' the High Councilor answered. 'Others have revealed that Tauran and his entourage have crossed-or will very soon-into the realm of Mystra. Therefore, you must travel to Dweomerheart and find them.'
'As you wish and command,' Micus said, bowing his head.
'You will be there as an official emissary, Micus,' the solar said. 'You must secure permission from Mystra's agents to continue your hunt. You may not pursue this agenda independently. Is that understood?'
'Clearly, High Councilor.'
'We have been assured that you will be given full cooperation.'
Micus bowed again then took his leave from the High Council.
He had many things to plan, and he would need help.
'Are you certain there isn't an easier way?' Kaanyr asked from beside Aliisza. 'This is absurd!' Panting, he struggled to free himself from a bundle of grasses that had wrapped around one leg.
'Certain,' Tauran grunted from the other side of the alu. He pounded the ground with his mace, making the soil jump in rhythm with his blows. 'I cannot whisk us there, however much I would like to. My power to do so is a manifestation of Tyr's benevolence. Since he and I aren't seeing eye to eye at the moment, he has withdrawn his favor from me. This is the best-and only-path!' He finished with a particularly powerful down-stroke.
Aliisza slashed at another clump of writhing, entwining vines and roots with her sword. Hearing the angel's explanation in such a casual tone saddened her. He tries to make light of it, she thought, to keep the rest of us focused and moving forward. But he must hurt at such abandonment. Like a parent turning his back on a loving child, she added.
Or her back, the alu reminded herself with a sudden stab of guilt. She turned to look at Kael. Her son was busy cleaving some thrashing bushes that were trying to entangle him. Seems we're all struggling with the same battles.
Something caught Aliisza's eye, some movement just beyond where Kaanyr fought alongside her. Behind him, a massive tree leaned forward, limbs splayed out as if to swat at him. Kaanyr, unaware of the danger, continued to cut at the tendrils of growth that entangled him.
'Kaanyr, watch out!' Aliisza shouted. She leaped into the air and flew across the open space between her lover and the animated tree. As she reached the tree, she flipped herself around so that she traveled feet first. She rammed both heels against the trunk in an effort to slow it down.
The blow caused the tree to shiver, but it continued to swing its limbs at her. Aliisza darted and wove around, narrowly soaring clear of its reach before the thing could envelop her with its flailing branches. But she bought Kaanyr time, and he scurried out of its reach.
'Two more!' Kael shouted.
Aliisza hovered in place and looked to where the half-drow pointed. Two more swaying trees waddled toward the group, shuffling their roots through the soil.
What madness is this? she wondered as she settled to the ground near Tauran to help free him from the grasping plant life that ensnared him. Walking trees?
'What in the heavens is going on?' she asked the angel as she helped cut him free.
'The World Tree is angry,' the angel answered as he broke loose from the last of the clinging tendrils. 'It doesn't always like being used as a conveyance, and though it seldom turns on angels, Zasian's cruel attacks on its denizens must have raised its ire.' He stepped away from the reaching, grasping plants and up onto an outcropping of rock, evading them. 'It might even believe we are the cause of its distress. It may sense the fiendish heritage of you, Vhok, and Kael.'
'Well, we need to get out of here,' Aliisza said. 'Now the trees are walking! Every moment we remain here, more things start wriggling and trying to catch us.'
Even as she spoke those prophetic words, several thick vines snagged her around the waist and began to pull her down toward a clump of bushes. Growling in exasperation, the alu whipped her sword around and sliced through the creepers. She heaved herself skyward as she tugged on the severed portions, unwrapping them from her body and tossing them to the ground.
Kael, too, had gone airborne. The knight zipped and dashed before the towering, mobile trees, trying to distract them and slow their advance. Tauran, seeing the dire turn the fight was taking, took to the air and began to circle. 'Let's go! Follow me!'
Kaanyr, however, had become snagged in more shrubs, and it seemed that for every clump he cut free with one of his daggers, three more snaked forward to grasp him. Aliisza could see the frustration growing in his every move to escape.
'We have to help him!' she shouted and swooped in to assist.
Tauran followed her, and together they managed to slash enough grass and weeds away from the cambion to free him. Kaanyr immediately rose into the air, levitating to get out of reach. Once hovering, though, he gazed around wistfully, just as trapped as he had been before.
'We'll have to carry you,' Aliisza said. 'Get his other hand, Tauran.'
The cambion frowned, indignant at how he was to be transported, but he reluctantly reached out to grasp their proffered arms, and soon they were wending their way through the forest, leaving the shambling trees and clutching bushes behind. Kael caught up to them a moment later and they settled to the ground.
'Fortunately for us, the trees cannot move very fast,' the knight said. 'But who knows how many more of them there are?' He gestured around them. The woods through which they had been traveling remained thick and overgrown, with no end in sight.
'Let's not stick around to find out,' Kaanyr said, straightening the sleeves of his tunic like a preening bird. 'I'd rather not suffer that indignity again.'
Noting that her lover did not actually protest the indignity itself, Aliisza hid her smile. At least he's learning, she thought. That's something.
'Come,' Tauran said, heading off in the direction they had been traveling before the attack. 'We're not far, I think.'
'How will we find the path in all this mess?' Kaanyr asked after a time, peering down at the ground as they hiked. 'If the crack in the ground leading to Dweomerheart is as narrow as it was before, we'll miss it for certain.'
'I don't think it will be a problem,' Tauran said, coming to a stop, at the edge of a clearing. 'I believe we're here.'
Aliisza peered over the angel's shoulder into the clearing and saw a ring of stones standing upright, perhaps thirty paces across. In the center of the ring stood a stone archway, and within the arch a shimmering, yellow
