>>5953818“Yes,” you say, “yes we are.”
“Tips!
“Ez!”
You look at both the women in your life, and take one of their hands in each of your own.
“We need to know,” you say simply. “Costella… You were there, right You heard what he said.”
Costella’s face shifts through a series of emotions—doubt, fear, contemplation, concern. You let her process that, while you turn your eyes to Izzy’s own fearful, confused visage.
“If there’s any risk that what we’re doing could ruin the world, we need to know, so that we can avoid it. We need to find a way forward that’s good for everyone involved.”
“And if there IS no perfect path forward?” she asks you, voice low. “If we see something we don’t like?”
You hesitate, only for a moment, and Izzy starts to pull away. Before she can, you grasp her hand harder, and meet her gaze again.
“It’ll be okay,” you promise her. “Please, just… Trust me?”
…And she does. Izirina Henzler clings to your hand as the two of you approach Nenaias. Costella watches you go, worry etched across her face; you spare her a backward glance and the most reassuring smile you can manage, and then you follow Nenaias out of the treehouse, down the trunk of your arboreal residence, and down to the forest floor. The guards follow at an unobtrusive distance as he leads you into the woods, always present but never too near.
“We need privacy for this to work properly,” Nenaias explains. “No interruptions, no intersecting threads of destiny from others nearby. It would honestly be much easier without even YOU here, Master Van Houtzmann.”
“Ezreal stays,” Izirina insists, hand still gripping yours tight, and she subtly shifts closer to you. “Whatever is in my future… He’s a part of it, so it shouldn’t provide any interference. Our futures are joined together.”
“And it’s MIOUS Van Houtzmann,” you correct him, reminding him that this is your place as well—that his culture is your culture, that you are not just Man but Elf.
“Very well,” says Nenaias, and you follow the blindfolded man deeper into the forest.
Finally, seemingly satisfied with the location, the seer approaches a nearby tree and places his hand upon it. Then he casts a spell you only know by reputation:
<Druidhome!>
Suddenly, the teres and bushes around you seem to grow taller, and taller, and taller still. The thickets densifies and swallows up your portion of the path in grass and moss. The surrounding plants entwine with one another, and they push back the outside world until the three of you are alone, beneath star and moon, in a paradisiacal grove. Even the thin, chill night-wind seems to be cast out, and a comfortable temperature and perfect humidity abide here. The only other resident is the central tree, which immediately widens and begins to flower, and then to fruit, producing small, brilliantly-red apples.
