Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 84 - Complete (Patreon)

For the first time ever, Elijah had a choice that wasn’t tied to an evolution.  Instead, the spell he’d been granted at level four-seventy came with a decision.  This time, he only had two options, though.

Elijah wasn’t certain what either meant.  Was it some new spell focused on growing things?  The names suggested as much, but his instincts were entirely silent on the subject.  That meant he had almost nothing to go on, which was why he’d so far hesitated to make a choice.  Without any information, he’d be choosing blind, and he wanted to take the time to do it properly. 

Maybe if he spent a few days meditating on the decision, some solution would present itself.  Perhaps his instincts would twitch a bit in one direction or the other. 

It was just as likely that he’d get nothing, though.  So, he was prepared to make a choice sooner rather than later, even if it was tantamount to flipping a coin and choosing blindly. 

As much as he could, he considered both options as he flew inward.  At some point, the corrosive nature of the atmosphere forced him to focus his attention elsewhere, but he never quite got to the point where it overwhelmed the leaves he’d dedicated to enduring pain. 

That didn’t mean it was pleasant.  Even with his most recent advancement in body cultivation – along with the influx of attributes he’d received upon gaining so many levels in such a short time – Elijah still couldn’t endure the inner reaches of Orveth Kaal without incurring damage.  Instead, the best he could hope for was not to kill himself.

Fortunately, he didn’t struggle so much that it slowed him down, and he reached his destination after only a day’s worth of travel.  Upon landing within the bubble created by the portal to Silvara, Elijah recognized that a couple of things had changed.

The most obvious was that the area had grown even wilder than the last time he had visited.  Before, half of the palace had been overcome with vegetation, with a rainbow of flowers growing like a multicolored carpet.  Now, it was about sixty or seventy percent. 

On top of that, the flowers had grown even larger than before, emitting a pleasant aroma that immediately put Elijah at ease. 

That led him to the second revelation – as expected, Illska, Gunnar, and Ok’tarik had beaten him there, but they hadn’t actually entered the palace.  Instead, they remained outside, gathered around a fire and glancing nervously at the entrance.

Elijah landed, then shifted into his human form on approach.

“What’s going on?” he asked.  “Why haven’t you gone inside?”

All three looked at him like he’d gone insane.  That wasn’t to say that they wore similar expressions.  They did not.  But Elijah knew all three well enough to read what they thought about his question.

Gunnar was the first to look away, and he did so with a resigned shake of his head.  When Elijah asked him what was going on, the sniper said, “I think you sometimes forget that we’re not all freaks of nature like you.”

Elijah opened his mouth to retort, but then thought better of it.  Largely because he realized that Gunnar wasn’t actually insulting him.  Instead, he meant it literally.  Elijah was a freak when it came to his nature attunement, which made him far more comfortable in such close proximity to a portal that led to Silvara.

Gunnar had some degree of nature attunement as well, just not enough to make him overlook just how dangerous the place was going to be.  Illska and Ok’tarik were comparatively naked in front of it.

“Whatever,” Elijah said. Then, he asked an inevitable question.  “How are you even here?  You should’ve been cooked by the atmosphere outside this bubble.”

Gunnar tossed a stick into the fire around which they had gathered. “I have my ways.”

“He has an amulet that protects him from hostile energy,” Illska said.  “It’s high quality, too.  There is no chance it was made on Earth.”

“You get that from the same place you got that bullet?” Elijah asked.

Gunnar just shrugged.

Illska said, “Tell no one of that bane weapon.  If the wrong people in the empire hear of it…”

“I don’t intend to tell anyone about it,” Gunnar assured her.

“They will destroy you and everyone you love,” Illska stated.  “Remember that.”

“I know how to be careful.”

“Do not resent my warning.  I will protect you,” Illska said.  “Should anyone discover that bane weapon, they will attack Earth. I will not allow that to happen.”

That statement came with such matter-of-fact conviction that it left no room for doubt.  Gunnar clearly agreed, and he nodded in gratitude.

“I want to take a couple of hours to rest,” Elijah announced.  “Maybe take a shower.  Then, we’re going into Silvara.  Does anyone have any reservations about this?  If so…well, it’s too late for you to change your mind.  Root Nexus is on cooldown. I can’t send anyone back before the Poet does whatever he’s going to do.”

They all knew what that meant.  As an orc, Ok’tarik could survive, but even Illska would perish if she was exposed to the Poet’s efforts.  He’d been very clear about that. 

So it was that Elijah retreated into the palace, as much for privacy as because he was drawn to it.  After finding a secluded corner, he summoned Blessing of the Grove, retrieved some soap from his Arcane Loop, and began the long process of cleaning the residue of battle from his body.

Blood was the easiest to get out, and it soon stained the surroundings red.  Dirt was a little more difficult.  And all the other unidentifiable bits were the toughest to get rid of.  Elijah persisted, enjoying the feeling of the rejuvenating precipitation on his exhausted body. 

He knew he shouldn’t be going into a place like Silvara without a few days’ worth of sleep.  However, he didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter.  He recognized the opportunity in front of him.  As a Druid, there wasn’t a better place to cultivate than in the Plane of Nature.  And gates to Silvara weren’t so common that he could simply ignore one when he encountered it.

Logically, it made sense.

Yet, doubts persisted.  Some were tied to Callux.  Elijah still wanted to be a father to his son, and he couldn’t do that if he was traipsing across a different plane of reality.  It was only for a year.  Maybe a bit longer once he figured out how to claim Orveth Kaal.  And in the grand scheme of things, that didn’t seem like a lot.

But Callux was young enough that a year was probably a long time to him.  What’s more, it came at a formative time for the young orc.  Elijah should have been there.

If he was a little stronger, he might’ve already returned to Earth.

But Elijah knew just how self-interested he could be.  He often invented reasons for his actions, all of which were meant to give him an excuse to do what he wanted to do.  But he didn’t really believe them.  Not completely, at least.  Kernels of truth buried within those excuses didn’t really change the reality that he did things for his sake.

Not anyone else’s.

And his choices with Callux were the same.  Did it make sense for him to return to Orveth Kaal?  Of course.  It was a strategic and developmental gold mine for Earth, and a lot of people would have died without his intervention.  But in the end, he came back because he had already internalized the reality that Orveth Kaal was his.

And he didn’t want to lose it to outside forces.

The same pattern repeated itself throughout his life.  Everything from Bloodrock Bay to Meridian Lux stemmed from selfishness, cloaked in virtue though his actions surrounding those events might have been.

Elijah accepted that about himself, mostly because he knew that it didn’t make him unique.  Most people had selfish reasons for their actions.  So long as he was honest with himself about his motivations and remained cognizant of having multiple reasons behind him, he could accept his own tendencies.

That didn’t mean he didn’t feel a little guilty, though.  He definitely did.  But the difficult decision had already been made, and he couldn’t turn back now.  So, it was full steam ahead and into Silvara.

With that in mind, he let his mind go mostly blank as he focused on getting clean.  That took about half an hour, and when he’d finished, he settled down in a bed of flowers and let his thoughts drift.  It wasn’t quite sleep, but the meditative aspect of it still left him mentally rejuvenated.

So, after two hours, he rose, donned his armor, and headed outside.  He found Illska sitting on a rock and staring out into the wilderness.  Ok’tarik and Gunnar were both asleep nearby.

Clearly, they knew they would need to be as fresh as possible when they headed through the portal as well.

Elijah sat next to Illska, and for a few moments, they both remained silent.  Then, at last, he asked, “You ever get a choice with a new spell?”

“No.”

“I did.”

Then, Elijah explained his options, at least as much as he could.  There really wasn’t much to say other than reading the descriptions out to her.  When he’d done that, he ended by saying, “My instincts aren’t really helping me here.  I have no idea what either of them means.”

“Do your instincts normally tell you what to do?” she asked.

“Not exactly.  I usually just know what the choices mean.  Like a sixth sense about it all,” Elijah admitted.  “That gives me enough information to make a good decision.”

“I have heard of such things, but I have never experienced anything like that,” she said. 

“So, how do you make decisions when the system’s descriptions are so uninformative?” Elijah asked.

“I study.  I go to Scholars and Archivists.  I consult the World Tree’s Knowledge Base,” she answered. 

“Ugh.”

Elijah was no stranger to research, but he’d gotten enough of that back when he was in college.  He much preferred experimentation and learning by doing.  Besides, he didn’t have access to anything like that at the moment.  From what he understood, there was a Branch back in Agmar, but according to Carmen, it was only partially connected to the World Tree.  It offered basic services like class evolutions, but beyond that, it was just a pretty, crystal tree.

If he wanted to choose a new ability anytime in the next year, he needed to do so on less than perfect information. 

“You seem fond of mushrooms,” Illska said.  “Perhaps that is a sign that you should pick Spores.”

“Maybe,” Elijah allowed, though he wasn’t so certain.  His greatest strength was his versatility, so doubling – or maybe tripling – down on the fungal theme seemed a bit counterproductive.  Wasn’t it better to have a broad skillset?

Then again, Illska wasn’t wrong.  Elijah did share a special connection with fungi, and it wasn’t just limited to his relationship with Fungee.  Even before that, he had been fascinated by such organisms, and after he’d first witnessed the fallen Druid’s cultivation system back in the Trial of Primacy, fungi had influenced his own advancement.

However, he just couldn’t escape the notion that choosing that route would end up being a mistake.  Was that his instincts finally making an appearance?  Or was it just logic?  Elijah had no idea.

What he did know was that it was sound reasoning.  It was also supported by the fact that he suspected that if he chose Spores, he would end up skewing his entire class.  And he definitely didn’t want that. 

So, as he sat there with Illska and waited to head into Silvaris, Elijah chose to follow the path of trees.