"You know," Elijah said. "Sotis, it's easy to forget just how good we have it here."
Nerthus, who was busy tending to one of the juvenile pillar trees, didn't imdiately answer. Instead, he focused on his task, sending dense flows of ethereal into the tree's roots. Elijah tracked the lattice of energy as it traveled up the trunk and extended into the branches. The tree itself was only around fifteen feet tall, and the branches were arrayed more like those of a pine tree, giving it a narrow profile and making it look even taller than it was.
Already, the trunk was more than four feet wide, suggesting that it would be a true beast of a tree when it was fully grown. There were eight others scattered around the grove, evidence that Nerthus and Nara had been very busy in Elijah's absence.
"Your attitude is the result of your disengagent from the grove. You leave and co back weeks later, only to see the product of everyone else's work," Nerthus reminded him.
"Are you saying I take it for granted?"
"I am."
"Ouch," Elijah said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not a fan of mincing words, are you?"
"Should I? I find that honesty is best."
Elijah let out a sigh. "You're probably right," he admitted. "At least between us. I'm relying on you to tell when I'm doing sothing stupid."
"I will make a list."
"Damn, man. That bad?" he asked. "No. Don't answer that. I prefer to live in ignorance of my own shortcomings. Just keep those to yourself."
"Noted."
With that, Elijah picked himself up from where he'd been lounging upon a particularly soft patch of grass, then headed to the ash lotus-powered hot spring. Sinking into the water ca with a sigh of intense relief.
He'd been back in the grove for an entire day, but he still hadn't moved on from the Painted Wastes. The combination of the harsh environnt, the monstrous nature of the wasps, and the pressure of knowing he would need to attack that Primal Realm had taken its toll. The effects would not soon fade.
The first day had been spent in recovery. He hadn't endured much physical damage, though the dry desert heat had left him feeling a bit withered. On top of that, he was eager to rid himself of the stink of wasp pheromones. Rationally, he knew they were gone. He couldn't truly sll them. But in his mind, they surrounded him like a particularly odiferous blanket.
No amount of showering could get rid of the illusory sll, either.
For a while, Elijah simply relaxed in his personal hot tub, secure in the knowledge that he would soon give way to his instincts and embark on a campaign of destruction against those hated wasps. He had no idea what the Primal Realm might look like, but he expected that, by the ti he was finished with it, he'd have had his fill of wasp murder.
Oddly, he found his excitent outpacing his dread. An increasingly large part of him wanted nothing more than to enter the Broken Crown, and as soon as possible.
In addition to recovering, Elijah was also happy to find that the situation in the grove was looking up. The new additions were growing more comfortable by the day. The adults were the slowest to adapt, but from what he could tell, the children treated the entire island like their ancestral ho.
That wasn't to say that they weren't working. They certainly were. Most were dedicated to getting the most out of their mbership in the grove, and a couple had even managed to awaken their class. Perhaps predictably, there were now two more Hartwood Sentries to join Rosabella.
According to Nerthus, the class was a little like Miguel's in that it was ant to protect the grove. Not as powerful – at least not on its own – but it also featured a predilection to working with the native wildlife. Where Miguel's class seed limited to a single bonded companion, the Hartwood Sentries were friends to every animal on the island.
And Rosabella had used that feature to form an alliance with the crabs. Even as Elijah relaxed in his hot tub, the little gno girl was sitting atop one of those enormous crustaceans as it circled the island.
"Crab cavalry," Elijah muttered to himself. "Need to get them so water-breathing rings."
Indeed, it looked like his grove was going to have a significant marine presence, and so, the ability to breathe underwater was probably going to be a necessity. He made a ntal note to address that with Nerthus. So of them could acquire such rings from the local tower, but there were plenty of crafters who could make passable copies. Elijah's companions had used such items during the Trial of Primacy, and he felt certain that those Tradesn's craftsmanship abilities would have advanced significantly since then.
Or he hoped so, at least.
In any case, it was one more item on his to-do list. He already had a lot of preparations to make before he intended to tackle the dragon realm, so adding another couple wasn't a big deal.
In the anti, he had also taken a few minutes to investigate Nara's budding coral reef. The woman herself had ventured into the tower. Mostly because she wanted to gain so relatively quick levels, but also because many of the city's battle Healers had gone down to the Hollow Depths. There were a few remaining, and there were always people like Jess who functioned better in a clinical setting, but the ongoing war against the trolls had definitely taken a bite out of their numbers.
Oddly enough, the island felt a tad empty without Nara around.
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Thankfully, the children avoided the hot spring as well as the Frozen Glade. They couldn't endure the extre temperatures – which wouldn't change until they had quite a few levels under their proverbial belts. Instead, they kept to the grove itself, usually training under Nerthus. He believed that a couple of them might make passable Druids, and he wanted to nurture their developnt if possible.
After all, extra Druids ant that he could focus on the tasks he preferred.
Not that he would easily loosen his grip on the grove. He tended to it with ticulous care, ruling over its developnt with an iron fist. Ceding any of that to newly-risen Druids would be entirely out of character for the spryggent – even if Nerthus kept insisting that was the plan.
Elijah chose not to argue. If Nerthus wanted to pretend he wasn't a control freak, he wasn't going to contend otherwise.
In any case, Elijah spent only one more day recovering. He'd long since learned to take peace where he could find it, so he didn't cut himself short. Instead, he spent a few hours teaching the children as well as a couple more hours liaising with their parents. Then, he finally set his sights on preparation.
Much of it was possible in the grove itself. Like a packrat, he had a lot of stuff in his treehouse. Extra supplies, a few pieces of gear, and quite a lot of rations. He shoved everything he needed into his Arcane Loop. Mundane supplies went into the Ghoulhide Satchel, which was getting a bit frayed around the edges.
Regrettable, but expected. The thing wasn't ant to endure so of the punishnt it had received. Most of the ti, it was protected when he shifted into one of his bestial shapes, but definitely not always. It wouldn't be too much longer before he was forced to retire it.
"That'll be the end of an era," he said to himself as he packed it full of useful items.
Once that was done, he headed to Ironshore, where he commissioned a veritable mountain of als. This ti, he didn't use just one Cook. Rather, he spread the work out, as much because it saved ti as because he wanted a little variety. No matter how good the als, he tended to get tired of eating the sa thing every single day.
He also bought quite a lot of dried at and an entire wheel of crumbly cheese. He even found soone to make pemmican for him. The stuff wasn't very tasty, but the combination of tallow, dried at, and berries was incredibly calorie dense, with a very long shelf-life. In short, it was perfect for survival rations, especially when he used grove fruits in place of berries.
Still, he didn't look forward to eating it.
"Only in ergencies," he said to himself as he shoved the packages into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. With any luck, it would just sit at the bottom of the sack, completely forgotten until he decided to clean it out.
Next, he had a eting with Ramik, where they discussed the progressively intertwined fates of Ironshore and the grove. There were actually far fewer problems than Elijah had expected, which gave him so hope for their future. As long as Ramik was in charge, he didn't think there would be any real conflicts of interest.
The only real issue was that, as he'd drawn closer to paying off their debts, the Green Mountain Mining Company had grown ever more insistent that he make new loan arrangents. At present, they were mostly just offers that seed too good to be true, but Ramik seed to think that they'd escalate soon.
"These sorts of loans aren't ant to be paid off," he stated with a sigh. "They want eternal debts that give them control. They'll do whatever it takes to ensure that we're not in a position to settle our debts."
"What do you think they'll do?"
"Saboteurs. The only reason it hasn't already happened is because we're protected by the system," he explained. "If it was even a little cheaper for them to send people here, they already would have."
"What can I do?"
"Nothing at present. But if they co in force…"
"They can't do that, right?"
"Not yet," Ramik answered, leaning forward in his chair. "But once the threat of excisent has passed, travel will open up. It'll beco quite a bit cheaper. Still not cost-effective, but for a few saboteurs? They'll do that without issue. And if they think they can take over, they'll send their thugs in here to do just that. Even if it's not cost-effective, they might do it to make an example. Or they could just ignore it and let it be an example for those who believe they'll beat the system, pay off their debts, and get rich."
He shook his head. "The problem is that we just don't know."
Elijah leaned back in his own chair. "What's to prevent other, more established forces from coming here?" he asked.
Ramik looked away, and for a mont, he just stared at a painting on his office wall. "Realistically? Cost-benefit," he said. "What does a deity really want here? There are so who might try to co and take over, but that could draw the ire of other, more powerful forces. There have been many, many cases over the years of wars between huge factions starting over a tiny, recently integrated world. In most cases, no one will risk it because even if they try to take over, they'd never be allowed to keep it."
"But who's doing the policing?"
"In this sector? No idea. But there's bound to be soone out there. Now, this only really protects us from higher-leveled invading forces. Deities and the like," he said. "But there's very little to stop soone from sending like-leveled armies our way. Nothing but cost-benefit."
"It sounds chaotic."
Ramik shook his head. "Not really. There's an understanding in the multi-verse. People don't really attack those weaker than themselves," he said. "Doing so just tells others that they're fair ga. Once that seal is broken…well, people don't want that. It escalates and before long, worlds get destroyed."
"Damn," Elijah sighed. "Is there any way to prevent that?"
"Beco a vassal of a stronger force. Or get strong enough to dissuade others from trying to take your planet. Otherwise, we'll have no real protection other than being too poor to warrant the effort," Ramik answered. "Every newly-touched planet deals with it. And there are a lot of them out there. The trick is to be strong enough to dissuade the desperate, but not so strong as to entice the truly capable."
"I'll have to rember that," Elijah said. Although, he had to wonder if his relationship with Kirlissa might help him. After all, who would attack a planet under the protection of such a powerful transcendent?
His eting with Ramik ended on that sour note, and Elijah left the goblin mayor's office soon after. His last task of the day was to head to the local Branch and check his ssages. After waiting in line, he approached the crystalline tree and did just that, finding that he had three ssages.
The first was from Benedict, and it was a reminder that he couldn't conquer the Labyrinth of the Dead Gods alone. More, he'd already had to kill a few guild groups who'd attacked his people. Apparently, they'd sohow discovered the location of the Primal Realm, but they were unable to accept so of Benediction's more grueso practices. Elijah could understand that.
The second ssage ca from Atticus, and it was confirmation that he'd started funneling money into the Temple of Virtue. Already, they had begun an expansion into charity work that would hopefully fill a void among the poor.
And finally, there was a ssage from Sadie.
This one was just a simple request for help. Buried between the lines was Sadie's admission that, despite her previous insistence that she and her army could handle it alone, she had found the limits of her power. If they were going to accomplish their goals in any reasonable amount of ti, they needed Elijah.
Seeing that, he tabled his preparations to assault the Broken Crown and shifted his focus to heading down to the Hollow Depths.
That ca with mingled disappointnt and excitent. The first, because he truly did want to deal with those wasps. But he also liked the idea of Sadie needing him. Not in a lording-it-over-her kind of way, but rather, because it represented a shift in their relationship. If they could admit to one another that they needed each other, things would be much better.
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