He walked slowly along the little path paved with fine fallen leaves between the trees, his deep gaze fixed upon the sanctuary before him, a place birthed jointly by ancient tree and spring, like a natural Divine Hall—the very heart of the Jade Dream Realm, the ancient tree pedestal known as the "Heart of Life."
The great tree was gnarled and powerful, its branches coiling and weaving into a form like an altar encircled by living wood, and upon that altar were inlaid translucent shards of the Heart of Life, gleaming with a soft radiance whose brilliance was like stars fallen to earth, yet gentle and magnanimous, harboring boundless vitality.
David slowly knelt, taking from his breast a Crystal Core—the new body's core, refined from the distilled essence of arcane and Natural Power—and laid it with a careful hand upon the center of the Heart of Life's fragments.
