Before Leor could speak another word, Drelk hastily scooped the glowing bulb into his hands, rushing toward the corner of the room where a different herb was growing in a large pot of soil. Drelk Tore the herb from the pot with one hand, tossing it to the floor as if it was trash, then he gently set the glowing bulb into the pot of earth with the utmost care. Slowly covering it in a thin layer of soil like a father tucking his child into bed.
After Drelk had finished with his transplant operation, he turned to gaze at Leor with a ravenous expression. Like a wolf gazing at the body of a succulent lamb. Rushing back over toward the table, Drelk motioned frantically toward the other herbs that still remained defiled.
"What are you waiting for! Quickly! Quickly save the rest of them, Leor! You beautiful human boy! Wait! I have more in the storage room, I'll bring them right away!"
Leor had no reason to object, after all it was just a bit of willpower to him. He could replenish it in a moment of meditation. Without thinking much of it, he prepared to reach for the next defiled herb on the table, but as he did so Alina motioned for him to stop.
"Hold on Leor." She said, stepping beside him as she gazed up at an increasingly frantic Drelk.
"W-why have you stopped him, Alina!? This is my life's work, you know that! I have sworn an oath to my lord to maintain his great garden! I must save these herbs, every one of them that perishes is the greatest of tragedies!" Drelk shouted, half whimper and half scream.
"I understand that Drelk, but your lord is sitting at the top of his tower of Draemyr filled with defilement because of his own stubborn pride! Saving his garden is not the most important matter at hand." The words she spoke seem to be like daggers into Drelk's wrinkled old heart, but Alina showed not a hint of sympathy as she continued to pressure the elf. "I think it's time that we fill Leor in on some of the details of your fallen realm."
Drelk's eyes shifted back and forth between Leor and Alina with hesitation for a few seconds, then they locked back onto the defiled herbs with a great longing. The sight of the plants seemed to help him make up his mind, and Drelk let out a defeated sigh as he slumped his body into the chair at the end of the table.
"Fine. Have it your way. What painful thing do you wish me to speak of?" Drelk asked with an exasperated wave of his hand.
Alina nodded in satisfaction as she replied, "Explain to Leor who exactly you are, we can start with that."
Drelk's eyes seemed to stare off into nowhere as he shrugged his thin and withered shoulders, casually speaking the shocking words as if they were obvious to all. "I am the last grove master, and keeper of knowledge, of the great dragon lord Viridrak. This is his grove world. Every tree, root, stem, and beast upon its surface belongs to him."
Leor's eyes went wide at Drelk's incredible disclosure. It was quite common knowledge that dragons were greedy and jealous creatures, they would often keep entire families of servants whose only purpose was to stay hidden from the world and safely guard the dragons treasures. Be they treasures in the form of knowledge, riches, or sometimes even living beings.
After letting the information sink in, Alina pulled out her tablet of the torch of light. Placing it on the table in front of Drelk. "Show him Drelk." She insisted.
Without pause, Drelk lifted up the symbolic tablet, injecting it with a powerful willpower. Somehow Leor had been beside the old elf all this time without ever noticing the powerful will that existed within that wrinkled and hunched old form of his. But that was not important right now, what was important was that Drelk's powerful willpower was able to quickly overcome the latent corruption of the realm around them and fill the symbol of the torch of light full to bursting. Drelk's willpower was not of the light realm, but that hardly mattered for a process like this. The symbol only needed enough raw power to send the portal request home. It didn't care what nature that power was.
Leor watched in quiet anticipation as the tablet began to softly glow, jumping to his feet as he saw the process complete. "T-thats it! He's done it!" Leor exclaimed happily. Glancing around the room in expectation of the portal that would surely open soon to take them home. Maybe they could return with a team of masters from the house of flame to search for Paul, that would truly be a blessing.
Seeing the excited look on Leor's face, Alina slowly shook her head as she spoke up. "Don't get your hopes up. This isn't the first time Drelk has activated the symbol for me. No portal is coming, and no one from the realm of light is ever going to come looking for us here either. This is not the realm we were meant to be sent to, and I highly doubt they would even guess to search in such a place. This world is not even on the list of local realmworlds, the dragon did his very best to keep it secret." she explained.
All at once the enthusiasm in Leor's face faded away, replaced by a somber expression. "What's going on? Why won't the signal get through?" he asked, looking between Alina and the old elf.
This time Drelk answered of his own accord, without waiting for Alina's prompting. "It's a problem with this realmworld. Dragons are jealous creatures, Leor. Lord Viridrak was always wary of thieves, bandits, or poachers, portalling into his garden and making off with his precious spiritual herbs. That was why the tower of Draemyr was built. The tower itself is a massive draconic formation, fueled by the latent willpower of the dragon lord himself. It blocks any signal from leaving the realmworld. You can portal in, but you can't portal out. Before lord Viridrak succumbed to the wretched defilement, he would disable the tower once a week for supplies to come and go after thorough inspection. Now however, the dragon lord has lost his mind to the corruption, and the tower is never disabled." Drelk let out a tired sigh before he continued, "There is no way off this world, Leor. Do you think I have remained here with only beasts for company for all these years without reason? I would have surely sought help from lord Viridrak's kin by now"
Leor seemed stunned by that revelation. His hopes of finding a speedy route home had been dashed on the cruel rocks of truth all at once. His expression darkened as he glanced down toward the floor and spoke. "I see. So we are truly trapped in this place. Light save us." Without lifting his head, Leor continued to speak, asking Drelk a final question. "That explains many things. I am guessing that the Humanoid forms of the Beasts outside are related to the knowledge that the Dragon lord left behind in this place?"
Drelk nodded slowly at the question, gesturing towards the defiled herbs still on the table. "Yes. There is a great deal of secret and precious knowledge that my lord has stored in this place. Knowledge passed down through many generations of his family's draconic lineage. Most of it is off limits. It is a taboo for this knowledge to be shared outside the dragon race, but there are some things I am permitted to share in case of emergencies."
"Tsk." Alina did not seem to be impressed with Drelk's continued obedience to his defiled master. She showed the displeasure on her face whenever the old elf made mention of it. "Drelk survived the calamity that led to the defilement of an entire realmworld because he was locked away in this mountain, not allowed to interact with anyone, even his own family, for fear that he would share the dragon's precious knowledge. He already considers it a great concession that he has opened the mountain at all. Though he would have surely starved if he had not." Alina explained, before stepping forward a few paces until she was standing directly between Drelk and Leor at the center of the table. She lightly rapped her knuckles against the old wood as she spoke with a suppressed smile. "Well, now that everyone is all caught up we can discuss the most important matters of the day, our trade arrangements!"
Drelk's eyes seemed to tremble at the dreaded word. He had always been tremendously naive about the relative value of things, which was probably why he was chosen as a grove keeper in the first place, but it made for a miserable time when he needed to trade. He just couldn't seem to ever come out on top of any exchange, even with the simple Beasts he normally traded with! Unfortunately for Drelk, Alina was one of the most savvy negotiators Leor had ever met.
"T-Trade arrangements?" Drelk stuttered back at her with dread in his eyes.