The morning came fast. Leor woke before dawn, as was his habit, and began his morning meditation. He noticed that ever since he'd gotten to this world his meditation sessions were unusually effective. Maybe it was the way his new talent changed the nature of his Willpower, or maybe it was just a benefit of constantly struggling against the defilement of this realm.
Either way, Leor was making great progress every time he closed his eyes to meditate. In order to advance from an initiate to an adept in willpower mastery, a Willpower user would need to achieve what was known as the body of will. That consisted of a Willpower so voluminous that it filled every inch of the initiates body.
Right now, Leor's Willpower could hardly cover a small area inside his chest, about the size of a clenched fist. It was about right for his age, he had just achieved the initiate rank afterall. Back in the realm of light, Leor would need to meditate rigorously for months before seeing any small change in the volume or nature of his Willpower. Now however, it felt like he was gaining ground everyday. He could have sworn that his Willpower had grown just a hair, even since only last night!
It might have been in his mind though. He was still getting used to the large volume of Will he had acquired from the fight against the Twisted one. A Willpower volume of a fist may sound small to some, but it was gigantic to Leor. Afterall, his willpower had been merely half that size only a few short days earlier. Defeating that defiled monster had truly been a boon.
In fact, Leor was itching to get out of this fortress and hunt down a few more. Now that he was together with Alina, they could work together to bring down some Defiled. It was the one benefit of being stuck in a fallen realm.
"I'm sure we will go hunting soon, Alina's plan involves growing stronger as fast as we can, after all." he muttered to himself.
Before he knew it, the sun was rising, and Alina was calling for him to join her and Drelk for breakfast. Strapping on his crude leather chestpiece, the only armor he could afford to purchase for his initiate trial, Leor stepped out the door and headed toward Drelks manor.
When he stepped inside, Alina and Drelk had already seated themselves at the table. Leor could see by the expression on Alina's face that she was already itching to commence her attack… Ahem. I mean negotiation, against Drelk.
Leor sat down in the same place he sat the night before, a meal of the same meat and vegetables had been prepared for him. Before he could even take his first bite, Alina broke the silence.
"Good morning Drelk." She began.
"Mmm. Good morning to you both as well." Drelk responded with a hint of sleep still in his eyes.
"How did the gate inscriptions fair throughout the night, was there a noticeable difference in power usage between the two crystals?" She asked.
Drelk seemed to visibly swallow as she asked the question, as if he knew it was coming but could do nothing to prevent it. "Yes. In fact, it was a great success. Even with the unfortunate attack, the spiritual crystal that Leor imbued with his Willpower was still half full by morning. An incredible 50% reduction in Willpower usage. Truly remarkable." He muttered.
"That's great news Drelk! Why do you seem so bothered but such a good thing?" Alina smiled.
Drelk huffed as he stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth. "You know exactly why! The further I fall into your debt, the more blood you will suck from my bones!"
"Drelk, we are in this together. This fallen world is a threat to all of us, and we need each other to survive." She wore a disarming smile as she spoke her words softly, "Speaking of which, it's a wonderful day for saving the endangered spiritual treasures of this world from certain death, don't you think?" She continued.
Drelk's entire body seemed to tremble as she spoke that sentence, like his defenses were being breached once word at a time.
"I… y-yes… We must save the spiritual herbs, they are priceless." Drelk admitted, his gaze lingering on his plate.
"Good, I'm sure you have a list somewhere of all the spiritual herbs that are in danger of extinction. Can you provide me with that list now?"
Drelk stepped away from the table, returning after a few minutes with a parchment filled with line after line of elvish writing. Alina scanned through the document quietly before laying it flat on the table.
"42 species of spiritual herb unique to this realmworld, all in danger of being lost forever to defilement. My my. What a tragedy." Alina set back in her chair, folding her legs as she glanced toward Drelk. "Well, you already know that I am going to propose a trade, so I suggest we start with listing the benefits I am willing to offer. Does that sound alright with you?"
By now Drelk had lost the mood to eat, pushing his plate away as he gently nodded his head in agreement.
"Very well. Then I will instruct Leor to use his unique Willpower talent to save these herbs. So that's forty two priceless species of spiritual herb that would be lost to you forever if not for our intervention. In addition, we will empower the spirit crystals for you every night, minimizing the energy usage of the gate formation, and saving you hours of work each day. Doesn't that sound good?" Alina offered the most pleasant smile she could muster along with her words.
Once again, Drelk gently nodded his head, his heart preparing itself for the blow that would surely come soon.
Alina nodded swiftly before sitting up in her chair and leaning in toward Drelk as she spoke. "Good. Like I said, we are all on the same side, Drelk. Myself and Leor are only interested in finding a way home, we aren't after your master's secrets, and we aren't interested in taking advantage of you. That said, we find ourselves in desperate need of power. We don't have the luxury of spending decades slowly developing our Willpower anymore, you know as well as I do that Viridrax body cannot resist defilement forever."
Drelk visibly flinched at the mention of his master's name, before turning away from Alina with a bitter expression on his face.
"What we need is a way to grow stronger, and we need it fast. Do you have any idea how we might achieve that, Drelk?"
The dark elf sat silently in his chair, refusing to look at either Leor or Alina as he shook his head.
"Really? You have no ideas at all?" Alina let out a disappointed sign as she leaned even closer to Drelk, "What about the world tree potion, Drelk? The one that allowed all these Beasts to take on the human form? Wouldn't that be quite helpful to us?"
Drelk's wrinkled face seemed to turn three shades whiter before twisting into a vicious snarl as he shouted at Alina, "How dare you!" Drelk pounded the table with one hand, destroying the plate of food in front of him, Leor could feel the old elf's Willpower fluctuating to a dangerous degree. "You've been snooping around behind my back haven't you!? You deceitful treacherous worms! Get out! Get out of my home, I can't stand to look at you any longer!"
Drelk launched his fragile old body out of his chair much faster than Leor thought possible for a creature of his age. The ancient elf pushed Alina out of her chair, shoving her again and again as he tried to force her out of the manor.
"So you're going to let all these herbs die!?! Just to safeguard the secrets of a Defiled old lizard who used you like a slave?! How pathetic you are, Drelk!" Alina sneered as she held her body firmly in place, not allowing him to push her any further.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF MY HOME!" Now Drelk's face was swollen with reddened rage, spittle flying from his mouth as he hurled his tiny fists at Alina in impotent rage. Leor stepped forward and held Drelk's arms, preventing him from striking her again. "BONE! COME AND COLLECT THESE FIENDS!"
Alina put her hands up in a symbol of surrender, as she signalled for Leor to let go and allowed the elf to shove her out the door, but before he could slam it closed in their faces, she let slip one last sentence. "And what of Rynn, Drelk? What of your niece? Will you allow her to perish from defilement as well? She's just a child Drelk, she trusted you to protect her."
Those last words seemed to truly break the old elf's spirit, his reddened face collapsed into a flood of tears as his angry voice deteriorated into sobs. Falling to his knees at Alina's feet, Drelk began to shudder and weep like an inconsolable child into his own wrinkled hands.
Alina bent down beside him, placing her arms across his back as she continued to speak. "We can save her, Drelk. We can save her right this instant. You don't have to be alone anymore. Rynn is waiting for you. Help us. Help Rynn. It's the right thing to do, Drelk."
Drelk continued to weep for a long while. It seemed like the old elf had built up a great deal of suppressed agony inside himself, and the confrontation with Alina brought it all flooding to the surface.
Once his trembling body finally began to calm, Drelk rubbed to tears from his eyes and the snot from his nose in one quick motion. Looking up at Alina through bloodshot eyes, he slowly nodded his head.
"Okay, I'll do it. I'll… b-betray my fallen master."