As Leor was making his way back from the Beast area, a chiming bell began to ring from the direction of Drelk's manor. Leor's brows furrowed as he tilted his head to listen to the loud ringing.
"That's not the night time bell, what's going on now?"
He observed as the Beasts around the fortress began making their way toward the sound, so he followed along beside them, assuming that he would find out what was happening when they reached the source of the ringing.
The group followed the bells straight to Drelk's manor, where a group of Beast had already begun to gather. Leor saw Alina among the crowd, and made his way to stand by her side with more than a hint of excitement.
"Alina! It's good to see you out of meditation! Have you completed your preparations?" He asked.
She simply smiled and raised a finger to her lips, as she gestured toward the front. "We will speak in a moment, for now, let's hear what Drelk has to say."
As Leor turned his gaze toward the front of the crowd, he saw that Drelk had stepped out of his manor to speak. Alongside him, hiding her face nervously as she held his hand, was the small dark elf girl who Leor's talent had saved from defilement. It seemed that she had finally awoken from her unnatural slumber.
The girl's eyes still glowed bright red from the strange mutated defilement she had fallen under, while the teeth in her mouth, along with her fingernails, had become pointed and sharp. Other than that, she appeared as a normal 4 to 6 year old child. Especially now that her expression was one of a cautious, shy-curiosity, and her dress was clean and new. She wore a simple children's dress, yellow in color with pretty white lace borders around the arms and neck.
Drelk stepped in front of the crowd and cleared his throat, gently coaxing Rynn to stand before him. The child hesitantly agreed, but not without tightly hugging his hand against her chest with both arms.
The old dark elf seemed to be wearing a pleasant smile for the first time since Leor had met him, but the wrinkled old elf quickly hid away his emotions before beginning to address the crowd.
Taking a deep breath, he began, "As you all can plainly see, my niece Rynn has finally awoken from her slumber. Thanks to the help from the humans who arrived here from a distant realm, we were able to cleanse the horrid defilement that had consumed her for so long. Rynn is family to me, and so should she be treated as family to all of you. I hope you will treat her kindly and protect her as you would protect me. That is all I have to say, Rynn is still quite overwhelmed by all the recent changes, and she doesn't like to be the center of attention, so I won't keep her out here long."
After Drelk finished speaking, Bone stepped to the front of the group and translated the old elf's words in a much simpler and cruder mix of gestures and symbolism that the Beasts could understand. After that, everyone was dismissed as Drelk ushered Rynn back into the home. Drelk himself remained outside for a moment to speak with Alina and Leor.
As the two of them approached him, a solemn expression spread across the old elf's features, "For the first time in many decades, I find myself mourning my inability to leave this cursed realm. I thought I had made peace with the knowledge that I would surely die in this place. Now, all I can think is that this is no place for a young girl to grow up. Without friends, without the laughter of other children. No one to keep her company aside from an old elf and a handful of Beasts." Drelk shook his head firmly as he turned to look at Alina, "I've been thinking hard for the last few days as Rynn has been recovering, and I've decided that I will help you find a way to reestablish portal travel out of this realm. However long it takes. Whatever I have at my disposal that might aid you in such a task, just say the word and it is yours."
Alina nodded thankfully at Drelk's offer, spreading her hands as she responded. "Thank you Drelk, I am glad to see that you have finally come to your senses on this matter. Your assistance will surely be vital in the difficult task of breaking the seal. But before we can focus on that, I need to survive the process of ingesting the world tree potion." Alina turned to face Leor as she said those words, "You asked me earlier if I had finished my preparations. The answer is yes. I don't believe there is much else I can do to prepare. I have fasted for two days, cleansing my body of anything that might interact with the potion negatively. In addition, I have spent the last 48 hours in deep meditation, condensing my Will into a bright flame of determination. There is nothing else I can do to prepare. I am going to ingest the potion tonight, after the gates have been sealed. Leor, I hope you will accompany me during this dangerous time. I will be extremely vulnerable while the potion is taking effect, and will be in need of your support and protection."
Leor frowned, his expression turning grim as he gently nodded to Alina's request, "Of course I will accompany you, Alina."
Now that the hour was growing near, Leor's chest was filled with nervous anticipation. Alina was more important to him than he was willing to admit, even to himself. What if they remained trapped here, he thought, and were ultimately not able to break the seal? She was basically the only thing that would keep him from falling into despair and hopelessness. If something went wrong from ingesting the world tree potion, and Alina was lost, Leor would surely be lost as well. So in a way, his own life was on the line tonight too.
The rest of the day slowly passed. Leor had returned to the fields to complete the guard duty shift. He had volunteered after all, so he intended to fulfill his commitment. Thankfully there was no second defiled attack. He spent the last few hours of the day pacing across the soft soil of the herb fields. It took him hours to calm his uneasy feelings, and by the time he had done so the deadline he was dreading had arrived, stoking his fears once again.
Leor watched as the Beasts closed the heavy fortress doors, and placed the great bolt across to seal them shut. He followed Drelk as the elf placed the high tier spirit crystals into their slots, adding a touch of his own Willpower to each crystal as Alina had promised they would. He watched the powerful draconic inscriptions flicker to life, and the misty corruption slowly retreat from the air inside the fortress.
Then, when it was done, he quietly walked beside Alina toward the old supply building that had been made into their temporary home. Leor followed Alina into the house, through the hallway and past the open door to her room. A series of herbal candles were placed around the room that had been provided by Drelk to help aid the process. The old elf promised that they would help to gently soothe the mind and let the potion do its work more easily. It was the most that could be done. Any painkiller might disrupt the process, so Alina would be forced to endure the entire painful transformation through sheer power of Will.
As Alina sat down on the few blankets that made up her makeshift bed at the center of the room, Leor walked around quietly and lit the candles that Drelk had provided. He couldn't help but notice how clean the room was compared to the others in the building. Alina had been here much longer than him, afterall, so she had the time to tidy it up a bit. He was glad at least that she would have a more pleasant environment to attempt the dangerous transformation.
With nothing left to do, Leor moved to the front of the room, taking a seat by the doorway as he watched her. The world tree potion rested on the floor in front of her now, as she sat crosslegged on her blankets.
Alina stared at the potion for a few seconds, gathering the last of her lingering Will into one final powerful source of determination, then she removed the cover from the jar. Alina took a deep breath as she placed the cover on the floor beside her, then slowly removed the locket from her neck.
The necklace had been in her family for much longer than she had been alive, but it had never once been opened. The seal that had been placed on the locket was still intact, proving the safety of the precious item inside it. The item was sealed with a simple inscription, one so weak that it only needed to be recharged once every few decades.
Alina stared at the beautiful metal jewelry wistfully for a few seconds, before a look of resolve fell over her face. Removing a small knife from her pack, Alina didn't hesitate to scrape away the tiny inscription on the exterior of the locket, releasing the seal and destroying the necklace's enchantment forever.
As soon as the sealing inscription was destroyed, the tiny item flicked open all on its own. As the contents of the locket were exposed to the open air, Leor could feel a strange unease inside himself, like he was in the presence of something beyond him. It was a sense that felt like a mix of awe and fear, that only lasted for a single breaths time before quickly fading away.
Glancing toward the source of the sensation, Leor could see a tiny drop of red blood pooled up inside the center of the locket. The blood wasn't liquid though, instead it seemed to be frozen like some sort of amber. As the strange feeling emanating from the blood disappeared, the solid droplet slowly melted back into a liquid form.
Alina watched along in fascination as the strange blood underwent its changes. When it had fully liquified, she didn't hesitate to pour it into the open potion before her.
The dark colored potion seemed to swirl to life as the droplet of blood was added, spinning around and mixing itself as the dark color slowly became brighter over the course of a few minutes. After the allotted time had passed since the Beast essence had been added, the potion had become a bright yellow, almost perfectly matching the color of Alina's eyes.
The young noble girl of the realm of light glanced up at Leor for a moment as she lifted the potion into her hands. The two friends nodded calmly to each other, one last time.
Alina pressed the potion jar to her rosy lips, closing her striking eyes as she gently tilted her head back, allowing the magical liquid to slide down her throat in one large gulp.
A grimace of distaste flickered across her face as she set the empty jar back down, glancing towards Leor with a calm expression.
"Well, it tastes very bad. I wonder how long it will take befo—"
Alina's words were cut short, her calm expression twisted into a look of pure horror as her eyeballs rolled backward into her skull.