A few hours later, Leor found himself shivering in the freezing air of the underground workshop once again. This time accompanied by Bone, Alina, Drelk, and a few other Beasts, including the tall female that he had met during his trip through the forest. Now that they had come along with the workshop's rightful owner there was no need to carry torches. The entire room was lit up brilliantly by empowering a formation on one of the walls.
Leor was feeling the dull ache of Willpower exhaustion in his chest at this time, because for the past two hours he had been forced to fill spirit crystals nonstop with his unique Willpower. Then meditate and do it all again, and again. All in preparation for the difficult Defiled cleansing they were about to attempt on Rynn, the Defiled niece of the dark elf Drelk.
"How exactly did this Rynn end up here anyway, wasn't Drelk all alone on this mountain when the realm fell to defilement?" Leor asked casually as they walked down the long hallway toward the workshop.
Drelk twitched at the question, but he didn't refuse to answer like Leor thought he might. Instead, his recently cleared tears began to well up in his old eyes once again as he spoke.
"Rynn is my sister's daughter. When the defilement came, they were one of the few dark elves that survived for a short period of time. They used a family spell to track down other survivors of our clan, and since I was the only other blood relative left alive in this realm, it led them directly to this mountain fortress." Drelk wrapped his thin arms across his chest, hugging himself to stop from trembling as he continued, "They must have travelled through the dark forest, all on their own. Alone and scared. When they arrived at the gates of the mountain, it was still the early days of the defilement. I didn't understand what had happened, and I couldn't bring myself to disobey the master's orders! Viridrax would slay us both for such a thing, so I thought I was protecting them by keeping them out. No one was allowed to enter the fortress without the master's permission!" Drelk gazed toward the ground in shame as he continued to speak in a quiet voice, as if he didn't want to say the next part out loud, "I… left them outside. For days. They begged me to open the gates, screaming that the great dragon lord had fallen into defilement, slaying tens of thousands of innocent elves in the city. But, I refused to believe it. And then one night they stopped begging. The strange creatures that stalk the plains at night had appeared and found them. A long time later when I finally ran out of food and had no choice but to open the doors, all that was left out there was Rynn's defiled body. She was chained to the gate, unable to escape. She's been locked down here ever since. I had to keep her starving to prevent the defilement from growing stronger, and twisting her body beyond all hope. The one silver lining is that she hasn't aged a day in all these decades, the corruption has preserved her body as the tender child she was when it consumed her. If we can save her now, she could resume the childhood that was stolen from her all those years ago."
Leor couldn't help but look at Drelk with a hint of disdain on his face. The old elf truly was a weak and reprehensible creature. To let his own family die because of the selfish orders of a neglectful master was not something that Leor could relate to at all.
Alina coughed loudly as she spoke up to lighten the mood, "Well, anyway. Your sister was wise to chain Rynn to the gate. Otherwise she wouldn't be here now, for us to save." Alina glanced between Bone and Drelk with hesitation before continuing. "Sorry to change the subject, but you said you were willing to give us what we needed. I'll have to insist on making the trade before we proceed any further with the cleansing. Are the leaves of the world tree sapling here, in this workshop?"
Drelk snorted as he heard her question, "You think that jealous dragon would tell anyone where his most precious treasure is kept? No, neither the leaves nor the sapling was left here. Nor did Viridrak ever see fit to tell me where they are."
Alina slowed to a stop as she heard his words, her brows knitting together tightly. "Then how are you going to keep your promise, Drelk? We need those leaves."
Drelk waved his arm casually at her worries, before stepping toward the area in the workshop that contained the bodies of the dead Beasts. "I've never had access to such precious things. What I DO have access to, are the bodies of the Beasts that Viridrak used for his experiments. We can extract the essence of the world tree saplings from them. That is how I was able to provide the world tree potion to Bone and his companions, and it's how I will do so for you and Leor.
Drelk pulled a large seed out of his pocket, infusing it with Willpower before placing it on the chest of one of the dead Beasts. The seed instantly came to life, releasing a noxious smell like a dead animal as its roots dug into the flesh of the fallen Beast with a squelching sound like organs being squished. Leor covered his face in disgust as he hurried to distance himself from the awful plant.
"The corpse eater will drain the spiritual essence from the body. Then we simply need to refine away the impurities. Worry not. If nothing else, in this regard I am truly capable. You will have what you require." Drelk explained with a hint of pride in his tone.
The corpse eater made quick work of the remains of the beast, as a tall black flower bud grew out of the body in a matter of minutes. Just as the bud was about to bloom, Drelk snipped it off and quickly stuffed it into a jar. Then he set the jar over a flame and continued refining it using various methods until all that was left was a shiny green powder.
He repeated the same process, from start to finish, on a second corpse. Creating two jars of powder in the end. Then he walked around the underground workshop collecting ingredients. Mostly herbs that he processed in various ways before adding to the concoctions. In the end the green powder in each jar had become a swirling and bubbling dark liquid.
Drelk carried the jars back over to Leor and Alina, placing one in each of their hands.
"That's the base of the world tree potion. All you need to do is add the essence of the Beast that you wish to embody. It needs to be pure essence, make sure it hasn't been tainted or the results will be catastrophic. Add the Beast essence to the jar, let it sit for a few minutes, then drink." Drelk turned to walk away, but hesitated for a minute and looked back, "Oh, and bite down on something hard. So you don't chew off your own tongue."
Leor and Alina glanced at each other nervously as they looked at the bubbling potions in their hands. "So we are really going to do this, huh?" Leor asked with hesitation.
Alina remained quiet for a few moments before reaching for something around her neck, it was the necklace her grandmother had given her on her 16th birthday, a family heirloom of sorts. "Do you believe in fate, Leor?" she asks quietly.
"I'm not sure, I think I do, why do you ask?"
He looked over at Alina with a questioning gaze. Her eyes were locked on the sealed locket, a distant expression on her face.
"Because this necklace around my neck has been travelling a great deal of time to get to where it is right now. For nearly a hundred years, it was passed down to the daughters of our house. All because of an old superstition, that it would be needed someday by a daughter of the family." She turned to gaze at Leor, the distant look still filling her eyes. "Now, because of a multitude of different choices by dozens of different people, I happen to be carrying around my neck the blood of a holy beast right when I need it."
"A holy beast… Do you mean the symbol of your family crest?" Leor asked with a look of sudden understanding.
"Yes, Leor. The Guardian beast of my house. The beast that is said to be responsible for the prophetic talent of my bloodline. The sphinx."
Leor took a deep breath as he realized the significance of what she had shared. Alina was going to attempt to embody the holy guardian beast of her family. That felt like a dangerous gamble. A sphinx was an incredibly rare Beast, almost nothing was known about it except that it was related to the talent of prophecy.
"I think it must be fate, Leor. How else could such an impossibly fortunate thing occur?" Alina tucked the necklace back into her clothing as she waited for his reply.
Leor thought hard for a moment, but eventually just shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "Impossible things happen all the time. For example, I unlocked a rare talent just hours before I needed it to save my own life. I prefer to think of such things as being the Will of the great light of creation."
Alina's eyebrows rose up in a teasing way as she put her hands upon her hips, "How is that any different from fate, Leor? It's the same thing."
As the two were pondering the differences between fate and the great Will of the light of creation, Drelk walked back over with a dissatisfied expression.
"Put those away and come along. I've fulfilled my part of the bargain, it's time to release Rynn from her neverending curse! I won't force her to wait another moment!"
Alina and Leor did as they were asked, storing away the potions for later and following the others toward the center of the room. As they approached the large cage that awaited them there, the defiled young dark elf could not be seen. Drelk walked around the cage nervously as he searched for the child, until he reached the back side and nearly collapsed from shock, letting out a hoarse cry as he gripped his chest.
Leor and Alina rushed forward, quickly coming to understand what the problem was. There, on the backside of the cage, a small stretch of bars had been torn to shreds. The young dark elf with the unique defilement had escaped containment.
Drelk quickly regained his composure and jumped into action, rushing over to the wall and pressing a command on the runic formation. Leor heard a familiar clunking sound, which he knew to be the locking mechanism on the heavy front door.
"She can't get out! She's in here somewhere! Bone, spread out and find her! Just… Don't hurt her!" Drelk commanded.
Just as the group of Beasts was fanning out to search for the child, a crackling sound rippled through the inscriptions on the wall. Leor could just barely make out from the corner of his eye the image of a tiny body scuttling away from the inscription panel at great speed.
Then the lights went out.