Yggdrasil (Afina, Moore, Jaela)

[Ebiris]

Afina pulls the door open with her mighty pixie strength!

[Anastasia]

The door opens. Ahead is a moonlit plain, short grass and wide open all around. The moon is high in the sky and huge, shining down.

But Afina don't care about any of that.

Far on the horizon, all of you see it. Your heart leaps into your throat as you see the faintest outline of a tree that reaches to the sky itself and beyond, so far away that it is barely a suggestion.

"Oh!" Crystal gasps behind you, a hand to her mouth. She stares ahead, eyes growing teary.

Moore can feel it as well. A sense of something, overwhelming and overpowering. A sense of wonder and a sense of forbiddance, as if you were never meant to come here.

[Corwin]

Jaela looks between Tree and the tree on the horizon.

[Ebiris]

It's all Afina can do not to just haste herself and blaze across to that tree at top speed. As it is her wingbeats slow and she lands on the ground, staring at the tree. This is it, she's far more sure of it than she ever was of that leaf they took from Castle Crumbling.

And how many times has she laid eyes on it before, in forgotten moments between one life and the next? Surely too many to count, but now for the first time she sees it with living eyes. And it is good.

[Nephrite]

Moore shifts a bit, as if something in the back of his mind suddenly reminded him of an itch.

Maybe he was here at one point and that's what he can't remember...? He shakes his head quickly. Despite being in this sort of presence, there's something... missing? Is it that it's missing, or it's been replaced with something else?

Is he allowed to be here? He no longer follows Queen Titania in his religious beliefs... Well, if he isn't, they sure let him get pretty far!

[Anastasia]

Queen Ilsenine gently sits down on the ground and weeps into her hands.

Crystal stares, transfixed at the great tree on the horizon.

Tree just looks at it, "Wow, that's a big tree!" he says, oblivious to the others.

Moore feels as if - something. Light. Light and something he can't remember, slipping away from him like the wind. He glances over at Luc ... Jaela when she speaks to Tree, the odd verbal one-two breaking him from that moment.

[Nephrite]

Moore has to blink once, twice... he shakes his head again. Augh, if he could just remember... but maybe he's not intended to anymore. Perhaps that's it?

No, no, he'll find his answer eventually. One day.

"I don't understand." He says quietly, to himself, more than anyone else. He takes a breath, clearing his head for now.

He smiles a bit at Tree. "It's a very important one, too."

[Ebiris]

Afina does eventually manage to get her wits back - she wants to get closer not just stand and stare from here after all. But she waits until Ilsenine has composed herself, not really able to offer comfort given the gulf between them in station.

[Anastasia]

"The most important of all," Crystal whispers, "Jaela, can you restore Hope to his normal size?"

Ilsenine cries quietly before ceasing. She cleans herself up with a bit of magic and says nothing of it. "We advance," she says, "Whatever trial awaits us will not stop us. Not now."

[Ebiris]

"Indeed, your Majesty," Afina agrees readily, waiting for people to go back to their awkward big sizes before advancing in formation.

[Corwin]

"I've got this," Jaela asserts, and commands her magic to fade as she, Tree and Hope are restored to their rightful size.

Feeling privileged to be a part of this expedition, she sets off towards Yggdrasil.

[Anastasia]

You begin to walk. The moonlight is so bright ahead, as in the distance you see a figure. A woman of some sort, hidden by the light of the moon. An elf, you see, radiant and with her eyes covered with a strip of cloth. She wears plain robes of gray otherwise, cascading down around her body. She stands there, right in your path but making no move to block you.

[Ebiris]

If she didn't know the truth Afina would probably be confused and irritated at all the elves here. She'd always considered them to be degenerate offshoots of the fey, who's connection to nature had grown weak as they forsook the Cycle for the call of the outer planes. But it's fey who are the degenerate offshoots of the eladrin, and weren't most eladrin once elves in their mortal lives?

Really when you think about it fey are quite stupendously arrogant and ignorant in their beliefs. It's not a nice thing to realise about yourself, but the truth must be respected. How else can one improve?

"Isn't Sehanine Moonbow related to your Triune, Jaela?" she asks as they draw closer to the blindfolded elf.

[Nephrite]

"Um..." Moore scratches his cheek. "Huh. Maybe this isn't the point, but we sure haven't met many fey in here so far... Just, er... mm. Nevermind, it probably isn't that important to our task right now."

[Anastasia]

"Come." The voice whispers in the wind, a movement of sound from nowhere. "Approach, my servant."