Moving through the forest, Stephen was accompanied by Rurth, Blargh, and the ghoul whom he had instructed to stop snapping at everyone and stay calm. The ghoul couldn’t talk, but it seemed to understand and follow Stephen’s commands. Blargh had Starfire in a scabbard on his waist.

“So, you really don’t know anything about this sacred grove other than it supposedly exists around here?” Stephen asked Rurth for the fifth time.

“Honestly, that’s it. I was just brainstorming ideas that might help when I remembered something about this,” the apprentice wizard said.

“I’ve never heard of it at all,” added Blargh unhelpfully.

Above them, the men and ghoul heard a voice shout out. “Halt intruders, proceed no further.” Looking up they saw a woman in green robes, standing on a thick branch far up in a tree, holding a gnarled, wooden staff looking down at them. Curly, silver hair fell to her shoulders.

“Greetings, fair maiden,” said Stephen. “I am Stephen Crawford and my companions are Rurth and Blargh. Who do we have the pleasure of addressing?”

“I am no maiden, but the druid charged with defending this grove. Take your vile abomination and depart,” she responded.

Stephen looked at Blargh who looked back blankly, then gave him a dirty look and pointed at the ghoul.

“Oh, powerful druid, please forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” began Stephen. Rurth and Blargh looked at him in confusion. The graduate student dismissed the ghoul. “The creature is banished,” Stephen called out. “May we meet with you?”

“I have no interest in meeting with those who traffic in unlife. Begone!” she declared. Raising her staff, a mist arose around the three men, who soon found themselves with no visibility in the thick fog. After a few minutes, continuing forward, they came out of the fog and saw the path they came from ahead of them.

“We got turned around,” said Blargh, pointing out the obvious.

With a sigh, Stephen said, “Back to Hopedale I guess.”

***

Standing by the foundation where they were building the Wizard’s Guild of Hopedale, Stephen Crawford looked at the plans along with (former) Master Harim. “It’s amazing that a city the size of Hopedale has never had a wizard’s guild,” said Harim.

“Yes,” agreed Stephen sadly. “It does feel like the perfect place for a first-rate guild. But we’re going to fix that. On an unrelated note, I travelled up northeast to visit a sacred grove that Rurth had heard about. We got there, and a druidess confronted us. She was very indignant that we had a ghoul with us, and cast a spell to obscure the grove and herself from us. I’d like to talk to her and visit the grove. Do you know anyone who might be able to be an intermediary for us?”

“A ghoul?” said Harim, shocked. “I hope you aren’t learning necromancy.”

“Nothing like that,” said Stephen, slightly annoyed. “We’ve talked about my magic that captures things. I captured a ghoul. I didn’t cast any necromantic spells or anything.”

“Is ‘capturing’ a ghoul better than casting necromantic rites?” asked Harim.

“Feel free to cast identity on me, and you’ll see that I haven’t learned any necromancy,” said Stephen in exasperation.

“No need for that,” said Harim in an offended tone.

“So do you know anything about the druidess, or the sacred grove, or anyone who might be able to put me in touch with her?” repeated Stephen.

“I’d write her a letter and offer a bounty for delivery and a response at the adventurers’ guild,” suggest Harim.

***

The adventurer guild’s representative looked over the posting that Stephen had written and nodded. “Five gold should be enough to get someone to take your letter out to Shomos, ten gold would be reasonable if you’re asking them to bring a response.”

“Ah, is Shomos the druidess?” asked Stephen.

“Ahh,” said the representative, looking irritated. “I suppose I should have asked you if you wanted to post a bounty on information about her. Yes, I’ve heard that’s her name. Some of the ranger members have contact with her, likely one of them will fulfill your bounty.”

“What else can you tell me about her and her grove?” asked Stephen.

“Just that her name is Shomos and the grove is called the ‘Circle of Roots’,” said the representative. “She’s been tending it for 60 years or so. Anything else you’d like to know, we should probably post another bounty.” He smiled hopefully.

“Let’s see what response we get to the letter, then we can talk about that,” said Stephen to the representative’s disappointment. “She might find it creepy if I’m publicly doing research on her. By the way, we were wondering, can all the members of the adventurers’ guild read?”

“The battle mages can, most of the others can’t, why do you ask?” said the representative.

“Well, if your members are illiterate, why do you post written bounties? How do they read them?” asked Stephen.

“They’ll ask the representative on duty to read the new bounties to them,” said the representative.

***

Sitting at a table at The Bloody Bugbear, Rurth and Stephen each sipped a beer while Blargh instructed three of the journeymen wizards on the finer points of organizing an inn and tavern from behind the bar.

“I’m half tempted to keep learning magic from the wizards and assisting with building the new wizards' guild, but it doesn’t feel like that will help me get back to Earth. All I can do with the mystic grove is wait to hear back from Shomos, but it feels like there might be some avenues to explore other sites around Hopedale that might be more helpful getting me back home.”

“Where do we stand right now in terms of triggering the dimensional travel card?” asked Rurth.

“Well, I have the Hopedale Wizard’s Guild and Ashburnum Estate Water Wheel battery cards. The guild provides orange, yellow, and green power, the water wheel provides red and blue power. The sword lets me convert any power into indigo power. That means all I need is violet and I’ll be able to power the dimensional travel card. Violet power is what the wizards’ guild calls quintessence. Its domain is the heavens and mystical realms. I think the druidess’ mystic grove fits the bill. I suppose I could also start spending time at the temples with the clergy and see if there are any leads there. Organized religion was never my thing back on Earth. I wonder if capturing something from them would anger their god?”

“I wonder if you could capture a god?” asked Rurth.

“Geez,” said Stephen, his eye widening. “How would that work? What would that entail?”

“I have no idea,” said Rurth. “I’ll start scouting around, looking for leads on something related to quintessence.”

“I’ll start working on my next Numeracy book and maybe get one of the journeymen wizards to start teaching me an offensive spell of some sort. I didn’t really care for sword play during the fight with the ghoul,” said Stephen.

“Would it be worth getting Blargh some combat training, if he’s going to wield Starfire,” asked Rurth.

“I don’t know,” admitted Stephen. “Anything he learns will be lost the next time he’s released.”

***

Stephen sat at his table in The Bloody Bugbear reading a treatise on ‘magic missile’ that his journeyman instructor had recommended, a glass of celestia sitting nearby. A man in green clothing with a bow slung across his chest, a quiver over his shoulder, and a sword strapped to his belt approached his table. Dropping a sealed letter on the table, the ranger said, “That'll be ten gold.”

Counting out the money, Stephen thanked the man, then quickly opened the letter. Reading it over, he was glad to see that the druidess had written him back, with some evident reluctance, and that she was willing to have him come visit her sacred grove. She gave a list of supplies that she expected him to bring if he did come, but nothing on the list looked too exotic or expensive.

Setting aside the book he had been reading, the graduate student began planning his trip out to meet the druidess.