I placed my hand on the dull brown orb in the wall in front of me and channeled pure Earth attribute Ether into it. This was a door similar to the one into the mercantile quarter, it would create Earth Ether crystals as a byproduct. The rock wall around the orb began to turn into sand and flow into channels on either side of the tunnel it was opening up to. This tunnel had been dug towards the forest side of the mountain by the mining golems quite some time ago, starting from the farthest west point of the caldera ring, since I knew we would need one. I turned to look at my fellow dwarves, or at least the outline of them projected by the lake of lava behind them, before I spoke.

"Men, I feel the need to remind you. No matter how much any fey in the forest beyond here irritates you, you are not to act or speak offensively. I will handle any rude behavior from yourselves or them personally, understood?"

Everyone in the group nodded, I grunted in response before turning back to the tunnel and starting the 10 km journey to the edge of the forest.

—————

As we arrived at the end of the tunnel Oswallt shuffled up next to me and glanced at me.

"Speak Oswallt, you don't need to ask permission when we are outside formal settings, remember?"

"Apologies my lord, I thought we should keep up appearances given we are entering the forest. Us fey do normally prefer to maintain a hierarchy in all situations, after all."

"Indeed we normally do Oswallt, but we dwarves have surpassed the cycle. The Mother Tree deserves our respect and our fellow fey are the dwarves equals, not our superiors or servants. I have not ordered my kin to disrespect me, only to converse with me as a fellow dwarf when outside of formal occasions. My word is law to my kin, no member of the fey has a right to complain about a lack of hierarchy without disrespecting me. Given that complaining about my orders would be against the hierarchy itself, even for another High Fey."

"As you say, so Anwirn, how are we to proceed? I do not see a party waiting for us to guide us further."

I chuckled lightly and thumped my boot against the ground, feeling the waves pass through the earth and highlighting numerous spirit protected roots just inside the forest line.

"Our guides are already here Oswallt, maintaining hierarchy by not interrupting my conversation. Which of the Dryad clans was selected to be my guide on this fine day?"

I directed those last words at the nearest section of roots, which squirmed lightly as they retracted from the dirt before moving slightly closer. Before long a tall and narrow Magnolia tree had weaved its way to the edge and planted itself firmly into the ground before a woman emerged from the trunk and bowed. She had deep green hair and was draped in a dark brown dress that was covered in white flowers and red beans, matching her host tree that was in full bloom.

"This one greets the High Fey of the Dwarves, my name is Gossamer Sun, a member of the Sun Dryad clan. My sisters and I have been tasked by the High council to guide you to Mother's Sacred Grove."

I nodded to her, allowing her to stand again and merge with her host tree.

"Greetings to you, Gossamer Sun and your fellow sisters. I am glad to see that the Dryads of the Sun clan are blooming well even in these chilled months. Shall we depart?"

I heard the slight sound of giggling, like the rustling of leaves that are attempting to imitate a voicebox, from the forest behind Gossamer as she herself shook slightly.

"Forgive my sisters, some are still young and have not interacted with many outside of our clan. We thank you for your gracious flirtation, High Fey. We have already prepared a path through the forest for your welcome, if you will follow me?"

Her voice sounded much like the previous fit of giggles, like leaves rustling in a way to attempt to produce distinct words.

—————

We walked in mostly silence, a few of my companions had taken to teasing the younger Dryads that followed us but nothing was said with a mean spirit. They seemed to be mostly teasing them about things from the outside world, like pretending that humans walked on all fours before one of their brothers lost composure and gave the game away in a fit of laughter. I chuckled and returned to my conversation with Gossamer.

"It is good to hear that the elders are so ecstatic about our coming, it has indeed been some time since a new lineage of fey awakened."

"I agree, it is heartening to see how quickly my sisters have formed bonds with their new kin. The young ones always wish to let their roots travel, so a new fey from outside the forest is a welcome change for them."

I chuckled again and nodded.

"The same goes for my men, they are greatly enjoying showing off their creations to inquisitive new minds. Humans lack much of that childlike wonder at the new that us fey enjoy."

I turned back to enjoy the view that this path offered us. A bright passage through the trees, a boulevard of interlacing roots encased by walls of fall trees in full bloom. At the far end of the trail we could see a glowing white trunk, shimmering with all of the colors of the spectrum and crested by a golden cyan-green canopy. Just a small portion of the Mother Tree could be seen from the path we walked. She did not stand that much taller than her forest, only about 2 kilometers tall at her highest point. But she did take up roughly 5 kilometers of land at her base, making it hard to see her entire trunk from any single angle.

"For the longest time I have felt a tug, pulling me here, even though I have no memories of this forest or our Mother. Perhaps now I can find out why."