Well now, with this book drawing to it's conclusion, my mind has been on the plot of the next book quite a bit. Unfortunately, it has been on the next book so much it's distracting from my ability to write the last few chapters for the current book. That is literally the reason for why it took me so long to get this chapter out, I kept rolling the scenarios for the next book over and over again in my mind, and the fact that I got my commission for a fleshing out of the human territories back certainly didn't help as that gave me even more scenarios I could develop. I already have a side-story chapter in the works using this information.

 

Well, I'll try my best to stay focused on these last few chapters of book 2, but this really is turning into just one more distraction among the many that are piling up this month. IRL is also kicking my butt a little. Well, I did say before that I'm not going to be keeping myself to a regular schedule for a while, and that's not changing any time soon it seems.

 

Well, enjoy the chapter then.

 

---

 

Steven’s POV

 

Well, it’s going to be today, the day of the trial. From the best Steven could tell pouring over the evidence and testimony, there were three angles the prosecution might pursue. First, that Eirlathion lived with the dryad before it’s awakening. This would be the hardest to defend against, but the best argument against it would be that it had awoken mere minutes before the incident started and there was no sign that it would come that close. There was no way for Eirlathion to predict this would become an issue.

 

The second likely angle of attack would be the factor of him and the other mages growing and creating the wall that hemmed all the villagers in, which was the greatest factor behind the loss of life being so large. The clear argument against this was that the wall was constructed under direct order of the dragon sent to supervise the village. The prosecution's notes neglected to mention that the design of the wall was planned primarily by the elder and his assistant, which meant that they had likely not dug into that issue so deeply. Once that came out at trial, it would devastate the case against his client.

 

The final likely angle of attack would be on Eirlathion’s failure to act to prevent the incident. This was going to be a thorn in his side for the case, it was why he really resented the fact the prosecution had talked with Eirlathion without counsel present in the initial interview. The entire reason this angle of attack was even present was because Eirlathion himself had said it outright, that it seemed the dryad had wanted him to stop them, but he did not think they would be doing such a thing and thus said nothing. His best angle on this one was to simply push that acting to prevent a dryad’s rampage is simply not in a magus’ expected duties. In fact, the law of incitement of a dryad would explicitly prohibit him from such a thing under normal circumstances.

 

These were the defenses against all the likely angles the prosecution had. On his end, he had a powerful counter move. There were actually 2 more individuals who could be said to be more strongly to blame for this crime. The most obvious was the dragon who launched the attack on Eirlathion’s house. The second, the princess and judge of the case herself. He felt very uncomfortable about pursuing that second one, but if his guess was correct then there was a pretty strong likelihood that if given the opportunity to testify she very well might place the blame on herself voluntarily. Even if she didn’t though, she would still be a very valuable witness. He was glad she approved herself as a witness so easily. The next hurdle though was how it might be seen if he counseled her as a witness. He would definitely need to though in order to make sure she didn’t do something crazy like impune herself. That would be completely unnecessary and open up a can of worms he would rather not deal with. This case could be won without the need for that.

 

This looked like it would be a rock-solid defense. All he would have to do is counsel his client now so he would not suffer any sabotage from Eirlathion himself. If the prosecution called him and he repeated that nonsense about the dryad placing some of the blame on him, it would definitely be bad for the case.

 

He needed a short nap after going over everything through the night. He asked Sagel, who had been so incredibly helpful to him, to wake him up at first light in the morning. He had grown used to this body that didn’t need sleep, but he had also just been in an iron cage that sapped his energy for the last few weeks. He had not fully recovered from that yet, that loss of energy returned the need for sleep to his body. Furthermore, he had just worked himself ragged. It was only because of this body that didn’t need sleep, as well as a LOT of help from Sagel, that he was even able to prepare his defense on this ridiculous time scale.

 

He was now awake and preparing to venture off to Eirlathion’s room, when suddenly the entire tree started shaking. Sagel looked over to him with a concerned face, and then immediately put his hand to the wall. His brow furrowed immediately. “The dryad is not responding!” He said.

 

“What is going on!?”

 

“Normally, I would suspect a demon attack. That would not explain the dryad ignoring us though.”

 

Steven could only try to keep his feet steady on the shaking floor and exchange concerned glances with Sagel in this situation. The imp began yelling, and when Steven turned to look he saw that his cage was sliding off the table. He rushed to brace it before it could fall and injure the poor creature. It didn’t take that much longer for the shaking to end, and soon afterward the wall opened.

 

Steven exchanged glances with the alien-like changeling again. It seemed it might be over, but just in case Steven placed the imp’s cage on the floor, receiving some grumbling from the little guy as he cautiously approached the doorway that had opened. He and Sagel nodded at one another, and then they both hastily filed out of the room and made good time toward the teleportation room. There was some hesitation when they got in there, but as soon as Sagel put on a look of focus they were sent to their destination.

 

Upon their arrival on Eirlathion’s floor, Steven began stepping out toward the hall, but then he realized something. Sagel was not following, he just stood there with a very troubled expression.

 

“Uhh… Sagel?” He called to the man who had proven so trustworthy to him.

 

“Now the princess is not responding.” He said. “When I try to contact her, her thoughts seem disturbed. She seems very upset to the point where it seems she doesn’t even hear me.”

 

“Do you think it’s related to all that shaking?” Steven asked.

 

“Hmmm… that does not seem unlikely.” Sagel says, and holds his hand to his chin. He seems to be in thought for several heavy seconds before shaking his head. “We should just proceed on to Eirlathion. Her highness can handle herself.”

 

With a nod, Steven followed Sagel down the hall, both of them with a very heavy and purpose filled air. Things just became a bit more complicated, but he still had to get things set for the trial. With everything he had seen so far, it did not seem likely that this incident would cause the trial to be postponed. He simply had no choice but to try and disregard whatever was going on and proceed on as planned.

 

As they entered his client Eirlathion’s room, Sagel exchanged greetings with the two elves inside. Steven could not follow what was being talked about, but he assumed it was just some small talk about the shaking and other things he had already been told on their way here. He was able to pick out phrases he recognized like “pal-tanya mani,” tanya mani was a phrase he heard a lot and seemed to be something along the lines of “what is/was that?” with whatever came before “tanya” being the subject they are talking about if a subject is added. It was peculiar the way they arranged their words, which is what was making it hard to learn. Anyway, he guessed “pal” probably referred to the shaking earlier.

 

Following little key phrases like this, also catching out “il-sinta” (I don’t know) and “il-mala lye” (we are not hurt) he managed to more or less follow the gysts of what was being talked about, although there were still several words mixed in that he absolutely did not know. He assumed something that was said in all that mess must have had something to do with demons, like they had talked about, but if there was then he couldn’t follow it.

 

Aside from roughly managing to follow along using the sparse Elven he knew, Steven really couldn’t actually do a whole lot other than listen to their tone for when they seemed to be done with their small talk. As soon as they were, he began speaking to them with the psychic communication he was taught. Apparently only fey can hear it, but they are both elves so it should be fine.

 

‘I am sorry if I am interrupting, my Elven is not very good so this is the only way I can communicate well. I was trying to follow your conversation, but I am not completely sure if you were done.’

 

The two elves look surprised for a moment, and then Eirlathion hastily turns to him. ‘Of course, I am sorry lor… I mean, mister Steven. I guess we were being rude.’

 

‘That’s Ok, I am sure you had to unwind a little after that just happened so early in the morning, talking in a more familiar way would be more comfortable.’ He replied. He noticed something though. The woman in the room, to whom he hadn’t been introduced, seemed to have a very confused expression on her face. In fact, she looked almost completely lost. 

 

‘Ah, I’m sorry mister Steven. This is Túeth, my apprentice. She is pretty young, she hasn’t even developed her spirit to the point she is even able to communicate in this way. Don’t worry though, it only means she can’t talk like this, she can still hear you just as well as we can. We will pass on her words if she feels she has to say anything.’

 

Steven was glad for the introduction. He had not actually met many elven women before. She looked like she was just at the end of her teen years, but without having been told she really was considered young by elven standards he likely would have assumed that was just normal for Elven women.  Although she IS and elf, there’s actually every possibility that what’s considered young for an elf would make her more than twice his own age. Maybe it’s best if he doesn’t inform his client of what his own age is. He might very well loose faith in Steven as his lawyer if he learned he was in his late 30s.

 

‘Ok, well, thank you for the introductions at least.’ Steven said with a nod toward his client’s apprentice. ‘I guess we should move on with what I came here for. I have figured out how I am going to approach this case. I just need to go over a few more things with you so that we don’t have anything else happen like the disaster we landed with due to the fact you talked to the prosecutor early on.’

 

“You do not need to waste your time.”

“coiasira magha il-anta”

 

A very powerful but strange female voice was suddenly heard, and it seemed like her words were layered with both English and Elven spoken words coming out at the exact same time. Everyone was confused by this and looked over in the direction the voice seemed to come from. It was just an empty wall.

 

“The trial will not happen”

“naa tampe ongwë-nam”

 

After these words, what looked like a woman who was glowing with a soft green light walked straight out of the wall. She was wearing a white gown that seemed to have a collar that was embroidered with live vines that were still growing leaves. However, if this was the dryad of this tree, she… or rather “they” seemed to look different from how they always looked before.

 

Everyone else in the room stiffened when they saw this dryad. Well, dryads were considered pretty important, and relating to them wrong can land you in a whole heap of trouble as Steven had become very much aware. So, it’s really no surprise they would be upset. But, what did they mean the trial was not going to happen though? He had to ask, but Eirlathion started talking in a rather angry sounding voice before Steven could say anything.

 

“lle ta naa!? Sinome sut naa lle!?” He said. It sounded a little like he was asking “who are you,” or “how did you get in here,” but Steven was pretty sure he was understanding him wrong. He has to know about dryads, so actually he’s 100% sure he understood that wrong. At any rate, Eirlathion’s tone had a very demanding edge to it.

 

“I sent a piece of myself in the wagon. I joined with Isainil, and I have been watching everything.”

“norollë y’ leta-mië nae amin. yassen isanil yanwe amin, elea iluve amin caela.”

 

With that rather chilling sounding remark, Steven was starting to get a good idea of who this dryad really was, and why everyone was really upset.

 

“The queen made Aerien swear an oath, that is what she wanted from the beginning.

“y' vesta i' tari karne aerien sana, yesta tanya naa mani re merne.”

 

The dryad went on.

 

“It made me mad and I fought her. Well, in the end, she cancelled the trial”

“Karne amin aha tanya ume, dagora amin ume, ar' i’ ongwë-nam re tela”

 

At this moment, Sagel spoke up. “I just heard from her highness, the princess.” He said. “She confirmed what the dryad is telling us.”

 

So, it’s all true then, huh? Ridiculous! Once again, this world simply refuses to conform to anything like Earth’s standard. It worked out in their favor this time, but the prospect of having someone significant raise a fuss being all it takes to get a case dismissed feels just… dirty. Especially so after he had been working so hard to get an honest resolution to the case. Steven was quite certain it would have worked out. Well, it’s not like it was uncommon for a case to not go to trial because charges were dropped, it’s just the manner in which it’s dropped that’s the issue.

 

“The trouble is not over though. I will need the three of you to come with me. Sagel, please protect this guy’s little friend.”

“Eithel, tyela i' rashwe il- naa.  Lle nelde amin anta tul - amin.  Sagel, vara saesa sina edan's ai Mellon”

 

Wait, what!? What’s this all of a sudden? Before Steven could even say anything at all, he was enveloped in a white light that seemed to raise up from his feet. It was the same light as the teleportation room, but how did it pop up here!?

 

As the light faded, he looked around an unfamiliar room. It seemed to be some kind of workshop. Or rather, more like a plant nursery. There were tables arranged everywhere filled with what appeared to be potted plants. The two elves seemed stunned as they looked around. Eirlathion rushed over to a table immediately and seemed to be checking over the plants for some reason. When they came back to the dryad, they seemed to be full of questions. Of course, Steven understood none of it.

 

“I will tell you later, we should tell him where we are before that.”

“nyara lle ale', nyara-aya ho manke lye naa n'ala.”

 

The dryad said these words and then turned to Steven.

 

“Welcome, you are now in my territory. This is my main body.”

“Creosa, e' amin yamen' lle naa sii'.  Amin ened quenat sina naa.”

 

What!? So, is she… errr… are they saying that we were all just kidnapped and teleported from one dryad’s body to another!? Yeah, it is exactly as they just said. The problems are only just starting. It seemed now like that was more a threat than a warning. What is this dryad trying to accomplish!?

---

 

"Either the queen or the new dryad will end up being a secret antagonist. Well, no. They are both antagonists already. Though it is unknown whether that antagonism is out of malice or difference of opinion."

                                                                                                                                   -Vorquel

---

Yeah, just one today. The rest were either grammar corrections or me responding to the comments of others. Not really share worthy.