I had to wonder what the primary attack, that Nerna mentioned, involved, such that it required Mary's attention more than the scheme that I'd managed to thwart. The rift appeared to have calmed down significantly, perhaps thanks to what I'd done, but not so much as to allow me to reliably sense whatever other threats might still have lurked in the forest.

Nerna of course did not feel inclined to explain further, and neither did it care about my increasingly painful and laborious journey through the forest. Chiffon was there, though subdued in Nerna's presence, to guide me through an easier path, but it was increasingly difficult to see where I was going in the dark. As I had sufficient time to calm down from the thrill of the previous encounter, the throbbing pain in both my arms had come to the fore of my mind, making navigating the uneven forest terrain even more of a struggle.

At the very least Nerna had been helpful enough to move along in his humanlike form, so that in following him I had a direction to orient myself on. Though the fae was not so much walking with me, as it simply matched the speed that I could manage enough to let me follow. I couldn't help but be a little frustrated at the leisurely ease it seemed to simply flow along the forest floor, with none of the uneven terrain, roots or undergrowth restraining its movement.

I couldn't have said how long I had wandered in the forest after Nerna, when the fae suddenly stopped and cocked its head, as though it was listening to something. Then, before my eyes, it suddenly started to seamlessly meld into the forest floor. Instead of the huge mass of earth and plant matter that it'd animated last time, the fae seemed to become just a small mound of earth, and in an instant that mound started to speed down a slope barely disturbing the undergrowth in its path, quickly getting out of my sight in the dark forest.

My heart jumped into my throat, as I suddenly feared that I'd fallen for a fae's prank, getting myself lost in the Faewood in the middle of the night. Would Chiffon be able to guide me out of there, if such a thing really had happened? Mildly panicking, I decided to rush myself, following the direction in which the fae had disappeared, and where we'd been traveling, as best I could tell, the whole time.

I ignored the stinging pain in my arms, batting away branches as I rushed through, and tried to catch sight of the fae again past the foliage, then attempting to sense its mana when that proved hopeless. But instead I was surprised as I soon sighted a moonlit clearing ahead. I halted there, at the edge of the clearing, as I was suddenly presented with a picturesque scene. A lone woman in the middle of a small field, outlined against the trees on the other side, a light breeze running through her unassuming dress, with a presence that demanded attention.

She was immediately recognizable, both to me and to Mela. My daughter, her grandmother, I saw both and in that moment they finally overlapped in my mind, as did two complex and contradictory sets of feelings. In that instant I felt the dissonance of my existence within Mela's body more strongly than ever since I had met Celine. As elated as I was to finally find Mary, suddenly I felt relieved that she was not looking at me, that I had a moment to gather myself.

That moment was then shattered by a sudden sound, something between the roar of thunder and the shrill cry of an animal. I instinctively felt that whatever made such a noise was dangerous, a deep sort of terror towards what felt like the indiscriminate wrath of nature and the attention of a fierce predator combined. It felt like the whole forest shook at the booming sound, but perhaps it was my own disorientation. I had to grab onto a tree to not to lose my footing, but Mary stood still through it.

Hearing a second cry, with hesitant dread I followed Mary's gaze to the sky. Through the treetops above me I could only see glimpses of something very large yet fast, and a little silvery shine in the moonlight. Then the unidentifiable shape moved above the clearing ahead, and with a beat of huge leathery wings came to a momentary halt in clear view, as it turned in the air above Mary.

First I was struck by the colors, scales of a silvery white at the lower side of the beast, which occasionally reflected moonlight, shifting to a bluish green at its sides, to then a deeper blue that almost faded into the night sky. Equally demanding of attention was its set long of jaws, lined by numerous sharp teeth, on a head that seemed to hang heavy from a similarly elongated neck, and the almost birdlike claws on its four feet were just as intimidating.

Its whole body was very long and lithe in shape, it's tail seeming to make up as much as a half of that length. But despite how graceful and agile it seemed in the air, the creature seemed to have far more mass than anything that should have been able to fly, even with such great wings. The answer, I suspected, was in the fast flow of mana projected all around the creature, that seemed to carve a path through the air for each of its motions.

I did not pause to wonder how something that had the unmistakable appearance of a creature from the age of myths could have appeared. I saw that the dragon was staring straight down at Mary, who was stood out in the open. Not minding how surreal the situation appeared to me, there was only one thing I could think of. I wanted to shout at Mary, to tell her to get into the cover of the forest. But the words died on my lips, as she raised her arm before I could give voice to them.

Suddenly multiple of the wild streams of mana flowing out from the Fae rift began to divert towards Mary's outstretched hand. I realized that the rift had to be closer than I'd imagined, feeling less overwhelming in its presence than earlier. Mary made a fist of her hand, where the streams of mana merged, and they began entwining back towards the rift, until they became indistinguishable in a single, terribly slow and dense, flow, as solid as something without mass could be. To cast a spell, as I understood it, was to control the way in which mana flowed, but it was the first time that I'd seen mana fall so firmly into a shape, as though the flow itself ceased, under someone's will.

The quantity of mana that Mary was manipulating was almost comparable to what I'd seen Nerna or Satin wield, yet both of the fae had appeared to direct the mana through living physical medium that already had their own flows of mana. Mary, instead, appeared to be directly tapping into the unnatural torrent spewing forth from the rift, taking control of the momentum that made the mana of another world to emerge into ours. It wasn't a sophisticated application of mana's mysterious reality altering qualities, but a concentration of the simple power held within the essence of magic.

I saw the dragon begin to swoop down towards Mary. It's speed was terrifying for something so large, yet it wasn't comparable to the whip made out of solid mana in Mary's hand. The flow of mana simply changed the direction of its flow according to the sweeping motion of Mary's hand, responding more to her will than the physical motion, colliding with the dragon's side. The mana moved at a speed that wouldn't have been possible for something with the limitations of physical matter, yet its impact on the dragon seemed very much physical in nature, as the creature instantly veered off its course with a pained shriek.

I was glad that the dragon fell into the trees on the other side of the clearing from me. I would not have liked to be in the way of its crash, that brought down at least one of the large trees. It looked stunned, but within seconds it was thrashing about wildly, and the trees shook as it sought to orient itself again. Then, again, it's eyes settled on Mary, who had begun a chant. A single powerful beat of its wings cleared it of the debris of its crash, and then it moved again, charging on the ground far faster than I would have believed possible, mana once again paving its way.

I did not have the time to figure out what kind of spell Mary was casting, but it was of a type more familiar to me. I saw a large amount of mana beginning to weave a spell around the beast, but it did not seem like the spell could take take shape before the beast reached her. Yet she faced the approaching dragon without moving, and her voice showed no sign of the panic that was again gripping me, even as I knew that there wasn't anything that I able to do either way.

The dragon had already opened its jaws wide, ready to bite down on its enemy, when the earth itself suddenly burst up from under the creature, striking its belly and halting the momentum of its charge again. It wasn't the spell that Mary was casting, but rather I sensed the flow of Nerna's mana in the dark earth that began to grip onto the dragon's limbs. It didn't seem like the fae could stop it for long, as the dragon's long tail beat down on the ground, and its wings again gripped the air.

The creature did not let itself be distracted, even as it was struggling to free itself. I was able too see the determined and purposeful glare, that its large inhuman eyes continued to direct at Mary, as I was looking on from behind Mary. Yet Mary's spell itself pulled from the earth around it. Bursting out from under the roiling mass of black earth that was Nerna, several huge chains shot up to entangle the wings, tail and neck of the struggling beast.

I couldn't tell if the chains were made of stone or metal, but I could sense the mana flowing through them extend deep into the earth, so that the dragon's efforts to thrash itself free from them were fruitless. With its movements restricted, Nerna was quick to pull first its limbs and then its body into the earth. The fae wasn't satisfied until the only part left above ground was the creatures head, its jaws pressed against the ground by several chains, so that it could not even cry out the panic evident in its eyes. Only then did Nerna's mana withdraw from the earth, and its humanlike form finally rose out instead.

I had no idea what to think when I saw Mary finally let out a relieved sigh. Whatever I had expected or hoped for, this was so much more. The pride that I felt in that moment was far beyond any feeling of joy that I had towards my own accomplishments. Part of that pride was Mela's as well. I could understand it well, the brief glimpse of Mela's feelings towards her grandmother, that I'd sensed in the memory that Mela had left for me.

I even understood the hint of fear that was entangled with Mela's admiration. Mary stood strong before a defeated foe, a creature of such fearsome might that it scarcely could be comprehended from the tales. Even after having met two of the fae, I had still thought those tales to be the only place where the dragons remained, if they had existed at all. It might have been smaller than the legends would have led one to believe, but it was still far larger than any beast that I'd ever laid my eyes on.

It made my own thoughts, worries for if Mary was doing well, and how she'd react to my return, seem wildly out of perspective. I had just witnessed the most clear proof that Mary was nothing like the anxious little girl that I had left behind back then. She had lived near three centuries longer than either I or Mela. I could scarcely think of what I was to say, as I hesitantly stepped into the clearing. Was there anything left to be said, after so much time had passed?

And yet, when she turned to look directly at me, Mary was much more expressive than I ever remembered. So much more human. It was different from how I'd communicated with Chiffon, but each of her emotions shone through to me with unparalleled clarity. I was witness to her brief surprise and recognition, to sorrow mixed with happiness, in the eyes that peered into mine. In the end, her eyes looked tired, and the smile on her lips weary, as she asked a quiet question that shook me to my core.

"Father, have I done well?"

To my shame, I could not answer her in that moment, I could not give her the assurance that she deserved. My own emotions were much less clear to me than hers. She had recognized me with such ease, and she had reminded me of who I was. Of who I was not. Any happiness that I had, for being remembered, was overshadowed by the realization that I had approached Mary in the guise of her own granddaughter, who, I had to explain to her, was no more.

"Goodness, what happened to your arms!"

Mary rushed to me, gentle taking my hand and lifting it to inspect the injuries, that I'd all but forgotten despite the pain. In an instant her look of vulnerability was gone, and once again she appeared to me as Mela's grandmother, an ever reliable and caring figure. Though she could easily have been her elder sister instead, looking at most two decades older than when I last saw her. Where I had once looked like a sick old man, without having lived thirty years, Mary looked like she might have still been thirty, after having lived three hundred.

"We'd best hurry and find some salve, and bandage these. There's nothing we can do with magic, with these sorts of injuries."

It seemed that she'd already noticed that the blisters had been created by iron. Healing through magic was always a tricky business, with the myriad difficulties of casting spells to affect living beings, that had their own flows of mana within them. With the magic that I'd seen from the fae, I wasn't certain if such restrictions applied to them, but it seemed that the damage that iron caused to the fae was more than merely a physical injury.

I was happy to see that Mary so was vigorous and healthy, and more importantly looked self-assured and confident again. I followed her as she turned around and chose a direction to lead me to, already seeming to forget the dragon sealed in the earth, or the fae that quietly fell in line with us. Though I had no idea where it was that she wanted to go in the dark and alien forest, I was somewhat more fascinated by how her hand now seemed larger than mine, compared to how they'd always seemed so small and dainty to me previously, even when I was so sickly.

SootShade

So, I *might* have totally forgotten that I've got a Pathfinder game on Fridays. Which was exactly why I specifically avoided the day in my release schedule, as I was reminded just when I was about start writing this part. Some other things also came up over the weekend, and then there's the awful heat. But, disregarding those and all the other excuses I have, from here on I'll just try to deliver Chapter 25 as soon as I can manage.