“What do you mean gave away the queen's location?!?” Tasha shouted.

     “I mean she used a forbidden spell. Dark magic that those cultists bastards will one hundred percent be looking out for,” Cardwin replied. His voice was unsteady from Tasha shaking him.

     “We must go save her now,” she replied, fear and urgency filling her voice.

     Hold yourself,” Ardin said as Tasha made a mad dash for the door. “I said I found her.”

     “Where is she?” the headmaster asked.

     “Lorianna, it was mentioned once, several millennia ago. A divine oracle overheard a celestial message. Apparently, it fell to the outer gods.”

     Tasha fell into one of the chairs and asked. “Why would the queen go there?”

     “I’m not sure. There is a lot we don't know. Honestly, I always found the ‘one queen’ thing a little suspicious. We may have made assumptions. All we know for certain is the queen can traverse worlds. Maybe she does so to help dying worlds?” Cardwin said.

     “If that is the case, then we need to operate under the assumption they may be underdeveloped. We need to go in prepared,” Ardin said. “We should bring a fourth.” 

     “I know just the man, I trust you two to get things ready for the journey. We’ll need restoratives, if this world is underdeveloped we might have difficulty with magic there.”

     “Leave it to us, mind returning me to my shop?” Tasha asked.

     Cardwin took her hand and the two of them blinked.

     “Boy,” Ardin said looking at the small spirit. “You should return home.”

     Dariel shook his head and spoke, “No I will go with you. I must save Mother and Anais besides having a spirit will help you. I can do my     magic regardless of the condition of the world.”

     “Fine by me, if you are going to come then help me.”

 

*****

 

     Tasha’s shop glowed brightly as the two of them materialized. “Thanks, I’ll get what we need and meet back at the coot's shop.”

     Cardwin said nothing, simply bowing before he disappeared. Tasha went over to her cabinet and began to pack a bag. She pulled an assortment of clothes and bottles filled with mysterious liquids from various shelves. She pulled a small rectangle of material from her pocket and tapped it. 

     “Elf queen Anastasia, Tszarr et mel fineas.” The device glowed and began to chime. After a moment a hologram of a woman appeared floating above the device.

     “What happened? You never use the emergency line,” the woman asked.

     “My queen, we have found her majesty,” Tasha said bowing to the woman.

     “Excellent, we will send someone to you.”

     “I'm sorry your highness. Vaught may already be on their way to her, her location was compromised by an over-eager spirit.”

     “Very well. I will send someone anyway to be there when you return.”

     The woman disappeared as she ended the call. With a sigh Tasha set about collecting anything she may need besides the obvious.

 

*****

 

     The headmaster appeared in front of a small cabin. He removed a small vial from an inner pocket and popped the stopper. After draining its contents she shivered and made a smacking noise. As he approached the door it banged open, a silver-scaled Dragonkin stood before him. With a huff and a snort, he motioned the wizard in. As the old man sat down the Dragonkin poured him a glass of tea.

     “What do you want?” he asked preempting the old man.

     “Cant I visit an old friend?”

     The Dragonkin snorted, a small gout of flame bursting forth from his nose. 

     “No, you don't visit friends. You come calling favors. But you’re out of luck you already called in all mine. So after you finish that tea you can find your way out.”

     “I’ll owe you a favor,” was all the old wizard said.

     The Dragonkin sighed and asked, “What do you need?”

     “Some help against Vaught and their allies.”

     The tip of the Dragonkin’s tail curled slightly as he asked. “What are they up to now?”

     “Kidnapping the spirit queen. So are you in?”

     The man sighed and snorted a larger gout of flame. “Damn it you knew I would say yes the moment you mentioned those bastards. I’ll never forgive them for taking my Adria. What are we doing?”

     “Excellent, thank you for accepting,” he said holding out his hand. 

     The Dragonkin took the old man's hand and the two of them disappeared. Reappearing a moment later in Ardins shop.

     “He got to you too Faurik?” Ardin asked seeing the Dragonkin

     “Yea,” he replied running a hand over his head and down one of his horns. 

     “I’m going to retrieve Tasha, I expected Faurik to take longer to agree,” the headmaster said before vanishing. 

     “How’d he wrap you up in this?” Faurik asked.

     “Same way as you I assume, he offered me something I couldn’t refuse.”

     There was a moment of silence before he reappeared with Tasha in tow.

     “Damn it, you are moving way too fast for a geezer,” she said angrily. 

     “You elves just move too slowly,” Faurik said seeing his old friend.

     “Says Mr. Millenia life span,” she retorted.

     “Great now that we are all here we can debrief,” Cardwin said taking another mana restorative. They spent the next hour discussing their plan. Taking a break only when one of the school servants brought them lunch. By mid-afternoon they were finished with the preparations and the four of them looked at the headmaster expectantly. 

     “So where are we doing this at?”

     “I requested permission from the city but they denied my use of the Mass Teleportation array. So we will make for the ancient one.”

     “That will take us weeks you said time was of the essence,” Tasha said pinching the bridge of her nose.

     “Yes I did, and I already thought about that,” he said then began chanting in the language of magic as a Sigil appeared at the feet of everyone present. A beam of light shot up engulfing each of them as his chant increased in volume before eventually reaching its climax. With a flash of light and a deafening crack, the five of them disappeared. Rematerializing in front of a large ruined building. They knew it contained a summoning array that was once used by the cult of Vaught to attempt to summon their dark god.

     The spell was ultimately a failure and pulled someone from another world. And since then the ruins have been in the care of the United Republic. 

     “Do we have permission to use this array?” Tasha asked looking at the old mage.

     “Yes, when I explained the situation the senate granted their permission”

     “I don’t like using anything those bastards left behind,” Faurik said uneasily.

     “We aren’t I already obliterated their foul Array decades ago. We are here simply for the leyline intersection that this location sits atop. The Sigil Array has already been completed and has finished gathering energy. All I need is the location Sigils,” he said looking at Ardin.

     The man shuffled around using magic chalk to fill in the blank spaces. Once he did there was a shudder in the air and the Array began to faintly glow. Shimmering through every color the air was positively charged with Mana. 

     “There ‘m done,” the man said.

     “Excellent, I do apologize for the haste but let's enter the Array now.”

     “We’re just going to leave it here?”

     “No there's a spell in place that will replace the Array with the return one. It’ll take two weeks to charge, however. I don't know what that will translate to on the other side though.” The five of them stood as instructed in the center of the array. “Silverlight scale,” the old wizard chanted and the Array began to glow. They had a feeling that the whole world was staring at this spot. It felt like everything was being drawn inwards to this one location.

     Just when it seemed unbearable there was a pinching feeling and everything went black. The five of them stood in darkness for what seemed both an eternity and an instant. Before they found themselves standing in the middle of a field.

     “The air here is so thick,” Faurik said.

     “There is a complete lack of Mana here, the planet is dying. I can feel the leylines but they are sluggish and foul. There is nearly no Spirit energy in them, rather there is the dark taint of the outer god's power.”

     “Alright little spirit do your thing, locate the queen.”

     “I can’t feel her…” he said softly before continuing, “but I feel Anais.” 

     “Lead the way then,” Cardwin said before passing out amulets to everyone. “These will give you invisibility and flight. Follow the spirit.”

     The four of them slipped the amulets over their necks and flew after the spirit.

 

*****

 

     “So the spirit queen really was here?” Anais asked Treyni. That would explain why she appeared in the middle of a random forest instead of by her mother's side. Though she should have appeared at the most concentrated source of her spirit energy.

     “She is though I fear I have not been able to sense her for a while now. I know whereabouts she lives, however. Though I don't know what exists between here and there.”

     “Are there no spirits in this world?”

     “There is just me and Boreas.”

     “Boreas?”

     “Yes, the queen's only son presently.”

     “Only one? What has the queen been doing this whole time?”

     “She has lost her memory.”

     The spirit girl fell silent at the dryad's words. “Lost her memories?”

     “Yes.”

     “How do we find this Boreas? I can't sense him. Or you for that matter.”

     “If you wait here I'm sure he will appear here soon.”

     Anais opened her mouth to respond when she felt a weird tugging sensation. Something was pulling her attention to the west. It felt like she was being pulled in that direction. Suddenly the feeling vanished and she felt a presence. “Dariel? What is he doing here?”

     “I assume you know what that was?”

     “I’m not exactly sure but I can feel my brother in that direction. I should go to him,” she said but Treyni stopped her.

     “Wait, stay here. I feel Boreas approaching. He’ll be here in several hours.”

     “It would seem Dariel is coming here too. With someone else, several someones,” she said then plopped herself down on the ground.

     Just over an hour later, Dariel tackled his sister. “Anais I was worried about you.”

     “You big baby, I wasn’t even gone a day.”

     The others touched down and looked at the two spirits before turning their attention to the dryad.

     “Who is this?” Tasha asked, “She's clearly a dryad but she feels weird.”

     “Hello, my name is Treyni, welcome… otherworlders?” she said inquisitively.

     “Hello I am Cardwin, this is Ardin, Tasha, and Faurik,” he said introducing them.

     “She was here, but her energy feels a little different. I can’t sense her though. Nor Treyni.” 

     “Cardwin, this place is ancient. Older even than some of our forests.”

     “Yes, I felt that. In fact, her tree sits atop an ancient leyline, it's completely clean. Though some corruption has begun to seep in. Treyni do you know that you’re dying?”

     “I do, I didn't want to tell Mother though because she wasn't ready to go against them,” Treyni said looking at the visitors.

     “Go against who?” Boreas asked.

     “Against the order of Balekapısö. She wasn't ready and I knew she wouldn’t be able to be before I died.”

     “Tasha?” Cardwin asked looking at her.

     “I can try but it's a temporary measure at most,” she walked over to the tree and began to draw symbols on and around it.”

     “What are you doing to her? And who are you anyway,” Boreas asked looking at them with suspicion. “Those two are strange spirits.” 

     “Hello I am Cardwin, and we are here to save the Spirit Queen.”