Waking up a second time felt a little strange. There was still a lingering exhaustion that made me simply snuggle up closer to Sigmir, as I considered the situation.

I had logged out for a few minutes earlier, to make sure I didn’t wake up to a mess in the capsule and taken a short look into the forum. It turned out, the centaur I had played with had suffered consequences lasting beyond death which made me intrigued. Depending on the way the developers solved the problem, I might have something to give people that annoy me a lasting impression, one that remains with them, even after they die. If I had known that it would work that way, I’d never have used it on some random centaur and kept it in reserve for someone who I truly wanted to punish. Oh, well, it allowed me to gain a little more understanding, both into the way the system and a Traveller’s resurrection worked and how the body-enchantments worked.

“Good morning, love.” Sigmir said, her eyes fluttering open, just before she planted a soft kiss on my cheek.

“Good morning. I hope you slept well.” I replied, just as I returned the kiss.

“I’m a little sore, maybe you’ll give me a massage later.” she asked, putting quite a bit of innuendo into her words, making me grin.

“We’ll have to see about that. Depending on the wishes of our host, we might even want to spend another day here, I have a feeling that, if Leneira wishes it, we are quite safe.” I explained, trying to put words to the feeling I had about Leneira. She was powerful, of that I was quite certain, but just how powerful, I didn’t know. I thought she might be about as powerful as the dryad Tegi, at the peak of her power, which was a quite disturbing idea. Sure, we had been able to overcome Tegi but only because she had been weakened a great deal by the loss of her powerbase.

“Maybe, but somehow, I doubt that she truly wants us here.” Sigmir admitted, glancing over to the lake where Leneira was sunning herself in the sun, filtering through the trees above her. Following her gaze, I had to agree, yesterday, Leneira had seemed more annoyed than anything else but unwilling to simply kick us out and if I looked at her now, I could understand why she would have some prejudice against me. At its core, my Avatar was a being of Ice and Darkness, something most people would reflexively call ‘evil’. Leneira, on the other hand, was most certainly a being of Water and Life, maybe, judging by the way she was lounging in the water and letting the sun play over her body, one of Light. In this world, opposites did not attract each other.

“I think so, too. Let’s make some breakfast and afterwards, we’ll see how it goes.” I suggested, pushing myself up after giving Sigmir another kiss.

“Good idea. I think we forgot to eat dinner last night.” Sigmir said, frowning as her stomach gave a mighty rumble.

“I certainly did, I just fell asleep on you, again. It’s just the best way to fall asleep.” I grinned while I opened my bag and went through the things we had that might make for good breakfast. Given that I didn’t think that making a fire would endear us to our host in any way, we were limited to trail-bread, jerky and some berries Adra had managed to scare up somewhere on our journey.

Once we had eaten, it was time to tell Leneira the story I had promised her, so I walked over, causing her to open her eyes and observe my approach. There was a clear curiosity in her eyes but also apprehension and maybe even a little fear.

“Good Morning, Leneira. I hope our presence didn’t disturb your rest.” I greeted her, giving a slight bow. I wasn’t quite sure how to act with other beings at the best of times, so what constituted proper behaviour for someone like her was a complete mystery to me.

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“Good Morning, Morgana. It was alright, I’m just not used to visitors to my glade.” she admitted, sounding almost vulnerable.

Before I could answer, Lenore landed on my shoulder, after having spent some time flying around and looking at things.

“The magic around this place is fascinating.” she said over our link, sending a flurry of thoughts and impressions. My eyes fluttered close and back open a few times as my mind had to stretch to make sense of what I had received and I had to admit, she was right.

Despite the revulsion I felt when looking at small parts of it, it was a beautifully constructed ward. Leneira had woven together water and light, letting people’s awareness flow around her glade, especially if they dependent on light to see. It also gave me a good idea why Lenore and Ylva had been unaffected, Ylva was much more grounded in her ability to hear and smell, compared to her sight and Lenore wasn’t just seeing light but also magic, which wouldn’t have been refracted at all. But it also meant that, if people knew what to look for, the ward would be a lot weaker and quite easily broken.

“I promise, we won’t tell anyone about this place.” I said to Leneira, once I understood the implications and she let out a sigh of relief.

“That is good to know. But you promised me a story, so, entertain me.” she commanded, the smile on her face making light of the imperious tone in her voice, causing me to chuckle.

“Why, of course. Let me tell you, how I was brought to this world…” I began my tale, as always, at the moment that I had started, with nothing but simple peasant-clothes, a dagger and my wit, sitting in the snow of the far north.

As I spoke, Leneira listened intently but I noticed that her interest was on things I hadn’t quite expected. For example, hearing about the grove around Neyto seemed to excite her in a way I couldn’t quite grasp but venturing into the Barrow Den merely bored her. As such, I changed what I focused on. There were a few things I wouldn’t tell, for example I had glossed over the affair with the Snowbolds, knowing that they were reasonably rare and that I had found a major artifact in their cave, something I wanted to keep secret. Similarly, I spoke little about the Grandmother, merely saying that she had helped me find my path, knowing that a little mystery about my connection to her might be useful.

Instead, I focused on the experiences I had with the elements themself, I spoke of dancing with the wind and even the memorable dance of Ice and Fire, when Sigmir and I had met Samodiva.

At that point, she asked me to sit in her lake while I told my tale, something I agreed to after a moment of consideration. She had promised that we would be alright and I had a feeling that we could mostly trust her. Once I was sitting in the shallow water, it was a curious feeling. I could feel something slowly seeping into me, as I was surrounded by Leneira’s power, a gentle and surprisingly warm power.

Sitting in the water, I told her of the abomination that had been committed by Tegi and the punishment we had brought on the dryad, I spoke of the elementals under the glacier and the mighty storm we had summoned. I spoke of Kolyug and the clean-cut magic holding it together and the fiery beings that seemed to be created to destroy it.

I could easily see the sadness on Leneira’s face when I told her about the winter wolves and how they had been forced to seal themself into a dungeon, trying to keep those who wanted to destroy them at bay and there was a savage smile on her face when I told her about the revenge we had visited upon their foes.

Finally, my tale wound down and I felt my throat being completely parched, my voice even a little scratchy from talking so much, when Leneira moved next to me, maybe a little too close for comfort, and offered me a drink from her cupped hand. Without thinking too much about it, I drank, letting the water flow down my throat, when a blue window appeared before me.

Attributes gained By bathing in the pool of a Najad, some of her power seeped into your body, permanently increasing your Charisma by two.

“Thank you.” I said, after mentally dismissing the window.

“You are welcome, think of it as paying you forward.” she smiled and moved back a little. “You gave me an interesting story, so giving you a small benefit is no problem. I’ll even give you another boon, one of information. You see, if you follow the creek that flows into my lake, you will find something that might be useful to you.” she said, her smile a little mischievous.

“That sounds interesting. I’ll have to talk to the others but I think we’ll check it out.” I replied, standing to get out of the lake.