Aiko clawed at the dome of earth that held its master, a beam of light falling onto Diana in the darkness. Catching her breath, the Druid swept the dirt away with a swift motion, born again back into the pinkish light of the city. There was no sound but the wind and the blood pumping in her ears. She embraced the tiger, sent courageous feelings and was reassured by the needless breathing of the beast.

"You knew that they would come again, didn't you?" she asked quietly.

Hrrrr, Aiko chuffed.

"You dastardly piece of the sources…"

Hrrrr…

She put her head against the beast's rock hard skull, scratching at its chin. “Gods, I hate when you work independent of me,” she whispered. "I'm alive, now I must figure out what to do next."

The tiger growled in approval.

Aiko showed her a memory of the elven smuggler being picked up by a couple fellows waiting in the wings. The man could walk away, the injury was skin deep, a threat, the fall had been the most damaging.

Were the Ash Makers likely to kill her? She wasn’t sure. If they recognized her, then they might have run the other way instead of capturing her. The old soldier seemed scared, desperate. His comrades were young, inexperienced. The kind likely to be killed by Fia and the others. Two hundred years and the recruitment had not changed much at all.

Diana stood, pushing up from her staff. The wind had gone quiet now that she could think. She surveyed the area the Ash Maker had nullified, the stone sidewalk rough and plain, standing out among the wash of colors around it. The man had boasted about his age, but he didn’t focus it in any one direction. Diana wondered if the facts about Ash Makers had been trumped up. The amount of lies she knew called it all into question.

Aiko and her followed the elven blood trail across the street into an alleyway. It ended at the entrance to a sewer. The Druid popped it open and spied inside. It was like any other elven sewer, a full underground swamp. The pipes cleaned the waste to pure water and the wildlife was given free reign over the landscape. Though it was fed clean water, it was attached to a lake and river, so the water was stagnant and the air stale. An enchantment kept the docks clear, there was no end to the Grand’s vanity.

Such a sewer barely needed repair, especially with the city’s low population. The smugglers could be using it as a network to get through the city. They could even add various houses given their abandoned state. While she could easily navigate the sewers, like the elves--the only true danger was the flirtatious nature of the Nymphs--she didn’t want to do it alone.

Closing the sewer as a Nymph head started to surface, Diana sat thinking for a moment. How were the Ash Makers getting in and out of the city? The tunnels free of the sewers? She only knew about the siege tunnels because of Niae and Kalyah. Alpha’s had been legendary for their clogging during the bombings. Thin tunnels, few slow moving gates, the city was begging to be destroyed from above. There were wards in place to stop teams of magic users, but not bombs of such crude destruction.

Shutting her eyes tight, Diana walked around the alleyway and slammed her staff hard into the ground. The magic echoed out and she saw flashes of the spider web network. It wasn’t clear, but it gave her some insight. They were shallow in the city’s underbelly, they must connect to the sewers. The natural subterranean swamp could be navigated like any nature or caves for her, but she would need a map for these. Or she’d need to keep tapping away like a bat constantly. Launching those few echoes was difficult though, as the foundational stone was indifferent to all.

Back in the park, Diana had Aiko follow the Ash Maker trail. She thought it would be cold, but to her surprise it ended not too far west of the park at a sewer entrance. The loose earth was scraped aside and she turned away immediately from it, fearing that some kind of ambush was waiting for her. They had to have something helping them, she thought, making her way back to the hotel. Ash Makers could get lost in a small grove, something about the pressure and the confusion. Like everything, she believed that to be true, but it could also be a lie.

Her nerves were gone, and an eager intrigue had taken over. Did she tell her mother? Would that trigger the Hero's to react? It wasn't worth the risk.

The Ash Makers needed food, so much so that apparently they had people foraging in the elvish forest. That was no easy feat. Not exactly something a fearsome force did either.

No, no, she would find out what was going on and she would bring in the army to capture them. There was no need to kill them. They could subdue them and bring out Blodwyn. Old Bill seemed a reasonable man, she could get a line to him directly, she hoped. Or maybe her mother would be reasonable. Right now, she needed information from her mother, and those nerves returned anew.

Back at the small patch of earth behind the hotel, Diana planted two seeds in the corner of it. One was a simple poplar that with her focus sprung up from a seedling, then a sapling a little taller than her. The white barked tree rustled its leaves in the city’s breeze, surprised to be alive and breathing easily. She made a pole of rock and a plaque that read in elvish: Princess Diana’s memorial tree for her dear sister Luann. Please do not alchemize. Hopefully the grammar was right. She didn’t feel bad using her sister’s memory to keep the tree safe, as she knew the young woman would approve.

Next to it, she planted a tree the Grand elves would not dare to change, a Sentinel Pine. A soulless tree made purely of magic by forest Nymphs. The Elder protected the Avarice woods selfishly, and these mighty Sentinels were made to watch where its roots could not reach. The pinecone’s seed sparked with energy as Diana set it in a hollow of earth. She felt it sap power from her as the stages of life rapidly proceeded. It took far more than the slender limbed poplar, as the sources helped plant what benefited them. This would only be for her, and could easily drain her dry.

The benefits were worth it. A pinecone from this tree was a sensor. It would react and show her whatever it was set to detect like a familiar or Jonah's camera.

Pulling herself away from the drain, it would feed off the city's magic slowly now. The Ash Makers had a weekly arrangement, and the pinecones would be ready by then, at least a few would be. Aiko sniffed at the tiny sapling not much taller than its foreleg. The pine’s body was a twisted dark wood the color of pure coffee, long lengths of glowing sapphire crystal wedging along it. The leaves were a mixture of deep and light greens with bolts of blue lightning coursing through them. They rustled in an irregular pattern, as if trying to watch about it.

Digging in another pouch, Diana let loose a handful of heather seeds that sprung up around the poplar. She figured that if she was going to take over the patch with the two trees, she might as well make it look nicer. The moorland plant was legendary for its softness and the violet flowers mixed with the green stems made the landscape so much nicer, but the bare half was a shame. So she walked to the dumpster, raising the ground as stone, making a pathway to it. By the time she was done surrounding the wild onions and the Pine with tiny fences, she knew something like an hour had passed since she spoke with her mother.

Looking to the sky, she half expected her mother’s hawk to be flying overhead. The joy of making something natural in the sea of metal and stone had gotten away from her. She took a seat in the heather before the poplar, letting the stems bend under her. Aiko laid down comfortably in it, ears pricked for danger despite its sleepy appearance.

In a moment, Diana was back on the other side of the world. Her mother was sitting on the bench next to the sweeping willow, staring up at the moon brightening the sky. The Lantern Caps beside her feet had dried up to gray husks, unable to take the heat for long. The queen didn’t look at her daughter as she sat down, but the hawk pressed to her chest did. Its talons clawed into its master’s tassets as it was pet on the head. Blinking, its face went from pleasant enjoyment to a raptor’s glare.

“You should be very proud of your mother, Diana,” Eliza said to break the silence, still looking at the moon. “I sat here a whole hour and a half when you swore ten minutes to me.” Her long straight features were shadowed in the crisp shine.

“I apologize, time got away from me mother,” Diana said quietly.

“I wanted to send Castor to your father, have him call the Heroes. I was sure you had been taken by them again or worse. Another ten minutes and I would have done it. But I trusted you, my love, and I am glad you are well enough to return here.” She turned to her now, the sternness trembling in place. “Are you safe?”

“I am safe, mother,” she said with a nod.

“Why don’t you trust me anymore?” Eliza asked, searching her spectral form.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you are lying to me. Or at least withholding what you know,” the queen said, struggling to keep her voice level. “Do you think I’m hysterical now? Is that why you were looking at me like a stranger?”

Diana folded her arms. “Please, let’s not fight, mother. You had something to tell me, so please, tell me,” she said.

The queen shook her head, returning to the moon. “You’ve found out things about the Heroes, things the public doesn’t know. I need to hear those first.”

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“How do you know that?”

“Because I know all the Heroes past secrets, at least I hope I do.” Castor gave her a comforting bump of its head.

Diana took a deep breath. “You know about them murdering children?” she growled.

Eliza flinched, holding the hawk to her tightly. “I do,” she said, glancing sidelong at her. “I promise you that I took no part in any coldblooded killings and I would never condone it.”

“You traveled with them for years, mother,” she said harshly.

“I saved more Ash Makers than I ever harmed,” Eliza defended, focused on her. “I relocated so many to the Isles of Ash. I didn’t care what Angelina or Fia wanted, I made it a public point that they were not harmed. Do you seriously think I was a part of the bed thumping? It was the middle of the war, and I was not about to let them repeat their deplorable acts in peace time. All that happened in my years with them were minor conflicts, there was no reason to attempt such horrors again.” She peered at her daughter. “Is that why you left? You learned of those past actions and disembarked?”

“How could you stay knowing that?” Diana asked in disbelief.

Eliza thought for a moment. “I wouldn’t be able to stay now, and I don’t blame you for leaving,” she said, swallowing. “As a mother, I think it’s my right to be intolerant of them. I knew their sins well when I saw you off. I also knew they wouldn’t dare hurt a hair on your head, and that if you could not stomach them, you were strong enough to leave on your own. Now that you have, you can return home.”

“You make it sound as if they were penitent, mother, they most certainly aren’t,” Diana said loudly. “If anything, Gregore was trying to ease me into the idea of murdering young Ash Makers from the start. Fia boasted of it and Angelina denies having any part of it, despite having the monsters to do it for her.”

The queen closed her eyes, putting out her hand. “Start with your departure from the castle, I need to know exactly what brought you to an elven city,” she implored.

Diana sighed and did so. She summarized the finding and fixing of Jonah, which she could tell made her mother swallow questions. Then on to Rowoak and its odd events, Blodwyn’s jest in Grayhill and her discovery there.

“Your father and I did not travel often with Gregore and Ozwalt, I need to make that clear. I was surprised to find them on Angelina’s ship again. I knew of their nature, but like the others did not expect them to harm you,” the queen said, clenching her fist. “Like I said before, I should have never let you leave. Knowing this much, I regret it even more. I think I shall start contacting other past Heroes to start a trial for them both. I know we are at war now, but no one will miss two magicless Heroes who have lived far too long in such a monstrous way.”

“They're nothing compared to Angelina and Fia,” Diana grumbled.

Castor squawked as Eliza hugged it too tightly to her. Letting the hawk go, it hopped to the ground and started to preen. “Go on, tell me more,” she said, eye twitching as she wrangled her ire.

Diana talked about the breaking of the storm and her first speech.

Eliza shot up from the bench on the mention of Angelina guilting her into lying to the people. For the first time since Luann lay dead, Diana saw her mother subconsciously using magic. Archdruids prided themselves on their control of magic and their emotions. It was extremely dangerous to have someone with no emotional stability grow in power. If someone was going to be emotional, then it was best to use a less destructive element. More intense feelings brought on more stronger attacks, and focusing the power was important.

Standing some ways away, the queen folded her arms and had forgotten that control and those lessons. On the night that Luann died she had sparked with electricity and her husband had to help contain those errant bolts. Now, hearing her daughter had been shamed into lies, the ground around her bloomed up in flame, lighting the night. The heat dried the wet soil of the shore and her enchanted cloak whipped about as the ring of fire was grew. Soon it would reach the bank and the rushes that dried in the summer.

Castor gave its piercing cry from the top of the bench. With a swipe of her hand the fire was quenched and the Archdruid queen turned to her daughter in the fresh shadow of the night. “Now, keep listing their sins and I will burn each into their skin,” she said coldly.

Diana took a deep breath. She couldn’t get to the physical harm caused by the two Heroes without her mother teleporting to the Pirate’s ship and immolating them all. What good would that do? The side of the right, according to hundreds of years of history, fighting each other. “I personally have no proof of it, mother,” she said, trying to reason. "Nothing but hearsay, not a single wound has stuck with me."

“I do not need anything but your word my love, I have no reason to doubt what you say now,” Eliza countered. “I love you dearly, and I believe you. You’ve never lied in your life, save fibs about cookies. The people will believe you, they love you so much.”

“I was called the ‘Piggy princess’ for most of my life!” Diana spat.

A kinder maternal side came out of her mother as she sat on the bench. “Oh, that doesn’t matter now. The papers believe in your beauty like I do," she said, reaching up to her phantom cheeks. “My dearest love, what I wouldn’t give to hold your face now. Do you know how much your father misses you? His dear little banana…”

Diana grimaced, turning away from the useless attempt at physical affection. Gods, she wished for her mother’s level headedness to return. This was worse than her father at his most sappy. It was either extreme love or blazing rage with her. This was not her mother.

“There is proof,” the princess said. “It’s within a man that was cursed by Fia.”

“This Jonah boy?” the queen wondered.

“Yes, him. He has all the evidence on Fia and Angelina’s offenses,” Diana said, leaning away from her mother.

“The Psyin faithful could read your mind, that is proof enough that you are telling the truth,” Eliza said simply, arms folded.

“Mother, you know there is always doubt in that now that photos are so clear,” she said, annoyed at having to say it.

“I don’t think its progress to trust paper over magic,” the queen grumbled.

“They can’t be changed as easily.”

Eliza scoffed. “Not yet.”

“Every coven around the world would need cold hard facts or Fia would never be condemned,” Diana said sternly.

“The most harmful woman is representative of completely harmless magic users,” Eliza said with a sigh. “Please, just tell me what she did to you.”

“It won’t make you feel any better,” Diana countered.

“Not knowing will drive me mad,” Eliza said, then paused when there was no reply. “How has she cursed this boy?”

“He’s a man and a good one at that,” Diana said firmly.

“You’re sweet on him?” Eliza said with a fragile smile, dark eyes glassy with tears.

“Yes, I am sweet on him,” Diana stated, feeling a mixture of passion and guilt for his present condition.

“I'm so happy for you darling, I was worried you might swear off men after Xander,” Eliza said, hands on the bench, clearly wanting to hug her.

“Don’t speak his name,” Diana hissed.

The queen nodded and repeated her question about Jonah.

Diana answered, adding. “I was mad with Fia, and yelled at her, the Witch silenced me, so he shouted obscenities at her for me. The bitch deserved it, and when I have proof, I will be glad to have her sentenced.”

Eliza looked at the moon in disgust. “She dared to hex my daughter… A princess of the Magi Kingdom. I do not care about her accomplishments or her Blessing, she will rot in the Wood Tombs until time ceases,” she said in a resolved voice.

“Once I have my proof back,” Diana said. “Jonah has it on his machine parts.” Her voice quivered, knowing that she needed him for so much more than some recordings and pictures.

“How is he faring? I could have any number of Corpine faithful there within the hour,” the queen said, pacing to try and calm herself. Her steps were hard and fast.

Diana told her mother about the care.

“Wonderful,” she said.

“Mother, please don’t confront the Heroes, I need to gather my own strength for now. I am safe, I promise,” she pleaded.

“At least tell me where you are,” the queen pleaded back.

“You won’t show up and try to take me home? Within the hour?” Diana wondered.

The queen considered.

“That’s exactly why I won’t tell you,” Diana snapped.

“I promise I won’t bother you, so long as you’re safe,” the queen promised.

Diana assured her that she was, but how true that promise was, she couldn’t be sure. A week or so until anything was likely to happen. She hoped so at least. “I am in Alp’a, Linn” she said.

“Hmm.. So long as no bombs drop again you should be fine,” the queen said, clearly imagining the worst case scenario.

“I will contact you if the wards fail, but I doubt they will,” Diana said sarcastically.

“You will contact me if any ships appear in the sky,” the queen said with severity.

She promised she would, several times over. Then she went on to make sure that Kalyah’s and Jonah’s protection was listed as official documents. She didn’t say anything about the Witch’s Slave Star brew, or Angelina’s cruelty. Not given any fuel for her rage, the queen turned her attention to Jonah.

“How handsome is this Traveler?” the queen beamed. She tried to put on a brave and joyous composure, but her wringing hands betrayed her desire to know about more pressing matters.

“He is absolutely gorgeous, but I enjoy his mind and heart as well,” Diana said, thankful to side step her mother’s new form to something like the old.

“Of course, I know my daughter would never date a fool again. Not after Rangi, that is,” she said, struggling to keep her smile.

“Don’t speak his name either,” Diana repeated with an attempt at a laugh, long over the man. “I would never date a man like him again…”

The queen’s chuckle died off and they lingered in silence.

Diana expected that they were both thinking about Luann, and how she never had a date or a chance to court. In a year or so she would have been the star of a ball to celebrate her sixteenth birthday. All the young nobles would be there to gawk and try to dance with her. Diana had her first peck on the cheek that night from a boy she thought she would marry. Her first true love, and it felt like the world spun with her on that dancefloor. It was a wondrous moment that she didn’t regret even long after the relationship had ended. That first kiss on his lips trimmed with an attempt at a mustache. All the chances of youth were gone for Luann and even though her spirit had moved on, the ghost of memory hung in the air around them. The two grown women broke into tears on the riverside. Diana wiped at her face in Alpha, holding on shakily to her form at the castle.

“I dream of her at my breast…” Eliza said suddenly through her sobs. “In my belly, in my arms, oh gods, I cannot forget how she died. She must have been so lonely and scared…” She shivered, falling to her knees.

“Mother, I’m sorry, I…” Diana looked around for some reason to leave. She was overjoyed when Aiko raised its head, hearing footsteps down the stairs. Kalyah stepped out into the glare of Alpha, finding her by the tree. Oh blessed fate of the gods, Diana thought, thank you for freeing me from this. “Mother, I must leave, I’m so sorry, I miss Lulu every moment, I promise that I do. My friends need me, I’m sorry.”

Her mother was too busy crying to really hear.

Kalyah saw her crying face and turned back, heading up the stairs. Aiko called after her with a chuff, then several more. Diana couldn’t speak with her voice somewhere else, but she needed to leave.

“Hey, Diana, I think you can hear me, right?” Kalyah said.

The tiger nodded.

“Okay, well, Niae is going to wake up Jonah. Thank the Goddess he's over the sickness. I know you want to be there, but take your time,” she said.

The tiger shook its head, clawing the stone.

Diana repeated the information to her mother, who was still deaf in suffering. “Castor, please, go get the king, she needs him,” she begged the bird.

The hawk flew off.

“I’ll talk with you again soon mother, I promise,” Diana said, rising. She gave her as many quick declarations and apologies as she could think of in a few minutes.

“I love you too, my dear, please stay safe…” the queen whispered, wiping at the mess of her face.

“I will, I will.” She left then, glad to be back in the city of metal and dawn light.