After a while, Iris started treating the birds on her own. They couldn’t communicate, but unless Jude and Queen Millicent were both there, that would always be the case. Noticing that the treatment would take multiple hours, Jude decided to gather information instead. The queen had left them to tell King Rost that the birds should drink from the purified well, and after she was done with that, Jude joined her.

“We are renewed,” the queen said.

“I’m glad we could be of help,” he replied.

“The Healer is extremely powerful.”

Jude had thought so too over the course of the days they had been together. Iris skills were, for all intents and purposes, broken. Even now, she was getting stronger just by helping those around her. He didn’t have the same opportunity, however. His own skill was already maxed out, so even though he was using it constantly, he wasn’t getting any benefit from it to his stats. By contrast, Iris had two skills that had started at level 1, so she was constantly progressing.

“She is amazing,” he said, noticing the gap between them widening. “Do you know anything about these?” Jude asked as he pulled on the fabric of his Fae clothes.

“We are aware. Prototypes.”

“Huh?! Prototypes?”

Jude was even more curious. The clothes that Iris and he were wearing weren’t even of regular Fae make.

“We will tell, but the story is long.”

“I have time,” he replied almost immediately. Jude knew that to catch up to Iris, he would have to make use of the items he had. To him, upgrading his gear was his best bet.

“May We?” Queen Millicent said and raised her hand above his head.

Jude nodded at her action and closed his eyes. Again, she was imparting memories to him.

The Devourer had already killed all of the creatures that had gone in search of the cause of the rot, and Queen Millicent had been made to rule alone. She had decided to close the borders of the Fae Realm, and doomed the rest of the fauna and flora of the forest in the process.

“My queen! This is not right?” Jude heard a voice say. It had come from an older, long-bearded Fae.

“We have decided,” the queen replied.

“But everything else will die!”

“We know.”

“I can’t… I won’t condone this. I have traveled far in my youth,” the old man said. “I will leave and find help for us and for the rest of the forest.”

“We understand.”

The memory cut off then, and another memory started. The queen was young, a child. She was running through a verdant field in the direction of a cabin. Smoke could be seen rising from the chimney. She rushed up to the door and opened it.

“Your highness. You shouldn't be here. His and Her Majesties will be worried looking for you.”

“We want to see,” she said, pointing to a mannequin in the middle of the cabin. “Show us.”

“Very well, but just once. It is your eclosion present after all.”

Jude noticed that in the memory, the queen did not have wings yet, so he guessed it was something that developed with age.

The Fae brought up the mannequin and said, “This is made of a mixture of things: silk, web, honey, etc. It will grow with you and keep you protected. It’ll boost your magic as well, for in moments of peril, you’ll need it.”

“We live in peace.”

“The world is large, Your Highness. That could change, so it’s always good to be prepared.”

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The young princess nodded to the Fae after contemplating that statement for a moment, and the Fae smiled at the princess.

The memory suddenly ended then, and Jude was back on the Fae tree with Queen Millicent staring at him.

When he opened his eyes, she said, “Mythrini was Weaver. The Royal Dress is of his make.”

“And he made ours?”

“Before leaving, Mythrini planned. He desired to create things that would help the forest, to defeat the Devourer, and to cleanse the rot. Those are the culminations of that desire.”

“Do you know how to make them stronger?”

“We do not, but perhaps his cabin. Mythrini did not live in the tree, choosing instead to live among those some Fae deemed lesser. Our people have their own prejudices.”

“Like everywhere…” Jude said, saddened by the revelation.

“His cabin is overgrown, but Mythrini created lasting things, so knowledge might still exist.”

“He made your dress, but where is it?”

“Unwoven.”

Jude was confused by that statement, so Queen Millicent raised her hand to his head again.

The image of a large chamber inside the trunk of the giant tree appeared in his head. Queen Millicent, naked, covered only by her long, flowy red hair, handed her dress to two other female Fae.

“Unweave and create. We will protect Our people.”

The two Fae took the dress, and as one undid the fabric, the other weaved a cocoon that spanned the entire room.

A flash of dozens of Fae entering the cocoon and being sealed there appeared in Jude’s mind. The queen had used the magic fabric of her dress to keep her people safe of the rot.

“How did you survive?”

“We are also Healer, but weaker than the rot.”

Jude was once again made aware of just how powerful Iris was, but at the same time, he had an idea, “Can you teach Iris anything? Any other spells or skills?”

“We may. She is Our savior. There is one We learned to live.”

“Right… You were dying when we found you.”

“Mana Life. We had no more health, and only our mana sustained us.”

Jude knew that because this world was magical, they could recover mana over time, so he assumed it was the same for the queen. That said, it hadn't looked like her health had regenerated at all. Instead, she had been alive for as long as she had had mana to spare for the spell. The fact that she had constantly been drained of it meant that Queen Millicent had an enormous amount of mana.

Jude was unsure as to why she had been unable to deal with the rot seeing how powerful she was. Purify had to be an extremely powerful skill, but it was very cheap manawise. He didn’t know what to think of it. It could be that people of that place were just more susceptible to the rot. He was reminded of the bubonic plague then, and how it had killed nearly half of Europe when it first appeared. Maybe it was similar. Could the rot be some type of viral infection? Or bacterial? That could be the reason why Iris, who was a doctor, was so well-suited to deal with it, but it was all conjecture on his part.

“Could you teach her?”

“Possible. We took a while to learn, but maybe she will not.”

“How long?”

“A few seasons.”

“That could be a problem. We don’t have a lot of time, around 25 days. Once those pass, we’ll be sent back to where we came or be sent somewhere else. We don't know yet.”

“That is grievous news. A respite, but not a cure.”

Jude looked in the direction of the birds’ nest, but he didn’t find Iris inside of it. Instead, she had moved outside and was lying against the tree with the recently-healed birds surrounding her. She seemed to be asleep. That scene told him everything he needed to know.

“She’ll help, even if there’s little time.”

“You may not survive. You could wait and leave. We would not condemn you.”

“We know. She knows, but she’ll want to help. I think… We’ll hunt the Devourer before we leave.”

“A bold statement.”

“We’ll need to train and learn. If you could help in any way.”

Queen Millicent pondered everything he had told her, and knowing that they would be the last chance for her people, she said, “We will guide you as best We can.”

The queen was still in the process of regaining her strength, and she would not be ready to fight in a month’s time, but she could impart knowledge and offer them other boons. There were items in the vault that could benefit them, items created by previous Fae of previous generations. She would have to bet everything on them, but she, too, looked down at Iris sitting with the birds, and at that moment, she saw King Rost bestowing her a skill, something she had not seen her entire life. King Rost had been a warrior first and had become king when the previous Avian King died to the Devourer when the rot first appeared. Rost was stoic and hard and had only warmed up to Queen Millicent after seeing her struggle to keep her people alive. However, that same Rost had decided that Iris, in her care for the birds, was deserving of even more.

Queen Millicent knew that this would be their last chance to survive the rotten nightmare that had befallen them, and she decided to give Iris and Jude everything she possibly could to help make that come true.