PART IV: THE WORLD CHANGES
Major Celeste stepped up, and seeing the raucous laughter said, “I see you all figured it out? Good job, Corporal-major Pixyl,” she added, ruffling the Pixie’s hair. Pixyl just beamed with the praise and sipped her wine, not minding being touched. It seemed maybe her trait hadn’t quite removed all the alcohol out of her system, as she was solidly in a ‘happy-drunk’ state.
The Major cleared her throat. “Recruit Callie, Miss Juniper, would you join the rest of us, please. We’re going to talk about your … idea.”
Juniper looked perplexed, but Callie gave her a reassuring nod. The three of them joined the other officers standing with Xera, and together they walked towards the back corner of the tent.
“We need this table, and leave those boosters!” Galin gruffly said, scaring away three Goblins and a pair of Elves. All told, in addition to Callie and Juniper, around the table stood Xera, Galin, Celeste, Thorn, and Yulayla. Tasi was missing, still attending to Bratig apparently, but space was made for someone to use the third booster, so likely she was expected.
Juniper looked nervous and she scanned the faces of the officers around her. “I didn’t break the rules,” she said defensively. “I’m not interfering. Or if I am, I don’t mean to and I will depart.”
Xera held up their hand. “You’re fine. As the recruit has so graciously pointed out, you are in fact participating, not interfering. I hope you are enjoying yourself.”
Juniper relaxed and then nodded her head quickly. “Oh, I see. Then, yes, I’m having a lovely time. The Prince is quite charming company, and this … wine I think you call it … is very good.” She was still clutching her goblet in her hand. “I’ve never had it, and it makes me feel warm and tingly inside.”
The Legate let out a short laugh, amused by the simple innocence of Juniper’s statement.
“Well, we won’t keep you from enjoying your evening for long,” Xera said. “Recruit Callie informs us that you might be interested in participating in what we do here.”
Juniper looked down at the drink in her hand, trying to think how to respond. “You all seem to have so much fun learning your new skills, and I don’t know very many. And the Little One says I might be a plant magic class. I forget what she called it, a Florasomething.”
“A Floramancer,” Thorn interjected. “Also called a Sylvan.”
Juniper shrugged. “I can see into people. That's how I knew Xera was a good person when they approached me about building here. But I can’t see my own aura, so I don’t know mine.”
“Would you like to find out?” Thorn asked.
Juniper nodded her head briskly. “If it wouldn’t be much trouble, that would be fun.”
Everyone looked at Yulayla. “I’d be happy to see,” she said nervously.
Juniper was directed to stand off to the side, and Yulayla fished her Scrying gem out of a bag hanging on her belt. Holding it up, she started to look through it, carefully rotating the facets as she read Juniper’s aura. “Your name is something I can’t pronounce or really comprehend, actually. You must just go by Juniper. You are indeed a Floramancer. You have …”
Yulayla’s scrying gem suddenly flashed a bright red, and she was thrown back a good two meters, as if struck by a powerful force, sliding across the floor with a groan. Tasi, who was walking towards the table, launched instinctively into the air, flipping once and wings flapping to control her direction. She landed with pinpoint accuracy next to the Scryer, her hand glowing with Healing magic. Around them, several of the recruits, seeing the flash of light or the flying Fairy, stopped what they were doing to watch.
“As you were!” Galin snapped to the onlookers, pointing. They quickly looked away, returning to whatever they were doing rather than anger the Legate.
“I’m okay,” Yulayla said with a grunt as Tasi helped her sit up and placed her glowing hand on Yulayla’s arm. The Scryer shook her head as if to clear it, and held out a hand for assistance standing. Galin reached over and pulled her to her feet.
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“What happened?” Thorn asked.
Once again, Yulayla shook her head to clear it. “Her aura is strong. Amazingly strong. Juniper, how old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Um. I’m not sure. But I do remember when the Beastkins first came to our land. So that would be … forty years ago, maybe? Or one-hundred? I’m not sure. The seasons all sort of flow together over time.”
“That would have been at least four-hundred years ago. Probably closer to five.” Thorn said.
“Oh!” Juniper said, surprised by the number.
Yulayla sighed. “That would explain it. Dryads are already incredibly magical, and with your age, even more so. I was able to see you are indeed a Sylvan, but looking any deeper just overloads my senses. Congratulations on having the specialist class, though.”
“Oh, how delightful!” Juniper said. “This Little One told me about how the Florasylvans can make those magic combat plants. That sounds exciting.”
All eyes swung towards the little Gnome, who couldn’t do more than shrink under their collective gazes. Major Celeste reached out and patted Callie’s shoulder reassuringly. “I thought you were going to wait until tomorrow to start making more mischief,” Celeste said.
“Uh … I got an early start?” Callie replied weakly with a questioning inflection.
That statement brought some levity to the group and the tension seemed to drop by several degrees. Galin took the momentary break in conversation to dismiss Yulayla. With her scrying duties completed, she wished everyone a good evening and returned to the party.
“Juniper,” Xera began, “do you remember when I came to you about building our camp here? Do you remember why we need to be training everyone?”
“Of course. You said there were many feral Demons to the south, and you need to build an Army to kill them all. You said this location was far enough away from any settlements to be safe from the prying eyes of your superiors because you didn’t want them to meddle.”
“That’s right,” Xera confirmed hesitantly, glancing quickly at Callie. “Are you interested in being a soldier? Would you go and fight if needed?”
“No,” Juniper said simply. “I am bound to my Heartwood tree in the center of my forest, so I cannot travel that far.”
A collective disappointment rippled around the table as everyone realized that even with skills, the Dryad would be of no use at the front lines if she couldn’t actually travel to them.
“That settles that, then,” Galin said with a growl, throwing up his arms in exasperation..
Juniper looked at the Legate, perplexed. “How do you mean?”
Xera held up their hand to forestall a snippy response from Galin, so they could reply instead. “Juniper, We use the Symbiotes to unlock everyone's skills, so that we can send those recruits to fight the Demons. If you are unable to go that far, then it’s hard to justify the expense of using one. They are just too rare.”
“You mean the cute little caterpillars? The ones with the hard shells? I’ve heard someone here call them by that name.”
“Yes.”
“They aren’t that rare,” Juniper said with a shrug.
“What do you mean they're not that rare?” Thorn asked.
Juniper shrugged. “I see at least two-hundred of them in my domain right now. And those are just the ones on the trees. I’m sure there are more, but I’d have to look a little harder for them.”
Every face at the table turned and stared at the Dryad in shocked silence, mouths hanging open.
“What?” Juniper asked, sipping her wine. “Did I say something wrong?”
“You are able to see over two-hundred Symbiotes in the area, right now,” Thorn asked in a shocked tone. “And there are more?”
“Uh-huh. If you need an exact count, it will take me a little while, I’m afraid. My apologies.”
“Could… Could you take someone to them? Would you take someone to them? In exchange for a Sylvan Symbiote, that is,” Galin croaked out, his voice unsure.
“Of course. In fact, there’s one in the big tree right over there.” The Dryad pointed to a tree growing in the center of the camp. “It’s about … two Tazroks high on that branch.”
All the officers looked at each other, stunned. If Juniper knew the exact location of over two-hundred Symbiotes… If she could lead people to them with such ease… Even if they were for standard classes, everything had just changed.