The avatar walked away after hearing his new and currently only friend scream for hours. The process normally caused some discomfort but this was a different thing. The avatar walked for quite some time before he found a non-descript portion of the great tree. To an outsider, this portion of the tree would look like nothing special. But since he was the tree, he knew that was not the case. He waved his hand and the tree parted into a wide cavern.

In the center of the room laying on a gaudy lounger was the party he came to speak to.

“He better be okay. You never said that it would be like that” The avatar said tersely.

She laughed, her laugh was musical like a wind chime. “You know as well as I do that true power requires pain. He will be fine in fact he surprised me! He absorbed way more energy than I expected! He even sent some to his little pet.” She sat up slowly. “You know that without my addition you would not have been able to balance the scales. Even I don’t know what would happen if that were to be the case” she said menacingly.

“He is my only friend he better be okay,” the avatar said menacingly in return.

She laughed again and sat back “I know that not even I could fight you here and win. The fact is that I never had any intent to harm him. I need him, no we need him more than you could know. Something is coming we all feel it. The others are trying to raise heroes and champions.”

“So, you intend for him to be your champion,” he asked intrigued?

“No, those efforts will all fail! The only truly effective way to fight a monster is with another monster” she said darkly. “The ones the others are trying to raise are all tainted. While they will be powerful for Satis, they will never be strong enough. While he has none of the taint and seems to be wholly resistant to it altogether.”

“So, you intend to make him a monster,” the avatar said with a glare.

“No, whoever sent him here has already done that. I just intend to direct him to the place where he will do the most good. Tell me you did not feel it? He is different than any other traveler we have seen in our long lives. I have not watched him as long as you. But what I have seems to make him extraordinary. Hopefully, it will be enough” she said ruefully.

“So, what’s next,” he asked glumly?

“Well, we need him to see why the world is worth saving. I need him to form more attachments. Take him to the pools when he is ready. I will have contingencies ready for whatever choice he makes” she said coyly.

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“His choice,” The avatar said intrigued.

“Yes, well the problem with monsters is that you can never really control them. Just give them choices and hope they pick the one that coincides with your best interest” she said slyly.

She watched as the avatar rose and exited the cavern. She was glad that he left as holding the illusion was becoming taxing. Normally she would not have needed it, but things had not gone to plan at all. Once the illusion dropped if one were to have examined her closely, they would have seen many things. For the first time in her long life, she was truly exhausted. Her golden hair had lost most of its sheen and was plastered to her head by sweat. Her eyes were sunken and had bags underneath them. The whole cave was permeated by an air of exhaustion.

She had not told the avatar the whole truth. While she had been honest about not ever being able to fully control him. She had been angling to have the power of suggestion over him. That isn’t what happened at all. Shortly after her seed entered his body, he had found a way to take control of her power. She had tried for some time to wrest back control to no avail. Even to the point where he had tapped her power through the seed and drawn much more power than she had intended. At that point, it had become a fight to keep him from draining her dry. When it had stopped much of her power had been returned, but he had taken much more than she had intended. When she was done, she would have to go back to her demi-plane to recharge.

She had not been lying about her surprise though she had never heard of a mortal doing something like that. It meant that he was much more powerful than even she knew. That both gave her hope and terrified her. Someone with that kind of power, and no control could do anything. One false step and he might become the destroyer himself. She had known there was a chance that this plan might backfire. She had no idea that this was a possible outcome. There was always the chance of failure since he was not a follower.

She had considered going to him and trying to convince him to follow her. She knew after watching and listening to him that it would not work. Then there were the glimpses of his memories, she had received. While she was fighting him to keep him from sucking her dry, she had gained glimpses of his world. A place where one could be anywhere on it within hours. This was not just for the powerful but normal citizens could do this. The idea of that even for her was immense. She had seen how he could know so much. Most of his world’s knowledge was accessible at the fingertips of most of the population. Something like that would be unthinkable. Most of the residents of Satis could barely read, let alone understand the concepts that people understood where he was from.

She had also figured out several other useful things. While his world had several marvels. They were all separated and detached. They wanted connections but those had become harder and harder to forge. Take our young traveler he had a young female that he liked. It was obvious to her that the female shared the same feelings. Neither of the two had just come out and said what they were thinking. They had just danced around each other not speaking about it. This was something that could be exploited. She decided that would be the tact she would take.

She only took a little time to recover before she stood. She could only hide her presence for so long before the others would take notice. She did not want any of them to notice her prize so she took a step and faded from existence. She had plans to set in motion.