Becky wandered beside Mason in something of a daze, like she was drunk or high or half asleep. He hoped she recovered, but for the moment was mostly just glad he didn't have to explain her cousin was gone. Again.

He'd spent a few minutes questioning Willy, and the man finally admitted he'd known his sister had been 'infected'.

Apparently the brain bug was some kind of giant leech they'd put down her throat. Once they had, she'd been at ease and treated like a queen by the other insects.

"But I didn't know it was their leader, y'know? I didn't fuckin' understand any of this shit!"

Willy seemed to Mason somewhere between incompetent, moronic, and manipulative. He didn't have any corrupted root wounds, but he had what looked like tract marks, and Mason was pretty sure he'd been a junkie pre-apocalypse.

How the hell the idiot survived the tutorial he had no idea, but he quickly lost interest. Willy was apparently some kind of crafter, too low level for his class to matter much.

Mason just collected the others and started back towards the tunnel entrance and the tree.

"Will we have to find the heart, Patron?" Phuong asked.

"You can call me Mason, you know," Mason said, and the old man smiled.

"Call it old habits. I could use sir instead, if you preferred."

"You can call me sir, if you like," Seamus chirped in from the other side. "Sir Seamus the Red," he said and grinned. "I bloody like the sound of that."

Mason shook his head, guiding Becky around some clumps of dirt before letting out a sigh. "I think the answer is yes. About the heart. And we can be pretty sure those gnolls are going to try and stop us. Except killing the gnolls angers the tree. So. All around a great situation."

"Will the tree's anger prevent you from cleansing it?" Phuong asked, and Mason frowned.

"It shouldn't." He threw up a hand. "Though I can’t know. And it just feels...wrong. They're defending it, and have been for a long time. I'd like them alive and continuing."

They walked on mostly in silence, Mason occasionally finding a rotten root to cut before they reached the room they'd first entered. It took a little doing to climb back up after the floor had broken apart, but they had rope and Mason could mostly climb anything.

He looked up the hole into the dull glow of the icy tree beyond, and sighed again.

Not for the first time, he decided, it was time to think a little more like Blake. They hadn't been interested in talking before, but maybe after the quest reward they would.

"I'll be back," he said, taking a length of rotten root he'd collected on the way. He passed Rebecca to Phuong, though she tried clinging to him and made a few upset noises until the older man managed to comfort her. Then Mason climbed using his fingers like claws, ripping bits of dirt away as he made most of his own handholds.

Negotiating with gnolls, he thought bitterly. Not exactly a thing he expected after his tutorial.

A little piece of him hoped it didn't work, that they proved themselves mindless killers and forced him to violence. But he didn't much like the thought, or the piece of himself that had it.

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Better not to kill anything if he didn’t have to. Except probably that insect queen he’d let go…

Who knew what sort of trouble such a thing might get up to next? Maybe for the good of everyone he should have just risked Rebecca and attacked. But he'd been selfish. He cared more about her life than whatever evil that thing might do, that was the truth.

He pulled himself up the last grip to the tunnel's entrance, taking a moment to listen for gnolls. Several of the creatures were close by, their breathing audible up top. Others walked in circles nearby.

God knew how many were beyond that. If you'd all prefer to just fight to the death, Mason thought, I guess I'm good either way.

But he hoped, for the sake of his conscience, they gave him a second to talk first.

* * *

"I come in peace," Mason said, holding his hands up dangling with the corrupted roots.

Gnolls growled in chorus all around him. He didn't come out all the way, remembering they'd considered the tree sacred and just his presence some kind of violation.

"I'm not in the tree," he said, "See? I'm just in the tunnel."

The creatures yipped and maybe barked as they bared fangs and surrounded him, a dozen pairs of claws forming a lovely little circle around his head. He forced himself not to drop. Or charge out murdering.

They waited, at least, until the big gnoll Mason had seen before returned and stared. And stared.

"What do you want, human?" it finally growled.

"We've cleared out the insects," he said, then tossed over the roots. A gnoll nearly swiped his face for it. "They were corrupting the roots. Not sure why. But I dealt with that, too. Things should improve."

The gnoll picked up the reeking roots and sniffed it, looking about as disgusted as Mason.

"Good. Then you can leave. We will take you directly out."

"Yeah, about that," Mason cleared his throat. "The heart of the tree is still...infected. I need to cleanse it. Which means I need to touch it."

It was a bit like he'd tossed a cat into a kennel. Barks and growling gnoll guffaws bombarded him in surround sound. He just waited it out until the gnoll 'chief' stared with narrowed eyes.

"That is impossible."

"As in...you won't let me? Or, it's literally impossible to reach the heart?"

"Both, human," the gnoll sneered. "Eabha’s heart is behind a wall of magic ten feet thick, surrounded by living frost that could rend the flesh from your hairless body, and freeze your bones to ice."

Mason pursed his lips and shrugged.

"Doesn't sound so bad. Lead the way."

The gnoll chief let out a low rumble but said nothing more, and Mason lifted himself a little more from the hole. Claws clattered closer all around him.

"I'm a druid,” Mason said, holding himself steady. “I'm here to help the tree, not to harm it. Isn't that clear by now? I've come a long damn way to do it. You understand?"

The chief just kept staring, quick and clever eyes obviously calculating. It occurred to Mason he might be prevented by his followers and their beliefs as much as anything, even if he secretly agreed. Maybe Mason needed to give him a win, give him a reason. He tried desperately to think like Blake.

"If you let me try, and I will owe your tribe," he said. "Guide me, give me your blessing, and I will be in your debt." He lowered his eyes, trying to think quickly. "And you will be paid for the gnolls who died in battle. Whatever you want."

He couldn't see the creature's reaction with his head down, but thought it best to keep looking duly humbled. He heard a few of the gnolls walk away and speak in low voices, whispering so well even Mason couldn't make out the words. They came back and the chief spoke again.

"You alone. A druid is acceptable in Eabha’s glory. But the others...none of them are…they are...unclean beyond tolerance."

‘They are not nature affinity’, Mason translated, but kept his smile hidden as he bowed his head lower before he raised it. "Thank you, great chief. I'm ready when you are."

"This way," the big gnoll gestured. "Follow. Walk nowhere else, or the time for words will end."

Mason nodded, then took a moment to call down to the others to tell them to wait. Then he climbed up and followed the growing pack of hostile looking gnolls, doing his best to seem non-threatening.

When the creatures got a good look at him and all his recent 'transformations', they were clearly as disturbed as the group below. The chief’s eyes went up and down Mason's body, but he gave no other indication.

"The druids of the great forest have done nothing for Eabha for two thousand years," he said, voice dripping with disdain. "You will be no different. But if death is your desire, then I will show you."

With that, the big creature turned and vanished into a snowy wall that seemed to break apart into mist as the gnoll touched it. Mason took a deep breath and followed.