The trio lost sight of the gleaming vista of the Sanctuary as they approached, looping around the thick jungle underbrush to reach the core area. Neveah noticed the curious silence of the vegetation, more a lush backdrop than any sort of ecosystem that supported life, as they passed through the outer edges of the town. However, the paths were obvious and well-tred. It was clear that people lived here.

Perhaps the locals had just hunted the local wildlife to extinction.

Smart stopped the group right as the sounds of civilization had become audible through the dense trunk of the trees. Intrigued and now with a good idea of where she had to go next, Neveah figured they could afford a little dawdling. As always, the thick satyr man seemed nervous and vaguely damp, although this seemed to be about a different matter. “Ahem. I… well this is more for Quantas than you, Miss. But… ehehe… some individuals in the Sanctuary… treat your father strangely. I’ve found that its best to just ignore them, alright? If you humor them, they just… get a bit clingy.”

To Neveah’s great relief, in the time since they left the strange valley the force had stopped puppeteering the boy. The satyr child stood with his arms akimbo, frowning at his father. “This is suspicious. Why are you saying things like that? You are the weird one. Don’t blame other people. You lecture me about personal responsibility all the time.”

“I’m just saying city folk are a bit different in their manners.” His cheeks flushing, Smart turned away, apparently done with his preparatory talk. The group followed the winding path around a massive tree trunk and light hit Neveah’s face. Suddenly the trees around them seemed to melt away and the group stood at the edges of a gleaming, sun-drenched valley.

The central area was dominated by those massive trees visible from the distance, but up close Neveah could see the way the entire exterior of the trunks had been carved into giant populated towers. A cobalt river wound its way through the trees, surprisingly deep and blue. The area where the trees sank into the ground was congested with buildings and movement, a bustling town. This was the beating heart of the resistance in the area but the longer Neveah looked at it, the more she felt sure something strange was going on.

“So cool,” Quantas whispered. And Neveah got the appeal, even if it fell flat at the edges. The Sanctuary appeared to have been cobbled together from several half-considered fantasy ideals of what a safe haven should look like. Yet the more she studied it, the more it began to contradict itself. For example, the deep blue river appeared to be flowing swiftly at one end, but slowed enough for the portion winding around the town to be filled with waders and flat-bottomed fishing vessels. Several giant crystal spires floated in the air around the Sanctuary and manipulated the flows of mist, but those mists threatened to arrive but never truly descended; to be in the area of Sanctuary was to be constantly soaked in sunlight.

The light and warmth felt wonderful and rejuvenating against Nevahs’ skin. But it didn’t quite cover up the feeling of strangeness. The whole place felt staged.

“Freeman Smart~!” A loud shout pulled Neveah out from her considerations and brought her gaze to a bearded centaur hurrying up from one of the few small farm cottages dottied the road. He beamed in their direction. “When the sun rose today, I knew it would be a good day! But I had no idea a Sanctuary’s little hero would be returning to town. I don’t suppose you’ve reconsidered my offer? Now, I know that Daphne was unsatisfactory, but my niece Brunhild is staying with me and- well, Brunhild~”

The centaur raised his voice as he said the name, echoing across the valley. After a few moments of stillness, the door to his cottage opened and out came a centaur woman. As she cantered playfully across the farm and up the road to them, she demonstrated that while her bottom half seemed a perfectly serviceable dappled grey mare, her top half had been drawn by a teenage boy. The busty Brunhild seemed one jolt away from her significant chest from bursting its way out of the leather tunic worn down by her rough gait.

“Little hero?” Qunatas regarded his father suspiciously as the woman approached. Neveah leaned closer to listen.

Smart shrugged. He had once more begun to sweat. “Last time I came by I had… well, a strange feeling I should hurry even though I was tired being chatted up by a merchant about a possible deal. I don’t know, it’s so hard to explain… I just felt like I could try some of the merchant’s wine or keep going on my path, and- well, your mother always hated it when I drank, Quantas, so I kept going.. I managed to arrive just in time to provide a little help to one of the Sanctuary’s warriors. One thing led to another, but really, its not a big deal.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Oh wow, Freeman Smart, you are even more handsome than they had said,” Brunhild blinked in what might have supposed to have been a coquettish manner, but just indicated to Neveah the poor woman had a fly crawling across her eyeball. “I… I’ve wanted to meet you for quite some time-”

“Well thank you, but we really must be going,” Smart’s head filled with hot blood, until he was beet red. He looked everywhere except at Brunhild, whose torso continued to tremble, impossibly, due to her ridiculous proportions and the simple act of breathing. “”Ummm… this woman needs to speak with the Sword of Truth. We really need to be going.”

Both the centaur and her niece watched their departure with over dramatic, arm-above-head waves and soon the daughter came over and joined them, just as beautiful as the niece. Neveah glanced sideways at Smart. The corner of her mouth quirked up. “...that’s why you insisted you were married when we met. You worried that everyone would want to jump your bones, like them.”

“It’s all just a misunderstanding,” Smart muttered.

Neveah chuckled. “Awfully cocksure, aren’t you, Smart?”

“Pah.” For his part, the preteen Quantas seem unimpressed. And steadfastly remained so over the next half hour as they moved into the Sanctuary proper and were approached by a series of fathers, brothers, merchant daughters, windowed craftswomen, and even tittering nuns who inquired after Smart’s health. As far as Neveah could tell, the entirety of Sanctuary was populated by playing children and eligible bachelorettes interested in the muscular satyr. However, it did serve as an interesting comparison point.

Because through all of these eyelash-fluttering individuals, that invisible force pulsed. More than anywhere else, the energy lived and breathed in this small zone. And the closer they grew to Mae Myrna, the stronger it appeared to get.

Eventually, two guards stopped them at the gates to one of the massive tree trunks, eyeing Neveah suspiciously. “Freeman Smart, obviously you are welcome anytime, but with the ongoing war with Nether we cannot allow this stranger into the core areas of Sanctuary.”

The second guard licked his lips, appearing almost physically ill to be going against Smart’s wishes. “She… might be a spy.”

Neveah clicked her tongue. “Don't worry about it. Can you take her a message from me? Tell her that I’m a friend of Nether King Hungry Eye-”

The air changed instantly. Her words stilled the invisible energy animating this place and then brought a horrible typhoon of antagonism howling toward her.

They had passed through the street not five minutes earlier, a flirty Lizakh merchant displaying an out-of-character bit of clumsiness and knocking down her apples in front of Smart. Yet now that very same merchant vaulted over her stand with a butcher’s knife in her mouth, her eyes slitted and black. Grim-faced individuals appeared from previously unnoticed alleys, all clenching bloodstained weapons.

They moved into formation around Neveah, even as Quantas’s face twisted. “You… you are friends with a Nether King? You bring a message… do you come bearing threats?”

The last words tore themselves out of the throat of Quantas, not his voice but the howling squall of the invisible force. Smart looked at his son, aghast at the sudden gnashing of teeth and aggression. The guards lowered their weapons toward Neveah as if preparing to lay their lives down to stop her.

However, the most alarming development was that Neveah straightened and for several seconds considered revealing Tiamat, Mother of Fear, and teaching these insolent fools a lesson.

A split second later she broke the grip the force had on her body and wondered when the last time she had spoken the words ‘insolent fools’. Neveah narrowed her eyes and looked up toward the height of the tree in front of her. I couldn’t sense you before, with all the chaos, but now that I’m this close-

Neveah stepped and ripped her way through force, even as it attempted to stop her. She climbed rapidly through the chambers within the tree and arrived at a grand hall filled with golden-armored warriors. They all walked out of the grand hall, very obviously having just finished a meeting. Cloaked in her power, Neveah slipped past them all and took a side door into a small chamber in the back.

There, Mae Myrna rubbed her chin and pored over a map of the area. The energy around her body churned, creating a giant whirlpool of strange, invisible influences that touched every aspect of the Sanctuary. It was a world state image tooled by Randidly Ghosthound himself and let loose, without understanding what it could become.

When Neveah entered, she looked up sharply and blinked. “You-”

“I am the partner of Nether King Hungry Eye,” Neveah said firmly. Her eyes blazed as she examined the Patron of Truth closely. “You… what have you done in this corner of the world, Mae Myrna?”

Just from stepping into the room and seeing Mae Myrna, with the deep bags under her eyes, Neveah began to soften in her stance. Perhaps this woman didn’t understand the consequences of her action. Which made it all the more surprising when the Patron of Truth absorbed the question and steepled her fingers.

Her eyes were iron when she answered. “I grant to the kind and powerless a fair chance at survival, even as the world considers them fodder.”