The remainder of the floor went by without issue. Alanna stalked the forest as though she were a predator and managed to cleanly kill off the remaining creatures. She was still rather irritated by her mistakes over the past few hours. While she did not know exactly what to expect from this quest, she never imagined it would be overly dangerous. She had the advantage of her soul becoming whole and one with the land so she was not overly concerned at first. Yet she had made many mistakes each of which caused her severe harm. Were it not for the healing ability she would be long dead. She understood there was a bit of a learning curve and that it took time to re-develop the muscle memory for combat arts.

When she started this journey into the otherworld she felt a bit of nervousness sure but looking back she recognized she had a sort of overinflated sense of self. As she considered her time in the otherworld she decided that she may have been overly influenced by her more powerful past selves. She simply did not retain the skill of some of her past bodies. She would have to learn once again. She was determined to find some help once she got out of this place.

The last of the creatures on this floor were found guarding a large burrow dug beneath a massive blackthorn tree. There were a few scattered fruits from tree that had fallen during short fight with one rolling into the hidden burrow. Alanna was just curious enough to check it out but not quite foolish enough to stick her head in. She thrust her staff into the burrow and found it was only a bit under a meter in depth and width. It was approximately 2 feet or around 60cm if she had to guess.

After carefully moving the staff along the perimeter she peeked inside. She found an iron bound chest that was nearly a meter in length. She pulled it out and found it was not locked or even latched. The lid just sat loosely closed. She was mildly paranoid so she backed up a bit and flipped the top with her staff. Inside the chest was filled with gems and some small golden bars. They looked like the quintessential treasure from every fantasy ever made. Alanna pursed her lips and stared at the chest's contents. "It is too fantastical to be real." She said as she poked the contents with her staff. Nothing seemed to happen. No rabid box disguised creature tried to eat her. The gems and gold just shifted around the staff.

Alanna prodded at it for a minute until she felt her staff impact a smaller box buried in the treasure. She carefully uncovered it and pulled out what looked to be a rather well made jewelry box. She carefully looked it over but could not see anything obviously wrong with the box. She was getting a feeling of contentment from with in herself. When she felt this way in the past she usually attributed these feelings as being from the land. Whatever this box contained a part of her wanted. So, she opened the box. Inside there were 4 large seeds. Alanna had no idea what they were seeds of, but she had a really good feeling about these plants. So, she decided to hold onto them.

She started to stuff the case into her pack when the fairy flew out and expanded to her full size. She had her arms crossed and an irritated pout decorated her visage. Alanna looked up at her as she shoveled a handful of coins and gems into the pouch after pushing in the jewelry box. She did not know what, if any, type of coin was used in this land so it would not hurt to take a bit. She just hoped it wasn't somehow cursed.

"Can I help you leanan sídhe?" Alanna asked the cross spirit. "I have a name druid." The fairy responded. Alanna thought for a moment then looked questioningly at the fairy. "I do not recall you properly introducing yourself." She said. "I recall you saying something and me taking a bit to understand you. Then I told you my name and story. I do not recall you giving a name though." The fairy thought for a moment. "You may refer to me as Grainne." She decided with a nod.

Alanna hummed in an affirmative and nodded likewise. "Very well Grainne my question stands. Can I help you with something? You are acting quite affronted." The fairy stomped her foot and shouted. "Why are you releasing them. They have turned and are imprisoned here for a reason!" She spat. "My mother very likely condemned these fae and you return them to the cycle. Why?"

Alanna stared in confusion at the fae. "You don't even know what your doing!" The fairy screamed angrily. "This was there punishment. To be banished to this place. Forever denied rebirth yet you come in here and free them from their just reward. They were tainted and fallen." The woman seemed to have built up quite a bit of anger over the course of the past hour she slammed a fist into her hand and glared at Alanna. Alanna just raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Are you going to explain or rant like and rave like a mad woman?" She asked. The fairy grit her teeth and explained. "When we die our essence is returned to the land and we are remade. We never truly die merely spend some time lost until we are reconstituted. This place is a dungeon. It is there punishment for what they have become. These boggarts were once hobgoblins. They aided the land and nourished it like a caretaker. Then they fell to darkness and became these twisted things. These twisted things cannot be allowed to return to the cycle. That is why mother placed them here"

Alanna was shaking her head in disagreement It did not feel right to her. She knew that some of what the woman was saying was accurate but as a whole it didn't ring true. She wasn't sure exactly why but she struggled to express her thoughts "They are a blight on the land in this form. Their very presence is a taint. I can feel the revulsion the land feels for them. All should be returned to the land to be reborn. This darkness may have a cause and a purpose. Perhaps they will live to taint us once again. Yet they can be washed clean in the cycle." She paused and looked up and to the west where she had entered the forest above. She felt it there. The ring that led to the overworld. She felt the weak connection there with the land. It was weak but stable. She looked back at the dust piles of the boggarts she had slain. "Perhaps it is the fault of the overworld. The connection to the land is weak and the gods of the world have all either fled or have been destroyed. The otherworld still has a deep connection to them and the creatures on this side have a deep desire for their home. Perhaps it drives them to hate the decedents above. She looked at the leanan sídhe and shrugged. I do not know for sure but the land required their death and purification."

Grainne stared at the druid with a frown. She moved her hands to her sides and clenched her fists then grit her teeth. "You druids and your connections." The fairy snorted. "You always think to speak for the land hmm, well where were you when it was taken? When we were driven from it?" The fair turned and shrunk back down and sat back on the pack. She was clearly done speaking but that was alright with Alanna. She couldn't really answer that question. She had fought and died a few times for her beliefs. Yet, many others gave in to the new way. The covens and groves were all nearly gone. Only a few remained steadfast in their ways from what she cold tell of the past few centuries of memories.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Yet as she considered what she read of the druids final days and compared it to the bit of information her grandparents were able to get based on their own past memories. The traditions did seem to hold them back when there were few left to pass on the centuries of knowledge the orders had. It was a common theme in history. Even if they could have written down their history there was no guarantee it would have lasted. There many great purges of information which helped ensure the future peoples would be left unaware of their past. It was sad but it was still quite common even in the modern era. Media black outs and government subdual of free speech happened in places all over the world.

There was nothing that Alanna could do about the situation and she understood Grainne's frustration to some degree. Still she knew she was right to release the creatures she found. She would admit she had not consciously done that. She had a weird desire to fight and kill and a lot of her actions were because of that. However, the land did not see things so darkly. It merely wanted the darkness purged and the cycle to continue.

With her pouch filled with a few trinkets and the seeds she donned it and made her way toward the exit tunnel for this room. She had found quite a bit to ponder upon in this place and while she was anxious to leave. She felt like she was truly beginning to find herself. The tunnel up toward the next floor was exactly the same as every other one she had wandered. It led up and around to a floor that was seemed to share the dimensions of the previous. This one was a snowy taiga biome complete with spruce trees and a single cottage in the center covered in snow. Alanna was certainly not prepared for snow like this. While not unheard of in March in Ohio or Ireland she was used to temperatures between 0 to 10 or 32 to 50 degrees for this time of year. She could get away with a light coat or sweater so long as the wind chill was moderate. This was all below 0 in temperature. She saw that there was some smoke coming from the chimney in the cottage so she made her way over toward it.

This area in the cavern did not seem to have any other creatures in it or if it did they were huddled up somewhere and not in the spruce forest. Alanna made her way to the front door and knocked on it then strained her ears listening for a response. It took a few minutes before the door opened revealing an older woman with a somewhat thin face and a large hooked nose, in old but comfortable looking clothes. She looked Alanna up and down then nodded for her to come in. "I'm just about to make some tea dear." The woman said "Come have a spot with me."

The cottage was a single large room with a large hearth complete with a cooking rack for a pot or roast. Next to the hearth there lay a cot with a large fur blanket and hand sewn pillow. To the left of the entrance there was a dining table and chair and to the right a long table with dried herbs and recently caught game animals.

The woman moved over to a table with a mortar and pestle and dropped a dried plant that was a white 5 petal flowered plant with umbrella shaped clusters at the end into the mortar. She proceeded to crush the plant repeatedly until it became a fine powder. The air took on a slight musty scent and it made Alanna want to back out. The woman then placed the dried and crushed plant into a cone filter that looked to be made of wood then set both over a ceramic cup and poured boiling water over it. Then offered the cup to Alanna who stared at it dubiously.

"Something wrong deary?" The woman asked with a saccharine smile. Alanna pushed the cup back toward the woman and offered a smile that did not meet her eyes. "I would hate to deprive you of the first cup." Alanna said. "I seem to remember that hemlock tea just doesn't relax me the way a good Bewley's does." The woman cackled in amusement then drained the tea in one fast gulp. This surprised Alanna to such a degree that she stared open mouthed at the woman. "Why did you do that?" Alanna asked then closed her mouth to hid her momentary surprise.

The woman just snorted in amusement at the question and pointed at the door indicating Alanna should leave. "I have completed my task and it is time to return." The woman said as she stood up and made another cup of the tea. She looked up at the ceiling but was staring somewhere far away and some time far removed. " I was the caretaker of this place for so very long." She said and grunted as a cramp overtook her body. "You asked why. Your coming here is a sign. I can feel those connected to me are removed from this place. So, I am no longer bound here. Your coming heralds my rebirth." The woman's smile was no longer so saccharine sweet but had a hint of genuine warmth to it yet if fell as she continued to reminisce. "I let their death and my loss consume me and I fell into the darkness willingly. I cursed their crops and their people until they died in the thousands. Still I was not satisfied. They took my kin and crushed my coven while I was tied to a stake to be burned. Yet in my hour of desperation my blood called to blood and the line of Cethlenn answered my call."

The woman downed the other cup of tea and sat down at a nearby stool. Her face became pale and sweat beaded upon her brow. She looked pained and grimaced as she spoke. "I gladly accepted their aid and my would be killers were struck down by the devil they feared." She had a gleam of vindication in her eyes before it fell away to pain. "I cursed myself when I cursed them and was rejected by the land I once served. It opened a path on that hill and we were all dragged down. We fled through the otherworld and came to rest in a forest of shadows. It seemed like it was the perfect place yet it was the mad queen's domain and while it was shadow we were tainted. We were dark aligned and separated from the land. She sealed us in this tomb for our sin and promised one day salvation would come to all the broken by the hand of the reclaimer. You released some of the taint from the line of Cethlenn and they will rejoin the cycle free to live and try again. I am all that remains in this place and the mad queens curse no longer binds my spirit. So, I go to where I can reunite with the ones I lost so long ago.

With that she closed her eyes and her breathing slowed. Grainne popped up next to Alanna and stared at the dying old woman. "This was a mercy undeserved." She said. The woman smiled and hissed out, "yes," then slowly began to fade. "The land may want them Alanna but they defiled it and weakened it. It just isn't right." Alanna clasped the fairy by the hand and held her firmly and turned Grainne toward her. "I understand what you are telling me. I understand that your connection to the home is weak." She paused and thought back through her memories and felt the conviction of Nuada. "The pact has changed you all. Some lean toward the light and some toward the dark but it is all part of the cycle. The taint is a change of nature not a measure of good or evil. It is a blight on the land because you all are the land just as I am. When you change your nature, your connection is weakened or even severed. Yet the taint, the blight it lingers. I saw the places leading to the otherworld. Each is like a small wound in the land. It is an irritant and it must be cleansed in some way.

The fairy stared at Alanna with a frown but did not speak. She looked to be considering the words spoken and considering all she knew of her place in the otherworld. As they stood their lost in their thoughts the land shifted around them and the cavern fell away leaving them standing in a stone ring at the end of a long path. Behind them lay a shadowed forest and in front a vast grassland with a large motte-and bailey castle standing atop a similarly large hill. They looked at each other then at the castle in the distance and for the first time in a while they both smiled.