Galus was inside of the flower field again, he saw an... Interesting, new accessory. What looked to be Korne but he was skewered on a massive spear? No, a needle. Galus looked over to Miquella. "The fuck is this?"

Miquella shrugged. "It was my way of protecting you, he was going to infect your core with the frenzied flame, well, I found him snooping about and took care of him."

Galus looked at it. "Well... He's dead so..."

Miquella nodded. "So he's trapped here."

Galus closed his eyes. "And there's no way to repel him?"

Miquella looked thoughtful. "Yes... However it'd be a hard process."

Galus shook his head. "And is he required to be pinned up like an insect in a museum?"

Miquella blinked. "Oh, sorry, must have forgot about that."

The unalloyed needle disappeared and the merchant immediately started shrieking in pain and a yellow flame blazed in his eyes. A second giant needle slammed through him before he could do anymore damage.

Miquella looked at Galus as if to say. 'Anymore dumb questions?'

Galus blinked. "So, I'm dying?" He asked, he saw the edges of the field where massive fern trees were set up as backdrop seemed to be fading into blackness, as if being consumed by death.

Miquella nodded. "Yeah, it's not looking good for you, if it's at all consoling, you got closer than the last person I chose."

Galus raised an eyebrow. "Last person?"

Miquella nodded. "You're not the first, and alot of the people died on the first day not realizing the world wasn't a game anymore. But the world resets completely after each one dies by an enemies blade and I'm the only one who seems to remember, well, me and my other half, it's part of my curse."

Trina sat back on her throne. "Gotta admit though, your invasion on Leyndell was honestly the most tacky I've seen, the guitar was a weird touch, you're horrible at guitar by the way."

Galus smiled. "I know."

Trina looked over at him. "You realize you're dying, how can you smile?"

His smile went down a tug. "I don't know, it's better to die here than a gas station in the middle of nowhere."

Miquella closed his eyes. "You are by far the strangest person we've sired."

Galus smiled again. "I am a rather eccentric man I'll admit."

Miquella laughed. "Hey, look, that darkness is receding, looks like your pals saved your hide. You're one lucky bastard you know that?"

Galus sat. "Well, I can wait a while longer. So, those discs of light seem pretty flexible but the flames and mist of slumber seem like one note, unless I want to put someone to sleep rather than kill them, and while it's a great tool, I'm not sure how I should utilize it, there are no air vents to pump sleep mist into the air conditioner."

Miquella sighed. "We'd hoped you'd figure out these things on your own like you did with the rings of light."

Galus sat down and listened carefully.

Trina lit a small violet flame. "This can be confusing I'll admit. The flames of slumber can be used to grow some of my Lillie's, and you can use the Lillie's Tincture to coat your arrows or weapons in it, this can give it a narcotic effect. Some creatures eat the Lillie's, like the crab you rode, that's why it could spit sleep mist."

Galus looked at her. "Yes, but the end result is always the same, they go to sleep."

Trina grinned, "and what do people do when they sleep?"

Galus shrugged. "Dream?"

She nodded. Though seemed disappointed he wasn't catching on. "And I can control those dreams. It's a second means of controlling our people, so in other words, once my fire has burned them or they've breathed the mists of slumber, or have been put to sleep with my Lilly's extract, I can control their thoughts though every subtly. A Leyndell soldier won't just wake up and burn down the erd tree, but every night he sleeps I can further cement doubt into that man's heart, that what he's doing is wrong, that the world he's come to know has been built on lies, he'll likely become paranoid and lock himself somewhere he feels secure."

Galus understood. "Like Inception..."

She looked confused. "I get the feeling you're referencing something."

Galus chuckled. "It's a movie about controlling people when they go to sleep. Planting ideas in their brains and making them think they're their own."

She nodded. "Yeah, that's generally the idea."

Galus started to realize he was probably turning into a cartoon villain, the idea of controlling the masses while it was completely despicable, isn't that what was already being done in his world, pointless laws made only to control people not keep them safe, I mean there was one time people came by his house and made sure he went to the store to get some cake for a birthday party and was arrested because he'd not been vaccinated, he had been but it was still an open wound. This however, this was different, he could feel it, these two people had good intentions for for their people, atleast in comparison to other people in this damn world, I mean Mohg would have people living in a shit pit of blood and giant blood tumor birds, Godrick would have cut you to pieces just to get Chad arms, and Radagon and his army of bigots were too blind from looking at the bright erd tree to realize their society has been destroyed from it's rotten foundation, too busy pushing everyone else down and stepping on them creating a state case of bodies that they didn't even realize the stairs lead to their destruction. Sure, Ranni wasn't a good person and has committed silicide to get where she was but she knew what needed to be done and Miquella was just one step above her taking in the outcasts that even the most kind hearted in the golden order wouldn't even glance twice at. If they needed a nudge in the right direction then Galus was glad to help, though he'd prefer not to jump straight into Montok levels of mind control just to get someone to follow the rules.

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Trina seemed to almost read his mind because she said. "We can and will use this power responsibly, mostly just using these ability subtly to nudge people towards being happy."

Galus nodded. "Okay, so, what happened over at Mohgwyn palace?"

Miquella laughed. "Mohg found your note, he's so fucking pissed he's sent his entire army after you."

Galus looked at him. "You saw what I wrote, you can see through my eye."

He chuckled. "Oh yeah, I loved it, cute little poem."

Galus smiled and repeated it. "Three little chucklefucks came out to play, one came came up and ate his blade. Two little chucklefucks one thought he was a bird, he tried to fly but we dropped him like a turd. One little chucklefuck thought she could run, a cut to the head and she was done."

Miquella snorted. "Anyone ever tell you that you're great at pissing people off?"

Galus laughed. "You'd love my teachers, I used to piss them off with stuff like this all the time."

Miquella sighed. "As much as I'd love to continue this banter, your friends are trying desperately to wake you up. You should probably assure them you're alive."

Galus nodded, slowly disappearing in sparks.

-----------

Galus woke up blinking awake, he heard clanging of steel, so he got to his feet with a groan and a perfumer backed up, he felt like they looked familiar, then thought to the only other perfumer he'd talked to so far. He sat up looking at her. "You... What's your name?"

She stammered out a reply. "Lyria"

Galus groaned. His head hurt from the overextension of his magic. Lyrina offered him some water, he took it, sniffed it, then took a drink.

She sighed. "If I wanted to poison you I wouldn't have cured you of the first two poisons you were suffering from."

Galus looked over and saw Nepheli fighting a pair of Leyndell knights who were wielding electrified weapons. Godfrey was watching Nepheli as she fought them off with her battle axe, she gave her tips as she fought. He looked around, Edgar was nearby watching him and the perfumer, Tragoth was keeping any soldiers from getting through the entryways though his strategy basically consisted of smashing anyone dumb enough to come inside with his hammer.

Galus groaned, watching the fight between Nephi and the knights, her axe started sparking with electricity as well and offshoots of electricity sparked on the walls cieling and floor. She brought it down and electricity sparked between the two knights. Galus chuckled remembering Gold is a really fucking good electrical conductor.

Edgar got up and walked over to the other door and stabbed a soldier who tried to flank them.

Galus tried to get up but Lyrina put a hand on his shoulder. "You need to rest."

Galus realized his chest plate was taken off and his back and chest was bandaged. He chuckled. "Guess I kinda deserved this for going in over my head."

Galus sat back sighing then remembered something. "Hand me that leather bag over there next to my armor."

Lyrina die as bidden and Galus grabbed the bottle of crimson tears and took a deep drink feeling the numbing sensation over his wound.

"I think I'm good now..."

Lyrina blinked. "That's just cheating, I usually have my patients lay through the healing process to appreciate life more."

Galus wiped his mouth. "All is fair in love and war... And right now I'm at war."

Edgar cut down two more flankers and turned. "Galus is right we need to go, now, there's a lot more on the way and they aren't pleased."

Galus shook his head. "Where the hell are these reinforcements coming from? They have to be running low on man power by now... right?"

Edgar looked thoughtful. "They might have lit somekind of signal to the outer patrols to recall the troops. Maybe a fires on the towers on the walls."

Godfrey made a sound deep in his throat, somewhere between a growl and grunt. "It's possible, I did incorporate exactly that though it wasn't fire that I employed as a light source, but you're right all the same, however I killed most if not all of the soldiers and knights on the way to the city, the place is stained red from the corpses. The outskirts of the plateau are all nearly seven miles away, it would take hours for those troops to get over here."

Galus face palmed. "The camp... We forgot to clear the damn camp..."

Edgar looked at him. "The one next to the outer wall?"

Galus nodded. "Yeah, there's a squad in there including a single cavalry knight, speaking of cavalry, are our horses alright?"

Edgar nodded to Irina who was giving the horses what looked to be dried out rowa, he'd have to ask how they made rowa raisins, he was pretty sure it took a while to make a single batch of raisins but he wasn't sure of the fine details save for when he learned in kindergarten how they were dried in the sun, you could pick up the weirdest trivia in the lower grades of the school system.

Galus got up and put on his cloth tunic, then the leather jacket which interestingly along with the leather trousers Iji made ivory white, he put on the chainmail shirt over it before finally putting on his plate mail, it was interesting that the arm and elbow plates were built into the chain mail, save for the gauntlets that is which he slid on and put over some gloves. Finally he buckled and strapped the chest and back plates into place. The entire process is tedious and really freaking hard if not impossible to do alone which was why medieval knights had servants dress them in the armor for them. He finally donned his helm and moved down the face plate.

Esgar walked up to him and adjusted a strap and clicked a bucket he'd forgotten. "Almost son, you almost had it that time."

Galus didn't miss the implication of him calling Galus son. He was glad to be close enough to be considered a part of the family. He patted Edgar on the shoulder plate before shouting. "Let's move out, we're to meet Morgott within the hour."

Tragoth nodded. "Alright, I've something I need to do up in the mountains anyways."

They set off and very carefully got their horses to the second floor before carefully getting their horses onto the ramparts, both done by the thick roots that grew through the building but getting them into the second floor was the hard part because of how thin the root was there, nearly effortless for any human to walk on but the horses had some trouble, he was glad horses didn't kick Edgar off of the root and into the ocean, which nearly happened when a flock of eagles got spooked and flew in front of the horse, startling the poor creature.

As they moved up to the second floor and were prepping to depart onto the rampart, Galus looked over at the erd tree and noticed a flicker of movement below, looked down and saw a silhouette under the arching gate of the platform, they wore a tattered coat and carried what looked to be a gnarled staff with knots along the shaft. Galus gave a one fingered salute and guided Tempest down the massive root, her fluffy grey fur rustled in the high noon breeze, a fine horse indeed, and from what he could guess it was a beast bred for cold climates, he wondered who's ass he'd have to kiss to get some armor for the horse, he knew he'd likely have to leave her at liturgical town as the Haligtree wasn't exactly the best place for horses, god knew how Loretta did it, but if this was the trouble he was having getting his horses over a few roots, riding around on branches thousands of feet in the air be disastrous.

They walked over the rampart and toward the next building, he had a feeling that he was being watched, though by what he couldn't say, he looked over to the platform next to the erd tree, Morgott was gone so it wasn't him unless he got his hands on a palantir, but he was pretty sure those were all in middle earth.

Galus walked into the next building, the queens bed chamber. He looked at the... 'bed.' It was made of fucking stone, "who'd sleep on that?!'

Galus apparently spoke that last part aloud because Godfrey laughed. "That thing would all but kill my back after Marika and I would-"

Edgar gave a clear of his throat.

Godfrey grunted. "Fine, prude."

Galus felt that feeling of being watched intensify and he felt his legs twitch with the desire to bolt, he felt like a damn gazelle hearing the grass rustle the wrong way, why the hell were his instincts acting like this? He got his answer when a figure dropped down from the cieling and plunged a distinct jagged black blade into Tragoth's shoulder, and at an angle that it went beneath his throat likely stabbing through his windpipe. A damn black knife assassin, the last thing he needed was destined death knocking on his door.

The assassin looked at him, then tore her knife free and skipped back, the way they moved was like he'd used to move when playing in water, as if gravity itself scaled down a bit just for her.

Galus watched in awe, fear and fascination as they moved slowly one second then bolted and struck like a snake the next. Galus barely had enough time to block the damn strike with his sword. She slid back and looked at the pissed off remaining members of this motley crew, evidently found the odds stacked against her and adjusted her cloak then disappeared.

The perfumer rushed over to Tragoth and looked at the damage. "His lungs... My God I think they've been severed completely from the wind pipe... I... I can't fix this..." They looked dejected.

Galus walked over already reaching into his satchel, and walked over to Tragoth, he took out his potion and knelt, he took off Tragoth's helmet and presses the bottle into his mouth, though by the time he pulled it away he'd already seemed to be dead.

Galus sighed, then looked down at his satchel, inside he found basic supplies, and what looked to be a small scroll with a red ribbon ties around it, a ring hung from one of the loops of the bow it was tied into. Galus took out the scroll at the disapproving looks of his party, he untied the ribbon and looked over the scroll.

'To whom it may concern, during my fighting in the war against the fire giants my wife had died within the first church of Marika during childbirth in the mountains, if I am to die before delivering my wedding band I humbly request that you deliver it to my wife's grave in my stead. your's truly, Gravis L. Tragoth.'

He passed the note to Edgar and Lattena to get them off my back, they still didn't look happy. "You started looking his body and it hasn't even gotten cold yet." Edgar said.

Galus shook his head. "I'd do the same with you and I'd hope you'd do the same with me. Now what do you think of this whole business with his ring, should we deliver it to his wife's grave?"

Edgar sighed. "It appears to be his last request, so I don't see why we shouldn't."

Galus nodded, then looked to Lattena. "Yeah, alright, I don't see a problem with that, it's on the way, the first church of Marika is only a minor detour across a frozen lake." Lattena said.

Galus nodded. "Alright then, let's get moving, I don't think that assassin is coming back anytime soon." He said getting up and got up to his.

They walked up the many stairs that lead up to the platform, the erd tree was fucking blinding in it's glow, and if he was honest all the golden roofs of Leyndell's buildings had a tendency to reflect the light given that they were literally gold plated tiles, He was fucking sick of it, every golden leaf he stepped on he made sure to twist his step to utterly destroy it.

He shook his head and squinted as he stepped onto the platform and around the elden throne came Morgott looking like a grumpy old man who'd scream get off my lawn. "I don't know who you are or how you got here but you have alot of nerve to..." he trailed off as he looked behind them. "Father?"

Godfrey walked out from the back of the group where he was towering over them. He proceeded to walk over to Morgott and wrapped his arms around the poor man. "I... Truly am sorry Morgott..." He said, his deep rumbling baritone voice had a quaver to it.

Lattena looked at Galus. "Are you crying?" She asked teasingly.

Galus who was definitely not crying said. "It's just all the pollen in the air from that damned tree."

Galus shut his faceplate so they couldn't see his tears of joy.

It was a beautiful scene of family reunion, it was unfortunate that this wasn't a fairytale.