Galus sat in a chair in the tower, hefted the Haligtree medallion half, looking into the fog, as he ran his thumb over the intricate engravings on the medalion, he could swear when the sun hit juuuust right, he could see a shadow of the Haligtree projected through the seemingly permanent fog.

A few days back he'd laid the ring Tragoth gave him in the first church of Marika, nothing mystical happened save for the whisper of a ghosts thanks on the wind.

He looked down at the Haligtree medallion and he took out the Dectus medalion, he saw the engravings were as intricate.

One side of the Dectus held a tree sentinel the other a priest. With what looked to be the towers siding up to the erd tree and a golden gem.

The Haligtree medallion seemed to depict two sages with branched spears in the ephael brace of the Haligtree. the Haligtree in the center similar to the erdtree medallion.

Galus closed his eyes, this crap was almost over with... It'd been so long since he could just sit down and take a damn break, he needed a nap, and no medical leave didn't count as vacation, it's not vacation when you're in excruciating pain.

He closed his eyes and got up, he looked at the new flag flying high, ivory white and pale gold, our colors flying high. Lord knows how he got here... But in searching the premises Lattena found Boc chained up in one of the 'guest rooms'. They questioned him as to how in gods name he got there, apparently patches instead of turning him into a tree, locked him in a bird cage and took him with to sell the poor monkey, this was after some red haired swordswoman tore his bandit crew apart, he fled up into mount Gelmir where apparently one of the recusants bought Boc off of patches and had apparently found an alternate route into the mountain, he managed to jimmy the lock and get out of his little cage, where he wandered for days getting chased by everything from fellow demi humans to angry fire monks, eventually he found his way to the castle and was summarily captured.

Galus formally employed his services to weave flags banners and tabards for the Haligtree fringe alliance. Edgar had inherited Niall's old Halberd and to celebrate Galus hooked on an all new white flag and had a white tabard made to replace his old tabard. It was a decent look on him white gold on silver.

Galus also found that Niall's axe could summon an army of the dead, he supposed they made a good work force for repairing the castle but according to Lattena they made for a lousy fighting force, so Galus would be sure to send a small contingent of troops over to the fort, which he was renaming fort kickass, Edgar was not amused, and decided to rename it fort Helena after his late wife. Galus decided since it was his fortress he got naming rights.

As for food stores there wasn't much, the albinaurics weren't being fed after the betrayal, and what food stores the castle had went soly to Niall, so at best there was a years of food left for two people, but evidently Niall had been there a while because that's all there was, the rest of the truly massive pantry was emptied save for the clay jars of food they found, apparently the man wasn't a fan of mutton because they found most of the fish gone. He wondered if Niall grew up on the sea.

Galus went down the stairs and onto the elevator, Miquella informed him that his week long vacation was over, and that it was time to get moving again.

He met up with the others, Edgar was staying here to fortify the position, Mirina was staying behind as well to help the other albinaurics get accustomed to life, gods some of them had those horrid nests on their heads, he did trust Galus enough to let Irina go with him, Galus felt he was shirking responsibility but he liked Irina and he probably didn't want to be distracted by his daughter while he's working, still, he had a talk with Edgar about it but he seemed to understand that this was not a permanent arrangement.

Bright side they finally had a spot open for Lyrina on Edgar's old horse, who's ownership has temporarily been transferred to Irina, who could not ride on her own so Lyrina had the reins.

They rode back to the elevator, it wasn't a long journey, but it was perilous, the Zamor actually welcomed them this time, they offered Galus a picnic basket of frozen rowa, they were unsettling but he had to hand it to them, they were courteous.

After a while of they made their way over over the gap in the mountains was in honestly desperate need of repair, the though at the other side he noticed a contingent of fire monks who were investigating the dead prelate, he summarily dispatched the monks, his discs decapitating them in a row, he was two for three on the religicide, but he would prefer to keep the fire monks alive, the more fire monks were alive the more that red haired psychopath will have to go through in her journey to kill the erd tree, oh he wanted to be allies but she made it very clear that he had no place in her version of the golden order.

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Galus casually rolled their bodies off the mountain pushing them with the flat of the discus before riding off, he didn't need more fire monks finding bodies and severed heads, and declaring war on the Haligtree, but he couldn't afford to be told this was a toll road.

They rode back towards the elevator, apparently their return wasn't a welcome one because a squad of vulgar militia was waiting for them. "Great, it appears we aren't welcome, and what's more they stuck the B team on us, listen tell Godfrey I'm not afraid to beat the snot out of some preteen kids if they get in the way of my mission."

One of these kids spoke up. "We're not working for Godfrey, Lanssax is the new king of Leyndell, and she's proclaimed you to be enemies of Leyndell, and should you take a single step off of that bridge way, we will eliminate you forthwith."

Galus closed his eyes, and got down from his horse. Gave her a pat on the neck, and walked over right upon the line between land and bridge. He glared at the kids, and spoke. "One chance goonies, out of my way before I knock you all out and send you all crying back to mama Lanssax."

They readied their weapons, and so it began. He undid his sword from it's sheath and put down his helmets visor, before crouching down, his hand caressing the snow and he grabbed a fist full, his vision blurred and he was behind one of them which he promptly smacked in the head with the flat of the blade, he turned to his partner, and tossed the hand full of powdered snow into their face, they stumbled back and he strode up and punched them in the nose, it was a rather light tap considering the amount of force he was capable of dealing out, hell on his vacation he saw a good chunk of brick wall that was reasonably intact so he asked Edgar to have a couple ghost soldiers hold it up for him and he tested the amount of force his punches carried at full power, by the end of it he left a massive spider web of interconnecting cracks on the busted wall. So a bloody nose was a as he put it, a light tap.

He he turned to see a bundle of big fat grapes fly toward him, those damn poison gass grenades, though a strong gust of storm wind threw it over the mountain side. He nodded to Nepheli and then saw another one fly at him, a thrown discus made it explode in the air, green gas trailing down like a firework, he turned wind blowing the cape back in the wind, his sword at his side, he took a step forward, and saw like thirty more of these kids.

It took nearly fifteen minutes to get those kids either knocked out or to run away, they stepped onto the elevator platform, and Galus held the two pieces of the Haligtree Medallion up for the world to bare witness, he held them together and the green jewel glowed causing the medallion to seemingly become magnetized because they snapped together and held together by some unseen force. The twin sages as depicted on the medallion held their branch swords and turned slowly to face eachother, rather than the outside world. And so they descended once more unto the breach.

He grinned and sat down on the ground with the others, with a clap of his hands. "So! Lattena, you can go do that birthing droplet thing for your tall sister that sounded better in my head... Anyways, we'll go do that then it's straight to the Haligtree, by the by, did anyone else notice that massive ass white lion that seems to stick around Edgar?"

Lattena nodded. "He treated it's wounds after he defeated it, with my help I might add, no fair, why don't I get a big cat?"

Lobo gave a small growl, somehow playful, she laughed. "Get a grip you big lug, you're yesterdays news, turns out cats are taking over the pet market."

The wolf growled, this time a little less playful. She sighed. "Yeah, Sorry, didn't mean to say the P word, and I know you hate cats."

Lobo Chuffed. She patted him. "I know fluff muffin, I love you too much to replace you with some mangey old cat."

Galus leaned over to Lyrina. "Is she just screwing with us or can she actually speak dog."

She shrugged. "Could be both, wouldn't put it past her." That earned the pair of them a snow ball in the forehead by Lattena, that... Activated a full blown snowball fight between them. It was good stress relief while it lasted and it lasted quite a long time, an hour as it were, twice as long as it took last time they went up, this elevator was slow.

Eventually the elevator did hit the bottom and while Galus was distracted looking at the source of light that was creeping into the elevator, a snowball hit him square in the side of the head.

He chuckled but told everyone to settle down, he walked out, onto the flat snowy grounds, and he couldn't see shit... Somekind of heavy icy mist, it obscured their vision. Luckily for them, they had a native to guide them through the area.

Lattena did just that, and they even came across a few albinauric archers, who escorted them across and into Liturgical village, there was a regiment of the riders waiting there, not all of them looked happy to see their group.

One of the girls with squinted eyes looked him over and shorter shoulder length hair. "That armor, it's Carian make right?"

One of the others nodded, she seemed to have her hair braided. "Yeah, so what's with the Haligtree drapery? You really that eager to get into the Haligtree?"

One girl in a ponytail snorted. "Very few survived to get this far, most find here to be their last stop seeing as the final trial usually kills them."

And the final one who had slightly longer hair looked a bit more shy than the others. "Uh, who did you say he was again?"

Lattena sighed. "Hanika this is Galus, Miquella's shield."

The one in the ponytail snorted again, he was going to call her piggy if she kept it up. "And he has the badge of office?"

Lattena hesitated. "I uh."

Piggy snorted out a laugh. "You didn't even check?"

Now Lattena looked flat out embarrassed.

Galus tried to remember, Miquella said something about a badge of office. It smacked him in the face hard enough to leave a mark. He rifled through his horses bag and brought out the flower that looked like it was just plucked yesterday, silver and gold petals shining on display. He showed them and Lattena looked down right relieved. Piggy however didn't look too convinced. "Lord Miquella also said he'd have his mark on his hands, show us."

Galus sighed, he undid the straps and bit his gauntlets fingers one by one and got it off. Before showing the palm of his hand. "Satisfied? Or shall I show you my damn resume while we're here. Let me tell you something lady, I'm not here to do your makeup, I'm here to get shit done, so if you have no further inquiries, I think I'd like to get to the Haligtree after Lattena here delivers the birthing droplet so your damn species can continue to not be extinct."

Piggy, or Lorena as he was later informed her name was, looked ashamed. "Sorry sir."

Galus nodded. "Kindly escort Lattena to the tall sister, I'm going to see if I can't set up a campsite for tonight."

Lattena punched him in the shoulder. "Nuh-uh, we're in a village, we have actual beds this time." Galus sighed and nodded.

And so they split up for a while.