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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7436140" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 168Armed guards escorted them to the doors of the council chamber, but they did not follow them in.  Glori was barely aware of the doors swinging shut behind her and Embrae, she was so focused on the strange beauty of the place.The room was round and spacious, with a vaulted ceiling that rose to a dome high overhead.  It was hard to make out many details, for it was almost completely dark.  Tiny globes that seemed to drift down from the ceiling glowed with soft, flickering light that reminded Glori of fireflies.  There was a deeper blue glow around the perimeter of the room that evoked the last lingering vestiges of twilight.  Together those two sources of light were enough to reveal a number of irregular platforms all around them.  Those platforms had been shaped to resemble trees, down to the spreading “branches” that connected with each other and joined with the buttresses that supported the ceiling.  Even the floor contributed to the illusion of a nighttime forest, the surface slightly spongy beneath their steps instead of rigid like hardwood or stone.“What is this place?” Glori asked.  It was just the two of them; Kosk had not been permitted to enter the inner chamber.  Embrae had been upset, but the Council guards would not budge, even when she’d threatened to leave.  Glori knew that was an empty threat, especially after all of the maneuverings they’d had to go through to get this audience.  Finally, Kosk had told them to go on; he would wait for them in the outer chamber.“This is where the Advisory Council gathers,” Embrae said.“When will they get here?”“They are here now,” the elf replied.  “Look.”Glori turned back to the near-darkness.  Her keen eyesight—a gift of her mixed heritage—helped her to pick out details that she had missed earlier.  The upper parts of the “trees” had been shaped into nooks that could have served as chairs.  But instead of robed elves, all that she saw were vague, silvery orbs, glistening bulbs maybe two feet across.  Not all of the tree-pedestals had them, but there were at least a dozen that she could see from their current vantage.“They don’t actually meet in person?” Glori asked.“Tradition,” Embrae said, interjecting a sour note to the word that had Glori considering her in a new light.  “The elves love their political games.  I remember them well.”“Things have changed since your departure, Princess,” a voice said.  Glori nearly jumped; the voice seemed to come from all around them, though it wasn’t any louder than a normal person speaking.“Some of the faces behind the shaels may have changed, but the underlying truth hasn’t,” Embrae said.Glori looked back up at the silvery spheres and didn’t need to see the faces behind them to sense the judgment there.  “We did not come here to argue,” she said.  “The Ambassador, she is in grave condition.  The Arreshian authorities must be notified…”“They have already been told,” another disembodied voice said.  Distorted by whatever magic allowed the Advisors to communicate from wherever they were, Glori couldn’t tell if it was the same speaker as before or another, but she decided it probably didn’t matter.“And their response?” she asked.“They will send another ambassador when one becomes available,” the voice said.“Another…” Glori stopped herself and took a steadying breath.  “What about Javerin?”“You know all that we know,” the voice said.“That is not much,” Glori said.  “Surely you must have encountered something like this before…”“The Ambassador was ensared by a potent magic,” the voice said.  “A kind of power unlike any practiced within Tal Nadesh.”“So you’re saying that there is nothing you can do?  Nothing at all?”There was a long pause, and Glori had to resist the urge to shout into the darkness.   She wondered if the Advisors could speak with each other without their audience listening in.  Finally, a voice said, “There is one, perhaps, who can help.”“The Druid,” Embrae said suddenly.“Yes,” the voice said.Glori turned to the monk.  “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”Embrae looked up at the platforms, but when there was no response she signed and said, “At the core of the elvish kingdom there is a place that is left untouched by settlement or other interference—the Reserve.”“I’ve heard of it, I know it’s a place that’s kept pristine,” Glori said.  “Part of the elvish commitment to living in harmony with nature.”Embrae glanced up at the silent watchers again before she continued.  “Yes, that is the common view.  What is not commonly known is that it is kept… pristine, as you said, for another reason.”“Magic is a phenomenon of the natural world,” one of the Advisors said, the deep, sonorous voice filling the chamber.  “It draws power from life.  The Reserve is kept free of civilization to keep that power pure.”“But you still tap that power,” Glori said.“Yes,” the voice said.  “Much as humans tap the power of their machines and dwarves the power that is deep under the earth.”“And do you think this power is somehow tied to what happened to Javerin?” Glori asked.“More that the power can possibly help your Ambassador,” the voice said.“And the Druid, he’s what, the keeper of this Reserve?”“He is the leader of a group of people called the ‘Tenders,’” Embrae explained.  “They ensure that the Reserve is kept protected.”“So, let’s get this Druid and bring him here, then,” Glori said.  “Or take her to him, if you need to be inside this place to use the magic.”“It’s not that simple,” the monk said.  “The Reserve is truly separate from our realm.  It’s isolated, there are no communities in or near it, no roads, not even a regular trail.  It’s not easy to get to, and magical means of communication won’t function within it.”“You seem to know a lot about it,” Glori said.“The Princess sought at one time to join the ranks of the Tenders,” one of the voices said.Glori looked at Embrae, but the monk lowered her eyes.  “That was a long time ago,” she said.  “A road I ultimately did not choose to walk.”“So, what I’m hearing is that you can’t bring Javerin to the Druid, you can’t summon him remotely, and getting to him isn’t an easy prospect.  Does that about sum it up?”“Your conclusions are more or less accurate,” the voice said.“You would not have brought it up if you didn’t think this was the only option,” Glori said.  “Do you think Javerin will survive long enough for someone to get to the Druid and bring him back?”“We will continue our research, but as you noted, there does not seem to be much else we can do.”“Javerin is important, and I’ll do anything I can to help her,” Glori said.  “But we have another mission, one that is more important than the life of any one person.”“Yes.  We know why you are here.”“You cannot be ignorant of the troubles that are stirring in the world.  Kavel Murgoth was involved in it, but there may be others as well.  There is a dark power at work in the world, one that threatens not just the humans of Arresh.”“We know of this power, and concur with the plan to access the Elderlore Libram.”Glori blinked in surprise.  Then why the delays?  Unless…  There’s something more, isn’t there.”“Your two quests are related, Glorianna Leliades.  For the elves’ portion of the Shattered Key also lies within the Reserve, in the custody of the Druid who dwells within the Green Tower at its core.”</blockquote>

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