Resting I

The two of them arrived back at the witch's palace, or rather, what looked like the remains of it. Kies looked around and saw that the entire place was falling apart. There were cracks all over the walls and some pieces were also missing. There was rubble all over the floor and Kies had to be careful to not trip over them. He was surprised that the teleportation array was still intact. "What happened here?"

Fae sighed and told him as he brought him to the next array which was also somehow still functional. "That wretched traitor Lisler did this. Actually, he was never on our side to begin with," he corrected himself. "He was secretly working for the Bone Whistler the entire time and infiltrated us to find an opportunity to strike. We should've suspected him because he came to us from out of nowhere and it was the first time any of us had seen him before."But what's done is already done. The damage cannot be reversed. They will just have to figure something out for now.

The two made it to the next array. Fae activated it and it sent them to the witch's room. Unlike the previous room, this room didn't look like it had been through anything and looked just like how Kies had remembered it from before. The only difference was that the witch was missing this time and the room was empty.

"Over here." Fae led Kies to another teleportation array that was different from the one from yesterday.

"Where did the White Witch go?" Kies asked the undead while stepping onto the array.

"Her excellency has... some matters to attend to. But she will be back soon. For now, we just wait." What Fae said was very vague but Kies didn't ask any further and waited for the undead to finish his incantation and tap his staff against the floor.

This time they teleported to a small grassy area with trees and flowers. There was even a small pond in the center of the place. Kies was surprised to see that there was a place with so much life in the forest. Actually, he doubted that they were even in the forest anymore. There were fruits dangling on the branches of the leaves and even a few small animals running around. It was like a tiny paradise. Not something that they would find inside a forest such as this. But then again, Kies recalled Haro saying something about how there is life in this forest and that he just needed to know where to look. Maybe this was one of the places that he was talking about.

"Where are we?" Kies wondered out loud.

"We're still in her excellency's territory if that is what you're wondering," Fae answered. "We're at one of the few places in this forest with life. We're inside the island."

Kies looked up and saw that there was a ceiling with stalactites hanging from on top of them. The light was artificial and came from a strange species of glowing plants. They riddled the ceiling, covering almost every inch.

"By the way, where are the others?" Kies asked Fae. He thought that the undead was bringing him to them but he didn't see Ammine, Haro, Issie, or the werewolves anywhere. Where were they at?

Fae pointed his staff somewhere to their right and said, "They're over there recovering.

'Recovering.' That meant that they were injured during the fight. Kies hurried over to the place that Fae indicated everyone was and Fae started jogging as well to keep up with Kies's pace. Once they got close enough, Kies saw that under the trunk of one of the large trees was Ammine. She had a spiky blue fruit in her hand and was eating it. Above her on a branch were Haro and Issie. The owl saw Kies arriving and waved his wing at him.

On the other side of the pond under another large tree were the werewolves. Many of them looked roughed up and tired. There was a lot of blood on their fur but Kies was pretty sure that most of it came from the undead rather than from injuries. Bloodmane without a doubt was the one that received the worst injuries from the battle. He was lying on the dirt next to the pond where another one of his fellow werewolves was cleaning the blood off him.

But instead of using water from the pond to clean him, the werewolf was using the juice from some of the fruits. Using the water from the pond was probably a better idea but contaminating it was probably not a good idea, so using the juice from the fruits made sense. After all, they all needed some water to drink from... or most of them anyway.

Kies felt something strange with the pond and as he got closer to it, he realized that it was magic that was leaking out of it. The water in the pond was imbued with magic power. It sparkled with crystal transparency. Kies looked down at the water and saw a giant carving at the bottom of the pond carved into the stone. It looked like a rune of some sort. It looked like all the magic power in the surroundings was getting drawn into it and released into the water.

"Is that thing taking in magic?"

"Oh, you have a keen eye." Fae walked up behind Kies and pointed at the rune with his staff. It was a circle with eight lines facing outwards and an 'X' in the middle. All around it were even tinier runes carved into the stone. The entire thing looked very complicated and most likely took a very long time to make. "Yes, that thing is taking in magic power. That rune is also what is keeping this entire place intact."

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