Path of Dragons

Book 8: Chapter 15: The Ultimatum

Elijah spent almost an entire day touring the area around the nuclear plant, and he was happy to discover that his plan was working. Certainly, there was a long way to go, but the sunflowers were doing their job of filtering the radiation from the air. Curiously, though, that same process had resulted in a significant uptick in the density of the ambient ethera. It wasn’t on par with somewhere like Elijah’s island, but it was markedly different than its surroundings. Unfortunately, it was limited in scope, and to Elijah, it seemed more like an oasis in the middle of a desert than an expansive rise in ethereal density.

Once he’d established that the sunflowers were healthy and thriving, Elijah started digging. Fortunately, he wasn’t forced to use Unchecked Growth until he neared the center of the mass of concrete he’d created to contain the elephant’s foot. But once he did, he went on a furious rampage until, at last, he retrieved a basketball-sized hunk of the radioactive material. When he was done, he shoved it into his ring – which he still hadn’t emptied – and began the process of re-covering the toxic material with his homebrewed and quite janky version of concrete.

It worked, though – probably due to magic – which was all he really cared about.

Once that was finished, he spent a few hours in recovery and decontamination before he was ready to leave. With his prize in hand, he considered taking a detour to Hong Kong. It wasn’t that far away, and his instincts were still screaming at him – though at a lower volume – to go and teach Nico a lesson he wouldn’t forget, but Elijah had grown more skilled at ignoring those of late. He did get close enough to confirm that the ethereal levels had continued to rise after the conquering of the Primal Realm.

With that in mind, he used Roots of the World Tree, instantly teleporting back to his grove. It was just as he’d left it, save for the fact that Sadie wasn’t around. No doubt, she’d crossed the strait to take advantage of everything Ironshore had to offer. It was good for her. In Hong Kong, she’d been an outcast. It was her home, but she was obviously an outsider. Aside from Dat, she’d had no friends, and she lacked even the comfort her family should have provided.

She had been all alone.

But Ironshore was different. For all its faults – as well as the rocky start – it was an incredibly welcoming place. The people who lived there didn’t really care about someone’s species. They embraced everyone – so long as they made an effort to integrate and not cause trouble.

That attitude boded well for the city’s future, because Earth had become a melting pot of disparate races. In addition to the dwarves, goblins, and gnomes that lived in Ironshore, there were various races of elves out there, hill goblins, and ogres. And that was just the start. Back in the Trial of Primacy, Elijah had seen a half dozen other races whose names he couldn’t even remember. If Earth was going to avoid becoming a site of constant conflict, the residents – both new and old – would need to learn to work together and accept one another.

Hopefully, that would not be too tall of a task, and Ironshore’s state gave Elijah some reason for optimism.

So, it was with some excitement that he headed to the site of the hot tub. He and Sadie had already taken advantage of its practically boiling water, but at the time, he’d been a little too distracted to investigate the state of the ash lotus. But now that he was alone, he could spare all the attention such a miraculous plant deserved.

The ash lotus itself was only the size of his hand, and it floated atop the steaming water. However, the rest of the plant extended a small web of thread-thin roots and vines that eventually reached the rocky floor of the spring. When Elijah looked closer, he could feel the dense fire attunement as it reacted and spread through the water.

“It is thriving,” Nerthus said.

Elijah opened his eyes and looked up at his friend. “Will it get any bigger?”

“No,” Nerthus answered. “The ash lotus grows according to its environment. Not only does it need significant ethereal density, but also physical space for its roots.”

Elijah nodded. He knew Nerthus wasn’t talking about the plant’s physical roots. Those only took up approximately three feet. Rather, the spryggent referred to the ash lotus’ ethereal roots, which stretched across the whole spring. In part, they were responsible for the uniform temperature of the water.

“Could we export these?” Elijah asked. “Like, maybe make a spring on the mainland where people pay to relax?”

“This spring is not limited to relaxation. Do you not feel it? Much like your soap, it has restorative properties. Though instead of strengthening your flesh, it will slowly burn off and consume impurities,” Nerthus stated. “But sadly, the answer to your question is no. It requires constant attention to exist in this environment. Without my assistance, the ash lotus would wither and die.”

“What is its normal environment?”

Nerthus knelt down, dipping his gnarled, root-like fingers into the steaming water. “Some say that they are native to Ignis, the realm of fire and ash,” Nerthus answered. “There is some truth to that, though they do appear in regions of extremely dense fire ethera.”

“What if I changed it?” Elijah asked. Then, he went on to explain what he’d done with the sunflowers back in Hong Kong. “That was successful. I don’t see why I couldn’t alter the ash lotus so it could exist away from you.”

Nerthus pulled his fingers away. “No. To alter this magnificent plan would be a travesty,” he said. “Just because you can do a thing does not mean that you should. If you went down that path, the ash lotus would lose what makes it unique. It would cease to be a natural treasure, and instead, just become a pretty flower with petals of flame. Its limitations are a strength. Removing them would weaken it.”

Elijah wasn’t so certain about that. The way he saw it, with enough time and effort, anything was possible. Nerthus was brilliant and knowledgeable – especially about plants – but he was also rigid in his nature. Regardless, Elijah didn’t have enough information to dispute his friend’s claims. Perhaps if he spent a few months studying the ash lotus, he would know more.

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It was too bad, then, that he didn’t have time for that. The world was still spinning, after all, and his responsibilities continued to weigh on him. A break was necessary, but at some point, he would need to confront the items on his to-do list. Like venturing into the storm and rescuing the survivors of the plane crash. Or checking in on Seattle. In what was left of Seattle, there was the issue with Lamar’s teammate-turned-warlord, too.

And those were just the problems he knew about. Others would assuredly crop up, as well.

He sighed.

“What is it?” asked Nerthus. The spryggent didn’t always understand human expressions, but Elijah wasn’t really one to hide his own feelings.

“Just thinking about the never-ending nature of responsibility,” he replied. Then, he shook his head. “Nothing for it but to get to it, though. Let’s go visit the tree.”

As it turned out, the Shard of Nature’s Might tree had grown significantly in the time Elijah had been in the Primal Realm, which he’d noted the moment he saw it upon his return. However, a closer inspection using both Soul of the Wild and Nature’s Design showed that it was far more mature than he could have expected. A complex web of ethera laced through the tree, rivaling what was present in its progenitor, the Ancestral Tree at the center of the grove. Certainly, like all of that majestic tree’s offspring, it wasn’t nearly as powerful as its forebear, but it was far stronger than any of the others of its kind.

“It’s almost a shame that it’s going to be used for a staff,” he remarked.

“Do not change your mind on this,” Nerthus stated. “This tree was grown for a specific purpose. If it is allowed to continue to exist, it will upset the balance of the entire grove. If you do not use it, then it will need to be moved elsewhere.”

“Why?”

“It uses too much ethera,” Nerthus answered. “Can you not feel it?”

Elijah had, but with how dense the ethera on the island was, he didn’t think it was too much of a drain. However, he couldn’t boast the same sensory capabilities – at least regarding the flow of ethera – that Nerthus took for granted. If the spryggent said it couldn’t stay, then Elijah would simply have to trust the tree spirit’s judgement.

After spending a little more time inspecting the adolescent tree, Elijah moved on to the next item on his list – the Frozen Glade. As he’d already established, it was characterized by much lower temperatures. In that respect, it was similar to the ash lotus, though it was not nearly as powerful. Rather, it spread its influence much wider, encompassing a dell nearly two-hundred yards wide. Supporting that atmospheric alteration were the other natural treasures Elijah had brought back from the Trial of Primacy.

Of course, the kits were there as well, and they wanted to play – a wish Elijah was more than willing to grant. For more than an hour, he chased and was chased as the air was filled with the foxes’ chirping barks. Elijah knew that foxes were not meant for domestication – these especially, given their nature – but his status as a Druid with an incredibly high affinity for nature gave him a little leeway to break those sorts of rules.

If anyone else had tried, they probably would have been ripped to shreds. Not because the foxes were malicious. They definitely weren’t. Rather, because they were wild animals, they had no concept of when to hold back. More than once, Elijah suffered minor injuries that, for anyone else, would have probably been debilitating. But he healed them without even thinking, then continued his rambunctious play.

But all good things were destined to end.

Elijah was on the verge of heading off to check on Biggle’s garden when Nerthus stepped out of a nearby tree and said, “Pardon the interruption, but Mayor Ramik wishes to speak with you.”

With a sigh, Elijah nodded and regrettably left the foxes behind. One last look back told him that they didn’t understand why he had to leave. They sat at the base of the frozen oak, looking at him with no small degree of longing. Thankfully, they didn’t follow.

About twenty minutes later, after Elijah had taken a shower and donned a set of fresh clothes, he found himself flying across the strait toward Ironshore. Not for the first time, he’d considered simply using his latest form to swim the distance, but as always, he’d refrained. He felt that such an important thing required a dedicated slot of time, largely because he knew just how distracting it would be.

But it was coming. He couldn’t hold off for much longer.

In any case, Elijah landed in Druid’s Park, then headed off to the city’s governmental center. When he arrived, he saw that the artisans who’d been tasked with beautifying the exterior of the building had outdone themselves. The façade was decorative, with gilded statuary depicting goblins, dwarves, gnomes, and humans. The flowing lines were grandiose and kinetic, with curved walls, a series of decorative cupolas, and a massive domed roof.

In short, it looked almost nothing like the building he’d seen before, with the only real similarity being its basic dimensions. To Elijah, it was reminiscent of baroque architecture, though not quite as busy as the sixteenth century style originating in Italy. Regardless, it was incredibly impressive that so much had been done in such a relatively short amount of time.

“It’s not finished, you know,” came a familiar voice. Elijah turned to see Ramik standing nearby.

“It looks finished to me.”

“Oh, the stonework and such are done, but it lacks the soul of true art. Do you know why?” asked the urbane goblin. He wore his normal three-piece suit and bowler hat, with the decorative cane that radiated ethera completing his look. “Ethera. Any structure worth building will incorporate the natural ethera into its design. When this city was first built, none of our Architects had reached the level necessary to do that. However, the destruction caused by the war against the dark elves gave them an opportunity to truly hone their craft. It won’t be long before they can give us the city we deserve.”

Elijah nodded along, but if he was honest, he very much preferred his treehouse to whatever the Architects of Ironshore could dream up. But he had to admit that the building made for an impressive sight. More, Elijah could see the evidence of ongoing construction in the immediate vicinity, suggesting that Ramik wanted the city to display a consistent aesthetic. Not quite uniform, but in the same spirit.

Elijah preferred something more chaotic.

“So, what’s up? Nerthus said you needed to speak with me,” Elijah said.

“Not just you. I asked Miss Sadie and a few others to attend the meeting as well. There has been a development,” Ramik stated. “Come with me.”

Elijah did just that, but to his surprise, they didn’t end up in Ramik’s office or one of the building’s conference rooms. Instead, they headed to Ironshore’s Branch of the World Tree. Once there, Ramik directed Elijah to touch it, and the second he did, he received a notification:

Elijah’s jaw dropped at the proclamation, but after only a few moments, he found that he wasn’t nearly as surprised as he probably should have been. Ten years to conquer eight Primal Realms was a tight schedule – especially considering that he didn’t even know where they all were – but the system’s standards were understandable. If they couldn’t take care of their own planet, then they weren’t worthy of inclusion into the wider universe.

“Did you know this was coming?” he asked, glancing at Ramik.

The goblin shook his head. “I did not. My home planet was integrated eons before I was born, so the process was lost to myth,” he explained. “But this is not all there is to discuss. Please, come with me so we can get on with the meeting.”