A Jaded Life

By the time I had left the Grandmother's strange house, it was already dark, not that I'd really notice. My mind was going hundreds of miles an hour, thinking about the implications of all the new information I had gained. Some made a lot of sense, some were just plain and simply weird. I compared my own experiences with the information I had been given, looking for inconsistencies, but there were none. Did that mean I could trust everything I had learned? Probably not, but I needed some sort of plan to move forward, and without information, planning was impossible. So I'd use the information I had gained, assume that it was accurate but verify it with my own experiences. Trust but verify.

I almost ran into the door - I was that deep in thought - but I managed the incredible task of knocking before opening the door.

Entering into the house broke me of most of my introspection, and I looked around. Sigmir and Adra were sitting in front of the fire, close together and both happily laughing together. I felt a sharp sting upon seeing them like that, not even realising that I had entered. Kallista greeted me with a smile and waved me over.

“Welcome back. Sigmir told me that the Grandmother wanted to give you a little guidance. Be proud of yourself, the Grandmother is quite picky about the beings she guides. Here, look at the fruits of my day’s labour.” With that, she handed over three small, translucent crystals. They had a golden-yellow tinge that glowed from deep within them. Looking at one of them from various angles didn't quite help, the glow didn't originate from anything I could see, it was just there. I used Identify and gained some information.

Vitality Crystal – Lesser Apple of Life

The crystallized essence of a Vitality-Fruit. Consumption increases Vitality by two, further consumption of this specific sort of Crystal will not yield any benefit.

I looked at Kallista with slight confusion and she told me that she had used Alchemy to break down the three apples I had given her, strengthening their effect and making consumption easier. Normally, one of the apples would increase Vitality by a small amount, in the range of 0.5 and 0.8. That was the favour she had promised us. I was quite happy with the result, Vitality was something everyone could use.

By now, Sigmir had realised that I was back and was almost bouncing as she came over. Her happy smile did quite a bit to assuage the sting I had felt before and the happy hug, she enveloped me in, soothed the rest.

“Welcome back.” she said with a bright smile, before laying a kiss onto me. “I watched Kallista and Adra use alchemy and I sparred with Adra. She's really good with that spear of hers.” Sigmir happily started to babble about her day. I enjoyed her exuberance and realised that in the almost three months we had known each other, we had never been apart for a full day until today. Still, every time she mentioned Adra there was a twinge in me. I simply smiled and watched Sigmir, holding her tight in my arms.

Kallista brought out dinner and we all relocated to the dinner-table. During dinner, the conversation was dominated by Sigmir and Adra, I withdrew a little, thinking about the information I had gained and Kallista looked lost in thought as well.

After dinner, part of me wanted to go straight to bed but Kallista had intercepted me and asked for a quiet talk.

Before she even started talking, her gaze took me in, once again measuring me.

“You will leave Neyto soon, won't you? You are almost done with the business with the Grandmother and there is little more for you to do here. You can't settle down and, looking at you, you don't want to, you are still gripped by wanderlust.” Kallista asked, rambling a bit, which was uncommon for her.

“Yes, Sigmir and I will leave soon. We never really talked about long-term plans, at first it was simply due to necessity and afterwards? I don't know neither of us brought the topic up. But before I ever met her, I found something. The Grandmother gave me some information on my find and I think I will act on them. It will be quite the journey.” I answered her, trying to make sense of her behaviour.

“The soul-prison, I know. I sensed it on you the first time you entered Neyto. It contains a powerful being, I don't want that thing anywhere near the Nexus. Travelling to the counterpart of our Nexus will indeed be a huge journey. It's funny, you can start off in almost any direction and go the right way. But you should head west, through Nolakan and Neurop, not east. If you go east, you will move through the Valkyrie-Territory and if Sunna catches even a whiff of your soul-prison, they will hunt you down like a rabid wolf.

And heading west, you could take Adra with you. She can guide you, at least until Nolakan, but I believe the three of you could stay together, as a group.” Kallista got more animated by the word. What she said made sense, but her behaviour made me a tad suspicious, something else was going on. I simply raised an eyebrow, daring her to try to bullshit me.

For a moment or two, she hesitated, her eyes pleading to take her reasoning and not question it further. When I didn't budge, she hung her head.

“No need to look at me like that. I admit, I want you to take Adra with you. I can't be sure, but her behaviour is so similar to Iona's, that I think Adra is Iona's reincarnation. But she can't stay here. Not only is the Nexus slowly harming her, what if I stand in her way? To regain the memories of her old life, a dryad needs power and will. Strong dryads can meditate on their souls, slowly regaining the old memories and incorporate them into their new life. But I am to blame that her last life ended, just the memories of me could block the process.” By now, her animation had turned into agitation and she got up, pacing back and forth.

“I just don't know. If I keep her around me, I might harm her inadvertently, keeping her from becoming who she's meant to be, by trying to get my Iona back. That's why I want you to take her with you.” Kallista was almost yelling by now and I knew why she had closed the door before. Suddenly, she sat back down, taking a deep breath and calming herself.

“The Grandmother chose to guide you. I trust her judgement. If Adra is with you, she will be alright. She can grow, in the wild, like she is supposed to, and if it is meant to be, she will regain her memories and forgive me. Maybe, we can be together again. But only if I can let her go once more and you can take care of her.” she stared at me and for the first time, I felt her power. It was rolling off her in waves, pinning me in place, almost palpable in the air around us.

I thought about it and there was really no reason not to take her. Sigmir and I needed teammates and Travellers were not possible, for multiple reasons. One was the simple time question. I had pretty much taken the year off, playing the beta as much as possible, trying to 'reinvent' myself after losing my identity as Titania and now simply to spend time with Sigmir. There were few Traveller who had the raw time to join us. Especially if we didn't stay somewhere but literally travelled around the world. In addition, one of my traits penalized me if I played with other Travellers. So we would need to recruit natives and Adra fit quite well. That we would do Kallista, who I regarded as a friend, a favour was just icing on the cake.

“Calm yourself, friend. If Adra wants to join Sigmir and me, we will gladly take her.” I told Kallista. She relaxed and a huge smile blossomed on her face.

“Thank you. Another thing, could you give her one of the Vitality Crystals? I will compensate you for it but I can't give aid to her myself. I don't want her to know about Iona and my belief that she is her reincarnation. If she can remember, it is meant to be, I can't interfere or I risk her very soul.” Kallista's mouth snapped shut, as if she had said too much. I had a feeling that probing would be a bad idea so I simply ignored her statement at the end but kept it in mind.

“I can give one of the Crystals to her, at least if she joins us.” Part of me wanted to claim that compensation was not necessary but a greedy voice in my head wanted the goodies.

“You will not regret it. Adra is uncertain in herself, but I believe she will join you. Thank you, again.”

After Kallista had hugged me once more, I was able to extract myself from her exuberance, it was obvious that her concern for Adra had weighed heavily on her. I joined Sigmir who was sitting by the fire, taking care of her Lok'nar and waiting for me. I simply snuggled up to her, trying to stay out of her way but simply being close to her.

A while later, it was time for bed and Sigmir and I enjoyed it quite a bit, having a clean bed in a secure environment, it didn't matter that we would have to take jokes about wild animals making noise the next morning. For some reason, I wanted the world to hear and know that Sigmir was mine, and only mine. It took quite some time, but when we finally slept, we slept the deep sleep of the truly sated.