Chapter 232 Protectors of the Mycelium

"Bridgette, this isn't helping. I need to know what to do," complained Aella.

"This would be so much easier if you could just ask your dad what was going on in the other realm," sighed Bridgette, closing a book and reaching for another on the stack beside her.

"He's dead," said Aella, glancing at Bridgette like she had lost her mind.

"Yes, and so is Jozef's brother, which means they are on the same realm, and he could explain to you what the two were planning. There's mention of talking to the dead in one of these books," said Bridgette, jumping up and grabbing another book from a shelf. "This one guy used to do it all the time, and would know all sorts of things about the ruling elders in the church. They ended up burning him at the stake as a witch."

"That sounds horrific," said Aella, thinking of how much it would smell.

"The account said he screamed until he was hoarse because the fire burned slowly. He ended up dying in silence without any way to make a noise."

Aella raised an eyebrow at her, wondering how that was possible. The guy had to have just died and they didn't realize it. Everyone made some kind of noise, whether their throats were torn apart or not.

"There's plenty of people you could try and contact, but I think your dad would be the safest," added Bridgette, setting the book down in front of Aella. "It says that some of the dead don't want to be dead, and would often try to come through the rift formed when contacting them. It weakens the barrier between the realms, so we have to be very careful."

Aella frowned. She was supposed to keep the realm safe, not expose it to more danger.

"Isn't there another option? I don't want to just risk the entire realm to an undead invasion to ask my dad a couple of questions," said Aella.

"Well, you had mentioned going to the tree and asking for it to tell you where the altars were, so you can try that while I keep looking," sighed Bridgette, pushing the book off to the side and sitting back down to look through the ones she had piled there. "I'll keep looking to see what I can find about the demons to see if anything was recorded in some of the oldest books."

"Thanks, Bridgette," Aella said with relief. She wasn't sure that Jozef didn't want her to open some kind of portal for him to get his brother back. That would make it much easier for him to do whatever he was trying to do, since all of the altars seemed to be directed at gathering power to open some portal.

Teleporting to the tree, Aella said, "I need to find a demon that is hiding in the mountains north of the dwarves. Can you help me find him? He's building altars that are amassing power to open a portal to the death realm."

"I noticed little pockets of the dark magic gathering, but that's not out of the ordinary in a realm as rich as this one," said the tree. "The demons in this realm aren't really real demons though, so that should have tipped me off to the fact something strange was going on."

"What do you mean that the demons here aren't real demons?" asked Aella. "Is it because they've bred with gargoyles?"

"Well, yes, and humans, too," said the tree. "Real demons are very evil, enjoying inflicting pain on others, which might explain your bloodthirsty beginnings, but they also have access to evil magics, commonly called dark magic. This dark magic lets them do all sorts of evil acts."

"Like draining the life from one person to heal another?" asked Aella uncomfortably.

"Yes, except they would use the life force to inflict pain on others, or make themselves more powerful. If you drain the life from someone, you could prolong your own."

"This demon I'm looking for, is one of the original demons. He was king of the demons back in the very beginning," explained Aella. "I'm trying to find him because he's trying to bring his brother back from the dead using altars that amass power somehow."

"Well, they would need living sacrifices to grow in power," mused the tree. "The more intelligent something is, the more life energy it could get. I haven't replaced the orcs and other creatures that used to live in those mountains just yet, but if he started kidnapping the fairies, or found the podlings, he would be able to get his altars powered quickly."

"Podlings?" asked Aella with a frown. "Is that the gargoyles you were going to make?"

"Yes, I was going to wait until next spring to start making them, but the realm was growing weaker by the day. By going ahead and starting them, they will have a harder time surviving over the winter, but the realm has been strengthened by their presence."

"I've got to stop him, world tree. Can you help me find him?"

"It's very difficult for me to narrow down my vision in order to do as you ask, since I can only really see where my roots have spread to, but I can give you the vision to sense the evil his altars emanate. You can find them, by sensing it."

Aella placed her hand on the tree, feeling the rough bark beneath her palm. There was a quick prick, and then it was over. Aella could feel things around her she hadn't ever felt before. Below the earth under her feet, she could feel the tree consuming the body of evil unlike anything she had ever felt before. It made her stomach roll and pitch, threatening to make her puke.

"You should be able to fly over the mountains and sense the evil from the altars now," said the tree.

"I'm going to do that. Hopefully Bridgette can find some info on demons so I can question him," said Aella turning away from the tree.

"Aella, don't forget that once you find him, you need some way to contain him. We don't know what magic he's capable of," said Precious.

"I'll keep him suspended in the air, so he can't do anything," said Aella thinking carefully about that. "I may need to make a magical prison at some point, to keep serious criminals locked up. That's something I will have to discuss with all of the leaders later. First, I need to find Jozef."

They teleported to the cliff she had paused on when trying to catch him before, and she closed her eyes. There was no hint of black magic in the area, so she started flying over the mountains, letting the wind pull her along at a slow pace, while she focused on trying to sense the evil from any altars he might have started making. She didn't know what it took to make the altars, and seriously hoped he hadn't gone into the lands north of the mountains to find sacrifices. How hard would it be to catch fairies anyway?

"This isn't working, Aella," complained Precious. "We're wasting a ton of time, trying to find this guy. He could be anywhere in these mountains."

"I'm worried he may already be trying to catch fairies, or hunting the podlings the tree started.

"Then, let's find them and see," said Precious.

Aella nodded and turned to the north, feeling uncomfortable about returning to the lands she had left a couple years ago. As she drifted over the mountains, she spotted giant mushrooms, as tall as trees, sprouting all over the place. Flying down, she saw that there was a mushroom forest, complete with dozens of different types of mushrooms sprouting in all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes.

"This place doesn't look like the memories you have of it," said Precious, looking around in surprise and curiosity.

"Don't get too curious," cautioned Aella. "The fairies are supposed to be pretty dangerous."

"We're not dangerous!" cried a tiny voice to their right.

A small glowing figure zipped towards them, leaving a trail of light behind it. Aella avoided it easily by teleporting away, and it paused, settling onto the top of one of the mushrooms to look around.

Aella smiled as she hovered right next to it, invisible. The fairy was a small person, no bigger than her thumb, who had wings that were similar to dragonfly wings. They fluttered as the tiny person looked around.

"I know you're there, but I can't see you!" said the fairy with a pout. "That's no fair!"

"I don't want you to catch me," whispered Aella, throwing her voice around so the fairy couldn't find her. "You would eat my magic."

"My great-grandma told me of when you caused the magic explosion and the storms came after. There was so much magic we were born fat! You don't have to worry about me eating your magic, there's plenty to go around!"

Aella appeared with her face right next to the fairy, and it squeaked and fell over.

"Don't do that! It almost made me die of fright!"

"I need to know if a demon came into this forest. I think he's going to try and capture a bunch of you to kill," said Aella.

"So that's what he was trying to do!" exclaimed the fairy picking itself up and brushing imaginary dust off of it. "The ninjas have him trapped in the glen. Do you want me to show you?"