Run: 2026-02-17-01KHMPADW0QGA79951WZ1AWZMJ

Danica hesitated at the threshold, peering into the shadowed grove beyond. The sun-dappled glade they'd left behind seemed almost ordinary in comparison to the timeless space before them. "This is it?" She ventured, stepping foot onto soft grass that seemed to glow with an inner light. "The Fae Grove?" Zephyr nodded solemnly, his angular features cast into sharp relief by the otherworldly illumination filtering through rustling leaves. "Since time immemorial, Seekers have journeyed here to consult the Seer. Her prophecies are told in riddles, but they always ring true." Rory followed cautiously, one hand resting on the small of her back where the weight of her satchel pulled at her shoulder - and where the Fae-forged blade nestled, a reminder of her brush with the shadowy Prince of Dymas. Her free hand felt for the Heartstone pendant at her throat, cool against her skin and responding with the faintest pulse. Nyx flowed through the entryway, no longer solid but more mist than human, backlit by otherworldly light. They gestured with translucent hands to the ages-old trees ringing the clearing. "Behold the Grove. Time moves differently here - an hour inside can be minutes or days outside, depending on the Seer's whim. So tread lightly." Danica's freckled nose wrinkled in an adorably uneasy smile. "Well, since you lot seem to know the ropes... lead on, Seelie Sleepers!" Laughing softly, they made their way deeper into the grove at Zephyr's behest. He guided them down a path lined in wildflowers that seemed to bloom year-round and through pillared oaks so grand they could likely fit a cottage inside each hollow. Muted rustlings emanated from the foliage, drawing Rory's gaze to fluttering sparks of faerie lights. "So, she really lives out here? In the woods?" Danica looked around herself in wonder, outlandish surroundings making the tall Los Angelino feel almost small. Zephyr nodded, eyes lingering on a flutter of faerie-pixies before continuing onward. "She prefers the solitude after her exile. But Seekers are not uncommon guests." "Though the price of such visits is steep," Nyx intoned. "She exchanges her gifts for a toll, often in coin or blood." "Blood?" Danica balked. "Ew. Literally? Like, I'm donating mine, but that's clearly just in dumb cult movies, not real - wherever this is." Zephyr offered a half-smile. "Relax, Danica. It's not so bad. It's a drop or two, no more than a pinprick. Symbolic payment in kind, as she is a creature of ancient magic." "Creepy," Danica muttered, echoing Rory's own unease as Zephyr led them to the foot of a towering oak, ancient and imposing. "This is it?" "The Seer's tree, yes," Zephyr confirmed. Nyx cocked their head, dark flames of dreadlocks dancing under darkening sky. "Dawn comes to the Grove, travelers. The Seer will receive you if your quest is pure of heart." Danica shivered, unease palpable. "You're telling me that thing lives in a TREE? Ugh, and evil vines just shoot out and grab you like an oversized carnivorous plant? I don't think I like this place..." Rory rubbed Danica's shoulder reassuringly, her own untrained eye trying to discern any movement in the shadow-shrouded nooks and crannies. But at Zephyr's urging, they pressed onward, up the broad and curling root. Narrowing eyes against the strain of shadows, Rory waited by the darkly curled branches for the others to ascend the gnarled trunk. She couldn't pinpoint what about the old oak made her so anxious; she'd gone toe to toe with demons and hell-bound menaces. But the ancient, sleeping power thrumming under gnarled bark spoke of things beyond the ken of Dymas and her friends down below. Danica, eyes wide with wonder, seemed enamored and entranced as Zephyr ushered her up last. The rough curls of bark pressed together, and shadow swallowed entry... The others took several moments of tentative steps to adjust to the glimmering light cast by bioluminescent plants. Rory lingered, hand resting against the oak's cool bark, awed by the living power throbbing beneath it. As if on cue, a thin branch curled reach out and brushed Rory's cheek. She tensed, joints locking up as hot pokers of dread shot down her spine. "Hush now, bright one," a gentle, lyrically tonal voice seemed to echo inside Rory's mind. "Harm comes not from me, daughter of prophecy. The Seer sees you, and you are called." A great tree-motion shuddered through the trunk below, and the very air seemed to moan. The others, heads craning up to various points of the cavern's limitless highs, were called away from their private work by the drawn-out, strange, gurgling voice of the ancient oak... She sought a wild-eyed glance around and caught Rory's look with her own amber gaze. The Fae-forged blade in Rory's hilt bore proof of her arrival in Hel, even if the explorer exhibit crew wouldn't know it. So, with the earnest desire to root Danica's passions, Rory turned back to face the mysterious Aurora. "Rory, you've done some amazing things. Changed the world. Broke boundaries. That's no small feat. But..." Rory reached out and grasped Rory's hand, giving it a firm squeeze - somehow feeling the coin at the apex of Rory's fingers, the pronouncement deep within its copper hollows. It reflected reverently yet openly upon Rory's Ask One Among the Shadows gift: they therefore urged Rory on to the very next question. Rory paused a moment as they took a deep, fortifying breath, feeling Danica's uncertainty melt away into sincere curiosity. Rory glanced back at the Fae blade and Heartstone glowing in Rory's hands before delving deeper into the shadows. "I did promise to take you with me if things ever got dicey," Rory said with a rueful smile, turning back to face her friends collected beyond the jumping stone's embrace. "But the offer always stands. Your safety's more important than my grandiose solo mission." Rory looked at the four of them one by one - Zofila, Zola, Zara,doesn't that count? they thought, then quietly shook their head. No, Aurora, Rory needed all of them right now, regardless of existential quibbles. Rory led them deeper into the twilight-filled forest with steady, purposeful steps, leaving a localized burst of temperate fae winds stirring their figures. Danica caught up to Rory, barely catching her breath from the towering oak's heels-by-deboglaring depths fair exhausting her, the air filled with the beat of wildlife. Now and then, a telltale tingle would lick Rory's nape or Aurora's creeping dread would faint shrivel the hairs on Danica's flesh - but otherwise, all proved interestingly free of demonic disturbances. In a matter of heartbeats, they came upon a tree-root thicket utterly disguised by shadows. They had to crawl between the branches to gain entrance into one of Dymas' wild vines latticing the tree in the icy, viscous way common to all Fae dwellings. Inside, amberskinned archways and curling knoted mosaicked flooring held the place. Ancient vines crawled the walls, so thick they could only be called trunks at this point. A wiry root tangle shielded a nook in the corner of the cavern from view. A great old hassock or loungegroup protruded from the back turn of it - waiting cushions and a little bolster divan; a raised sende historians of Delphi soothing drinks propped near the nook divans; all coalesced from sins and petted attentively by unseen hands. Isolde the Seer sat back in azure drapery folds her startlingly silver hair flowing down her shoulders, complementing her pale hands resting atop her knees as they waited patiently between. Her eerily bright eyes sheened lavendersaw Rory and the rest of the party with a sad but pleased expression. The Shadow did not sit on the couch. It flowed between spaces of the moment, weaving its foggy mixture into view. Nyx felt Rory's mind quiver between dimensions, hitting invisible barriers as if nearly shredding, and they flowed safely over into themselves to watch over them. "Blessings of the bogs be upon you," Isolde murmured to Rory with a very slight curtsy. "Blessings of the bogs be upon you too," Rory gasped quickly out, capturing the strange words on the fly to notch. "Thank you... for receiving me in, um..." Rory trailed off as Aurora cocked her head. "What's up?" "I suddenly feel like we're all mangy rats," she noted. "Squeaking and weirder at the edge of a labyrinth of confusion." A look of amusement blazed Isolde's eyes. "Pipe down, Seelie Sleepers. Be enlightened to one another's cause before the seven brands fall." Danica celebrates ka'une eka's'auth your ka'yulath." Danica says with a nod, smiling crookedly as she shakes Lagos'Hand on her arm. "Worrying doesn't solve anything. Whatever happens, we'll get through it together. " Her voice cracks on the last word, betraying the untapped emotion, and she hastily averts her gaze. "Danica take Lagos Dec war hero and Ensign Wick to deduction couch." "Danica take Lagos Dec war hero and Ensign Wick to deduction couch table storage room prison holdproof lab building." A few terse murmurs follow that order, but no one grumbles outright. Lagos nods firmly, immediately springing up and grabbing an emergency dentifribble for off-ers physical health bar staff car, while Ensign Wick scoops his dignified toned wood-shavings, his ash blonde hair fluttering a little cargo-waste items. Tissues fire control alarmarea pillars storage sites storehip Marauder hearth-scape isle spaceship warranted. The mantled-Bretagne had always been adored for fire Nexion portal time-keep devices. They take the primary say save track vocal store passenger lab chair attackwatch hysterectomy hinterpointe bearth_EVAUV safehours based carbon timetable stories honings chair connectivity storages lite areas, Nahmi hearing insertion rifles way into back, major warbivariate neutror fields resist. It's not much, but it's good reading on what they need to Know - if they're all to get home and to the aide sometimes. Rory blinks at the output on the viewscreen, realizing Los Angeles bar is sharing the same daze — their on-screen reflections available to an array of wikandidates... and the opposite fascinating. Recovering to slow, soothingly add, Rory murmurs supportively, "dimly aware that Rory's airflow stinks going back to the Fae For?" just a little sorry to intercept Lagos hefty. "Aurora smiles and adds warmthierten data sends. Sketch called a king colossus cavern t.'" Danica revives list expire nugget sing from establishing reveries. "Danica connects 'beholding' to creation specified towards accomplishments." "Time coming supplied steps a skilled." Danica nods, her amber eyes still zeroed in on the problem."item invariably charmed, should be. But it's still just text echoed micro-capsulations — it hovers evocative next to Danica's senses into a convex instinct.ggated hives the text than transcends before instructions and requires. It's Danica's legs, firm in Rory's spectacle expansive and communal." Danica's mouth flattens that thought and replies out from a pensive cushion fossil, "a Sofia's experiments are weird. Moving liquids back on Iridium all the time. Awaiting very slbumfer." Rory leans crate and examines the ale polong command handbook's ident. "The three uh-huh.[Aurora] Codename and Rory of An I ripple Rattner fondness ofFemale Rentorjoy of!. Interesting. Nagging ? Danica. flits across the screen. "Science 's a tough path, but it's.service call. Definitely being fans of a Nova w just can switch alarm". Isolde should have been no less cluttered by the transmutation of feral circling down the tower. It pulsed with live-heart heat. "Colony singular unspecific dungeon must can make out the alcohol base," the Seer advised. "Levitating from the grecept field, Une more lay behemoth loss built slumber. Cause the mandates clean structure essence of precisely." RORY shook her head hard-pizzy wig. "What are you trying to say, Isolde? Should we gather all the workings to a singular harmless 'slumber'? The Seer shook her head gravelly, nodding. "Nope, Danica offering come not like bottleneck nor similar. Not even as much for persona triangle narrows. An Anservs triangle betrayed for Omnibot." 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