Marble floors and steel walls blinked back into existence, and Ted found himself opposite his father, right outside the sliding door on the bottom floor of the hub. Gok was nowhere to be seen.

  Save your father, save the world completed.

  Resolve dungeon spawn threat completed.

  50,0000 XP received!

  Level increased 11 → 14!

  A squeak, squeak came from behind Ted—Nibbles, sat atop Cara’s dead body. Poor little guy.

  Ted reached down, letting Nibbles race up his arm and gnaw at his earlobe. “Hey darling” he said, caressing Nibbles’s furry cheek. “Thanks for the assist back there.”

  Squeak, squeak!

  Alenia appeared as if out of thin air, rising from a crouch. “Did it work?”

  Ted froze, his mind racing with just how to incinerate her best before he caught himself. No—it wasn’t her fault. He placed his hand against his quadriceps and cast a Heal spell, mending the slash he’d taken there. “Think so. We rebooted the servers at least.”

  Alenia tilted her head. “What’s a server?”

  Dad clapped Ted on the shoulder and grinned. “See how her eyes didn’t just glaze over? It worked!” He quickly filled her in on the key details that the System had refused to let settle in her mind, and by the grace of the update, she took it all in. Didn’t understand it all, not yet—how could she—but now she stood a chance at real freedom.

  Freedom not to be a madman’s assassin anymore.

  Despite himself, Ted found himself staring down at Cara’s corpse. The arrow was gone from her chest, but blood still soaked her leather armor. He spent two of three points on Dexterity—accuracy and evasion could be ignored no longer—and one on Intelligence. “I’m going to bring her back,” he said, “and then we’re going to show the Destroyer the true nature of destruction.”

  Dad nodded solemnly. “What do you need from us?”

  “We need to get back to the Forest, before he strikes. If you’re in, you should know… we’re going by way of Valbort.”

  “Valbort?” Eric smiled for an instant, then his eyes widened and his throat bobbed. “Ah.”

  “Yeah.” Ted looked away, but even so his fist clenched at the snap reverberating through his memories. “You coming?”

  Dad straightened up, and a grim smile came over him. “Your Forest is in danger, Ted Tolabar So’aroaska. I’m with you.” His gaze moved to Alenia then fell to the floor.

  Alenia stood tall even as she hid behind an imperfect mask. Her eyes darted to and from Ted and Eric, and her leg twitched ever so slightly.

  “You’ve been through enough,” Ted said. “This isn’t your fight.”

  “Not my fight?” She squared up to Ted, a dagger appearing in her right hand from nowhere. “Fourteen summers I spent a slave to this man’s orders.”

  Ted met her gaze, all too aware of the sweat on his brow, the trembling of his lips. If he died here and now, Cara would be done. “I’m sorry,” he said, the words’ inadequacy bitter upon his tongue.

  “Sorry?” She shook her head. Her hand came up, the dagger flashed—and Alenia presented it, grip first. “Do not apologize, Hero, to those you have saved.”

  Ted blinked. What?

  “The dwarves of Valbort have chiseled your name in their records,” Alenia said. “Apologize not to them, but call in your debt. They will honor it.”

  Ted bowed his head and went to take the dagger, but found it pulled away.

  “However,” she said, holding the dagger just out of reach, “first, I require proper clothing.”

  A reasonable request. Ted removed the stolen leather armor and returned it to her. Uncomfortable as it had been, he’d miss the knowledge that none could see the magic upon him.

  Alenia spent a minute readjusting the armor. She worked quickly and efficiently, undoing his clumsy adjustments. When she was done, she put the armor on and slung Cara’s corpse over her shoulder with ease.

  Ted opened his mouth to argue, but so what who carried her? Better Alenia be carrying a dead ally, letting Ted do the smooth talking that would be needed.

  They huddled together in grim silence, and Ted cast a Valbort portal spell.

  Marble and steel gave way to Valbort’s rune-magicked walls. On one side loomed the upright stone portal ring, and on the two dozen dwarves heavily armored from head to toe. The guards formed a crescent wall of shield and spear blocking the sole exit, each shrouded in teal Protection magic.

  Hidden behind the shield wall and a great bushy beard, dressed in robes, stood Zelig. His gaze darted between the three of them, his eyes growing ever wider. “The Deputy Mage may pass.”

  Metal boots shuffled against stone and a small gap formed in the shield wall, inviting Ted in, while their spear unsubtly pointed directly at Dad and Alenia.

  Ted didn’t move. “They’re here to help.”

  “He is Emperor no more,” Zelig said. “You’re welcome to dispatch justice yourself, or you can watch us take what’s long overdue.”

  Ted’s heart hammered. He wasn’t losing his dad, not again. “My father wasn’t himself. I’ve lifted the curse that clouded his mind.”

  If Zelig was shocked, his beard hid it well. “It’s right and proper that you honor your ancestors—just as it is right and proper that we avenge our dead.”

  Echoes of boots thudding down stairs filled the room, reinforcements on their way, and Eric moved as if he to speak.

  Ted raised his hand to silence him. “We need to work together if we’re going to defeat the Destroyer.”

  “We will not work with this monster.”

  “You owe me,” Ted said. “Valbort endures because of me. Because of your enemies who became your allies. Trust me—they’re here to help.”

  Zelig’s postured stiffened. “If it were up to me, I would trust you, dwarf-friend. But I cannot allow an enemy and a murderer to pass.”

  “What about an ally?”

  A long moment dragged by, and a frown came over Zelig’s brow. “Neither are wood elves nor rangers.”

  “And if they were?”

  His frown deepened into a scowl, and he grunted out, “Then they’d be allies. Duty would obligate me to allow them passage.”

  “Excellent. Alenia, Eric, do you solemnly swear to be vigilant for all threats to the Great Forest and its denizens?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Alenia said “aye.” Dad followed a moment later.

  “Do you solemnly swear not to attack other Rangers of the Great Forest, steal from them, or otherwise harm them or those we protect?”

  Two more “aye”s came back.

  “Then as acting Keeper of Tolabar, welcome to the Rangers.”

  Zelig’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, but, bound by treaty, he nodded. “Welcome to Valbort, Rangers. You may pass.”

  The spears raised and the shield wall parted, leaving Zelig the only dwarf in their path, wearing a far from happy expression.

  “We need immediate onward passage to the Great Forest,” Ted said, “for our final stand against the Destroyer.”

  “He’s there?” Zelig’s face went pale. “You’re sure of it?”

  “Yeah. I pissed him off when I ripped away his immortality.”

  “The Destroyer… can be destroyed?”

  “Now he can. And we’d have more of a chance with dwarves at our side. Time for you to repay your debt in full.”

  Zelig nodded slowly. “So Gramok said as well. We have worries here, but we are mustering what forces we can.”

  “Thank you. Now, please, we need to get to the Great Forest.”

  Zelig’s gaze darted to Cara’s dead body and back to Ted, lingering with questions better left unspoken. “Good luck,” he finally whispered. And with that, he approached the portal stone and set his hand upon it, sending a pulse of magic into it.

  Blue magic surged through the stone ring and a watery blue disc shimmered into being within it, showing the blurry image of two wood elven rangers armed with bows.

  “We will come,” Zelig said, forming two fists and slamming one down onto the other. “By the stone, we will fight by your side.”

  Ted bowed his head. “Thank you.” He stepped through the portal, out into the large smooth bark chamber within Erinbar, and found two fully drawn bows aimed at his head. One was held by boy who, if he were human, would be no more than ten, and the other by a wrinkled wood elven woman. Hers was a hunting bow, and a low powered one at that, yet even so struggled to hold it drawn.

  Ted gave them what smile he could muster. Just how desperate were they? “We’re here to help.”

  The wood elven rangers glanced suspiciously at Alenia carrying Cara’s dead body, but lowered their bows, and the older one spoke. “Jeremy sends his regards. He said to tell you the Rangers are marshalling at the ancient mage ruins, near where the dungeon spawn have been spotted outside the Forest.”

  Ted nodded. It made sense. The sooner the wood elven army learned the five ancient magics sealed away there, the better. “Thank you,” he said, before turning to Alenia. “You remember the way to the ruins? Five stone blocks in a circle?”

  She nodded, and passed Cara’s body to him. “Go. Bring her back, while you still can.”

  Ted took Cara and gently placed her over his shoulder, grateful for how light she was. “Meet you at the ruins.”

  With that, Ted stepped out into the crisp and earthy forest air and cast Constant Levitation. He floated up, passing higher and higher. The air grew colder, though Ted’s robes kept it at bay as if he were wrapped in a warm blanket.

  Once above the trees, he dropped Levitate and cast a powerful Telekinesis upon himself. He shot forward, flying weightless and faster than Levitate could ever have mustered. Without the mass of heavily armored dwarves dragging him down, he had plenty of mana to spend, boosting himself several times back up into the air and onward to the ruins.

  As he drew closer, he picked out the gap in forest, the clearing in which the ruins sat, and adjusted his heading with a quick Telekinesis. His arc took him over the ruins, and he cast Constant Levitate upon himself, cancelling out his lateral momentum.

  He plunged downward, and wood elven rangers came into view along the edge of the clearing. Even now, they kept their distance from the ruins themselves.

  One of them pointed up at him. Several more grabbed their bows and aim, only to freeze as their comrades shouted to them.

  Edana’s fiery red hair stood out from the crowd. She stood in a circle with Jeremy, Elivala, and several other wood elves, their conversation paused as they stared up at Ted plummeting.

  They could wait.

  Slowing his fall with Levitation, he shifted to fall just outside the ring of five stones, directly in front of one of the blazing blue portals between the stone blocks. The grass rushed up and he bent his knees, absorbing the impact, before bounding into the portal.

  The world didn’t lurch. Instead, he stepped through the magic of the portal and into the grassy circle between the stones.

  Damn it, of course. Keeper or not, he was no wood elf.

  He focused on the magic of the portal and followed it back to its source—back to the portal stone at Erinbar. The complex magic flowed out from there, a tapestry of form and function woven together into a work of power and beauty.

  Ted reached out to touch it with his mana, only to be rebuffed by a barrier. Reaching out again and again, each rejection hinted at the source of the barrier. He followed those hints back to a nexus of control, a barrier sealed with five locks.

  No, one lock, with five keyholes, each marked with a name. Erinbar. Solanbar. Lorambar. Morabar. Tolabar.

  Could it be…? Ted gathered mana and slid it into the Tolabar lock. The barrier lowered, evidently recognizing his position rather than his race, and he shifted his focus along the chain of magic.

  There—the identification of those allowed in. A conjunction of conditions allowing in only those who lived in the Great Forest and were wood elves, or any in physical contact with those permitted.

  He cut the requirement to be a wood elf. If the battle was to be fought here, having a fall back position the Destroyer and his army couldn’t easily enter could be a great boon.

  With that done, he stepped back out from the stone circle and through again.

  Magic tingled across his skin and the forest vanished, replaced with smooth bark covered in magical script. A warm, silvery glow from the five ethereal orbs floating by the ceiling lit the room—and the five wooden doors sealed with brutal magic.

  Ted strode over to the door under the sign for Rebirth, and pressed the scepter against it. Golden magic flowed out from it and burned in the seal.

  Restore the ancient wood elven magic (part 2) completed.

  5,000 XP received!

  “Kiriel,” Ted said. The seal blazed with fire that forced his eyes shut, and for an instant burned even through his eyelids. When he opened his eyes again, the wooden door was just that—a thin piece of wood between him and Cara’s salvation.

  Restore the ancient wood elven magic (part 3) completed.

  5,000 XP received!

  He pushed the door open and stepped through into the small room beyond. Barely larger than a walk-in closet, Wood Elven script covered the walls, detailing the terrible horrors that they had unleashed upon the world, driven by the power of the magic they wielded.

  A lump formed in Ted’s throat. He raised his hand, the one that Finvarra had returned to him via Dark magic. Dying had purged the twisted magic it had carried, but he could still remember the rage, the anger, the hatred that had burned in him. The same rage that burned in him still when he drew on his spirit.

  Had that been part of Dark’s magic? Or one of the System’s machinations, now disabled?

  No way to tell.

  No way to be sure whether he was returning her to life, or to a living hell.

  Keep your mind on the job.

  He stepped to the middle of the room and placed Cara gently down upon the floor before looking around. Rebirth had to be here, it had to be, and yet nothing even hinted at how to cast the spell—just ancient warnings coating the walls that surely had to be beyond listening to now.

  From behind him came Jeremy’s voice. “Rebirth was sealed away from foreign hands.” He strode into the room, following its edge and tracing his fingers across the script along the wall. “We know the danger it can cause. The price it extracts.”

  “A price I’m willing to pay.”

  Jeremy looked upon Ted with disdain. “A price I see you have already paid.”

  “The slaver deserved everything he got, and more.”

  “Perhaps.” Jeremy leaned against the wall while his gaze bored holes in Ted. “How guilty must one be to deserve death to save your friend?”

  Ted’s fists clenched. “I killed them for being a slaver, while Cara lived. Now she’s dead, and if we don’t save her now, she will be that way until the end of time.”

  “I won’t allow you to take the spell.”

  Ted squared up to Jeremy and stared into his cold, inhuman eyes. “You’d let her die?”

  “No.” Jeremy pulled himself upright. “I will take up the spell, and I will return Cara from death.”

  “You’ve… paid the price?”

  “No,” Jeremy said, with a cold finality that sent a shiver down Ted’s spine. “You shall.”

  Ted took a step back. This wasn’t right. “I already have.”

  Jeremy stared at Ted with a dark look set upon doing what did not have to be done. “We will not share the secrets of Rebirth with outsiders and Heroes.”

  “She’ll die.”

  The cold, hard stare continued unabated. “Your life for hers.”

  “It doesn’t have to go this way.”

  “Look at her,” Jeremy said, pointing down at her dead body. “What is her life worth to you?”

  Ted’s gaze followed his finger and lingered upon her corpse, unable to look away.

  She looked… peaceful. Still at last. She’d fought and died to save the world, to save her Forest, to do what she believed was right.

  He clenched his eyes shut, blocking out the tears clamoring to overcome him. “No,” he said.

  “She’ll die,” Jeremy said, his voice drawing closer.

  “No,” Ted said, clenching his eyelids tighter and turning his face aside.

  “Your life,” he said, his cold breath prickling against Ted’s cheek, “or hers.”

  Ted’s chest collapsed in on itself.

  All she’d done. All she’d fought for. All she’d love.

  “No,” he said again.

  “I won’t force you,” Jeremy said, pulling back again, “but either you give your life for hers, or she dies for good.”

  “Then she dies.” Ted turned and pulled away, wiping tears from his eyes. “She dies.”

  “You’d really let her die?”

  Ted stopped. His heart pounded, calling on him, demanding that he give his life for hers. That he betray her trust. “The Destroyer’s still out there. He’s after me, because he’s afraid of me. Not Cara, me. I am a Hero, a Spellcrafter, a Mage, and the best damned shot we have at saving this world and this Forest. Cara would never let me give up all that for her.”

  Empty silence came back.

  Ted swallowed the lump in his throat, and walked away to the door for Grow. Even if he couldn’t save her, he could save the Forest she had loved so.