Journal Entry 23.03 Aja's Mirror Journey

Aja experiences the fall and betrayal of Winter through the eyes of her father.

Reaching out at the mirror a second time, prepared for the transference of her awareness, this time she keeps a semblance of knowledge and thought while also existing in the thoughts of another. Within seconds she realized she was existing in the awareness of her father, Xevillius. And as this happened, she found she both knew and understood his recent history.
Xevillius was toward the end of a harrowing journey. Somehow, Aja had got him released from his duties, so now he was returning home. She briefly wondered how she did this, however she has so submerged in Xevillius’s thoughts that this curiosity wisped away.
His freedom came just in time. His contacts in the Delusion Court were hinting at a major war brewing. The Grandeur and Envy are always plotting, but this time, they were marshaling the troops and calling in favors from allies for more support. War was imminent.
It took weeks of travel for him to get back to the Quirk Woods. He sensed that time was moving in odd cycles and as he got near his destination, sometimes a day stretched on for a month and sometimes the sun rose and set within minutes. Once he arrived, he found that the woods were dead. It was now cold, a dirty snow and ice covered the ground littered with dead vegetation scattered around. The Quirk Woods was no longer alive.
And he understood this was not the work of Winter. Winter is about death, but a death that renews for the coming generation. Winter represents the rest before the renewal of spring, the harsh reality that all must end to make new for the coming generation. This is utter death. This death he has witnessed was not something the Quirk Woods would recover from.
Looking around for anyone left alive, he saw movement over under an outcropping. Approaching, he sees a diminutive elf which looked familiar. This could be Ravenous Core, he thought to himself. As he neared, Ravenous Core greeted, “Long overdue, Druid. Not that you would have changed things with your Presence.”
Xevillius inquired as to his daughter, Aja.
“She was valorous, she did well in service of Winter. Of the three Matrons, Winter was the last to fall. Now all is death. If Aja survives, I know not where she is.”
Xevillius was extremely saddened. Somehow, the armies of Grandeur and Envy were able to arrive before him.
Xevillius then learned from Ravenous Core that it was Xevillius’s sister who had actually betrayed the Queen, her intent being to free the family from Winter’s grasp at any cost. As it turns out, she may have only freed the family to lead everyone into death.
Ravenous Core and Xevillius then parted ways. Xevillius didn’t want anything to do with the arch minion of Winter.
As he searched the wreckage of the Quirkwoods over the coming days, he found few survivors and from them, he heard that Aja may have gone seeking Witch of Dark Glens for answers.
Praying to Torya, he found his goddess distant. At first, he believed it is because he had not been tending to his devotions. But then she answered with the knowledge that her powers in the land of Chrailis have greatly receded. The Dark Gods had returned and had pushed her and the other 12 gods out from the land. Not entirely powerless, she granted him some measure of power to call forth a few allies of nature and gave him a path out of Winter Faerie. Following the path, he is told it will lead to a town of Black Tide. From there if he takes the only departing ship, he will find the Witch of the Dark Glens.
Trekking deep into the depths of desecrated Winter, he finally came across a giant cave lined in spider webs. While it looked deadly and like a trap, he knew that if Torya was to be believed, it was the way back to the land of Chrailis. Guarding the cave entrance he can see several corrupted wood spirits and a few frost giants roaming around.
Praying to Torya again, casting his summon spell, he reached forth far and wide in the snowy landscape to find what large animals remained which have not been corrupted by the evil of the land. Answering his call, a herd of eight large woolly mammoths made their way to gather around him. Pulling himself up on the back of the largest bull, he directed them to simply charge at the cave. Rather than try and fight their way to the cave mouth, he planned to just drive hard for the cave and get there by speed before any of the guardians can react.
He was expecting to lose more than a few of the mammoths in the process, but his plan worked well enough that only one was left behind, lost to the claws of the perverted nature spirits. As soon as he and the seven remaining mammoths charged into the massive cave hole, they exited the Quirk Woods and appeared in the jungles surrounding Chrailis.
Now back in the world of Camoray, he found his connection to Torya strengthed. Once again praying for aid, she granted him a final boon of transforming the mammoths into large herbivores more suited to the jungle. With that is done, he began to make his way toward Black Tide, a small village he hadn’t seen in decades.