Isadora sat with Gardner inside of his home. The waist-high Pangolin was methodically cooking in the kitchen when Isadora began to strike up a conversation.
"I have to ask, what made you decide to settle in the Sulcis?"
"Is settling down in the root of a tree so out of the ordinary?" Gardner chuckled in response.
"I mean, kind of," Isadora said trying not to be rude. "There has to be a reason"
"Well," Gardner began walking over to Isadora. "I'll tell you my reason if you tell me why someone like you is here."
Isadora's eyes peeled up at how he worded his response.
"I, I was called to the tree. Like everyone else." She responded.
"Called you say?" He shook his tiny head at the notion. "Your bumbling friend, I believe. But I've been down here long enough to know that you were sent, not called"
Isadora's demeanor changed. She eyed Gardner with caution.
"Your skin, the leaves all around your body. You're a part of that tribe. I knew they'd be sending someone this time around." He flashed a slight smile.
Isadora looked as if she'd been found out. This encounter sent her mind somersaulting to conclusions of who exactly this being was.
"There's no need to worry, I have been connected to this tree for years. Everything that happens, I know, everything that could happen, I know." He stood up and walked over to the stairs. "Let me show you something, follow me."
Isadora and Gardner walked up the stairs to a stunning alchemy lab. Books filled the deep orange walls. The room lit by spores captured inside of spell bottles hanging from the ceiling. The lab was much more organized than the chaos just down the stairs. Tables were set with cloths made of velvet with all types of tools and instruments placed on them. In the center of the room held a Gardner-sized globe. Inside sat a small twig, pale white, with a blue leaf. From the twig, lights touched all around the globe. Some large, some small, Isadora looked in shock at what she was seeing. Gardner walked over to the globe and touched with his claw-like fingers.
"I stumbled upon this while on a walk. I thought it was so beautiful, placed with absolute care, I decided to leave it be." he began. "However the tree has different plans for different folks. Kept bringing it too me over and over. It wasn't before long the thing showed right in front of my door." Isadora was still staring at the globe, shocked. "Of course I had to pick up up then. I could never organize the the flash of memories that flooded into me. Everything I though impossible, suddenly made real."
"What kind of things does it show you?" Isadora asked, snapping her head at Gardner.
"I think I can show you better," Gardner replied stretching his fingers and placing them onto the globe. "You too now, don't be shy." Isadora slowly placed her hand on the globe, she felt a rush welling up inside her.
"This twig, my connection to the tree can tell me about past events." In Isadora's mind, she saw a young boy with green eyes and curly hair smiling as he walked out of a door. She could see another young boy sitting in the shadow cast by the light from the open door.
"It can also tell me possible futures and outcomes of current events." She saw J'baki, picking fruit from the tree, he was sitting on a branch perfectly balanced, reaching and putting the fruits in his pockets. Then there was a violent shake causing him to fall and tumble down into a tunnel close to the tree.
"Oh no J'baki! We have to go help him!" She exclaimed, taking her hand off of the globe.
"Ah ah ah, these are possible futures. We don't know why there was a shake or if he was meant to take that fall" Gardner explained.
"We can't worry about the future when we don't know why it's happening." Isadora placed her hand back onto the globe. "Which brings me to the most important thing the twig can show us. The Present, what's happening right now."
Isadora saw The Empress walking with an unknown person. She focused intently on what she was seeing, Gardner was right of course, she was sent here, and getting intel on The Empress was one of the reasons.
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The Empress and Gray walked along a winding white root. The two were headed to a place far from the throne room. The Empress walked ahead of Gray, in a hurry to reach her destination.
"Ma'am, currently half of the players have made it to level three of the Sulcis." Gray briefed The empress.
"That's to be expected." The Empress responded. "Have Poi and Pai completed their mission?"
"Uhm. No, not exactly." Gray responded through a cough.
"What do you mean not exactly?" The Empress stopped in her tracks and turned around.
"Well," Gray began "they've decided to play the long game, uhm, have some fun with it."
The Empress shot a very unimpressed look towards Gray.
"That's ridiculous. I want that rouge removed at once."
"In their defense, once they were going to capture him, he was stopped by a mal." Gray explained. "He can fight so the boys want to wait for him to be stronger."
Their conversation was cut short. Yellow slime started oozing through the white-clad ceilings above.
"What the?" The Empress stepped back as the ooze flooded the hallway.
Gray and Isadora watched as the yellow ooze formed three figures radiating an immense aura. The three figures formed a triangle with a woman heading them. Flanking her were tall and slim figures, the fully formed with fiendish smiles and bulking bodies. Once the yellow ooze fully formed, before then stood a pixie-looking woman with short black bob length hair. She wore a sleeved halter top and baggy white pants. Her face seemed nice enough, except for the devilish smile she showed to the Empress.
"Oh, so this is the inner sanctum. I do wish Dexter would have done something nice with the place." The woman said taking a look around the barren white hallway. "And you're The Empress I presume?"
"Who's asking?" Gray turned vicious during the encounter, stepping in front of The Empress.
One of the fiends flanking to woman rushed and kicked Gray into the wall next to The Empress.
"Yara." She replied wickedly. "And my business is with The Empress, not her pets."
The Empress had no patience, she conjured an ornate bow staff and brought up her wings, ready to attack.
"Yara, I know that name." She said. "To think Dark Basin would be so bold."
"Of course we would." Yara walked up to The Empress. "Only you know where the life of the Vivabor tree comes from, and you're going to take us to it."
The Empress flapped her wings at lightning speed before ascending into the air. Determination and anger in her eyes, she came down into Yara with a mighty swing of her bo staff. Yara's other guard defended the attack with his massive arm.
"Come on now, I don't want to fight," the fiend knocked the empress back.
"Did you come to make your lackeys do it for you?" She responded.
Yara gave a devilish smile as she conjured a katana out of thin air. Beautiful and massive she pointed it at The Empress.
"Let me rephrase that, I don't have time to fight, but I'm always excited to bring powerful people to their knees." She stepped towards the Empress swinging at full force meeting her staff causing the room to shake. The two stepped back from their clash both excited about their ensuing battle.
The Empress rushed aided by her wings and began swinging heavy hits towards Yara as she blocked each with her katana. Yara brought the staff down with her Katana leaving The Empress open to catching a swift kick in the stomach. She caught herself before hitting the wall next to Gray. Yara walked up in a sadistic fashion brandishing her sword, she began a barrage of slashes on The Empress, all of which she couldn't defend. Yara slashed her arms causing yellow slime to enter her body.
"A dose of Petyans should loosen you up a bit. You've only accelerated our plans." She stepped back into formation with her guards and laughed. The Empress struggled to get up, dropping her staff to the ground. Yara laughed again as she struggled. She didn't notice that Gray had gotten up, or the massive Hammer that was slung over his shoulders. She had no time to react to his overpowered smash that came down on her head shaking the entire root system beneath.
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J'baki was reaching for a piece of fruit when the shaking knocked him off of his perch sending him plummeting onto the ground below. The side of the tree he fell on was a hill causing him to roll down headfirst into an opening at the root wall before he stopped himself in a dark tunnel he could barely stand up in.
"This tree has earthquakes? That doesn't seem right, or fair." He said to himself, cursing the predicament he was now in. "Oh! More spores!" He walked towards the opposite end he had come through following the light of the spores.
"Don't you think we should turn back and meet Isadora?" Isshi asked.
"Nah, she's fine I'm sure," J'baki replied. "Plus, don't you wanna check those spores out?"
"Not particularly. If could be dangerous and you don't have a weapon." He said snarkily.
"oh, I forgot about that," J'baki said still walking towards the spores. "I don't think I'll need one though."
At the end of the tunnel, the spores formed a pond of sorts, illuminating the dark room. In the middle of the pond was a small island with a tall post positioned in the middle. J'baki wadded through the pond of spores to the island to get a closer look at the post. Atop the post was a wide mouth chalice, black, which with golden markings in and around it. Inside J'baki found a small mallet begging to be tapped on the side of the chalice.
"J'baki! Be careful." Isshi warned.
"What? Why?" He said cautiously.
"This is, I don't know if I should say" Isshi was out of character, j'baki didn't know he could show nervousness.
"You alright? Just say it" J'baki put the mallet beside the chalice.
"I know this chalice, I know why it's here and who placed it." Isshi started.
"Well, who paced it here?" J'baki asked.
"The same person who planted the tree, or rather, the tree itself. These chalices are placed all over the root system, it's where the spores are created and sent out. Little pockets beckoning for travelers to come in."
"Yea but you guys have never been inside of the Sulcis before, how do you know it's dangerous?" J'baki asked.
"Objects in the Sulcis are unpredictable, and shouldn't be messed with." Isshi warned again. But J'baki had already picked up the mallet again.
"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, plus I want to have something to tell Isadora after all this." J'baki hit the side of the chalice causing a loud deep ringing to resound across the room vibrating intensely. The pond of spores began to ripple as medium-sized balls began to fill the wide mouth chalice. After the chalice was filled a fairy with succulent petals for wings and a purplish-green succulent crown appeared from the chalice brandishing a small scythe on his back staring directly at a shocked J'baki. The ringing began to die down as the fairy blinked his eyes taking an immediate liking to J'baki, he flew in his face examining him all over as he stood still.
"Oh, you're different now!" The fairy folded his arms in cute anger. "I guess you really couldn't come back the same could you?"
J'baki was confused as ever until he realized he'd heard words like that before.
"What do you mean come back? Who are you?"
"You really came back dense, did you choose to remember nothing?!" The fairy raised his low apathetic voice. "I'm Alula, your best friend. How could you choose to forget me, Adrian!"
J'baki stood in shock as a new flush of memories came into his head, different voices yelling the name Adrian all in different tones, he looked at Alula again and felt a connection to the fairy, a closeness, a warmness he hadn't felt since Kenryu City.