"I always wanted to be here," Lenora said, looking around the wooden marvel. Although it was mostly hollow on the inside, the actual walls were alive. Thick and alive. Some branches formed stairways on the inside as well as morphed into full-on floors and rooms. Some giant fruits glowed like lamps and provided bountiful light.
"Word of caution, never pick any fruit here," Lenora said.
"Of course," Drifus said.
"They will brand you as a heretic and throw you into jail if you do; as a matter of fact, don't steal anything," Lenora said. "That means you, Jay."
"Okay, okay," he said, still eyeing some red berries on the corner with a mouthful of saliva.
"I believe this place was famous for producing smokable goods," Drifus said, pointing at a particular room. Smoke came out of there. No, not because something was on fire but rather because about thirty or so gentlemen were smoking a lot of things in there. So much so that it almost felt like the whole room was on fire or something.
Lenora had experience with smoking. Her roommate in college used to smoke. Sometimes she'd smoke in the balcony and sometimes she'd smoke inside the room. Lenora, being the somewhat timid girl she was, hardly ever asked her roommate to not smoke. And her roommate understood that, hence she smoked mostly in the other rooms when her housemates weren't around. But when smoking was inevitable, Lenora desperately tried to keep the thoughts and feelings in. It was just smoke and it was fine if her roommate smoked maybe once in a while. It didn't bother her, or so she consoled herself.
However, it did bother her and nowadays when she thought about her actions, she understood just how pointless they were. It wasn't like she wasn't paying for the room, it wasn't like she wasn't-
Yet, whenever her thoughts took those turns, she counterargued about her roommate's perspective. The girl was an extrovert and hardly ever stayed home. She came out after 8 and stayed up till two or three. She too deserved some understanding from Lenora's part.
Not that any of that crap matters now. "Come on, stop sightseeing, we have work to do. I also have to do put the kid to work," she said.
"Right," Drifus mumbled, not really convinced.
So far, he'd trusted the human and trusted her words to some extent. The human knew more than she explained and was hiding a lot of things. Even if the future had changed, she should have at least informed him of what would have happened in that other timeline, or rather he would have appreciated that. But Lenora never explained anything. As though she was afraid those realities would come to life if she uttered them.
"Can I try that?" Jay said. "Always wanted to try it," he too pointed at the smoking room.
"Of course not," Lenora grabbed his arm and pulled him along like an overworked mother.
"But, I want to-"
"No. It's harmful to your health. Don't you want to go back to your siblings and set an example for them? If you get addicted to that, who'll pay for that? Wouldn't you be wasting your salary which we would have used to feed your siblings?"
"Ri-right…"
They took the stairs and stood on the second floor, on a branch that had certain markings. A magic circle in blue. "It might move and it could be a little jarring but do try to stay on. If you call off, I won't jump after you," Lenora said. She still held the kid's arm, so she was mostly speaking to the elf.
There were many beasthuman and even humans in here but none of them approached the trio. Although a government building, this place was open to the public and somewhat of a tourist destination. Drifus of course still got stares every now and then. He was like a Tall White man in South Asia.
Which Drifus understood rather well. "Do you not trust me?"
"After seeing you jump, not really."
Drifus couldn't jump. Whenever he tried to, he tripped and fell. It was a reason why he had to roll on the ground, rather than jump and avoid some of the vines. So Lenora had doubts about whether he'd be able to hold himself steady. She sighed. "Just hold on to me if you feel like falling."
Shudder.
The magic circle glowed in iridescent and formed a large round plate beneath their feet.
"Woah!" Drifus waved but grabbed Lenora at the last moment. What is she, cotton? His thoughts almost leaked. Almost.
The magic circle settled and lifted up; the trio started floating along with it.
"It's not shaking," Jay said.
"Only shakes when it starts or stops," Lenora said. "Or so I heard."
"Heard?" Drifus paused, eyes going a tad wide. "You've never ridden these before?"
"Not that I recall," she said. "Why?"
"How are we going to get off?"
"Oh… right…."
The colors from Drifus' face drained and he started shaking despite the magic circle not shaking.
"You're an arc mage, so it'll be fine. Besides, I can fly," Lenora said and mumbled, "For what it's worth," under her breath.
They passed the third floor, then the fourth and things started speeding up. The tree had about twenty floors and Lenora had no idea which floor had the sages. She knew it was higher than the thirteenth floor but she wasn't sure. And at the rate things were speeding, she didn't know if she could really get off.
"I see a ceiling," Drifus whispered.
"Glad to know I'm not seeing things," Lenora said.
Jay squeezed Lenora's hands a bit too tight and they all braced for impact.
Wham!
The sound came, but not the pain. Instead of crashing into the ceiling, the magic circle stopped just shy. Some of Drifus' strands touched the very top; his heart raced, palmed sweated. He was never getting on this this ever again, even if he had to climb all the twenty stairs.
"Well," Lenora said, desperately hiding her panting, "At least we made it to the right floor," she snickered but the nervousness leaked out.
They were at the very top floor, the temple of Alduin. As long as they weren't thrown out of there, she had a real chance at meeting the high priestess.
As long as they didn't throw her out of course.