2984 Mogar’s Garden (Part 2)
Centuries of shackles shattered in an instant and for no apparent reason.
"I can't believe it was so simple." She fell onto her knees while green tears of joy flowed down her cheeks. "Thank you, Great Mother."
She put her head and hands against the ground, kissing the naked rock and chanting words that sounded like the rustling of wind through a thick foliage.
"What happened? How did you do it?" The blue-cored members of the Hand of Fate repeated her previous actions but to their touch, the stone remained solid and the world energy ignored them.
"Who cares about that? It can wait." Bytra forced Ryka to stand up. "What's this place? And for the love of the gods, someone tell me you've Hushed us or we've just announced our presence to the enemy like a bunch of idiots!"
"I did." Lith raised his hand. "Caverns mean echo so I've kept us Hushed since we spotted the cave."
"Well done." Zoreth patted his back, puffing her chest out with pride. "Now answer the question, child."
Ryka was still recovering from the ecstasy of the communion and looked hesitant to speak. At least until Strider said: freewebnσvel.cøm
"The Eldritch is right. Remember the mission, soldier. There's no time for petty secrets. The deep violet will do you no good if we all die inside there. The man we are after killed someone much older and more powerful than you are.
"Tell us what Lady Tyris has to do with this place."
The Titania grimaced, her hands moved toward the cave again. She craved the communion and the quick refinement of her body and core that it would grant her.
"Not Tyris. This cave is something I believed existed only in the legends of the Fae." She felt dirty betraying the lore of her people with the members of the other races. Her words came out slowly and with great difficulty.
"Long ago, before the Guardians and even before the World Tree, there was only Mogar. The first Great Mother. According to the legends, our planet suffered from the loneliness of being the only sentient being on her surface so she researched ways to help her children to become her equals.
"For that purpose, she created her Gardens." The Titania pointed at the cave. "Places where the world energy doesn't just flow like it happens for mana geysers, but it's also focused and accumulated.
"Within a Garden, life thrives, grows, adapts, and evolves, achieving in minutes what is supposed to take centuries. First, the Great Mother gave birth to the plant folk. We are her firstborns because we took our nourishment straight from her bosom.
"Then came the Horde, the second born. Pale imitations of the plant folk who fed on my ancestors like parasites, stealing rather than earning the gift of sentience. For their crime, the Great Mother took away their ability to have offspring.
"They are damned to spend their eternal life in solitude and to roam Mogar in search of their own kin. Then, came the animals. Over time, by eating our fruits and grazing the rich grass of the Gardens, herbivores became the first magical beasts and monkeys became humans.
"They are called the third born by some and the real second born by most. Carnivores came last, gaining their sentience by feeding on the second born."
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