Chapter 5

“So explain this to us once again,” Lasser said, leaning his elbows on the round table that the six mages circled around. They’d already been convening for an hour, and Lasser was still a bit confused.
“The Calca Tree is dying, or at least it’s sick,” Iber said.
“And how do you know this?” Malek asked.
“It told me. But I think we can fix it.”
“By gathering seeds,” Mitty said.
“Right.”
“And once we gather these seeds?” Trevelyn asked.
“Then the tree can be healed and the magic will return to full strength.”
“And we can only find these seeds in distant lands?”
“Yes. The Alba Tree, The Bethda Tree, the Gammana, and the Deltane. They are all outside of Galadin.”
“Outside? Like over the mountains?”
“Yes. I’ve done some research,” Saratin said. “There are some ancient texts that refer to the Great Trees.”
“Oooh, Great Trees, Great Mages, Great Dragons. They were really fond greatness back then, weren’t they?” Lasser asked.
“Actually it’s a translation issue. They used to have more than one word to refer to great, but they’ve rather all mixed into the same word. The etymology is rather fascinating-”
“—Great Trees… where are they?” Trevelyn interrupted.
“There’s mention of them in definitely to the west and south, and my guess is that the other two are in the north and east.”
“Are there dragons involved?” Malek’s sarcastic tone told Lasser that he was more worried about unexpected complications than dragons. After all, it only took a few quick thoughts, and the dragons could be turned into puppy dogs.
“No dragons, that I know of, but you’ll be the first to know,” Saratin said.
“So once the Calca tree is fixed, we can do all sorts of new things?” Mitty asked.
“Does this include things like curing Lynah?” Trvelyn asked.
“It’s a very good possibility.” Trevelyn’s eyes lit up.
“When do we leave?”
“What about other mages?” Mitty said.
“What other mages?” Iber asked.
“Weren’t there originally twelve?”
“Yes.”
“If the tree were restored, couldn’t we add more mages?”
“In theory. If we could figure out how to instill the magic within a person, then we could make them a mage,” Saratin said.
“So what’s the action plan?” Lasser said, realizing that all the mages were in agreement on finding the seeds.
“Some of us need to stay here,” Trevelyn said as she scribbled her notes. “I think Saratin and I are the logical choices to hold the city.”
“And I need to stay to look after our son,” Mitty said. She nodded to Malek.
“So we’re looking at Malek, Iber and I, back together again,” Lasser said. Malek looked grumpy and Iber didn’t look as excited as he would have twenty years ago. “I am, however, expected at court tonight, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to start out.”
“All right. I’ll pencil it in. Big adventure. Dawn. Meet in Butterfly Courtyard. BYOB – Bring your own bread,” Malek said flatly.
“There’s no need to be so sarcastic,” Trevelyn said. “After all, it’ll be just like the first time you went on an adventure.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”