Moonlight Travels – Marto Copperkettle – 17.02.2022
Feb 19, 2022 18:45:45 GMT
Celina Zabinski, Velania Kalugina, and 2 more like this
Post by Marto Copperkettle on Feb 19, 2022 18:45:45 GMT
“You had me at ‘the Witching Court’.”
Marto was very excited for the chance to go to the Feywild again. The last time he was there was the weeks following Merla’s ascension to being the newest (and youngest) Queen. That had been an amazing experience, a great opportunity for him to learn a lot about magic, not only from her – when she had the time – but from other denizens of the feywild as well. Their natural affinity did make it frustrating at times but Marto enjoyed the process of studying, of learning. He picked up things fairly quickly and his precision with which he practised meant it didn’t take him long until he got the basics committed to memory.
But this time was going to be different. Marto was going to the Feywild to help his buddy Gerhard look for a particular kind of ancient, unique ruin which seemed to be connected to a pretty important moment from his past. Beets had been asking him how they were going to get there when it was suggested the best place to start was probably Portal Plaza.
“So how did you get here initially, Beets?” Kavel had asked.
“Oh, well, ya know. I just sort of walked here,” she replied.
“That’s how most people tend to get here from what I’ve heard,” Marto says with a laugh.
“Yeah… It would be nice to go home at some point,” the fairy continued. “I just… need to find my way back…”
They arrived in the Witching Court by way of Plane Shift courtesy of Councilwoman Aurelia Archselon. Where the Court of Harmony was bright and beautiful, as perfect as a summer’s day, the Witching Court was bathed in perpetual moonlight with mist shrouded forests and huge mountains that looked like they could touch the stars. The sense of vastness was nearly overwhelming. It was the forest though that set his heart racing. Marto could tell the trees were old, very old. He bet they would even pick themselves up by their roots and walk the earth, hunting down any transgressors who dared to harm their bark brothers, if Queen Nicnevin would ask them to.
Marto made a point of keeping his hands far away from his axes.
After an initial, “What are you doing here?” from a well dressed drow by the name of Margotin, and a short explanation from Gerhard of who he knew they could meet with, their party was escorted into the Mountain Palace. Crystals grew out of every wall casting a soft white light that was just bright enough for Marto to see by. There didn’t seem to be any doors though. Instead, curtains of moss separated the cave-like hallways they walked through from the rooms, big or small, they passed by.
As they waited for Margotin to find the person Gerhard knew – someone called Sarin – Beets and Kavel decided to pass the time with a companionable test of strength. Both seemed to be evenly matched, their clasped hands in an arm wrestle that barely moved. The goliath was thoroughly impressed. But Marto kept an eye on Beets, noticing when her eyes went black same as when he had visited her the week before. Derthaad, instantly the suspicious type, was thinking it was some sort of evil spirit and though Marto could not say for sure if the dragonborn was wrong, he did his best to convince the City Watch Sergeant his fairy friend was in control.
She still managed to break the stone table though when Beets slammed Kavel’s hand down, winning the test of strength.
Sarin arrived not long afterwards – Derthaad hastily mending the stone table with his sorceress magic – and Gerhard began to explain to the stunningly beautiful drow male, wearing nothing but a poncho, why he was looking for some mysterious ruins.
“Henri and I, we were apprentice archaeologists excavating a ruin back in Faerûn. The language we found there- these symbols-” Gerhard pulls out a sketch of a portal and a man kneeling on the other side of it, along with other pages of traced ruins, “-they don’t match any language I’ve managed to find anywhere. At the site there were these crystal or glass pieces. We began to put them back to where we thought they should go, like pieces fitting back into a jigsaw puzzle. When the final piece was laid down it activated a portal, which was pretty unusual as the work we did wasn’t to make the broken things start working again, it was to find out why the thing stopped working.
“Henri walked through, wanting to find out what was on the other side. It was… truly magnificent. But-” His expression suddenly became pained, “-when he tried to come back he couldn’t. It wouldn’t let him.”
Marto felt something lightly touch his hand. He looks down and sees Beets’ empathetic eyes glance up to him as she settles on the couch next to him.
“The portal stayed open until the moon started to rise,” Gerhard continued. “When I saw it closing I panicked. I reached through, thinking I could pull Henri back but the portal started closing faster and faster. That’s how I got this.”
The archaeologists rolls up the sleeve of his coat. On his left arm is a perfect circular silver band looking like it’s been tattooed onto his skin.
“I don’t know how I still have this arm…” Gerhard added.
Marto stared at the band, curious to know what sort of portal could close on a person yet not take their arm. A good thing for Gerhard for sure, but to leave such a mark really had his curiosity piqued.
“Unfortunately I cannot come with you, for tonight is the Night of Darkness. However, I can tell you where you can go to find what it is you seek, Gerhard.”
“Excuse me, um, Sarin?” Marto tried to politely interrupt. When the beautiful drow had turned to look at him Marto felt his ears turn a little pink as he realised just how much of Sarin’s beautifully sculpted thigh he could see.
“Yes?”
“What is the Night of Darkness?” Marto asks.
“It is a lunar eclipse,” Sarin replies with a smile. Marto’s interest was almost outshone by the slight flush that deepened on his ears. “It’s something that happens very rarely here, for in the Witching Court the moon is always full and never sets, thus it is an event that is quite celebrated yet also feared.”
“Feared?”
“Yes, which is why as a priest of the Dark Maiden, Elistraee, I have a lot of work I must do before the eclipse comes to pass. But do not fret, where you are going there shouldn’t be much danger.”
Glancing at Gerhard, it didn’t seem like danger would really stop the man from finding what he wanted, which meant Marto would need to keep asan extra close eye out for him. Hopefully the beautiful priest was right, and nothing bad would happen.
“Wha- Gerhard, no!”
The ranger was already running full tilt towards the silver, shimmering portal, papers flying from his coat in spiralling whirls. Marto began to chase after him, but the young knight knew even with his athleticism, he was not going to make it to Gerhard before he reached the portal.
All the magic from the feywild in the area that had been sucked into the middle of the ring of nine stones, including the light from the crystals Sarin had lent them, exploded open the moment Gerhard touched the silver of silver. For a split second, Marto swears he saw a spiralling staircase leading up towards the darkening night sky but then the portal solidified and Gerhard was through.
“Shit,” he mutters, quickly taking stock of the portal, remembering what Gerhard said happened when Henri went through – that he was stuck on the other side. Kavel and Derthaad come up behind him, the goliath pulling out a coil of hempen rope. Seeing the two work together with an emergency exit plan in place, Marto ran through the portal.
Gerhard had stopped dead, staring up and out at something Marto couldn’t quite comprehend at first. Looking around he couldn’t tell much of what the place was. There were stone pillars, sort of similar to the ones from the ring they had come from, but these ones seemed to be holding some form of barrier between them that acted like glass. Marto was sure it wasn’t though, it had to be some form of magic by the way the air was rippling with the arcane.
“Woahhh.”
Beets had followed Marto through but had stopped dead, eyes wide at the large, spherical object Gerhard was staring at. Not seeing any immediate danger Marto allowed himself the chance to properly look at it too. At first he frowned, not sure he understood what he was seeing. Then dawning understanding followed by the feeling of his stomach dropping out that left a peculiar tingling sensation running through his body.
They were looking down at Toril.
“No way…”
The soft thudding Marto head was getting louder and louder. Tearing his eyes away he turned around in time to see a large door opening, and a massive red hand proceeding the entrance of a pit fiend. The gigantic devil looms over them all, looking from one person to the next and the next before he suddenly smiles.
“Welcome to the moon!”
Marto kept looking back and forth between the portal that led back to the Witching Court and the giant sphere that was his home. After the initial shock of realising where they were, Marto offered to keep an eye on the eclipse so Gerhard could ask whatever questions he needed of the pit fiend – Copernicus – and the water genasi – Lamel – who seemed to live here. Kavel was kind and made sure to bring him a cup of tea and some biscuits too, telling him as much as he could about what was being discussed.
To be honest, Marto wasn’t sure how much he could believe what was happening. It was one thing to go to another plane of existence. People did that all the time. But coming up to the freaking moon?!
“I don’t think even Merla will believe me when I tell her,” he muttered to himself.
They didn’t have much time left, perhaps five minutes or so. He made sure to message Gerhard directly but also to tell Derthaad as well. As much as Marto hoped his friend would get the answers he sought, he wasn’t entirely confident Gerhard would be ready to go when the time came to it.
And it was getting really close to the wire.
“Two minutes! We gotta go, now!”
They barely made it through, Marto making sure he was the last one out, giving Gerhard an extra firm push to get him to the other side of the portal. He didn’t like the way his friend’s eyes seemed to gloss over when he stepping into the silvery light.
“You’re serious about wanting to challenge Queen Nicnevin?” Marto asked Beets as they made their way back to the Mountain Palace.
“Yeah! She’s a giant so she must be super strong. I’m sure I can beat her!”
None of them said anything to the contrary but neither did they try to stop her. Marto didn’t think the Fey Ascendant would actually harm Beets. Perhaps a bit of a humbling experience would do his friend some good.
Sarin, somehow, pulled the right strings to get them into the gigantic chamber that served as the heart of the Mountain Palace for an audience with the Queen. They all hung back, not wanting to step into the spotlight that Beets was determined to put herself in. Just as she was about to speak, Marto said a small prayer to Yondalla, hoping that his friend wouldn’t put her foot in it.
“What would you ask of me?”
Beets, normally always so boisterous, was suddenly uncharacteristically shy. She began to mumble something about her ‘ailment’ before backtracking and saying she wanted to fight her instead.
The Witch Queen threw her head back and laughed.
“You truly wish to fight me?”
Beets gave the smallest of nods.
Queen Nicnevin leaned forward and tapped Beets with one giant finger on her forehead. Marto saw her whole body go slack, like all the strength had been sapped out of her. Then Queen Nicnevin tapped her again and all her strength seemingly came back. The Fey Queen sat back on her throne and softly smiled.
“That is what it is like to fight me.”
Beets shakily nodded. Marto let out a sigh of relief.
They were just about to make their way out of the Mountain Palace when Marto spotted a room with books he recognised were about magic practises and spells.
“Hold up a second. I wanna see if they have something I can buy,” he said heading inside.
It wasn’t a very large space and there were only ten shelves of books. Marto was quickly scanning the spines when a soft voice spoke behind him.
“Is there something I can help you find, dear?”
Marto turns around and sees a green skinned middle aged woman with her brown hair plaited and wrapped around her head. He smiles and gives her a little bow.
“Yes. I am looking for a magic book to study. Nothing too complicated, but the spells should be ones I can commit to memory.”
“Ah, a wizard are you?” the woman says, looking him over. “Yet you wear such heavy armour.”
“I’m mostly a fighter, ma’am. But I am honing my magical abilities as I go,” Marto explains. “I haven’t been studying long and there’s much I’d like to learn.”
“Hmm…” She seems to study him more closely, a hand coming up to tap the side of her face in thought. “I may have the right book for you.”
She suddenly spins around, reaches across three shelves and plucks a soft green leather book bound in twine that smells of pine. The scent brings back the echoes of a dream he had, of a warm light and a golden-red haired woman whispering something important to him. He shakes his head, pushing the memory of the vision away. When the woman faces Marto again her smile is sweet, pleasant even and is about to hand over the book before she pulls it back.
“But what will you pay for it?”
“Ah…” Marto knew the fey didn’t like coins – it still confused his sister sometimes how much value a purse of gold carried on the Material Plane. But it had to be something of equal or greater value. What did he have that he would be willing to offer?
“You could have these,” Marto offers, pulling the two hand axes from his belt and offering them to the woman. “They used to be important tools of my previous trade but I find I don’t use them as much anymore.”
“No.”
He blinks. “O-okay.” Marto thinks again. “I am a skilled carpenter? I could build you something? A house? A chair? A table?”
The woman’s eyes light up. “Yes, that sounds more like it.”
Marto smiles. “Great. What would you like me to make for you?”
“Oh dear, you misunderstand me. I don’t need you to make me anything. You will give me your knowledge of carpentry for, say, two tendays as payment for this book.”
“Oh. I see.” Marto was about to agree to the deal when he remembered something important. “Wait, two tendays of time as it would be on the Material Plane or here?”
The woman grins, impressed he caught the trick. “Why, it would be two tendays of time here of course.”
“But time moves differently between here and the Material Plane. There would be no guarantee how long that would actually be for me,” Marto debated.
“That is the offer, unless you can come up with a better one?” the woman says, stroking the book.
Marto didn’t need the book. He could find something like it just as easily in Daring, he was sure of it. But looking at the green cover, smelling that soft pine scent that reminded him of another forest, and he felt he must have this particular book.
“I will give you my knowledge of carpentry until the next full moon on the Material Plane in exchange for that book,” he says.
“Done!” says the woman, offering the book over to Marto. He takes it, noting how the cover that he thought was leather feels more like thousands of pine needles all woven together. “May it serve you well in your studies, little knight.”
Marto was very excited for the chance to go to the Feywild again. The last time he was there was the weeks following Merla’s ascension to being the newest (and youngest) Queen. That had been an amazing experience, a great opportunity for him to learn a lot about magic, not only from her – when she had the time – but from other denizens of the feywild as well. Their natural affinity did make it frustrating at times but Marto enjoyed the process of studying, of learning. He picked up things fairly quickly and his precision with which he practised meant it didn’t take him long until he got the basics committed to memory.
But this time was going to be different. Marto was going to the Feywild to help his buddy Gerhard look for a particular kind of ancient, unique ruin which seemed to be connected to a pretty important moment from his past. Beets had been asking him how they were going to get there when it was suggested the best place to start was probably Portal Plaza.
“So how did you get here initially, Beets?” Kavel had asked.
“Oh, well, ya know. I just sort of walked here,” she replied.
“That’s how most people tend to get here from what I’ve heard,” Marto says with a laugh.
“Yeah… It would be nice to go home at some point,” the fairy continued. “I just… need to find my way back…”
They arrived in the Witching Court by way of Plane Shift courtesy of Councilwoman Aurelia Archselon. Where the Court of Harmony was bright and beautiful, as perfect as a summer’s day, the Witching Court was bathed in perpetual moonlight with mist shrouded forests and huge mountains that looked like they could touch the stars. The sense of vastness was nearly overwhelming. It was the forest though that set his heart racing. Marto could tell the trees were old, very old. He bet they would even pick themselves up by their roots and walk the earth, hunting down any transgressors who dared to harm their bark brothers, if Queen Nicnevin would ask them to.
Marto made a point of keeping his hands far away from his axes.
After an initial, “What are you doing here?” from a well dressed drow by the name of Margotin, and a short explanation from Gerhard of who he knew they could meet with, their party was escorted into the Mountain Palace. Crystals grew out of every wall casting a soft white light that was just bright enough for Marto to see by. There didn’t seem to be any doors though. Instead, curtains of moss separated the cave-like hallways they walked through from the rooms, big or small, they passed by.
As they waited for Margotin to find the person Gerhard knew – someone called Sarin – Beets and Kavel decided to pass the time with a companionable test of strength. Both seemed to be evenly matched, their clasped hands in an arm wrestle that barely moved. The goliath was thoroughly impressed. But Marto kept an eye on Beets, noticing when her eyes went black same as when he had visited her the week before. Derthaad, instantly the suspicious type, was thinking it was some sort of evil spirit and though Marto could not say for sure if the dragonborn was wrong, he did his best to convince the City Watch Sergeant his fairy friend was in control.
She still managed to break the stone table though when Beets slammed Kavel’s hand down, winning the test of strength.
Sarin arrived not long afterwards – Derthaad hastily mending the stone table with his sorceress magic – and Gerhard began to explain to the stunningly beautiful drow male, wearing nothing but a poncho, why he was looking for some mysterious ruins.
“Henri and I, we were apprentice archaeologists excavating a ruin back in Faerûn. The language we found there- these symbols-” Gerhard pulls out a sketch of a portal and a man kneeling on the other side of it, along with other pages of traced ruins, “-they don’t match any language I’ve managed to find anywhere. At the site there were these crystal or glass pieces. We began to put them back to where we thought they should go, like pieces fitting back into a jigsaw puzzle. When the final piece was laid down it activated a portal, which was pretty unusual as the work we did wasn’t to make the broken things start working again, it was to find out why the thing stopped working.
“Henri walked through, wanting to find out what was on the other side. It was… truly magnificent. But-” His expression suddenly became pained, “-when he tried to come back he couldn’t. It wouldn’t let him.”
Marto felt something lightly touch his hand. He looks down and sees Beets’ empathetic eyes glance up to him as she settles on the couch next to him.
“The portal stayed open until the moon started to rise,” Gerhard continued. “When I saw it closing I panicked. I reached through, thinking I could pull Henri back but the portal started closing faster and faster. That’s how I got this.”
The archaeologists rolls up the sleeve of his coat. On his left arm is a perfect circular silver band looking like it’s been tattooed onto his skin.
“I don’t know how I still have this arm…” Gerhard added.
Marto stared at the band, curious to know what sort of portal could close on a person yet not take their arm. A good thing for Gerhard for sure, but to leave such a mark really had his curiosity piqued.
“Unfortunately I cannot come with you, for tonight is the Night of Darkness. However, I can tell you where you can go to find what it is you seek, Gerhard.”
“Excuse me, um, Sarin?” Marto tried to politely interrupt. When the beautiful drow had turned to look at him Marto felt his ears turn a little pink as he realised just how much of Sarin’s beautifully sculpted thigh he could see.
“Yes?”
“What is the Night of Darkness?” Marto asks.
“It is a lunar eclipse,” Sarin replies with a smile. Marto’s interest was almost outshone by the slight flush that deepened on his ears. “It’s something that happens very rarely here, for in the Witching Court the moon is always full and never sets, thus it is an event that is quite celebrated yet also feared.”
“Feared?”
“Yes, which is why as a priest of the Dark Maiden, Elistraee, I have a lot of work I must do before the eclipse comes to pass. But do not fret, where you are going there shouldn’t be much danger.”
Glancing at Gerhard, it didn’t seem like danger would really stop the man from finding what he wanted, which meant Marto would need to keep asan extra close eye out for him. Hopefully the beautiful priest was right, and nothing bad would happen.
“Wha- Gerhard, no!”
The ranger was already running full tilt towards the silver, shimmering portal, papers flying from his coat in spiralling whirls. Marto began to chase after him, but the young knight knew even with his athleticism, he was not going to make it to Gerhard before he reached the portal.
All the magic from the feywild in the area that had been sucked into the middle of the ring of nine stones, including the light from the crystals Sarin had lent them, exploded open the moment Gerhard touched the silver of silver. For a split second, Marto swears he saw a spiralling staircase leading up towards the darkening night sky but then the portal solidified and Gerhard was through.
“Shit,” he mutters, quickly taking stock of the portal, remembering what Gerhard said happened when Henri went through – that he was stuck on the other side. Kavel and Derthaad come up behind him, the goliath pulling out a coil of hempen rope. Seeing the two work together with an emergency exit plan in place, Marto ran through the portal.
Gerhard had stopped dead, staring up and out at something Marto couldn’t quite comprehend at first. Looking around he couldn’t tell much of what the place was. There were stone pillars, sort of similar to the ones from the ring they had come from, but these ones seemed to be holding some form of barrier between them that acted like glass. Marto was sure it wasn’t though, it had to be some form of magic by the way the air was rippling with the arcane.
“Woahhh.”
Beets had followed Marto through but had stopped dead, eyes wide at the large, spherical object Gerhard was staring at. Not seeing any immediate danger Marto allowed himself the chance to properly look at it too. At first he frowned, not sure he understood what he was seeing. Then dawning understanding followed by the feeling of his stomach dropping out that left a peculiar tingling sensation running through his body.
They were looking down at Toril.
“No way…”
The soft thudding Marto head was getting louder and louder. Tearing his eyes away he turned around in time to see a large door opening, and a massive red hand proceeding the entrance of a pit fiend. The gigantic devil looms over them all, looking from one person to the next and the next before he suddenly smiles.
“Welcome to the moon!”
Marto kept looking back and forth between the portal that led back to the Witching Court and the giant sphere that was his home. After the initial shock of realising where they were, Marto offered to keep an eye on the eclipse so Gerhard could ask whatever questions he needed of the pit fiend – Copernicus – and the water genasi – Lamel – who seemed to live here. Kavel was kind and made sure to bring him a cup of tea and some biscuits too, telling him as much as he could about what was being discussed.
To be honest, Marto wasn’t sure how much he could believe what was happening. It was one thing to go to another plane of existence. People did that all the time. But coming up to the freaking moon?!
“I don’t think even Merla will believe me when I tell her,” he muttered to himself.
They didn’t have much time left, perhaps five minutes or so. He made sure to message Gerhard directly but also to tell Derthaad as well. As much as Marto hoped his friend would get the answers he sought, he wasn’t entirely confident Gerhard would be ready to go when the time came to it.
And it was getting really close to the wire.
“Two minutes! We gotta go, now!”
They barely made it through, Marto making sure he was the last one out, giving Gerhard an extra firm push to get him to the other side of the portal. He didn’t like the way his friend’s eyes seemed to gloss over when he stepping into the silvery light.
“You’re serious about wanting to challenge Queen Nicnevin?” Marto asked Beets as they made their way back to the Mountain Palace.
“Yeah! She’s a giant so she must be super strong. I’m sure I can beat her!”
None of them said anything to the contrary but neither did they try to stop her. Marto didn’t think the Fey Ascendant would actually harm Beets. Perhaps a bit of a humbling experience would do his friend some good.
Sarin, somehow, pulled the right strings to get them into the gigantic chamber that served as the heart of the Mountain Palace for an audience with the Queen. They all hung back, not wanting to step into the spotlight that Beets was determined to put herself in. Just as she was about to speak, Marto said a small prayer to Yondalla, hoping that his friend wouldn’t put her foot in it.
“What would you ask of me?”
Beets, normally always so boisterous, was suddenly uncharacteristically shy. She began to mumble something about her ‘ailment’ before backtracking and saying she wanted to fight her instead.
The Witch Queen threw her head back and laughed.
“You truly wish to fight me?”
Beets gave the smallest of nods.
Queen Nicnevin leaned forward and tapped Beets with one giant finger on her forehead. Marto saw her whole body go slack, like all the strength had been sapped out of her. Then Queen Nicnevin tapped her again and all her strength seemingly came back. The Fey Queen sat back on her throne and softly smiled.
“That is what it is like to fight me.”
Beets shakily nodded. Marto let out a sigh of relief.
They were just about to make their way out of the Mountain Palace when Marto spotted a room with books he recognised were about magic practises and spells.
“Hold up a second. I wanna see if they have something I can buy,” he said heading inside.
It wasn’t a very large space and there were only ten shelves of books. Marto was quickly scanning the spines when a soft voice spoke behind him.
“Is there something I can help you find, dear?”
Marto turns around and sees a green skinned middle aged woman with her brown hair plaited and wrapped around her head. He smiles and gives her a little bow.
“Yes. I am looking for a magic book to study. Nothing too complicated, but the spells should be ones I can commit to memory.”
“Ah, a wizard are you?” the woman says, looking him over. “Yet you wear such heavy armour.”
“I’m mostly a fighter, ma’am. But I am honing my magical abilities as I go,” Marto explains. “I haven’t been studying long and there’s much I’d like to learn.”
“Hmm…” She seems to study him more closely, a hand coming up to tap the side of her face in thought. “I may have the right book for you.”
She suddenly spins around, reaches across three shelves and plucks a soft green leather book bound in twine that smells of pine. The scent brings back the echoes of a dream he had, of a warm light and a golden-red haired woman whispering something important to him. He shakes his head, pushing the memory of the vision away. When the woman faces Marto again her smile is sweet, pleasant even and is about to hand over the book before she pulls it back.
“But what will you pay for it?”
“Ah…” Marto knew the fey didn’t like coins – it still confused his sister sometimes how much value a purse of gold carried on the Material Plane. But it had to be something of equal or greater value. What did he have that he would be willing to offer?
“You could have these,” Marto offers, pulling the two hand axes from his belt and offering them to the woman. “They used to be important tools of my previous trade but I find I don’t use them as much anymore.”
“No.”
He blinks. “O-okay.” Marto thinks again. “I am a skilled carpenter? I could build you something? A house? A chair? A table?”
The woman’s eyes light up. “Yes, that sounds more like it.”
Marto smiles. “Great. What would you like me to make for you?”
“Oh dear, you misunderstand me. I don’t need you to make me anything. You will give me your knowledge of carpentry for, say, two tendays as payment for this book.”
“Oh. I see.” Marto was about to agree to the deal when he remembered something important. “Wait, two tendays of time as it would be on the Material Plane or here?”
The woman grins, impressed he caught the trick. “Why, it would be two tendays of time here of course.”
“But time moves differently between here and the Material Plane. There would be no guarantee how long that would actually be for me,” Marto debated.
“That is the offer, unless you can come up with a better one?” the woman says, stroking the book.
Marto didn’t need the book. He could find something like it just as easily in Daring, he was sure of it. But looking at the green cover, smelling that soft pine scent that reminded him of another forest, and he felt he must have this particular book.
“I will give you my knowledge of carpentry until the next full moon on the Material Plane in exchange for that book,” he says.
“Done!” says the woman, offering the book over to Marto. He takes it, noting how the cover that he thought was leather feels more like thousands of pine needles all woven together. “May it serve you well in your studies, little knight.”
