[Acacea]

A collection of entries and memories from inside a frozen instant now behind her.

Apreal of 1395

I will have to remember to tell everyone about the time I talked to the tree and it talked back, definitely. We were in the Grove of Illusions to ask the nymph if she knew of any kind of tower or what have you... I mean we talked to the Nice-Emily-Projection in her tower, and she said that the forest was where Narsil's tower was at, but the rangers and nymph said there wasn't one, though the latter said people had come before seeking it for some reason or another.

Fascinatingly (I think I have been around Brac too long) enough, she took even more pieces of clothes off of her dress. The nymph, not Emily! She asked me if I liked it and while of course she looks stunning in it, it is really more of a belt than a dress, you know?

Right... tower... focus! So yeah, I chatted with the tree after it dropped the nut on my head while they got the map we had of the forest marked at where the tower was rumored to be but never found, and by Corath's frozen black arse, trees talk slowly...

He did say though that in places of illusion, all is not what it seems, and that when the holder of the last of the lost talks, the land listens...that's me! Apparently! Go figure.

Brac told me to leave the poor tree alone, but since it was really just trying to be helpful I think that was terribly rude. I asked it if it knew anything about Narsil's tower, and it made the leaf-quivering sigh noise and said that it could not help me because the tower was beyond the land, and called me the bearer of the horn's hope.

By then, everybody was warding themselves and ready to be off, and I said I was only just getting acquainted with Divvy (that's what I decided to call the tree, since the nut he dropped on my head had a little symbol for divination carved on it, and well calling it "Divination" just sounds silly!) and Rolf made an awfully mean crack about it... 'So thats how Treants are created - Acacea talks to trees and in the end they decided they can't handle it any more and leave.'

They thought it was terribly funny, of course, and maybe it was a LITTLE funny, if only because Rolf actually made a good joke and that is surely a sign of the heavens come crashing down... I'm focusing! Really!

After Athus faked a snooze to get his arse pinched by the nymph (What! It's true!), we headed off into the deep forest and...walked.

Yes... walked and walked and walked and walked. Nice scenery...no tower. We hiked for EVER and finally came out a ways from Karthy; I nearly died right then, especially when we had to go ALLLL the way back and not a single person offered me a piggy back ride... I haven't the faintest what they meant when they said it would put my mouth too close to their ears--especially since I could give better directions that way!

Annnnyywaaay... Reventage fell down a hill... Yes! You've seen right through me, oh journal mine. That's actually the only reason I even started this far back! I wanted to talk about the Harper tumbling down and landing in an invisible heap.

It was too funny really, though... CRASH. I think the whole forest heard... It really made up for getting absolutely drenched by rain. I think the weather was laughing at us. Well, I suppose I could have just said 'We looked for the tower after talking to the nymph but couldn't find it, and Rev fell down a hill,' but that wouldn't be nearly as funny.

I wasn't TOO surprised, to be honest; it is, after all, 'beyond the land,' and I'm PRETTY sure the rangers would have noticed a giant stinking tower in the middle of their forest, but it was worth a look and the rangers were pretty dim when we talked to them, anyway.

The mages started getting all frowny and said something was off and put on their concentrating faces--you know, the ones where they look like they are having stomach problems and get all narky with you if you rather politely ask them if they are feeling alright because you're 'interrupting' or something.

Savin looked particularly ill, which was a cause for concern since the last time he looked like that, he got bitten by some force or another for trying to sense what was interfering with the flowers blooming... but he didn't get bitten, he just flickered and disappeared...He'd found the tower.

Brac said the Weave was out of sync and that essentially what Savin had done was match himself up to it, and that we could either try to do the same, or sync the Weave... the latter sounding horridly hard, so instead Rev drew some circles on the ground with focus points, and everyone did some serious concentrating to align the inside of the circle to it so that it would link to wherever Savin went!

We all did our thing and got all glowy and crazy and then bam! Circle linked and portal created, if about as stable as a bridge hanging by apron strings. We hopped in and that is how we got here... Unfortunately, once we had stepped through, the Weave was ripped from hands (minds? tongues?) and the portal went away... the whole place was surrounded by a wall of magic that kind of hemmed us in here...

It was not the run down, dilapidated tower we expected, though! Oh no, it was...well...Perfect. All of the paths were tended and the flowers were blooming, and oh the tower itself was spectacular, even if it did have an overly elaborate doorbell.

See, it has these singing statues outside that were so perfect that they looked like they were going to wave at you or something. Well, they didn't sing by themSELVES, but they amplified it and kinda sang along-like... there were some in the back of Lucinda and Ilsare, both, even...well anyway, all of the statues had incomplete sets of dispelling runes inscribed on their bases; essentially we all just picked one and sang to them at the same time, so they lit up in reds, golds, and blue and fused together as well as a brownie and the earth after being run over by a giant, shot at the tower, and there we had it!

The door swung open rather cheerfully; maybe that whole sing-to-dispel-the-musical-lock system was common back in the day, like some kinda "praise the goddess" ritual before entering Her tower, you know? Of course it's funny now, because we were still half expecting something big and smashy, even after Brac changed into a pixie (again! It never gets old!) and said that there were just a lot of happy, dancing people inside.

I was thinking the whole thing was some kind of creepy nymph fantasy stasis bubble where you're happy all the time and never get old or get hungry or anything and are trapped FOREVER, but by the end of that whole statue thing, I am so ready for a bit of a party...

Soo...well...that's how we got here. How we are planning to get out is a different manner entirely, and I don't think is much of a concern to anyone at the moment. Much to do, after all! It can't be that difficult; likely just another silly doorbell to get back out.

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