Downtown Druid

Dantes was floating for a moment, over the table he'd seen so many times before in his dreams, but this time it was empty. He saw no sign of the woman in green or the man in blue. Suddenly, he was falling, his body twisting at the last moment so that his back slammed against the table. He could feel the impact even though it was a dream. He tried to sit up, but before he could, two large daggers impaled each of his hands, locking them in place. He screamed as the table slowly tilted up and he was held up only by the wounds in his hands. He looked around to see who or what was attacking him.

A figure was in the distance, clad in crimson red armor as he approached. Dantes struggled, trying to pull his hands from the daggers, or even let them cut through his palm completely so that he could get off of them, but nothing worked. Soon the man in red was directly in front of him, his wickedly serrated blade held high in his right hand. He lifted it, and placed it gently against Dantes's chest, slowly moving it forward. Dantes screamed as he felt each serrated inch of the blade slide through his chest. Just as the hilt impacted against his chest, the figure in red's form flickered, showing for just a moment a man with long brown hair holding a spear as it was driven into him. Gavain.

…

Dantes's eyes snapped open and his hand clutched at his chest where he could still feel the phantom pain of being stabbed.

Syn sat up in bed next to him.

"Are you okay?"

He shook his head. "Today. Gavain's going to come for me today."

Syn's features became fierce for a moment, before rapidly shifting back. "You're sure?"

Dantes nodded as he slid his legs to the side of the bed to stand. "Yes."

He stood and started to walk toward his clothes, Jacopo leaving his nest and climbing up the dresser as well.

"You're going to stop him."

"Yes. Everything I've been preparing with Jayk and everyone else for this. No one beats a druid in his locus." He felt confident, but he also still felt the pain of that blade in his chest.

Syn helped him get on his shirt, kissing his neck as she did so. "You're sure he'll meet you where you want him to?"

He nodded. "The one thing I'm certain both of us have in common, is that we're performers. He'll show up there, it's in his nature."

"I'll be there if it doesn't work."

"I have backups for that."

"What if those don't work?"

"I have a lot of backups."

"Then if those fail, I'll be there to help."

"You haven't told me what you plan on doing?"

"Protecting you."

Dantes let it rest, finishing the buttons on his shirt and slipping his dagger into the sheath on his waist. He then turned around and grabbed Syn, squeezing her tightly as he kissed her.

"I'll see you when it's done."

She pulled him in for a second kiss. "I'll be there before then. You know you need a beautiful woman in the audience."

Dantes smiled, and held out an arm so that Jacopo could climb onto his shoulder. He crept quietly into Alessa's room, and walked silently to the bassinet in which Jacque was sleeping. He leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. He slipped back out without waking either of them.

He climbed up to the room using the ladder a short way outside of his room and summoned several pigeons to himself. He tied slips of paper to each of their legs then sent them on their way. Once he was done he went back to his audience chamber, placing his hand against the tree in the center of it. He focused on the tattoos on his arm, trying to send his fellow druids a request for help. He was fairly certain they would come to help, even though it wasn't a rogue one of their own this time, but he wasn't sure they'd get there in time. Or that they would be able to reach him before it was evening. There was no way they could tree-walk all the way to him without the moon to support them. Murk would arrive sooner, Dantes knew at this point that he would do whatever he could to help after he saved him and his sister.

With that last message sent he walked out the front door and into the street. It was still early morning and the streets were filled with a fine mist that gave the recently re-lit magical streetlights a soft halo. He had initially considered flying, but there wasn't much of a point for that. He had his eyes spread all throughout the city to look out for Gavain's arrival, and while he'd had a number of foes that were capable of avoiding him by guile or skill, he didn't think Gavain had the skill, nor did he think he would bother sneaking around in the first place.

Dantes walked up main street first, taking a scenic route. He could sense the stirring of people in their homes, and noted the lights on bakeries had already been lit as they prepared their goods for the day. The street was lit better than it had been in the past. In Midtown it had been the tradition of the academy students to only light every other lantern, or skip it entirely to avoid being in danger, but now that had changed with the Academy's new leadership. Dantes had watched Kline several times through the eyes of rats and pigeons. There was no longer any light behind that man's eyes and his every response and movement seemed slow, almost strained. Merle was a terrifying man, Dantes was grateful to have him on his side.

Dantes extended his will to have all of the flowers on the street bloom a little early, and took a deep breath of the mixed sweet scents of flowers and warm smells of baking bread. Midtown was so overgrown with plants at this point that whole walls were covered in greenery and the flowers bloomed not only from the window boxes he'd provided them to offset what they owed him, but also all throughout cracks in the pavement, in the gutters, and even in the piles of trash that had always accumulated in the alleys. The rest of the city had been growing greener too, and his ability to increase growth passively had grown as well. Even his destroyed gardens were now almost fully restored after only a few months. At this rate the sea of gray that the city had always been in the past would give way to completely to green...as long as he was around.

Dantes sighed as he started to leave the Midtown streets and move toward Uptown. He'd sensed not a single mugger hiding in an alley, nor any of his dealers shilling their powder to the desperate. Midtown had changed in more ways than just becoming greener. At least he sensed a few illicit trysts in darkened alleys, that brought back his smile.

Dantes eventually reached his target, one of the arenas near the Adventurer's Guild, the largest of them where hundreds of people could be packed into the stands to bet on fights and watch mercs, adventurers and even a few professional gladiators spill blood for their amusement. As he walked in, he pulled a small pouch from his coat and began spreading seeds from it all along the ground, sending his will through them as he did so.

"You think we will lose," said Jacopo from his shoulder as he aided him with directing the lifeforce of their locus through each seed.

"No. I think we'll win. I just hope we don't have to reach our last resort to do so."

"We have seen him fight before. Manipulated him. Beaten him."

"It feels different. I don't feel like I have the same forces on my side this time."

"The ones from our dreams?"

"Yes. I've always felt like there was a bit of luck on my side. A bit of coincidence in my favor, even when I was a boy. Once I began talking to you, I felt something else on my side. A force for survival, something pushing me to grow and thrive and bring everything else with me. I'd felt that before, but it was emphasized. Now… I don't feel them as strongly. I only feel dread."

"You still have the most important thing you need on your side."

"Oh?"

"Me."

Dantes laughed and reached up to his shoulder to pat Jacopo on the back.

"That's true. I don't know what I was thinking." Dantes walked to the far end of the fighting pit and threw a final large seed onto it. He inhaled, feeling the entire city draw its breath with him, and exhaled. At that moment, all of the seeds he spread out sprouted and grew across the pit. A field of poisonous flowers, bushed barbed with thorns, and tangling vines spread all across it, and the largest seed grew into a tree in the shape of a throne. He walked toward it, and sat on it, sitting in the field of death he'd prepared for Gavain.