Stan ignored Elminster, who looked as serious as though he were facing a deadly enemy. He turned and beckoned to Livia and the others.
"Come along, children. I'll show you the Silver Tree."
As Livia passed Elminster, she lifted her skirt and gave him a graceful curtsy. The old wizard removed his hat and returned the courtesy.
Tawna passed him next and flashed him a carefree grin. Elminster responded with an equally enthusiastic smile.
Bordon bowed to Elminster, and the old wizard bowed back.
Zim rose onto his toes, puffed out his chest, and strutted sideways like a crab. He held his head high and gave Elminster the slightest nod. Anyone who did not know him might have mistaken him for the duke of some distant kingdom, given the magnificent confidence with which he greeted a legendary spellcaster.
The old wizard narrowed his eyes and cleared his throat.
"Simon Aumar, come here."
A certain great-great-grandson hiding behind Zim cautiously poked his head out and offered an awkward smile.
"Ah, good day. Great-great-grandfather, sir. How have you been?"
Elminster bristled. "Why are you hiding from me?"
Simon almost tried to talk his way out of it with some smartass excuse, but ultimately scratched the back of his head and lowered it, revealing the bald patch where the unicorn had bitten away his hair.
"I... I know I'm not a worthy Aumar. I'm sorry."
"You think I'm disappointed in you? How do you make a living?"
Simon looked as miserable as a dog left out in the rain.
"I work with thieves. We steal things and rob people..."
Elminster affectionately patted him on the shoulder and smiled.
"Not bad."
"What?"
"Did you not know that I was once a thief and a bandit myself?" The old wizard smiled. "Simon, arcane blood flows through your veins. You were born to command magic. Never doubt yourself."
Elminster walked beside Simon and quietly followed Stan and the others.
Stan led the group toward the Silver Tree. The spatial geometry of the mountaintop was unusual. The closer they came to the Silver Tree, the more extensively the surrounding space had been stretched. From a distance, the tree had appeared barely taller than a person. Now that they were close, they discovered that it stood fifty feet tall, and four adults would have been needed to encircle its trunk with their arms.
Bordon remarked that the tree was even taller than the walls of the duke's castle.
The Silver Tree looked ancient, like old silver blackened by oxidation. Its bark was rough and densely fissured like shattered glass, while its trunk rose perfectly straight like the pillar of a tower. When they looked up into its crown, they saw several hundred pure white Candle Flames scattered sparsely among the branches reaching toward the sky.
A ring-shaped lake surrounded the tree. Across the water, on the island at its center, an ancient two-legged dragon lay coiled beneath the canopy. Its serpentine body curved around the Silver Tree as though cradling it in an embrace. Its enormous amber eyes were fixed upon the pilgrims who had come to pay homage to the divine tree.
Stan called across the lake, "Open a path for us!"
The dragon raised its long neck, revealing the doorway in the trunk that had been hidden behind its head.
Its massive, majestic head lowered toward the lake, and it spoke three solemn words in the Dragon Tongue.
"Fo Krah Diin! [Frost Breath]!"
A cone of frigid blue air swept from its jaws, freezing a fan-shaped road across the mirror-still surface of the lake.
Elminster narrowed his eyes. He could tell that a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water lay beneath the lake. Its flowing waters were clear and vibrant with life, unlike anything that could easily be found in the natural environments of the Material Plane.
The dragon was equally strange. It was neither chromatic nor metallic, and the power it had just used was unlike any magic he had ever witnessed.
Skylrael was enveloped in the radiance of the Candle Flames, creating a veil that the gods could not see through. They therefore needed to send representatives here to serve as their intermediaries.
The old wizard nodded thoughtfully, seemingly responding to a voice no one else could hear. He then turned his gaze toward the Silver Tree's reflection upon the lake, and his expression grew increasingly grave.
Stan stepped onto the frozen path and sighed contentedly.
"Now this finally feels a little like winter."
The dragon's imposing presence was terrifying enough to chill everyone to the marrow. It felt like far more than a little winter. They might as well have been standing naked in a blizzard.
Livia remained silent and listened closely as Stan continued.
"In a moment, each of you will be allowed to place one of your Candle Flames upon the Silver Tree. In return, the tree will grant each of you a 5th-level Memory Stone as a newcomer benefit. Once you want additional Memory Stones, you'll have to submit an application and exchange Candle Flames for them."
"What is a Memory Stone?" Tawna asked.
Although she was terrified of the dragon, her curiosity remained stronger than her fear. Everyone silently thanked her for asking the question on their behalf.
"A Memory Stone is essentially a spell slot. Anywhere reached by the Silver Tree's roots, Memory Stones can be used in place of spell slots. On the Material Plane, Skylrael is currently the only location covered by the root network. However, some roots have already reached other planes and even other universes. Once the multiversal network is complete, all of you will be able to travel to other worlds and seek adventures there."
Elminster's ears practically stood on end as he listened to every word.
Stan, however, offered no further explanation.
At the crucial moment, Tawna once again asked what everyone else wanted to know.
"Why can Memory Stones replace spell slots anywhere the Silver Tree's roots reach?"
"Because the Silver Tree's roots form a Weave of their own."
"What?!" Elminster's shout was louder than everyone else's combined.
Stan glanced back at him.
"Midnight sent you, didn't she? Did she not tell you the truth?"
Elminster's face became solemn. The situation had deviated repeatedly from everything he had expected.
The old wizard closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. In a single fleeting instant, he saw the Silver Tree's smooth, radiant root system. It spread beneath the skin of the surface world like a vast network of nerves and blood vessels.
The Weave and the silver roots existed side by side. Within Skylrael, however, the Weave was much fainter than it was elsewhere. This was not as extreme as a dead-magic zone, but magical effects had still been weakened considerably.
Both systems drew upon the same source of raw magical energy. The Silver Tree's roots and the Weave were like two wells connected to the same underground aquifer. If one well possessed a more powerful pump and drew a greater volume of water, the other would inevitably begin to run dry.
No wonder the goddess of magic had been so eager to send him here to investigate.
The other apprentices had no understanding of the seriousness of the situation. They simply approached the Silver Tree and followed the instructions they had been given, drawing the Candle Flames from between their brows and pressing them against the trunk.
The Candle Flames climbed upward through the channels within the tree.
The ground trembled, and slender roots of shining silver emerged from the earth. They resembled pale, delicate arms, each clutching a black ring-shaped crystal.
These were the Memory Stones.
Simon's Candle Flames were stored within his contract parchment, which meant he could not offer them voluntarily. Like his great-great-grandfather, he could only watch enviously while everyone else received the Silver Tree's gifts.
The contract parchment functioned much like The Wizard's Practical Guide. Both were connected to the central brain within the Tower of Tomes. The parchment could extract Lights Inside the Skull from its contractor, while also serving as an exchange catalog that displayed the prices of various spellbooks and magical items.
Memory Stones were listed in the catalog as well.
A 1st-level Memory Stone cost twenty Candle Flames. Anyone who was not a member of the Tower could exchange for no more than three, and Memory Stones of 3rd level or higher were unavailable to outsiders.
A 5th-level Memory Stone cost three hundred and ninety-nine Candle Flames.
Simon's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
What a rip-off!
Watching each of his companions receive such a valuable Memory Stone left Simon burning with envy.
He hurriedly asked Stan, "What kind of test do I need to pass to join the Tower?"
"Just have one of your friends bring you into the dream. I don't know the exact details." Stan shrugged. He was not a member of the Tower of Tomes himself.
"Mr. Stan, where does that door in the trunk lead?" Tawna finally asked the question she had been holding back.
Everyone looked toward the narrow rectangular doorway embedded in the tree. It resembled a jeweled mirror set within a silver frame, reflecting the surrounding scenery with perfect clarity. It looked as though a section of the trunk had simply been hollowed out.
The dragon stood guard over that door.
Stan planted his hands on his hips and spoke with a note of nostalgia.
"Beyond that door is the Stone Platform, the place where Skyl forged the Elden Ring."
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