We walked toward the gracknel to meet with its tenders. It was larger than I'd realized, so large when we were close, the air shimmering around it ask it played. We passed through a forest as we went, and it seemed carefully tended, without broken twigs or leaf litter on them. There were roots around boulders above ground. Then we saw a gracknel root, which looked like there were flute rootlets growing off the main roots. As we got closer, following a stone path, there were odd spheres growing off the sides of some large roots, with spirals around them. Sometimes there were arches of roots above us. When we were underneath, there was a rushing sort of sound, rather like water rushing. The rest of the forest had faded away. There were small kafke houses here, grown out of the gracknel.
We paused as Marguerite cast a blessing on Eevolertu, and Ofeshia looked at the magic, telling us that it was permanent magic, and there were broken frames floating around us, rather than dissolving.
Thalkalor was by the gap that was the entrance. There was a child near one of the houses, then it leapt down to head towards us. It had a huge mane of yellow-green hair, but was very young still. An adult followed, a cobalt one in light clothes, likely the child's mother. She was calling it Naan, and she retrieved her daughter before she got to us. The mother introduced herself as Swenlanee, and introduced her daughter Naan, who'd started nursing. She's the overseer of the roots, and a shaper here, of the homes. She seemed momentarily blank when seeing Chloe, then welcomed her.
Thalkalor came meandering over; he seemed in a very mellow mental state, though in his armor. Swenlanee said that Thalkalor could take us in to meet with the keepers, and warned us that they were amenable to people looking at the magic of the gracknel, but not using it. She also said that there used to be a town here, and that the gracknel used to have another purpose as well, now lost, though something to do with the pods, that are filled, and could be detached, though not openable, at least by those here. There have been explosions in the valley, that might have been these pods. They think that they used to have been sent to be part of other machines elsewhere. Outside the valley there's a place they call the valley of eggs, where they stack all the ripe ones there.
Chloe mentioned there being an Ovahon here. Thatkalor said that he was also a keeper. Thalkalor mentioned he'd been lost in his thoughts, that that happens a lot, like being in the All-Wood.
We went inside, a big space among the roots, with warm air blowing. Near where we went in, there were two nodes, these ripe and deep green, with spirals and three connection points, being readied to take to the valley of eggs. All around there are rooty balconies and paths, a weave of spaces. There were shiny metallic extensions with water dripping. There was a hum, that seemed to warm me inside. Chloe started to sing with the sound, and kept on and on. She didn't respond to anyone saying her name, so I went over and touched her on the shoulder, and she finally came out of it. She was surprised she'd been singing for long at all.
Thalkalor said that the keepers were working, so we'd have to go to them. We walked across the middle of the space, which looked like a starburst of pipes from the center, where they came out of what's below, a narrow space filled with water.
We continued on, and the roots we walked along had tread to help us stay on, despite the dampness. There were odd things around, with platforms, and holes, and an odd hand-thing, and pipes, and flowers. We saw Elix holding the extending hands, turning them somehow, or talking, or touching flowers. They were talking what seemed to be archaic Elixen. As we got higher, it was harder to navigate, narrower parts to walk along, not enough room to pass, and so on. It turns out that these are assistant keepers; Thalkalor was taking us to a head keeper; the group is stuctured more like a guild than a council.
There were guards around, and I asked whether they were needed. He said that they were, that there were times they needed them. Not the awful birds he'd told me about, but something else.
We saw an extremely tall elix, over 6 ft tall, with foot-long ears, in mottled yellow fur, a darker mane with gold streaks. Long colorful kelp-cloth vest. Only the most ancient elix are usually this tall, perhaps thousands of years old, though this was far after the time of the gracknel builders. She has some wand-roots. She has one hand on a hand extension, and in the other, a wooden root pressed up against a big root, and it seemed to be soft, the wand being put into the root, somehow. She seemed to be focusing on her task. She was saying words from different languages, that didn't seem to go together. She pulls the wand away, then there are ripples acros the surface, then it solidified. She moved her wrists around, then started walking away.
Thalkalor called her name, Arthentus, and slowly she came back to herself and acknowledged us.
My roots don't touch that far, she said at that point, and she seemed to realize that we weren't keepers, so she asked what we were doing here. There were orange and green glows, but we'd never seen a source of light. She asked a second time if there was a problem with the gracknel. She seemed to think that nothing was the matter with the gracknel, so there was no problem.
She has spoken to all the roots, heard all the song, and other than some slightly different temperatures, everything was fine. Once Ofeshia asked, she acknowledged that there was unusual weather, though it wasn't her area of speciality.
Ofeshia asked if Arthentus had been outside the gracknel recently. She thought she had, but Thalkalor said it was at least a season ago. Ofeshia suggested she come out to talk to us, and that was disturbing to Arthentus, who said she had much to do to keep order.
She also was a bit affronted when Marguerite asked to greet the gracknel, saying that the gracknel chose its keepers.
She suggested that Monturan (though she got the name wrong) would be able to help us.
Ofeshia asked something else that didn't work.
Thalkalor gestured us away as Arthentus went off to do her work, to bring us to Monturan.
As we were walking, Ofeshia warned us not to touch the tree. She said the tree had looked at her, like prey.
It took a while to find Monturan, skyblue fur, yellow eyes, wearing a vest and pants, with some wands, and an iron bar. He seemed to be directing some others in what they should do. He seemed surprised that we were visiting, in the winter, when no one travels. Our group started to broach our mission. It did not go well. keeping things calm is important. chloe mentioned the ovahon, and it took a moment for him to.... remember..... the ovahon. Things didn't go well about the shrine. Thalkalor had gone, so he agreed to be our guide down to see the ovahon.