Many conflicting thoughts swirled through their minds when the group got back, an exhausted Gerel being supported between Kera and Beveri. He hadn't been able to transform back to human, due to the fact that he was in shock. Aelwen trailed behind him, her ears flicked back in concern.

This is unbelievable. How in the world is it possible for Cainen to have possessed him? Can his spirit really be channeled through the golden scales? Delku subdued him for now, but can he come back into Gerel later? God, I only wish I knew...

The encampment was still buzzing with activity in the early evening. Beveri whispered something to Delku and he nodded. Shifting to human form, he clambered onto Beveri's back and raised his hands to the sky. A transparent dome of energy surrounded the group. Kera signaled Aelwen to follow closely behind, whispering that it was an invisibility spell.

Aelwen nodded, and followed the group through the encampment on quiet paws, avoiding groups of people . The invisibility dome followed them, likely because Delku was a more powerful spell caster than Gerel.

After entering the archive tent, Gerel was set gingerly down onto his parent's bed. Delku let the dome disintegrate.

"What are we going to do?" Aelwen whispered. "Can he be possessed again?"

Kera paced the tent in a furious fashion, her paws stomping down on the rug beneath. She cursed under her breath over and over.

"Right now, all we can do is ask Auria for guidance. A serious session of consultation is needed." Delku stated.

Beveri stroked Gerel's head gently, cooing soft words of comfort. She turned her head to Aelwen, eyes blinking slowly. "Please go and rest now, Aelwen. You still have lessons in the morning."

"Lessons? Isn't that the least of our worries right now?" Aelwen stopped herself from raising her voice. "I have to know if Gerel-"

"Aelwen. Please."

Aelwen realized that the family probably just wanted to be alone. She lowered her head, nodded and went out the exit, trotting into her own tent while Shifting back to human.

While her body was exhausted, her mind was swirling with panic and questions. This made it frustratingly difficult to go to sleep. The princess tossed and turned in bed, eventually just casting a small ball of light with magic and reading her books. She couldn't focus on the written words easily, having to force herself to.

The eerie silence was stifling once the late night moon lurked high in the sky. Aelwen tried to sleep again, hoping that the reading had helped her mind to relax. It was not so, and once again she shifted under her sheets in frustration.

A lone phoenix call beckoned from far off, likely originating deep in the woods. Aelwen listened intently as it drew closer. The welcoming, familiar chirps drew her up from her bed. She peeked out into the night from between red canvas flaps. The lone phoenix perched atop the archive tent, looking down at Aelwen as its chest feathers puffed up in preparation for another chirp. It spread its wings and dove downward, pulling up and hovering midair expectantly.

"Hello there," Aelwen whispered with a smile, following the now-moving phoenix on dew-laced toes.

Through the encampment she went, watching for the telltale glow of the phoenix to guide her way. Stars seemed to dim overhead as she passed. Quiet snores from dim tents mixed with cricket chirps and soft footsteps.

Leaving the boundaries of the settlement, Aelwen and the phoenix approached a garden of red and white flowers, their petals wrapped in tight buds as they waited for morning. As the bird flew over them, the bloomed beautifully, a trail of open flowers appearing.

The phoenix stopped before the center of the garden, and dispersed into a haze of ash and smoke. The grey dust floated into the shapes of complex swirls before conglomerating onto a point and flashing with a bright light. Aelwen covered her eyes, and felt herself suddenly go limp, her body crumpling down onto the bed of flowers below.

She was back in the realm of spirits, as she soon realized. Her fawn soul had fallen out of her tree, and she was back to laying before it, looking up at her bark-lined face peeking out from between willow-leaf hair.

Auria stood where the phoenix had been in the normal world, her deer form standing tall and elegant amidst the forest of souls. She nodded her head, beckoning Aelwen closer.

Aelwen obeyed, clambering over rocks and roots with tiny red hooves.

"Auria, please," she asked, "Gerel... what's happened to him?"

The Gardener looked behind Aelwen. Aelwen followed her gaze, making a small gasp as her eyes settling upon the tree beside hers. Confused, she realized she'd never noticed it before.

It was Gerel's tree. Curled up inside the back of it, where his dragon form was, lay a tiny silver fox, his sleeping body trembling. The ghostly form of a golden bear dug its claws deep within the dragon tree's wood, scraping against the fox's fur.

"In the realm of spirits, possession occurs when one spirit seeks to take control of the tree of another," Auria said softly. "Cainen had chosen Kotuya to be his vessel ever since his birth."

"How do we get him away from Gerel?" Aelwen asked, her eyes trained on the unresponsive bear.

"Unlike most possessions, Cainen only claimed Kotuya's dragon form. His grasp on the boy is firm. If I intervened directly, Kotuya would be killed."

"Please... there has to be something we can do," Aelwen pleaded, her ears flicking backwards.

The Gardener closed her eyes, gently pressing her nose against Aelwen's head.

"Your prayers and those of his family have been heard. I now offer a different solution."

Auira lowered her head. Pulling it back up, her horns tore through the air before her, resulting in a floating circular portal flickering ever so slightly in front of her. She stepped through it, Aelwen tentatively following.

They emerged in a different part of the forest. Here, a lone orange wolf stood before his tree. It was Delku. Aelwen was surprised to see that he was talking with another version of Auria. The two white deer looked at one another before walking into each other and becoming one.

"Who are you?" Delku asked, his ears flicking forward as he gazed at Aelwen.

The dark red deer perked her head up. "Aelwen."

"Ah, I see." Delku nodded.

Morphing into human form, Auria set her hands upon the grassy ground. Immediately, four small fissures appeared in the air before her. A different element poured from each, taking the forms of different animals as the did so. A fiery tiger came from one, frothing water in the shape of a wolf from the second, a horse of air from the third, and plant-covered rocks and dirt formed an elephant for the last.

Intrigued, Aelwen tilted her head.

"I do not work alone in the realms of my creation," Auria said. "Long ago, I wove four tribes of spirits from the elements I would then use to form the world. These Kana act as messengers and arms of my will in the mortal world. Each has been blessed with reservoirs of my power, which are diluted to prevent the Kana from being overloaded by it. If young Kotuya is exposed to all four of these, which are known as the Hearts of Kana, it will allow Cainen's grasp on him to be slowly chipped away."

"Where can we find the Hearts?" Delku asked.

"Ever since the fall of Kaleign's kingdom and the rise of Liriel, the Kana have grown distant from me, numb to my orders. They retreat away within pocket realities scattered throughout the kingdom." She turned toward Aelwen. "If you were to travel to the entrances to these pocket realities and meet with the Kana, you would not only be able to begin Gerel's journey to purification, but also recruit them in the fight against Kaleign. With the members of the former rebellion at your side, as well as the Kana, the Eveanor kingdom will soon be free from the dragon's control."

Delku muttered something under his breath as he rubbed his chin with a paw, mulling over the Gardener's words.

"So, when we go on our first journey to give the pegasus Riche his memories of the rebellion back, we can also meet with one of the tribes of Kana?" Aelwen inquired. A sense of hope was rising in her chest.

Auria nodded. Her opal-tinted white hair flowed elegantly through an intangible wind. "When you both awake back into the mortal world, make plans immediately. It is time to leave."

Delku was put back into his tree, while Aelwen was prompted back through the portal to hers. Before she clambered back up into her trunk, she gave a glance back at Auria.

"Is... is my mother still alive? Liriel?" she inquired softly, scared to find the answer.

The Gardener was silent. She touched a finger to the portal, which rippled for a moment before showing a different part of the woods. She and Aelwen stepped through it.

A tree in the shape of an elderly centaur stood before them. His bark face was lined with wrinkle-like cracks, his posture sagged and moss coat missing patches. A tiny lilac colored badger rested peacefully within his chest.

"What does this mean-" Aelwen started to say before a violent shiver traveled down her spine. A dark figure appeared before the centaur. Materializing out of the shadows, the figure took the form of a bony, almost flesh-less creature. It looked like it had the torso of a man mixed with a crow's head wielding a very long beak. Its legs were bird-like, with long, sharp talons. Black feathers lined its head and body in random places, while long ruffled wings hung limply from where its arms should have been. A rat-like tail extended from its backbone. Crows of various sizes perched on the creature in various places, mostly on the bony spikes protruding from its head.

Aelwen gaped in horror at the disgusting sight. Her body sidled up against Auria's leg.

One of the creature's wings outstretched to reveal a clawed hand on one of its joints. The hand's fingers snapped, its claws glowing a scarlet red. A chilling caw escaped the long beak. As if in response, the crows rose from their perches and flew in an ominous circle above the tree's head.

In a swift motion, the creature's hand was thrust into the centaur's heart. The tree immediately wilted, the life fading from it as green leaves and moss turned to brown. Cracks and fissures appeared all along its bark.

"Foran Leaferos. Age 93. Heart failure," the creature said in a low, deep voice. A crow grasping a piece of papyrus and a quill pen used its beak to write down what the creature had said.

"This is Death," Auria whispered. "It is an ancient, powerful Kana created just after life in the mortal world."

Aelwen blanched at the realization that the centaur before her had just died in the mortal world.

Death's long beak pierced the tree's chest in a sudden motion. It grasped at the badger spirit within, ripping it out of the tree like a paper from a book. The centaur's soul cried out in alarm before being hoisted to the heavens by the flock of crows, disappearing amongst the foliage.

"He was a follower of mine, and thus will be taken to live in paradise with the rest of his ancestors and friends." Auria brushed her hand against Aelwen's head. "He is at peace now."

Aelwen's throat went dry, words leaving her as she waited to see what would happen next.

Death moved to another target. It was a sphinx woman, the soul of a bright red lizard within her. She was covered in golden vines, their thorns pressing against her bark.

A gleaming ebony sword appearing within Death's grasp. Clicking his beak, he savagely cleaved the sphinx's head from her body. It landed with a sickening thump on the foliage below. The tree withered just as the previous had.

"Maranhotep Djutnom. Age 34. Decapitation by fellow Witch." Death's voice was a confusing mixture. It sounded neither male nor female.

Before Death's beak could pierce the tree's chest, the golden vines began to move on their own. Wrapping themselves around the sphinx's soul, they dragged it out of the tree and down to the ground below. With a final scream, Maranhotep was pulled below the surface.

"She was a witch. Claimed by Cainen. She resides with him now," Auria said darkly.

"...Is that what happened to Liriel?" Aelwen asked tentatively.

The portal appeared before them again. They stepped through it to behold a twisted, mangled mess of a tree. Its identity was unrecognizable to most people. Not for Aelwen.

"Mother-!" she cried in a broken scream.

The tree was covered in acid scars, the bark blackened and burned away in places. A gaping wound in her chest mirrored that of the one she had before death.

Aelwen struggled to not feel anything for the corpse of her cruel mother. She was brought to tears anyway, memories of the Queen's final moments flashing through her mind.

"So she is gone then..." Aelwen said. "I... must admit I am conflicted between feeling relief or sorrow."

Auria shook her head. "Her body had passed on, however..." she motioned to the golden vines wrapped around the mangled tree. "The vines remain. They never took her soul, yet the soul is missing."

Aelwen's heart skipped a beat. "What does that mean?"

"Cainen let her soul escape. She now wanders the mortal realm unhindered by physical boundaries."

Eyes widening, Aelwen looked up at the Gardener. "She's still in the mortal realm, but as a spirit? What could she-"

The world around Aelwen seemed to grow larger as her mind whirred, realizations hitting her like a hammer to the head.

"She wants... to possess me, doesn't she?"

Memories of the Great Witch Cerubia and her wicked lab played out in her thoughts. She wanted me human at any cost. She wanted me to stay in Ceruby City so she could find me, so she could take my body and use it as her own! She's ruled for so long, people don't trust her as much as they used to, is that it? She'll rule through me instead, which will get people to trust her. She'd be considered a martyr.

I'd be under her control for tens, maybe hundreds of years.

It would be worse than death.

Aelwen felt sick. She stumbled back, gasping. Auria closed her eyes, and suddenly the princess was back in her tree, branches closing in around her.

After awakening amidst the garden flowers with a start, Aelwen quickly got to her feet before falling to her knees. Overwhelmed, her tumultuous stomach heaved its contents onto the flowers below. She stayed like that for a few minutes, grasping at her head.

Delku found her soon after. She explained in broken words what she had discovered. He took the news in a stunned silence.

Helping her to her feet, Delku led her back to her tent, where the exhausted girl took part in an onslaught of terrible nightmares. All the while, through every dream, she could have sworn she heard her father cry out for her.