The previous conversation with Lord Drae, God of Knowledge and the Arcane, went as follows.  They would reconvene in a few day when a void storm was due to hit the area of Koschei Forest, this was the area where the walls of reality between this world, and other worlds was the weakest.  Sabishii did his research, this place was a place of lost souls.  A lot of people died here, including the World Tree of this continent, creating all sorts of dimensional anomallies when the tree fell.  Was that what happened in his old world?  Did the Word Tree collapse, causing the Gods to die, and the catastrophe to strike the land?  The old world was a shell of its former self, Sabishii saw it with own eyes, when he and Drae scryed that land.  But his love, the love of his life, Seraphia, was no longer there.  She was trapped in the void between worlds.  So he and Drae were going to use the opening left by a storm to draw her out from the void.

Sabishii was here, he had used a portal a friend opened up to arrive here in this ghostly forest.  The place was a swamp!  The trees were disfigured, having a vaguely humanoid appearance.  His boots were slogged down by the murky, muddy water.  There were the occasional wispy lights that floated by, as if they were the spirits of the lost.  Sabishii felt a strong wind blow through his brown and red hair.  Dark lightning flashed through the sky, and the occasional roar of thunder rolling across the land.  There was a storm brewing, and this storm was no ordinary one.  This was a void storm.  He felt a presence nearby, he figured it had to be Drae.  He turned to face him..

"Greetings, Lord Drae.  Thank you for coming.  I am eternally grateful for this.  Even if we fail, the attempt is highly appreciated.  If we succeed, you'll make me the happiest man in the world."  He smiled warmly at the God.

Drae wasn't really in the mood for warmth or kind greetings. His skin felt prickly and his mood was almost as volatile and potent as the Void Storm that swelled around them. Often times he made himself unavailable when Void Storms ravaged the land, either he would hide out in the Occulus to do deeper study of them, or he would conveniently go and visit Canelux so he would not feel the effect. The uncontrolled magic that came through unchecked from the hidden realm of the old lost Tree left him feeling like he was constantly being stalked by and nuzzled by a horde of unseen wolves. 

He gave Sabishii and tense smile as he trudged through the mud. "Forgive me if I do not share your mood of joviality," he said as he looked around the sodden and stinking blackness that was the swamps. "I have a rather strong dislike for this place, and not just from the standpoint of a God," he said, giving a short explanation. "It is an ugly reminder of what happens when things become corrupted," he said. "And an equally ugly reminder of what can happen when one is exercising an otherwise dormant smidgeon of nobility," he added with a bit of a scoff.  He motioned for Sabishii to follow him  and they trudged deeper into the thick murky darkness. Wisps and other vapors floated past them and the whispers of the horrified past whispered in their ears as they pressed on deeper. 

"Not the place I would have liked to do something as this, but here we are," Drae said as they reached the deepest darkest part of the swamps, where the decomposing remains of a once massive tree lay broken and growing the dark grey-green moss. "There are things that lurk here that I will need you to fend off should it come to it. If I am distracted, things could go awry far too quickly for me to control…"

Sabishii greeted Drae with warmth and friendly greetings, but it seemed the place they were, and the approaching voidstorm left him in a bad mood.  He thought back about what he learned about this place.  There was a world tree that fell here, and world trees empower the Gods, so Gods must be weaker here on this continent?  Why were there once two world trees?  Or did one die and another one take it's place?  There were questions he had, but he wasn't sure whether to ask them.  He did not want to pester Lord Drae, who was doing him the biggest of favors, with questions that would annoy him.

"I see, if the World Tree that was here died, we're lucky this world is still fine.  In that other world I was in, the World Tree died, the Gods fell, very quickly.  The ground shook, hellfire and brimstone from the sky.  it was terrible, like the world was coming to an end.  We were lucky to escape, I'm glad Revaliir is fine, though."

He followed Drae through the murky swamp, Sabishiii pushing away branches of trees that would otherwise hit him.  The energy in the air was palpable, manifesting in wisps and other mysterious entities and phenomenon that floated past them.  They arrived at what once was a massive, ancient tree, now fallen and covered in moss.  More weird lightning streaked across the dark sky.  Drae warned him that other beings, presumably monsters, lurked here, that could interrupt the ritual, Sabishii would have to fend them off if it came to it.

"Right, I got my good, old fashioned steel blade here.  I don't suppose magic will work with the void storm around?  From what I remember, void storms cause regular, mortal  magic not to work?"  The Phoenix Knight questioned, making sure that if something attacked, he wouldn't be caught trying to magick something, just to find out at the wrong moment that it won't work.

"Revaliir once had two sister Trees, one for each continent," Drae explained. "Somehow, though we aren't certain how exactly, the Parvpora Tree became corrupted, and through it the deities it called became corrupt," he said. "The people of Parvpora rose up against the gods and the Tree itself, and in its corrupt arrogance, it actually allowed them into the pocket dimension where it resided. What it didn't anticipate was the people of Parvpora actually pulling it down, and destroying it. But it came at a terrible price. This was the place where it fell, and the twisted faces and bodies you see in the trees, are those poor souls who stood against the tree, cursed by the tree in its last moments to die a very tormented and twisted death…" Drae said softly. "Parvpora has not been the same, and the Gods that do come here or choose to make their realms here face a lack of power outside their immediate domain," he explained as they pushed deep. "Which is why these specific parameters had to be met. This place, this time…" he said as they reached the still partially decayed, partially petrified trunk. 

"I trust you to keep us safe then," Drae said. "But that is a common misconception," he said when the topic of the Void Storm came up. "Void Storms are far more complicated that just a sweeping dead zone like Angela described of your old world. Think of it more like a magical tsunami of sorts," the warlock said as he lifted his hands and placed it on the hardened, yet oozing surface of the tree. "Every so often, this pocket dimension shudders, or basically has an earthquake within in it. The resulting shock pulls the mana from the the natural ley lines in the earth, much like how the tide recedes from the beaches after an earthquake. This pocket dimension pulls all the magical energy back into it, and when it when it finally builds up to capacity, it releases this massive wave of mana back into the world unchecked, and it can have incredibly dangerous effects depending on how long it lasts, and any magic being used within the affected zone can have nasty consequences by way of backfiring or unexpected results."

Drae took a deep breath. "This has been a relatively short storm so to speak. The last tremor was just the day before you came to me, and it was not a large one. While this build up of mana from the ley lines could still have gone on for a couple more days, what you and I are going to do here is interrupt it, and use the influx of magic back into the world to pull Seraphia back through the Void."

The Keeper looked at Sabishii and his eyes flashed. "Whatever you do, DO NOT use any magic."

He took a deep breath and turned back to the giant tree he had his palms pressed against. His silver eyes closed and he quietly began muttering an incantation. Almost immediately, the magical oppression in the air intensified, crushing down upon the pair. Drae strained against it and pulled the magic into him, and he began to glow an ethereal blue.  

Sabishii listened as Drae explained the story behind this area, and the two World Trees, one for each continent, how one became corrupted, along with the Gods it empowered.  The people pulled down the tree, and when the tree fell, the people were cursed, turned into twisted trees.  The Gods that choose to reside on this continent lack power outside their realm.

"I see.  That makes sense.  To think Gods and a World Tree could so corrupt that the people would rise against them.  Like a power-mad King who rules over a people who revolt against him, calling for his head."  Sabishii saw Kings fall, revolts, Gods rise and fall.  World Trees under assault, but he never saw a World Tree die for good.  But he saw close to that.  He looked at one of the trees, and he saw the resemblance to an actual person's face in the tree.  Most of these trees could have been actual people, who were punished by a corrupt World Tree they sought to destroy.  He shuddered and shook his head.

"You can trust me to keep us safe, indeed."   Drae explained the voidstorms being less of a place where magic didn't work, and more of a place where there is so much magic, that it did not work as it normally did, becoming prone to backfire.  "So a small flame summoned in the palm of your hand, could result in an explosion that blows off your arm?  Yikes!  Truly this is dangerous stuff.  And we're about to mess with it?  That's what separates Gods from mortals.  I'll trust you not to destroy everything within a mile, as long as you can trust me to defend us against any attackers who dare to interfere with the ritual."

Drae warned Sabishii of one more thing, not to use ANY magic.

"Got it.  No magic.  That's what steel's for.  Forged this long blade myself.  My strength, mettle, and metal will be enough against anything summoned by this storm and the ritual."  Sabishii gave a wry grin.

The pressure of magic in the air intensified immediately as he started the ritual.  The Phoenix Knight felt as if he had suddenly had the weight of an entire ocean pressing down on him.  By the Eternal Flame!  This is intense!  Lady Angela give me strength!  He felt strengthened somewhat, by the silent prayer.  Maybe she could hear him.  Or maybe it was just the comfort.

"I'll make sure NOTHING interrupts the ritual.  Just don't stop no matter what!"

"I'm the God of Magic. If anyone understands its flow now and can do this at all, it's me," Drae reassured Sabishii. "Of course, that doesn't mean it won't be any less dangerous," he added flatly. "Keep your guard up."

Drae heard Sabishii speaking, but he wasn't paying too much attention at that point. He was concentrating hard on what he was doing. If Sabishii thought the pressure of the magic that beat down upon them as the ritual started, Drae wanted to tell him it was nothing compared to the floodgate he was literally blocking physically in that moment. As he began to glow, the tree beneath his hands began to shimmer, like the ripples on a still pond, emanating from beneath his palms. He continued chanting and the rippling intensified before a perfect circle opened up beneath his hands, and the world around it seemed to be crashing downward into that very hole. 

Suddenly Drae appeared very different. He looked wizened, even old, his hair going from the raven black to near stark white as he braced himself with one hand on the edge of the dimensional hole and reached inside with the other. The inside of the hole looked like an eternal expanse of the night sky, glittering with stars. 

"Seraphia! Take my hand!" Drae commanded, his voice a booming echo around him as he began to grow brighter and brighter. 

Time ran differently. Everything felt strange. She could not remember how long she had run or if everything occurred in a split second. There was a haziness to her mind but the voice shined through the pure silence. She did not recognize the voice as one she knew, but it knew her hand. The woman always had an issue with not being fearful. Others would have probably hesitated at the strange voice breaking the silence. She had lost all faith of every finding a way out of the strange void, so if this was a chance she could finally get out she would easily take her. Her hand reached out gripping the hand of the others roughly. She would not make it easy for someone to lose her now that there was a chance that everything could be different.

The darkness in front of her eyes was met with strange swirls of colors but she let the strangers hand pull her from the void. She could feel her body being pulled through a portal. It was the same feeling that she had felt when she had first fallen through a portal on accident. She probably could never exactly explain what had occurred on that faithful day but her eyes burned as she finally saw the light of day once again. She could only hope that the light she was seeing was not something worse than the strange abyss between portal that she once been in.

The lights that she saw were not the light of day, for Koschei Forest never saw sunlight. Drae was the light she saw at the end of the tunnel as he pulled her through the tunnel, shining a near white now with the sheer energy he drew from the pocket dimension of the old world tree. His hand upon hers as he pulled her through was rough and strong, and once she had crossed the threshold into the less than fresh air of the swamp, he released her. 

"Sabishii! Grab her! I need to close this door!" he called over the roar of the magical energy that surrounded the three of them. He closed his eyes and again pressed both hands over the portal. He grunted with effort to remain standing against the overwhelming pressure. His voice carried strained but strong over the hurricane of energy around them and slowly the glowing ring that was the gap into the void shrank. As the portal shrank, the light that encased the Keeper diminished as well. The strain visibly aged him, grey streaks crawling through his hair at an alarming rate. He appeared almost sixty years older now, and the aging continued. His hair was practically white and his frame frail and shrunken as the gate finally closed and the storm around them quieted almost suddenly.

He fell backward into the mud, panting heavily, staring up into the blackness that was the roof of the swamp. The aging slowly reversed as tiny sparks of blue energy crackled back across his skin rejuvenating him. He looked back from his spot in the mud at Sabishii and the woman they had pulled from the void. 

"I sure hope… that you don't have anyone else you want to pull through… because that was unpleasant," he panted with a chuckle before he pushed himself up with a groan. "I really really hope that I never have to mess with a Void Storm ever again. that's more power than ANY deity can handle," he said as he staggered to his feet. "And that Void Storm was only a small one…"

Sabishii kept on the lookout for any enemies that might be summoned by the rift.  Fortunately, he didn't see anything being summoned or drawn by the massive amount of magic being given off.  He turned toward Lord Drae who suddenly looked about 60 years older or more.  Was this draining his life force doing this?  The God called out to him over the deafening sound of thunder and magic.  Sabisihi rushed over, sheathing his sword.  He saw her womanly body, clad in the same clothing he remembered seeing her in last, a black top and leather pants.  She was falling to the ground.  Sabishii caught her before she could hit the ground.

"Sera!  Seraphia!  Are you all right?"  He held her cold body close to him and gently lowered her to the ground, wrapping her in his cloak.  Maybe she was lacking energy and strength from being cut off from the world all this time.  "Baby!  It's me!  It's Sabi!  Everything's going to be all right, you're safe now."  He heard Lord Drae joking about not summoning anyone else out of the void again.  "Are you all right?  I saw you age, for anyone, that'd be rough, if the strain was that bad for a God, It'd kill a mortal.  Thank you, Lord Drae."  He brought his attention back to Seraphia, rubbing her shoulders to get some warmth back into her body.  "Babe, please be okay."  He gazed upon her with the same kind sapphire eyes he always had, the same rugged, handsome face she would remember.

Everything felt like an unsettled blur. The feeling of the stranger's hand in her own, jerking her from the abyss and straight into a world of light. Her eyes flickered and narrowed at the brightness around her. She could hear the voices around her but she could not completely understand anything that was actually being said. Her head thundered as she let her feet finally touch the actual ground. She was met with her boot sinking into a messy ground causing her to lose her footing as she fell into the next person arms. She could make out voices calling out her name again and a small groan escaped her lips.

”Too much talking…” The grumble came out slowly and her hand softly hit at the body that was clinging to her. She needed a moment to breath and currently felt like the world was swirling around her. She let in a large breath and let it out as her hand came up to clutch her head. ”You never did know when you be quiet for a moment.” She muttered with a laugh as finally her eyes began to actually focus on the worlds around her. The brightness of the world began to fade away as her mind took to focus on the world around her. It all began to feel normal. It also began to feel far bleaker.

”My Deities, what hell hole did you bring me to, Sabishii?” Dark sapphire eyes blinked a couple times as she began to look around the area. She had already taken to completely ignoring the overly worried Sabishii. It was nothing new to her to have him feverishly worrying over her for no reason and at least this time there was a solid reason. They appeared to be in some swamp covered in trees with very descriptive faces. It was almost as if the trees were actually people. She instantly did not like this place.

Her gaze drifted around a little more before finally looking up to meet Sabishii’s. “If I am alive, you choose the worst place every for us reuniting.” There were the same rough grumbles that escaped her lips but the grin was hard to miss as finally wrapped her arms around his waist. “What took you so long?” After finally taking notice to the world around her and Sab, she was reminded that it had not been his hand or voice that had brought her into this world. She had already taken ideas that this was not the same place she remembered. They were not home anymore.

Her eyes darted around until she finally noticed another man resting in the mud not far from them. This had to be the man that she had heard. Her head tilted a little as she tried to see if she could place the face, but it took her nowhere. ”And, who in the hells are you? I am guessing this is your doing?” She was just as sweet as ever. It was probably what a stranger was expecting for the wife of Sabishii Kouen. They made it work because they were very different because everyone needed the ying to their yang.