The people of Hawthgrove said that the meditation springs rested in a natural Nexus, a place where the magical energy of the Ether naturally pooled and infused the physical world to such an extreme, that even a regular person with no inherent magic could come and feel the power in its waters.

            Looking at it now, Kevza could absolutely believe it.

            The horseshoe-shaped springs were beautiful, fed by the tumbling waters from a wellspring overhead in several small, riveting waterfalls, with shallow, ankle-deep pools layered one over the other, leading up and inward, each tumbling one into the next. There, in the center of the grand springs, Kevza could see a small rise- a taller pool with deeper waters, hollowed out and filled with the force of the main waterfall.

            Like the many beautiful plants of the strange forest, the water too seemed to glow, lighting the creamy stone base with a soft pale blue light, its refractions dancing along the mossy rock shores in lines of white.

            “This place…” Nidi said softly. “It’s beautiful, but… strange.”

            “I feel it too,” Kevza agreed quietly. “Something is here that shouldn’t be.”

            “Master Fairgreene was likely right to worry then,” Danae chimed in, calmly drawing her sword. “It will be strongest here.”

            They moved along the shore, coming around the slight turn in the rocks before stopping short. The far side of the pools were totally opposite of what they had just seen; littered with broken branches and leaves, the glowing waters made murky by mud and silt dragged in by lengths of vines. At once, Kevza felt his heart begin to pound as they continued.

            Something glittered in the water, and he cautiously stepped in, the cool liquid rapidly sinking into the edges of his pants as he reached down, retrieving the silver bracer. On its face rested the crest of Hawthgrove, the leather backing blanched and peeling from exposure.

            “A guardsman was here,” he said, holding it up. “Let’s see if we can find anything else.”

            The sloshing of the water felt unbearably loud to Kevza as he waded through the shallower pools, following the tug of his magic into the bright light of the waterfall. Something rested there, on the edges of his perceptions, tickling his mind like a thought just out of reach.

            Suddenly, a loud cracking sound made him jump, turning back to the shore where Noa was cursing under his breath and struggling to get up out of the bush he’d tripped into.

            “Lord and Lady,” Kevza heard Xavi mutter as he helped the young man up. “Be careful. You scared the daylights out of me.”

            Whatever response Noa might have had, it was lost in the echoing sounds of a great resounding rumble, and Kevza looked down to see the water sinking down his legs, flowing away.

            Flowing up the current.

            “Well, that can’t be good,” he said dully, watching the water surge up towards the center pool, dragging bits of broken wood and debris along with it. It took only a moment before the creature took shape, and Kevza froze for a moment.

            It was known that repeated exposure to the Ether had changed things in Hawthgrove Forest, making things grow beyond proportion and gain all manner of strange abilities, but in all his years, Kevza had never seen a mutation quite like this one.

            The water dryad rose from the waterfall’s basin, the usually slight form of her kind’s upper body traded for a length of no less than fifteen feet from where it broke the surface, the water bringing the broken wood and plant life together to craft her form.

            “No wonder no one could find her,” Kevza thought to himself as he looked on in awe. “She’s been hiding in the very water itself!”

            In addition to her large stature, the usual docile look of the dryads was changed to a ferocious snarl, her great wooden hands like claws where they gripped onto the lip of the pool, pulling her up from the water’s surface. The vines hung around her face, their dark leaves limp where they dangled under her pronged wooden crown, dark streaks from the leaves painting her fair skin.

            With a voice that thundered like the waterfalls all around them, she shrieked, and Kevza had to cover his ears at the piercing sound, sloshing back in the water.

            The angered nature spirit wasted no time, lashing out with her large hand, swiping through the water, and forcing the arcanist onto his back, only missing Kevza’s legs in the wave by a few scant inches, the wood gouging the weaker edges of the pool’s drop off.

            “Be ready!” Danae called over the sounds of cascading water. “We can’t afford any mistakes here!”

            Kevza rolled off the edge of one pool, dropping down a level and shifting back up onto his feet, taking a steadying breath and drawing the blade at his waist. Danae was right- they were at a disadvantage here, even with Natavali and his students. They were facing a massive water spirit in the midst of a water Nexus; they’d likely be fighting uphill the whole time. For a moment, he couldn’t help but curse the fact that he wasn’t as skilled with water manipulation as he was with other forms of magic.

            The only thing Kevza could think to rely on was that the spirit was still new to this form if the reports were anything to go by. If it hadn’t had the chance to expound on its own abilities, maybe they could get through this without too much damage.

            With a whirl, he pushed his magic through the metal of his and Danae’s blades. If this was a beast of water and wood, Kevza could always bring the opposing element into the mix to help even their playing field, fire lapping along their weapons’ edges.

            The first of Pasha’s arrows flew just past his head, burrowing into the wooden joint of one arm, the thick green paste packed into its shaft splattering on impact, hissing where it met the grain. The dryad shrieked again, clawed hands ripping up a chunk of stone and throwing it at the archer. As the dryad lifted her arm, Kevza’s gaze was drawn to her exposed torso, where something dark churned under the surface of her watery skin, pulsing.

            In the warped, unnatural composition of her body, it had to be as close to a heart as they would find. Pasha’s arrows would do no good in the literal body of water, so Kevza couldn’t help but risk rushing in with Danae at his side, the red-hot metal of their blades cutting through, steam rising in their midst for only a second.

            Kevza kept moving, diving through the vaporous gap they’d created before new water surged up to fill the space, landing on the far side, where the waterfall thundered against his shoulders and the bravest of plants still stubbornly clung to the wet stones. But the new position gave him a daring idea.

            With a breath, Kevza reached out with his magic. He may not have been adept at manipulating water, but manipulating plants was a small matter, especially something that was hardy enough to withstand the waterfall’s might.

            At his command, they began to move from above, stretching down and out over the water to grab hold of the dryad’s arm, dragging it back to the stones and writhing over it, tying it down. At once, lines of white began to bloom along the wood and up into the currents of the arm, until it broke apart with a shattering crack, and Kevza looked over to see lines of incantations falling from Kata and Baru’s lips, strings of silver frost churning in the water around them.

            Fire came next, Nenaat rushing by with it blazing over her hands, Noa and Nidi close behind with elemental flasks, charring anywhere they could reach without being swiped by the remaining hand and turning water to vapor inside the ice well Kata and Baru had formed.

            Altogether, a solid strike, but the fight wasn’t quite over yet.

            With an anguished cry, the dryad thrashed, her wooden limbs smattered with black char and acid green, creaking under the strain as they lost their elasticity. Her expression blazed with rage. The water dryad let out another bone-rattling scream, smashing her hand down in the pools and sending a wave from the small remainder of the free running water.

            Before the limb could lift, threads of white cracked over the surface, the ice cementing it to the bottom of the pool, and in a flurry of black, Kevza watched as Natavali rushed in, a golden light weaving through his fingertips.

            The light of his magic swelled, bursting bright and warm over them as the dryad screamed, the currents in her form frothing before the onslaught until the tension cracked, and she collapsed in a cascade of water and wood with a broken cry.

            “Is… is it over?” Noa asked softly as the waters slowly calmed.

            “It is,” Natavali confirmed, bending down to retrieve something from the water. “This was likely the cause.”

            He turned, and in his hand, he held a dark, twisted mass of stone that pulsed slightly.

            “Here,” Danae said, pulling out a container. “We don’t know what effect it might have on you.”

            “It shouldn’t do anything to him,” Kevza said, slicking his wet hair out of his face. “He’s a Magus. It would have to be something powerful to affect him without permission.”

            “Really?” Nidi asked from the bank, where Xavi was bandaging a wound on his leg.

            “Mastering a connection to the Ether is a keystone requirement for becoming a Magus,” Baru said proudly. “It’s why the Coven sends us on these trips to learn. And Master is one of the best!”

            “That’s enough,” Natavali said, wrapping the shard in a dark cloth and tucking it into the container, and handing it back. “You take this. The Guild will have more use for it. We need to find the other merchants and get back to let the Guild Master know it’s been handled.”

            “Master,” Nenaat called, pointing into the woods. “It looks like a group of people went this way.”