Downtown Druid

The druids all sat in a circle in the audience chamber with their eyes closed. The other druids and their companions wove their senses together and tethered themselves to Dantes, entangling with his own perceptions like vines wrapping around a tree as they reached toward the sun. The sensation was deeply uncomfortable for Dantes. His mind and his senses were his own, and he didn’t much enjoy sharing either of them. Still, he forced himself to be open, slowly peeling back the fingers he had clutched around his mind one by one so that they could all access it.

Each of the druids had a different kind of touch to them when they reached his mind. Traizen’s mind was sharp and cold, very different from his warm personality. Murk’s mind felt legion, as if it was always considering the needs of a pack rather than just himself. Mor-Gan-May’s was the most delicate, but tipped with danger, like a talon being gently drawn across bare skin. Lorna’s was wet, hot, and harsh, like a rough kiss in a drunken night of passion. Fizz’s was many things at once, a tentacle, a tooth, a hand, a snout, it was everything it could be. The twin’s felt like a warm breeze blowing through an alley. Coal was like touching a rough stone that had been warming in the sun. Altogether the feeling was overwhelming and reminded him of the loss of ego he experienced when he tree walked, but still he forced his mind to remain open as they all gathered within him.

It took some time, but once they were linked, their focus was one. While he’d always been able to extend his mind, his reach, across the city, suddenly he was able to pierce through almost the entire city at once. He could feel every rat, roach, ant, pigeon, dog, cat, moth, lizard, and every other creature as it skittered along as well as every plant from the smallest weed growing up through concrete to the largest trees in Uptown that were as old as the city if not older.

They took their massive sphere of attention, and Dantes narrowed it. He shrank it down smaller and smaller, focusing on where the sense of taint was the strongest. That brought them to the docks. There were a half dozen new pockets of taint that were scattered around, but thanks to the increased perception through the other druids, Dantes was able to realize that they were all linked to something greater. A larger concentration of taint. It was so big and diffuse that the sharper smaller ones had hidden it from his view. They focused on that large portion, centered on it, and Dantes matched it to his mental map of the city. It was a Leviathan processing center. Half in the water and half out of it. LIkely empty due to the plague that had spread throughout the city.

As their focus narrowed, there was a sudden whiplash as the taint they were focusing on, started to focus on them.

Dantes broke their connection and the druids all opened their eyes, snapping to their feet.

‘She knows we’re coming,” said Dantes, rolling his head to stretch his shoulders as he began to take a quick inventory of the weapons and armor he had.

“We will move quickly,” said Traizen. “You and I will attack her directly. Lorna, Mor-Gan-May, Fizz, Coal, Murk, and the twins will attack and cleanse those other sites of taint at the same time as we attack her. We need to burn her out all at once.”

Everyone nodded, including Dantes, though he was unused to being the one following orders rather than giving them.