Chapter 4

On the train, Thad and Rika discussed wanting to get out of The Fold, but couldn't think of a plan to do so. Spickle continued their vow of silence, and Komi spoke very little to any of the party, wanting to respect the wishes of her boss.

Thad had some difficulty communicating with the creatures running the train at the Koinonia station, but eventually was able to figure out how to use the phone.

Rika called Freida Gelsey, and after confirming her identity, told Freida and tour management her situation and asked them to come pick her up. Imari reminded her that they had to take a criminal railway to get here, and definitely no one was coming to save her.

Once Rika was off the phone, Imari called her dad and he answered from his office. He was prepared to drop everything to come and get her, but Imari told him that she was safe and she's somewhere better than the hospital. She told him she would call him the next time she could, and he reluctantly let her go and hung up.

The group found Koinonia to be a beautiful island, covered in rich black sands, with lush greenery, and a vast mountain that they took to be Mt. Kisris, the active volcano that created the andisol they came for.

Shortly after starting into the quiet woods and toward the mountain, they realized they didn't know how to identify andisol, or how they were going to collect it. Almost as soon as they realized this, someone came to their aid. A Minotaur named emerged from the trees and greeted them enthusiastically. She told them she was the High Cleric of the Temple of Verina---newly appointed. She inherited the position from her grandmother, Karmina Withakay. They asked Kandace if she would be willing to accompany them up the mountain and guide them to some andisol, and she very happily agreed.

Thad starteled her almost immediately by performing a deadly expirement: he said Denali's name aloud to Kandace until the psychic damage killed him. Once he fell unconscious, Kandace revived him, and believed him when he said he wasn't crazy and that he had a reason for doing what he did.

Kandace led them up the volcano about a third of the way before they found a small plateau of soil with minimal growth that would be easy ground to upset, and Kandace, as High Cleric of the Temple of Verina, and perhaps the only inhabitant of Koinonia for all she knew, granted them permission to collect as much as they could carry.

They began unfolding the fabric Denali gave them to collect the dirt, and it expanded larger than they felt it should, and once it was laid flat, it sank into the ground with a deep depression in the center. Still having no way to scoop up the dirt they needed aside from using their hands, Thad employed the use of Eldritch Blast and pushed a fair bit of dirt in with each blow---but it still took until well after sundown to complete the task.

A few magma mephits emerged from higher up the mountain, upset at the presence of strangers, but were chased away after quick defenses by the group. After the mephits flew away, Kandace Withakay high-fived everyone, healing them each time her hand met theirs, and Thad called them her Magic High-Fives.

Thad asked Kandace if she would be able to put them up in the temple for the night, and Kandace very excitedly told him that she was going to offer that exact thing, as she's never had a real life sleepover, and she's been dying to experience it.

Kandace showed the group around Verina's temple, giving them a full tour. She walked them past diagrams of many sea creatures that Verina created, art pieces of Verina swimming with whales---some of which were painted centuries ago and have been magically preserved, restored, or copied---and preserved remains of Verina's animal companions in a lower level of the temple.

After the tour, Kandace showed them to her suite, which was off of a back hall of the temple. She made hot cocoa and passed it around to everyone. She, Komi, and Rika participated in a braid train that Imari refused to join. Rika braided Thad's ear-length hair, and Kandace painted Rhizel's claws.

Late into the night, everyone decided to play a game of Truth or Dare. Rika dared Kandace to take a shot of lemon juice, which she enthusiastically did. Thad dared Rhizel to eat a spoon of chili pepper, which did not go down well. Rika was the first to choose truth, and Rhizel asked her if she had more than three ukuleles, and she said she had eighteen. This is when Kandace found out that Rika is a performer, and was very impressed.

For the final dare of the night, Kandace dared Thad to touch Verina's chair. Thad asked her if anything would happen. She said they weren't really allowed to, and she would never ever sit in Verina's chair, but touching it would be fine. So the group of them walked out of her suite and to Verina's study---a place that wasn't part of Kandace's tour.

The room was small, and very peaceful. It contained a few artifacts in shadow boxes on the walls, a few bookshelves of ancient looking tomes, and a desk and very large chair. Thad unhesitatly touched Verina's chair. He felt a surge of adrenaline, like the bass of loud music booming in his chest, but otherwise, nothing happened.

Back in Kandace's suite, Thad used the bathroom, and while he did, he wrote in his notebook, "My friends and I are kidnapped. Do you have anything powerful enough to help? He's always listening, so write back."

After Kandace said good night, Thad knocked on her bedroom door, and asked her if he could hug her as a thank you for being such a great host, and when she said yes, he slipped the note he wrote into the pocket of her robe. "Thank you again!" he said, seeing the look in her eyes when she noticed. "I'm going to get to bed."

Kandace emerged from her room after about 10 minutes. The room was dark, but that wasn't a problem for Kandace and Thad's darkvision. Kandace was holding a notebook and pen. Thad nodded, and Kandace nodded back, and guided Thad out of the suite. With a wave of her hand, the torches in the hall ignited.

"He can always hear you?" Kandace wrote.

"Yes," Thad wrote back.

"How?"

"I don't know."

"Since when?"

"Two days ago. I was in Lilliver and then appeared in Boarwood Village."

"How long did it take you to get there?"

"Instant."

"I don't know any magic that can get you there that fast, but the rail takes you from Embeth to Boarwood in a few hours, and Embeth is kind of close to Lilliver."

"Thank you. Can Verina help?"

"Can I hold your hands?"

Thad held out his hands, and Kandace set down the notebook and took his hands in hers. Thad elected to fail a wisdom saving throw. He felt an energy coming from her hands, and a look of shock crossed her face, and she wrote,

"I can sense a little bit of her energy with you. But not with you... just around you. But I don't know if that means she can help or not."

"Thank you. Do you know why I would have this energy?"

"If you met her. Recently."

"Do you know what The Fold is?"

"No idea."

Thad handed back the notebook as Kandace led him back into Verina's study.

Kandace wrote, "The most powerful artifacts are in here. They all have god magic, but they're all fixed to the temple, and can't really be taken out."

"Understood. Wouldn't want to take one of your artifacts anyway. Do any of these bestow power or advantages?"

"Some of these are things that Verina has used, like---" she pointed to a branch of dead coral "---one time she stabbed a monster with this, and it exploded."

"Sick," he laughed as he wrote. "Can I touch the chair again?"

She giggled. "Sure."

Thad laughed with her, and put a hand firmly on the chair. Once again, nothing whatsoever happened.

Kandace wrote again. "You can stay here and read some of the books if you want. Maybe it would help?"

"Thank you. I probably should sleep, but I might come back in the morning. Thank you very much. You've been really helpful."

Kandace gave him a light shoulder punch, and walked out of the room.

Thad stayed behind for a few minutes, and tried looking for something to give him a better grasp of the situation. He searched for ways to combat extremely powerful forces, or the art of war, keeping an eye out for anything that could help him against Denali. The most war-like information he could find was about the organization of the Kantuk, and their relation to Kantu the God of War. Even then, all of the books were from before the war of the gods, or even before the nexus shut down and the planar gates closed. Thad also found some mentions of Xe, the Light God of Justice, in the margins of some books, but all of them were petty negative metions.

Thad's greatest impression from Verina's study was that wherever gods go, powerful things tend to happen. The sense of powerful things was emanating from everything in the room, from the books to the artifacts. Verina's influence seemed to be truly great.