A woman stands in front of a stone table, in turn, positioned in the center of a completely white room. Her right-hand rests on top of it and her eyes are closed.

Melia opens her eyes and releases a sigh, taking her hand from the rough, hard and cold surface.

Then, she turns around and frowns as she notices another God's form standing in front of her.

"Oh, hi Andul. What brings you here? It's rare for you to visit without warning." she asks, though she can guess what it is here for.

"You know why." it answers.

"Oh, come on Andul. You should tell me when a mortal's Fate crosses with one of you guys... experiments," she says innocently.

"You already knew, I personally told you."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Andul, don't you know it's rude to visit one of your elders with a duplicate body? Really, the nerves you have." she says, feigning to be slightly annoyed.

"Melia. You know it is not possible for me to leave it alone."

"Look, if He didn't do anything about it, then I don't think you should really worry about it. What would it do even if he got beyond, anyway?"

"I have been appointed as His avatar by He Himself just for this occasions when He can't interfere. Also, if it got beyond me, then... I don't even want to imagine." Andul answered, starting to feel annoyed.

"Look, alright, I'll let it slide this time, but you'd better come to Mary's party with your real body if you want to come at all." Melia said, ending the conversation.

She walked past Andul and into the corridors of the Celestial Palace, disappearing from view. When she was out of view, Andul's duplicate body started to shimmer and then disappeared.

Mana, like love, is in the air.

Unknown poet, The Mystic Ballad

Mana sat on one of the highest branches of the World Tree of the Thedus continent, her legs dangling in the air with the wind playing between them.

She was bored. Incredibly so. Apart from the animals she sometimes played with on the ground, there was no one around that could entertain her, no human, elf, orc or any of the other sentient races would ever dare enter the forest surrounding the World Tree, and so she was always alone.

She was also tired of playing with magic, after hundred of years she had a pretty good idea of what she could use the skills and spells her class provided her, and she didn't have anything that could entertain her.

Why would anyone want to change the flow of mana, create new wells or delete existing ones? She wasn't really much into her role of arranging the mana disposition on the whole continent, she would have preferred something more fun, like a fireball.

It was only because of her class, Nurturer of the World Tree, that she was relegated to this forest and couldn't do anything to entertain herself.

She had gotten the class as a right of birth, as she was born half Dryad and half... she wasn't really sure what the other half was, but apparently, it was that one which gave her class and boring powers.

At least her Dryad half gave her some powers on the surrounding plants, but there was a limit on how much she could enjoy watching grass grow at a slightly faster pace.

And so, to try and disperse some of the boredom, she sat on her favorite branch, gazing at the horizon and waiting for the sunset.

There was something magical in the atmosphere the oranges and reds and yellows created, which made the entire forest still for a few minutes and turned the world into something else.

But that day, it was different.

A couple seconds before she could even start to enjoy the orange rays of the falling sun, a wave of something, a presence invested her, making her buckle and almost fall from the branch.

She recovered her balance, but even though the most of it had passed, that oppressing feeling was still there.

Then, she felt a change in the flow of mana. A massive amount was being sucked from the World Tree, the main spring of the continent, and redirected to another place.

Panic assaulted her, as she tried to cut the link between the tree and whatever was trying to suck it dry, but fortunately, it stopped by itself, before Mana even had a chance to do anything.

But still, she could not feel reassured. She knew something was wrong and she had to make sure whatever that was it wouldn't hurt the World Tree.

So, she decided it was time to set off and investigate.

In retrospect, she should have guessed it wasn't the best idea she had had recently.

While leisurely strolled trough the forest under the World Tree, she hadn't encountered any difficulties, and some of the inhabitants had even shown her the way and treated her to some fruits.

The bad things started to happen after she left the forest, her safe haven.

Either because of bad luck or because they had been following her for some time, a group of five men attacked her.

If they had been bandits, as she had guessed at first, even she wouldn't have had any problems dealing with them. But alas, they were worse.

A party of people who specialized in hunting down exotic and magical creatures, like fairies, unicorns, and Entities, like Mana.

She had tried to resist them, using the few offensive abilities she possessed, but they were much stronger than she was, even individually.

In the end, she was forced to try and retreat, run away and hide, which she managed to pull off by sheer luck.

They hunt her down for hours, and in the end caught her.

As a last ditch for survival, before the hunters could dismember her to gather whatever part they wanted to get, she used another spell. This time, for the first time, she used a spell from her Dryad half of her, a spell which for her was the same as a death sentence.

And then everything was darkness.

The Thaum forest is situated somewhere in the middle of the largest forest of the Thedus continent. It’s located inside of an inactive volcano, making the terrain incredibly fertile.

There are four entrances to the Thaum forest and for each entrance, there is a guardian preventing things from going out or coming in. We will speak of these guardians in future chapters.

Thanks to the fertile soil and the indirect protection of the four guardians, few predators wander this forest, creating the perfect environment for weak and rare creatures, which would be in other places, to develop.

In this book, we talk about the fauna, flora, and legends thriving in the Thaum forest.

Written during the 4th Year of the Lead,

By Archmagus Tevelin