"Mandad, andad!"

That cry resounded through the Ithmias and across the land as all but a select few were slaughtered in Lake Narcisse.

For months, the treasured sapling brought forth by a servant of Gaia, the Earthmother, grew upon the desolate shore of Gaderian's new island. The Eleusians and their allies-in-cause ate the blighted, misshapen fruit of this tree again and again, falling dead at the feet of the mycorizae swarm to be consumed, themselves, in turn.

Thus the poisons leaked by the Mad Mage's laboratory were subsumed. But more so than cleansing the waters, the sapling's true purpose was revealed to all when its boughs brushed the skies and its trunk became thicker by far than any mortal. The last of the buds fell from its branches, its flowering serving no more purpose.

First came the earthquake. Then the newest of the dryads, who called herself Siluria, met her mutated, suffering sister as the angai chieftess approached her tree.

"Your suffering is ended."

"We begin the cleansing."

At the dryad's behest, the annihilation of all life save those who might still be restored took place. For a quarter of a day, the cries of the hanai, the angai, and the children of the angai filled the air as they were slain and dismembered, their time to return to the earth at long last arrived. Laposi, the leader of the hanai, was the last to die under claw and beak and fang.

Now, Narcisse is sealed shut. None may enter it by decree of Siluria, until such a time as the damage wrought is healed and Nature once more brings life forth onto that desolate locale.

And what of Gaderian?

The maimed, hateful Mage escaped justice, and even now his black mind surely turns entirely upon one single thought: revenge.

~ ~ ~

Summary: Helped along by the death of many, the sapling planted upon Lake Narcisse at long last finished growing. From it, a new dryad named Siluria emerged, and she ordered the complete destruction of nearly all life nearby, sealing the area from all mortals for the time being.

Penned by My hand on the 23rd of Scarlatan, in the year 970 AF.