The gods among the stars had fixed their attention firmly on Skyl.
The moment he emptied his mind, he would effectively be opening his door to thieves and inviting those annoying beings inside. They were all deeply interested in Skyl because they had foreseen the future the warlock described. One day, this mortal would acquire astonishing power, enough to unleash a wave that would sweep across countless planes throughout the multiverse.
One terrifying possibility had become clear. Mortals might eventually abandon the gods and embrace the Tower system instead, depriving the deities of Realmspace of their worship. Their divine power would fade until they weakened and died.
That future was not inevitable. It was only one possibility, but even that was enough to make the gods nervous.
The strength, survival, rise, and decline of Realmspace's gods were all directly tied to mortal faith. It was an iron law established by Ao, the Overgod, to ensure that the gods faithfully fulfilled their duties.
Before the Time of Troubles, no such limitation existed. The gods could ignore mortal worship without suffering any decline in divine power. That changed when Bane and Myrkul of the Dead Three stole Ao's Tablets of Fate in pursuit of greater power, provoking the Overgod's wrath. Ao blamed the entire pantheon, cast the gods down into the Prime Material Plane, and forced them to walk the earth in mortal bodies while searching for the Tablets.
Many deities were killed during those turbulent years. For beings who had always stood above mortals, the terror and madness of that age, whether remembered with fear or exhilaration, would never fade from their ancient memories.
It was hardly surprising that they were so sensitive to Skyl's plans.
The most anxious were the factions surrounding the goddess of magic and the god of knowledge. If Skyl planted his divine tree, the old spellcasting order would be the first system to suffer.
A massive loss of worshipers would inevitably weaken their divine power. Worse still, portfolios involving magic, spells, the Weave, and knowledge suited Skyl far too well. Divine portfolios were limited positions, and if Skyl wanted them, he would have to seize them from Midnight, now Mystra, Oghma, and the others who currently possessed them.
To the gods of evil, that presented an excellent opportunity to stir up trouble.
As a result, regardless of alignment, nearly every god was waiting for a chance to speak with Skyl. Their intentions fell into a handful of familiar categories. Some wanted to recruit him, some wanted an alliance, some hoped to make him a servant or Chosen, and others simply wanted to threaten him.
Their ideal outcome would be for Skyl to surrender the Infinity Scepter willingly. If Mystra acquired the artifact, she could use it as a stabilizing pillar for the unstable Weave. Should another disaster like the collapse of the Weave or the Spellplague occur, the artifact could hold everything steady without forcing the goddess of magic to sacrifice herself to restore order.
People often said that one person could never truly share another's joys and sorrows. The same was true between mortals and gods. Skyl listened to their sweet words and heard nothing but noise.
Their promises of rewards failed to move him.
As for the threats from evil gods, Skyl had only one response in mind.
Come to the Prime Material Plane yourselves if you have the nerve. At most, you can send a divine proxy, perhaps even an avatar if you are willing to take the risk. As long as it has a health bar, it can be brought down.
The gods themselves were unlikely to intervene directly. For one thing, they could not freely enter the Prime Material Plane. For another, Skyl's earlier display of an Ao-backed Wish had frightened them.
The fate of the pit fiend Tuva remained fresh in everyone's memory. A perfectly functional Wish had been broken apart by a single sentence from Skyl. The Counterspell effect had been so absolute that no one believed he had achieved it without the support of an Overgod.
None of the gods dared provoke Ao.
For now, they had settled on conversation as their method of establishing contact with Skyl. They possessed endless time and could afford to wear him down slowly.
Whenever he emptied his mind, he immediately found himself trapped in a bustling marketplace of gods. Even Thought Shield could not keep them out.
Voices of every kind sang inside his head. Some were gentle and affectionate, others cold and merciless, while still others were deep, wild, and commanding. A cleric would probably have gone mad with joy at being constantly bathed in divine favor.
Unfortunately for them, Skyl was a warlock. He was already spoken for, and his patron was himself.
Without emptying his mind, however, he could not perceive the flow of nature's elements. Druidic magic belonged to divine magic rather than the arcane. Without power granted by nature itself or by the gods of nature, it could not be cast.
Skyl eventually devised a shortcut.
The gods were watching his soul, while communing with nature was fundamentally a process of training the mind. Through magic, Skyl could establish a telepathic link with another humanoid and borrow that person's senses to experience nature indirectly.
He looked at Doric and smiled.
"Young and lovely druid, would you be willing to do me a favor?"
The tiefling girl immediately regarded him with suspicion.
Skyl explained his reasoning, but Doric did not believe him and shook her head.
"Then how about you, Stan? My old friend, could you help me?"
Stan shook his head at once. "I'm not linking my mind with another man. Turn yourself into a beautiful elf woman, and then I'll agree."
Skyl was perfectly capable of transforming into a beautiful elf woman, but he had no desire to pull a Loki merely to make the arrangement more appealing.
After considering the matter from every angle, he realized that approach would not work either. Perhaps he could board a spelljamming vessel and travel into another wildspace system. That might sever the signal, or at least part of it.
Unfortunately, many ancient gods projected their power into multiple wildspace systems. Sun gods, dragon gods, and similar entities possessed divine influence that stretched across worlds.
It was a troublesome problem.
The undead Mia remained lost in a daze. The shock of experiencing the Weave had left the girl unable to recover her senses for several hours.
Skyl suddenly had an idea.
An undead mind was about as empty as a mind could possibly become. He wondered what he would experience if he established a telepathic link with Mia.
He never hesitated once he had made a decision. After instructing Stan to stand guard, Skyl immediately cast the spell and connected his senses to those of the undead girl.
The mind of the dead resembled a dry well.
The instant the connection formed, Skyl felt the surging cold of negative energy, the exhaustion of a body weakened by a long illness, and a deep hatred for all living vitality. To a mind as dark as ink, even the faintest thread of sunlight felt sinful.
If Skyl transformed himself into a lich, the influence of negative energy would gradually strip away his warmth and compassion.
Once he shifted fully into Mia's senses, he quickly made progress. Nature spirits despised the undead because their existence violated the boundary between life and death, denying the dead their rightful rest.
Senses often reacted most strongly to hostile stimuli. That unmistakable rejection stabbed into Mia like countless needles and burned through her heart like candle flames, making the presence of the nature spirits exceptionally clear.
Skyl placed the Infinity Scepter in Mia's hands, then attempted to use her body as a relay through which he could channel the Primal Power.
Threads of elemental power answered Skyl's mental grasp and drifted toward them. They connected Skyl to the undead Mia before finally pouring into the Infinity Scepter.
The Primal Power carried the mysteries of creation within it. Archdruids who remained exposed to the magic of the wilderness for many years often developed ageless bodies, dramatically slowing the effects of time.
Skyl experienced the complex sensation of elemental power passing through his body. Heat and cold, dryness and moisture rose and fell against one another, setting the elements within his own flesh into motion.
Mia's reaction was far more dramatic.
The Primal Power was neutral by nature and contained life and death, good and evil alike. Mia was therefore not harmed by the infusion of elemental power. Instead, her body began undergoing several strange transformations.
Water restored fullness to her withered flesh. Earth reinforced her brittle bones. Air drove her blood through her veins once more, while fire caused her dormant organs to stir.
For a brief moment, the dead body regained the appearance it had possessed in life.
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