Days passed quickly into months without any sign of Amelia or Namal
strengthening, despite their release from the formidable Castle of
Despair. One day however, in one of his travels through the Morgun,
Iltarien O'Lyryus found a piece of faintly glowing emerald crystal. It
appeared to be a tiny fragment of the shattered crystal that had once
imprisoned the Arch Dryad.

The crystal was found to be something that the Arch Dryad direly needed.
Upon being placed into Amelia's hands, the tainted shards shattered into
a fine mist, permeating the air around and strengthening her. The
corruptive essence infused into the crystalline dryad by the emerald
pearls of the lake had remained inside the mineral even after its
destruction.

It was quickly realized, though, that giving the tainted shards to the
Arch Dryad was strengthening her corruptive intentions. Through decisive
action, it was discovered that the shard could be purified within the
Mirror of Purity in Enorian. Given the first shard by Landara
Forestwalker, Amelia was filled with hurt and pain as the purified shard
also shattered into a mist, which caused her agony and sent wracking
weakness through her upon touching her delicate skin.

Many came to speak with the Arch Dryad to convince her to allow those
who wished to work toward the purification of both herself and the
forest to continue. They hoped to rid the forest of the corrupting
essence infusing all the plants and animals within. Amelia, however,
maintained firm in her happiness with the ways of the forest despite the
persuasive words of the numerous Hunters who attempted to sway her. The
voices of Zephy Duses and Xon Vekato rose in argument with the Arch
Dryad, as each side would not accept the ideas of the other, and many of
those present attacked Amelia and Namal.

The assaults upon the Arch Dryad's life led Amelia to rally the forces
of the forest to her aide, attacking those who had caused her or her
consort harm. Time passed quickly, and despite the increasing threat to
their safety and lives, the forestals continued their tireless efforts
to remove ever more corruption from the forest.

Conflicts arose quickly between the sides, and they faced each other in
battle time and again throughout the forest. Divisions emerged within
the forestal organizations, particularly the Druid's Guild, as the
intensity and severity of the conflict escalated.

Though the forces in support of the corruption tried their best to
strengthen the Arch Dryad, the months passed and it became obvious that
the purifying forestals were winning and that Amelia was weakening
further as time progressed. Though her court of trees tried their best
to stop those who were causing her harm, they could not stop the
dedication of those working to do what they thought was right.

In her weakened state Amelia had begun to feel the draw of a particular
place within the forest, and at the request of his dryad, the Elder Oak
Argash carried her and Namal within his sturdy boughs to the barren
ground between the guardian trees. Something there drew the attentions
of the Arch Dryad, and she felt bolstered in some ways amid the stands
of trees, though she was still extremely weak.

It was only a short time before Broly Bloodrose handed the last shard to
Amelia, and a troupe of onlookers stood by as it was absorbed into her
body, eliciting feverous screams of agony that echoed through the woods.
Her skin changed further until, hauntingly resembling the grained bark
of her oak tree, she collapsed to the ground. Namal rushed to his
lover's side but to no avail - the Arch Dryad was near death.

Argash and Namal were enraged, and those present were upset but
unsurprised to see the Arch Dryad collapse from their efforts. Indeed,
it had been the corruption of the tainted shards that had given her
strength in her absence from the Castle of Despair, and without their
infusion she had become a husk of the radiant beauty she once was.

Her emaciated hands clawed at the ground, crying out for the strength
she needed, many of her words lost amid the semi-coherent babble
streaming from her lips. The crowd surrounding the dying dryad puzzled
over what she could be hinting at as bits of her hair took to the wind,
her hands covered in dark granules of earth. Disappearing from the group
for a moment, Syliana Thalion returned to suggest that perhaps it was
the Sacred Spring, which lay beneath the well within the barren ground,
that Amelia was vainly attempting to reach.

Sure enough, as numerous forestals crept though the passage to the
spring, they found its waters tainted a sickly green, swimming with
corruptive essence and continually feeding the forest its sickly hue.
Thinking back to what had originally caused the corruption to seep from
Amelia, Tilanna O'Lyryus led a group including Wylliam O'Lyryus, Broly
Bloodrose, Karim, and numerous others to gather buckets of water and
purify them within the Mirror of Purity in Enorian.

A crowd began to gather in the cavern as tufts of corruptive mist broke
from the surface of the spring and reacted in an extremely volatile
manner as the purified water splashed into the fount. A number of
tendrils escaped up through the soil, startling those staying with
Amelia and Namal, before they disappeared into the depths of the forest
as though tracking to some unseen source.

Innumerable buckets of the sanctified water crashed into the spring,
until it grew apparent that a cloud of the murky green fog was hovering
within the cavern, caressing those present and filling them with despair
and dread.

Penned by my hand on the 5th of Khepary, in the year 163 MA.