Your war hammer is too fake

[Evan de Richelieu: It has been confirmed that the holy relic is lost. ]

In the original history, it was not until 2518 of the Imperial Calendar that Dacha finally snatched the last holy relic from Paraon. Then this crazy tree demon led his men to sneak into the Athel Loren Forest during the winter. Dacha released the power of all the holy relics, defeated the guards of the wild forest, destroyed the magic barrier set up by Ariel, and successfully rescued Koledi.

Now, Dacha got the last holy relic in advance. In order to teach the imperialists a lesson, the entire Principality of Paraon was mobilized. A large number of knights and their old farmers responded to the call and left their fiefdoms, and a considerable number of them never returned. Then, a "Rick-led army" descended from the sky and captured the well-defended city of Paraon overnight, and used this city as the core to sweep the surrounding Bretonnian strongholds.

One battle after another drained the mobile forces of the Principality of Paraon. Without the suppression of the Knight Lord, greenskins, beastmen, cultists, and all kinds of messy monsters suddenly emerged. They made trouble everywhere, looted villages and farms without defense, attacked passing merchants and travelers, and even besieged castles where the lord himself was not. They caused great chaos, and Daicha took the opportunity to fish in troubled waters and raided a Holy Grail Church, stealing what it needed.

At first, the Parravons didn't pay any attention to this matter. There were too many enemies wreaking havoc in their homeland. Fortunately, with the leadership of the newly promoted Holy Grail Knights, the Parravons not only quickly eliminated the enemies in the Principality, but also chased them all the way into the Gray Mountains, uprooting several greenskin tribes and beastmen.

An Jiyue hadn't noticed this at first. She had too many things to care about, and it was impossible for her to cover everything. Until Morgan mentioned in the chat group that she had saved a "friend" and mentioned the news brought by this friend. The abnormal war mobilization of the Wood Elves, the strange movements of the Caledonians, and the biggest variable, the Crucified Wood King's Court - as early as when the Weaver Lord just crossed over, she introduced the origin of the Crucified Wood King's Court in the chat group - after summarizing all the known information, the Jiedushi suddenly found that he had missed a force.

The radical forest spirits represented by the mad woodland elder Koldi and his maiden Daicha, the "Tree of Sorrow".

Realizing that something was wrong, An Jiyue immediately asked Aiwen to help investigate in the chat group. Under the efficient work of the inner circle, most of the knights of the Principality of Paraon were incorporated and transformed into system units under the command of the knight princess, while the few stubborn ones all encountered various "accidents", and the fiefs left behind were taken over by their own people. Today, the Principality of Paraon still owes allegiance to the king in name, but in fact, it has become Aiwen's shape from the inside out.

[Morgan Ringo: So, Ariel's conscription order is aimed at those crazy people in Coladi? ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: This possibility cannot be ruled out, but it is too early to draw conclusions. If it is just the radical forest spirits who want to cause trouble, then Ariel's reaction is a bit too radical. This group of forest spirits does not have much strength. If they confront each other head-on, Ariel alone can suppress them, and there is no need to mobilize them at all. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: What I am worried about now is that this matter might involve Chaos. By the way, did your friend mention the situation in the Wild Forest? Has the defense there been strengthened? ]

[Morgan Ringo: No, the wild forest is still the same.]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: That is to say, Ariel did not foresee the prison break of Coladi. Prophecy spells usually only show fragmented and incoherent fragments, and only know the result, not the process. Ariel may have predicted that the Athel Loren Forest would suffer a catastrophe, but she did not know how the catastrophe came about. This can be explained, but I just feel that things are not that simple, and there may be some clues that I have not yet grasped. ]

With the help of Suseb, "Arwen Duskstar" brought Mr. William Martin to his residence. There are few tree houses in Tal-Tunnel, but not none at all. On the day An Jiyue arrived in the city, she immediately fell in love with this tree house hidden in the shade of the trees. It happened to be Morgan's property, so the Lord of the Weavers lent it to the Jiedushi.

The history of this tree house can be traced back to when Tal-Zhu'er was first built. It was originally a small outpost, and later it was converted into an armory after the city walls were built, mainly used to store enchanted arrows. Later, Tal-Zhu'er's weapons were uniformly stored in a stone underground warehouse, and this tree house was vacant for a while until Morgan bought it.

In Morgan's false memory, "Morgan Linge" used this place as a laboratory, specifically for preparing medicines. This was convenient for An Jiyue, and she made a slight modification to the tree house and got a clinic with residential functions.

"Let him lie down, yes, that's it." An Jiyue and Susaib laid the explorer flat on a rectangular stone platform. During this process, William Martin kept struggling and muttered some meaningless messy sentences. The tomb herald had to hold the explorer down the whole time, but fortunately this task was very easy for Ka Sabai's champion warriors.

Using more than a dozen leather belts to firmly tie William Martin to the stone platform, ensuring that he could not move, An Jiyue then took out some incense from a medicine cabinet and lit it. The refreshing fragrance filled the tree house, and in a short while, the explorer calmed down.

"Um... Doctor," the tall skeleton brother scratched his head, "I seem to smell the scent of incense as well? I'm not sure if this is an illusion caused by sleeping for too long. Theoretically, my nose has long lost its function."

"To be precise, you don't have a nose at all," An Jiyue glanced at the undead, "and that's not an illusion, you really smelled the scent of incense. The effect of my incense directly acts on the spiritual level, even spirits like ghosts can smell it...if they have enough reason to distinguish this."

An Jiyue waited for a while, on the one hand to let the incense take full effect, and on the other hand to check the chat group. The group members were expressing their opinions to each other, and by the way, they put forward one unreliable guess after another. In general, based on the known information, everyone tended to believe that the wood elves gathered their forces to deal with Kolodi, and Kolodi was likely to have colluded with Chaos, or at least was used by Chaos forces. Kolodi alone would not force Asrai to mobilize, but if Chaos was added, it would definitely be enough.

[Group leader #An Jiyue: This hypothesis makes sense in general, but it cannot explain why the Caledonians ended up like this. Even the Phoenix King couldn't command this bunch of dragon lovers, so how could the Wood Elves possibly attract them? ]

Historically, the High Elves did come to the aid of the Wood Elves. In the year 245 of the Season of Ruin, which was 2252 of the Imperial Calendar, a large army of Beastmen invaded Athel Loren. The Wood Elves were once on the verge of extinction, but at the critical moment, an army of High Elves came across the sea on the orders of Finubar, and fought side by side with the Wood Elves to repel the Beastmen.

The one who commanded this army was Prince Aedro, a good friend of the high-elf dragon Prince Tyrion, and one of the latter's few friends. Aedro himself was born in Terenlock, and the troops under his command came from many kingdoms, including the spearmen of Cosqui, the White Lion Guards of Chrace, the mages of Safri, the archers of Avalon, etc. Of course, the dragon princes of Caledor also came, but they participated in this battle of their own accord, not at the order of the Phoenix King.

According to the information obtained by Dustan's men, the flags of five dragon princes' teams and the personal emblems of twelve dragon-riding princes of Caledor have been confirmed so far. Other troops such as spearmen and archers have exceeded six legions and are still increasing. This is almost a full-scale mobilization for the small-populated Kingdom of Caledor.

Neither Finubar nor Ariel had such a big face.

The author says:

Author's Note: Reply to reader "Bergman Ranger":

The Wild Hunt kills whoever they catch, and in theory, the Asur should be killed as well. There was even an extreme example in the background that the Wild Hunt suffered casualties before Athel Loren appeared. Of course, that was mainly because of Orion's madness... and it was only once. As for the second question, yes, that's it.

Answer to reader "Reader1647318749":

The one who was almost killed and then saved by the wood elves was Morathi. I remember mentioning it once in the Altdorf chapter. At that time, Aunt Morathi was ambushed by the shadow warriors and was about to take the pill, but the wood elves suddenly appeared and saved her.

Chapter 241 Carl's Proposal

The group members discussed for a while and then went offline one after another. After all, everyone was very busy.

Dustan was having a great time beating up the Yankees in Fort Kovang. It was worth mentioning that there were many new greenskins there recently, all of whom came here because they heard there were endless fights. Barel temporarily took on the role of supervisor in Reflection Fortress, urging the dwarf army to renovate the fortress left by the Faceless Ones and taking in the free cavemen who came to join him after hearing the news. The Nest Clan took a tacit attitude towards this. After all, there were very few cavemen who were naturally immune to mental interference, and even fewer who could survive, so it didn't make any waves.

Xiao Yiyue's preparations have entered the final stage. Once the new Grasshopper-class creatures are run-in, he will march to the Dragon Islands and investigate the suspected wild travelers there. Evelyn is still in Altdorf, and the Knight Princess has completed the formal canonization ceremony in the presence of countless people, and will soon set off to return to Marienburg.

According to Ewen herself, after the enthronement ceremony, Karl had another private meeting with her. Knight Princess originally thought that Karl wanted to ask where her army came from - so far, the newly appointed Elector of Westerland has exposed an army of 30,000 to the eyes of the imperial people, including thousands of imperial knights. The key is that all the Ewen family troops have uniform uniforms and equipment, and are obviously not mercenaries or militia.

Egwene had prepared a whole set of arguments for this purpose, but Karl didn't ask about the army at all. The emperor said that although he was very grateful for the help of the late Lady Deedlit to the empire, what Deedlit did to a certain elector was really... The emperor now wanted to know if Rhodes Island had a way to lift the "curse"?

Well, in the eyes of the imperial people, Boris's cat ears and cat tail are undoubtedly an extremely vicious curse.

"Deedlit's apprentice, Arwen Duskstar, is definitely a good choice," Evelyn thought for a moment and said, "Her magical power is comparable to her teacher's, but she herself doesn't like Yurik's followers very much..."

"Count," Karl said calmly, "Marienburg is a city that has developed on the basis of trade. I think that perhaps your territory needs a special license to exempt barge taxes, which is valid throughout the empire."

The title of the Knight Princess is now Countess of Marienburg and Elector of Westerland, not Countess, but Count. This is obviously Karl's way of showing his favor to her, although the emperor is not sure whether a god, even a god in distress, cares about the fancy titles of mortals.

"The whole territory?" Egwene, who was cutting the duck confit on the plate with a knife and fork, stopped what she was doing and said, "My good majesty, do you know what you are talking about?"

"This special decree is not permanent. It will be effective for twenty years." The emperor raised his glass to the Elector, which was filled with beer produced locally in Altdorf. "We all know what happened to the 'Rick's Army' that captured the city of Palaon and defeated the returning Palaon people. This is the reward you deserve, Count."

"go on."

"As long as Todbringer's 'trouble' is resolved, I can extend the term by another five years," Carl took a sip of iced beer. "As the Elector of Reikland, I am happy to see those restless wolf cubs shrinking in their dens like embarrassed dogs and not daring to show their heads. But as the emperor, I must do something before the situation gets worse."

"I just came back from Paraon, so I'm not too sure about the current situation of the empire," Evelyn also picked up the wine glass. "Has the situation gotten so bad? Is there something wrong with the operation of Midden County?"

"Our neighbors are spreading rumors," Carl shook his head and took another sip of the cool, clear wine. "Since the end of the Elector's Meeting, Todbringer has been locking himself in the palace. Lipmud told me that he has been secretly looking for all kinds of, oh, I don't want to be too offensive, all kinds of scumbags to try to lift the curse."

"Has he never tried to pray to Ulric?" As soon as she said this, Egwene regretted it. Religious belief is a very serious topic in this world, so serious that sometimes just a slip of the tongue is enough to start a war.

Carl glanced at Evelyn with a subtle expression. "I'm very worried about Todd Bringer's situation. If he starts to place his hopes on surgeons, pharmacists, hedge wizards, and even those guys who just look suspicious... Damn, he has already suffered too much mental torture. I don't believe his faith will be shaken by this, but I have to prepare for the worst, hiccup~"

After saying that, the emperor burped. This unexpected situation made the atmosphere in the room suddenly become a little awkward, but at least the overly solemn atmosphere just now was diluted.

"I'll have Arwen come as soon as possible, but I can't guarantee when she'll arrive." Evelyn thought for a moment and decided to reveal some information that didn't matter if anyone told her. "She's been busy lately. An ancient race that has been missing for tens of thousands of years is about to return, and she's currently dealing with the matter. To be honest, we're still not sure whether we should try to get along with them peacefully, or take advantage of their weakness to gather an army to destroy them."

"Hmm..." Carl thought for a moment: "If you don't mind, maybe I can temporarily do the work of a consultant. What kind of race is it? What gods do they believe in?"

"At least based on the information we know so far, they don't seem to have a clear belief," Knight Ji said. "They are a group of giant insects with intelligence. The lower individuals have no souls or self, only a few biological instincts, while the upper individuals are smart and extremely powerful. When the upper individuals give orders, the lower individuals can carry out any task regardless of casualties. The most terrifying thing is that this race has an amazing reproductive capacity, which may be even more powerful than the greenskins."

"That sounds very dangerous," Carl continued, "so what are their temperaments like?"

"Greedy but restrained, cruel but good at disguise," Evelyn said without hesitation, "Their expansion ability is too terrible. They have the advantages of greenskins, but they don't have the chaotic nature and infighting problems of greenskins. As long as their rulers are determined, the entire race will work wholeheartedly for the same goal."

“Will it be costly to eliminate them?”

"Not much, but it will take a lot of time," Evelyn frowned. "Their territory is located in an extremely large and complex tunnel network deep underground. To completely wipe them out, a large number of troops will need to be stationed underground for a long time, which is unacceptable to Rhodes Island. We don't have so many military resources to squander. Arwen has already contacted them. The condition she put forward is that they cannot appear on the surface, and we must recognize their status and live in peace with them."

"If I were the leader of those smart bugs, I would delay the negotiation process as much as possible," Karl said after listening to Egwene's narration, putting himself into the perspective of the Nest Clan, "and then keep probing, such as sending a team to deliberately cross the border to test your bottom line, or simply using this as a bargaining chip."

"If they dare to do so, Arwen will choose war without hesitation. Anyway, the army is already in place." Egwen shrugged. "Arwen hopes that her meaning is clear enough. The conditions she put forward are an ultimatum, but it will be bad if the bugs think this is a bluffing diplomatic tactic. The problem is that if the war really breaks out, the problem becomes how to end it."

Hearing this, Carl pondered for a while. "This race lives underground?" he asked, "Like the dwarves? Do they have cities or something like that? I mean, is there a way to destroy the underground space where they live? You don't have to destroy all of them. As long as you can bury a major gathering place at once, whether it's with gunpowder or magic, the bugs will definitely realize that you are serious and that you are fully capable of burying them."

"Hmm... you've come up with a very bold idea, Carl," Evelyn said, "Thank you for your suggestion. Arwen will definitely like this idea."

The above conversation took place the day before Morgan and the others returned to Tal-Kuar. Worried that some details might not be described clearly and accurately with words alone, Egwene used the chat group's camera function to record the entire process and uploaded it to the chat group, which surprised the group members who had only played Warhammer Total War and whose only knowledge of Kaga8 came from this game.

As a hammer who is well-versed in military books, An Jiyue was not surprised. Kagaba's sophisticated skills in politics and diplomacy did not mean that he was a leader without determination. If necessary, the emperor could also use ruthless means.

[Group leader #An Jiyue: This is a really good idea. The caves and tunnels left by the rift worms are non-renewable resources. Neither the Faceless nor the Hives can reproduce this engineering miracle. Barrel, find a way to send a letter to the opposite Hive, the queen named Nadel, and tell them that we will destroy a cave in a week. You can choose which cave. I will go back after I finish my work here.]

[Barel Hammer: No problem. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: In addition, emmmm... I made some unexpected discoveries. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: @Morgan·Linge# The explorer named William Martin that you picked up is very likely from Paradis. ]

[Morgan Ringo: ...Fuck]

Chapter 242: Shadow of Paradis

After the incense had taken full effect, An Jiyue began the treatment.

Under the gaze of the big skeleton Suseb, Arwen opened her hands and gently pressed her white fingertips on William Martin's head. After a moment, the girl withdrew her hands.

"Alright," An Jiyue clapped her hands. The dirty and greasy hair of the human explorer made her feel a little sick. "I have eliminated the remaining spiritual energy in his soul. He will take a nap next. We just need to wait for him to wake up naturally."

"The treatment is over? So quickly?" The Tomb Herald glanced at the explorer lying flat on the stone platform, and the sky-blue light in his eyes flickered: "What's the principle behind this?"

"Judging from the echo of the residual spiritual energy, this unlucky guy was hit by at least five spiritual energy explosions in a row within a minute," An Jiyue waved to the side and a rag flew into her hand. "Too much spiritual energy exceeded the limit of natural dissipation, resulting in a small part of spiritual energy remaining in his soul. This spiritual foreign body oppressed his thinking, and the external manifestation is that this guy is crazy most of the time. Fortunately, his soul itself has not suffered irreversible damage, so as long as the 'foreign body' is removed and he rests for a while, he will recover."

"The first step in treating an arrow wound is to get the arrow out." Susaibu said thoughtfully.

"The 'arrow wound' on Mr. William Martin's body is very minor, almost equivalent to the arrowhead barely piercing the skin," the girl wiped her hands vigorously with a rag, "so there is no need to even stop the bleeding."

Hanging the rag back with telekinesis, An Jiyue put her hands on her hips and said, "It's very quiet here, very suitable for the patient to rest. He needs to sleep for at least 16 hours before he can wake up. Well, are you going to watch him here, or are you going to go out for a walk? Buy some souvenirs or something, the handicrafts here are very good."

"You can wait until the mission is completed before visiting the alien city," Susayb shook his head. "Besides, the living and the dead are different after all. Your people may not be able to face a talking skeleton as calmly as you do."

"Well. You and this guy can live here before you go back to report. When this guy wakes up, tell him that over there is the kitchen and he can eat whatever food and drink he wants. The small compartment at the other end is the toilet. There is a blanket in that cabinet," An Jiyue said as she walked towards the room where the elevator was located. "I have something to take care of now. You are Morgan's guests and you can move freely except for the prohibited areas. If you change your mind and want to go out for a walk, please feel free to do so."

"Goodbye, doctor." Susaibu shouted at An Jiuyue's back.

"Goodbye, champion." The girl waved her hand with her back to the undead.

……

"Anyway, I used my psychic power to put that guy into a deep sleep," An Jiyue said to Morgan, who was sitting across from the stone table. "In fact, I had a vague premonition the first time I saw that guy, and now it's just confirmed."

"A trained psychic...could he be from another organization?" Morgan asked with a frown.

The Jiedushi did not answer the question directly, but asked: "When you walk on the road, are you worried that a meteorite will fall from the sky and hit you on the head?"

"……Won't."

"Neither can I," An Jiyue, who was still maintaining her magic disguise, twitched her pointed ears on both sides of her head. "At least based on the information we know so far, apart from the Faceless Men, the Nest Clan and myself, only the mysterious Paradis Cult has psychics. Other forces may not even know what psychic power is. But this does explain why this man was hit by so many mind blasts. When he was caught by the Nest Clan, he must have used his psychic power to defend against the first mind blast. Then the psychic unit of the Nest Clan, who always likes to work hard to create miracles, um, it should be the Clan Mother you killed, who gave him a surprise five-hit combo."

[Barel Magic Hammer: By the way, how far have you progressed in reverse engineering the Mind Engine? ]

"I still have no idea about the artificial soul. I haven't even found the door frame." An Jiyue supported her cheek with her left hand and moved her right index finger along the lines on the table. "I have figured out the technical principles of the rest. Not long after I left, the Xuanshui Arsenal successfully trial-produced organic crystals, which are the material basis of artificial neural circuits."

[Barel Hammer: Does this mean the projectile cannon will be offline soon? ]

"Yes. Since I dare to use the projectile cannon as the main cannon of the future flying ship, I am sure it can be delivered on schedule," An Jiyue said as she smelled a pleasant fragrance. Then she saw an Asrai maid bringing over two small cakes. "Why, do you have an idea? To be honest, it's useless even if you have an idea. The production line of organic crystals cannot be completed so quickly. The first batch of organic crystals used in the projectile cannon were all hand-kneaded in the laboratory. Not only is the cost ridiculously expensive, but the key is that the output is extremely low, not even a gram more."

[Barel Hammer: Forget it. ]

"I feel more and more that your Crucible King's Court has a flavor of Warcraft and Night Elves," the girl said as she picked up the silver knife and fork that came with the cake. "Of course, this is definitely a good thing. The original Asrai is really too abstract."

"That's true. Referring to your experience, I always feel that the so-called 'Southern Asrai' seem to have been deliberately selected by the Holy Book of War," Morgan said. "They don't eat carbohydrates or vegetables, and they must hunt their own meat. The key is that they have to eat whatever they hunt. It's okay for herbivores, but the meat of carnivores... is that something that humans eat?"

While the two beautiful girls were enjoying the delicious cakes, someone else appeared in the live broadcast room of the chat group.

【Dustan Falcon: ←_←Fuck, this makes me want to eat cake. 】

"How have you been playing with those uninvited greenskins recently?" An Jiyue put a spoonful of figs covered with cream into her mouth. "I specifically asked my men deployed in Kewang Castle, and they said that you have a special nickname among the greenskins?"

[Dustan Falcon: Damn, those damn greenskins, not only did they not give me points, but they also killed a lot of Yankees, which are all my points. The scouts reported that more greenskin tribes are gathering towards me, damn it!!]

"Try to get used to it. There aren't many places in this world without greenskins," the governor said disapprovingly, "but why did you suddenly show up? Normally, you hate water groups the most."

[Dustan Falcon: Of course it's business. Bing Ruolan and the others are back.]

The silver knife and fork fell on the stone table, and the crisp sound echoed in her ears. An Jiyue took a deep breath, and the slime suddenly swelled up as if it was about to burst through her shirt, and Morgan, who was sitting opposite, twitched his eyes.

"What are the casualties?" The alchemist girl's voice sounded like it was floating in the clouds.

[Dustan Falcon: Bing Ruolan and Ban Tu are both still alive, though they are just alive. I have done my best to prevent their injuries from getting worse, and I have only now found the time to inform you.]

"I'll leave right away," the Jiedushi jumped up from his chair, "Tell those two to hold on!"

"Well, what!" The Lord of the Weavers stood up at a loss: "What should we do with Paradis?"

"First treat him as a guest and treat him well. If he wants to leave, don't stop him. He can just help us find these rats in the gutter," An Jiyue said quickly and urgently. "The rest is up to you. Remember, you are the boss now!"

Jin Zhi Shige quietly emerged from nowhere and followed An Jiyue who was walking out quickly. The deputy commander was not good at disguising himself as a race that was very different from humans. It was no problem for him to deceive the imperials in Aldolf, but this time he needed to act in front of an experienced legendary spellcaster like Nayis, so he had not shown up before.

A white cloud rose from Tal-Yuer and flew straight to the north. Morgan had already opened friendly unit certification to the group members, and the magic barrier covering the entire Orion camp would not interfere with An Jiyue's senses.

Of course, even without certification, An Jiyue would not be affected.

Chapter 243: Xiuyanqing Returns

Bing Ruolan felt her soul falling.

There was endless darkness all around, with no direction and no end. Shugen-King was like a piece of cotton wool blown up by the wind, slowly falling down, her consciousness and thoughts almost stagnated. Her soul seemed to be exhausted and powerless, as if it had been burned out. She had no thoughts, no emotions, and no sense of self. Go to sleep, it seemed as if a voice whispered in her ear.

Bing Ruolan did not respond until she felt that she seemed to have stopped falling. The darkness was driven away by endless light in the blink of an eye. She opened her eyes and looked blankly at the scene buried deep in her memory. She saw an ordinary girl sitting in front of the computer, concentrating on something.

She leaned over. On the half-old display screen, a high-quality CG animation was playing: a group of violent Chaos beasts raided a border fortress of the Cathay Dynasty at night. Magic outlined white and green ripples under the inky night sky, and every time the cannon fired, it would briefly illuminate a small corner on the city wall.

Xiugenqing glanced at the screen, and then shifted his gaze to the familiar yet unfamiliar girl. The girl wore a pair of glasses with low prescription on her nose, and her whole person had a slightly dark temperament that was not obvious. She was not a beauty, at least not comparable to the beautiful and tall Bing Ruolan. She had no face and no figure, and probably only her interesting soul was different from ordinary people.

After all, it is really rare to see girls who like armor, like to watch fully armored soldiers fighting, and like war-themed games these days.

After looking at the girl who looked so ordinary, Bing Ruolan looked away for a moment and looked at the bedroom. The long-lost memories surged up from the depths of her soul, like the mud and sand on the seabed that was brought up when the ship pulled up anchor. Xiugenqing observed every detail of the room very carefully, the furniture, the furnishings, the half-bottle of happy water on the table, and the osmanthus tree rustling when the wind blew outside the window. Those things that she had almost forgotten forever surrounded her, and the mottled and faded memories came alive again.