Not wanting anyone to interfere with her plan for air, she drew a deep breath and asked the portal system to take her outside the stone fortress. Crossing through, she emerged outside, in the forest, a short distance outside the low walls around the massive fortress. Deidre was astonished by the size of the stone stronghold. It towered twenty stories tall and sat in a clearing the size of two football fields. It was built on high ground, and the forest sloped downward and away from the fortress.
Orienting herself, she caught sight of the green haze again and walked along the edge of the forest, seeking a path. Multiple dirt deer trails moved away. She needed the time to herself and hoped the connection to nature helped clear her head. She chose a trail that appeared to head in the general direction she wanted to go and began walking.
The forest was cold, the rustle of pine trees against one another faint. A breeze swept over the tops of the trees to make them sway but didn't reach the still air of the forest floor. Night animals stirred. Deidre listened to their rustling and distant cries and focused on placing her feet along the path. The outside world distracted her from her troubled thoughts. She forced herself to notice how dark the sky was, the rich scent of earth in the air, the tickle of the pine needles that brushed her skin.
The path towards the lost souls was anything but direct. The twists and turns led her sometimes towards it, sometimes back the way she came. As she walked, the fear and helplessness uncoiled, loosening their grip on her chest. Her step grew less brisk. She began to marvel at the world around her again, something she hadn't done in days. It calmed her to recall how beautiful and different nature was at night. The forest and darkness created a sense of cozy intimacy, one that held her without crushing her, unlike the rest of the world.
Deidre was breathless and upbeat when the lake came into view over an hour later. It was roughly round with a narrow panhandle that was closest to the fortress. The lake glowed like it was radioactive.
She stopped a dozen meters before the edge of the forest, wondering if there was any sort of hazard in being so close to whatever it was causing the lake to be green in the first place. A form melted from the shadows before her, and she held her breath.
Dressed all in black with weapons strapped in places identical to where Gabriel wore his, the tall man was lean with cold eyes. He scrutinized her for a long moment, eyes narrowing, before he stepped aside to rejoin the shadows. Deidre stared into the forest where he'd disappeared. Nothing moved. He hadn't spoken or drawn weapons on her. If he was a sentry guarding the lake, he'd deemed her not a threat.