"Will you show me the power, and what is required, if I agree not to tell anyone else that I learned it from the druids. If I pretend that the same power that allows me to revitalize the land also allows me to revitalize remains."

"This is not a thing you can learn; you are not a druid."

Korva will try, rather than arguing, to mimic Camellia's entangle spell, in a place where it can be seen, and see whether it takes.

Then her own vines will hiss and twist and whisper up through the undergrowth!

"Strange," says the squirrel. 

"All right. Which among your number would you see reborn now, so that you can learn to do it?"

......oh, she's an idiot. She'd intended to convince someone to come back with her, of course, but that's no excuse; she should have brought the remains with her.

"Unfortunately, I had hoped to come back with someone, and didn't think to bring the remains with me. It seems a waste to kill someone, when others lie already dead. Shall I go and come back?"

"I will not permit you into my forest again."

"Fine, then. Ember, telepathic bond, all but Daeran and Aivu."

Ember casts telepathic bond!

We're not going to kill someone, are we?

I'll get them back, whether the squirrel double-crosses us or not. The worst that will happen is that we'll be out a diamond, and I think that this is worth risking a diamond.

My understanding is that creatures usually come back as something else - another humanoid, in the stories I've heard, but of a different race and sometimes a different sex. The risk you're taking is of ending up in a form you don't like, not of dying. If you don't like the form, and I can cast the spell, I will certainly try again after the crusade, but it may go no better the second time.

There's no compelling reason to kill Ember or Daeran, so we won't, and we're obviously not killing Aivu. Our baseline, if no one actively wants this, is Nenio, who doesn't seem to care what form she takes. 

Regill is old, and already halfway through bleaching. If you want, Regill, this could be a chance to reset that. My concern is that it might make you worse at your current fighting style, if you come back as a giant or something.

Lann, if you wanted a chance to costlessly get out of being a neather, this is it. I have the same concerns about you potentially needing to relearn how to fight afterwards, and - I think you might be more attached to being a man, at least more attached than Nenio is to being a woman, but - I know you're not happy about the form you have now, or about how much time you have left. So if you want to take a chance and try being something else, this could be something you want to risk.

I won't order this for anyone. I might make a face at Nenio if she comes up with an objection to it.

Why would I object? This is an unprecedented opportunity for scientific observation! But you must promise to take thorough notes for me while I'm dead.

I'll pay attention, don't worry.

The wizard seems a better candidate than I am. I do not fear death, but I would rather not risk the ability to command from the front.

Understood.

Lann?

"I'll do it," he says, aloud.

We all like you fine as you are, you know. Or - everyone whose opinion you ought to care about.

I like you fine as you are. So - only do this if it's for yourself. Don't do it for anyone else.

It is for me. I'll need to find something new to mope about, but the moping would probably be even less endearing after passing this up. I'll take the risk of ending up a hobgoblin or troglodyte or something.

Unless you're asking me not to -

"Okay! We're killing Lann. Thanks Lann. You're so awesome, Lann."

And the squirrel leaps off the tree, and grows into a monstrous beast bigger than an elephant, and lunges to bites Lann in half.

And then changes form, again, into an old woman, who pours some unrecognizable oils over Lann's body and then begins casting a spell. "It will take a cat's share of the day," she says conversationally, "for a new form to come forth from the world for your friend."

She watches the spell. Carefully. She's good at this, and it is a size she can cast, she thinks, but she needs to get this right, and it's a long one, like Liotr's. 

"Thank you."

" - what's in the oil?"

"It is extracted from delicate plants that only druids can protect and grow," the woman says indifferently. "Perhaps if you restore life to the Wound you can foster those plants there." 

"...all right."

"Will you show me the kind of plant, after, so I can try."

"I have done you a boon already. If you desire another you will have to pay for it."

"That's very fair. Is there anything in particular you take payment in."

"If you succeed in restoring the Worldwound, druids will be permitted to do our work openly, there. Our land will not be handed to righteous metal-wearing knights or hungry, foolish peasants or the blind followers of blind gods."

She watches the spell, for a while.

"It isn't mine to give away, right now, or to promise not to."

"Thank you for the spell."