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When last we left our intrepid sojourners in the land of the dead, they were on the banks of the River of Regrets. Shepherd had just guided them downriver on his raft and brought them all safely to shore again. True to his word, he proceeds to guide them deeper into the temperate rainforest and its towering trees, clinging mosses and curling vines. Even the underbrush reaches overhead quite often. It's all rather outsized, in this regard. One can't avoid the feeling that rabbits must feel like this from time to time.
There's no real path, per se, but between Kay's insight into the local terrain and Shepherd's intuition, they begin to make steady progress in the direction they believe the tree to be in. And in truth, knowing what they know, they probably don't need to put too much effort in. The canopy overhead just gets denser and denser the further in they travel, and at times they can barely make out knobby arching branches far, far above the canopies of the nearby trees. Suggesting that even now they are under its boughs.
Diamond uses their established mental connection, thanks to Aletheia to communicate. Hey Kotahitanga, are these plants alive or are they just the ghost of plants past? she asks as she slowly moves forward, having just cast her magic to know more of the domain. She keep close to the group as they make their way through deeper into the jungle.
Just ghosts, Rīpeka sends back, still perching on Kay's shoulder as a kererū. Pretty sure we're the only living things down this far, at least right now. There might be others before or after us.
It seems somewhat odd that the echo of the tree here is so larger than life, given that we're in the realm of death. Anyone have any guesses why? Rashida asks the other mages
Some possible explanations occur to them. For one thing, everything here is gigantic in this particular domain. They're in Honey I Shrunk The Kids land of the dead at the moment. Sort of. It's not quite to that degree. Some say the Mother Martyr died in the creation of the tree, which may have caused a much more indelible mark in the underworld than elsewhere. Though Kay has the very disturbing revelation:
Her entire culture ended with her. One way or another. Everyone but her was killed already. She was the last. Maybe she wanted to ensure they always had a home, the ones that couldn't move on. Alexis has a similar thought pop into her head, too, of course. Just not with the visceral connection it might have to a Child of the Tree.
There are tears in her eyes for a moment, she quickly wipes at her eyes and she clears her throat as she disseminate the information and insight she gleam through words and imagery. She reaches up for the bird on her shoulder and boops at the beaks of it. "I wonder what the ghost ahead are waiting for." she ask aloud, voice trembling.
Rīpeka just stretches up to rub her bird cheek against Kay's human one, lending her Sister her support. Good question. We should try asking them. They deserve that much and more, if they are tied to the Tree. Her mind voice is quiet, almost subdued.
She places a hand on Kay's shoulder and offers a comforting and sincere smile before she turns her attention back towards the "trail" ahead
Shepherd's nearly skeletal face regards Kayla's tears with curiosity. It's been so long since he's seen a human cry that he's left mildly confused by it. Like someone hearing snippets of a language that's fallen out of use for them. He ends up offering her a pat on the shoulder with his bony hand, genuinely sympathetic seeming. "I know, lass." He glances to the others, "Do your flesh suits need a break, or can we push forward. I know water on the face is bad."
"Not always. I think we're ok to continue on." Alexis glances at the others for confirmation
"I'm okay to go on, if we get too tired, our bird friend here can help." A sniffle, one thing Diamond did not have the foresight to pack was a box of tissues, which leads her to wipe at her nose and eyes with her forearm. "I just had a realization about this domain." she explains to the Shepherd. "The person who made it this way was the last of her people, I just felt that deep." she pats at her chest. a reminder, do not cast spells that affect our environment, the rules here are not to control or consume ghost or change the nature of the domain
"Not always? The living sure do have complicated lives, huh." Shepherd gives Kayla another pat-pat with his bony hand and then starts haunting his way deeper into the forest like an affable Welsh grim reaper.
By and by they find themselves on a definitive trail. Little more than a deer run at first, it grows into a proper footpath and finally even begins evidencing flagstones and pavers situated into the ground to keep the path from growing over.
And eventually, out of the ever-present mists and fog looms the tree itself. Many cultures have legends of giant trees. Yggdrasil of course being the most famous. Trees of life, world trees, truly ancient trees, though? Those stories are in nearly every culture on the planet. This tree? Sure does look a lot like that. Giant. Massive. Beyond massive. Unfathomably epic. It might take someone an hour to walk around the trunk, and forget climbing it. It's just a sheer rise into the sky. The roots gnarl and twist, burrowing into naked stone and the mossy soil. The whole of it pulses slowly like the heart of a sleeping giant, thrumming from the roots up into the sky with great gurglings of ... something. A massive pump suckling from the dead earth and sending its feast out into its branches.
And in the foggy dells between its massive roots, there are settlements. Groups of wigwams clustered around a central fire. Colonial huts in others, nestled around a well head. Smoke rises from the chimneys and hut roofs of several of the buildings, and shapes are visible-- ants, at this distance --milling about the buildings and walking among the twisting paths that circumnavigate the tree.
Can we visit that group of wigwams? Rīpeka asks. They might have information from before the Tree existed in our realm.
Kayla looks at the sheer scope of the Tree in the Underworld and place a hand over her heart, as if to keep it from exploding, the magnitude in size, the sight brings her to an almost stop, her mouth wide open before she manages to snap herself out of it. I don't think we'll have a choice if we want to get to the tree. I wonder if they speak Unami here, they wouldn't be the first ghosts that do.
If there we were to talk to anyone I would think it would be those people over there. : she says through the mental link, agreeing with the others:
Shepherd holds up again while they debate matters, staying out of it for his part. They're all just more dead people as far as he's concerned. He leans on his pole and waits, watching the settlements with interest.
That seems like a good place to start. Not to be overly cautious or anything, but maybe we should go white girls in the back for this one, just in case someone is a bit irritated with us still
Kay cover her mouth and bump shoulder when Alexis says that and goes forward on the path, trying to go closer to the tree, she walks a little more slowly, more casually than she might have otherwise.
They have a good deal of ground to cover yet. But as they're making no particular effort to conceal their approach, they're spotted before they get too awful near the base of the tree. If it seemed enormous before, it only gets more dizzying up close. At a certain point it stops even being a tree in their perceptions. Just a massive curving edifice or bark and brown, spotted over with mosses and vines.
The ghosts do not respond with hostility, though caution is evidenced. Some of the larger ghosts filter to the front and gather at the edge of the settlement, some with weapons in hand, others none. The weapons tend to be spears and bows, or farming implements. Nothing particularly fancy, and all of it practical to other purposes than murder. Finally, as the gathering gets closer, one of the older male presenting figures steps forward, hands folding up before himself. He looks over their faces, particularly those of Rīpeka and Kayla.
He asks hesitantly, as if uncertain, "Sisters?"
I'm losing my mind with how big the tree is here, Aletheia and Alexis, can you tell how tall or big the tree is? Diamond looks at the figure greeting them and she nods to the question being asked with a single word. She tries to speak, but words fails her for her first attempt. A deep breath and she seems to regain her composure rather easily, likely thanks to the spell woven into her mind by Aletheia. She replies in Unami, toward him while translating her words to the people on the telepathic link.<Unami> "Yes, me and her are sisters, Children of the Tree." she points toward Bird!Ripeka on her shoulder.
Rīpeka bobs her head when pointed at, letting out a soft cacaw as she does so.
"We do not see many birds here that are otherwise," he explains. "Well. If you are Sisters, you are welcome here. Who are your friends?" He gestures towards the white eyes with his walking stick. The gesture lacks menace. Plenty of suspicion, however.
I can tell the tree has something akin to a mind, I would like to attempt a Mental Scan of it but I am concerned this might come off as an act of aggression if it isn't informed ahead of time. But it doesn't seem like it has a desire to resist? This is just a bit odd.
<Unami>"Aletheia and Rashida." Diamond motions to them both in turn, matching their names. "They made the trip down here with us to make sure we'd be safe." After relaying the translation, she replies to Aletheia's assessment It is strange, but I'd wait until we're actually welcome to ask anything out of them
I can try to discern it, although I think I might not be able to get the spell large enough. Not enough ooomph to put behind it, I can probably only get it to the size of...well, a shopping mall. And not King of Prussia, even Rashida responds to Diamond
The explanation does not win the white people in the group approval, but it does earn them acceptance. Of a kind. The wariness persists, but they're no longer actively receiving the stink eye. So that's an improvement. "We have nothing to nourish you here. No food to offer that would sustain you. Even our water is of no use to you. The tree provides all we require, but this is not a place for the living, Sisters." He gestures for them to follow and walks back towards the line of armed ghosts, motioning them to go about their business, too. Some of them do, some of them do not. And the speaker does not seem to find any need to tell them find something else to do once he's told them to do as they please. So. Now they've got an escort.
He leads them down into the dell which contains their particular village. The ghosts of women and even children mill about, though the children are not as they should be. Never having had the chance to truly develop in life, their shades are stunted and feral seeming. They play, they run, and they laugh. But they're unnervingly inhuman about it. Just another injustice in a long list of injustices. The fire burns with ghostly light, consuming ghostly wood. It generates something like heat. A sort of pressure one can feel on living flesh that is cool, rather than hot. The ghosts seem to like it, though.
He motions for them to seat themselves where they please. Or stand, if they prefer. "Tell me. Why have you come?"
Rīpeka hops off Kay's shoulder when they reach the ghost fire, flowing back into her human shape on the way down. "The Tree has borne fruit. Two at once in the realm of the living, tied to a joint Awakening. We believe there may be a third here, tied to the Awakening of another."
"The tree's manifestation the world of the living has begun reacting to people awakening to magic like the Mother was." Diamond waves her hand very vaguely toward the Martyr's Tree. She nods to what Ripeka is saying. "We suspect the fruit may be elsewhere on another emanation of the tree, but we wished to make sure and visit and maybe learn more from the Tree here."
"There was a flowering not so long ago-- forgive me, but the days are all alike, here. I do not recall how long ago, precisely. The whole tree bloomed. I had never seen the likes of it before that I can remember. But. Well. Memory, too, is less than certain here after a time. We celebrated the occasion. But no fruit appeared. I am sorry, sisters. That you have come all this way for me to tell you no." The princess is in another castle, Mario.
"I am pleased beyond measure that these were tied to ... Awakenings? As you put it. The wheel still turns, and that is as it should be. I will try to answer what questions I can for you, or direct you to those who can, if I cannot."
"Sorry to interject, I was hoping to ask your permission to try and communicate with the tree directly. Perhaps it might have some answers that could also give us some further assistance."
Diamond looks over to Aletheia, surprised at the sudden words coming out of the woman's mouth, blinking a little bit. And she shrugs before turning to the ghost leading them "What should we call you?" she asks before anything else, she looks over the ghostly children playing, asking herself, almost aloud What would Balm Do? in this situation.
Do you mind asking them if they're ok with me casting a spell or three? I don't want to just start casting without any warning...
"I am called Elder Keekeuscund of the Unami," the man answers with a dip of the head. "You may speak to the tree at your pleasure. We do often." He leans on his walking stick for a moment before easing himself down onto one of the benches surrounding the fire and laying his stick across his lap.
That depends what spells you want to cast? She asks of Alexis and smiles. "Elder Keekeuscund, Would you mind if we used our magic to communicate or facilitate our understanding, we do plan on respecting the rules of the area with it?" She then looks toward the Tree and sigh slightly.
"Communication is acceptable. Meddling is not. And your idea of what is meddling and what is not may differ from her own." Keekeuscund gestures back towards the massive roots of the tree that loom high over the settlement. "With that understood, do as you please, so long as it hurts none of the shades here." He seems somewhat amused at these questions. "But she is right here. You may speak to the tree whenever you please."
Just making use of the Knowing practice. Nothing invasive or that extends beyond myself Alexis elaborates
Diamond then looks toward where Keekeuscund pointed and seems interested in visiting the area directed there. "I'll have some questions once we visit her. Do you know of her name? Or how we should adress her at all?" she seems rather ready to go there.I think that should be fine, I was just making sure with Keekeuscund first
Keekeuscund's confusion continues and begins to deepen at the questions. Perhaps the limited scope of his existence since his death has worn away the experience of not knowing how things work around here. "We call her mother. If she had another name, we do not know it." He then turns back to the roots and calls, "Mother, we have guests."
There comes a quiet rumbling and shuddering beneath the earth, but it doesn't seem to trouble the Elder any. In short order, a sprout appears in the ground that grows rapidly upwards into a tangle of twisting tree trunks. They wind together and grow into union at points, slowly weaving the form of a woman, about twelve feet tall, with a head crowned in leaves and flowers, draping down her wooden shoulders like willow branches. There's unearthly (literally) beauty to the figure, for all that it's just... tree. Two knots appear where eyes should be, a third forms the nose, a fourth split forms her mouth. Sap begins to pour from her eyes almost at once upon her appearance.
It reaches out with arms that are branches, its twiggy appendages slapping and vining around Keekeuscund as though trying to feel who it is that called her. The branches withdraw as the wind creaks through her canopy. The rustling forms his name: Keekeuscund?
"Here, mother." He gestures towards the gathering a second time, and the face turns slowly towards the group, looking between Kayla and the Rīpeka slowly, as though tilting this way and that on the wind.
The bark around her face stretches into the saddest of smiles.
"...whoa..." Alexis seems a bit stunned.
Rīpeka inclines her head respectfully when the tree woman looks at her. "Greetings, Mother. It is an honour to meet you."
Shepherd is keeping real darn quiet at this point. Yep.
The mother shifts her focus to Rīpeka quickly when her name is spoken, the rapid shift followed by the same easy listing in a breeze the rest of them do not feel. As she had with Keekeuscund, she reaches out with her branches and vines, attempting to twine about the Scion as she had with the Elder before her.
The vines wrap abound Rīpeka, the branches and leaves brush over her face and body. The process is not entirely pleasant, in that this is very obviously the flailing of the blind. And the flailing involves wood, bark, and other pointy hard bits. The pain is incidental to reading the form of the woman like Braille. And when it ends, the vines and branches withdraw again. Another rustle of wind through her hair carries the suggestion of the words: Not you, too, daughter? The effusion of sap increases with the question.
Diamond looks toward the figure that just appeared out of the branches and she smiles brightly, even if her vision blurs with tears, this is somehow emotional for the Moros and she raise her hand in greetings. "An Honor, truly. I never expected or dreamt that this trip would lead me to such a moment. Mother. We are alive, we are visiting." Kayla tries to soothe the worries of the mother.
Rīpeka nods to Kay. "There will come a time when we join you permanently, but that is not yet here. We are merely guests."
Alive... The branches rustle again as the vines reach out for Kayla next, and the branches buffet her as well. It's like the tree is trying to build a full picture in its mind of these beings before her, and can only do so by describing their size and shape with branches and vines. Eventually they retreat again as they had from the elder and Rīpeka both. It hasn't noticed Alexis or Aletheia yet, for whatever reason. Possibly their lack of address of her.
Guests...?
Both concepts seem just this side of foreign to this being.
You seek answers. It's stated simply. Of course they are. The work progresses, then...
"We seek answers, knowledge, we know the tree has bloomed fruits in responses to awakenings of our kinds." she replies in Unami. "The tree seems to be able to predict the oncoming awakenings and we were curious about that." a beat. "I'm also curious about a lot of other things as well, now that I'm seeing this Domain, that I'm speaking with you."
"...this is starting to make me wish I had had the time to learn Unami." Alexis says quietly, "I'm going to try to learn what I can about her physical dimensions in this manifestation now," she explains as she pulls out her dedicated tool.
"I'm mostly curious about a few things including some that might be difficult to communicate through normal means."
"I only know what I know, daughter," the winds whisper, "each of us echoes the one. We are watch posts along the path she laid out long ago. I nurture the souls of the dead. I try to bring them the peace they were denied in life. Until they move on, or the work is finished. Each echo of the one has a purpose as I have, though I cannot know their own. For I am not them. I have borne fruit from time to time. For those of you who die and come back again with three eyes open. I nurture them, too, those fruits. Little treasures, each one."
The Mother turns her attention to Aletheia when she speaks, reaching out towards her next. And then Alexis pipes up, and the vines branch out in her direction, too.
Shepherd keeps his mouth shut. If his face had much flesh left on it, he'd probably look a little amused about it, too.
Alexis closes her eyes and lets the tree feel out her shape, tapping her pen against an imaginary surface to 'ping' it like a Space version of sonar as she chants quietly in High Speech.
The Mother reaches out and measures both Aletheia and Alexis alike, with that same entirely accidental roughness. When the branches and vines withdraw, the tree looks their way, too, slowly glancing between the growing field of its awareness. "What are you curious about? I will answer as best I am able," is offered back to Aletheia. Alexis doesn't get a response, but she wasn't really talking to the tree, so that figures.
Is there anything we can do to aid you? Rīpeka sends back.
"I know you are spread through out many of the realms, are you only aware of yourself in each realm?"
"I know what I know and no more. I don't know the purposes of the other echoes. I know they exist. But I don't know why. Or where, really. We've never spoken. Maybe one day. If you meet one of them, please send them my love?" The winds whip a little more forcefully when more words are called for, sending leaves and sticks swirling around her roots before settling back to stillness again.
Diamond nods at the answers she get, running her hand over her hair and considers what to say next, listening to what information the others were sharing right this instant and smiles a little bit now. "Is there any fruit blooming at this moment, Mother? Or signs of one to come?" a beat as she worries about the implication of a positive answer. "What do you do with the Fruits when they bloom here?" A smile at the request the Mother places. "I think that would be possible, I'll make sure to remind any of those going into those visits."
"That is a very large tree." Alexis blinks as the spell resolves itself. "I imagine that we are each willing to convey your message. I know that I am hoping to go on a trip to your Astral echo, as that is the most likely location to locate the fruit tied to my own awakening." She nods in Diamond's direction.
"There was a blooming. It was so good to bloom again. It takes so much energy to bloom, but I bloomed for her." The tree slowly beds down towards Alexis, her branches once more reaching out to her, cradling her cheek with a few twigs as a vine licks around her throat in a manner that nearly constricts breathing briefly before withdrawing again. "Not for her. For you."
"Oh, I wept when he hurt you, dear child. I felt it in my roots and my sap ran free. But here you are." She straightens back up slowly and turns to gesture upwards with her arm-that-is-branch, up towards the surface again. "You will find her fruit beyond this place, where the living dream. Beyond the shared dream of humanity, beyond the world's soul, on the banks of the great black ocean. I have never seen it. I have never been. But. For so brief a time as your soul belonged here with me, Alexis, it belongs with her now. Find her. Send her my love."
The tree looks back to the group, swaying again as with the wind.
"In the Anima Mundi." Aletheia says
"Thank you." Alexis appears to be overwhelmed, at least for the moment.
Now we know for certain, I'm glad we do. Diamond looks back onto the Mother and smiles her way. "Could we explore the area near the base of the tree, try to understand it and you a little more?"
"The fruits. The fruits that bloom here I give to my children. They use them in their crafts and in their food. If outsiders learned of what we do here, they might come for this domain. So we do not trade with outsiders. We do not like to be known to outsiders." The tree's rustling imparts that final answer to the battery of questions.
The tree seems oblivious of Shepherd, who looks very, very awkward at the moment. But is wisely keeping his mouth shut. He even holds his palms up towards the Elder to indicate he's got no beef. Honest Amos!
"Do not meddle here." That is the immediate response from the tree, accompanied by a wide open gash in its bark and wood where her 'mouth' should be. It also makes a sound, though whereas the wind sounds gentle and calm, it sounds like wood starting to fail under too much weight, crackling, groaning, and screaming. "I am answering your questions, children. What more do you need to know? If you can explore without meddling, you may do so."
"I do my learning in many different ways mother." Diamond explains herself in Unami, she stretches her arms out and looks around "Any of my exploration will not lead to meddling on my part." she assure the Mother. Then, she turns to the group. "If you all want to return to the surface, I could open a gate for you that would lead back to where we came from, so we don't mess with the Leylines. I may... wish to remain behind for a while longer however."
"I'd like to remain here with you for a while, Sister," Rīpeka says to Kay, smiling slightly at the other woman.
"I think I should go, soon. Especially if the one who harmed me is looking for the fruit, it becomes more important than ever to take that Astral trip."
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