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Diamond had remained behind after half of the group she made the trip with departed. Too much to process, too much to deal with, too much to understand here to just go back to her world just yet. She watches the ghostly people move around and go about their business, but her attention is more on the tree itself.
After resting shortly and asking Kotahi to help her with a bit of Magic, Diamond had used Body Control to keep herself from needing as much food among the other blessing from this particular spell.
Now, her attention drifts back to the tree and she ventures to tour around it, her death and life sight activated to better understand it's presence. She isn't scrutinizing it, but instead simply paying attention to the way those lens colors the surroundings.
Once the 'outsiders' are gone, the shades of the settlement go back to what passes for their lives. They mill about, gathering sap from the tree, tilling the ghostly soil, and taking turns minding the feral shades of the children. There's a strange and eerie similarity to unlife here and life in the lodge as she's familiar with it, and their tacit acceptance of the one they call Sister-- Diamond --is equally familiar. She's given the run of the place, and even the Elder leaves her be to go back to his own passtimes in the largest of the clustered wigwams.
This particular settlement is nestled into the depression between two of the massive roots of the tree, which rise to form a bowl on more or less three sides of the settlement. The temperate rainforest-like conditions mean mosses are prevalent, coating many surfaces and hanging from various structures. Here and there clusters of fungus poke out from the ground around the root system of the tree itself, particularly in the more shaded parts where moisture tends to stick around and temperatures remain cool.
TheUserWin (Floretta/Spicy/Kay)Today at 5:12 PM
Diamond moves between the roots as best as she can, without disturbing them, not that she has any significant weight or strength enough to even move something of that size even if she wanted to, and she takes her time to investigate the moss studying it with both the sights she's put on. Life on life, but in death is sure to draw her attention.
Then comes the fungus and that gently reminds her of the mushroom that Mary grows in the Hallow room back at the Sanctum of the Soulwardens. Her attention is thus drawn to them. "I wonder if they mean anything?"
There is something decidedly unusual about them. Otherworldly and almost impossible to intuit out. They seem, like much of the tree's strange manifestations, to be the work of archmastery practices that Diamond could not begin to describe if she tried. Some strange melding of life and death together, bridging both. Mushrooms and fungi have long held associations with this sort of duality, given they arise to help convert once living matter into nutrients as a part of decay. And that decay eventually renews life in a long cycling circle. These more than most, obviously. She simply lacks the resources, time, and equipment necessary to do such examination justice in the field.
A smile appears on Diamond's list and she looks as to where the fungus are coming from or where they seem to be going. Maybe under the roots or maybe over it, as she seems to grow more curious about that particular duality. She could, potentially, scrutinize the specifics of these mushrooms and maybe glean some kind of insight, but would the Mother consider that meddling? Better not risk it just yet. Instead, she moves about, continuing her search.
"Mother? Would you mind if I scruntinized the Mushroom? I'm not planning to change them in anyway, I'm... curious." It feels odd, speaking to the tree so directly, she'll miss that when she returns to the world of the Living.
The bark on the towering root before Diamond splits in three seams. Two begin to leak sap, the third moves in the idea of forming words as the wind picks up again, rustling leaves and the underbrush in a manner that seems to convey words. "Is that you, Diamond? You did not leave with the others? What is scrutinizing?"
"It is me Diamond. Me and Kotahitanga chose to remain behind for a while. I felt like I needed the time to process what I've learned, what I've witnessed." A beat and DIamond smiles. "Scrutinizing is when one of the awakened study something with the sight that magic grant them. To learn more about mysteries." A beat "It also can be a little more involved than just looking with the eyes." She says, describing the process of scrutiny as best she can to the Mother.
"You should not tarry too long in the lands of the dead, child. You may have plenty of time to do so in your own season. I truly hope you do not, but you may. You are curious about the Mother's Ashes, yes? The fungal growth?" The ground ruptures beneath one of the clusters of fungus, and a vibrant green tendril of vine lifts up a gobbet of earth towards Diamond, one of the purplish-blue and vaguely glowing things held before her face. "These?"
Diamond takes a respectful step backward when the ground rupture, her interests does no, in fact, translate to recklessness. She acquiesce to the Mother's words "I understand, Mother." a dim smile appears on her as she speaks those precious words. "I had no idea that's what they were." she narrow her eyes at them fungi there. "I am curious about them, yes. I'm curious about everything here. in truth, but this is particularly interesting to me."
"You are right to be curious. There is much here to learn from if you take the time to learn." The eyes and mouth on the roots slowly seal up and more roots and vines surge up out of the ground, slowly coiling about one another to by and by form another avatar of the Mother. The vine holding up the gobbet of soil slowly takes the form of her hand at the end of her supple wooden arm. The vine arm slowly extends it towards her, as though offering a gift. "The ashes were scattered when the work began. Spores intended to allow my mother to manifest here should she wish it. Maybe she believed some day she would visit this place again. To see the shades of those she knew in life. If that is so, she has never used them. But they remain tied to her in ways I cannot comprehend. Like a piece of her that fell away when her body became superfluous. Like ashes to a corpse. A part of the whole."
"I never met my mother. But I feel like I know her. I feel her love like a breath on the back of my neck. Perhaps we can ... know her better. Together?"
Diamond is quiet for just a moment as she steadies the emotional reaction to the offer and the way the Avatar is speaking to her. She accept the offered branch/hand/soil gift as seems appropriate. "I would love that." she powers through the rather personal rush of emotions as her memory flashes back to her own mothers. "Thank you for offering this." she speaks in the Unami language. She looks upon the Avatar of the Mother and seems curious as to how to proceed for a moment, following the lead.
"Study it. Bring it back when you are finished and tell me what you have learned. You will need to feed it energy when it is not here with me. Nurture it the way I have it, and perhaps you will come to understand it as I do. And perhaps you will understand it better. And if my mother comes to you, will you please give her my love? I have worked so hard. Just as she asked." The roots and branches that form her fingers gently release the gobbet of ghostly soil to Diamond's care and slowly move to cover what would be the creature's heart if she had one. The sap pours a little more freely from her eyes in the process. "Be sure not to meddle with the sample there in the land of the living where I cannot see or sense that you are meddling even a little bit. That would be breaking a rule. And we cannot break rules here in the underworld where I manifest to enforce the rules. I have to say these words to you so I am. It would be a terrible shame if you were to learn something about me that was purposefully hidden from me at the time of my creation when I'm not there to do something about it."
"Such a shame."
"A crying shame."
"Tell me you understand what I am saying."
Diamond looks down at the ashes in her hands, then upward to the Avatar of the woman above her and she studies the woman in front of her and smiles at the incredible treasure she is being given. When the Mother begins to speaks and suggesting things about meddling with the Ashes, she ponders for a moment, studying the expression of the woman. She smiles and nods. "I understand what you are saying Mother."
"Good. Then I can safely entrust this to you for safekeeping." The avatar of the Mother seems quite pleased with herself for a few moments before reaching out with her vining hands to briefly cup Diamond's cheeks. Which is a bit like shoving one's face in a bush, but the idea of maternal tenderness is there. "I am proud of you, my child. Go. Enjoy being alive. There's still so much work left to be done, and it's going to be the hardest work of all."
Diamond leans into the touch, even if it's like pushing her face into the foliage, she's experienced worse and the feeling clearly makes up for it. "I will gather my things and my remaining companion. I'll be sure to listen to your advice and enjoy my time alive." She nods and even offers a hug to the Mother before setting out to do just that.
Wood creaks and strains as the limbs of the mother tree slowly wrap around Diamond's back. The great wooden head of the mother lowers to rest her forehead and nose against Diamond's own as the sap slows to a trickle. There comes a great sigh of wind that stirs the undergrowth briefly and dies away, leaving the pair resting like that for some time. The knots where her eyes are even slowly close, causing a last little spurt of sap like a single tear rolling down her cheek.
"I wish I could meet you all. Give them all my love. Hug the little ones. Hug the little ones most of all, Diamond. For me." She's spent centuries with children robbed of reason and sanity, after all.
Then her arms slowly fall back open and she drifts back again, giving Diamond her space again. "Soon. I will see you again soon." And with that, the life seems to withdraw from the Avatar. It grows less supple, still as a tree, empty and devoid of intelligence. And then it slowly lists to the side and crashes to the forest floor, moldering right before her eyes and bringing new sprouts of the mother's ashes on it and around it.
"Yeah I'm definitely going to see Balm when I get back." Because that is definitely where all the little Sprogs are and they are definitely getting a hug. She kneels at the new sprouts of the mother's ashes and she examine them just a moment, before just standing back up and whispering. "Yes, I will see you again." she moves back toward the village where her things are, where Kotahi is, and where she knows the path to go where can get create a gate back to the real world.
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