Considering this seemed sparked by the child, this likely wasn’t as important a matter as previously so Vrasus wasn’t too concerned. Truthfully, he didn’t actually have a clue what this could be about; they had already established he saved Sera. Hence the tree simply waited for Neltu to explain the situation.

As the elderly elf once again made contact with the tree another network of threads travelled outwards from his hand, but this one was far smaller than the previous, only a few times the size of Neltu himself. Whether this was due to exhaustion or Neltu simply no bothering to create as large a network was unknown, but this did mean that the elf was unable to investigate Vrasus’ body as thoroughly as before. Luckily this didn’t seem to affect communication.

“Apologies elder, but I have a request from my grand-daughter.”

“Go ahead.”

The old elf glanced at the child besides him and smiled wryly to himself before continuing.

“You see, in the past few days, Sera has been somewhat… troubled, by the events of that day. Of course we are all grateful elder intervened but she is still a child after all. She was rather unresponsive for a time until yesterday morning when she begun working a… er… gift I suppose. It was finished just recently after much effort on her part and she wishes to give it to you as an offering of . I was hoping elder would accept, Im sure it would mean a lot to her.”

Whilst Neltu was speaking, Sera was strongly nodding along to his words with an oddly serious expression on her face. As an immensely ancient and sturdy tree, Vrasus had never considered anything cute before, but this scene of the young elf girl nodding her head with such a determined expression was really too adorable even to himself.

“Of course.”

Suddenly a small thread-like roots burst out of the soil. Although Vrasus ensured the root was much slower than back when attacking the Plain One, the speed and suddenness of the root still caused a couple of the observing elves, who had largely calmed down at this point, to jump in fright. Even Neltu showed some shock at the animated root which evoked the image of a snake stood up and ready to strike.

Ah, whoops. A bit too enthusiastic, perhaps.

Still, other than some surprise Neltu didn’t act, and so although the other elves seemed concerned neither did they. Vrasus moved the root, far more carefully this time, towards Sera and allowed it to hang there. When the girl looked at the root a shy but sweet smile appeared on her face, and after a moment hooked her ‘art’ onto the root. Neltu did not miss Sera’s smile and he himself showed pleasant surprise at it; evidently that was an unusual expression on her face recently.

Vrasus properly looked at Sera’s offering for the first time. It was a shaped like a ring, about the width of an elf’s head and seemingly made up of many interwoven vines, with multiple small blooming flowers of all colours pinned on it. The craftsmanship was obviously not high quality; it was done by a child after all, but the hoop did look like a good amount of care was put into its creation. Vrasus took a moment to appreciate the gift. It was the first sign of gratitude he had ever received and it actually touched him quite deeply, but as he was observing Vrasus noticed something very strange coming off of it.

What exactly this something was the tree didn’t know. It was like a tiny thread of misty water, invisibly to the naked eye in a similar way aura was, but even more ethereal. The same way the energies of the world could be compared to something physical, say stone, this thread could be compared to those energies; the thread almost seemed to be a higher existence. Vrasus thought for a second that perhaps this thread was intentionally left here, a curse of some kind perhaps, but this was dismissed; whatever this thread was, it seemed too… benevolent. Too calm and nurturing to be dangerous, and the very nature of the thread seemed beyond what the elves, or even he himself, were capable of manipulating.

Vrasus tried following the strange thread with his mind. It was incredibly thin to the extent it was questionable it existed, the first few attempts the great tree actually lost the thread like it just evaporated from his senses. He ended up having to use the entirety of his consciousness just to get a solid lock on the thread; with how difficult this was he doubted he could follow it too its end, but he was pleasantly surprised. The end of the thread was very close and after only a very short distance he found it. The thread linked up to himself.

What on earth?

Not just his body, but his very mind. This almost non-existent, exceedingly ethereal thread joined his mind with Sera’s offering. Not only this, but the thread seemed to flow from the offering towards his mind, like the smallest stream imaginable. The stream was also getting weaker, like it would soon evaporate into nothingness. But where this stream contacted Vrasus’ mind, when he actually tried to feel the effect, difficult in its own right, the thread seemed nourishing, refreshing, benevolent, and completely natural.

It was like his very psyche was being fed the sweetest nectar imaginable.

Whatever this thread was, it felt like it would soon disappear, so Vrasus tried his best to find out what he could in the meantime, but sadly very little was learned by the time it seemed to shrink away. Vrasus got the feeling from the way it disappeared that the thread wasn’t truly gone, just made so weak that it was impossible for him to detect it. But what exactly was this strange existence?

Luckily this seemed like it couldn’t possibly be a bad thing; the energy was just too gentle, to the extent that even his normally cautious self couldn’t believe such a thing was dangerous. Of course even the most benevolent things could be used to do harm, so he certainly wouldn’t forget about the thread, even if he was forced to put this matter aside for now.

I’ve been forced to put far too many matters aside recently.

This little investigation, from when the thread was first detected to when it disappeared, occurred over only a couple of seconds and so went unnoticed by the crowd of elves. The thread might have been short lived, but Vrasus had a consciousness which extended across an entire forest, if he concentrated he could act very quickly.

After the strange situation was concluded Vrasus returned his attention towards Sera, who was still waiting for some sort of response. It’s not like she could look at his face or anything. Despite this, whilst keeping her head slightly down and sporting a small but adorable smile upon her lips, the girl was looking towards the root in front of her, seemingly looking for a reaction. The resulting scene was quite strange. Regardless of what the thread was, the fact that the young elf seemed to be thankful towards him still filled the old tree with warmth.

Another new sensation. Too many of them lately.

That said, this sensation was of course a pleasant one. Chuckling to himself mentally, Vrasus carried the offering over to his body, placing it just above the very same hole which Sera had taken refuge in just several days ago. He slowly shaped a piece of bark on top of the entrance of the hole outwards like a spike to act as a permanent hook for the new decoration. Rain wasn’t an issue thanks to the extensive canopy high above the hill, so once the offering had been fixed in place by the small bark hook, leaving it there wouldn’t be a problem.

Once that was done, the elf girl seemed more content, turning back around to the other elves noticeably happier than before. Neltu gave a short thanks towards Vrasus before once again removing his hand and returning to his kin, this time without a similar incident and so instead he was bombarded by what were presumably questions. Vrasus himself obviously couldn’t make out what they were but from the way that everyone talked at once and the resigned expression on the elderly elf’s face neither could Neltu. After a moment, Neltu spoke a few words, to which the other elves quieted down somewhat. Finally the group began to head down the hill and back home.

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I really need to learn their language.

Whilst musing this Vrasus continued to observe the group as they made their short journey back. Neltu and the female elf he entrusted Sera to were in the lead and they seemed to be having a somewhat serious conversation. Very close behind them was Sera who was holding Neltu’s hand, occasional casing back glances towards the hill behind them and Vrasus himself. She also seemed to be being escorted by the other child of the group; the young male. He was barely older then Sera herself but seemed to be quite protective of her. Meanwhile, all the other unknown elves were having their own hushed conversation.

When the small assembly of elves arrived back in their village they did not separate. Instead, everyone who went to the hill, plus a few extra, returned to a large building in the centre of the village. This was the largest building in the village by a fair amount; most others only had enough space to comfortably hold a family of four at most, but this building was many times this size. The entrance opened up into a large hall which looked like it could hold maybe one hundred people. To the left and right of this hall were two large wings made up of several rooms each, their purpose unknown but not appearing to be residential. Finally there were a few rooms towards the back of the building. It was in one of these rooms that Sera, Neltu and the two other elves had gathered back several days ago and they seemed to be living in this part of the building.

Vrasus couldn’t accurately determine exactly what the building was used for, other than Neltu’s residence towards the back, but guessed the rest of it served similarly to a nerve centre of the village. Neltu and most of the others had gathered in the large hall near the front; Sera and the other child had been taken away to the back of the building. Adding in the new additions to the gathering there was now about a dozen individuals present in the front hall. Vrasus guessed everyone present were either close relatives or elves with a high position in the village, or a mixture of both. At first it seemed that Neltu was giving a speech, but soon enough it devolved into what looked like everyone present arguing with each other.

Although it was possible he could gleam some information about the relationships between the different elves by observing their behaviour, Vrasus was hardly interested in watching people shout at each other in a language he couldn’t understand. After a moment he retracted his mind from the village and started to think over what had happened.

Truthfully, Vrasus was overwhelmed just from existing in his current state before. He had only awakened several days ago, and whilst certainly it wasn’t as bad as back then he still hadn’t adjusted. He was also still very far from where he wanted to be terms of being able to manipulate his aura, but this was probably only going to be possible after a fair amount of practise despite his impressive progress over the past few days.

Other than this, he wanted information on the land and its other inhabitants. Although his worries over the elves had been calmed, at least for now, he still knew next to nothing about the Earthen Ones, Plain Ones, or the miscellaneous wildlife. They may not be as immediate a threat when compared to the large number of nearby elves, but to simply ignore them would be foolish.

Then there was the conversation with Neltu. The contents of the conversation themselves Vrasus was very pleased with, it probably couldn’t have gone much better realistically, but it was the fact that the conversation was possible that was an issue. Before, Vrasus was convinced that at the very least he was impervious to physical attacks from other beings, but now he wasn’t so sure.

Neltu clearly had some sway over Vrasus’ own aura, and hence likely also his own body. Although he could only create a network which covered a portion of his body, and felt that Neltu wouldn’t be able to simply take over that section, if the elf was going all out he would still probably be able to slow the flow of aura, reducing Vrasus’ power slightly. Assuming this is all Neltu is capable of, which seemed unlikely, then this still gives a simple avenue of attack for the elves: numbers.

What if we were to take two elves with this ability? Vrasus doubted all elves were as adept as Neltu but also doubted he was unique. How many similarly capable elves would be required to render the great tree helpless? Ten? Twenty? One hundred? Vrasus had no clue, but was certain that given enough numbers they could overwhelm him, perhaps even control him. It may not be possible with their current forces, but Vrasus knew there must be more elves outside his domain. He didn’t want to take the chance that, after a war with Neltu’s people, more could arrive, enough to defeat him. These thoughts only reaffirmed what he had already decided.

I must avoid conflict at all costs.

There was something else which troubled the great tree though. Before today, he had no idea that such a small being like Neltu was capable of anything like what had been shown. What if there were other unknown abilities out there which could also threaten him? What if Neltu was only the beginning? All that the elf had done was spread his mind throughout Vrasus’ body, more observation than anything else, with communication seemingly as a side effect, but what more could there be? Was there a Plain Ones who could, say, devour aura? Earthen Ones who could poison his own life-force against him? Or perhaps some yet unseen being which could do something even more insidious, beyond Vrasus’ current imagination.

These possibilities couldn’t be dismissed. Vrasus needed information, and the only nearby source was the elves. As such, he decided on his plan of action. The most pressing concern was to learn the language of the elves, both to befriend them and learn what they know, and whilst doing this he would further practise control and investigate the local ecosystem, including the Plain Ones and Earthen Ones. Apart from this, the strange thread from the offering must be kept in mind; he had no leads or ways to investigate it since it disappeared, but such a strange thing definitely had a cause; he felt he hadn’t seen the last of it.

More of an order of priorities than a plan. If only I knew more.

Thinking over the plan and realising just how simple it was, Vrasus could only mentally sigh to himself. But so little was known that this was all that could be done at the moment.

Returning his gaze over the elven village briefly, Vrasus noted that the arguments seemed to have ended; few elves remained and Neltu had already retired to his quarters in the back of the building, looking fairly pleased. Evidently the events of the day had been satisfactory to the old elf. Meanwhile Sera, like the majority of the village, was in bed; it was fairly deep into the night by now. Luckily, the girl didn’t seem as plagued by night terrors as usual tonight. If Vrasus had a face he suspected he would be smiling.

Satisfied, Vrasus retracted his senses from the village. Tomorrow he would begin really learning about this world.