I have to retrace my steps, following the ichor trail back home and then off to wherever it leads later on. But before that (and after leaving Periwinkle’s onslaught of pebbles), I need to find the nearest comms faux-tree and tell some actually competent people about the… situation.

“Addressed to the Human-God Communications Guild — Hello. It seems I am the first to spot the assault of a deity who resides in the Arc. Or maybe not. Anyway… ichor trail, and Uncooperative god who goes by Fifth-God-Of-Left-Side-Of-The-Arc-Whose-Head-Used-To-Be-Coloured-Half-Periwinkle was attacked by people with peculiar magical abilities. The assailants have left a very, very obvious trail of ichor behind. Periwinkle is not very interested in explaining the situation.”

I wait a bit to see how soon the response comes. And it barely takes a minute.

“The ichor trail was already noticed. Communications with the deities of the Arc will be started in light of your intel. Thank you. Please wait for further updates from the Guild soon. Stay on stand-by.

P.S: Make messages as concise as possible when communicating with the Guild.”

So they didn’t realise the ichor was from the Arc. I guess it makes sense. My house is the closest to the Arc after all. No one else really wanted to take that house since there’s so many god sprouts in every corner, and mostly sentient sprouts. Or sprouts which are extensions of a god’s conscioussness — some don’t think that that god-sprouts with their own consciousnesses exist, saying that it’s all part of the original god’s consciousness. I’d disagree, since I’ve seen a tree that knew it was part of some Waterfall deity’s consciousness, but it didn’t care much about said deity and wanted to talk more about the black hole we’re orbiting. And about the blue fungi apocalypse of a few centuries ago. A very strange tree.

Anyway… I have been standing at the comms faux-tree staring vacantly for quite a bit. Just a little message to Camellia and then I’ll go pick up Loaf from Epiprocta’s place.

“Camellia: Hi. Are you busy with the ichor trail thing? You probably are. Hope you find something out. I talked to the deity (Periwinkle of the Arc) who was attacked and whose ichor is trailing, but didn’t hear much. Just got a vague ‘yes we will investigate it’ from the Guild.”

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I wait just a minute . “Lavan: They’re not letting me look into the ichor trail. They’re not letting me talk to any deities about it. I’m the best translator they have for sedentary deities —” Not true, there’s a couple who are better. “— but they still won’t let me look into it. Said to be on stand-by. Can you believe it? I’m still going to try and figure it out though.”

“They told me to be on stand-by too. Probably since I’m better with the travelling ones. It does seem like the ‘witches’ theory might be correct. People who are using magic in a peculiar way. I still don’t fully get it, but I figured it out from what the deity said.”

I wait a second, and then notice the inside of the tree squirming and gurgling gently. So another message is coming.

It comes, and Camellia says: “Some of the powerful ones at the Guild (Ferrus, Haema, etc) think the witches are people using the power of the deities for themselves. These are the people who have gone to follow the ichor trail, by the way. But I don’t think it’s witches, I think it’s someone trying to make some type of drugs from the ichor. I heard a lot of deities talk about people asking to draw their blood for that purpose in the past month. What I think is that the ichor supplier must be trying to purposely lead us to the creators. That’s the only explanation for the trail, and it lines up with the drug makers. Especially with how unlikely the witches thing is.”

“How exactly did they injure a deity to this point, though?! You didn’t see the deity’s wounds. Their main body was actually hurt. Not just a weak sprout. Their actual body, and a very stony, strong part at that. What normal person can do that?”

“You make good points, Lavan, but I’m still not convinced about the ‘witches’. How would they even make the ichor useable for their own magic? Countless attempts at using ichor for strong magic have failed. But let’s say someone did figure it out, finally. Why would they leave a trail? A clear trail that anyone can follow, and such a long trail at that? Why would they waste the ichor? There’s so much that doesn’t add up. May Ferrus and Haema and the others rot, I’m going to figure it out.”

That last sentence is strange, since he’s usually very laidback. But alright. Not like I know much about Guild drama.

“Good luck,” is all I write, before going off to see Epiprocta. I’m not going to blame him for trying to investigate, I’d do the same if I wasn’t completely out of my depth.