Racheal brushed aside the topic. She would rather help the tree than spout off about her own experiences with the Myconid. Although they were both mycelia-related races, Fungoids and Myconids had major disagreements that she wasn't prepared to begin to explain to the tree. It was a lengthy story and the topic was rather niche. Being thankful for all the tree had done so far, she didn’t wish to burden it with her problems any longer. She knew from her past, that while lending an ear to someone else’s problems may be a kind thing to do every once in a while, there was a limit to how much one actually wanted to hear.

In any case, Racheal felt her cheeks flush once again. She was ashamed of getting so heated in front of her benefactor. The fungoid woman didn’t think she was prone to anger, but for some reason talking about the Myconids after so long had brought back bad memories. She quickly turned the conversation around with the tree.

“I’m sorry about that outburst, you wanted to learn more about me, right? Might I suggest including the entire caravan in that, too?”

The tree paused, seeming to make a decision in favor of that. Its otherworldly blend of voices spoke out again.

“Yes, that sounds good. I want to know what led you all to this spot in the forest…aside from the orders of your captors, I mean.”

The quick addendum of the tree made Racheal smile a bit. It must be attempting not to offend her further. From her perspective there was no need to do this, as she had gotten riled up all on her own.

“The caravan was originally set up further north, in a forest known as the Filigost Woods. The slavers set up ambushes along well-traveled pathways in those woods, capturing elves and others as they passed. When I was captured a few weeks ago, I was walking by myself. I know, not a very smart idea, but at the time I thought I would only be gone for a few hours to get the herbs I needed. When they brought me back to the caravan, there were already around twenty elves, men and women, shackled in chains.”

Racheal couldn’t help but spice her voice with hate. It was a truly harsh few weeks, and despite it only occurring a short time ago it had felt much longer under the oppression of the guards.

The woman looked toward the tree in front of her, the only thing she could see in the generated darkness. Its leaves swayed a bit slower as she recounted the first part of her story.

“I’m sorry you had to endure that, Racheal. There’s nothing I can do to take back what was done to you, but I hope you can find sanctuary in this forest.”

Racheal shook her head.

“I had it easy, compared to some of us. If I had been sold early, or if we hadn’t moved around so much, I would have had it a lot harder. Possibly being sold off to a noble family as someone’s ‘comfort’ or domestic slave, would have been much worse.”

Racheal did not exaggerate. It was true that she could have had it much worse, and many of the elven women she had come to see as friends and comrades in suffering, did.

“You know how I said there were around twenty of us in the beginning? Well only two were sold before we had to leave. The rest didn’t make the week-long trip it took us to get down here. They weren’t even buried as we moved, just unclipped from the chains and left to rot on the roadside.”

Tears started to form at the corners of Racheal’s blue eyes as she spoke. Recounting the awful memories of the men and women who were too weak to stand after being dragged through rain and mud was hard for her.

As silent tears fell down her face, a root rose from the broken ground, hovering before her. It was curved, pointing out as if unsure whether or not to comfort her.

“I’m sorry.”

The voice soothed. Racheal gasped, wiping her tears and taking the root in hand. Squeezing it, she closed her eyes.

“Thank you.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

…

Licht comforting the fungoid woman briefly made him nostalgic. Thinking of how his own daughter had behaved earlier in her life, he listened to Racheal’s tragic tale. Though nostalgia quickly turned into grief. The things she said, and then continued to talk about made his stomach wrench in discomfort.

As she described one particularly visceral tale about an elven woman who she had come to know as a friend falling ill, he manipulated his root to comfort the woman again. The guards of the caravan had seen that the elf was falling ill along the journey to the south, but had denied spending any of their medical supplies on her. Chuck, apparently the man they viewed as the leader of the caravan, had given the ultimatum to Racheal to either leave her friend by the road to die or take on the burden of caring for the elf herself. Chuck, as Racheal had described, hadn’t seen the benefit in spending good supplies on someone who was sure-to-die, and had stopped giving the elf rations. This forced Racheal to half her own already meager meals with the elf.

The more Racheal described the caravan’s once leader, the more detailed an image Licht got in his mind of the heartless ex-noble.

“If I’m visualizing this man right, Chuck may be one of the three men that was slain further in the forest.”

Licht offered as soon as he reached the conclusion. Not thinking too much before speaking.

A melancholic smile appeared on Racheal’s face. She nodded slightly, as if she was anticipating that.

“To be honest, I had kind of expected something like that was what happened. I’m grateful you revealed that to me. I’m sure it would put many of the elves at rest, knowing for sure now that Chuck and his guards weren’t still waiting behind some corner out there.”

Licht internally smiled, glad he had thought of that.

“Though,” Racheal continued, her slight smile becoming a more serious expression of confusion, “If you are rooted here, how are you informed about things that happened on the other side of the forest? Did Chuck and his men disappear that shallow into the trees? I thought I remembered them walking into the opposite side of the clearing…”

Licht froze. Oh, right. He was actually speaking from a tree that was on the opposite side of the clearing as his main body. He had slipped up. Unfortunate.

Licht looked into the woman’s suspicious expression. They had their heartfelt discussion, and Licht doubted that there were any malicious thoughts inside the fungoid woman’s head, but the theory of a communicative tree colony could only be spread so thinly…

Should I just further her misconceptions? Licht wondered. In all likelihood, further adding to the theory of him being a colony of sentient trees rather than a singular being presiding over a section of the forest wouldn’t be that hard. Occam’s Razor and all that. Whatever seemed the simplest was probably the most likely.

But should he really play games with Racheal’s perception of him like that? He didn’t want to do her wrong. Considering she had done nothing bad to him so far, it wouldn’t be fair of him to suddenly deal her a bad hand. She was at least better than twenty or so of the people he had met so far.

It wasn’t that simple though. Licht knew by telling her, even if she had good intentions, there was a chance she would tell others about his nature. That could lead to his security being threatened, and the possible idea of hunters might become realistic. In a survival situation, information was paramount, and Licht had none. He had no idea whether or not the ability to occupy other trees would be associated with the presence of an Ego or the white leaves by outsiders. He didn’t even know if they were correlated for god’s sake!

It seemed like there were far more cons than pros in this situation, and he had wrestled with it long enough in his head that Racheal was starting to notice the extended silence. Ultimately, Licht thought, this was his second life. He didn’t want to redo things exactly as he had done them, but he also wanted to stay true to himself. He wanted more freedom in this life, that he knew, but he also wanted to stay kind to people, and care for them. He couldn’t do both things by being scared of a hypothetical third party his whole life.

He would tell her.

…

The silence was deafening to Racheal. It wasn’t the kind of silence that Racheal had become accustomed to, where the tree was making a decision or realizing something, no, this was a debate. Racheal had asked something she shouldn’t have, and the silence that followed made her realize what kind of being she was talking to.

I don’t even know how this spell works! Is this even a spell? What if it traps me in here because of the question I asked? Racheal slightly panicked as she looked around the darkness with wide eyes. For all she knew, this was just how plants naturally communicated, but the tree had said it was a ‘skill’ that it had used. Did that mean this was really a spell?

Were trees even born with magick? Were all of these trees spectrals?

“Um, excuse me? I’m sorry if I got overly curious. You probably just heard about Chuck’s disappearance from your kin…”

The otherworldly voices rang out in her mind. This time, following her question with an appropriately short hesitation.

“No, I’m sorry. I had to come to a decision. There’s something I should probably tell you if we’re to continue talking…”