I quickly realized why I had not seen the ravine before. Even knowing where it was, I could not spot it after flying less than ten kilometres. That was not even half a minute at full speed. At least I knew where it was, approximately. I asked Catori to find a clock near where she was right now and it turned out there was one sitting on the wall of the room she was in. After having her watch the time, I took off at top speed. I was flying directly opposite in the direction of the ravine leading mostly south. If my calculations were correct…

And they were. It took just over four hours to reach the border of the human plains. I had made much more progress than expected. Over a thousand kilometres in about two weeks. Most of that was likely travelling the ravine in the latter half but still… I now had a very good reason to scout the area more thoroughly for silverwood.

I spent another week systematically scanning the Deep Green in the area between the human plains, the ravine and the ork mountains, going west to east. Once I got to the crossroads, I decided to stop the search. Compared to the size of the forest, it was barely a drop in the bucket. It would be something to continue once I had nothing better to do. For now, I was going to move further towards the tree. With such a landmark, I would not be surprised to find a civilization around it. Or maybe even on top.

I took another two nights to find two more bodies near the ravine that had somewhat decent senses. I would use them to scout further east from the crossroads whenever I was resting with my main body.

After two nights of mostly just flying towards the great tree, I finally got a better idea of its scale. I could see the first ridges in its bark and spotted some gaps in the leaves. I also saw the roots for the first time, or rather the trees that grew on the roots. They formed a sort of hill all around the great tree and if they were the size I expected from the forest around me, the great tree had to be at least two kilometres tall. Maybe even three.

The most interesting thing was the light near its roots. At night, when I was travelling, there would be a yellow glow shining for the first few hours. It was very obviously some kind of civilization. It looked like I still needed a week or two to get there even at top speed but I was looking forward to it. My knowledge from Earth made me think I would find elves there. If so, would they be like the dwarves and orks? Similar but with some distinct differences to the stories I remembered?

The next day, one of my scouting bodies died. I missed the fox looking for a quick meal and the lizard I was using was eaten. I left the body the moment I felt the teeth close in. Now I only had a songbird left. Maybe I should have gone for bigger bodies? But then, I would not have been able to avoid being spotted around nodes as easily. I made sure to use the last one a little more carefully. I could always find new scout bodies but they would start from a completely new place.

As I took off again soon after dusk, I quickly noticed something different about a nearby patch of forest. No, it was just one tree. It was almost impossible to notice but there was a different colour in a few leaves. I made my way closer, making sure to stay high enough to avoid any danger, and quickly realized what was happening. There was a tree with blue leaves. Silverwood. Maybe? I hoped so.

I slowly circled the spot while using my soul sense to look for any living beings around. The feedback was immediate. There were three sapients within 500 metres of the tree. One of them was sleeping on a branch two trees over, the other two were moving around.

More importantly, there were two nodes. And they were way too close. One of them was major and barely six metres from the silverwood tree. It had terra and herba as its aspects. Nothing too spectacular. The second one was a minor node. It was inside the tree. And it had a combination of aspects I had never seen before. Auram, praecantatio, and sano. Just finding any node with either of the first two was incredibly difficult, even sano being very rare. Having all three in one place? This seemed… excessive.

I carefully studied the nearby souls. The two moving people were clearly focused on herba and terra. The one sleeping nearby also had some of them but there was the very obvious pattern of the silverwood tree’s node.

I took half a dozen more circles before finally coming to a decision. I wanted to approach these three people. Sapient animals, most likely. And I had one mostly new Skill I wanted to try. [Sleep Talk]. The previous main effect of telepathy was still there but I had never used what it was actually for. I just barely caught myself before activating it. In my excitement, I had forgotten to find a safe place. Just using a new Skill in a dangerous area would be… stupid. Especially since it could make me move into my target’s dreams. So I asked Catori for help.

“Give me a moment”, she said, “Ten minutes?”

I sent back an affirmative and kept circling quietly.

Around 20 minutes later, she connected to me again.

“I’m ready. Sorry about that.”

“No worries”, I said, “I’ll try to connect. Keep an eye on our main body. I don’t know how this will go.”

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“Sure.”

I mentally braced myself before counting down from three. Once I got to zero, I pushed my will into [Sleep Talk] to connect me to my target. There was a lurching feeling, like falling and being pulled upwards at the same time, before I dropped into what I could only describe as intellectual molasses. It took me a moment to parse the feelings before I got interrupted by Catori shouting into my mind.

“Pull up!”

I felt myself blinking and flapped my wings. Air pushed me up. But I could see nothing. Then, there was curiosity. It came from above and below, a question of who I was. What I wanted. From the sides came Catori, pushing images. Then other senses. Hearing, taste, touch, and what little smell we had. Slowly, I found myself both in my body and in my target’s dream. I stabilized my flight and rose the 50 metres I had dropped.

Meanwhile, the curiosity got stronger. I saw a hint of nervousness behind it, mostly directed at the images coming from Catori. I shaped my will to build a wall. It only took a few seconds to set up a funnel and the images reached only me.

The hint of nervousness turned into what felt like disappointment. Something reached for the walls, trying to see more. I made to push against it, then stopped myself. Instead, I presented myself with a friendly greeting.

There was a giggle. A little like a child in an empty factory building deep at night. Then, a cry. Not human. A raspy, slightly unhinged voice coming from a beastly throat.

I clicked my tongue. There was a moment of delay before I felt my body do the same.

The cry returned, slightly deeper this time, with more control. With it, came an image. It was washed out like a painting hanging in the sun for years. I could still see the shape of a tree, taller than any around it. Not the great tree, that one stood in the distance. I was taking steps towards it before I realized it was the other one’s dream.

I hesitated for a moment, then pushed its eyes to move around. I looked back at the large tree. The silverwood tree. It snorted and turned away. Frustrated, I pushed and the forest disappeared into the ground. Instead, we now stood in a plain. The great tree was still in the distance, its roots barren. I turned again, the silverwood was still there.

With another cry, the other one turned back to the great tree. I made it look down. The earth broke in millions of places. Tiny little saplings started to sprout. Their bark was white, their leaves blue. They kept growing as if in fast-forward.

The other one snorted. One by one, the silverwood trees started to wither. Dead twigs stood and turned from white to brown before falling apart. Only one remained.

I risked a glance back. The silverwood tree was gone. Instead, there was a pile of dirty and rotten leaves. They still had a hint of blue.

“Only one?”, I thought to myself.

The image disappeared. Panic shot at me from the other side. Then the molasses started to churn. It felt like years but it was barely a second before it whipped into awareness with a crack. My soul was pushed back to the limits. The connection returned to normal telepathy. Just in time for me to hear the same cry I heard the first time, only louder.

It broke the night, an aura of energy rushing into the trees. The other two souls rushed inwards from their scouting, more vis pushing into the forest. Moments later, the forest started to glow. Vines and leaves shot out of the canopy blindly aiming for something. Then, I felt a tug on my telepathic connection. The next leaf missed my left wing by a finger’s width.

I almost panicked but Catori was on the ball. She pushed herself into the connection and hummed a soothing melody. She interspersed birds song, a starling, and I felt the other side calm down. Then, the first vine clipped my talons. They had grown over 200 metres long at this point. I pushed my will into my wings, rushing forwards. The wall of green rising to stop me only stood for a moment as I pushed out vacuos vis all over my wings. My head got tangled for just a moment until I could flip my body around. I had still lost a few dozen metres of height in that one second. The next vines were already upon me. Shadows exploded from my body. The first large-enough space in front of me soon found itself occupied by my body.

Then, more vines. Again and again, I shifted. Six times, then a seventh. After the eighth, I was out. I looked back. No, they were out. They no longer had the vis to keep up the barrage. At least this far from their node.

I had ruined it. Now, I would need to find another silverwood tree. Or I had to kill these people.

Catori mentally slapped me. Then, she pushed through my body again. This time, without the heat of the action, it was a little unpleasant. So when I saw her connecting our soul to the other two sapients, I pushed for it. She retreated with a mental nod.

“Let’s try nice, first”, she said.

Her voice was stern. She was ready for violence. If it came to it.