As I approached the huge tree, I slowly started to make out more and more details. The town built into the forest growing on its roots seemed to be mostly made up of tree houses. It was on the east side of the tree, so left from my point of view, and went around the trunk a good bit. The people seemed humanoid but I was still too far to tell if they were humans. Elves would be far more likely going by my Earth knowledge but it could be something else entirely.

The tree itself was riddled with holes in the bark. Some places looked like a bunch of trees had grown together to form a combined trunk. It was clearly still just one tree, though. The openings never extended far enough to fully separate parts of it. Inside the holes, more plants grew. And animals lived. And everything else one would expect from a forest-and-cliffside combination.

Birds of all kinds flittered about, sometimes competing over food, sometimes trying to escape the bigger ones. There was a species that looked like squirrels but with how far away I still was they had to be huge. Not quite proportional to the tree but probably three metres or more in height for their body alone.

The most interesting thing to me was that there was not a single node anywhere along the side of the tree. I would have expected something with the density I was still seeing in the forest below me but it was completely free. Like someone, or something, cleaned it up on a regular basis. I would expect there to be fewer nodes in the forest as I approached, then, but even that was not the case.

Three days after I had left the silverwood and its scaled fox guardians, I finally saw something I had not expected. The area behind the tree. Instead of more forest or even ground, there were just a few dozen roots growing over what looked like a huge gap in the world. This had to be the end of the plate we were on right now. More importantly, there was an opposite side of the gap. It was covered in a dense fog but what I could see at the edges was a telltale purple colour.

Taint.

Loads and loads of taint.

The roots growing across the gap only touched the other side in a few spots and over the purple horizon it took me a moment to see the millions of blue leaves lining the border. And the people moving between them. They were doing exactly what I suspected should be possible: Contain taint by growing silverwood trees.

Excited, I shot a quick image to Catori. She sent me a feeling of annoyance that was quickly replaced with interest in what I was seeing.

“Don’t fuck this up”, she sent.

“When have I ever?”, I said.

“The orks.”

“True, but they’re orks.”

“Point. How far?”

“I’m thinking another four days before I reach the town. Looks like a day’s flight to get to the gap, after that.”

“Tell me when you need help.”

I sent affirmation and felt her recede to the starling body. Whatever she was doing, I hoped she was happy.

I spotted the end of the ravine the following day. It just sort of flattened out before disappearing underneath the giant tree. My senses finally spotted something interesting as well. The roots had a bunch of gaps in between them and there was a soft flow of herba and victus coming out from the darkness. That meant there was most likely a node that made the tree grow this large.

Before I reached the town proper, I realized there was a sort of line where the nodes in the forest below simply… cut off. It reminded me strangely of the human plains and their thaumaturges but something was off. If they were using them for thaumaturges doing research, they would have set the line much further out and collected a lot more nodes. Instead, it was at most a day or two on foot to reach a node. That made no sense to me.

At least I could finally see the people more clearly. They had willowy limbs with slightly too-long arms and legs. From their heads grew hair-like strands of plants. There were grasses, vines, roots, leaves, flower petals, and in one case even thorns. Their ears were not pointed, though. In fact, they did not have ears. At least visible ones like humans. The sides of their heads were simply covered in more of their special type of hair.

Their skin tones were also more plant-like. Browns and whites prevailed with a few green tones and some orange or red here and there. The distinct male and female characteristics were still human, though, so they probably did not literally grow on trees. The most disturbing part of these people, though, was that all but the youngest of them had an affinity. Mostly it was herba but there were a few terras here and there and the occasional outlier of auram or praecantatio. That meant they were the ones taking care of the silverwood trees. Otherwise, how would one get enough of one of those rare aspects to form a proper affinity for them?

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I slowed down to my normal flight speed as I got closer to the town. It was late night, or early morning, maybe two hours until dawn so I found a spot to rest for a bit still out of sight of the buildings proper.

I was woken up a few hours later by voices closing in. They did not speak Ordugh, which confused me a little. I made sure I was properly hidden in the foliage before trying to make out what they were talking about.

I could easily tell there were four people. Three of them had quiet footsteps accompanied by rustling cloth while the fourth was a little heavier and distinctly four-legged. When they came into view, I saw one of the giant squirrels alongside three tree people. The squirrel had grey fur with white lines running down their back. They stood up as the group stopped and I realized they were almost four metres tall from head to ground. The tail was even longer. I was glad the trees around here were all at least 25 metres.

The tree people had simple clothes over their bodies, almost like a mix between a tunic and a dress. It looked to be woven from plant fibre, maybe grass or vines. Two of them were female with the third male. I wondered how I could tell the gender of the squirrel person when they suddenly looked right at me.

The next few moments were a rapid rush of actions. First, the squirrel jumped, almost making it all the way up to me only stopped by their size not being able to squeeze in between the branches. At the same time, the foliage around me grew denser and towards me. My shadows could easily fit through the gaps so I simply shifted out of the makeshift prison which only prompted more aggressive action. I narrowly dodged a spike of bark threatening to hit my neck and spread my wings while filling them with perditio. Three flaps later, I had cleared a small sphere around me from all obstacles.

“Catori!”, I shouted into my mind.

She was there before I even finished her name. I felt her sift through my memories of the last few seconds before she cursed.

“I’m contacting them. Survive.”

I sent a quick thought of confirmation at her before starting to dodge a vine grabbing for my left leg. Catori’s attempt at connecting our [Telepathy] to the people was slow so I pushed the Skill a little. The squirrel barely flinched but the tree people reacted much worse. They were screaming and two of them had fallen on their butts. I made sure to drop the perditio from my wings now that the attack had slowed significantly. Another [Eldritch Shift] put me on a nearby branch.

One of the tree people shouted something which made the squirrel stare at me, then the telepathic connection widened and Catori dragged me in.

“Now, care to explain yourself?”, she said, venom in her voice.

“Freak! Monster! Leave!” the still-standing tree woman shouted. In Ordugh.

I clanged my tongue and took the opportunity to take out my arcane speaker. With a gasp, the woman stumbled over a root and joined her brethren on the ground. The squirrel squeaked in surprise.

“Nonono!”, he shouted with a deep voice, “What’s that? You!”

Finally having a voice, I answered.

“Something that lets me talk without connecting souls.”

“Not… this?”

I felt a tub on the telepathic link and nodded.

“Good!”, squirrel man nodded, “Let them go.”

I severed the telepathic connection with the tree people which made them let out a sigh. When I tried to do the same with the connection to the squirrel, he held onto it. There was an image of a crowd of his people connected through their souls and a calm and relaxed feeling coming with it.

“They aren’t used to [Hive Mind]”, he said.

I blinked.

“I’m using an altered [Telepathy].”

“Just like [Hive Mind]. It’s good. They’re scared of it. Don’t tell them.”

“Is that why you learned to speak with your mouth?”

“No. We always could. Just didn’t like it. Evolved from them.”

I nodded as the tree people got their act together.

“Good morning”, I said, “I’m Fio and I’d like to know why you attacked me.”

The tree man snarled and they exchanged a few words in their language. Then he turned to me.

“You are wrong. Twisted! I could feel it.”

“You mean warped? I am well aware. I am also far past the danger point. I will not twist you just by being close.”

“That’s possible?”, the squirrel asked.

“Yes. Just ask Truth.”

“If he’d show up again…”, Catori grumbled in our mind.

“Truth is missing?”, the squirrel asked telepathically, “Not good.”

“Uh, you can hear me?”

“Yes? You are two. One there, one close. Almost like the hive, only too few bodies.”

“Uh… great! Thanks, I guess?”

“Get lost!”, tree boy said.

“Not good”, the squirrel replied, “I’ll take her to our place. Make her safe.”

The tree people hissed. It was a sound like leaves rustling in the wind while trees were cracking from the storm. It almost made me flinch.

“Then go!”, one of the women whispered. Her teeth were bare and I could see the sharp edges of her canines.

The squirrel nodded.

“Come, Fio! On my back!”

I took a moment to think before Catori nudged me approvingly. Decision made, I activated [Eldritch Shift] to return my body to its original form. Moments later, I sat on the squirrel's back and he was sprinting through the trees along the edge of town.

“I’m Triple-Eye”, he said, “Because I see so well!”

“Nice to meet you, Triple-Eye”, I answered, “I’m Fio and my headmate is Catori.”

“Hello, Fio! Hello, Catori! Headmate is a good word. You need a new body?”

“Um, sort of?!”, Catori said, “But we need to kill something to get me one… And I don’t want to kill without knowing I want to keep it…”

“It’s okay. [Hive Mind] is eternal. We can find you a body!”

“Really?”

“Yes! You become one of us!”

“I’m not so sure about that…”