“That thing was much worse than any of the others we’ve seen”, Catori said after I had gotten a few minutes of distance. I was almost back on the other side of the lake.

“Yes. And it was also much stronger than I thought. That jump cleared probably something like five metres.”

“But why? The swarms weren’t that bad. Or the frogs.”

“I mean, at a few hundred metres height I wouldn’t be confident to say the frogs weren’t bad. But you’re right about the swarms. Something’s going on there.”

“Maybe it’s because the tentacles made them? The swarms are built for taint. If that dog was once a normal animal that has been corrupted, it would make more sense to have it be that… messed up.”

“Still, horrifying. How come there are so few animals, though?”

“They probably killed each other at some point. Which means the survivors had probably centuries of growing stronger.”

“With a limited amount of targets around, though. And it didn’t look like anything tainted was really hunting other tainted things. I think it’s something else.”

“Maybe the first beings to be tainted started killing anything normal? That could also explain how there are so few corrupted beings around. Most of them died before fully changing.”

“I can see that. Yeah. Let’s take that hypothesis for now. That means the tainted beasts are strong but won’t grow any stronger. There’s nothing to kill anymore. Unless just living in the taint slowly gives them experience.”

“Possible”, Catori said, “But that would be very slow. What we’ve seen so far hasn’t shown much in the way of activity. You have to do something or you won’t gain any levels. I think we’re pretty safe to assume there’ll be little growth for these monsters.”

I nodded.

“I’ll get this body back to get some proper rest, for now. You can go do something in Serrington if you want.”

Catori shuddered.

“Yeah. I can use a break.”

Catori stuck around until the silverwood forest is back in view. I landed quickly and moved my main body down from Hive’s branches, bringing some food over. I found Elder Bloom looking over the sleeping deer, or more directly the silverwood boots it is wearing. He raised his head at the noise of my landing.

“You’re back then, Hero Fio?”, he asked.

“Yes. It was… disturbing.”

“I believe that. I never had to deal with tainted beasts but I’ve seen a few not too far from the edge.”

“They didn’t attack you?”

“They were too far away, I think. Maybe the ethereal blooms scared them away.”

“I see.”

He gestured at the silverwood boots.

“How did you make these?”

“A simple infusion of vis. Ordo in presence of my silverwood sapling. Might work with any tree.”

“And they work?”

I pointed out into the tainted land with a wing.

“The test shoe I threw out there is still holding strong. And I landed that body on tainted ground without any issues.”

My head indicated the tawny owl.

His eyes narrowed and he put a hand to his chin.

“Well, that’s interesting. Could you make some for me?”

“What do you need them for?”

“If I can plant my ethereal blooms further in we can clean the taint up much more quickly. Instead of only using half the radius, we can space them out much further.”

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“What about underground?”

“Once the surface is cleared Elder Leaf will plant trees to stabilize the land. That was always the plan but it’s risky to do too soon.”

I glanced at the half-circle of maybe 500 metres radius reaching out from the roots that crossed the chasm.

“This is how far you got? In how long?”

“A number of generations”, he dodged the question, “The Great Tree has fought it back on his own for much longer.”

I nodded.

“That makes sense. So, how much do you want to clean before planting silverwood trees?”

“To remove the risk of the trees being tainted as they grow, at least twice as far inland.”

“Then would they not draw from the tainted ground?”

“No. Their energy comes from the air and is then pushed into the ground to cleanse it.”

“That’s good. I’ll show you how to make the shoes but I don’t think you need the infusion of ordo if you only go out a few metres. How will you dig up the ground to plant your blooms?”

Elder Bloom started walking and I fell in with him.

“It’s enough to drop the seeds on tainted ground. If it’s soft enough I might push them in a bit.”

“So you’ll need some more silverwood for that. Say, aren’t you bark-kin sort of plants? What’s to say there can’t be a silverwood bark-kin?”

He fell silent at that. We kept walking for a few minutes, making it most of the way through the forest before he spoke up again.

“I don’t know. Our children often take on parts of our parents but there are some mutations… Maybe some experiments are in order?”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Don’t do anything that hurts your children. Or any of your people.”

“Hmm… I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. But silverwood trees don’t have seeds… How could we…”

He started mumbling to himself about plants and breeding and cross-breeding which I mostly did not understand. There was something about using auram to force the change in a sapling, which I assumed was their word for unborn children. I was not particularly worried about that, though. The aspect was very benign as the conceptual opposite of vitium, or taint.

Finally, we reached Elder Leaf. The woman was inspecting the trees on the edge of the forest with a few of her helpers nearby doing the same. She was a little annoyed at our interruption and it ended up taking almost two hours for her to give up some more silverwood. Showing off the things I made with it did not help. Surprisingly, she relented after Elder Bloom buttered me up of all things.

“The Hero has shown us the path forward, it would be folly not to take it”, he said which finally got her to help us out. Though she did want to see what we were doing. Thus I ended up in a small house close to the silverwood trees with two bark-kin Elders wanting to observe my infusion crafting.

I went through the process of cutting the wood while making sure to be extra careful. I did not want to waste any material with their eyes on me. Mostly Elder Leaf’s eyes. I used my talons while carefully measuring with my shadows by creating two identical shapes, one around Elder Bloom’s foot, the other around the wood I was cutting. Of course, I made sure to leave a little space so he could actually put the shoe on and to let him add some moss or leather for padding.

“This is it?”, Elder Leaf asked sceptically once I had the basic shape done, “This simple thing? We could have made so much more progress.”

“Well, I wouldn’t fully trust it just like that. These shoes will probably hold for a long time but they will break down eventually. Granted, the upgraded version is likely to do the same but it will resist the taint for much longer. At least from what I understand.”

I picked up the shoe with my shadow tendrils.

“See, auram and vitium are opposites. So what happens when they come in contact? You could expect them to violently destroy each other but they apparently don’t do that. Because while they are opposite, they are also directly adjacent to the same aspect of the tier below, praecantatio. Auram is aer and praecantatio, while vitium is perditio and praecantatio. The only way that can happen is that the aer and praecantatio combine into vacuos and remove the remaining praecantatio…”

I stopped my impromptu lesson as soon as I noticed the two bark-kin were staring blankly into the air.

“Well, long story short. It’s practically guaranteed that without the auram being refreshed, the silverwood will eventually disintegrate. By adding some ordo, the remaining praecantatio can combine with it into more auram. You just need to will it to do that. A good feeling for the aspects also helps.”

Elder Bloom blinked.

“You have thought this through. How did you learn all that?”

“It’s simple application of aspect theory. Something every aspiring thaumaturge should master.”

Elder Leaf snarled.

“We’ll have none of that here. Even if you’re the Hero.”

“That’s the thing. Taint is a result of excessive thaumaturgy so I can understand your reluctance. But thaumaturgy is also the only thing that can teach you how to combat it. Without understanding the root, you can not remove it.”

They both looked very unhappy at that.

“There is no reason why you should become a thaumaturge. You just need a basic understanding of the underlying theories. Magic is fickle and if you misuse it, it can easily backfire. Not many Skills that use vis will create taint if you overuse them. If any. But the knowledge is out there. It’s impossible to remove, even if you could destroy the world. Because the energies are beyond reality.”

I gave them a moment to think about things. They talked quietly as I went through my experience in the tainted lands again. Maybe I should make a silverwood tool to help me open that basement. Or a detector for auram. No, the latter would be useless. With the silverwood boots, it would only point at me. The real problem was finding food for a longer stay. Or even just carrying some. Maybe I should revisit that storage item I was planning to make over a year ago?

Finally, they turned back to me.

“Very well, Hero Fio”, Elder Bloom said, “Teach us what we need to know. If it lets us take on the tainted lands, it will be worth the risk.”

I nodded.

“Okay. Watch closely. I’m gonna do this once. Try to see what’s happening. With your work, you should be able to tell how the vis moves.”

I repeated the final step of making the protective silverwood shoes as slowly as I could. The Elders were watching with strained expressions as I guided my ordo vis into the material and made sure to hold my will over it while observing them. It… did not look like they successfully managed to see the depths of my work. Which was confirmed when I was done.

“I have no idea how to do that”, Elder Leaf said. She looked confused more than angry, now that she had seen what my ‘thaumaturgy’ entailed.

“Well, I do understand what happened but… I won’t be able to replicate it. I don’t have that aspect.”

I nodded.

“In that case, you can carefully harvest vis crystals from an ordo node and use your will to move the vis from them into the wood. Just make sure not to touch the crystals before you want to use them.”

“Are you telling us to poison ourselves with flux?”, Elder Bloom asked.

“No. Just start with small crystals. Your body will get used to it. The only issue I can see is finding a node that produces enough crystals. You will need a few if more than one or two people are to move into the tainted land.”

They exchanged another look before shaking their heads.

“Well, thank you, Hero Fio”, Elder Leaf said, “We will be talking about this to the Great Tree and our fellow Elders. It may provide a solution to our problems.”

“Glad to help.”