“So, hypothetically, right… would you ever kill someone?”

“Elwin, I killed people during the war. I’ve killed before that too.”

“Right, yes. But what if there were say, a group of bloodthirsty, vile bandits, that had ambushed you on the road? Would you kill them?” Elwin asked.

Lumie sighed. “If it came to it, then yes, in self-defence, I would I suppose... but that probably won't ever happen, not with King Rolynd’s wish and all.” She said.

“Right, right. I was just asking hypothetically, you know? Sorry, I’m still not used to the Law of Fairness.”

“Yeah, no one is yet. Don’t worry about it. It's fun to think about these things sometimes.” Lumie replied.

Elwin and Lumie were on a sleek wooden merchant’s ship, its sails and hull covered in glowing runes. The tall, proud trees of the Ellenian forest surrounded them on all sides, with their thick trunks. A curious boar sniffed the air from the treeline as the ship sailed upstream, up the wide, gently-flowing Ellenian river. They were headed towards the city of crafting.

Myria Bridge was still under repairs after being destroyed by Empress Lucina’s orbital strike over a month ago. It would be years before the direct land route between Sarigold City and the Ellenian forest was rebuilt. Until then, the most convenient way to access the elven city was by riverboat or teleporter. There were some rumours of Crassian-built flying vessels, inspired by the war machines of the Incandestine forces largely seen during the war, but Elwin had not seen any of them with his own eyes, so as far as he was concerned, they were just some made-up pixie-tale.

As for the Incandestine themselves…

“Elwin. How much sooner until we arrive?” a voice asked. His accent was different from the usual tones of the Great Basin, with shorter and more curt vowel sounds.

“Our next stop is Felver’s Rest. It might be another four hours. I’m not the most experienced when it comes to travelling on a trader’s ship. Since we’re fighting against the tide it could be longer.”

“Thanks.” The speaker replied, a human male. He was dressed in a simple cloth tunic. Had it not been for his accent, no one would know that he was once one of Lucina’s Angels.

Now that the Law of Fairness was in effect, Rolynd saw the Angels as mostly harmless, especially with the Intercessor destroyed. They were stranded and on Elwin’s insistence, in need of help. Ellenia was a good place to start resettling the invaders with King Rolynd’s assistance. It was socially difficult, as many people had lost loved ones to Lucina’s war. The Ellenians were quick to forgive, probably because they had experienced little hardship under Incandestine occupation owing to Kari, Elwin and Blue destroying their pop-up base and driving the Angels from the forest.

The outworlders possessed great knowledge about many things, but most especially regarding new magicks far beyond the understanding of even the sharpest Apolaphian scholars.

Elwin watched the world go by from the deck of the trader’s vessel. He was returning home. His parents were more carefree than most, but even they would probably wonder what had become of him given the recent state of the world. What would he say to them? What would they think of his wish? He couldn’t wait to find out.

“Hey, Elwin…” Lumie said cheerily.

“What is it?” Elwin responded.

“Do you know what type of tree that is?” Lumie asked, pointing up at the higher canopy, perhaps ten meters above the lower canopy, which itself was eight meters or so off the forest floor.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Lumie was pointing at a tree with purple leaves, with strange red strands hanging down from its branches. Elwin’s eyes traced along the tree branches, searching for identifying features that he might recognise, but there was nothing. It seemed like an ordinary beech tree, but that fact was incompatible with its purple leaves and red strands.

“I don’t know,” Elwin said. “How strange.”

“I don’t recognise it either. And if you remember, I was the one to do a survey of all the trees in the Ellenian forest for King Rolynd.” Lumie said.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Do you think your wishes caused it?” Lumie asked.

“I don’t think so. None of our wishes would cause such strange changes in the forest. It must have been due to something before. Perhaps the product of some sort of Incandestine endeavour?”

Their boat sailed past the tree, but with his attention drawn to the phenomenon, Elwin soon spotted another tree with similar mutations further upstream. As they approached it from below, Elwin pulled on its branches with his Gift, and managed to graft a twig off, catching it in his hand. Lumie crowded around to inspect it.

The twig’s bark had turned a strange shade of violet, and the red strands they had seen earlier lay spread out over the palm of Elwin’s palm. The elf turned the twig over, looking at its strange appearance.

“Elwin! Your hand!” Lumie exclaimed.

“Huh?” Elwin wondered, confused. He then noticed his skin turning a shade darker than before and the red strands contacted him. Startled, he let go of the twig, catching it with his Gift before it hit the deck. If it was dangerous, he wasn’t about to let it affect their boat too.

After raising the twig to shoulder height once more, Elwin checked his hand. The colour seemed to have recovered already. Was it just a trick of the light? No, it couldn’t be, for Lumie had seen it too.

“Hey you, get over here and take a look at this!” Lumie called their Incandestine passenger. The man, Poregrine, made his way over calmly.

“What is it?” Poregrine asked. He marvelled at the sight of Elwin causing the twig to levitate.

“You tell us,” Lumie said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Neither have I,” Poregrine said.

“Really?” Elwin asked.

“Truthfully,” Poregrine answered. “What can you tell me about it?”

“I snatched it from the highest canopy above. And when these hairy red ropes touched my skin, they made it dark, like sucking the life out of me.” Elwin told him.

“I saw it too,” Lumie added.

Poregrine was silent, seemingly regarding the information that Elwin had just given him.

“Well?” Lumie asked.

“Well, I can tell you that this isn’t an Incandestine endeavour. The description of energy-draining properties you described go against our treaties prohibiting the development of immoral and dangerous life. I would guess that those red strands act as roots of some sort, absorbing energy from the atmosphere like how roots absorb nutrients from the soil.”

“Absorbing energy?” Elwin asked. “Absorbing it where? Into the plant?”

“You people didn’t wish away Universal Law, did you?” Poregrine asked.

“What? No, of course not.” Elwin said defensively.

“Well, then that means that the roots are absorbing energy because it has less than your body. Like how an ice cube melts by absorbing heat from its surroundings.”

“You’re saying this thing has less life energy than me?”

“Yes. And if your speculation is correct, this plant has developed a way of absorbing ‘life’ energy directly into itself. Never mind the implications of ‘life’ energy existing, which would go against all existing scientific expectations…”

“What should we do with it?” Lumie asked.

“I’m not sure, it would feel irresponsible to just throw it overboard. What if it drains all the life from the river? But then again, there are trees like this all over the forest…” Elwin began.

“Here. Let’s put it in this bag and tie it up on the bow, where we can all keep an eye on it. Hopefully, that’s enough to contain whatever it's doing. When we get to Ellenia-” Lumie said.

“We’ll show it to the elders. They’ll want to see it if they haven’t noticed the trees themselves.” Elwin said, finishing her sentence.

The boat continued onwards, Elwin trying to spot the mutated trees as they came. He noticed that almost all of them were on the west side of the river, but he could not figure out why that might be.

Elwin could not help but feel that something important had slipped away from him. What was happening to the forest? To his home? He didn’t want anything to change. And yet, of course, everything had changed, everywhere. He himself was largely responsible for that. Of course, Ellenia would not be spared change, but Elwin had been hoping that he would return home to find everything just how he had left it.

“Oh, I hope to ADAM that this isn’t serious…” he prayed.