39.1 Miracle Workers
General Summary
Days 577-578
Our final day at sea concludes as we spot the peninsula in the early morning (well after the sun has risen, but it still feels awfully early to me). We take to the air and send Raethien home with much thanks. It was extremely refreshing to encounter an elvish group with a firm place in their settlement and competent leadership on this side of the Barrier.
But the rest of the day is not so warm. As we approach the remains of the grove, Jaeril's nerves are apparent and Magdalena sticks close to her side and encourages her to borrow her strength. It's strange to feel somewhat unneeded as Jaeril's big sister, but I bring Liliales in close to me as we begin to see the scarred ruins of the trees ahead.
Massive dead stumps, exposed roots, and an absolute lack of greenery blight the landscape where the Grove of Samsara once was. There are empty eldritch trees scattered about, not that they offer much protection. I can feel the decay in the soil, tainted with Galfen's blight magic to an extent that nothing even tried to take root here over the thousands of years since the Pruning.
Jaeril finds herself at the base of one of the massive stumps and curls in on herself, sobbing as Magdalena holds her. It's hard to watch...especially for those of us who can't help but think of our own trees. While the five of us stand in silence, Qing Chen leans in to my ear and quietly whispers that he is going to give us some space and I hardly respond. I am too caught up in my own feelings. Kaide, however, reprimands him.
You want to leave because you feel like you are intruding. It is time for you to learn to see yourself as part of all of this, to let it hurt you. If it hurts you, you will find yourself worthy of being her student.
It is a good reprimand, and he has the grace to look somewhat ashamed as he remains quietly standing with us. In the silence, Liliales asks me if we can fix it. Again, Kaide takes it for me and tells him that of course we will try, but Magdalena has clearly not been able to fix this alone and so we ought to approach it with some uncertainty as to whether we will be able to do it.
The way you look at your mother - people are going to look at you like that one day.
I put an arm around him and tell him a gentle truth that it is time he learned,
Such intense faith in our abilities can be very difficult for those who are to work miracles.
After a while longer Jaeril collects herself as much as possible and begins playing to her trees, a haunting melody that brings out the feeblest, barest echo of a response from the trees. She tells us they're not dead; they just can't grow. As we scour the Grove for a tree that might be able to grow again we find ourselves standing before the largest, most ancient stump. In all likelihood it was the first tree here that Jaeril planted with her own heart seed
And so we begin the multi-day process of working a miracle under Magdalena and Jaeril's direction. It begins with finding the strongest tree - likely the oldest one here, perhaps the one Jaeril first planted. Standing before this ancient stump, Jaeril asks if I could help her manage the songs she is hearing. Having woken as Day and Night, she hears both Samsara and Day and Night songs. We'll have to clear the blight out of this stump, maybe water it with some of the precious vials of water from the Unfreezing Sea and from the Spring of Vitality. If any fae tree understands and could connect with the Longing, it is surely these.
But the major, harrowing part of this plan is not the blight or encouraging the growth. It is Magdalena's suggestion that Jaeril simply plant a new seed...using Treeborn energy that Magdalena will give up for her. Having never planted her own heart seed, she may be able to help Jaeril produce one even though the Samsara fae currently lacks the necessary treeborn power it takes to create a seed. The plan is straightforward in principle and Magdalena lays it out with the same efficiency that she did with our training exercise.
- We will clear the blight from the top of the stump so that the seed can take root and connect with the damaged tree.
- Trillium, Liliales, and Qing Chen will scour the Grove for remnants of any material that we could use to incorporate into a new seed.
- I will harvest the energy from Magdalena...and heal her afterwards.
- Kaide will help us transfer the energy and support Jaeril in creating a new seed.
- We will all contribute to the new seed with anything found in the Grove, along with the various magical water I have been saving.
Only Qing Chen manages to find a small, damaged seed pod in the rubble of the Grove. Trillium has busied herself gathering the remains of the fae who died here and I barely manage to intercept her just as she looks like she is about to hurl some off a cliff and into the ocean. When she turns to face me she has blue fire in her eyes and I am instantly wary of whichever dragon spirit must be within her. She nearly snarls when she tells me that she can see the difference between the corpses and while the fae of Samsara regularly nourished their trees with their bodies, the blight fae must not be allowed to rest within the Grove.
I take a few cautious attempts at decaying the bodies before Trillium (and the dragon within her - Inferno) become impatient. She asks me to erect a barrier of some kind to protect the Grove before unleashing a torrent of fire that incinerates the bodies and turns the stone beneath them to molten magma. She collapses with exhaustion after and as I set her up for rest Magdalena notices. We will go to visit Rainbow next, she promises. Even though it seems Trillium was properly controlling this furious spirit, we are running out of time to manage the situation.
Day 579
Once we have gathered everything we need, it is time to do what amounts to magical surgery on Magdalena. It is remarkably similar to how we handled Dawn's transformation, with the notable caveat that I finally get to see the real treeborn essence that Magdalena has clearly been cloaking around us. As she peels away her defences I see what it must be like for normal fae to be in the presence of treeborn - this overpowering necessity to worship. In my peripheral vision I can see Liliales already kneeling, though I am able to resist. After all, she is effectively one of my mothers and I myself know what it's like to draw worship.
At the end of the arduous surgery we have drawn out the energy and Jaeril does create a seed, which we plant in the surface of the blight-cleared stump. Only time will tell how well it will grow.
