The Illness of Pithroot

"She had stars in her mouth. Then there was stillness."

They say it started under the dark moons in Vaultherin Hollow's orchards. Where the roots of the trees whisper in riddles that no one can decipher, and the trees hum at sunset.

Pitchroot, the fruit that grows there, is as soft as marrow, slick with a silvery oil that never dries, and formed like a spiraling heart.

It's stunning. Addictive. Uncommon. Prohibited.

That's just one version of the story.

As a rite of passage, the Vaultherin monks used to feed their young novices pithroot. They claimed that only people with a "pure weave of will" would make it through the ingestion process.

Those that didn't, though?

They survived.

Simply put, they were no longer them.

They spoke undocumented languages. Screamed without a word. Used their fingernails to write whole alphabets in the air.

Worst of all, they lost the ability to control their smiles.

The ailment they dubbed "The Hollow Tongue" causes you to lose your sense of self, pay attention to "the voices beneath the voice" in everything, including yourself. Additionally, you occasionally work as a translator for a language that was never intended for this plane.

It is not detected by blood tests. It cannot be cleansed by magic. Eating the fruit yourself is the only way to be certain...and check to see if you return.

In the present era, scientists from Mindfall's Fringe Division have connected latent flare-marrow residue from Zaellithraëynnaëxaelivornythra's earlier, uncontrolled creations to the Pithroot Sickness. It's possible that these fruits grew where her divine essence once permeated the ground while she was traveling.

It has been classified as a subtype of GodVein Echo Disorder (GVED), exhibiting notable neurological and spiritual symptoms.

However, the monks say "It's not a disease. It is a mistranslation."

And the final murmur from an elderly Hollow survivor:

"She who smiles with stars in her mouth will soon cry with eyes that are not her own."

The Spiral Mouth Cult

They identify as the Sons of the Spiral Mouth, a nomadic, peaceful sect that holds that pithroot is a divine cipher rather than a fruit.

Their tenet is straightforward:

"We are not intended to be complete. Just sufficiently void to allow the truth to reverberate."

"They move from the village to the community, bringing "enlightenment" in the form of fermented pithroot tea while donning smiling masks made from pale orchard bark.

A lot of people refuse. Some people consume it. After that, nothing is the same.

According to the sect, the illness--the Hollow Tongue--is a blessing rather than a disease. A change that is fractal. A celestial dialogue awaits attention.

According to them, the fruit's spiral shape is a revered representation of Zaellithraëynnaëxaelivornythra's lost traces of time.

And they await the day when, from beneath the orchards, her actual lips will open once more.