The journey stretched on and on, occasionally punctuated by the arrival of a lumbering giant to be felled by the soldiers. I was starting to feel almost useless having come along. Marcus' men were extremely talented – they must have been killing these things en masse for months before I ever showed up. The halfway point of our journey was the target destination, where we would try to asses the problem and find a solution. When that was done, we would start the same walk back to the city.
Fernwell had stepped in to try and keep order between the two sides of the group. The Amendment had continued to try and convince everyone to turn around and go home, preaching the faith about how executing 'the witch' would end the problem without us needing to do this. Nobody was falling for it, and Marcus had taken my words about keeping himself calm to heart. He no longer responded to their provocations.
Ultimately, they were at the mercy of the armed men and me. They couldn't go home until we did, lest they run the risk of being consumed or splattered by a wandering giant. The real trouble would start when we arrived at that destination. We didn't know what we were going to find. The Amendment would love for there to be nothing, and if there was something – they'd love to obfuscate the truth and stop us from interfering with it.
The sun was beginning to set, but the stormy weather that I'd become accustomed to had started to calm down. When I arrived in Pascen I asked myself how people could stand to live in such conditions, I suppose any place to call home is good enough when you get used to it. That didn't dry out the rocks we were stepping on though, and nearly everyone was covered in bruises and welts from trips and falls.
One thing had been drawing my eye. There was a giant, circular clearing in the dull, grey clouds above. A strong beam of concentrated light shot down from the sky and landed on the location of our target. It was a beautiful and foreboding sight. There was definitely something there. What that something was? That was for us to find out.
Mercifully the volcanic rock underfoot ended abruptly, replaced with a vibrant burst of green grass. The few uncovered patches of dirt in Pascen were extremely fertile. The land was highly sought after by farmers of all types and sizes. The Duchy still had to import a lot of their food. Some of that fertile ground was dedicated to 'money crops,' that weren't useful for feeding the locals but were extremely valuable when exported. That was why the giants had become such a problem. They were destroying the farms and killing the people who owned them.
Putting pressure on the food they produced and the money makers who paid for the imports had caused shortages, not helped by a flood of mercenaries arriving to try and make some quick cash. The Duchy was burning money with no way to make it back. Calling in the extremely pricey services of the Amendment wasn't going to help matters any.
There was a strong sense of anticipation as we came closer and closer to reaching our first destination. We crested the top of a small hill and finally laid eyes upon the area Benadora had named.
"What the hell…"
It was like we'd stepped into another world, and as a man with first-hand experience I didn't mean that lightly.
All of the flora in the lowland before us had been changed. A veritable forest had sprouted from the ground in an instant. Hundreds of young saplings and tree were scattered in the area. The trees and plants had taken on a strange appearance, with glowing cyan leaves and blue bark. In the centre of it all stood a strange, towering tree. It had an unnatural height, like a looming giant. Even from the distance we were stood, I could observe pulsating magical veins running up and down the trunk. The leaves glowed, casting a spectrum of light across the newly established forestry.
"I think that might be our culprit," I concluded to Cali.
Cali seemed out of sorts again, "Hm." Her eyes were unfocused and glossy. The lack of magical energy in the air must have been getting to her.
"What in God's name is that?" Marcus barked. The soldiers seemed hesitant to step over the threshold and into the grass. I shared their sense of trepidation. I didn't know if it was safe to even be stood there.
"C-Clearly this is the work of that witch," Cranston declared.
A pervasive silence settled over the group.
Gnashing teeth, claws of bone. I clenched my fists until my nails cut into my skin.
I took the first step. Into this slice of another world that had been left behind. To my relief, I didn't drop dead on the spot. And another. And another. Before I knew it, I was always halfway to the tree that had enraptured me so. The men watched in awe as the scruffy stranger Adrian brought charged headfirst into the breach.
The body of the tree was before me. I'd reached it before anyone else.
"Do you see what I do Master?"
She spoke into my head with a confident whisper.
"This… this is a branch."
I couldn't find the strength to raise my voice, "Branch?"
"A fallen tear of a great giant, sprouting forth myriad fruits for mortal man." I reached out with my left hand and placed it against the tree. I could feel some type of energy running through my skin – it was charged, and could be conducted through my body. "A long, long time ago… people worshipped these trees. Bringers of change and life to barren lands. Now? Nobody knows of their true purpose."
"It's inhaling the magic…"
"And forming a void? Yes. It needs it to grow."
Some of the other men took their brave pills and ventured into the grove behind me. I closed my eyes and focused on what Stigma was saying. "How do we deal with this?"
"Simple. Destroy it."
That gave me pause.
I knew better than to wreak havoc on an unknown phenomenon like this. I didn't know much about this 'branch' or how it connected to the etheric winds, but I got the feeling that destroying it was a bad idea, or at least not an ideal one. Stigma was my closest ally and my worst enemy. Self-destructive actions were just fine by her, because it allowed her to deepen her grip over my body and soul. I wasn't going to put an axe to the thing until I was sure it wouldn't cause any unintended consequences.
Adrian finally arrived at my side, "What an incredible tree! I never thought we'd find something like this out here!"
Fernwell frowned, "What is this thing? And how is it causing all of these plants to grow?"
Cranston slicked back his hair and adjusted his glasses, "This is an etheric tree, or a branch. They are natural formations that have been recorded on dozens of occasions throughout history…" He clammed up and stopped – realizing that by explaining it he'd blown a hole in his own witch theory.
I scowled, "And when it grows, it consumes the ambient ether from the air. Creating a pocket and changing the direction of the winds."
"Y-Yes, that would seem to be the case," Adrian agreed.
Marcus muscled his way through the crowd, "So we cut this thing down and head home?" The rest of his troop seemed eager to do so.
I turned his way and cautioned him, "We don't know what cutting it down will do. It could be something even worse than inviting some giants down from the North."
Adrian grabbed my arm, "B-But, if we don't do something, Master Benadora will be executed!"
"If this thing is half as rare and important as you two indicate, I'm certain there'll be a handful of very good reasons to leave it alone." As much as I sympathized with him and wanted to wipe the smirk off Cranston's face, I didn't want to be responsible for even more damage being done. Benadora was one person in a city of many.
But that put us all in a bind. Cranston wasn't going to spill any more details on how it worked or what it did. Adrian didn't seem to know any more than I did. To his credit, Marcus' desire to chop the tree on the spot was stemmed by my concerns.
Fernwell clapped his hands together, "We're not leaving until tomorrow morning. I want everyone to set up camp and form a defensive perimeter. Hopefully we'll come to a decision by the time comes for us to leave." The different factions split away and started pitching their tents, but kept themselves within eyeshot of the tree. It seems that trust was still in short supply.
I decided to pick a patch of our own away from the other three groups, inside of a small ditch that protected the tent from the high winds. I wanted to pick Cali's mind for ideas. She'd surprised me before with the breadth of her knowledge on folklore and magic. She was surprised when I touched her shoulder, "You okay?"
"…Yes. I was merely surprised to see a branch in person. Did you know that they have a profound importance to Ashmorn culture? It is said that after the death of the last Emperor, tears fell from the sky and gave birth to the magical trees - which spread their roots through the land and rejuvenated it after years of conflict."
"Would you say that it's important to preserve the tree?"
Cali shrugged, before reaching up to adjust her wide-brimmed hat. "That is merely legend. I am fully capable of divorcing my feelings from fact."
Perhaps to a fault.
"So you don't believe that story?"
"Not any more than the other tales I've spoken of. Like with any legend, there is a hint of truth to it. Given the localized effect of the tree, I would argue that their power has been greatly exaggerated. The branches were used to enforce and institutionalize the power of the Root Church. It was in their interest to ensure devotion to their creed, and still they stand as the only unifying authority on our home continent."
"A bunch of self-serving mythmaking huh? Guess people in this world can't help themselves either."
"It's clear that the branch is absorbing a huge amount of ether. Accurate records of what happens if it is left to grow are valuable and kept under tight control."
"Why am I not surprised?"
She stared me dead in the eye, "Because you have a passing familiarity with the behavioural patterns and interests that lead individuals and organizations to control the flow of knowledge and power between outsiders."
"…I was being rhetorical."
Adrian, who had been struggling with his own newly purchased tent for several minutes, finally managed to stand it up properly. "Apologies that I can't be of more assistance," he said. "Master Benadora had never delved particularly deep into this subject."
"Cranston knows something, but he's not going to tell us. He still wants Benadora dead."
"I can't stand that man. What kind of scholar sells his principles just to earn some quick money? Happily condemning an innocent woman to death!"
"He's invested, personally and financially. This has been the theory he's pushed for weeks, it'll burn him real bad to turn back and say that he made it up. He needs to make it true, no matter what happens. I'm sure he's concocting some way to imply that Benadora made this tree grow. Do you have an idea as to what might happen if we cut it down?"
"Hm. Assuming the tree has absorbed the etheric energy to fuel it's growth, it won't be immediate or expressed as an explosion of energy. I'd bet good money that things will remain the same if we do and the winds will return to normal. The giants will stop being guided down here. Though the bigger question is if the tree provides an important benefit to this land."
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. Why couldn't my isekai fantasy be simple?