~~This chapter will be a brief explanation, by me not the characters, about "The Ancient Tree" sap and black powder stuff mentioned around the "Delayed Reaction" chapter.~~
Just to re-cap where this fits into the story, it is when Wren and Michael were finally released from the hospital. Haruki was attacking them so Wren, Michael, and Naya, made a run for the forest and needed to find the tree with white bark. Then because of all the problems, Wren was wounded on her torso and her thigh by a broken tree branch/stump. We find out later that she wasn't healing fast like she normally does, because of the Ancient Tree's sap, prevents her fast healing abilities.
The Ancient Tree, it pretty much what it's name suggests. The people of the Island just refer to it as the Ancient Tree and nothing else. They used to grow all over the Islands but after the war, most of them were destroyed and now they are rare and hard to find. Shoyo and others are still researching the sap and bark of this tree to find out what all it can cause and treat in the human body. The Ancient Tree, looks similar to other trees until you get close enough to touch the bark or branches. The bark is a typical brown color from afar, but once you are closer, it has an iridescent shine to the bark as well as the leaves.
Some examples of problems caused by the sap; For Wren, it delays her healing abilities to that of a regular person and it poisons her body if the sap, branch, etc., aren't flushed out in a timely manner. For Lightening Unit members, it limits their quick reflexes and teleportation abilities, as well as causing severe migraines and stomach pains. Lunar Unit members loose their ability to "blend" into the shadows, can't see in the dark, and stomach pains. For others that do not have any ability, it poison's them, causes stomach pains, migraines, fatigue, and if not flushed out quick enough, can cause partial paralysis. For the most part, everyone who has the unprocessed sap in or on their body too long, gets stomach pans, migraines, and if they have abilities, they are unable to use them.
Many poisons used by both the Tradelands and the Islands have been derived from the Ancient Tree's sap. It is fast acting and can bind with virtually anything to make all sorts of variations of deadly poisons. However, if the tree sap is prepared properly from a pure source, it can cure almost any ailment someone may suffer, which makes it a very valuable tree. Some of the scientists from the Tradelands were not able to produce a pure enough form and ended up paralyzing and killing many people. The bark of the tree can cause a more mild form of the symptoms if it is burned and ingested or applied to the skin as a powder.
Shoyo also found that when the burned bark of The Ancient Tree, is combined with the purified version of the sap, someone with high levels of Spiritual energy can use this product of this combination to transport themselves and others through The Realm easier than only one person being able to transport and the others being stuck. Someone with high Spiritual Energy can also use it for many other things, but will still suffer side effects. (I will introduce those "things" in Volume 2) If it is dried it forms the "Black Powder" Wren used to transport the 3 of them into the inner area of the temple. If it is not dried, then it just stays as a paste and can be used the same as the Black Powder, but takes longer to be effective.
The downside to the Black Powder is, when the person with the spiritual energy uses it to transport others, great damage is done to their mind and body. If anyone using that transportation method had had a sickness or injury, the spell caster will feel all of their sickness and/or pain within the next few hours as well as their own. Because Michael had just been injured and Wren was badly attacked, she felt all of their pain all over again within the first few hours of her being back at the temple.
The Black Powder isn't used that often because of these side effects, but most of the higher ranking Spiritual Energy users have a small emergency jar with them when they travel. There is still a lot of unknowns when dealing with the sap and bark of the tree, but because it is harder and harder to find on the Islands, most people have stopped conducting experiments to help others, and simply make the poison's.
That is all about the Ancient Tree and Black Powder for the time being. I will bring it up here and there in Volume 2 so I tried to keep this short. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know, Thanks :)