Treetalks

Treetalks

Year 79 Month 9

"Did you hear? One of the mage guild's private gardens near the Royal Grove, was robbed last night! A lot of valuable herbs and plants were lost."

"Oh? Any idea who are the culprits?"

"The mages suspect a mage, so the royal guard has been deployed. But there were no traces. It's as if the plants all just... vanished into the ground."

"Can't it be just some thief with a magical bag? Or some kind of plant-manipulation artifact?"

"I think it's just an unhappy mage taking revenge. There's a lot of politics going on in the mage guilds. This is just a reaction to the mage's council votes!"

Ransalah.

It's a large city, and there are a lot of high leveled people around. Strong adventurers, powerful generals and mages. Their very presence permeates the air, and I occasionally pick up the effects of their skills, despite me being mostly magically-insensitive.

A direct confrontation is not ideal, not with the distance penalty I suffer at long distances.

This might be the first time I have 'seen' a city, Moton and New Freeka can't compare to the scale and sprawl of a capitol city.

It's also the first time I encounter 'enchanted' roads. Around the capitol, these road has some kind of 'anti-vegetation' effect, and as a result I cannot spawn my subsidiary trees near them. Even underground, the capital has a sprawling network of sewers and tunnels, and they are strangely, also, 'enchanted'. I suspect its the effect of some masonry skill, or builder's skill which prevents decay and damage to these structures, because logically, using magic on sewers just didn't seem to make much sense. These enchanted sewers prevent my roots from spreading that deeply, and so that greatly limits the extent of my spread.

In the city, multiple structures, such as the army's fort on the riverbank, are enchanted with strong defensive magic, which I am yet able to identify, but I presume to be a kind of 'warding' magic. The magic on the fort walls create a forcefield that repels my presence, and prevents me from placing subsidiary trees and also stops my roots from approaching.

I frankly don't know all of these, whether its skill or magic, either. Or whether its the powers of a local Lord or King which grants such passive benefits to the city which he or she rules.

These protections, magic or from skills, are clustered mostly around the old Castle, the palaces, the eight forts around the city, the mage's main towers, the old cathedrals and temples to the gods. The usual 'places of interest'.

All of these, together with the layout of the river, meant I have very little access to the inner city, where all the royals are.

Still, there must be something I can do.

First, is the Royal Grove, which, despite its royal status lacks magical protection. I guessed that unlike the places where the royals live, the Royal grove isn't worth much protection. So, I extend a few subsidiary trees into the forests, and soon discover that it's earth does have some magic. There's also a lot of new herbs and plants that I have not seen.

The royal guards and rangers, are always on the lookout, for monsters, or for thieves, but when they spot a new tree, they just go, eh. All I need to do is disguise my tree look like a small shrub, and I can slip through the patrols like nothing.

The best reaction I got from a ranger, "Oh, when did this tree pop up?" And then promptly proceeds to ignore that tree. Like, not even an investigation?

In fact, the most legit confrontation I gotten, is from a woodcutter. I had attempted to expand into the new part of the city, where all the regular citizens live. But the presence of a tree just stuck out like a sore thumb in the messy, dense mess that is the west side of Ransalah. So, a woodcutter came up to my tree that popped up at the edge of town, without any hesitation, chopped me down.

Chop. Chop. Chop. And timberrrrr.

My subsidiary tree fell just like that. I bet that woodcutter had like special [woodcutting] abilities that makes my tree's defenses absolutely useless. Those poor subsidiary trees didn't stand a chance.

Maybe that axe is enchanted to be super effective against trees. But honestly, other than the woodcutters, no one really notices an unusual tree in a forest. I mean, I am discounting the fact that anything green just sticks out in a place filled with houses, roads and shops.

Does this world not have tree-monsters? Nobody disguises themselves as a tree trunk? Does this world not have ninjas?

Anyway, the Royal Grove, and, as my [subsidiary tree] connects to the other trees and the earth, I get a notification.

[Gained a passive buff. Connected to an enchanted forest. Herb effectiveness increased by 50%.]

Oh. Funky. Enchanted it is.

"What's your plan?" Alexis asks, she's obviously a huge fan of seeing new places. "I've been there, that city. But we've only stayed a few days. It's nice, looking at the city from your point of view."

"Hmmm... I plan to first gradually infiltrate the capital, have trees and vines throughout the city... then, I need to find the culprits. I want to know whether the commanders that ordered the burning of the village, are they still alive?"

"That's it? If they are alive, do you plan to kill them?"

"Hmmm... I guess so. I should kill them."

"Is this for revenge? I mean, they burnt down the village, so its revenge, right?"

Revenge, yeah, I think so.

Actually, that's a good question.

Why am I doing this? Am I just carrying the fury of the burning of the village of Freeka in my heart? Kind of silly that I am asking myself this now that I have made the entire journey here. I even invested all these subsidiary trees to establish a connection, a chain of trees that span a country.

So, that question prompted me to think about what exactly I want to achieve, and because I could not answer the question myself, I turn to the elves. My fellow survivors, the 7 elves that suffered the consequences of the army's brutality.

"Lausanne, what would you do if you found the one responsible for killing your father?"

"Slap him. A few times."

"That's it?"

"That bad person, he made me grow up without a father. It is a bad thing, bad people do such bad things, to me. But, it is so long ago, I was still just a small baby, I do not know what happened. So.. somehow, I'm not really, really angry. Maybe angry, but, it's not really, really, burn me up kind of angry, you know? I should be angry at these bad guys, because they did a bad thing, but, but it's not in here, you know?" Lausanne points to her heart, or is it her gut?

She has a point, shes a baby, shes not seen it happen, though she suffers the consequences of it. But thats been her life since.

"So are you angry?"

"I think I am. But not much, really. Maybe mom will be really angry. Wait. I should be angry. I am angry."

"You... don't sound that angry."

"I am angry because a group of bad person did bad things to us. But, that's it, I guess, I am angry because I should be, but not angry because I feel it like a fire in my heart."

Okay, confusing.

Laufen.

"Laufen, what would you do if you find the man that ordered the burning of the village?"

Laufen sat, and she just kept quiet for a while.

"Laufen?"

"I heard you, TreeTree. I... I need to think. I just did not expect such a question from you, suddenly."

What would satisfy this itch? This little scar in my heart?

I look at Ransalah. My vision is incomplete, as my [subsidiary trees] can only see so far. The location of my trees isn't very strategic, unlike how New Freeka is a town built around and with trees, so what I can see and hear is limited.

Its been so many years, if I want to be specific about my vengeance, can I even find the person responsible?

What if the guys dead?

What if, something already killed them?

Where should my vengeance go, then?

Feeling stumped, I focus on my usual activities. Which is, finding more types of trees to investigate. It really wasnt really hard for some beetles to sneak in using the [root tunnels], especially in poorly defended places like the mages garden. It isnt even the garden with the most valuable herbs.

The real prize, I think, are those within the usual suspects, the multiple large garden within the palace compounds, a few other gardens in the three large temple complexes, and those gardens that are actually in the mages guild.

Its not easy to infiltrate a city as a tree, what more with its generally enchanted paved or tiled roads, and theres really very little vegetation in the town area, except for little spots, little gardens here and there. Doesnt help that because its a city, demand for wood is high, so theres frequently a lot of workers going around the city to harvest trees.

That meant, I have to frequently regenerate my [subsidiary trees], else Id lose a connection to the trees I have inside the Royal Grove.

Strategies, anyone? For both the vengeance, and for the maintenance of trees. I ask my artificial minds

Obtain military records. Commands to burn a village should be recorded somewhere? Unless their recordkeeping is horrible. Ivy's the first to suggest the obvious.

How do we do that, none of us can read, so if we do, itll be with the help of the elves. And I predict the records will be kept in the main military installations, which are magically protected. Sending beetles there is unfeasible as well. The beetles won't be able to beat the high level individuals in these installations."

Ask? Dimitree's views are more... direct.

How, and who? We have no allies in Salah.

The New Freekans are formerly from Salah, they must have allies. They are all migrants after all. Perhaps they even know the structure of the army, and bureaucracy inside out. Ivy responds, she does know their background quite well.

If so, would they not be able to know who would have ordered such an action?

"The fact that they don't means its not common knowledge."

Feeling like Im getting stonewalled, I speak to Jura again. Perhaps he has some ideas about the ways to proceed.

Jura muses. I have an idea. Lets just ask Salah to surrender the officer responsible for the burning, We are an independent nation now, and if they see why were not exactly favorable to them, they will appreciate that this is something they can do to repair that relationship.

Did his [diplomat] levels make him think of such an idea?

Don't worry about it. Let me handle it, we will send out the request, TreeTree. Ive been wanting to give the New Freeka High Council a jolt for some time

Year 79 Month 10

The request came from the Valtrian Order, directly from the Counsel. The letter, with the Valtrian Order's official seal, went out to Salah's envoys, and then to their King.

The letter, which is written with unnecessary legalese and noblesse verbose, can be roughly summarised to :

Dear King of Salah,

On year so-and-so, one rogue platoon of the Salah's army murdered the villagers of Freeka, and set the entire village on fire. We humbly request for the assistance of the Salah Kingdom to investigate this gruesome slaughter and turn those responsible over to New Freeka, such that these criminals may face justice for the murder.

Jura, Counsel

Laufen, Vice Counsel

Signed and marked with their personal seal, along with the Valtrian Orders.

The informal networks abuzz with chatter, trying to figure out what this letter really meant.

How many people know of the burning and slaughter of Freeka? Certainly not much, evidenced by the sheer cluelessness displayed by so many.

With so many deaths in the world, such things are just a footnote, not worth a mention. Why should a village be any different?

Why did the Order bring this up? Is this request really something to remediate an offense of the past? Is the Order testing Salah's resolve and sincerity for peace? Or will Salah's refusal to assist be the precursor of future war?

It is the task of various envoys and diplomats to sieve out the true intent behind a request, to separate fact from propaganda.

Even among the councillors of New Freeka, theres a whole lot of guessing, and subtle questions, trying to figure out what Jura and Laufen wants. Laufen just shakes her head, smiles and says, Oh, please redirect any of your questions to Jura.

Jura himself just smiles as he responds to the questions from the other councillors Its something close to our hearts, we lost so many friends and family then. With justice served, we can then face the dead with peace of mind."

---

Anyway, I leave that aside for now. Justice should be precise, after all.

I turn to my 5 new recruits, the 5 girls, a coincidence, I swear. I gave them a special title, the Valthorn Initiates, because they will be the thorns. It's kind of inspired by the old saying, rose among the thorns, only, these roses are going to be the thorns. A part of me feels like I have unintentionally made this into an equivalent to those game of training little shipgirls.

Anyway, I am digressing. Their training is... slow. Firstly, these girls have a lot on their minds, as they have to get used to me speaking to them every now and then.

The dreams via [dream tutor] that I have been giving them also made them a bit unsettled, even though its just dreams made from [essences of sword] or [essences of spear], regular common essences that I frequently collect from my [essence generators], or from [soul harvesters] and [memory collection] of the dead. It seems these 5, they see different things despite getting the same kind of essences, and their 'trainers' are somebody they don't know. The dreams' lengths are also different, one girl says it felt like she's been practicing for hours, another says hers felt like just minutes of talking.

Then, is the routine. They are all excited, and eager, wholeheartedly embracing the change, but it still takes some time to get used to it, and their young bodies can't take the sudden change, even with my biopods feeding them nutrients. The extent of the workouts and education pretty much overwhelmed them.

Even stepping into the biopods is scary, their first time dipping usually accompanied with struggling against the vines and feelers.

So, slow progress it is. Maybe it takes a while, like a small sapling, I cannot rush their growth. Strength comes from true understanding, and a strong foundation. It is like planting, the amount of nutrients, sunlight and water must be just right, else you would kill the plant.

So maybe I need to adjust my expectations.

Spaizzer

Thanks for reading, and thanks for commenting. I have been getting ideas for other fics while thinking about this fic, and so sometimes I feel like taking a break to write those ideas. But then, I think about the many readers expecting to see TreeTree kick some ass, so I end up coming back to write this.

Actually, that was just a rant about how I wish I struck a lottery so that I can spend more time writing all the fics I want to write. But I probably will still work, at least part time.

My ideal work hours would be a 3 day work week. I find working and dealing with annoying clients, bosses and colleagues, surprisingly inspiring, writing wise. I sometimes take inspiration from my colleagues, who are occassionally brilliant and at times, evil, backstabbing sonovabeechs. I also salute the multiple hats some of my bosses have to play, mediating silly interdepartmental politics.

Anyway, that was a long author note. I hope you like this story. I wrote this story with a very very rough outline of what I want to write, so there's a huge amount of filling the blanks to get to those 'checkpoints'.

Fun fact, I started writing this story after my r18 tentacle monster story got rejected.