Wraithwood Botanist

It's amazing how it only takes one instance of your senses failing you to cripple your ability to function normally. I learned that once we tried disembarking on shore and neither I nor any of my other companions would step onto the ground.

We were terrified it was actually water.

Words cannot express how glad we were when our feet touched down and kept planted. It was surreal.

I tried using a domain to force away the hidden aura and neara around me, and it worked. It cleared up the real ground as if we were in a bubble within the illusion.

"Went straight for a domain," Trant said. "Good, good."

"Thanks…" I paused and turned to Kyro. "This is a form of soulmancy, right?"

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"We're surrounded by soul force." I threw a rock past the domain. It cut through the sunny environment, leaving the mist that curled into existence and then disappeared again. "So is what we're seeing… like… a soul illusion?" I asked.

"Not exactly," he said. "We're just in a hollow, like the area outside the crypt. Illusions and soul force are two separate things but appear unique when blended together. Keep that in mind."

I didn't like that response.

"As for what makes it dangerous," Kyro said. "Activate your Soul Sight."

I did one better, putting my hand on the ground and using Wood Wide Web. What I saw was bleak beyond my wildest imagination. "This… is… like the Bramble."

Despite the sunny visage that seemed sparse of trees and heavy plants, what I saw under my Soul Sight was something different in entire. There were large trees and sprawling plants and bulbs like Wandering Reapers moving under the ground. And many were crawling like snakes or slithering like the rootstrangler mushroom's mycelium.

It was an entire jungle, but when I looked around me, I saw only a sunny clearing, a river bank with nothing but sunlight, and lush ground cover building up on the water.

"That's ex~actly what it is." Trant said brightly. "It's a Bramble for those who can conquer a Bramble. Just think about it. It won't be long before you can navigate the Bramble. Gotta kill you somehow, right?" He chuckled awkwardly, then saw my gaze and turned away sheepishly. "That's all."

"But…" I paused, remarkably confused. "But you guys… can survive this, right?"

"I'd rather not." Kyro said, unscrewing his flask. He took a long drink. "In case you're wondering if there's a fancy trick around this place—there's not. Least not one that's sustainable. And solutions aside, it's still a fuckin' nightmare. Bad enough when you're alone. But with people…" He glared at Reta with malice and resentment in his eyes.

Reta glanced at him sharply. "Your girl's got gods, guardians, and families fighting over her. She's Brindle's student and Escala trusted her with her seed. If you want someone like this to have any hope of survival, you need to put down the bottle and train her, not sit around wishing she could live a normal life."

"Alright," Kyro said sarcastically. "Then let me train her. Mira. What you're looking at is Brindle's true masterpiece—a soul tapestry that connects illusions and enchantments to omoxilians."

I turned to him sharply. "Omoxilains… you mean… from the crypt?"

"Yeah. One in the same." Kyro looked to the sky. "This is Brindle's legacy. Illusions and plantmancy. 'Course there's alchemy, but that was just a little hobby of his. This… this is what won the war and kept winning wars long after Brindle was gone."

I studied his expression. "You almost look pissed about it."

"No, I'm pissed at the Drokai." He stopped screwing on his flask lid, "Won't praise or support Brindle or protect his pupil, but they're sure ready to traumatize her to recultivate his powers."

"That's not fair, Kyro," Trant said. "This is just what we know how to do. Have you forgotten where Brindle learned his illusions and alchemy? Us. It's what we do. How would we teach her anything about blood arts? No one's even seen it before. And when it comes to teaching illusionary arts and soulmancy—where else better to learn than here?"

Kyro took a drink. "I'm not saying we shouldn't've come here. It's just a matter of when. I'm so sick of Mira needing to resort to desperate measures to get stronger when we should be protecting her until she is."

"You act like we're not here," Reta said. "This isn't a trial. We're not throwing her into the wilderness to fend for herself. No matter how much she feels like she's going to die…" Reta covered her mouth and yawned. "She'll be fine."

Kyro glowered at her.

"She's right, Kyro," Trant said, glancing at me, Kline, and the lurvine. "We're not here to put them in serious danger. The only reason we came out this far is…."

I followed his eyes, and for the first time, I saw it—Hallan's pillar.

It was a statue of a human. A large one, too, like the Statue of Liberty, but the size of a mountain, something you would imagine seeing in Greek myths. It came out of a thick layer of milky fog that was visible even through the illusion, giving the illusion that it was so tall it was protruding from clouds.

Yet we could tell that the ground below it was reasonably level because of the statue's proportions. It depicted a man holding a book with his arm out as if to cast a spell or admonish believers for their sins.

I shivered looking at it, remembering the passage Lithco read to me about it. The passage read:

When Trantam the Great, then thirty, returned to build his army, he called Jacksmore the Little a fool. To deny Aelium is to deny the will of the gods! he said. They made their will clear when they built their vestiges in the mighty forest that conquers all."

"What proof have he?" asked many. His response was simple:

"See for yourself, their grandeur. On the Brute, you will not miss it—the pillar Hallan has spoken of. No matter which way you move, no matter how far you run, it will always be there, beckoning you into the real fog and toward the Empyrean Steps. And why would you go anywhere else save the path the gods intended? Those who walk the staircase are met with paradise, of which only some belong. It's there that we may pass and reach the Sixth Ring of this forsaken forest.

He could not have known then how much any promise could betray him.

Aelium was the location where Escala asked me to plant her seed. I would eventually need to go there, but right then, I needed to avoid it at all costs.

"That's actually behind us, isn't it?" I asked.

"It's best you not look at it," Kyro said bluntly. "Trust your Soul Sight, not your eyes or ears. That domain isn't as useful as it appears."

I looked at my bubble in the illusion, which exposed sun-dampened vegetation that contrasted against the illusionary world. I kicked a plant and it moved. It was real.

"Now let's go," Kyro said.

Sina walked forward cautiously, Kline and I on her back, the Drokai on my shoulders. Kael brushed up on her, and then we walked into the mist.

Everything felt fine for a time.

Most of the plants in the forest had aura or neara in them, so I could accurately see what lay ahead before it entered my domain. And while my Guide couldn't identify poisonous plants, my Poison Sense, as well as Kline and the lurvines, could. They skillfully navigated without issue.

Thirty minutes passed like that, and there was a period of great ease and relaxation as if nothing wrong could happen. And like getting lulled by the gentleness of the Brute River, I thought we would make it back to the Rall's Delta in a few hours without incident.

Until we saw the flower.

Trant forced us to stop when we spotted it in my extended domain.

It was beautiful, a flower that bloomed with radioactive pink light with a translucent white stem and what appeared to be three veils, like the rings around mushroom stems.

The light it radiated was dim, but it was enough to illuminate the rocks and grass beneath it.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Cailain," Trant said in awe. "It's a regenerator. They're exceptionally rare and those who find them horde them. They're truly remarkable. You can cut off its leaves and they'll grow right back. Petals. Ovaries. Doesn't matter. As long as you don't cut it past the gravula… that lowest veil on the bottom, see? If you don't cut below that, it'll just keep regenerating. I could just sit here all day and collect a bag full…"

"Nope," Kyro said. "It's not happening."

"Oh, hush. I wouldn't go that far. I'm just saying I could."

"What does it do?" I asked.

"It's a temper. It gives the user the ability to heal far more rapidly. Far more rapidly. It's a full mutagen. Never the same species after. Just… changes you. How fantastic."

That didn't sound fantastic, but the possessed look in Trant's eyes told a different story. It was also the point I should've reigned him in. But I couldn't. I was too transfixed on the plant, which had features that I had never seen on another.

"The area's enchanted," Kyro said dryly. "You know it's enchanted. If you go after it, even though you know it's enchanted—I'm not going to save you."

"Yes, yes," Trant said, checking the string around his stomach was well knotted. "If I don't return, don't come looking for me. Now if you would be so kind as to give me a preservation chamber."

"No…" I said.

"Oh, please. I've lived for generations. If I finally die over something so trivial, I will deserve it."

Kyro scoffed. "And if we all die because we let you do it, then we'll—"

"Let him," Reta said, sitting up on my shoulder. "It'll be instructional… for everyone."

Kyro frowned and nudged his head at my backpack. I hesitantly grabbed a small preservation chamber and handed it to him.

"Thank~you," Trant said. "Don't expect me back."

"Excuse me, what?" I cried, but he was already gone, fluttering to the plant.

I subconsciously slowed down time as he approached a petal, watching for enemies, trying to hear over the sound of my pounding heart. Seconds felt like minutes as he got near, and I gulped.

Then he touched the petal—

—he exploded so violently there was nothing but blood mist raining down.

I watched it in slow motion. There was no mistaking it. It was real. It was real. It was actually fucking real.

"Trant!" I screamed as Kyro cupped my mouth. I tried to struggle, but he was using some strange magic, so I pulled on the string instead, praying that it would all be an illusion and he would tug back and I could yank him along, reeling him in like a fly rod. Yes, like a fly rod. And he would cry and complain and huff and tell me to let him go.

But that's not what happened.

It returned to me, split, charred, and covered in blood. I immediately burst into tears.

"We need to go," Reta said. "It's starting."

She waved her hand, and the ground within my domain shifted, showcasing different ground.

"What's going on," I cried.

"Have you forgotten?" Reta asked. "Illusions don't need soul fog. It just does that to get you reliant upon it. The souls are different."

I locked up, hugging my arms close to my body. My domain gave me a false sense of security even though Kryo had warned me. It felt shameful.

I was suddenly snapped back to reality when a sudden rumble came from the ground. Insects like lobster centipedes emerged from the ground behind us like cicadas in swarms, making me cover my mouth. The lurvine exchanged glances with Kline, keeping calm until the illusionary insects reached us.

They didn't know whether they were real or not—until they assaulted us with real force.

Sina cried and jumped back, igniting her feet in blue flames. An acrid stench of burning matter filled my nostrils, and the lurvine broke formation.

"Stick together!" I screamed, but it didn't matter. It was too confusing and I wasn't paying attention—but that only lasted a second.

I activated a fresh Wood Wide Web pulse and the area lit up like a Christmas tree, exposing omoxilians popping out of the ground like reapers, each with razor blades for leaves. And in an area over twenty meters from the area where the "insects" emerged was a large plant under the ground that was controlling them via large tentacles.

It was a true kraken lurking underneath the surface.

I pulled out Nymbral. Then I charged a sharpened arrow and shot it like a laser beam. I streaked silently into the mist and disappeared, but I knew it hit because all the omoxilians suddenly died, and the illusion of insects dissolved with them.

"Whew," I whispered. "That was crazy…."

Suddenly, something stabbed my shoulder from behind, and Kyro screamed, "Get down!" The force sent me flying off Sina. I turned and thrust out my hand, desperate to grab Sina and keep touching at all costs.

God knew what would happen if I lost touch with them even for a moment—but I knew it would be terrible.