Wraithwood Botanist

In the dead of night, as the villagers slept in the building that Cassain and her guards made last summer, I set up a portable ward with a handful of blue third evolution cores. The flash was bright, so Felio and Cassain, who were sleeping in my house, came out.

"Where are you going?" Felio asked.

"To the Bramble," I said. "I'm getting my stuff."

I held a beautiful box I got from the supply crate and silently chanted. It lit up with arrays and the crackless box separated, revealing folded rubber discs with the most complex array I had ever seen on them. They were about seven feet in diameter, and when I placed one on the ground, I turned back to Felio.

"Have you ever seen epic-grade alchemy equipment before?"

Her eyes flickered in the blue light. "Of course not."

"Well, you're about to." I grabbed Kline and the second folded disc and held them to my chest as wings sprouted from my backpack and I melted out of the barrier. "See ya in the morning."

I didn't believe it myself until about nine in the morning, about the time that the villagers panicked that their leader and savior had disappeared, the array in the Bramble lit up under my feet and I suddenly found myself back in the middle of Wraithwood.

"I-I can't believe that really worked!" I cackled.

The villagers turned noisy and crowded around the barrier when I arrived.

I took down the ward and handed Asail a crate and said, "Here, take this and put it into my alchemy lab—we have equipment for days."

"Days" was dramatic. There was a massive palette of gear, which included one box for the Eldrion Ward, and then six crates of arrays. There were books on sigils and equipment and there were another eight crates of glassware with intricate arrays on them. Then there were storage bins, machines, and other gear that I had bizarre shapes.

I had no clue what any of it did, but as Felio unpacked and read the instructions, she ran in circles and pulled out more equipment and said things like, "This is a trigate processor!" and when I said, "Is that a good thing?" she would be hysterical as she said, "Of course it is! Do you even understand what this does? It…" Then, she would go on rant after rant, eyes glittering as she filled up all the alchemy. It was all positive till it ended. Then, she frowned.

"We need a warded door and guards," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Because we're looking at seven layer arrays. Half the stuff in here would sell for tens of millions or more. I'm not saying anyone would steal it, but… if any of it breaks… it's pretty much irreplaceable."

I folded my arms nervously and put my back against the wall. "Okay. I'll have someone do it." I looked back. "Do you know who does carpentry?"

She giggled. "What happened to making Trigan do everything?"

My eyes widened. "That's right!"

She giggled harder.

I smiled. "Yeah… But first."

I lifted up a large ward that looked like a tiki torch. It was bright red and covered in slightly darker red arrays. It was the most conspicuous ward in existence.

"What's that?" she asked.

I smiled. "Come check it out."

She followed me out and into the center of the village. Then, I yelled, "Listen up!"

The villagers carrying lumber and equipment between houses stopped what they were doing as I lifted up the ward.

"This is called the Eldiron Ward," I said. "It eliminates the sight, scent, and sounds from whatever is underneath it. Observe."

I thrust it into the ground, fed it third evolution cores (God knows I had enough after my fourth evolution baiting scheme). Then I activated it with mana.

The arrays and runes glowed and a sudden wave of pressure watched over the area as my village disappeared, leaving only people and another patch of trees. It was an absolute illusion.

Everyone who wasn't listening freaked out and rushed into the area. I cut my finger and put a drop of blood into the top bowl of the ward, and the world flooded back to normal.

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"So, um, yeah," I said. "Once you put your blood into this, you can see the village again. Otherwise, you'll never find this place again. So line up."

And that's how Wraithwood Village became Elderado, a legendary location that many were convinced existed, but none could find. It would require Brexton and the Claustra to find the place—and by the time they did, it would be too late.

—--

It was a long first week building Wraithwood Village. Trigan ran around, telling people what to do while Kira and I created new housing. It was a well oiled machine by that point. I cleansed meat for the villagers to dry into jerky, intaking aura and neara, which supplied Kira with unlimited power to drill out trees.

The trees were massive so we created apartments with two to a tree, sometimes three, which created rooms the size of large bedrooms. In the future, we would create real apartment complexes. Even though there were hundreds of trees, I didn't like the idea of us hollowing out all of them. After all, it would kill them. I kept them alive with Brindle's magic, but it was a tightrope. If I weren't there, the forest would die—and I wouldn't live forever.

There's no such thing as a true immortal—even if the person in question is a god.

I worked on.

Trigan had an army doing various tasks. Kline and the lurvines hunted and brought back meat that the cooks butchered and sent to me for cleansing. Then they took care of all the salting, drying, and cooking for over a hundred people—something they did in massive vats. It looked like Soviet Russia with people lining up for bread and soup in the nights—

But at least there was bread.

I loved bread.

I missed bread.

And now we had some—for now.

We had a good deal of carpenters and architects, and they led the alchemists and guards, and everyone else who didn't have an immediate job. We also hollowed out a tree for the male bathhouse, and the arraymasters from the Hinka family created the equilibrium and heating arrays. The arraymasters also worked around the clock to unload millions of hawks worth of arrays into every house for heating and cooking, and ventilation. Each person had water and purification arrays and their own baths and showers, as public bathhouses, in my culture, were luxuries. I also created a third steam room and sauna. They had a boundless array of technology, and I abused it with enthusiasm.

Lastly, I hollowed out a multi-story tree with a spiral staircase that led to five floors with large windows. The alchemists and arraymasters worked together to create heating and light magic. That would be my botanical garden.

Aiden returned and started speaking to beast tamers from the Vestra family. The family gave us tamers suited for animal husbandry, healers, and enhancers. There was a woman named "Sira" who was really pretty, and Aiden was handsome and charming now, so he had her giggling.

I never liked Aiden romantically, but I couldn't help but feel pangs of jealousy over it. Perhaps it's just human nature—or a self-centered drive where we love attention even if we don't want to reciprocate it. I'm not sure what it was, but it passed quickly. Even if he did find a wife, a certain crop of fresh villagers might yield boy wonder, who would knock me off my feet.

Or something.

Right now, I wasn't even marriable. I'd be traveling into the Fifth Domain during the winter to murder things—that was hardly wifey material.

That's just how it was.

The building went on.

Cooks. Construction. Guards. Alchemists. Heximedicists. Beast tamers. Farmers. Blacksmiths. Tailors. Miners. Brewers. Managers. Diplomats. There was a person for just about everything, and they were all top of the crop, most with eighty years of experience or more, despite their youngish appearances.

They built buildings at a staggering pace, using magic and skills I couldn't believe. The chefs prepared the best food, and the tailors worked to turn my mountain of second and third-generation pelts to make armor and clothing.

I met a lot of people. We ate together, took baths together, laughed, told jokes—lived life.

It was a time where everything needed done and everything was being done. It was a wonderful week. A wonderful week indeed.

Then the Drokai army came and reminded me that there were diplomatic matters to attend to.

That's how I ended up in a new conference tree with a large staggered seating arrangements with desks that had been carved two steps up. It allowed about fifty people to sit in the circle desks, and there was a podium in the center. We only needed microphones and it would look official.

That day it didn't feel official at all.

There was just me, Trigan, and Ferna (the diplomat) in the room, surrounded by two hundred pixies sitting on the edge of the circular tables like chairs.

Nethralis fluttered in the center of the room.

"Let's start with the pacts," Nethralis said, turning to Zyphrael. "Were they adequate?"

"I recorded the pact that all residents made, and I will read it now," he said professionally. Then he read out the pact, and the group went from surprised to disappointed.

"You'll let them leave?" Nethralis asked.

"If they harm us, it'll kill them," I said. "In my world, soul pacts don't even exist—and the world still runs fine. Compared to that, this is overkill."

There were a few murmurs, but it wasn't much. Nethralis scanned the Drokai faces and said, "I think that this generally alleviates concerns. Since we have signed off on this village and your position as guardian, we will not rehash what has been done. The question now is where we go from here. What do you propose?"

I looked between the representatives and Drokai elders and spoke concisely. "I plan to travel to Lake Nyralith this winter. I'm not sure what's there, but Brindle has given me his blessing to go. I'll then train and work on my cores, as I need to evolve. During the summer, I will create resources and a Bramble around my home. The following year, I will repair the Bramble at the border. After that, I will start the creation of a soul army. Not just for the battle, but to bolster my strength."

A murmur of astonishment spread through the chamber.

"That's ambitious," Nethralis said.

"It's what needs done," I said. I looked between them. "That's just what I'm doing as a guardian. Wraithwood village is a different story. I'll let Ferna Rin speak to that. She will be your point of contact on the day to day basis, so it's best she gets experience speaking to you."

Ferna nodded. The room became tense as another human, an unknown human, a human born from the pits of human society—the same human society that continually sought to invade and conquer Areswood Forest—came up to the podium. Then she began.