*… there were trees, too. It was amazing how many trees there were in and around Trinsic. Small, big, scrawny and lush, trees everywhere. And that wasn’t even counting the various types of shrubbery that lurked everywhere. Even from here, peering out of the narrow windows of the lighthouse tower, Iljian could see trees. Further north, but they were there. And west and south across the bay as well. With a silent frown he closed the windows and flopped onto his bed.
Its wasn’t that he minded trees, not normally. But today they spooked him somewhat. When the Oracle had spoken about how it knew things and when it sort of hinted that it knew stuff that happened around the trees in the area that was one thing. Oracles were meant to know things. It wasn’t a helpful thought, but it was proper, in a way. And that was the only good thing about its ramblings; it would only give shrewd answers and thus wouldn’t tell on people. But now that tree spirit woman or whatever she was had begun talking of herself as –we- and –us- and had claimed that she, too, was connected with the trees and the land around her. The farmer woman selling seeds had claimed that the spirit would see everything through the trees. What if she was watching them all the time? Or listening? Or creeping up on them through trees? Iljian shivered.
Trees grew a long time. Even having grown up amongst fishermen whose knowledge of growing things was more or less reduced to what kinds of herbs went well with fish he knew that. Years. Decades. But he had never seen young reapers. Or small corpsers. They didn’t grow as reapers, he was sure of that. If they did, someone would have been bound to have an uprooted reaper in a flower pot shooting miniature fireworks at passing insects. That left only the other alternative: a perfectly fine and healthy tree somehow got into a bad mood and decided to get back at the lumberjacks in the area. Well, not like that, of course, even though it was a funny though. But by some kind of magic… or tree spirit? ... the perfectly normal tree turned more alive than it had the right to be. So who was to say that the same would not happen, say, in the Trinsic parks, avenues or well, just over there not far from the lighthouse? Or that she was watching them all through the trees?
Not that the spirit woman had seemed very dangerous. In fact, she had rather acted a little lost, constantly asking to have things explained to her, sorry, to –them-. And she had been open to negotiations. Without putting forth any great demands, either. For a moment, Iljian rooted in the dusty space beneath the bed until he found the pen and notebook discarded there last night. For a moment his eyes trailed towards the window, but he did not feel like going outside today anymore, even if it would be much cooler.
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Town was quiet today, apart from the *a few attempts at spelling Illithid are crossed out* squid-faced-entity trying to play the lute. Surprisingly, he seems to have found both a date and a job in Cove at the Green Goblin tavern, which says a lot about that village, really.
Lady Gwen went to see the temples in the woods and I followed her. The tree spirit woman was there when we arrived, seemingly lost in trance or something, but she soon spoke to us. She can really turn into a tree-like thing, like those reapers. But she was not hostile and we talked quite a lot. Or Lady Gwen did, for the most part. It seems like elves and tree-spirits go well together.
The tree-woman speaks of herself as if she were many people at once, sort of. She explained it, or tried to, but I did not really understand that part. Something to do with a connection with the land around her temple or around Trinsic. Maybe she is speaking for all trees? I tried to find out more about what happened with the algae and the mushrooms, but did not get many replies. But not because she tries to keep it secret or something, but rather because she does not seem concerned by it. According to her, she was called by that other man and after that, things just had to happen that way. Her arrival made things grow randomly and she seems to think that she cannot be blamed for that.
I managed to make her agree that we can have the other man though, the one that we think might have been that Antar person. According to her, he called her and then tried to control her, but failed at that and she took revenge on him. But apparently she did not kill or harm him, since she believes that she has to thank him for her presence here. She said several times that she did not know what to do with him, so I asked if we could have him for a trial and she agreed. So we can ask him and learn more about what really happened. But she will only give him to the Duke. It seems like someone told her that the Duke is responsible for justice and that he will decide who was guilty of what, so she seems to think this is the right thing to do. I was not sure about that, but managed to propose that the meeting be at the oracle as a neutral place and she agreed to that. When the Duke has time, I will bring her a message to sort out a date and time for that.
Stewan was there too and seemed upset that we spoke to her and especially that Lady Gwen seemed to like her. I couldn’t say who of them is right, but the tree woman is sort of creepy.
I went through all the leases that I found in the records and all of them, including the trade permits are expired. As soon as the changes will be posted I will start renewing the still active ones. There was a stack of old drow permits too, but I do not know what to make of them. Most of them are vouched for by murderers and criminals themselves and the best part has not been about for months and years and is probably dead or fled back to that underground place. Maybe the Duke or council could decide if we should scrap them all and start again or if we do not ask for permits at all or how we go on from here.
Rest of the night was quiet.
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By the time Iljian was finished scribbling his report, it had become gloomy within the lighthouse. Night had fallen and it was only the eternal light on top of his tower that illuminated the narrow room. Outside, a gentle, cool breathe from the sea blew and Iljian thought for a moment that he could hear the leaves of that tree rustle in the wind. With a frown, he rose again to close the curtains.*