[un: sprite bulb] voice;

[bearshermark]

[An aggrieved breath brushes through Eleven's crystal. He sounds tired and annoyed in the moment, as though speaking directly to someone of something]

I'm trying to grow things, here.

For Goddess' sake, I only just planted this patch yesterday.

[He sighs, temper easing, though his voice remains underscored by a thread of tension]

..Has anyone found anything about the dark waters? How to remove them or purify them or.. something. I've been working around them much as I can, but something will surely need to be done to clear it up if this village is going to thrive after we've gone.

[He's going to leave one place better than they found it okay.

..Maybe. Hopefully]

Comments

[ Voice; un: anzhi ]

[balancedwire]

What can you tell me about the dark waters?

[ He wasn't around when they first started, after all. ]

[bearshermark]

Hm.

[He's asking for information on them himself]

Natural wells have dried up with its appearance. It taints crops. A source of unnatural drought, by the looks of it.

[balancedwire]

[ Maybe they both can figure something out, possibly. ]

How long ago did it start?

[bearshermark]

Ah..

[He's trying to remember when he'd heard the first well ran dry]

..A few months ago? But, it sounds like this isn't the first time it's happened.

[balancedwire]

So, it's possible that it happens every so often then?

[ Now he's curious. Who could be doing what to the wells? They both definitely needed to learn more about this. ]

That's a bit distressing to think about.

un: eclipse | audio

[soloritur]

Yeah, about that. [ He hasn't really spread this around yet. Maybe he didn't realize that it was still a problem elsewhere. ]

We saw the dark water in the cornfields. It seemed to be coming from a tree. [ There is so much more to that story, but he doesn't want to freak him out. ] I don't know there are more trees like it, but if you're going to go looking for them, don't go alone. There was something very wrong going on with it.

[bearshermark]

[He's suddenly very interested]

A tree? What tree? ..I might be able to talk to it.

[soloritur]

[ Don't sound too hopeful, El. It gets much worse. ]

Ah. We destroyed it. I think it might have been trapping people inside it. For a long time. [ ... ] After that, the water in the fields dried up in a few hours.

If there are others out there...

[ He can't imagine how many hundreds of people were lost, but God help them. ]

[bearshermark]

Destroyed..?

[He sounds crestfallen for a moment, but it tapers off as Marcos goes on. Trapping people. How terrible]

What did it look like?

[soloritur]

It was white, almost skeletal, and the roots were dripping with the water.

[ Now he's worried he's going to go looking anyway, so he reluctantly shares more. ]

The tree would have done the same to us, El. If you see one, you can't go anywhere near it. Even the water isn't safe to be around.

un: absterge

[downswing]

It sleeps at the belly of dried wells. Bearing no scent. Chilled.

[bearshermark]

[Hm, it's been awhile since he's had to decipher Wangji. His translator is a little rusty]

Are you saying you've found a source in the wells, or that you've touched it?

[downswing]

Encountered it at a well's bottom.

The surface appeared settled.


( In the way of weighted, gelid thing. )

[bearshermark]

[Far from being an expert in the composition of substances, a number of likely unsafe ideas come to mind]

I may need to try a few things.

[downswing]

You intend to retrieve samples?

un: white pawn; voice

[chosenbylight]

A group of us were asked by the villagers to go into the forest to look into the increasingly aggressive predators nearby. When we did, we discovered some of the animals had... Hybridized, for lack of a better word. It seemed to be an effect of drinking the water itself.

[Can you tell that he is frowning? He is Most Definitely Frowning.]

I am sorry to say that my magic was not strong enough to purify whatever had overcome them. Though once we had blocked the dark water from the pool, they seemed to recover.

[bearshermark]

[He hums, thoughtful and distracted]

So it affects animals, too. [Which likely means it probably isn't a stretch to humans. No touching it, then] It's good to know the effects wear off after the source is removed..

Where was that pool?

[chosenbylight]

Deep in the haunted forest. The Lady's forests, I believe they call them.

[Yes, it bothers Anduin as well. Especially the fact that, just like the ancestors' curses laid upon them, his magic -- the magic of the Light itself -- had not been able to cleanse it.]

We tracked the dark water up the spring through the forest to a small rock font, though I cannot say that was its true origin.

[bearshermark]

Hm. Marcos says it seemed to be coming from a tree. I wonder if it's the roots..? Sounds like we'll need to go back in there..

[chosenbylight]

From a tree, from a spring deep in the forest, inside the wells...

It's all over the village. As though it is coming from the very ground itself.

[Voice un:heliodor]

[unswervingcompanion]

I can not say that I have found anything out regarding them. However if you need my assistance, I will be by your side.

[bearshermark]

[Across timelines and dimensions and a few different sets of memories, Hendrik's sworn sincerity still surprises him sometimes]

Thank you.

[He probably doesn't say that enough]

We're likely going to be looking into the forests soon.

[unswervingcompanion]

[The knight nodded even if the Luminary couldn't see it. Helping the boy out was the very lease he could do and he did swear he would help the boy back home. Something still niggled at his brain from time to time that the last go around here they were closer. But he chased those thoughts away almost immediately every single time that they entered his thoughts.]

If we are indeed headed that way, that may very well mean fighting whatever lurks dark within its depths. We should be prepared as should anyone else that accompanies you.

[He pauses]

Are you prepared?

[bearshermark]

The waters seem to corrupt anything they touch- vines, animals.. And we'll need to keep a distance from any ghost trees we come across- and likely destroy them as sources. Though I'd like to try to speak with them first.

[unswervingcompanion]

[That made him pause.]

So you believe that you can speak with these ghost trees?

[This made him more determined to be at the boy's side because there would undoubtedly be a lot of trouble, especially if the animals and vines were corrupted as well.]