Packing and moving the devices took priority, so they had cleaned most of the mold before escaping, sure that without the proper care and with the treehouse's natural healing abilities the little pest would die before the next sunrise.
Luck, however, was a fickle mistress.
***
The following morning, Lith was sad while looking Kamila warp away. It had taken her and Solus quite an effort to not let Jirni's words making him stay up all night in a fit of paranoia.
Lyta was even sadder since she had spent the night alone. She couldn't fathom why everyone had turned her offer for company down, even Jirni.
Once they reached the laboratories, they discovered that Marth had never left. He looked almost as bad as when he was Headmaster and had a frenzied look in his eyes.
"Is it morning already?" Was his reaction when he saw them step out of the dimensional door. "I need to take a nap, but first I must bring you up to speed. Things have gotten quite hectic since you left."
Marth explained to them how the team he had sent to the treehouse had discovered nothing about the plague, but had confirmed all of Lith's group speculations.
"Ever since we collected scans of the residual images of Erlik's devices, the Forgemasters from all the four countries are studying the runes to understand what their function is." Marth said.
"Four?" The question was on everyone's lips, but Quylla beat the others to the punch.
"Forgetting about the plant kingdom, even though you're in one of its cities is rude even for a human, child." A cold voice came from one of the nearby desks, where several samples of the injured treehouse had been placed in crystal cases.
A fourth team was busy examining all the collected data and despite the fact that they all looked human, they were actually plant folk. Their leader was Leannan the Titania herself, ruler of the city-state of Laruel, and emissary of the World Sapling.
Marth tried to break the awkward silence that ensued by introducing Quylla and her group to the leader of the plant folks.
"Sovereign Leannan has decided to join us in the search for a cure since Erlik keeps hiding." The Professor said.
"I'm impressed with how quickly you human work as much as I am with your lack of manners. For a species who cares about appearances the most, is quite the contradiction." Leannan dropped the human form she had assumed to not scare her guests and reverted to her real body.
She looked as if a giantess had been fused with several kinds of different plants. Leannan was over 3 meters (10 feet) tall, with wheat blond hair, light green eyes, and slightly long pointy ears.
Her skin, or at least the little of it that was visible except that on her face, was pearly pink. She wore a sleeveless dress made of vines that covered everything under her collarbone.
Several branches came out from the back of her head and a thick bunch of leaflets circled around her forehead, giving the impression she wore some kind of tribal tiara. She wore brambles around her neck that yet didn't do her any harm.
Leannan's neck, shoulders, and arms were exposed, and covered with what would look like complex tattoos to a layman, but Lith recognized them as runes. Small branches also grew on her forearms, where her skin was mostly bark covered in ivy.
Her hands had slender fingers ending with long nails that together with the wrinkly appearance of the wood and their darker color made them look like belonged to a much older woman.
There was beauty in her, but no kindness nor warmth. Lith's instincts warned him that the creature in front of him was more ruthless than most Abominations he had ever met. To her, kissing a baby or twisting their neck was the same thing.
"I meant no disrespect, Your Majesty." Quylla gave the Sovereign a curtsy without being intimidated. Between her etiquette lessons and facing the Odi in combat, Leannan had to try much harder to impress her.
"Until yesterday I wasn't aware that plant folk had their own kingdom. Also, I've yet to see any of Laruel outside the walls of this lab, so my knowledge of your world is too limited to call it a country. If I offended you, I ask for your forgiveness."
"There's no need to apologize, child. Your ignorance just reassures me that we've been doing our job right. Our secrecy is what has protected us so far, preventing countless conflicts with small men plagued by even smaller minds." Leannan said while looking at the members of the group one at a time.
'The Sovereign has a bright blue core and an uncanny physical prowess.' Solus thought. 'Her dress hides several powerful artifacts, but their pseudo cores are of unknown design, so I have no idea what they are meant for.
'Her tattoos are enchanted and exude quite the magical power. My guess is that they are an array of some kind, but not like those we have met so far. The runes don't draw power from Leannan, on the contrary, they allow her to receive it from an external source.'
'It must be the way she sealed her contract with the Sapling.' Lith thought. The Titania was impressive even without the help of the ancient Awakened tree, but after meeting Faluel and Raagu, a blue core wasn't enough to worry him.
"I've come here to help you." Leannan said. "Professor Marth told me that you intend to examine the treehouse, correct?"
Quylla nodded.
"Then it's best if I accompany you. I heard about Erlik's previous attempt at your companions' lives and I don't want that to happen again. Also, I'm the only one that knows how the treehouses work, so you'll need me to understand whatever you might find."
A snap of her fingers brought them straight to their destination, in the basement where the side effects of Erlik's experiment were still eating away at the living house's essence.
"The devices you've spotted, Mage Ernas, have been crafted by my kin and so their runes. I've never seen anything like that, but I know my people's magic enough to understand its purpose.
"They are the Forgemastered equivalent of what you call Body Sculpting."
"I thought plant folks didn't practice light magic." Friya said.
"We don't. Our regenerating abilities make it useless up to tier four and plain torture at tier five. The only way to alter our life force is to do it all in one go. Unlike you humans, we can't be treated a little at a time.
"Any alteration of our life force is quickly corrected, just like what happens for our bodies. If even a small trace of our original essence remains, the entirety of the tier five spell is nullified, but it takes time and involves a lot of pain." Leannan said.
"What kind of mold is this?" Lith pointed at the grey patches infesting the roots.
"I don't know. It's not native of the Garlen continent and I doubt it's even natural, but I can't be sure. Fungi are as numerous as plants, plus I don't speak their language. They are as different from us as we are from humans."
"Sorry guys, but I need silence to concentrate." Quylla said. She followed Lith's instructions, using her personal version of the tier five spell Scanner to study the treehouse's lifeforce.
