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    The Ordolon Oak was a particularly lovely building. One of the roots of a large tree that formed a city. I’d been expecting all the root buildings to be pretty similar, but I was impressed by how intricate and personalized each of the buildings was. The wood had been shaped into gorgeous reliefs and designs, with gemstones and even metals seemingly growing through it in places, creating beautiful murals and artwork along the walls.


    What impressed me was the fact that there were absolutely no tool marks on the wood, it seemed to have been shaped as it grew. When we mentioned this to Alyssa, she seemed excited to share the secret.


    “The method for shaping the wood is called ‘Tree Singing’,” she said brightly. She’d been a bit reserved since we met her, with Jessie trying to encourage her to open up and talk to us, but this subject seemed to be a passion of hers. “Dryad’s come in lots of different variations and can do many different tasks. Tree Singers are artisans, some of them do construction like this, some of them create more functional designs, siege engines and the like. The Mother Trees themselves and the construction of the Temples are an example of powerful Tree Singing.”


    That was an interesting idea. “Siege engines? Like the trees can move?”


    “Some of them,” she said brightly. “But they’re mostly stationary. We have another direction of study called Tree Dancing. Tree Dancers can make their trees move, though only within their natural limits. War Trees are special trees optimized by Tree Singers and controlled by Tree Dancers. War Trees are one of the great defensive means of the Divine Tree Temple. Any tree might be a war tree, and in the Primordial Tree Sea, that means all other factions have to tread carefully.”


    Which reminded me of a question I’d had, actually. “About that. The Primordial Tree Sea was planted by the dryads right? So wouldn’t all those trees already be bonded?”


    She burst out laughing. “Heavens no. There are far more trees than dryads. For their ascension to elder, every dryad goes out into the universe and finds a unique tree seed to bring back and plant in the Tree Sea. That said, most of them bring more than one, because there are a great many trees here, and it’s hard to say if your particular tree will be unique. There’s a book where we try to record trees as they’re bonded, but many of the wild and unbound trees are a complete mystery to us.”


    “So you just go out into the giant forest and…look for a tree that feels right?” I asked slowly. “But the planet is huge, how do you know you’re even close?”


    “The Tree Sea tells us,” she said proudly. “The intertwining roots of the sea have formed together over time and become their own consciousness. The Mother Trees protect the temples, but the Tree Sea protects us all. The Sea is an S-rank entity, and a powerful one at that. At the beginning of our trials we commune with the Tree Sea and it gives us a relative direction and distance. More narrowing down which section of the Tree Sea we should look in than anything.”


    I admit, I was a little thrown by the concept of a forest being a living being. Maybe I shouldn’t have been, it was hardly the weirdest thing I’d seen, but something about the idea of a living being made of twisted up roots was weird.


    Jessie, however, seemed to be ecstatic at the possibilities. She sat and talked with Alyssa alongside Callie for about an hour before the dryad left, and when she did, I finally asked the question that had been churning in my mind for a while. “Are you thinking about becoming a dryad?” I asked my healer.


    I didn’t begrudge her the interest, and if that was what she wanted I was happy for her, but it just seemed a bit fast for such a big change. Then again, I had wings now (temporary though they may be), so maybe it was hypocritical to throw stones at people for making big species changes on a whim.


    She looked conflicted. “I…don’t know. Aside from the baseline Vitality boost, which would be huge for me, the synergy with my abilities is immense. I wouldn’t lose them either, they would just become a Skill alongside my racial trait, and I could synergize them in when I create my Solid Path. I know it seems like a big change, but it just feels…right. Becoming part of the forest. But then again it also doesn’t. Like it’s close but not quite right.”


    Callie, who had been quietly listening, perked up. “So…don’t.” We both looked at her, confused.


    “Why haven’t you gone with a racial trait before? I know why Shane and I don’t, it’s nearly impossible to break into divinity with a racial trait because you’re sharing your renown with a whole species, not even mentioning Path stuff.” Despite her relatively demoralizing words, her tone was excited, but I wasn’t getting her point.


    At our blank looks, she growled in frustration. “What if instead of a dryad, you became something ELSE? The big problem is the catalyst, but what if you had another way to get a catalyst?”The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Now I was getting it. “You mean use a wish?” I clarified. “I mean, that would be a gamechanger, but I feel like just creating a racial trait from nothing would be too expensive a wish to even bother with. That’s…a lot.” I wasn’t sure my power could even do that. Not at D-rank. I knew I could resurrect the dead at D-rank, provided they were mortals (though my VItality wasn’t high enough yet, I’d checked) but creating a species? I was a little unconvinced.


    “If we were making one from scratch, sure,” she shrugged. “But think about Anna-Marie. She was a Nereid, and now we’ve met Dryads. Those are both kinds of nymph. Even if admittedly Anna-Marie didn’t seem to be bound to a body of water, she was also like…many generations removed from a pureblood Nereid from what I remember. Though I don’t know how that even affects racial traits. Or if it does. Or maybe Nereids are different. It doesn’t really matter though.


    “Clearly there’s a base architecture there, Jessie just wants to be LIKE a Dryad but different. In fact, I bet I know what she leans more towards, on account of her bond with Randall.” She grinned at our friend. “You want to be like an animal version of a Dryad, don’t you?” My wife sounded like she was on the verge of bursting out of her seat and punching something. It was easy to forget she was a total nerd about this stuff sometimes.


    She wasn’t alone, either. Jessie squealed excitedly, popping to her feet in shock. “YES! Yes that’s exactly what I want! Trees are great, but they’re not ME. I don’t want to lifebond with a plant. I want to lifebond with my big fluffy teddy bear!”


    “Exactly,” said my wife smugly. “Sort of a…Thirionad.”


    “Kind of a lame name,” I snickered.


    My wife rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t name her after some obscure demonic pig farmer or something. If we want her to sound like she was spawned from the pit we’ll give you a call honey, otherwise stay in your lane.”


    “I’m sorry, am I getting naming advice from the woman who selected her cape name when she was like twelve and never changed it? Because Nightstrike isn’t exactly simple and elegant.” She knew I was joking, but we still probably would have gotten sucked into bickering if Jessie hadn’t cleared her throat. “Ah, damn, sorry Jess, it’s ultimately your call.”


    She chuckled at our back and forth. “How kind. But really I’m not sure. My motif was made back when I was plant based, and Agria goes better with being a Dryad, plus I could help with your trial and weigh in for you with the elders. There are a lot of reasons to be a classic Dryad. But still…”


    I waved her off. “I think you forget I can talk to plants. I’ll be fine. You just do whatever you think is best for you.”


    Biting her lip, she finally nodded. “This feels like the right call. You and Callie are leaving me behind, and Benny too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to try a racial trait himself. He hasn’t been thrilled with your rapid progress, at least not in comparison to himself. Alright, I want to do it. Cal?”


    Beaming, my wife flourished a hand, pulling a scroll from nowhere, one of the four emergency scrolls they had stockpiled outside the fifty six I was building up for my next wish binge. Jessie did a flourish of her own, then flipped me a coin, one I caught as she opened up the scroll, eyes going wide. “Is this…holy shit Jessie where did you get a C-ranked chit? This is twice as much money as I’ve ever had at once.”


    She shrugged. “People in the Holy Dominion were really rich and I’m a great healer. That’s my payment, in case it wasn’t clear.” Popping the scroll, she raised it above her head, and in a loud, clear voice, she announced. “I wish I had a catalyst that would help me accept a racial trait similar to Dryads, Nereids, Maenads, and similar nymphs, but I want to be bonded to a single animal rather than a part of nature.”


    I felt the stirring of power, my body gathering the same purple electricity it always did during wishes, though in bigger quantities than I’d seen in a long time, maybe ever. I’d never been in the room when someone used one of my scrolls before, and it was a weird feeling. The static built and built, hanging on the air like an oncoming storm, then it shattered, and the room was consumed in purple lightning.


    I pocketed the coin, then dropped into a chair, waiting for the lightshow to end. It didn’t take long, the purple lightning that I was pretty sure they couldn’t even see began to condense, slowly curving and shifting in the air into a sphere and then sucking in on itself.


    The purple electricity became denser, thicker, and more solid as it shrunk, finally taking on the shape of a spherical bottle with a short neck. It dropped out of the air slowly, almost casually, and Jessie snapped it up, cradling it protectively in her hands as she stared down into the glowing brown muck.


    “Well,” I said after a moment. “That does NOT look appetizing.”


    Jessie rolled her eyes. “It’s the catalyst for a racial trait, not a mocha latte. It’s not supposed to be delicious, it’s supposed to be powerful.” She paused for a second. “It really does look like…extra gross, doesn’t it?”


    “I’m sure it tastes fine,” Callie said soothingly. “It kind of looks like hot chocolate.”


    Jessie shot her a quizzical look. “Really? Do you think so?”


    “No, it looks like mud. And that’s being charitable,” my wife admitted. “I’m sure it’s disgusting. I was just trying to make you feel better.”


    I burst out laughing, and Jessie pouted angrily at both of us before realizing it wouldn’t accomplish anything and rolling her eyes. “You guys are both assholes. Fine. I’m getting ready to do this. Wish me luck.”


    Before we could react, she popped the cork from the curved glass claws that served as the bottle’s stopper and tipped it back, dumping it right down her throat. She stumbled back, body going rigid as her eyes filled with a mixture of green and brown energy. I hissed in annoyance, having planned for her to let us analyze it or have Zeke give it a shot. Hopefully it would be alright without the redundancy checks. Of course, that was when the screaming started.