"Pilgrims of Mutations alright," Aloe mused to herself before the ninefold coiled tree. "I'm getting the feeling that the names and sobriquets of each evolved being hides more information than their very descriptions."

  "What do you mean by that, oh mother?" Aleahilhahiba joined her.

  The Mother of Pnts turned to face her, her vine hair gged behind her, making a curtain of vegetation as she rotated on her heels.

  "This is, in fact, one of the pnts I evolved once upon a time. But I've noticed that now with the Chlorotrophy and the Heartgrowths – even the Aloe Veritas – that their sobriquets hide information I was not conscious of."

  "And what that may be?"

  "For starters, the fact on the veritas you shared with me. Called Bitter Truth, it is able to transmit its information in any manner possible to make its beholder comprehend it. But then we have the Synergic Symbiont the veritas called the pnts you and your sisters are composed of. And when I looked at the very description of dryads, it stated that you could assimite with other living beings, this is very much its property, if a bit altered from the one I know of from the Heartgrowth."

  Both she and the dryads were composed of Heartgrowths, but they acted in different ways. Whilst her Heartgrowths had been slowly pnted and substituted parts that did exist once upon a time, the same couldn't be said for the Heartgrowths that formed the whole called 'dryad'. These ones didn't have an original form they were replicating but instead shifted themselves with other Heartgrowths and biological mass to compose a body.

  "And what is the property of the Chlorotrophy, oh mother?" The lichen dryad inquired about the small tree afore them. Or at least, small in comparison to the one it was sprouting from. Most people would feel diminutive before its nine coiling trunks.

  "Pilgrim of Mutations is its sobriquet, and I think I have understood why." Aloe started. "The Aloe Veritas expins how this pnt can change into its surroundings – and that would expin why it has become a fusion of the Nature's Bounty and the Na'mul Ter'nar – but if I were to say something based on these new findings, I say that it can also change its surroundings too."

  "Are you saying that this is not the natural state of the World Tree?" Aleahilhahiba expressed her confusion as her polypore vibrated.

  A thought bloomed in the druid's mind. "You've only seen the World Tree in this state, have you not?"

  The eldest daughter nodded. "It was already a colossus amongst all even when I was nothing more than a sprout."

  "Then you wouldn't know that the Na'mul Ter'nar was even smaller than the tree before you or that the Nature's Bounty was a stump barely the size of a coffee table once upon a time."

  "Such things I did not know." The dryad shook her head.

  "Now you do," Aloe smiled at her. "Not many people, only Karaim – my grandfather – and I, knew about it. Though I guess some people must have seen its remnants prior to its… World Treeness if they have found the Myriad and given it so much use."

  "So the Pilgrim of Mutations is the culprit of the World Tree's size?"

  "Only a theory, I’m afraid, but I'm pretty sure about it." The Mother of Pnts approached the nince trunked tree and heaved herself up on the empty middle of the stump. From the inside, it was almost like a cell of branches and a gaol of trees. "As you have seen – or I guess understood – from the Aloe Veritas leaves, all evolved beings have an alignment. I have studied this property zealously over the centuries, and whilst I cannot affirm anything with the utmost true degree of veracity, I can say that this Chaos alignment of the Chlorotrophy aligns with what we have seen. Chaos tends to be very… literal."

  "I see…" Aleahilhahiba may not have had eyes, but Aloe had seen the doubt in hers. Whether this was an illusion of her mind, some sort of maternal bond, or just her ability to read the visages of people, she didn't know.

  "For today, though, we have done enough." Aloe descended from her cell and pointed at the horizon, a little aperture on the massive foliage. "The sun is rising, and I will have to pick up my disciple."

  "Of course, oh mother." The dryad extended her arms to her.

  "What are you doing?" The druid said with a frown.

  "Offering you to myself."

  "And why would you do that?"

  "To descend the tree," Aleahilhahiba stated as a matter of fact.

  "You could have just said so," Aloe sighed and picked up her daughter. Tall and heavy as she was, that mattered not to the Mother of Pnts, the strongest being that there was.

  Without so much of half a step, she reached the brink of the trunk, and she peered into the horizon as they stood at a height not many people had reached. The World Tree was taller even than the Heaven's Staircase, which was the tallest mountain range and single peak of the old Ydaz, but she couldn't speak about the modern Ydaz. She didn't know much beyond the old frontiers, and now all the continent was Ydaz. Maybe there y a taller peak in the south. Or perhaps it was elsewhere. In the New World, perhaps.

  Such a drop would have been once a sight of death. Fear could paralyze people at this height. The wind alone was terrifying as it thrashed on her pin dress and her ivy hair. Oh, but it would need far more strength to remove a single leaf from her hair. How much more, she could not say, for the Mother of Pnts didn't even know her own limits.

  Without blinking, taking a breath, or so much as reacting, Aloe plunged herself into the abyss.

  Gravity was not one of the things that the vital arts could affect, not even mass as they plunged – mother and daughter – downwards with the violence of a falling star.

  As non-human and enhanced by Nurture as Aleahilhahiba was, the dryad fearfully tucked herself in and wrapped her hands around Aloe's neck. They were moving fast and the fall was going to be nasty if she didn't do anything. Truth be told, Aloe hadn't pnned to do anything if it weren't for these haphazard gestures.

  The flimsy fabric of her cheap dress was a second confirmation as it was torn from her shoulders and it flew free into the heavens. Oh well, it was cheaper than breakfast at the hotel. She cried not for the loss of her clothes but prepared herself for the nding and her daughter's security.

  Her hands may have been occupied, but she needed them not to grow multiple Cottonpull pnts from her back. She had already used them before to halt a fall, but she had now become far more acquainted with shifting sizes. Perhaps her focus had been on reducing the size of her creations, but the megafauna of the Heart of the Evergreen had given her insight into how to increase it instead.

  Bags as massive as the canopies of trees waiting for them on the ground sprouted from her back, suddenly slowing their falling speed. Perhaps too much.

  "Mm," the lichen dryad mutedly groaned as her bark creaked.

  "Everything fine there, Aleahilhahiba?" She calmly asked her daughter.

  "Just a few bruises from the sudden halt, oh mother. Nothing to be worried about. It will heal in just a few days."

  "Nonsense," Aloe added and a Blossomfme sprouted from her shoulders.

  Massive like the Cottonpulls as the fire-red petals covered them for her mind was still focusing on the megafauna. The Blossomfme almost formed a cocoon around them before its petals were swayed away by the powerful wind. Perhaps their speed had slowed significantly, but it was still quite windy at this height. The fire sprouted from the evolved fme and enveloped them both in a potent yet harmless confgration.

  "It is… warm," Aleahilhahiba mused as she nuzzled Aloe's chest as if she were a cat.

  "Indeed," the druid added as she carefully controlled their airtime.

  "No, you do not understand, oh mother," the lichen dryad swayed her head and met her gaze. "We cannot feel warmth. Or at least, not as keenly as humans may do. And that is with even with acuity." She used the terminology her mother had just taught her even if she had only known the imperial's term.

  "So this is…"

  "Yes," the eldest dryad nodded. "It is the first time I have felt warmth. Actual warmth."

  Aleahilhahiba may be without eyes, but with that smile of hers, illuminated by both the rising sun and the fmes of the Lifefire Flower, Aloe could see the happiness irradiate from her.

  Perhaps the dryads were unwanted children and a dark memory she would have liked to never be resurfaced, but Aloe couldn't deny that image brought her… warmth. Not the physical one Aleahilhahiba was feeling, but a more… emotional kind.

  Those moments of warmth had been scarce as of te, only Xochipilli had been able to bring them out of her, but now… now there was another source. She almost felt that she could forget about everything and just y here with them for eternity. Yet that emphasis on almost was too great.

  Don't forget about your quest. An ugly voice whispered at the back of her mind. Don't forget about the suffering. Don't forget about the sins. Don't forget about the weakness. Project strength. Deny weakness. Stagnation is perdition. Never fall again. Only rise. LET THEM SEE.

  They nded safely on the ground and Aloe let her lichenous daughter go as her sisters gathered around to see what had happened, but the Mother of Pnts remained in her mind.

  Her thoughts on that ugly voice. A hideous sound unlike any other. A hot wailing of rage. A though destructive in nature, but paradoxically warm.

  It was hers.

  Epsilon_Twilight