While Priscilla was far more interested in magical creatures than plants, blights walked the fine line between the two categories and they had always intrigued Priscilla. There were plants that had been animated by ambient magic within the ecosystem and their niche was one that teetered between being a minor predator and a parasitic nuisance since few animals hunted blights because they were vicious and not so very nutritious, making them poor prey. They had short life spans and procreated by splitting off a chunk of their body a la starfish style.

There were several subspecies of blights, some being far cooler than the others like the one based on pitcher plants or the one descended from cactuses, but the one that Priscilla and her friends were going to be dealing with was the variety called brush twig blights. They looked like a cluster of twigs, roots, and patchy leaves had somehow glued itself together in a shape that could drag itself across the ground at the speed of a tumbleweed because it wanted to suck out your brains like a demented little plant zombie.

Yup, blight's favorite food were brains because the organ was nutrient rich, but they'd settle for your liver if they had to, and would sulkingly accept blood if they were unable to kill their targets. They 'ate' their prizes by absorbing it through their portable root ball they kept hidden within their center, and tracked their prey like snakes did through body temperature.

Bush twig blights tended to gather in large clusters to take down larger prey, clumping together to crack open skulls before promptly fighting one another for the choicest bits of brain matter. Blights were not so smart and rather bloodthirsty even to their own kin, so it was rare that they gathered in large enough numbers to threaten settlements, with most human deaths occurring on the road when the blights ambushed lone travelers.

Illnyea managed to look interested as Priscilla relayed all this information over lunch and Sulaiman had a furrow in his brow as he was formulating a plan of attack for once they got to the village., but Kavil's face was twisted into an expression half-way between disgust and disdain as he said, "I refuse to acknowledge blights as plants. Plants are supposed to be helpful not, not whatever this hateful thing is!"

Priscilla smirked as she said, "They want to eat your braiiiiins."

Kavil shuddered, eyes rolling in disgust.

"Every time you tell us about a new creature," Kavil said, eyeing Priscilla's bestiary like it might bite him, "I'm reminded that not all creator gods are as kind as Gaelea."

"Some just want to see the world burn for shits and giggles," Priscilla agreed.

Sulaiman interrupted to go over a tentative plan of attack that would be adjusted depending on the information they got from the villagers and Priscilla stopped hassling Kavil with facts about creepy little plants to listen.

Caershire was normally a sleepy little settlement nestled in between two hills right on the edge of the Emerald Forest. It was a week's journey from the main road that led north to the capital, and the roads were wild enough that Sulaiman and Illnyea had to occasionally move a fallen log off it so the carriage could pass. The houses in Caershire were simple but sturdy and obviously cared for. Colorful red, orange, and yellow streamers lined the house's doorways for a pop of color, and petunias were planted along the main path in the village. Farmhands watched cattle graze in a large field nearby, the bovine's tails swishing back and forth as they swatted away flies that hadn't yet gotten the message it was fall and they were supposed to fuck off now.

There wasn't anything overtly wrong with the village until you breathed in or looked up and saw the smoke from the literal wall of fire between the back half of the village and the Emerald Forest. Several braziers were positioned near like they were ready to add to the blaze and every villager carried a torch within their left hand and a fire starter in their right.

Their party was seen from far out and by the time Priscilla's horse came to a stop at the edge of the village, there was a cluster of nearly a hundred people waiting for them.

"Are you from the capital?" asked a harried woman as she wrung her torch anxiously.

"No," Priscilla said and the crowd's enthusiasm dimmed. "But we are from the adventurer's guild because we've heard you're suffering from a blight problem."

The spark reentered their eyes and suddenly Priscilla was being bombarded with tales of woe brought about by dastardly blights. It took a hot second to get everyone to calm down and speak in an orderly fashion, and by then, it seemed like the entire village had arrived. Priscilla and her party were ushered into the largest house, given a cup of cold milk, and then the sorrowful tale was relayed.

Blights had started being a major problem around three months ago. It had started small, with a bundle of twigs attacking a rat near the grainery. The villagers had done their best to run the blight off because one little bugger could quickly turn into ten little buggers, and then become a very large bastard. They burned the blights they saw, and it had been quiet for a few weeks before a swarm attacked their cattle fields.

"'Twas like nothing I'd ever seen before," said a grizzled man who had introduced himself as Isran and others seemed to view as a leader. "The whole lot of them poured through our fence and surrounded old Hessie — within a minute, they had dragged the old girl up and over the fence back into the edge of the forest."

The villagers lost nearly a third of their herd before they had found that the only way to keep the blights at bay was to keep up a constant wall of fire by building a makeshift pyre along the edge of the forest, but there were two major problems with the solution. The first was that the constant smoke in the air made anyone with sensitive lungs have to stay inside instead of helping with the cattle to make cheese before winter truly made itself at home. And the second was that to keep a fire that size burning, they needed a lot of kindling, of which they were running very low.

"The only way to get more wood is to go into the forest," Isran said, glancing nervously over his shoulder despite being indoors, "and no one's brave enough to do that since we don't know if we'd just become blight food."

"Were you able to pin an exact location where the blights were coming from from within the forest?" Illnyea asked.

"Somewhere too deep to spot," Isran's wife, Maria, said as she crossed her arms, "but if I have to guess, I'd reckon it's due east, probably up by the old sycamore trees."

Isran nodded, stroking his beard. "Aye, that place's always been good for plants and has zesty quality to the air, don't see no reason why blights wouldn't like it."

"Do you have a map where you could show us where that is?" Priscilla asked, resting her chin in hand as she considered the situation.

The blight situation was far worse than the reports had indicated. If it was a simple cattle or two that had been stolen, Priscilla thought they could deal with the infestation within an hour. But to have multiple, coordinated attacks over the course of months suggested that there were a hell of a lot of blights within the forest. Normally a group this size would have deteriorated because of infighting over limited resources, but Priscilla suspected that the surrounding forest had been picked clean of animals during this rare showing of species cooperation.

It was a fascinating case because it was so far from the norm, but though Priscilla was mildly obsessed with magical creatures, she did not have the temperament of a scientist. Instead of studying this rare phenomena, Priscilla was busy imagining ways to burn it all down.

The map showed that the patch of sycamore trees was only an hour's walk from the village, but it was getting dark and it'd be stupid as shit to go traipsing about unfamiliar forest with enemies abound. The villagers of Caershire happily offered to make the party dinner.

The town's speciality was cheese and Priscilla reveled in it, sighing as she enjoyed fresh mozzarella layered over beef and crackers. Kavil was watching her with an odd expression, lips slightly tight, and Priscilla thought he was jealous of her goodies, so she held out the next bite to him. He blinked in surprise before chuckling and leaning forward. His teeth scraped against the tips of Priscilla's finger but it didn't hurt, so Priscilla didn't complain.

Kavil chewed slowly, his expression thoughtful. "Do you think they'll give us some cheese after we deal with the horrible not-plants?"

"Gods, I hope so," Priscilla said as she took another bite and sighed happily. She hadn't had such fresh cheese in this world until now and she had forgotten how much cheese fucking slaps.

Despite now being within Caershire, Sulaiman insisted they sleep in shifts. His eyes narrowed as he glanced at the wall of fire that the villagers were adding more fuel to.

"With our luck," Sulaiman said quietly, "that'll burn itself out and we'll be overrun in seconds."

No one argued with that logic, and they set up a watch rotation to keep an eye on the forest.

Nothing attacked during the night, which was great. What was not so great was the chilly air that had made itself at home, nipping at Priscilla's nose and making it run incessantly. Sulaiman saw her sniffling, sighed deeply, and then grasped Priscilla by the shoulders. The tell-tale prickle of pain was accompanied by a cocoon of warmth and Priscilla sighed contentedly as Sulaiman provided the same service to Illnyea and Kavil.

Mr. Ordan held a bundled Perry in his arms, as the platypus was lethargic in the cold, and promised to keep Perry company as they awaited the party's return. Arnold just told Illnyea to keep ash from the burned blights if she could because it "could make one hell of a pencil." Priscilla had no idea what that meant but Illnyea seemed excited as she said she'd try to collect some.

As they were preparing to leave, Isran informed them that they were putting the last of the kindling in now.

"May the Gods watch over you," Isran said with a bowed head, "and bless your path until you rest with us once more."

"And may Gaelea watch over you," Kavil said, lightly touching Isran's shoulder, "and keep you safe and whole until we return." The man looked touched and repeated the words back to Kavil, who gently smiled.

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Sulaiman summoned his balls of fire the moment they were past the wall of flames, lighting each of the party's torches. Since slashing blights just made more of the fuckers, it was decided they mainly be relying on trying to light one on fire so Sulaiman could accelerate the burning and destroy it. Priscilla had her bat attached to her hip, but wouldn't use it until the torch had outlived its usefulness, and Illnyea had gotten a sledgehammer from one of the villagers.

Kavil had extra waterskins on hand in case the fire got out of control, but if that happened, Illnyea was supposed to attempt to trap the blights within earth. That didn't technically kill blights, but it would stop them from propagating or causing chaos for a while as they caught their breath. Illnyea also had five flasks of oil in case of emergency and they needed to dump accelerant on a fire and get the hell out of dodge.

Priscilla followed behind Kavil and Sulaiman with Illnyea just a few steps behind her. The chill in the air had only gotten worse since they woke up, and Priscilla could see her breath when she exhaled. Sulaiman's warm cocoon was great, but she knew that once they found the blights, it'd quickly disappear as Sulaiman's attention readjusted to more important things.

The first blight to attack them rolled out from beneath the brush to lob itself at Sulaiman's ankle. He grunted, an arrow shooting from the floating flaming sphere directly into the bundle of twigs, piercing through the root ball. The blight let out a series of noises similar to twigs snapping and then it flailed as the fire burned faster and faster until it was nothing more than a pile of ash. The paused just long enough for Illnyea to collect some ash before they walked further down the trail, moving more cautiously.

They were nearly to the sycamore trees when the next bundle of blights launched themselves at Priscilla's face, and she swung her torch into it. The strange twig snapping sound rang through the air and then several more blights rolled out of hiding to lunge at them.

Fire was an effective tactic against things made of wood, but the blights' flailing put out flames until it was barely smoldering. Priscilla swung with the torch again, and when that failed, just stomped onto the quivering pile of twigs. It snapped easily under her heels and exposed the root ball, but it kept twitching until Sulaiman came over and dealt with it permanently, fire consuming it with a snap of his fingers.

"These are more annoying than scary," Illnyea said, shaking her fingertips from where she had summoned a small flame when a blight hugged her arm. She only had a minor affinity with fire, but it was helpful to have another person who could burn the blights.

"Don't jinx us, Illnyea" Kavil snapped, shaking leaves off of his clothes. "We haven't even encountered the crazy clusters strong enough to drag off full grown cattle."

The trees in behind Kavil rattled ominously and he jumped, swirling around as he raised his torch. Sulaiman rushed forward with his flaming sword just in time to meet a six foot wide ball of blights dropping right where Kavil had just been standing. It undulated unnaturally, the roots rippling as it steadied itself upon the ground. Twigs snapped and reformed as it tried to tower over Sulaiman.

Sulaiman slashed through the blight ball and it fell into two uneven halves, the twigs and roots scrambling to retain their shape as flame ate into their wooden flesh. It was a cacophony of snapping twigs and burning leaves, gray smoke rising up and filling the air.

Illnyea flanked Sulaiman, her face fierce as she heaved her hammer into the left blight, sending up a spray of splinters. Priscilla darted forward with her torch, focusing on lighting more of the right side on fire. Sulaiman's sword was a blur as it sliced through the blights again and again, and Priscilla's skin prickled with pain from his constant use of magic.

The temperature in the air was rising with each strike of Sulaiman's sword. Priscilla felt sweat roll down her neck as she smacked a stray blight with a torch, sending up a spray of sparks and lighting the root ball on fire.

The blights attempted to recluster in a desperate scramble, but Sulaiman stood between both sides, his lips pulled back in a silent snarl. With a burst of magic, flame radiated from Sulaiman in a circle, swallowing up the blights that hadn't yet lit on fire.

Sulaiman was breathing heavily through his nose as the blights were reduced into embers and the flames quickly snuffed themselves out.

"You alright?" Priscilla asked. She knew that using elemental magic could come with side effects, and Sulaiman was slinging around a lot of magic in a short period of time.

Sulaiman's jaws clenched, breathing deeply a few times before he said, "I am… fine, if a little warm."

Illnyea squinted at Sulaiman, tilting her head as she looked him up and down. "Kavil," she said, "pour some water on his head."

Sulaiman opened his mouth like he was going to protest, but Kavil ignored him and listened to Illnyea. Literal steam rose from Sulaiman's hair the second the water made contact, and Illnyea gave him a flat, chastising look. Sulaiman looked away, jaw clenched as he slowed his breathing.

"How much farther until the sycamore trees?" Priscilla asked, drawing Illnyea's attention away from Sulaiman because he probably already knew he was being stupidly stubborn.

Illnyea checked the map and glanced at the sky. "It's about five minutes away, if I'm reading this right."

"Do you think there's going to be more blight clusters there?" Kavil asked, eyeing the piles of ash. "Seems like we've already dealt with a bunch."

"We should assume there's a hell of a lot more," Priscilla said, rolling her neck, "because one blight can become twenty in a little over a day, and they've had plenty of time to propagate."

Her friends nodded seriously, and after Sulaiman caught his breath, they crept forward, ready to be attacked at any moment.

When they made it to the clearing of sycamore trees, everyone froze and Priscilla could only think, Holy fucking shit.

There was a giant cluster of brush twig blights that pulsed like a heart beat. It had to be nearly twenty feet across and ten high, far larger than any cluster had ever been recorded being. The dirt was a mess, as the weight of the cluster tore up grass each time it shifted, teetering back and forth, and Priscilla wondered how the hell that many blights had sustained itself for so long. Large patches of the cluster were stained red, indicating a fresh kill, but Priscilla hadn't seen any other animal in the forest

"I think we need to toss oil on that fucker now," Priscilla whispered as the cluster suddenly stopped shifting, the twigs and roots twitching in their direction. "Like right now, Illnyea."

Illnyea was staring at the cluster with wide eyes, her mouth agog, but before she could shake off the shock, Kavil grabbed a flask.

"It's not that much different from water," he whispered to himself as he uncorked the flask. Oil began streaming out the top and shot into the air as the cluster began to roll in their direction.

Sulaiman slashed at the ground, leaving a short wall of flames behind. Kavil let a third of the oil fall from the floating orb and the flames shot up immediately, spreading to block them. The cluster let out a shrill sound of twigs grinding against each other as it came to slow stop.

Illnyea uncorked another flask of oil and chucked it at the cluster. It landed near the top and began to leak oil down the side. Priscilla did the same, Asha helping guide her aim as her mind raced. There wasn't really anything that Priscilla could do against a cluster this large, and their success rested solely on Sulaiman's shoulders.

Sulaiman had his hands raised, the flame wall shooting up higher as Kavil added more fuel and the wall began to inch around the clearing. An arrow shot forth from the wall, hitting and igniting a patch of oil soaked twigs.

The same shrill screech went out as the cluster recoiled, shifting backwards. It began to roll a little faster towards the other edge of the clearing, like it might want to escape.

"Oh hell no," Priscilla whispered, and then grabbed both her torch, Kavil's, and Sulaiman's unused one, lighting the edge in the wall as she passed it. She began to sprint around the edge, ignoring her friends' questions about what she thought she was doing.

Priscilla chucked one torch at the cluster, aiming for the farside. It hit true and the cluster screeched, coming to an abrupt halt before it tried to shift gears once more.

Illnyea tossed another flask of oil but Priscilla didn't stop running, legs pumping as she went to block off its escape. She tossed the second torch and the cluster came to a stop once more, and it began to shiver violently as more and more of it ignited.

The last flask of oil hit true, and the flames roared.

Priscilla threw her last torch at a patch that hadn't been lit yet, and ran back towards the protective wall of flames.

Sweat poured down Sulaiman's brow and it was uncomfortably hot and painful near him from the amount of magic he was pouring into the blaze, but his gaze was dark and determined, never wavering from the blight. The cluster began to collapse in on itself as its base burned faster than the top, and a wave of heat billowed out as it deteriorated. Illnyea shot forth more flame darts, but the cluster was burning at a pace too fast to stop now, the blights caught in a firestorm.

They waited for the screech of blights to fade completely, replaced by the crackle of burning wood, before Sulaiman let go of his magic. Kavil was on top of it, using water to smother the embers before the fire could spread from the clearing.

Sulaiman swayed on his feet but Priscilla wrapped an arm around his midsection to steady him. It was a testament to how tired he was that he didn't protest, only saying, "It was stupid to run out from my protection."

"Well, I couldn't let it run away," Priscilla said, slowly bringing them down until they were kneeling on the ground, "and you've been making me exercise so much that I was sure to outrun it."

Sulaiman raised a single tired eyebrow but didn't protest. Illnyea held out a water pouch and forced Sulaiman to start drinking it before she marched over to the wet remains to collect soggy ash. Kavil had put out the flames and began to give Sulaiman a check up.

"You're teetering on the edge of magical exhaustion," Kavil said, "but you should be fine as long as you do not use any more magic until you get a full eight hours of rest."

"Hey guys," Illnyea said, her voice tense.

They all looked towards her but Illnyea was staring at the ground, towards where the center of the cluster had been. Priscilla couldn't see what Illnyea was looking at, but her sister pulled off her coat to gingerly pick something up and walk back over.

Within Illnyea's grasp was an orb that looked like it had been carved from a large purple gem. Priscilla could sense magic radiating off of it now that Sulaiman had stopped using his own, and it felt… ugly and jagged, like an open wound that wanted to lash out and make others suffer like it hard.

"This is the same thing that had corrupted the elemental," Illnyea said, her eyes hard.

Priscilla sucked in a breath. "Do you think Arnold could identify how it was made?"

Illnyea's mouth twisted as she frowned, but she nodded.

"Probably," Ilnyea said, "but I kind of want to destroy it here and now."

"Don't," Sulaiman said quietly. "If this incident was also caused by 'architects,' then we should learn as much as we can, because with our luck, we're going to encounter more creatures that have been corrupted by them."

"Maybe if we learn about it more," Kavil said, wrinkling his nose at the gem like it smelled bad, "we can figure out how to destroy it remotely, bypassing the need to fight the monsters entirely."

The glint in Illnyea's eyes suggested that while she understood their reasoning, she didn't like it, but Illnyea nodded and wrapped the gem in her coat.

"Do you feel good enough to walk back to the village now?" Illnyea asked Sulaiman.

He nodded and Priscilla helped to his feet, and they began to track back from whence they came.

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