A day after the festivities, Feiyin stood alongside the Queen deep within the palace, where only a handful of trusted elves had ever ventured. The twisting architecture of the great Elder Tree formed the core of this sacred place. They descended through a spiral passage of living wood that pulsed gently with life, each step resonating like a heartbeat beneath Feiyin's feet. The path narrowed and dimmed as they went lower, the air dense with an earthy, ancient scent that made Feiyin's senses sharpen.
"You can feel it, can't you?" the Queen asked quietly.
Feiyin nodded. "It's like walking down a vein toward a heart."
"That's exactly what it is."
Eventually, they reached a large wooden gate marked with living vines that only moved when the Queen raised a pale green jade talisman. The formation shimmered and parted, revealing a chamber unlike any Feiyin had ever seen.
They stood in a vast, domed cavity nestled between the Elder Tree's massive trunk and its roots. The heart of the tree pulsed with verdant energy- a living, breathing nexus of green essence. Bright emerald light coursed in glowing streams from trunk to root and back again, like blood through a body. From his oscillation sense, Feiyin could see the rhythm; a slow, strained pulse. Not irregular, but undeniably weak.
"This is where the life of the Greenwood begins and returns," the Queen said, reverent. "The Elder Tree is rooted directly into an essence ley line. It spreads its energy through the entire forest, from tree to tree, root to root."
Feiyin stepped forward and closed his eyes, opening his senses. The harmony, though beautiful, was faltering. Like a heart trying to beat with half its strength. He breathed deeply, letting his oscillation sense attune further, and found subtle inconsistencies in the flow; gaps where the essence thinned or leaked out, sluggish intervals in the beat.
"It's not just weak," he murmured. "It's starved to the point of becoming deficient. Something has been draining it, and it lacks the nutrients to recover."
The Queen watched silently as he knelt by one of the thick root channels. Feiyin placed his hand gently on the bark, the surface warm and subtly pulsating. Closing his eyes, he centered himself, preparing more than just his oscillation sense. This time, he would use the harmony of his elemental intents not merely to observe- but to diagnose, to search deeply.
He began with earth- solid and grounding, establishing a foundation. Then he channeled metal, born from the earth, refined and precise, acting like a probe to scan and conduct. Finally, he let water flow through, nourished by the metal, smooth and adaptive, extending like a current through the tree's channels. The elemental cycle flowed within him: earth fed metal, metal birthed water, and water, in turn, would nurture wood.
This orchestrated loop enhanced his oscillation sense to a new level, allowing him to meld with the Elder Tree's rhythm. At first, the link was subtle, like a breath held in the quiet of a sleeping forest. Then, slowly, a gentle stir of response; a flicker of awareness that stretched toward him.
He followed the essence's movement deeper, where the green thrum of energy pulsed in weak, irregular waves. The flow was slow and faltering, its vitality threadbare. Through the enhanced loop of his elements, he detected zones of deficiency; areas where the essence lost coherence, its rhythm stumbling like a heart skipping beats. Not physical wounds, but internal dissonance. It was like sensing the organs of a great being falling out of sync, barely sustaining life through stubborn persistence.
The insight hit him like a cold wind: the Elder Tree wasn't just injured; it was failing. Not all at once, but slowly, under an unseen burden of decay.
Even as he pulled away, the residue of what he sensed lingered in his chest: age, exhaustion, a long-suffering pain dulled only by time.
Feiyin stood slowly, his expression calm but his thoughts sharpened with clarity. "Unlike my usual customers, it can't ingest a pill. Its structure is too spread out, too interwoven with the forest. A pill would simply dissolve in the soil. I'll need to create something that can integrate; either a liquid infusion or a paste that it can absorb directly through its roots and bark."
The Queen nodded. "Then I will bring you to our alchemy chambers."
On the way back up, their footsteps echoed softly through the winding passage. Feiyin, thoughtful, glanced at the Queen.
"There's one more request," he said. "Qingling wishes to comprehend wood elemental intent. Would it be possible to allow her to visit the heart?"
The Queen's eyes widened faintly. "A wood intent user?" She paused, then lifted her hand. Vines sprouted along her wrist and bloomed with essence-laced petals- a sign of her own comprehension.
Feiyin's eyebrows lifted slightly. "I see. Then you understand the value."
"I do," the Queen said, and smiled. "She may visit. But tell me, don't you want to comprehend it as well?"
Feiyin chuckled lightly and extended his hand, releasing his essence in three directions. Earth, metal, and water. The air around him shifted as the intents revealed themselves- metal sharp, earth grounded, and water fluid.
The Queen stopped walking, eyes wide. "Three? Already?"
"There's still more I hope to understand," he said gently. "But first, I want to help the Elder Tree recover. Then I'll worry about my own path."
The Queen looked at him for a long moment, her expression unreadable, then gave a small, sincere nod. "You are remarkable."
Inwardly, her thoughts swirled with admiration and certainty. I made the right move.
Soon, they arrived at the palace's alchemical chamber; a vaulted room of stone and wood lined with drying herbs, essence vials, and complex inscription arrays carved into the floor.
As the Queen turned to leave, she paused. "May the Elder Tree respond well to your care."
Feiyin bowed his head. "I'll do all I can."
And with that, he began his next task; the recovery of the forest's heart.
Over the following days, Feiyin secluded himself in the alchemy chambers. The process was grueling, requiring not just knowledge, but insight, attuned senses, and elemental synergy. He drew deeply upon the alchemic jade knowledge he'd gained in the ruins; formulas meant to stimulate renewal, essence guidance methods, and stabilizing tonics. But none were suited for a tree of such magnitude and intricate structure.
So he began designing a solution from scratch.
His goal was to create a tonic that would help the Elder Tree renew its decaying essence pathways; turning deteriorated lines into fodder and using a specialized compound as a primer and guide to foster new growth. More than just a medicinal aid, the concoction had to become part of the tree's rhythm, capable of harmonizing with its internal essence circulation. Anything else would be rejected or simply dissolve ineffectively.
To begin, carefully noted the oscillations and rhythms and he previously sensed within the tree's heart to be able to pinpoint proper counters.
With this map of deficiencies etched into his mind, he began identifying key ingredients. Each had to possess not only restorative properties but also oscillatory compatibility with the specific deficits. Rare herbs for vitality, crystalline sap for resonance between the materials, refined soil essence to anchor the tonic, powdered root marrow for regenerative signaling, and liquefied jade resin as a base for essence stabilization.
Using the traditional seven steps of alchemy, Feiyin refined and harmonized each element: Purification, Extraction, Refinement, Fusion, Solidification, Growth and Transformation. He worked slowly, precisely, feeding each phase with his oscillation-guided intuition. Whenever the flow of essence in the cauldron clashed or waned, he adjusted the rhythm using subtle nudges from his elemental intents.
However, midway through his process, Feiyin hit a wall. No matter how finely tuned the ingredients were, he couldn't find a way to ease the initial absorption of the concoction into the Elder Tree's network or to guide it accurately to the right deficient regions. The formula sat dormant at the surface; promising, but ultimately impotent.
Frustrated, he left the chamber to clear his thoughts. The palace gardens greeted him with overcast skies and the scent of rainfall on foliage. As he wandered aimlessly, a sudden downpour began, drumming gently across the canopy and soaking the loamy ground. Feiyin paused under a bough and looked out.
There, nestled in the flowerbeds, young green shoots trembled in the rain. At first closed tight, the petals unfurled slowly under the pressure, not resisting the deluge, but embracing it. He watched as one sapling, barely a finger tall, drank in the moisture and nutrients, and bloomed in defiant joy.
A realization struck him.
The concoction didn't need to force its way into the tree. It needed to be like the rain- gentle yet insistent, nourishing and guided by nature's rhythm. The opening of the pathways had to be coaxed, not imposed.
Heart pounding, he returned to the chamber, reworking the tonic's composition. He adjusted the base with a softer conductivity agent, derived from dewroot extract, and added mistleaf essence to mimic the gentle persistence of rainfall. He took a small piece of the Elder Tree's inner trunk- a sliver no larger than his palm- and immersed it in the newly adjusted concoction. The test was crucial. As the liquid touched the wood, he observed closely through his oscillation sense. The new version flowed more smoothly, syncing with the lingering weak pulses of the tree and gently sinking into the intended channels, responding with a faint ripple of vitality. It was a sign he had taken the right path.
Each test batch revealed something new about the tree's needs- one too active, another too inert, another too unstable to endure. But over time, the formula responded. It thickened into a viscous liquid that pulsed faintly in time with the rhythm he had come to know. It no longer fought the tree's pulse- it matched it.
By the end of the sixth day, Feiyin's hands moved with calm mastery. A simmering cauldron glowed with emerald light, and the scent of renewal and ancient life filled the chamber. The final compound shimmered like liquid spring, flowing with a serene internal beat.
Feiyin looked down, his eyes tired yet unable to hide the excitement within. This had been a hard song to compose; each ingredient a note, each refinement a chord, he thought with a faint smile, but it's why I love alchemy.