I had to wait until S’neli went to sleep before taking action to remove the music device.

After the deed was done and the melted remains hidden in one of my leaf space pockets I felt better.

In order to make the point even clearer, I created a shining ruby red crystal fragment the size of two fists. I’m sure S’neli won’t miss much of the reagent used to make it from her lab. Carving a few basic runes I turned the crystal into an otherworldly floating music device. From memory I pre-loaded it with a large variety of jazz, blues, classical, and techno.

I also threw in some of the famous singers from my earthly past, whose names I didn’t quite remember anymore!

Now, I could listen to good music.

Since the floating crystal was rotating around me, I figured it would be hard to explain so I created a small note.

This crystal is a gift to my favorite Tree!

Signed- Music Person

Perfect!

In this manner I can completely avoid suspicion, muahahaha!

There’s no way anyone can suspect an innocent tree of creating epic gadgets right?

Right!

Now, on to more serious matters.

Nothing I try seems to be able to wake up Dryad, and I’ve tried a lot of things.

Since she doesn’t seem to be waking up due to some unforeseen technical difficulties, I need to utilize Plan C.

Plan B was a mistake, like eating cold turnips.

Onwards, C!

Plan C of course involves utilizing available on hand personnel.

Exhibit A, a half-elf alchemist.

A few nudges, a few pushes, a few cliffs, and some grandfatherly mystic advice, and presto!

A superb alchemy genius is born!

How to give advice without exposing myself, hmm…

There’s always that…

When in doubt, create a patsy!

I need someone pliable, easily induced, simple, honest, trustworthy….

Ok, that type of person doesn’t exist, let me be more realistic…

I need someone greedy, cowardly, and easy to manipulate…

Hmm…

…

….

…..

I’m drawing a blank here, because, frankly I haven’t really interacted with almost anyone except S’neli, F’neli, and random kidnappers.

A-Am I turning into a shut-in Tree!?

No! NO! This, this is just a small minor mistake, ha!

Hah hah…

I can fix this easy, I just need more exposure. That’s right, with enough experience, any fear can be conquered! I’m not saying I’m afraid of crowds or anything, I’m just more cautious. Dying once already does that to a person, so I’ve heard from people I know.

I know lots of people!

Shimmer, Flicker, Kehoko, Kurhoko, Devon, Azvril, Tevril, Sword Girl, Robert, Emily, Ven, S’neli…

Can it be?!

My circle of friends is barely above ten?

That’s perfectly normal, I think…

Yes! Pe-r-fect-ly normal!

If anyone disagrees…hmph hmph…

I don’t need to expand my circle of friends anyways, they spread across universes!

So there!

Moving on, Plan C will require local assistance to implement.

In order to indirectly guide S’neli I need someone to be my cat’s paw…

Oh? I wonder if they really have those in this world…

I’ve always had good relations with the Beast races, perhaps a slave with a ring that helps…facilitate…things.

Yes!

Slavery is bad, unless it serves my ulterior motives, indeed!

Reaching out I stretch my senses forward. I’ve noticed that while I’m sealed I cannot go further than 1km in a circle around me. However, the caveat is that if I focus only in a single direction I can ‘thread’ my sense. In essence pulling it into a much longer range of detection. This results in something like a radar picture, instead of the clearer than a microscope type view I had before.

For my purposes now it works fine, since all I need is to locate the slave market if one exists.

To my joy, and sadness, there is a slave market located close to the harbor, probably for ease of transport. I can’t get a clearer picture than that, so with S’neli sleeping, I make a break for temporary freedom. In order to avoid any problems, I leave a decoy in place. I knew watching all those ninja films would come in handy four millennia later!

Invisibility is a simple Rune compared to Agelessness, even better it prevents guard patrols from the city taking notice. Stealthy like only a ninja tree can be, I make my way down to the slave pens near the dockyard buildings.

Old, old, male, male…

The heck!

Where are the half-naked gorgeous tender female slaves?

Tsk, this is apparently a low-level market. Higher priced commodities might not even be seen here, ever.

I wonder…

There has been that Rune I’ve been working on, Reverse Aging. It’s based off Agelessness, yet I haven’t found a test subject for it. Mostly because all the females I know are nowhere near elderly.

Walking close to a cage with an elderly lady I say, “Freedom?”

The old woman in the cage is like a zombie horror movie extra, her eyes flash open with blinding speed and she stares straight…through…me.

I watch her assess the situation before focusing on where my voice came from, “Freedom…price?”

Ho ho! This lady isn’t half bad!

“Service, lifetime, grant youth in exchange.” I state, I could use more words, but I’m having fun talking shorthand.

The old lady is old, she has wrinkled skin, matty white hair, cat ears, and eyes that appear like dead greenwood. She’s the perfect test subject for my semi-theorized aging Rune.

“Accept.” the old lady whispers, hope lighting up in her eyes.

For a moment, a brief, cruel, evil moment, I think about just leaving her there.

The moment passes though and I melt the cage before cloaking the old lady in invisibility. A quick trip back to the lab and I’m ready to get down to business.

I create a sound and light barrier sealing us inside. The old lady stares at me as I place the decoy into one of my leaves, before bringing out a chunk of gold ore.

Turning gold ore into chaos gold isn’t an easy process. Even with the two hours it takes to make the new ring, the old lady doesn’t move a muscle. Her eyes are laser bright focused on the forging process, as well as paying particular attention to the Runes formed. I threw Reverse Aging, Agelessness, Shield, Space, Mind, and Fire on this ring.

I mean, there’s no point in having a patsy that can’t do anything with Flame when several of my gifts clearly needed it. S’neli isn’t an idiot, and thus, the extra runes are a hedge bet against any problems.

A fire rune grants a sliver of Dao to the user, more like a….

Seed, yes, a seed of Dao that given enough time could blossom into something greater.

Mind will allow me to communicate with my agent without words, and the rest are quickly turning into my ‘standard’ go to Runes for rings.

I watch the old cat lady put the ring on her finger.

Power ripples out from the ring, fighting against the laws of the world. The heavens decree, yet chaos opposes the order, balance shifts in visible ripples of might. The ring heats up on the elder’s finger, burning white hot as it fights against the lawful rules of the world.

That which ages, must die.

For a fraction of a second I release my seal, and push, before re-sealing my soul.

The result of my push is enough to alter reality, and with a visible snap, the world re-aligns along the new paradigm I forced. The old cat lady is now a middle-aged woman with sparkling green eyes, raven black hair, and skin smoother than milk cream.

Hmph, a tiny world like this, a pathetic universe like this, thinks it can bully this Tree?

I think not.

Now, I need to do something about these rags. I can’t have someone representing me in barely wearable garbage.

A few minor changes later and my agent is dressed to the nines in classic fashion from the twentieth century.

The cheongsam never dies, no matter the era!