The moment the Bright Ones palm made contact with the bark, the Great Tree saw two things happen.

Firstly, the verdant aura surrounding the Bright One extended outwards from the palm in numerous thin strands, flowing into the Great Tree. The way these strands spread was like a mixture between roots digging into the earth and water flowing down a creek, but happened far faster, as if this scene increased in speed several times over. Each individual strand was very weak, it seemed like they were on the verge of dissipating naturally, like a simple gust of wind would destroy the entire system. The Great Tree felt that, if it wanted to, it need only circulate its aura slightly more strongly than normal and the network would scatter. Of course, it would not test this for fear of offending or even harming the Bright One.

Another property of the threads that was quickly noted was that although the alien aura had easily slipped into the body, it did not pierce or ‘fuse’ in any way with the sturdy red aura native to the Great Tree; instead the energies flowed adjacent, forming smaller parallel streams beside the larger already present rivers. This almost insidious behaviour certainly looked like it assisted the network in forming with the ease and speed it did, but whether this was a natural reaction or instigated in some way deliberately by the Bright One was unknown. Luckily, this new verdant aura didn’t seem to harm the Great Tree in any way, at least not immediately.

On the other hand, the second occurrence noticed was far more shocking than this invading but seemingly harmless aura. The Great Tree felt the presence of another force, a strange force which seemed faint but with odd properties, seemingly familiar but also very, very alien. This force spread outwards from the palm and unlike the new aura, this did collide with the already present aura. Further still the force seemed to superimpose onto the native aura, and for a second it felt like it trying to wrest away control over the Great Tree’s own body.

At this point panic was resounding within the Great Tree’s mind; this force, if it really could directly control the Great Tree’s body, was a grave threat. Just as fighting back against the Bright One was being considered, another change was observed. The strange force began to fluctuate in strength, at some locations becoming stronger and more tyrannical, whilst fading away to almost nothingness in others. Something which wasn’t noticed at the time but which could also be considered odd, was that in but a short moment the Great Tree was able to deduce many behaviours of the strange force; unlike with aura which took much experimenting this time only a cursory glance was needed.

When the force was strengthened in a part of the network of threads, it almost seemed like the area in question lit up. Furthermore, only one section of the network was having the force present greatly strengthen at any one time, and this strengthening lasted for only a moment before the section again grew dim and another location was strengthened instead. Each section only experienced this once, and there seemed to be something systematic about the force, a pattern which was so very obvious yet just behind reach. At this point it didn’t seem to the Great Tree like the force was strengthening in the same way as a muscle would for an attack; there was no tension present. Instead they force seemed more like it was only illuminating each section. As the enlightening force swept through the body and aura of the Great Tree it seemed like sunlight shining upon the land, like the force was trying to observe, trying to search, for something.

No, that’s it.

Suddenly, like a veil had been lifted from its mind, the incredibly strange force made so much sense to the Great Tree. Why was it that the force felt so familiar yet so alien? Because an equivalent force, very specific force had been present within the Great Tree since as long as it could remember, yet another had never been encountered, not so directly. The force did not seem to be searching for anything, nor was it being used by the Bright One to search, the force was quite literally the Bright One searching.

It’s a mind!

Indeed, what the Great Tree had realised was that this mysterious force which was able to interact with and almost seemed capable of controlling its own aura was exactly the mind of the Bright One itself. The force could in fact be considered ‘mental force’; it was familiar because every time the Great Tree had observed something, every time it had attempted to control its aura or body, for everything it did its own mind was obviously used.

This was the first time the Great Tree had encountered such a strange thing as the mind of another being, or anything even close to it, leading to huge panic and confusion when said mind appeared. But for a thinking being, it is not at all surprising that the mind of another thinking being is something which should be incomparably familiar in many ways. In fact, this entire revelation from when the Great Tree first felt the force, to when it realised this was actually the Bright One’s mind, did not take even two seconds.

Thinking back, the Great Tree also realised that the strange pulse it had felt when the Bright One had first made contact back before the village was constructed was not the Bright One’s own aura, but actually its own aura reacting to the mental force whilst being observed and investigated. The pulse was actually exactly what was being felt just now, only this time the feeling was far more defined and was being investigated without the hazy unthinking state present back then, so seemed very different, like before the situation was much further away but now is close enough to make out what’s going on.

Meanwhile, within this short time the thin strands of aura had formed a vast and complicated network, but also seemed to have reached a limit in size. Aura was no longer being supplied to the network by the Bright One, but it was not the case that there was no more aura left to give; despite the vast network formed being dozens of times the size of its body, only a small fraction of the overall aura which the Bright One possessed was used, seemingly a fifth as far as the Great Tree could tell.

It seemed likely that using the entirety of its aura was impossible for the Bright One, whether it be personal control or the consequences from such an action, both represented huge problems. Yet the Great Tree supposed that more could be used than this but a conscious choice was made not to. After reaching this limit the network of aura threads spread throughout about one quarter of the Great Tree’s above earth body, plus a similar mass of roots.

Is this the extent of the Bright One’s capabilities, or is there some other reason for stopping now? Holding power in reserve? Or a measure to reduce damage if I fight back?

In the end the Great Tree’s speculations were just that: speculations. With no way to verify them its attention was returned to the threads and the Bright One’s mind. After another glance it seemed that the mental force radiated outwards from the aura, rapidly growing weaker as it travelled, and being strongest just where the palm made contact with the bark. Outside of the network of threads the mental force was only able to persist for a scant half a metre before completely disappearing, which did not seem at all coincidental to the Great Tree.

So the strands are only a method to spread the mind’s influence?

Just as the Great Tree was pondering this, it was still observing the physical body of the Bright One. Over the past few seconds, ever since the network of aura threads was completed, the elderly Green One had been making his own investigations into the Great Tree, as was of course his purpose for coming here. His face, which before only had a somewhat serious expression, now had confusion mixed in, and the serious aspect had strengthened slightly. As his brows became slightly more crossed, he opened his mouth.

Just as the Bright One opened his mouth, an unknown voice resounded within, or perhaps better said all around the Great Tree’s mind. This new voice was elderly and calm, more deep than high, but not extremely so, whilst also giving the feeling of patience and warmth. All of this resulted in a strong contrast to the deep, intimidating yet also reliable sounding voice of the Great Tree.

“Hmmm… strange.”