The plants and trees that comprised the [Forest of Nightmare Plants] were a tangled maze of confusion. With no sun to track my position, it became a guessing game about where I was, where I was going, and if I was walking in circles.

The sky across Asgard changed depending on the territory you were in, not the time of day. For most of it, the realm’s sky was suspended like a jewel hanging within the vastness of the Void. That should have meant that I traveled in the darkest night, but Asgard was home to the Norse Gods, and the rules of night and day did not apply.

I eventually decided that the only way forward was to blaze a trail and leave a path to show where I had been. I didn’t want to leave proof of my passage but using fire to mark my way seemed the surest way not to get lost. It made the glamour of invisibility I was hiding weaker, but I didn’t see any other alternative. I would still project an illusion to hide my [Aura] and some of the properties I was trying to conceal, my mana signature, my race, and my ties to the Tuatha de Danann.

When creating a disguise, it is always best to keep it as simple as possible. The Asgardians were tall, and I had inherited my height from my Seelie and Unseelie ancestors, so that wouldn’t need to change. I would need to conceal the snowflake pattern that graced my skin, my tri-color eyes, and the mix of flame and ice that gave life to my hair, but that was easy enough to accomplish.

Finally, to finish the glamour I had created, I reached out to the Divine that could be found in the plants, soil, and sky of Asgard to anchor the illusion I had crafted. I borrowed the auric signature that could be found anywhere within the realm, using it as a cloak to create a new signature. This new [Aura] would create a fake feedback loop, a connection between me and Asgard that served the same purpose as the resonance that existed between the Tuatha de Danann and me.

I was finally satisfied with my glamour, allowing the magic to take shape and settle across my body like a warm summer’s rain. I was confident in my abilities, certain that my decision to claim [Illusion and Glamour] as my [Domain] would make it all but impossible for even Odin with his [Divine Sight] to part the weft and weave of illusion I had spun.

Once the glamour snapped into place, I extended [Beleros Aura] to begin brandishing flames to mark my path, only to have the plants ignore the fire and heat I was releasing. It was only after I switched from the aura to a focused attack that any of the plants took damage, and that attack was almost with the full force of my magic.

There was no way I could use fire to blaze a trail, not if it required that much magic. It would cause ripples across the aether that might gain the attention of someone. Someone bored enough or curious enough to investigate what was causing the power fluctuations.

Uncertain why the plants seemed so resistant to heat, I changed my method of assault. The outcome was the same. The plants were just as resistant to ice, magic, and weapons. Stymied for an explanation, I cast spell after spell, alternating between fire and ice. I recorded the attacks using my M-AI so that I could watch what was happening in repeat and slow motion.

After an hour of frustration and confusion, I finally realized what was happening. The [Forest of Nightmare Plants] was not an ecosystem of disparate plants, trees, and bushes. It was a single organism, an organism that channeled the Divine energies of Asgard. The forest responded to every attack I made by spreading the damage among the entirety of the organism.

The life signs I was detecting around me were not animals. Instead, they were similar to nexus pools of magic. Each nexus point worked to maintain the forest and responded to damage by filtering that damage across the vast network of roots that existed.

There was no way to create a path forward by destroying the ecosystem, so I would have to use a less effective method. I would use items in my [Ring of Hidden Depths], placing them in strategic places as I walked. I could place magical essence on each item so they could serve as markers.

Once I realized the energy signatures I was detecting weren’t animals, a closer scan revealed that the forest itself was alive- and carnivorous. I was able to detect the more dangerous plants easily, those capable of movement, but discovering those plants that exuded poison, miasma, and hallucinogens was much harder. The forest was well named because even as carefully as I moved, I still managed to trigger attacks.

The root system made it impossible for me to do more than defend myself as I skirted around the more powerful life signatures I detected and fled from those I angered.

My ring was full of a myriad of collected items—the residue of storing everything over my life. The ring, an artifact gifted by System, had a storage capacity that was so large I would need to spend tens of thousands of years hoarding and gathering junk before I needed to worry.

Thankfully, the ring was able to respond to my needs, so when I looked for something I could use as a trail marker, I looked for something that would fit in well in this forest. I knew I had different types of seed stock, but I was looking for something in particular.

The seeds I was looking for, the [Fairy Daisy], had a unique ability. They were fast-growing and pervasive, and their seeds were distributed by air. We had contained them in a dungeon to keep them from spreading on Talahm. What made them unique and coveted was their ability to leech magic from the ground and to transform that leached magic into [Fairy Dew].

[Fairy Dew] was a unique liquid. It could be fermented to make wine, added to alchemical potions to increase potency, and made into a fertilizer rich in minerals and magic once composted.

I planted a seed every thousand steps, using it as a marker as I walked. They were steeped in the magic of [Fairy] and made it easy for my life magics to detect and track where they sprouted. They would take weeks or months to reach maturity, but they grew immediately, tendrils of root and leaf bursting into life when the seed kernel was watered with a drop of my blood.

The seeds were a genetic mutation. A plant crafted by the best of Sidhe herbalists, it had another feature that was propagated in all Sidhe plants, the ability to adapt. I wasn’t sure how long it would take, but it was entirely possible that this forest would be consumed by the [Fairy Daisy] and transformed into a place that might become a Sidhe stronghold.

It seemed apropos that Asgard and Odin, who t had been trying for so long to steal the Summerlands from the Sidhe, might now find its territory falling under Sidhe control. If I had the people needed for [Ritual] and [Revel], I might have tried to open a Sithern to facilitate the encroachment of [Fairy], but this would do for now.