“We will be able to see the great tree shortly.” Cemi announced to the group, clearly underestimating the amount of building excitement in the girls as Hecatolites tail sprang to life at her announcement. The long appendage whipping out and eagerly tapping those around her.

Amethyst laughed as her sister’s tail thumped against her leg before Hecatolite was unable to contain herself any more. Thankfully she wanted to stay with the group at least. She darted back and forth bumping into people since her new “matching” hat, a helmet from one of the elven escorts she had “looted” from a sleeping man on guard duty, was much too large for her and kept falling into her eyes.

“She’s excited.” Himari stated, though Amethyst could see the hint of a smile on the woman’s face as Hecatolite crashed into her.

“Are you not!” Hecatolite exclaimed, “It’s a true to life elven city! Under a big tree of all things it's like a fantasy!” Hecatolite danced around her and Amethyst with a wide smile poking out of the large helmet she wore, the greenish metal covering her eyes as she stumbled over a rock. “I bet they have all sorts of cool things, do you think they have elven bread?”

“I think it would just be bread here.” Amethyst teased only to a strange look from them both.

Hecatolite hummed, “I think… we should find a bakery first,” she nodded to herself as if that was just the logical first step. “Then we can do some shopping, some new clothes. I bet the elves have amazing clothes, all leafy and stuff.”

“We saw elven clothes in the last town.” Amethyst shook her head.

“Kind of, but that was a tiny little outskirts town; and we mostly saw the guards.” she tapped on her own helmet as if to emphasize the point, “This is a city, city. It's not like people in the capital dress the same as people on farms back home you know.”

Amethyst… nodded. Hecatolite was right there, even in their own city back home the fashion sense was... lax, to say the least. They lived in more of a frontier city after all, most people dressed with more utility in mind, mainly work clothes and heavy fabric to resist tearing and such. In the capital however, it's much flashier, lots of lace… maybe ruffles were in fashion during the princess’s birthday… she couldn’t really remember it all too well actually, she had a lot going on at the time and never bothered too much with “fashion”, their was always just other things to do than worry about a dress; the maids always kept track of it and mom would just send one of them to get clothes for events if needed. Then again…

Hecatolite never seemed to care what she wore. Always just throwing on whatever she had on hand, even now she wore a ragged shirt that was covered in stains from travel that barely covered her as her tail continued to thrash about; despite Amethyst's best efforts getting Hecatolite to wear anything under that shirt has been… difficult. Even now if someone was inclined, they could see Hecatolite’s underwear as her tail lifted her shirt, a small victory that she had been convinced to wear even that under the dress-like shirt.

Hecatolite always complained that anything she wore dug into her tail when it moved, a sentiment Amethyst understood more as they walked. Even with her much smaller tail she had to constantly adjust her own pants to avoid friction burns on it, she now wore her pants much lower so her tail could rest atop them, it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was… sufficient, though even she had to ask Himari to heal a few sore spots around her hips from the fabric rubbing. 

As for Hecatolite though, aside from the much too large shirt and panties, she wore… well nothing else. She has an obsession with putting things on her head that Amethyst couldn’t quite understand, but that was about it. Even now, wearing a guard’s helmet, Amethyst was sure that was just a fleeting thing until she found a new more interesting thing to wear. She adamantly refused to wear shoes, her legs covered in dirt up to her knees despite having been offered several pairs of boots and sandals from our host. 

“Do you really care about fashion?” Amethyst knew the answer to the question, but humoring Hecatolite was always fun.

Hecatolite did not disappoint, as she let out a half laugh half sigh, “Pff, Amethyst, you have a lot to learn. It’s not about what I am wearing, but what others are wearing.” she beamed, “I can get Saffron some cute clothes!” Then she stepped between Himari and Amethyst and whispered, “Besides, if we all go we can get Eryl to try on some actual clothes instead of looted robes and stolen pants. She’s been kind of broody and you know, girls love shopping.”

“I can hear you.” Eryl glanced at the whispering Hecatolite from the corner of her eye, “Have you forgotten that Alagos and Cemi have agreed to bring us directly to the council for Amethyst to deliver the offer from Crown?”

Hecatolite sighed, her whole-body slumping forward causing the helmet to fall from her head with a clang, “That sounds so boring though!” She whined kicking the helmet along as she walked much to the dismay of the helmetless man behind them. “Can’t we just, you know, give them a terminal and let mom deal with them? or the queen?”

Amethyst laughed, “It’ll be fast.” She patted her sister’s shoulder, “I promise. We are really just announcing our arrival and the Empire’s willingness to speak with them. It’s not like we are going to write up the entire alliance today, then we can spend a day or two exploring the capital before we set out again.” Hecatolite reluctantly nodded.

“Fine, we need a lot of provisions too. And a map! I can’t believe we didn’t bring one!”

“Wait, you two left your nation without a map?” Himari asked as she looked at Amethyst with disbelief in her eyes. She could understand Hecatolite forgetting such an important item but Amethyst? She couldn’t imagine the young woman being so unprepared, she had a veritable hoard inside her storage rings and skill, tents and cooking supplies along with a small fortune of gold and other travel previsions but not a map?

“We were going to set out with a group, you know?” Amethyst shrugged, “Fiori was the one who always carried the map with her. Hecatolite and I are… bad with directions.” She gave Himari a weak smile. “Honestly I am kind of glad you and Erly are here, I’m not sure we could make it home even if we had a map.” 

“You’re an A rank adventurer and you can’t read a map?” Eryl sounded almost offended by the statement.

“SA,” Hecatolite corrected as she scooped the helmet off the ground and shook the dirt out of it. “Besides, you just kind of go in the direction you’re going until you find something right? If we get really lost, we can just jump way up into the sky and look around. Can normally find a town…”

Amethyst watched as Hecatolite stopped mid step, her eyes going wide as they broke though a line of trees. Following her sisters gaze she found herself frozen as well. 

They stood atop a massive hill that overlooked an open field as far as the eye could see. In the center of the field, sitting in what looked like a crater was a tree that completely blocked out the sky. Its massive canopy blanketed the field nearly in its entirety as its massive branches hung as if holding the sky itself aloft. Even from here, where Amethyst couldn’t even make out the base of the tree, she could feel the size of what sat before her. A tree so large it wouldn’t have fit in the royal castle itself, surrounded by a tranquil breeze that caused its massive branches to sway, its leaves bristling in the wind causing the shadows to dance across the ground before them in a hypnotic pattern.

Amethyst could feel her entire body relax as she gazed upon the sight before her, the gargantuan tree bringing a feeling of tranquility to her that she never knew possible as she finally tore her eyes from the canopy, letting her gaze trace its way down the trunk that twisted around itself as it screwed its way down into the ground beneath. Only then did she actually take in the sprawling city around its base, only able to make out the largest buildings that surrounded the tree itself from here she could see massive roots that snaked their way between several of the large structures. The roots of the tree split the earth itself as they ventured out in all directions, breaking out of the dirt in a random pattern that dotted the field before diving back beneath the soil reaching to where they stood and beyond if she had to guess. 

“It’s beautiful.” Himari’s voice came from beside her in an almost reverent whisper.

Amethyst could only nod as she lacked the words to describe the sight before her. Beautiful didn’t seem to cover it, the tree that gripped the very world itself as if holding it in place while pushing back the sky itself. The elven city at its base was barely an after thought as Amethyst took a tentative step forward. As if moving too fast would spook the tree itself. It was only her sister’s words that finally broke the spell.

“A world tree.” Unlike Himari’s voice Hecatolite’s voice was a low hiss that dripped with venom as she suddenly felt a wave of power that all but erased the tranquil feelings that were being emitted by the tree.

Amethyst spun to see Hecatolite glaring at the tree, her face contorted in… disgust. No, that wasn’t it, her bright red eyes shone with anger as she bore her teeth at the tree, pure hatred dripped from her as her entire body tensed. One of her bare feet dug into an exposed root as she hissed, “It’s a world tree.” Hecatolite’s whole body.. twitched, black lines covering her entire body as what started as a small trickle of blood came from her nose.

A thunderclap caused them all to jump as a terminal appeared above Hecatolite’s head. “Himari, you may wish to begin healing Hecatolite.” 

As if in response to its words, blood began pouring from Hecatolite’s nose at an alarming rate before she collapsed.