“It’s been a while,” said the lady at her desk, greeting me as I entered without taking her eyes off her paperwork.

“Yeah, it has. How have you been lately?” I replied, easing onto one of the sofas in front of the desk.

“Oh, you know the usual, engulfed in reports and dealing with new issues,“ she fiddled with her pen. “Especially since someone likes to goof off and play pretend instead of doing her part.”

That elicited a giggle out of me. “She never changes does she?”

“Nope, but that’s one of the things I love the most about her,” she grinned. “Anyways. How are you? As well as Kna’Ve and the girls?”

“The same old, same old. Happy to be here. Any time away from those fools with sticks stuck up their tail fins is a good time. The girls were rearing for something to do after being stuck in the capital for so long.”

“Ah, so they’re coming too? That's excellent,” She replied as she moved from her desk, splaying herself out on the other sofa.

“Yeah, they’ll be here in a couple of hours. I believe Mayari is supposed to be coming for training as well? But is it okay for you to be so relaxed during work? Aren’t you worried about tarnishing your image?” I teased.

“It’s fine, it's fine,” she waved. “Nobody is brave enough to barge in my office unacknowledged anyways. That being said, you seem to know why I called you here seeing as you decided to bring everyone with you.”

“I assumed it’s about the resonances?” I asked with a finger on my lip.

“Right. They’ve been getting stronger since the birth of the second princess of Antithe two hundred years ago. But, it seems like it’s about time now.” she said with a distant look in her eyes.

“Oh, the second princess of Antithe? I haven't seen her since she was just a little larva. She was absolutely adorable. Wow, it's really been two hundred years already?  Maybe I should go visit there after this…”

“Yeah, she is pretty cute. I haven’t been in a while myself, and a vacation doesn’t sound bad at all... Anyways, I’ve sent a group of youngsters to scope out the upper layers. It’s been a while, they should be back by now,” she continued, eyes refocused and sharpened. “But of course, those noble stickups rushed ahead with no clearance once they got word of the resonances strengthening. I can’t help but think something is up.”

“Hah. So you need me to go to thoroughly investigate the resonances, check on the noobies, and see what those idiots have been up to. Is that all?” I asked with a sigh.

“Yep, that pretty much wraps it up,” she nodded. 

“Is this a formal request?” I enquired with anticipation creeping into my voice.

“You would charge your own mother for a favor?” She asked, feigning astonishment.

“Of course, I would. I’m a sucker for the shinies.” I shrugged.

“Tch. Fine. I, Uni Dashuri, as Head Guildmaster formally request the aid of Archduchess Murua Amare in the investigation of the resonances as well as the missing adventurers. Happy now?” 

“Sure~. I, Murua Amare, accept the request. I’ll be heading out immediately to gather some of the items I need for the trip. We can hash out the details for payment later over some tea. As well as actually catching up, I missed you Mama.” I said, rising from the sofa.

“I missed you too, nugget. Be safe out there, okay?” She replied, getting up and wrapping me in a hug.

I reciprocated the hug with a grin on my face.

“Always.”

—⁕🎕⁕—

Alright, I’ve had it up to here with these random spurts of pain that somehow magically knocks me out everytime. The whole fading to black shebang lost its novelty after the first time and seems a bit cliche now.

Let me not go down that rabbit hole…whoa!

In the time that I was unconscious, it seems that I had…grown? 

Originally in this world, I started off as something I assumed was a seed buried underground. I stayed that way until I had a revelation of sorts.

After that, I sprouted into a pretty little flower with eyes. I found myself in a frozen lake, which I later deducted to be presumably the deepest depths of Hell. After some more self-reflection, I had yet another epiphany…which leads me to right now.

To put it simply, after apologizing to my late mother, I transformed from a flower into a tree. Yep, from seed to flower to tree, within what feels like a couple of days at most. How that's possible is completely unknown to me. I’ll just chalk it up to fantasy world magic shmagic. Is this what people meant when they said they’re built different? If that's the case, I’m feeling very different. 

My new…body… was something, to put it lightly. Looking at my reflection on the frozen water, I took in my new appearance.

 The trunk was similar to that of a palm tree. Embedded within the trunk were nine crimson eyes. 

 The eyes were scattered around the circumference of the trunk in seemingly no pattern or thought.  I quickly found that they could actually travel around the base of my trunk at my will. 

Moving on up, I saw that the comparison to a palm tree stopped at the stalk. From there numerous branches jutted out. If I was asked what tree they reminded me of, I’d have to say a willow tree.

The leaves also were a similar lance-like shape to that of a willow, but I seemed to be a conundrum of all types of trees, as the similarities to a willow tree ended there.

In addition, my new self was adorned with the same flowers I had been myself just sometime before. However, unlike the three that I had before, these were without eyes and were a solid purple. There were also significantly more than three of the angel’s trumpet-like flowers present.

The last distinguishing feature that I could find was the addition of fruit. They looked just like apples. Really appetizing apples. Which is odd to think about, the fact that they’re a part of me, wouldn’t that be like cannibalism? In addition, I have no mouth, or desire to eat, yet I still found myself drooling in my mind for one of them.

Even more interesting was the feeling coursing through me. Something told me I wasn’t finished, far from it.