After recovering from my… exuberant entrance back into the mundane realm, the Jagdar loved the crop idea I returned with. With something as valuable as the… oh gosh, I was basically designing the perfect carrot. Nobody tell my buns. Anyway, with something as valuable as the perfect carrot on the table, Marat was more than happy to give us a preliminary agreement.

Dr Ross wanted to hang around Neub for a wee while to get to know everyone and establish proper diplomatic ties, so we were all off duty for a little while. Both Eilian and I decided that removing the big scary mages from the equation was a good idea, so we took off into our groves. Grace came with me, but the boys and Dr Ross’ people stayed in town.

When I got back to the library, Catherine was already elbow deep in the problem.

“We’ll need a kill switch,” she said when we entered the room.

“Why?” I asked, although I could see half a dozen reasons why that would be a good idea.

She shrugged and looked up to greet me with a smile. “Because if shit goes wrong we want to be able to kill it instantly.”

"Judging by what Ryn was telling me on the way up here, I think you're going about this wrong," Grace said, taking me around the waist with a hand.

Cat and I both stared at her, and her cheeks gained an adorable hint of pink. "Look, I'm not a mage or whatever, but you're asking random mundane farmers to dig up carrots so long that they reach down below the topsoil? That… doesn't sound feasible."

"Oh," we chimed in unison. She was right, it would be kinda difficult for them to dig up a carrot that was designed to reach deep into tough bedrock.

"So what if…" Grace continued, running her free hand through her beautiful blonde hair… ah, crap what did she say? Just as I was beginning to pay proper attention she paused and saw the look on my face. "Okay. Starting from the top because some people are too gay to listen… what if you go for a symbiotic design, where the other partner is intelligent life?"

"Okay… yeah, yeah…" Cat agreed, brows furrowed in thought.

"I was thinking, right, structure is easy for you gals to create with your magic plants, so what if you design a tree that uses all those metals and stuff in its trunk, makes its leaves and flower petals all nutritious for the soil, and make its fruits delicious for humans… but the seed is encased in a really tough shell that it can't get out of. That way, someone needs to come along and break the seed open before it can grow into a tree. On top of that, the wood from the tree will be tough as all fuck, so if they figure out how to work it then they have a beast of a product to sell to traders."

Holy moly! That was perfect! That was so perfect! The seed thing would ensure they could keep it from taking over the plains, and the wood… goddess, I could imagine whole suits of armour made from the stuff.

"I bet you they'll immediately figure out how to make alcohol out of the fruit," said Cat, giggling to herself. "I'm gonna make sure it's super sweet and floral tasting so the alcohol is nice and yummy."

“You like the idea?” Grace asked, sounding a tad surprised.

I turned and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s a really damn good idea, my love.”

“Nice,” she said with a grin, and we all sat down to get to work.

Over the course of that night, we figured out how we’d design the tree. Its roots would grow deep, and thus it would be able to support a pretty large tree. We decided that we’d incorporate a magically enhanced xylem to allow it to grow higher like the home tree—what was its name again—had developed naturally. I wasn’t sure what the maximum height would be, but it probably wouldn’t be too much bigger than a large pine or whatever.

As for the various resources to be gained from the tree, there were the obvious ones like the fruit and the leaves, which would be edible and fertilise the ground, respectively. In my opinion it was the wood and the roots where the real magic happened. Down in the roots, all the various materials dug up would be sorted, with the more stable and useful metals transported further up, while the toxic ones would be burned for magical fuel. The metals like iron, copper, aluminium and such would be infused into the wood as it grew, creating an extremely durable wood. All the fertiliser-related materials would be pushed to the leaves, and so on. It was perfect… hopefully.

The next day, we returned to Neub with one of two prototype seeds. The other one was going into Catherine’s grove, where she could continue to tinker with the concept. We were essentially magically charging a process that happened automatically in nature, and she had ideas to streamline the process and increase efficiency.

Jagdar Marat’s compound was in a state of post-party chaos when we zoned back in, and I was a little disappointed we hadn’t gotten to attend. He greeted us with the sort of stoic squint-eyed look that was reserved only for those who’d drunken too much the night before.

“Good morning, Jagdar,” I said cheerfully.

He grimaced and nodded to me. “Yes… I may have partaken of the sweetmilk last night. Your Dr Ross can hold his drink quite well for a man of his slight stature.”

Oh, huh. That was… unexpected.

“I see… where is he anyway?”

“Getting some?” Eilian offered with an amused smirk.

Marat snorted. “No, but there were offers. He has a will of iron, that much is certain. I believe he is getting dressed now— ah, there he is!”

Sure enough, Dr Ross and his aides were approaching from one of the side buildings—I still thought of them as wagons.

He gave me a smile by way of greeting and asked, “So, how did the night of magical research go? Do we have a crop for the Reti?”

I shook my head, and held out the little acorn in my hand. “Not a crop, but a tree.”

“A tree? That is… not our usual fare,” Marat said, staring down at it.

“Give it a chance, Jagdar,” I said confidently. “This tree will produce wood that is stronger than most others, perhaps even a match for bronze in toughness, but with the workability of hardwood. The leaves will fall each autumn, creating a blanket over the ground that will decay into a potent fertiliser. Lastly, and most importantly right now, the fruit will be large and rich, with a seed that must be cracked open by human hands so it will not grow out of control.”

“It sounds like a true marvel, but I am not sure we will have the time to wait for a tree to grow to maturity,” he frowned, plucking the acorn from my hand to look at it.

I grinned and with a flick of my wrist, pulled the acorn back to me with magic. “That is where we come in,” I replied, gesturing to Eilian and myself. “We will use our magic to force this seed to grow into a mature tree. Then we will harvest its fruit and with the aid of your farmers, we will go around and help to plant several of these and grow them to maturity. Once that is done, we will sow the fields with regular magical fertiliser to simulate a leaf-fall and kick start your food production.”

Everyone stood there in semi-stunned silence for almost ten seconds before the Jagdar said, “That is… you are capable of this? Any mage could have done this for us?”

It was Eilian who answered that question. “The more powerful ones could do it at the same speed as us. The average mage is not as powerful as Rynadria here. It would take them a week, maybe a month to achieve the same results that we will get today.”

“You are doing this in one day?” he asked, eyes almost falling out of his head.

“You may want to send riders out to tell the farmers to expect us,” I nodded. “I’m afraid we will be moving too fast for you to accompany us to each farm individually.”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

“Oh, and where do you want the first one? In here?”

“The first one?”

Giving him an enthusiastic wave around his compound, I said, “The first tree. It needs to go somewhere, and I figure the mother of all the other trees should have pride of place, you know?”

I think I might’ve been going a little too fast for him. He was still dealing with the effects of his hangover and all he could do was nod very, very slowly at my proposition. Sweet! Time to plant a tree!