And now, there is a tree.

The tree stands almost five hundred meters tall, in defiance of normal physics. Its trunk is just a hair under a hundred meters in diameter, near the base. Its boughs spread at least twice as far, with branches thick enough to drive a car on. But these are just numbers. They don't give you the true feeling for the scale at play.

This tree could fit a full size NFL football stadium in its branches with room to spare.

Perhaps half of that area is composed of branches sturdy enough to build and live on, and in the past, its people have indeed built and lived on it. So too all along the trunk, and the rootways that spread out nearly as far as the boughs above. There are hollows carved into the wood meant to serve all kinds of useful purposes- Homes, storage, containment for industry and artisanship, beautiful chambers meant for socializing. Some branches are heavy with fruit or vegetables it has made for its previous denizens. Some branches grow florets of cotton fiber, or flowers with useful oils, or thick durable vines useful for cordage. Some branches host healthy populations of rodents, snakes, birds, and other fauna, long adapted and tamed by the tree's slow nudges.

Unfortunately, nobody has come along with its journey to another new world. There were more and more monsters, and fewer and fewer people, and soon the only people were the ones living with it as it continually held the barrier up. But then, children began growing sick. Then there were no children for a long time, and eventually, no people at all.

This has happened before. It will happen again. Eventually, it will be alone. But the tree is not complete without people. When it is alone for too long, the proper response is to go somewhere else. Often, somewhere soaked in magic and hostile to life. For some reason, those make the best entry points. It has spent time on many airless rocks before concluding, each time, that nobody was coming.

And now it is here. Its roots split open the salt cake and dig into stone below. It endures the temperature without particularly noticing it. The knots of strange magic give it pause, but they find no purchase against its dense aura of magic and life as it begins watching and contemplating them.

The Authority of the Skies organizes surveyors to measure the flows of energy in all parts of the Hexadiconfederacy, so that it may act to ensure that bad weather and loci are kept away from populated areas. The most important survey time is just before the spring planting season, since that is when there will be lots of ritual casting to improve agricultural productivity, though given the position of the Chakya Whites as a place where excess energies are dumped, it sends three surveys — one for each season.

It will be several jeftu (several dozen days) before the summer solstice comes and heralds the arrival of the warm season. The Authority of the Skies sends a Fire lifter carrying an Open surveyor on a chair on his back.

They launch from Latyo Pass. While it is possible to fly with Fire practice, it is much more efficient to instead make very long jumps hundreds of meters wide.

They make it through the pass when Kadi sees it.

His partner, Parashu, is facing backwards, their backs together. That plus the rush of wind against their faces makes it very hard to speak — fortunately, Parashu has established telepathy between them.

:There's a giant tree in the middle of the Whites.:

:What?:

:I said that there's a giant tree in the middle of the Whites.:

:...okay. Let's stop here. Put me down.:

They are still a few kilometers away from the tree. Kadi lands gently on the salt without kicking up any crystals with careful application of Fire energy. Parashu unbuckles herself and hops off of the chair on Kadi's back.

"I see it. Let's...let's just take what measurements we can now and make a report about it later," she says, hurriedly taking a stick with many meter-long ribbons attached to the top end, each colored either white, black, green, yellow, red, or blue. She sticks the bottom in the salt and clamps her hand on the glass sphere at top, filling it with energy.

The ribbons begin to rise and flutter in the air. While she has scrying and detection spells to see the flows of energy directly, using artifice is more efficient. She takes out a notebook and collects data with a table she prepared earlier, crossing out the previous location written there and filling it in with their current location.

Are the energies in the area significantly different with the giant tree? Is the giant tree associated with any particular Way or Ways? Are they noticed by the giant tree? Does it react to them casting passive observation spells?

The Tree is currently contemplating soil chemistry and does not react to them immediately.

The Tree has a very powerful set of energies innate to itself, which is mostly contained quite strongly in an oblong bubble that barely covers its highest boughs and deepest roots. Any wild energy that touches the bubble directly is absorbed or smoothed out, creating a meniscus of calmer energy.

She will take note of how the energetic flows pointing towards the Tree seem to be calmer than the chaotic energies that typically pervade the pan, and how it seems to be broadly Flowers-aspected, with some Tranquil. The ribbon stick artifice only has the precision to measure broad flows and is unsuitable for detailed examination, but that is not her job right now.

...and then she has to redo her measurements because her rushing made her spill ink on the page. Ugh. She blots out the ink and redoes her writing.

Kadi will bring her to two other points on the rim of the salt flats for taking measurements so that they'll be able to triangulate things, carefully avoiding stepping on any loci and getting stuck. It takes the whole day, though given that it's the peak of summer, the daytime lasts for a long time.

They absolutely do not approach the Tree or try to interact with it in any way save for passive observation!!

She also measures the angle subtended by the tree with a sextant at each of the three positions, and marks the locations where she took measurements on a map with pencil. With a little geometry, she figures out the location of the tree — roughly in the center — plus how tall it is.

It must be four or five hundred meters high. She asks Kadi to check her work — maybe she measured the distance between their measuring points wrong? — but it's correct.

72-2-1-3
To: Authority of the Skies, Sarasa Office
From: Surveyor Parashu Toem Mayati Kara, Lifter Kadi Patapa Kyaji Lop

Attached herewith is the Nanca 72 Summer weather data for Sarasa Grid G2 "CHAKYA WHITES".

We were unable to take measurements from the usual location. See Incident Report 72-03-A for details.

72-2-1-4
To: Authority of the Skies, Sarasa Office
From: Notary Mayasanji-Topekala

The following document was received by me on 72-2-1-4.

I cast the Hexadiconfederacy Lesser Truth Compulsion on the entity who gave me this document, who identified themselves as Parashu Toem Mayati Kara with the legal identifier: toneba-girisi-katako. They affirmed their full authorship of the document and that everything written in the document she believed to be true.

The document is attached.

The Authority of the Skies asks Kadi to repeat the same.

He does.

They ask Parashu a bunch more questions. She says that it seemed like the tree was part of a locus, in the sense of being contained and having a dominant energy associated with it, but that it did not feel like any loci she has encountered previously. 

That is certainly...something. They refer the matter to the military.

It is ordered that two septads (a group consisting of a practitioner of each Way, plus a nonpractitioner) be assembled for an expedition to the Tree Locus, with one acting as support and not actually entering the locus. Parasha and Kadi are offered a bunch of money if they participate! Kadi accepts but Parasha does not. He becomes the support Fire practitioner.

They are ordered to assess the threat posed by the Tree Locus and find out more about it. They are not ordered to fight it, just to gather information and return. If the locus doesn't seem like it will become malignant and generate monsters, then they will just have the Authority of the Skies to change what types of energies are dumped on the Whites to contain or starve out the locus.

Four days later, on 72-2-1-8, the squads are assembled at Latyo Pass, making their way to the Tree Locus on foot. Though they have food and water available to them, they do not actually use it, saving it for emergencies and instead having Inedia cast on them by the Tranquil practitioners.

Does the Tree Locus react to them getting closer? They are now less than a kilometer away from the center of the locus by Parasha's measurements. Their Open practitioners continuously measure the energy flows to make sure they are aware of the borders of the locus at all times.

The Tree has done some preliminary experimental work on improving the local environment. It's going to be a very difficult job, though. There is plenty of air and the temperature is only slightly not fine, but the salt and lack of water are quite troublesome. There are salt-adapted plants, and even a few more exotic ones that are actually salt consuming, but spinning those from its central buds would be something for much later, after it has studied the area significantly more...

Oh. People have arrived!

Flowers bloom on the roots of the tree nearest the people. A few birds are flying high overhead, around the upper branches.

They notice the flowers blooming and stop. The Open practitioners say that the border of the Tree Locus is very ill-defined, so the group leader has the support group stay well back. It does seem that the locus is very Flowers-aligned.

The nonpractitioner and the Flowers practitioner of the advance squad move closer, careful not to step on any of the flowers or roots. The Flowers practitioner is wearing brightly patterned loose clothing, whereas the nonpractitioner is in mundane armor: chainmail and a helm.

The Flowers practitioner tries to feel the energy in the Tree Locus: is it trying to exert any emotional effects or glamors on them?

It is very subtle, but yes. The tree's aura is calibrated to make the animals living in its upper boughs peaceful and docile. This is mostly accomplished by centuries of selective breeding and modification, but the deep and slow emotional aura also helps.

It's a complex effect that makes a being slightly more likely to consider alternatives to violence, like talking, or fleeing, or just doing nothing.

The Flowers practitioner relays this! As far as emotional effects go, it's very benign, especially given its weakness. If they weren't so attuned to their emotions, they likely would not have noticed it. It's very similar to the effects that Tranquil monasteries have — the surveyor did say that this locus also had significant Tranquil energy.

What about the physical environment near the tree? Is it altered significantly from the salt flats, presence of giant tree notwithstanding? What is the state of the ground and quality of the air? They did note the presence of birds, though none of them know enough about birds or the local area to know whether they're atypical birds.

It has not really had much time to alter the ground. The salt nearest the roots has been swept away or absorbed, revealing the barren soil below. A few types of plants have attempted to grow there, but little is making much progress yet.

The air is healthy, and balanced at a temperature much closer to neutral than the surrounding desert, though it does interfere with the wind a bit, creating a breeze away from its base, so it's not making too much fuss about the temperature. Scents of flowers are in the air.

There are insects and small herbivores among the roots. There are bushes laden with berries, roots that seem almost calibrated to be benches, and at one point a small spring of fresh water pouring from a gap in the wood to form a pond, with fish and frogs in it.

What a powerful locus, to have profoundly altered the environment already! Presence of giant tree notwithstanding.

The Flowers practitioner will crouch down and cup a little of the fresh water in her hands and smell it. Does it seem like regular water? Does the locus react to her doing this?

The nonpractitioner observes her from a distance.

It seems like regular water and the tree does not react in any way it hasn't already been doing so (namely, causing flowers to appear near the people).