"The lifeforce recovers over time, unless you spend Youth which is required to do any permanent magical things. What do you mean with new kind?"

"A new species of plant. Something useful that I could take home and have reproduce, that makes a useful thing we don't already get from plants."

"I could kiss you for giving me an excuse to do that! What exactly you don't get from plants? I can make something that is actively magical but the effect will only remain if the plant is alive and healthy, some of the stronger effects might require the lifeforce expenditure."

"Ah, please don't actually kiss me? I might be up for that if you were a woman, but you're not, that's just how it is. We get food, medicine, that sort of thing, from plants. I'll need to look at some notes to figure something we don't already have. Something actively magical sounds very interesting, as long as fairies can grow and use it. We might not have lifeforce."

"I will restrain from kissing." Temple says dryly. "Do you mind if I actually check if you have lifeforce?"

"Go ahead and check, sure."

"Okay, this will take a minute." Temple stars drawing a much simple set of runes on a piece of paper once he concludes that he rests his hand on the paper and looks at Nick. "That is weird... Your lifeforce is different and your Youth takes most of it... Are you immortal?!"

"Quite so. Fairies are indestructible. Destruction includes age and disease."

"I see, it's so interesting! Seeing your lifeforce is kinda like... dunno, seeing a person with a fleshy exterior and a steel core. Anyway, you are able to empower a magic plant through lifeforce... Some of the effects I can do for you: plants that glow as strongly as sunlight; plants that cast darkness; a plant that can change color by your intent so you can make ink or paint of any color you want; plants that float and support... at least four times their own weight, I might push that to seven times. I can add the ability to shape their growth to any of those effects, by the way. Plants that generate wind, cold, heat or electricity... maybe filtration. Anything of interest so far?"

"Colors and darkness are the most interesting ones listed so far. Maybe cold and heat."

"The color-changing: If you want to make ink with it I can make a berrybush where the berries change color by holding and concentrating, making glowing paint is an option. What do you want the darkness for? I can make a beach umbrella that casts a cover of darkness. Cold and Heat have more constraints, but they are manegeable, I can actually combine the two and have a plant that takes heat and directs somewhere else. Also, sinking the dead city might take a while... I would need to see you in action to be sure."

"Fairies can do big stuff. What I want is something I can sell back in Fairyland. Color-changing berrybush that can make glowing paint would be that. A heat-moving plant would also work, for people who want refrigerators without having to bother to install electricity. Even kinds of fruit or vegetables I've never heard of."

"Lets start with color-changing berrybush. How long are you willing to wait for it?"

"A few days would be... Acceptable. A few weeks would be annoying. I was planning to work on the dead city while you worked on the plant. Should I bring you along for a few minutes to see if I'm removing it correctly?"

"Color-changing berrybush will take less than week, two days if you only take a single plant, but that can go up to a dozen potted bushes if you wait for another day. I have a guest room if you are concerned with where you are staying. And bringing me along for a test run would be a good idea."

"I don't need to sleep, if I can get coffee. I'll take a dozen potted bushes over the single plant. How hard will it be to raise new ones?"

"I'm getting jealous of your fairiness. And the plant I'm going to use as a base is pretty adaptable, low maintenance, and is a great apartment plant if you like the overly sweet smell, which can be get rid off if you want."

"Might as well leave the smell. I can fly us over to the dead city now, let's test whether I can actually scrap it."

"Okay, just a moment..." Temple stores some of his supplies. "Done."

"Brace yourself for vertigo."

And then they are high above the surface, speeding towards the dead city faster than any bird could.

Temple is somewhere between vertigo and joy.

The chasm that devides the village and the dead city is wide, maybe hundreds feet and goes down into a pitch-black darkness. When they are about half-way through the chasm... something changes in the air itself, it feels stale and still, even while they move this fast, a sensation crawls over Nick's skin that is hard to ignore. Temple's joy stops, he shivers but not from cold.

The city architecture is pretty regular and organized, but the place is very definitely empty, looking more like a stone model of a city than an actual city.

"Try to sink it down a few miles? God, I hate this feeling."

It makes his skin crawl. "I can only push so much at once."

Still, he forces a sizable block down at barely subsonic speeds.

The blocks make the expected sounds of uncountable tons of earth and stone tearing off, several buildings tople but that is hardly a problem. It sinks, sinks, and sinks...

...The wrongness is not gone, but it is definitely ameliorating. Temple turns his eyes skyward.

"The stars are already returning!" Temple says pointing up.

"Great, it's working. I should just do that for the entire Dead City? ...How many people will be grateful I'm trashing the place?"

"Honestly, easily on the scale of hundreds of millions? This thing is a huge disaster, not many deaths lately but relocation is a major problem."