[Encanto] 24 – Purifying Nature

As soon as my hand touched the bare stone, I couldn't help but gasp as an expanse of stars opened up in my mind. I felt my soul reach out and connect to a constellation hidden within the stars, and with it, I felt empowered by the constellation. Though strangely enough, the feeling I got gave me two options as an avenue for the power I wanted.

On the one hand, I was given the option to use a power similar to the one featured in the game once a day, allowing me to revive the corpses around my person to defend myself against any danger. On the other hand, I could receive a power that would act as an emergency healing ability when I was in danger or someone else I knew. This healing ability had a one-week cooldown and only worked on a single target. I didn't get a feel for how strong this healing ability would be outside of it being able to heal fatal injuries. Still, it could be a lifeline if I ran out of Magicka or was unable to cast a healing spell, though I doubt the ability would be fast-acting enough to be helpful in combat.

This was the power of just one of the  Standing Stones, one of the weaker ones at that. What kind of power would the other Standing Stones offer me? In the game, I always used the same few Standing stones, never bothering to change them, for the passives they gave were useful. The main two stones I used were the Steed Stone and Lover Stone.

The Steed Standing stone granted more carry weight and made armor weigh less, while on the other hand, the Lover Stone gave a 15% increase in learning all skills. You could only equip one standing stone at a time, but this was changeable with the Aetherial Crown, which allowed for the selection of two standing stones. I hardly ever used the crown because it took up the helmet slot, which could have been used instead to wear one of the named Dragon Priest Masks that gave powerful buffs to my character. 

Even then, while the Crown wasn't that useful to me, the other two items you could craft at the Aetherium Forge were next to useless to me. The Aetherial Shield would make whoever you bashed go Ethereal for a short time, making it impossible for them to attack or be attacked, while the Aetherial Staff only summoned a Dwarven Automata, a Spider Guardian, or Sphere Guardian. Realistically, the Dwarven Automatons were likely way more dangerous here than in the Game due to their combat prowess, but they were still cannon fodder against the stronger things in Skyrim. However, for me, the main drawback of the Staff was that, at times, it would instead summon scrap in a fight; this could prove disastrous and has gotten me killed a few times on my Legendary runs.

Shaking my head, I made a mental note to check out the Guardian Stones east of Riverwood on my way to get Azura's Star to see if the benefits they gave differed from what I knew from the game. In the meantime, I opened my soul to the stars, choosing the constellation and allowing it to settle within my mind. Obviously, I chose the healing power, as I'd rather not have to make an enemy of Arkay or Meridia by raising the dead.

Satisfied with my choice, I took a deep breath and looked around at the undead and ritual circle around the stone. Necromancers frequently used this place, and I could feel that it was a nesting ground for dark magic just by standing inside it. Anything that died here would, without a doubt, rise into an Undead. Necromancers would find their spells and rituals being empowered, and I could not have that.

Kneeling to sit in a lotus position, I let my Magicka flow from my body into my surroundings. The tendrils of Magicka sunk into the Earth beneath me and the air around me. I could feel the life around me being sapped by the dark magic and rituals used here. The area felt...vile. Sick. I could feel Nature cry out at the damage and corruption done to this area.

I was here, and I could help. 

I could cast purifying restoration spells for hours to cleanse the area of the corruptive necromantic magic and rituals, but that would do nothing to stop future Necromancers from spotting by and casting their magic and rituals, corrupting and damaging nature all over again. I needed to somehow make a long-lasting and self-sufficient AOE spell that could cleanse this area, even long after I was gone.

Then I had an idea.

First, I cast an empowered Guardian Circle to help cleanse the area. I aimed the spell at the air around me, sort of forcing the ambient miasma into the Earth below me.

Reaching out to my surroundings with my Gift, I felt what I was searching for.

A seed.

Pulling it to me, I felt the tiny seed fly into my palm.

Using some restoration magic, I nourished the seed, making sure it was full of life and would have enough energy to sprout into a Sapling.

Floating the seed into the air above my palm, I concentrated, summoning magicka tendrils from my palm towards the seed, where I began to carve tiny but comprehensive runes, making an array on the seed's outer shell that would, once the seed sprouted, infuse the sampling with the magic I was designing. 

I had a simple but challenging goal. I couldn't stay here forever, nor could I occasionally come back to cleanse the area. However, there was plenty of life that could live for centuries. The seed I was infusing? It was that of a Tree.

If I did it right, this tree would grow into a living magic ritual that would siphon the miasma from the area as nourishment for itself and the plants around it, re-enriching the soil in the process, repairing the damage the Necromancers had done to the soil in the area.

With time, this tree would grow, and it would be able to cleanse the area of any future rituals and damaging magic performed by Necromancers. This would also lead to the creation of a meadow or some area that was filled with lush and thick vegetation. I had no idea how fast this growth would be, but it should do its job.

Raising my other hand, I used my Gift to bore a hole deep into the soil behind the Ritual stone on the cliff base facing the river and mountain and buried the seed deep into the ground, giving the area around it another blast of restoration magic to make sure the soil would have enough nutrients to fuel the seed's growth.

Filling up the hole with soil, I couldn't help but feel a bit of satisfaction before shivering as the cold started to seep into my bones due to [Sun's Embrace] beginning to wear off as the sky above began to darken.

...

Steeping out from a nearby tree, what appeared to look like a wooden woman watched as the Human took flight and flew away.

Its bark, once dark black, was beginning to return to its normal brown splendor thanks to the Human's magic. Although its face was stoic, the Spriggan felt a deep sense of thankfulness before it turned its head to the seed the Human had planted.

As a guardian of nature, the Spriggan would see to it that the seed would grow into a sampling and mature into a vigorous tree filled with life.