“Alt—” Demi began, unsure of what to say.
“She already knows,” he said flatly, rising to his feet. “That’s right, isn’t it?” he asked the dryad.
She nodded without uncovering her face.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” she said quietly, her voice shaking. “But I know. I can’t get better. We don’t have any way to fix it. I’m sorry I’m so disgusting. I cover it up so people won’t have to see it.”
“Oh, Tata,” Demi said, moving to wrap her arms around the other girl. She seemed wispy, almost insubstantial, as if she were made of nothing but air and bones. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
She erases herself so people won’t worry about her, so people won’t have to remember that she’s dying, Demi thought as her heart ached. It’s not just that she’s been exhausted and in pain. She’s been hiding herself on purpose so as not to inconvenience anyone.
Tata quivered in her arms, shivering, but at last she was still.
As Demi held her, getting gently prickled by her spiny hair, things rapidly fell in place in her mind, and she experienced an epiphany.
Tina had said that the reason Tata was sick was that her trees were sick, and Demi had seen the yellow pustules all over her legs. All of that and the spiny hair.
“Tata,” she asked suddenly, “are you a chestnut tree?”
In her arms, Tata quietly nodded.
“Chestnut blight!” Demi said immediately. “Your trees are infected with chestnut blight!”
Aelfric’s eyes narrowed and he looked at her seriously.
“Do you know about this disease?” he asked.
Demi just managed to avoid blurting out, “Of course, because it also exists in my world!” but only narrowly.
Instead, she said, “I read about it in a book,” which wasn’t even a lie. She had originally read about chestnut blight in a book. It was incredibly virulent and fatal, and had ended up killing the majority of the chestnut trees in her world.
It was not a positive prognosis, but knowing what it was made it feel possible to combat.
After all, in her own world they had eventually developed some countermeasures to protect the remaining chestnut populations.
Still, it was probably best to try what she had already prepared first before attempting something new.
She took the potion from her shoulder bag.
“This is what I have to try,” she explained. “Thanks to Alt’s help it doesn’t taste nearly as bad as the early ones I made.”
Tata extended her sleeves and took possession of the bottle. Briefly, Demi wondered if she would be able to unstopper the bottle without rolling up her enormous sleeves, but somehow, she remained quite dexterous.
Tata took a deep breath, and then turned the bottle up and drank the entire thing in one go.
They all waited expectantly, hopeful for some change.
After about thirty seconds, Tata’s eyelids fluttered slightly, and she swayed on her feet. Aelfric moved immediately to catch her shoulder, and she leaned on his hand gratefully.
For a long, terrifying moment, Demi worried that she had somehow made Tata’s illness worse.
But then the dryad gave a very small smile.
“I feel a little better,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt as much, and my mind feels clearer.”
Aelfric looked her over carefully and then nodded.
“The potion seems to have worked to mitigate some of her symptoms,” he said.
“I’m glad,” Demi said in relief, but then she felt conflicted. “We haven’t cured the underlying problem, have we?”
“No,” Aelfric agreed without turning to look at her. “This illness is caused by her trees being diseased. Even if we could completely eradicate her symptoms, after a short while, she would relapse and they would reoccur. This will remain the case so long as her trees are diseased.”
It was a complicated problem. Even if they could heal Tata, unless they could also eradicate the chestnut blight, she would simply get sick again. Later, Aelfric would confirm that if they simply tried to purge and fell the infected trees, she would just grow weaker and weaker. A dryad’s life force came directly from the number and health of their own specific trees.
If only I could use my magic the way I did when I saved Aelfric, Demi thought to herself as he carefully checked Tata over.
She had been able to remove a horrible parasite from Aelfric by using that mysterious magic involving the green threads. Perhaps she could heal Tata in the same way. But she did not know how to use this magic of her own free will. She did not even really understand how she had used it in the first place or what she had done with it.
Even if she could use it on command, she suspected that completely removing the parasite from Tata would not be enough. The dryad would simply get sick again unless Demi also removed the blight from every single one of Tata’s trees, which were spread across the entire continent.
This was a large-scale problem. And that was probably the reason that Hollyhope had not already attempted to resolve the situation herself. The dryads were her favored children, after all.
Looking closely at Tata as Aelfric concluded his examination, Demi saw the words that she had already come to dread.
Cryphonectria Parasitica Aeruginosa
Necrotrophic Symbiotic Sac Fungi with Bacteria
ENEMY OF THIS PLANET
It’s an invasive species, Demi thought to herself, feeling exhausted just thinking about it. Because of course it is. She closed her eyes as she thought about it. I sincerely hope that the plan to redirect the Rosebrook south through the blightwood can actually purify that place. It’s causing so many problems.