Darin looked at Ridahne, “I’ve heard of it. Something that happened when countries were angry with each other. Families would send off their warriors never knowing if they would come back home. People died by the thousands; killed by people whose only difference was the place they called home. Children were stolen and forced to do terrible things. War and death went hand in hand.” She paused for a moment, “There are stories that the elders tell, that say The Tree was planted to stop a war that threatened all of Astra.”

Darin didn’t know how true those stories were. Then again no one knew why The Tree had been planted. No one knew anything about The Tree’s origins. Some said that all the gods of Astra planted it together. So said it was one god trying to keep another god out. Some said it stopped evil. Darin had even heard one man say it limited free will. Both evil and free will were such nebulous concepts that Darin wasn’t sure that they could be completely stopped of stilted. Darin remembered her mother saying murder was evil. If that was the case than The Tree should have stopped it. Everyone knew that murder was still a thing. Even before The Tree became sick warriors were killing other warriors. Did that count as murder or something else? Darin didn’t know. One thing she was pretty sure about was The Tree did stop war and something called slavery. Darin only had a vague idea what that one was. It had something to do with taking away freedoms, but the young farmer wasn’t sure.

Darin spoke again, “The Tree is such a nebulous thing. There are so many stories about it. Most off them are probably exaggerations or tall tales. I would like to see it before we get much further along. That might give me some hints about where The Seed needs to go.”

Darin didn’t say it would also let her know how to best to care for The Seed once it was planted. She didn’t like to admit it, but some would need to take care of The Seed as it started to grow. That was what The Gardener had done after all. That was another entity that had been shrouded in mystery. There were just as many stories it not more about him. Some even said he was a god. That couldn’t be true. Gods did not die. Darin didn’t think so at least. It was known that that he wasn’t a human, Siren, or Elf. He was not one of the Children that anyone in Astra had ever seen before. He looked human, but no one who looked at him would call him a Child of the Stone. Darin had even heard that Sirens saw a Siren without seeing a Child of the Sea while Elves saw an Elf without seeing a Child of the Sky. No one could explain that. Now he was dead, and he had left a woefully unprepared girl as his heir.

Darin asked another question, “What story do your people tell about The Tree’s origin? I’ve heard so many. And I do like hearing more.”