Bloom

“What do you mean we are out of food?” I asked. How could we be out of food, I’m still hungry! What conniving thief ate all our food when I wasn’t pillaging it myself!

Wen stared me down, at the front of the group.

“How can we be out of food? None of you eat very much!” I said, shamelessly.

Mishra raised an eyebrow at me, in synch with Wen, “Guilty!” they both said pointing me down with extreme judgement.

“Me? What do you mean me? I don’t eat…much…” I said, waving my branches in an innocent gesture. I most certainly do not have midnight snacks in the tons, definitely not.

“Can’t we just get more supplies from Durant or Vespar?” I asked, hoping for the best.

“Ecosystem, no.” Wen said, shaking her small head in a curt nugatory way.

“Ecosystem? Does that really matter when I’m hungry!?” I said, almost crying.

Straightening up my branches, I smooth out my bark.

“Then I suppose there is only option B.” I said in a sinister tone.

Waving my branches I cackle.

“I’ve already gotten a decent grasp of the trick used by the machine. Now, behold the greatness of the One-With-Many-Branches!” I reach out a delicate root to tap on the control panel I’ve recently created for my Voidship.

“Is this method…reliable?” Mishra says, as everyone else blanches slightly.

“Well, no this method doesn’t have control, exactly…” I say before thrusting my root tendril forward before anyone can stop me!

“Now, now. I’m sure nothing horrific will happen. Probably.” Dryad says, while nibbling on a snack she got from somewhere.

Tsk. Out of food, indeed! Yet so many have personal snacks!

“Stop acting like all it takes to master the Dao of Space is a few years floating in the Void! If it’s so easy, you do it!” I shout as my roots tap out complicated patterned commands on the console.

I mutter under my breath, “Yes, yes it is! One of my long held passions is to re-write the Dao of Space into something more comprehensible!” And then find whoever wrote the current one and roast them, very, very, slowly, very long. “The current Laws are like something written by four year olds, translated by aliens, and then shredded and patched back together. They are abysmal!” I grumble.

“You aren’t saying that because your attempts to learn the Dao of Space has been failing catastrophically right, Boss?” Guido chimes in, while eating from a tray of cookies that he’s apparently been hoarding. His own personal servant is kneeling nearby to hold the plate.

What is up with these people? Did no one bother to save food for their starving Tree overlord?

“Oh yeah? If you think the Dao of Space is so easy, go ahead. Teleport. C’mon, it’s easy right? Don’t try to cheat using high speed movement either!” I poke a branch in his direction. “I’ll be sure to put the pieces back together, if I can find them all!” If I can’t find all the pieces I’ll just reverse his local time flow back to life, but I don’t need to tell him that.

“Ah, I’ll pass, I feel a bit under the weather, Boss.” Guido says, his face greener than usual.

“Done!” I finish proudly, watching as a portal opens in front of the Voidship.

I don’t know where exactly this will go, but anywhere is better than a place without food!

Unless it’s another place without food…

Good thing most of the calculations were taken care of by the A.I., heh!

I just have to handle the power generation, manipulation, fine tuning, and other minor issues. All that math can be left up to the machines! That’s the whole point in acquiring the one we have now, hue hue.

“Since everyone has expressed various interests in escaping the ship, we’ll take a holiday on this planet. Let’s meet back up in a thousand years, give or take a decade.” I said. It’s not like I haven’t noticed how strange everyone has been getting the longer we stay floating around in the Void.

S’neli has exploded more alchemy labs in the last year than ever before.

Guido has built a monetary empire in Vespar, and then started eating his own gold.

Mishra has thinned the dragon population to almost non-existence with challenges.

Wen has slowly made stranger and stranger dishes.

Dryad hasn’t done much except sleep a lot, which is disturbing in itself.

As for me…

I’ve reached an impasse. I need some inspiration to combine with the energy I have in reserve for breaking the shackle on my Dao Root of Wind.

So, after consulting with our helpful A.I. I have decided a break is in order.

In order to exit the void, I devoted all my powers to cracking the method the machine from our last world used on the Void.

Now, I am prepared!

Pulling everyone gently into the Vespar Leaf, I exit the Voidship and place it inside the Ship’s Own Leaf.

The uncaring Void reaches out around me, endless, eternal, and deep.

I twist the fabric of time for the portal in front of me putting it under enough strain that space itself seems to solidify.

Then, with a madcap grin, I trigger one of the oldest powers I gained millennia ago.

Ignite.

Time is the flame, and space is the cauldron.

However, sometimes…

Yes…

Sometimes…

If the fire is too hot.

If the Flame is too great.

Even space will burn.

Into the rip between what is, and what is not a tiny spatial tear fractures open the edges burning with Chaos Flame.

Without pausing, I push harder expending my power to relentlessly open the portal further until it is large enough for my use.

Pushing through, I arrive on the other side.

Using the lessons learned from my previous attack, I spread my power around myself instantly slowing time to a glacial pace.

At this moment, I am in the moment-between-moments.

That flicker of time between one fraction of a second and another.

To an outsider, I am completely invisible, not because they cannot see me, but because my very existence is undetectable. Unless of course the enemy also mastered time enough to perform this trick.

From this vantage of absolute power I am able to look around the world of frozen moments.

Sand.

Indeed.

Billions of particles of floating sand as far as my senses can stretch.

I’m in the middle of a howling sandstorm.

Thankful that no one is here to see this embarrassment, I try to take root.

The sand itself is extremely annoying, and quickly rouses my anger.

I need something more solid to work with!

Yes, how about…

Glass?