Our experiments to grow trees on the farm were looking to be very successful. In the week I spent at the village we got a tree to grow to almost thirty centimetres. It went much faster than anything happening in the white forest and as such, the goblins now had a secure supply of wood. That meant I could harvest as many vis crystals as I wanted.

My storage was quickly filled up with 50 of them. That would be enough to buy some of the materials Selene wanted and with one more trip, I should be able to pay off the dwarves. I only kept the number this low to not overflow the market. There were five times as many in the node’s cave and the surrounding forest.

The dwarves had managed to find a copper vein which let me hope the goblin could be a potential trading partner for the spiders. They only needed zinc and would be able to make brass. Granted, there was a magical way to turn iron into alchemical brass, which was basically the same. Still, I was looking forward to their future options.

Watching the dwarves work was another remarkable event. The farming cave we had taken almost two months to get to one-third of its planned size was finished within three days. Lothar the [Digger] was insanely quick at cutting through rock with a pickaxe. I observed a decent amount of vis flowing out with every strike and got some ideas on how to improve my usage of my excavation focus.

That said, I eventually took off bidding farewell to my friends once again. I took the flight a little slower than usual, scanning the ground carefully. It was not difficult to follow the route the dwarves had taken and find a few potentially better paths. That same observant attitude was the reason I saw it on the second day. The goblin settlement close to the edge of the mountains had changed drastically, and not for the better. Rather than the medium-sized node in its centre, it now was a large one, possibly even surpassing major. If not yet, then it would do so soon. The reason for that was evident from the surroundings. All around the node, the world had been destroyed. A crater of over 50 metres radius stretched out around it, bare stone and dirt showing on its ground. Buildings were broken, a few only standing partially at the edges. As I watched, a few pebbles rose up and were sucked into the node. This was a hungry node.

I had read about these in the Thaumonomicon some time ago. Hungry nodes were alterations caused by excessive void or hunger aspects binding with them. Rather than just sending out vis into the real world and having it convert into essence in the form of crystals or real physical materials, hungry nodes devoured real objects and sent the essence to the void. In the process, the opening in reality would get larger which resulted in the node growing, leaking out more vis and ‘eating’ from a larger distance.

This was bad. I saw the remainders of the settlement having moved north within the valley and living within provisory shelter. As I circled well above the node’s danger radius, the village’s Guardian unveiled itself. Kmika the panther sat close to the goblins and I could make out her friend, Jaka the thaumaturge. The goblin gave me a tired wave and I made my way down towards them, steering clear of the destruction.

When I landed, the panther quickly established a link with [Telepathy].

“You have returned”, she sent, “Thank you for coming.”

“No problem. What happened here?”

“Do you know about hungry nodes?”, Jaka asked.

“Mostly. I’m not quite sure how this one happened, though.”

The goblin sighed.

“It might be my fault. I pressed for research I was not prepared for. I tried to connect myself to the node and use its vis for my own Skills and purposes. The device was a failure.”

“Was it a new invention?”

“Yes.”

“I am still [Node Guardian]”, Kmika said.

“Really? That’s interesting. Do you have any influence over it?”

“None.”

“But the connection to draw on vis is still there?”

“Yes.”

Jaka pulled on her hair.

“I don’t know what to do!”

“I can’t help you right now. When did this happen and how much did it expand since?”

The goblin sighed and fell on top of the feline. She muffled into the panther’s fur.

“5 days, about. It barely grew since. Maybe half a metre? I was lucky I was outside the town.”

I nodded.

“That sounds like we have a lot of time. I got some business to take care of and I’m going to spend some time looking into hungry nodes. I’ll be back soon, hopefully with a solution.”

“I hope”, Kmika said.

The goblin only sniffled.

“Well then, do you have everything you need to survive for a bit?”

“Yes. We will move further west, soon.”

“Don’t go too far. The Dwarven Hills are west.”

“What choice do we have?”

“Just wait for me. If we don’t deal with this the dwarves will get into trouble at some point as well. I’m sure I can motivate some to help out.”

That seemed to calm them down a little and I took off deep in thought once again. Just as I was about to leave the range of [Telepathy], Kmika sent me one more message.

“Thaumonomicon for Jaka.”

I felt the connection snap before I could answer and decided not to bother with going back to give an answer. I needed a more stable supply of books. Maybe a deal with the Borsdown library was on the horizon. They had to have a number of spare books, broken enough to no longer be worth repairing.

I reached the budding city a few hours later, my mind still sitting on the hungry node. That one was a real threat. If that speed of expansion kept up, we had over 8000 years before it reached Borsdown. I doubted that would be the case. With increased size, it should spread more quickly as well. Or something like that. I needed to read up on the topic again.

When I reached my home, I found Vivi was out on the lake by the node. The little platform the dwarves had built served as a resting spot while she moved around vis to do something. I greeted her with a hoot which broke her focus and a swell of water gushed out around her. I clicked my tongue in amusement at her chiding hiss.

A few minutes later, we were sat in the living room with Safrah. I took a moment to catch them up on the last weeks. I skimmed over the journey to quickly get to the hungry node and ask for their advice. Safrah decided to look into it with her Thaumonomicon but was unable to promise anything. Tired from the journey and all the work, I eventually settled for enjoying some berry tea while retelling the dwarven struggles in every excruciating detail. It was very enjoyable.

The next day was filled with frantic action as I tried to get everything sorted. Captain Dor gave me the expected price on my vis crystals which I used to make some metal purchases. I spent a few hours with the town leaders, retelling the journey once again and talking about how the dwarves were helping out the goblins. Especially Jorgun was very interested in the Gurrin digging and mining skills. Apparently, he had to report back to Diggerberg to tell the clan heads about the adventure they had embarked on.

Les Adena, the head of library, was the most intrigued when I started talking about the hungry node.

“So, it’s how far away?”, she asked.

“About 300 kilometres. You won’t ever see the consequences but I’d rather deal with it now than let the next generations handle a larger problem.”

“That is a very good attitude. Only, nobody knows how to deal with hungry nodes.”

“There are more?”

The dwarves looked at each other for a moment. Somehow, they came to an unspoken agreement and everyone nodded at the librarian.

“Not many that are of immediate danger to the Dwarven hills”, she said, “but a few attempts were made at fixing things up. All of them failures. Most of the thaumaturges living in these lands research nodes to try and find a solution for our problems.”

“Maybe I should talk to some of them…”

“That might be an option if a very time-consuming one. I recommend going to a better-equipped library. Serrington should suffice and you will find some dissertations on the nature of nodes and Guardians there. I will give you specific permission to view those texts. Normally, they are reserved for my clan, the Adena, or clan heads as well as town leaders. Nobody else needs to know the intricacies behind our source of prosperity.”

“I see. Thank you. I’m going to do my own research. Maybe the Thaumonomicon has some more interesting information on hungry nodes. On that note, I need a few more spare books. Can I set something up with your library to get more whenever I need to make one?”

The librarian rubbed her nose.

“Yes. I believe something like that should be possible. Let me work out the details. You can come over tomorrow.”

“That’s good. Thank you.”

“Now! Tell me more about that alchemist!”, Kark said.

The brewer representative had been especially interested in Roguk’s crafting.

“Of course. You see, he made a mixture that can fuse anything with pure stone…”

It took some more time to get everyone’s questions satisfied. Then, finally, I could go home and slump onto my perch in the attic. I could really use the sleep and enjoyed the calm of the night to rest my mind. There was a lot to do, still.