The gathering took place at Hanne’s house. Tabitha, Runa, Hanne, and Joseph were the first ones to get there. Also in attendance was the village’s head farmer, Markus. Then the last two to arrive were the village chief, Elea, and her bodyguard and assistant, Simon.

“Alright, that’s everybody I thought of getting,” Runa said.

“What am I here for?” Joseph said. “This has to do with plants. I don’t know anything about plants.”

“Tabitha… told me everybody important, so…”

“Don’t be so grumpy,” Tabitha told Joseph. “Ya might have somethin’ to offer. This is important.”

Joseph grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, taking a step back to let everybody else gather closer around the table in Hanne’s kitchen.

“Hanne, do ya have a glass jar or somethin’? One that’s bigger than this bag? I’d like to get it around this,” Tabitha said.

Hanne still wasn’t sure what was going on, but she did have a jar wide enough for Tabitha to fit the bag into.

“Oi, Runa. Do me a quick favor. Get a container, fill it with some dirt, and bring it back in here. Actually, I’ll need two. One with just soil, another with a flower or somethin’ in it. Actually… if we’re doin’ some proper science here, I need an ear of corn—I mean, yellowhusk, too.”

Runa held up one finger at a time as she went through the list. “A container with soil, a container with soil and a plant, and an ear of yellowhusk?”

“One free from any blight, preferably.”

“Okay! I’ll be right back.”

“Thanks.”

Once Runa left, Tabitha slipped the bag into the glass jar and—as carefully as she could—pushed the abnormal pinecone out from the bag. Maintaining her level of caution, she then moved the bag and jar in such a way that the jar would end up upside down with the bag underneath its opening, the pinecone sitting atop it. That should keep the powder from escapin’, I hope.

“What… is that?” Hanne asked. “It looks like a pinecone, but…”

“Tabitha,” Elea said, her voice stern and direct. “Where did you find this?”

“At the river behind Joseph’s,” Tabitha answered. “Was just relaxin’ with Runa when I saw it float on down and get stuck on the side.”

“This is corruption. There is no doubt about it. I have never seen it myself, but I have had it described to me by the previous village chief. When a source of chaos arrives, it corrupts everything around it and attempts to spread as wide as it can.”

“That don’t sound too good. And… once ya see what happens when Runa brings me what I asked for, ya probably won’t like that.”

“We may need to send word to the capital.”

“Is it that serious?”

“It is.”

Elea, who normally just looked like a sweet, old woman, now looked as if she was staring death in the face.

That wasn’t a promising expression and made that gut feeling Tabitha had hit her even harder. And considering that even Joseph looked worried, Tabitha knew something was really wrong.

A few minutes later and Runa returned with everything held in her arms.

“Here!” Runa said, putting everything down on the table next to the glass jar.

Tabitha patted Runa on the shoulder and said, “Thanks. Alright. So, as a warnin’, this pinecone here has got some sort of black powder on it. I don’t know what it does, if it’s safe, if we might be in danger if we inhale it, or whatever else, but I’m gonna try to be as careful as I can here.”

Hanne raised her hand a bit. “I have detoxifying potions in case we need them.”

“Good,” Elea said. “Thank you.” She turned her attention to Tabitha again. “Please, go on.”

Tabitha nodded to both of the women and proceeded with her first experiment.

The thing she wanted to know the most was if the powder was responsible for the crops’ failure. So, she brought the ear of yellowhusk into the jar with the pinecone and gave the pinecone a gentle shake, using the bag to hold it to avoid touching it with her direct skin. That successfully got some of the black powder onto the yellowhusk.

“Only problem is that I ain’t sure how long it’ll take for the powder to affect it, if it even will at all,” Tabitha explained. “But it should be safe to let out.” She carefully let the ear of yellowhusk out from the jar while keeping the pinecone within.

Next came strategically positioning the pinecone over the top of the flowerpot that Runa brought in. All Tabitha wanted to do was to get a bit of powder on the flower sticking out of it, which she managed to do, and then set the flowerpot off to the side next to the yellowhusk.

Only the empty pot of soil was left. The pot wasn’t large enough to fit in the jar, but Tabitha was able to place the jar on top of it, slide the bag out from between them, and let the pinecone come into contact with the soil.

Elea let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding in when she saw the pinecone’s tendrils dig into the surface of the soil. As soon as the tips were buried, they dug deeper in and dragged the pinecone with them until it was completely buried underneath the soil.

“Vera’s tails,” the head farmer, Markus, said. “If these are coming down the river and burying themselves… they might be planted all along the river.”

“Not just that,” Hanne added on. “It is possible they reach far beyond the current extent of our farms. They may even reach all the way to the ocean.”

Admittedly, that didn’t sound good, so Tabitha gulped.