It didn’t look anything too special. It was a standard chest, made of wood with metal reinforcement. There wasn’t any obvious mana that would distinguish it from its surroundings. That being said, it looked completely pristine and without any weathering at all.

Chrys stepped forward, stretching her arm out and barring the way for everyone else. She was entirely focused on the chest, moving slowly and very carefully towards it. She tapped another part of her robe, and more pieces of glass fell into place around her head. She shook her hand, and what seemed to be a long stick appeared.

She reached the stick towards the chest, before gently poking it.

Nothing.

Exhaling a held breath (which Theo also did in sympathy), Chrys moved the stick back towards the chest, shakily trying to nudging it.

Nothing. The chest didn’t even move.

“Move back.” Chrys started to walk backwards, keeping her eyes glued to the chest. “Sparrow, Fisherman’s Song?” She held the stick aloft in the air, gently resting in her palm.

Sparrow nodded (even though she wouldn’t see), and began whistling The Fisherman’s Song, picking up the stick.

As soon as the stick was no longer in her hand, Chrys threw a slip of paper on the ground, and a barrier expanded around them (but not the stick).

Sparrow rammed the stick directly into the chest.

Nothing.

They waited for a minute (Theo accidentally holding his breath once again, as Esther’s eyelids started to droop), before Chrys raised a hand and the barrier dropped.

“Right, I’m 79% sure that won’t explode on us.” She turned to everyone else, finally letting her eyes leave the chest. “Any suggestions?”

“All of these seem to respond to me. I could try to touch it?” Theo suggested, resisting the urge to shrink as his master and three other teachers all turned their gaze towards him, before their gazes turned to Sparrow.

They shrugged. “I was going to suggest the same thing. It’s good that you’re proactive.” With that, they looked completely at ease. The other teachers looked at them in a stunned silence.

While they had their staring match, Theo braced himself, and walked up to the chest. The trees that seemed magical before now seemed a little more ominous (as if someone had wiped away some bright paint to reveal ash and bone below). They were almost taunting him, daring him to touch the chest as they watched on from the background.

Theo refocused his attention on the chest, ignoring all the feelings telling him this was a terrible idea.

It looked completely fine. None of Chrys and Sparrow’s combined assault had left a single scratch. Taking a deep breath, Theo exhaled as he carefully reached his (shaking) left hand towards the chest.

Closing his eyes, he braced for an explosion, or a warning, or something ominous that Theo tried not to think about.

What he wasn’t expecting, was for the box to unlock and slowly creak open the moment his index finger made contact with the box.

Opening his eyes, it felt exactly the same as it did before he’d opened it. With the exception of a strong wave of mana and the smell of herbs wafting out of it.

“Everything okay?” Sparrow yelled from where they stood, hands cupped over their mouth. “Seeing as you’re still alive and breathing, I’m assuming it is, but might as well ask!”

Theo was still wary of how easy it had been to open the box, waiting for a second shoe to drop (or any other signal that would encourage him to bolt as far away as possible). As he did, he turned around to face the group of teachers.

“I am alive.” Theo dryly confirmed. “I think it’s okay. At least, it’s probably safe to come closer?” Theo hesitated to commit to that statement just in case one of the teachers managed to be injured (or worse, blame him for the injury).

Chrys had furrowed her brow, clearly thinking things through. Kevin looked at Chrys with a raised eyebrow and a mixture of curiosity and concern (the way you’d watch over a friend about to do something either incredible or incredibly stupid).

Esther still looked bored, and Sparrow was very carefully controlling their face (which, ironically, signalled to Theo that they definitely did notice something).

“…It’s the same.” Chrys muttered.

“So what’s in there?” Sparrow craned their neck, trying to get a glimpse of the chest’s contents. It was a good question.

Theo turned back to the chest, and looked through what was actually in there. There were many herbs that positively radiated mana, as well as a few pieces of paper. But that was about it. It was mostly herbs.

To be fair, the paper also felt powerfully magical, but a few herbs and some writing felt a bit underwhelming for the protection that The Woods afforded the chest.

Then again, Theo shrugged, it wasn’t like he knew much about herbs or how sentient forests thought. He turned around, hands cupped around his mouth.

“Just some herbs and paper!” There was no immediate response, for various reasons.

Chrys furrowed their brow even more, enough for the skin to bunch up and turn white and form wrinkles (as textured as if you were to fall asleep in a lake and wake up to find your fingers halfway through becoming raisins).

Sparrow was nonplussed, while Esther was practicing her death stare (and was probably the second-most likely thing to kill Theo on this trip). She was clearly unimpressed (to put it incredibly, charitably, lightly).

Kevin was interesting. He had started pacing, lost in thoughts as his eyes wandered memories, muttering to himself. “Why is there no difference in the mana?”

“Okay, we’ll come closer.” Sparrow eventually responded, paying no mind to Kevin’s ramblings.

Even though Theo was fine and healthy (so far), all the teachers were very cautious approaching the chest. Chrys seemed to take in everything around them (especially with her lenses and whatnot). Sparrow was taking very controlled, careful steps. Kevin muttered a prayer, and the shine grew stronger around him.

Even Esther was being careful as she rolled her eyes, patiently waiting and stepping exactly where the others had previously walked (even if she was adopting the body language of a child on the verge of a tantrum).

---

Once they’d all slowly (one could say almost leisurely) made their way to the chest, they formed a semicircle around it.

“Thoughts?” Sparrow surveyed everyone’s opinions. Esther just shrugged, mentally checked out of the conversation.

Meanwhile, Kevin and Chrys seemed to be having very vibrant internal conversations, debating things with themselves as they individually tried to crack a puzzle that Theo didn’t even know existed.

“…identical mana signatures…”

“The role of herbs in mana att…”

They continued their ruminations as everyone else politely looked on, some with more patience than others (while others still, like Esther, did not even have enough patience to qualify for comparison).

Kevin and Chrys grew more animated, Kevin started to pace once more and Chrys was tapping various parts of her outfit, each glowing for a moment after she pressed it.

“…fosters growth…”

“…therefore…!”

“It’s the source!” Chrys and Kevin shouted out in unison, turning to look at each other.

“Great, good job. You figured it out. Let’s grab it and go.” Esther quickly sighed, clearly disinterested, grabbing the chest immediately after their realisation and turning back around.

“No, wait!” Theo had to admit, seeing Chrys and Kevin speak almost in unison was rather disquieting.

However, it was less unsettling than the change to the mana that started as soon as Esther picked up the chest. Roots in the ground started to writhe and get closer, trees suddenly sprouting up from the ground.

As expected, the teachers reacted to the change faster than Theo did. While he was processing the shift in the ambience, Sparrow had pulled the machete out, Chrys’ runic clothing lit up, and Kevin muttered a prayer (in a way that felt almost like he was swearing).

All three of them were shooting dirty looks at Esther, who was shifting the chest onto her shoulder while sporting a relieved grin that quickly morphed into worry and realisation.

“Run.” Sparrow commanded, and that’s exactly what they did. Sparrow rushed ahead, cutting down trees with their machete to carve a path through the suddenly-dense forest. Chrys followed closely behind, glowing (and using some mana) with each step, almost floating over the downed trees and grasping roots. Theo and Esther kept a decent pace, and Kevin was the (gradually lagging) rear.

Looking back over his shoulder, Theo did a double take as he realised that Kevin was almost cut off from the rest of them as trees started to close in on him alone, and Esther’s eyes followed his. Engaging Striding Wind, he ran back, muttered a quiet apology, and picked Kevin up.

Bridal style.

Esther barked out a laugh, which caused Sparrow to also start laughing when they looked back.

“Focus.” Chrys admonished, focusing a death stare onto Esther (which would have bumped down Esther’s glare to third-most likely to kill Theo on the trip, if Chrys had aimed hers at him).

They quietened down, and focused on running, which stopped working as Sparrow’s machete gradually stopped being able to cut through trees. They tried to turn back, but the way was blocked with (you guessed it) more trees.

Eventually, they were stuck, and the trees grew thick and sturdy enough that Sparrow couldn’t hack through one before another had grown behind it.

“At least it’s not shrinking.” Sparrow muttered under their breath, which caused new trees to start growing inside their little space, indeed making it shrink.

Sparrow raised their right palm to their face, massaging their temples with one hand. As they finally stopped moving, Theo’s breath caught up and he put Kevin down, internally blaming the red face on the running and not the embarrassment (never mind all the internal magic he knew).

Almost immediately, both Chrys and Kevin started to admonish (or berate, as was the case for Chrys) Esther.

“I can’t believe this. You absolute idiot!” Chrys was starting to resemble a bruised tomato, her tongue a chili pepper.

“You’ve put us all in danger.” Kevin had no fire in his eyes nor on his tongue, just cold contempt.

“Well, if the geniuses would share with the class what the problem is…?” Esther dismissively replied. Kevin and Chrys shared a look, and it was clear that Chrys was barely holding the anger back.

“That chest is contains something very important to The Woods. There’s a reason its mana feels identical to The Woods’.” Kevin explained, and while Esther understood it had something important but didn’t understand why that was so bad, Theo’s eyes widened.

He realised exactly why the chest had no distinct feeling of mana separate to the woods around them.

There was no difference from the mana around them, from the mana of The Wood, because this was where The Wood’s mana came from.

This was the heart of The Woods.