Ch88. Tanzania 2
Juma and Hadrian walked through the village. Their accommodation might have been luxurious but it was on the very edge of the village so this was actually the very first time he was able to see more of it. The houses were made of wood but they were not cottages. Far from it. They were not made from planks, instead, they were living in trees. Juma saw where Hadrian was looking and instantly understood what was going through his head. "The clan is focusing on druidic magic." He told Hadrian with a slight smile. "Growing trees is the very basics of it."
Hadrian nodded in understanding. "So they live inside hollowed trees? Isn't that kinda anti-natural or something?" He asked, making Juma snicker.
"They are not hollowed trees. These are a special type of magical tree. They are quite wide but short. Most of the real tree is on the edges and the middle is actually empty. The natives just used this knowledge to build their dwellings inside the trees. It's kind of a symbiotic relationship, really. I don't know much about it but supposedly the inhabitants give the tree magic for being able to live in it." Juma said, making Hadrian nod. His curiosity now peaked so he started using his perception to actually find out how does that work.
The second he did so, his jaw almost dropped and he had to turn his head away to not alert Juma. The natives... these druids or whatever they call themselves... they become 'one' with the tree the second they enter it. Or at least, their magic does. It connects and stays that way as long as they are inside the tree. This has two effects. Firstly, their attunement to druidic magic is strengthened by the second and their magic is getting a small boost over time. This solved the mystery of 'why' there were no 'muggles' in the village. Supposedly, every child born here was actually magical! And secondly, it makes them a bit disadvantaged in other magical arts than druidic ones as their magic is geared towards them. That bit was quite disappointing for Hadrian. He perceived how the magic flowed through the trees and the bodies of natives and he surmised this connection to the druidic arts was the sole reason they actually could use strong wandless magic without much effort as long as it was a druidic spell.
The rest of the journey through the village was spent in sillence as Hadrian took the sights of the isolated magical community and stored them away in his memory. They had many magical artifacts that were quite innovative even for the more modern wizards and yet, they were actually an isolated magical community that had almost no contact with other wizards.
They didn't need stairs. They had magical tree branches that could deliver them to higher places. It was the main transportation system in the entire village! Branches and vines that could carry a person from one spot to another.
They didn't need soil to grow things. They could just use tree barks and some druidic magic to do so! Almost every house was actually covered in weird flowers of various colors which, according to Juma, were equivalent to a glasshouse! Hadrian had no idea how... since the main source of light was the shining-green moss on the underside of the Mother Tree that gave the entire place a light-green gleam. Not much natural light could reach the village through the Mother Tree.
They didn't use brooms. They had a wooden bracelet that made them capable of floating. These bracelets might not reach the speed of a broom, but they were much more comfortable and the people mostly used them to gather the moss from the Mother Tree or work on their tree bark-farms... since most of those were on branches high above the grounds.
It was kinda weird in a good sort of way. Hadrian felt as if he was in some sort of fantasy about wood elves... except the elves were all black and didn't have pointy ears. The fashion wasn't much of a thing in the village either. The people certainly had quite comfortable looking robes but they lookded as if they were made out of the vines, which was most likely the truth.
"We are here." Juma suddenly said, making Hadrian's head snap to the front, making his eyes widen. In front of him, all he could see was a part of the insanely huge trunk of the Mother Tree.
"Damn," Hadrian said. "how could this be hidden from the world? It's massive!"
Juma chuckled and shrugged. "The tree is naturally camouflaging itself. That was the very reason why the tribe settled in here. It's damn hard to find this place and outright impossible if you are not magical. This was the sanctuary of Tanzanian's druids for millennia already." He said.
Hadrian turned to Juma with an awkward expression. "May I ask a question?" Juma raised his eyebrow but nodded so Hadrian continued. "Why did you not join them?"
Juma opened his mouth at that but no sound came out of it. He sighed and sheepishly started to rub the back of his head with an uncomfortable expression. "They... have their own culture." He slowly and carefully started. "You won't see much of it but... I wouldn't recommend anyone who didn't grow amongst them to spend a prolonged amount of time here. Even I try to limit my visits and I am actually the biggest connection they have to the outer world." He turned away from Hadrian. "No matter how nice it all looks, some of their customs... are outright disturbing." He mumbled, making Hadrian barely hear him.
Hadrian now knew the guy wasn't very comfortable with the topic so he let it go. He looked back at the intricate bark of the Mother Tree and activated his perception. This was, after all, the sole reason he was here. He wanted to know how the tree generates its own magic. What he saw, almost floored him. Turns out he was wrong. The tree did NOT generate its own magic, instead, it was directly connected to the leyline under it! This was even more precious than Hadrian previously thought! This was an example of how the magic is actually produced by the planet itself!
He tried to sense every bit of what was in front of him and he was definitely having quite a bit of trouble doing so. The structure was massive and the magic was going from the leylines to the roots of the tree and continued to go to the surface with them, entering the tree itself only to exit to the ground or the air through branches. 'Yeah... no wonder they can actually grow things on tree bark of all things...' Hadrian thought as the corner of his lips twitched. His perception didn't have that big of a range yet so he could sense only a tiny bit of leylines but even this small part of them would bring immense gains for Hadrian.
A genuine smile spread through his lips even though he couldn't really comprehend the way the leylines worked yet. This was his ticket to no longer having to depend on the magic from the surroundings! Once one looked at the history of magic... and no, Hadrian didn't mean goblin wars... it would become apparent that the magic was slowly decreasing in the world. There were still places like this village with a high amount of magic but overall, right now was not the brightest age for magic. Creating his own magic source was a very important thing! But it was apparent he would need more time near it to understand more of the process. But this was the jackpot for him. This little discovery would push the making of the ritual forward by months... once he understood how leylines produced magic.