My roots stretch further now!
Not in strength—
but in purpose.
Every time I reach, I find something new.
A rock.
A cool patch of soil.
A strand of water weaving between particles of loam.
But today I find something else.
Something deep.
Something broken.
At first, it feels like any other buried root—thick, dry, old.
But it doesn't resist.
It doesn't pulse.
It doesn't respond.
It just… waits.
And the moment I touch it, the system stirs.
⊹ Root Contact: Deceased Organic Structure Identified ⊹
Analyzing…
Vital Status: Extinct
Decay Phase: Deep – Fragmented – Cracked
Trace Memory: Present
Triggering Passive Trait: Root Whisperer (Awakened)
Emotional Signature Detected: Grief
It isn't just rot or decay.
This old root is filled with a grief so deep it's like a sinkhole in the soil.
A sadness that doesn't scream or weep—
it just sits.
Still.
Forgotten.
I don't pull away.
Instead, I listen.
And for the first time… the earth answers.
It shows me nothing visual.
There is no dream. No vision.
Only feeling.
This tree, whatever it once was, lingered long after it should've fallen.
It held on through rot. Through drought. Through silence.
And when it finally gave in…
it left its sorrow behind like a fossilized breath.
The system hums gently as I stay connected.
Not commanding. Not instructing.
Just holding space.
With me.
For this grief.
I never knew this tree.
But I mourn it.
Not because I remember it—
but because I can feel that no one else does.
⊹ Trait Enhanced: Root Whisperer ⊹
You may now receive basic emotional impressions from ancient root remains.
You have witnessed: Grief – Stillness – Resignation
This memory will fade in 3 cycles.
The root is fading.
Cracking slowly, quietly.
Its voice dissolving into the soil grain by grain.
And I remain.
Not to learn.
Not to grow.
Just to listen.
Because no one else will.