Sylan Myrkul Snapshot #2

“Very well, you have me convinced.” Sylan says, “Perhaps we can form a symbiotic relationship after all.”

… A few months later

Sylan has named the fungal colony Mycal because it is the same name that the millipede-type antrhopomorphic arthropod had, and that creature is part of the fungal colony. When she spoke with the millipede, she spoke with the fungal colony. Since the millipede has no mind of its own, the personality she ties that name to is actually the fungal colony.

Sylan hears a frightened voice whimpering in her head. “Sylan, it’s humans! They have found us!.” Sylan gets up, immediately alert. “Where?” She asks, eyeing the bushes for any signs of movement. The voice sounds so small and scared, “Far from you. In the South country.” Sylan sighs and sits back down. “You had me really worried there for a second, Mycal.”

“This is something to worry about. The humans have found our colony in the south country. If we don’t act quickly, they will destroy us.”

“Fine, how far away is it?” Sylan asks. There is silence for a bit. Then she hears the voice say, “Far.” Sylan rolls her eyes and gets up to pace between two trees as she speaks with Mycal. “Mycal, I need you to be a bit more specific.” Sylan says, “Are there any landmarks between here and there? Is there a mountain or a lake between here and there?”

“Yes, there is an ocean between your land and the south country. And humans have now found us there.” Sylan has seen maps. She knows that there is nothing beyond the South ocean. She wonders if Mycal is spread into other places unknown to man. “Okay, what can I do to help?” Sylan asks.

“How do I get them to leave? Sylan, you’re a human, tell us how to get rid of them.” Sylan isn’t sure how to advise Mycal. Based on the little information Mycal has given her, she thinks that these humans must be explorers discovering that unknown land. But beyond that, she doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on. “I’m sorry, Mycal.” Sylan says, “I’m not sure what I can say. I don’t know enough about the situation to give you any meaningful advice.” She can feel the terror in her mind. She feels the fear thumping in her head as strong as she did when she threatened to burn down the giant mushroom.

“No, you must help. They are harming us. They will soon reach the hub.” Sylan is sad to see her friend going through such distress. She can’t imagine how much work it must have taken to spread its spores to another continent, one that had yet to be discovered by humans. To have all of that work destroyed must be terrible. “If only I was personally there, then I could be more helpful.” Sylan exclaims.

“Yes, that’s a brilliant idea. We’ll bring you there.” Sylan rolls her eyes. She thinks Mycal has a skewed perspective when it comes to travel and distance. She’s not sure why Mycal has a problem with distance, it should have more experience than anyone when it comes to distance and space since it consists of so many creatures. “Mycal, I can’t cross an ocean.” Sylan says, “I’m sorry, there’s just nothing I can do.”

“We are everywhere. If we integrate you into our colony, you can be everywhere too.” Sylan does not like the sounds of that. Even if doing so would save them from destruction, she would not give up her mind to become Mycal’s slave. And losing a colony in a distant land is a great loss but not anywhere close to utter destruction. “Mycal, I won’t give up my mind to you.” Sylan says, “I thought you would have abandoned such foolish ideas by now.”

“No, you can keep your mind. We are already connected and you haven’t lost your mind. We can speak to you through the spores in the synapses of your brain. But it is only one-way communication. We can project electrical signals but have no way to receive back again because you do not give up your mind. This is why you must speak aloud for us to hear you. Our ears in the rodents, birds, insects, and small animals allow us to hear you. If you  come to our ancestral home, the giant mushroom you nearly burnt down, we can imbue you with a greater dose of hallucinogenic spores that connect you close to our network and allow you  to relay back to us as we do to you. We will be able to have your mind as part of us, but as per our agreement, we will not control your mind.”

Sylan is not sure she likes the sound of this. “Are you asking me to submit to the mind control effect and just trust you to not take-over my mind?” Sylan asks, “I’m not sure I can trust you enough to leave myself completely at your mercy.”

“Why not? It’s mutually beneficial for you to keep your mind. If you retain your mind, you retain your human way of thinking. Even with access to your memories, we could not comprehend individualistic behaviors. We need your human personality to save our South colony. And you are a mage. We do not see any organs that allow you to perform the actions that seem so impossible. We could not manipulate the organs to take such actions even if we had your body and your mind. We would be unable to use your magic. And without magic, you wouldn’t be of anymore use to us than a normal human. This is our assurance that we will not take your mind. We need a mage, but we cannot have a mage if we steal your mind.”

Sylan isn’t comforted at all by Mycal’s assurances. However, the logic inside of her must agree and she knows that Mycal doesn’t lie. In fact, Mycal can’t comprehend lies. She also knows that joining into the Mycal’s ecosystem and becoming one with it, while retaining her own mind and personality would be a huge boon. She would be able to see through Mycal’s eyes. She would be able to attend magic courses at the College of Arcane Arts through tiny critters hidden in the building. Sylan takes a deep breath and then says, “Okay, Mycal. I’ll do it. I’ll accept your spores and become a part of you, but you must promise that you will never take my mind.”

“Agreed. We will never take your mind. Now quickly, come to our ancestral home, the giant mushroom.” Sylan hesitantly walks to the giant mushroom. She struggles to let herself breathe in the terrible swampy air. A cloud of spores sprays from the giant mushroom and Sylan feels terribly sick as she breathes in the fungal air. She feels like she is going to faint. Her head starts spinning. She feels nauseous and dizzy. She can barely keep herself standing straight. She falls to her knees and holds her hands over her mouth to keep herself from vomiting. As her vision swims, she feels herself become many. She has many bodies of many different types. Her human body is like a limb. She can move and control it, but it isn’t all she is. She can simultaneously see through and control other bodies. She is the trees, the grass, the mold, the moss, the birds, the bugs, the animals, the mushrooms. As she tries to adjust to this new sensation of being so many, a separate consciousness that is also the same many that she is, a separate consciousness that has control over all of the same creatures she does, including her own human body, speaks into her mind.

“Over here, with these creatures. This is the South country where the humans have found us.” Sylan can feel Mycal designate a random assortment of creatures that appear in a forest. Sylan is confused as to how they could be in a different country. Nothing about their awareness of surroundings seems to indicate that they are in a different continent. Mycal detects her thoughts as they now share the bodies for the purposes of cognition, so neither can hide anything from the other.

“Sylan, you pay attention to our memories, you will see that we know that we have memories of fish passing through the ocean until they reached this new land and infected the seagulls there that eventually passed the spores to the trees. These memories are stored in a group of mammals, since their brains are better for storing memories. The spores transmit these memories to them so they can have them. But our spores are not themselves complex enough to hold memories.”

Sylan is impressed by the great store of memories she finds stored in all sorts of creatures that are now a part of her. She shifts her attention to the creatures in the South country. There are indeed humans there. There are about five in the forest closing in on the location of a giant mushroom, much like the mushroom next to where Sylan’s body is sitting. Sylan makes note of which parts of her are in the South country. There are many. But they are mostly small critters like squirrels, birds, and bugs. It is mind boggling to Sylan that there are so many tiny creatures in that forest. The humans have axes and crossbows and are wearing thick leather clothes. Sylan wonders why they are heading towards the mushroom and why they seem like they’re going to attack it. She could just try to scare them off, but outside of killing them, the only way to keep them away permanently requires her to first know what they want. So she watches and listens, following through one of the birds. One of the men there gestures at the giant mushroom and says, “That must be it, the source of the infection. Let’s destroy it so we can stop it from spreading any farther.” The other men nod and tighten their grip on their axes, shifting their hands to hold their axes with both hands. These axes are lumber axes meant for chopping down trees. Sylan feels Mycal’s panic reverberate through the creatures that have a fear instinct. Sylan doesn’t have time to discern the motives of the axe-wielding men. She needs to act now before they destroy the giant mushroom. She gathers the birds from all over the forest and fly them towards the giant mushroom, she brings along the squirrels, weasels, possums, and other small mammals. She brings in swarms of insects too but only the flying ones are capable of arriving in time. Soon swarms of creatures surround the giant mushroom, and the incessant flapping of wings and skittering of tiny paws is deafening to her many ears.

The five men stumble backwards at the sudden arrival of so many creatures. One of the men steps forward towards the swarm of critters and says “Hurry! Strike it now before more of them gather.” He charges forward into the swarm, stomping down hard with his feet to prevent himself from tripping over the swarming critters. His companions follow as he swings his axe hard into the side of the giant mushroom. The axe cuts in deep as mycelium is much easier to chop than wood and tree bark. Sylan can feel Mycal’s desperation surge through the creatures she is moving. The critters, birds, and insects begin to claw, bite, climb on, and peck at the men. Sylan is concerned for the safety of the men since she doesn’t want to kill any humans, but she is even more worried about what could possibly be motivating these men to do this. They continue to chop at the tree despite the critters that are attacking it. As they cleave deeper into the stalk of the giant mushroom, it becomes clear that they will successfully cut all the way through the giant mushroom before they are taken down by the swarm of critters, but the situation also makes it clear that those humans will not survive if they stay any longer. Sylan wonders, Why are these men so determined to cut down this giant mushroom that they prioritize its destruction over the preservation of their own lives? She wishes she knew why the men were doing this, she might have been able to preserve both the giant mushroom and the lives of the men. Chop. Chop. Chop. The axe digs nearly halfway through the stalk of the mushroom. With so many critters, insects, and birds, she feels she should be able to do something. But these men are so driven that they won’t be stopped no matter the tides of fur and claws washing over them. Vapors of spores hiss from gash in the stalk of the giant mushroom, and the men cough as they breathe in the fungal air. The men are getting terribly wounded by the biting and clawing swarms of animals and insects. Sylan realizes that she cannot save the giant mushroom. She hesitated too long and now it is too late. And in that case, killing the humans or harming them anymore cannot save the giant mushroom. Sylan tries to stop the swarms from attacking, but Mycal is also a part of them and Mycal is still fiercely dedicated to defending the giant mushroom. Sylan Myrkul pushes through her will upon all creatures that she is a part of and even vocally screams through creatures that can do so: “Stop attacking the humans! I’m sorry, Mycal. The giant mushroom is lost, but hurting the humans is unacceptable.” The birds fall from the sky, the insects settle to the ground, and the critters lie upon the ground, all motionless as though dead. The humans have not yet cut through the giant mushroom, but the humans waver in their assault. They go stiff in fear and form a defensive circle. The humans look around themselves, and one of them says “W-who is there?” Sylan wonders why they stopped and what they’re doing. She hears Mycal’s voice resonates through the minds of the animals: “Quick, now we should strike!”

As the animals rise from their stupor, she slams her force of will down on them, forcing them to scatter: “No, Mycal. We’re not harming humans. Get these animals out of here.” The critters leave the area, dispersing in all directions.

She hears Mycal protest, “But it’s simply self-defense. They are attacking me and I am fighting back. You humans justify destruction when it is for the purpose of self-preservation, right?”

Sylan acknowledges that harming others for the sake of saving yourself is definitely justified. She knows she would harm others if she needed to for her own safety. However, there is something strange about this situation with the humans and she knows that the loss of this giant mushroom and the surrounding ecosystem in the South country would harm Mycal but not kill them. Mycal is a collective of many different plants and animals interconnected via fungi. So even if an entire continent of Mycal’s creatures die, they will still live on through the remaining creatures on other continents. Since Mycal isn’t really in danger, Sylan thinks it’s bad for Mycal to kill the humans in “self-defense.” Sylan expresses her thoughts through the minds of the creatures she inhabits: “Us humans are justified when defending ourselves because we could be permanently maimed or killed, but you’re not human. You’re many creatures, and thus unable to die simply through the destruction of a few creatures.”

The humans turn their heads every which way as if looking for something. Vapors of spores continue to bleed from the wound in the stalk of the giant mushroom. Mycal responds, “Sylan, this structure the humans want to destroy is more than just a giant mushroom. It’s a hub for continual fungal distribution. It is how we spread our control to other creatures and how we reinfect them if their body fights off the fungus. It took centuries to reach this continent and grow a hub here. This may not kill us, but it is still great harm. Sylan, would you just let someone chop off your limbs simply because you can live without them?”

Now that Sylan understands how important these giant mushrooms are, she realizes why Mycal is so scared. She had felt their fear before but had thought Mycal was overreacting. Still, she doesn’t want to kill these humans, especially now as they huddle together in the sorry sight of a defense circle. She wonders why they stopped chopping the fungus. She thinks they might have been scared by how the swarms of animals, bugs, and birds suddenly dropped to the ground before scattering in all directions, except for a few birds that stay to act as Sylan’s eyes and ears..

“Show yourself!” One of the men calls out shakily. Everyone is quiet and still as they wait for a response. Mycal and Sylan wait as well, curious as to what the five scared men are doing. Another one speaks up, “Come out into the open.” They continue to call out:

“Get out of our heads.”

“Spare our lives!”

“What do you want with us?”

“Let us go.”

“Don’t hurt us.”

Sylan is still confused as to what these humans are talking about until one of them says, “Sylan, we beg of you, answer us.” Sylan projects the emotion of shock and surprise through the minds of the creatures she inhabits and the thought, “The humans know my name?”

Mycal is the one to reply, “Yes, of course. We are inside them as with the other animals, like these in the South country. They have consumed control spores but we did not take their minds as per our agreement ‘Mycal must never again take the mind of a human without Sylan’s permission.’ They can hear us as we speak through the minds of the creatures here in the South country.”

The humans speak again: “Where are you, Sylan? And what are you? How can you command the infected or the very infection itself?” Sylan feels a little uncomfortable with how these men speak of her in such awe. Sylan decides to disabuse them of the notion that she is anything other than human. She says in their minds, “I’m a human mage sitting next to another giant mushroom like this in the mainland.”

The men gasp in awe. “So she commands them through the power magic!” Sylan dislikes how superstitious people can be sometimes. Those that are ignorant of magic tend to think that magic can perform great feats. In actuality, anything requiring practical use of magic drains the mage for the rest of the day. Outside of convenience and research, magic has little use. One of the men frowns and says, “I’ve seen magic, and the most powerful performances that leave a mage drained are nothing close to commanding swarms of creatures. Could you really be so powerful of a mage or is something else at play here?”

Sylan is glad that at least one of the humans has some sense. She says “You’re right. I do not command these creatures through magic. I simply ask Mycal, the fungal infection that controls them, to spare your lives. I guess you could say it’s sort of magic, it’s called using your words instead of just attacking.”

The men seem disappointed by the answer, almost as if they don’t believe her. One of the men says, “So if you’re not really here, then we’re not really in any danger. Then we need to destroy the infection.” The men ready their grip on their axes and shift their weight forwards as though to step towards the giant mushroom, but Sylan interrupts them with her thoughts: “Wait! What are you doing? Don’t you understand? You are not in danger because I have convinced Mycal to not harm you. If he hadn’t consulted me for help so we could solve this without violence, then he could have saved his giant mushroom simply by sending swarms of critters after you long before you arrived. And since you have now breathed in spores, Mycal could wrest control of your body from you at any moment. You are attacking something far more powerful than you and should be grateful for their mercy so far. Why do you wish to antagonize Mycal? Do you really want something like this to be your enemy?”

The men stop. They look around for the swarms of critters that they expect to return. No swarms approach. One of the men says, “We have to destroy the infection. It’s been attacking us every night. Now Sylan turns her attention to Mycal.

“Mycal, is this true?”

“No, you can even search my memories. I would never attack humans. And these critters don’t eat humans, so there is no reason for killing them.”

Sylan turns her attention back to the men. “What makes you think that Mycal attacked you?”

One of the men points at the few birds that are still here and says, “The animals that attacked us were things like squirrels and field mice and many of them had mushrooms sticking out of them like those birds.”

“That is definitely suspicious.” Sylan admits, “But I don’t think Mycal is capable of lying. And given I’m sort of sharing the same minds as Mycal right now, I think I would be able to notice if he were to try and deceive me. Is there anything else you can tell me about the attack? Anything else strange about the creatures that you remember?”

“Well, yeah. Some of the creatures that lumbered into our pastures were abominable beasts composed of many tiny critters.” One of the men says, “The squirrels and rodents were stuck together to form larger beasts, though there was no definite shape to these larger forms, just masses of sticky squirrels that skitter about on an abundance of legs made from the bones of tiny creatures.”

Mycal’s voice echoes in their minds. “Ah, it seems you’ve encountered some of the natives. They’re pretty harmless. They only attack to defend their fortress if you get too close.”

Sylan is a bit skeptical. “Mycal, are you telling us that those monsters made of small animals are a civilization of people?”

Mycal responds. “Yes, they are their own people. They refuse to join us. Those that I infect are not allowed back into their fortress and I have yet to infect any of them that are capable of reproduction.”

“Are you telling us that this fungal infection isn’t responsible for attacking us?” one of the men asks.

“Of course we didn’t attack you.” Mycal responds.

“Then why did they have mushrooms sticking out of them?” the man asks, “Is that just a local custom of the natives?”

“Oh, ha ha, no.” Mycal expresses, “Those were simply the corpses of those I had infected.”

Everyone goes stiff. Sylan gets a cold feeling of dread. “D-did you just say that those creatures that attacked us were corpses?” The man quiveringly asks.

“Of course. If they had been alive, I would have had control over the infected.” Mycal says as though it were obvious, “The natives manipulate the corpses to protect their fortress. We don’t need to worry about them. The only creatures in this country are small critters, insects, and birds. Birds are weak and the natives don’t have enough fine control to make avian corpses fly. Insects are too tiny to control or for it to be worth controlling. And the tiny critters are really small so they don’t pose much of a hazard. With the presence of humans, we might have a problem. Luckily, you humans have the strange custom of burying your dead deep in the earth in locked boxes, so that no one can take them.”

“The natives stole our cattle.” One of the men says. At that, there is silence for a time. Finally, Mycal says, “Oh. Well, maybe the natives are friendly and will forgive our previous attempts to infect them.”

Then it’s silent again. Sylan breaks the silence by saying “Well, it looks like you men were wrong about Mycal attacking you, and you’ve harmed his giant mushroom and stomped down some of his critters all because you failed to talk it out like adults. What do you have to say for yourselves?” The men fidget a bit before finally apologizing one by one. “Mycal, I’m sorry for blaming your fungal infection for the attacks and harming your giant mushroom without first talking to you about what happened.”

“Apology accepted.” Mycal says, “Also, don’t worry about those spores you’ve inhaled. Since we didn’t take control of your body to destroy your immune system, your body will naturally eject the foregin material. However, you may get sick for a few days.”As the men depart back to their homes and the giant mushroom is left chopped nearly halfway through, Sylan considers what she learned today.There are people that can manipulate corpses to move. This seems to her like these people know a magic that definitely wouldn’t fly back at the College of the Arcane Arts.