Waves of potent unstable mana crash against a primordial astral shape and for a moment it lingers between states, no longer one thing and not yet another, but as mana continues to wash over the form, change becomes a statistical certainty.
It takes a few minutes, but eventually for a short moment, in a tiny corner, the mana accidentally shifts in the right ratio to harmonize with the soul, causing a quick cascade of mana and finally, astral biogenesis, as a single cell twists into existence.
Now, with the reincarnation of intent, the cell starts to regulate the ratio of mana within itself and in a pale imitation of the miracle that birthed it, it learns the primordial art of mitosis.
As it grows, more and more of its shape becomes physical, until gravity overcomes the force of mana adhesion and it's flung away from the mass of mana into a small remnant of metal flooring.
A potentially lethal collision for the young clump of cells, but as it created enough form to gain the notice of gravity, so did it grow complex enough to gain a system.
So when it hits the jagged craters and mountains of steel, it is armed with newly developed cilia, capable of not only holding the mass together, but also gripping the rough surface, giving it a small perch of stability.
Life rarely needs more than that.
The clump was still within the field of nurturing mana, but now on its edge, the field is no longer dense enough to fuel mitosis. Without fuel to continue growing, it has many adaptations available to it through its system. It could convert the mana into a more stable form of energy and slowly safe up to increase its mass, it could start becoming more efficient in its energy usage until it had enough excess energy, it could enter stasis hoping that circumstances would improve with time.
Then something other than metal touches its cilia and suddenly its system is offering a slew of new information. It has made contact with another cell, one not of itself and in response the system offers knowledge of eating and being eaten, of prey and predator, of living and dying. It showed options of attack, defense, flight, camouflage, poison, digestion, diversion and many many others more obscure and mysterious.
But the small clump of cells had once been something other, something bigger and while its physical form has no way to retain memories, its soul does and it offers another option, one usually reserved for beings a few order of magnitude more complex, it offers diplomacy.
While it is small, it is still multicellular, dwarfing the small protozoa that has encountered it. Cilia carefully move it deeper within itself, the protozoa gives a valiant struggle, showing the power of its tail-like flagella, but the clump grabs the protozoa firmly as it closes off its escape routes with a tiny but effective hug.
Pinning the tadpole like body of the protozoa down, it begins to slowly push some sugars and proteins out of the cells surrounding its captive. Then using mana, it begins to sing.
At first the captured protozoa does nothing, but soon it notices the sustenance around it and begins to eat. As it does, small sparks of mana flicker within the captive, hard to detect through its tough membrane. However what the little heap of cells lacks in physical complexity, it more than makes up for in its astral form. So observing and harmonizing with the little prisoner's mana comes easily enough.
At first the protozoa doesn't react, but as it continues to eat, the mana sparks become more powerful and frequent until it finally forms a tiny aura. An action richly rewarded by its system with the ability to sense other auras touching its own.
The clump feels the aura of its small prisoner push against it own and while it has no mind yet, its soul remembers, remembers being one among many, it remembers identity, it remembers self and it remembers its name.
Nemetona recedes its aura inward, allowing the protozoa's to flow outwards unrestricted, only gently touching along the edges, continuing to harmonize with its captives mana and slowly feeding it.
It takes a while, but the protozoa's aura begins to copy Nemetona's song. Haltingly at first. But the song is based on the rhythms of its own soul, so it doesn't take too long before they are singing in harmony.
While they spend the next few moments contentedly sharing a meal and a song, unbeknownst to them, the [System] is in as much chaos as a construct made of order can be. As dozens of its rules are implemented for the first time in new use cases, causing updates in parts of the system unchanged for millennia. Giant living machines made of nothing but ideas churn through enough mana to create several stars, the volume of its calculations intense enough to have physical weight, functions usually taking atto- or femtoseconds take minutes instead, before it finally implements its updated protocols.
A small ripple goes through the protozoa's aura and suddenly it is singing in perfect harmony with Nemetona, what was two becomes one and Nemetona gains another cell. However, unlike its other cells, this one has its own self and system, connecting to Nemetona, not through the usual mechanics of multicellular life, but as part of an ensouled ecosystem.
Making Nemetona the smallest ecosystem to have a soul ever, the previous record holder a dwarf planet where a dozen [Arch Druids] crash landed and were forced to create an ecosystem capable of returning them home.
Any ecosystem expansive, diverse and mana rich enough will develop one, but this was the first time an entity with a soul turned into an ecosystem instead an ecosystem gaining a soul and as such, Nemetona's system is granted resources meant to oversee and organize a planet.
Nemetona, currently being about a three dozen cells with an over sized soul, has absolutely no idea this has happened and is instead happily letting its small protozoa part dance across the rest of its body. Its flagella capable of real speed and agility now that its cell has enough mana and sugars to fuel it.
Nemetona starts to drag itself across the metal terrain while swooping its protozoa around its outer edges, enjoying the sensations of its flagella flowing through its cilia and the cilia tickling back.
Soon enough Nemetona encounters other protozoa, this time it doesn't bother trapping them. Just secreting a cloud of sugars around itself is enough. Nemetona remembers the protozoa's hunger before it become part of itself and the other protozoa are equally deprived, living their entire lives on the brink of starvation. They gladly partake in the bounty, more than happy to join in song and join Nemetona.
With a few more protozoa orbiting its edges, the memories of hunger become more compelling and it begins to move back towards the source of mana so it can feast.
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However it quickly becomes clear why the protozoa were starved even in such a mana rich environment, they are incapable of gathering mana, missing the small mana resonance organelles needed. Instead relying on the small trickle generated by their tiny souls.
The system has many mechanics for ecosystems to aid their self determination.
Some choose champions and avatars among its individual parts, others use weather to scribe enormous spells across the sky, some craft attendants from crystallized mana, enchanting planetary crusts with plate tectonics is popular among those with metal rich cores and across the vastness of space uncountable other rare and unique approaches are used. None of which work on a cellular scale.
So with another minute long lurch of the [System], mechanics for multicellular life are directly connected to mechanics of ensouled ecosystems for the first time, generating such a tangle of new processes, rules and mechanics that the [System] grows a full 0.023% in complexity.
This mostly escapes Nemetona's notice, except that after a minute of trying, it is suddenly able to seed its protozoa with mana resonance organelles grown in its original cells. Producing enough organelles spends most of its reserves, but sending out its protozoa to absorb mana across a larger area returns the investment quickly. Flush with energy, it takes 3 of the most productive protozoa and let's them undergo mitosis, quickly generating a small swarm of protozoa to collect mana before encountering a new problem.
As her collection area widens, more energy is needed to transport the energy from its collection point to Nemetona's central mass, limiting its maximum gathering range. In response it restarts mitosis of its original cells, growing it in several lines outward from its position. With its new resource collection scheme it can easily afford it, slowly reaching out its thin filaments to the edges of its growing domain.
Silence rings in her ears.
Scarlet hadn't realized just how loud Zoom had been until they left, everyone had fallen still in appreciation of the sudden quiet.
It took a good five minutes before someone broke the silence, "Nine Hells, it's like when your husband leaves the room", Virabell quips at Titania, earning a regal snort.
"They do seem like they would get along".
"You better wait until I'm off world, I can barely deal with one of him", Morgan grumbles, "I still occasionally get "Nibble Nugget" yelled at me by strangers." Earning him a shoulder pat and a sympathetic smile from Whispers.
The four of them quietly chatter among themselves while Esther shows them how to use the dinky coffeemaker at the back of the room.
Scarlet tunes them out while she goes over her console, the giant energy spikes had ended the moment Zoom left, so she resets everything back to their normal scales and starts the more fragile sensor suites back up.
She bites her thumbnail while looking for signs of Nemetona, no clue what to expect, in the excitement she had forgotten to ask about it and her sensors aren't showing anything recognizable as alive more complex than a small spider crawling in from the opened roof.
"It is singing".
Scarlet jumps a bit, startled by the [Archdruid] speaking, the Jacaranda Dryad had stalked forward with her species notoriously quiet gait. Belldrop stares at Scarlet's puzzled expression for a moment before deciphering it's meaning.
"It is singing across [The Green]. It seems well", Belldrop expands, pointing to a small spot to the left of the room.
[The Green] was the overlap between the spirit and astral planes, impossible to monitor with her equipment. She was suddenly very happy to have two [Archdruids] in the room.
Before Scarlet can continue asking, [Archdruid] Reginald Vivari Roschinger Borealis wakes from his slumber and crawls out from under Belldrop's canopy, yawning and stretching his wings on her shoulder before hopping down on the console.
Slowly ambling towards the viewing window, the stately magpie blearily begins his observations, "Resonance suggests multiple cells containing at least one nucleus, no more than three", the bird pauses for a moment while tilting it's head, "Yes, only one nucleus, twenty or so cells I'd say, but with multiple mana organelles".
Belldrop had started making notes on a small piece of white bark she had grown while he was talking.
"No cellular differentiation", the esteemed magpie continues, "probably a standard lipid bilayer membrane, doesn't seem particularly strong or weak".
"Would you agree with my preliminary assessment [Archdruid] Belldrop?", the magpie asks while looking back at his colleague.
"I agree".
"Anything to add? As always I bow to your superior analysis of subjective astral spirit resonance analysis"
Belldrop pauses a moment in thought before adding, "Its song is funky".
Apparently satisfied with the answer, the feathered [Archdruid] turns back towards the viewing window. Looking towards the same spot Belldrop pointed at, Scarlet still can't see or sense anything, but confronted with THE [Archdruid] Reginald Vivari Roschinger Borealis, the questions die in her throat, afraid to sound stupid.
"Oh-hoh", tilting his head the magpie's utterance of interest saves Scarlet from another anxiety spiral, "I do believe our new acquaintance has just differentiated its first cell".
The bird confidently spreads it's wings, "Let's take a closer look", and begins a low hum as a jungle of fluorescent violet spell glyphs erupt under his wings, showing iridescent reflections on his feathers.
The celebrated champion jumps up, breaking the spells almost as soon as he begins, his stance suddenly a whole lot less casual, "Your Royal Highness [Queen]Titania, Esteemed Guide [Spirit Sage] Joyful Whispers, may I have your ear and your aid?"
Titania glides toward them in a few confident steps as Whispers follows her a lot more frazzled, Scarlet supposed even the [Spirit Sage] was intimidated by the famed corvid.
A bit stiff he points a wing into the room, "Belldrop, if you would be so kind to guide [Spirit Sage] Joyful Whispers senses towards the subject of our attention, I would be intrigued to hear the Esteemed Guide's analysis".
Getting even more tense, Whispers takes the dryads hand and closes his eyes as she begins to hum in four separate voices.
"I see it, it's small but growing and surrounded by some smaller tadpole like creatures, not sure what they're called, I don't see why-", the sage suddenly opens his eyes in shock looking at the winged [Archdruid], "They're all connected to a third spirit, I don't understand?"
Reginald Vivari Roschinger Borealis harrumphs, "Before I answer that, Your Royal Highness, may I ask you to check the amount of [Fey] within the room?"
The only one brave enough to give the champion a suspicious look, Titania none the less focuses her attention on the room while grabbing the small wooden pendant hanging from her neck.
Her eyes widen almost instantly, turning toward the magpie to say something, but he quickly and smugly cuts her off, "Congratulations your highness, not only is there a ninth [Fairy Grove], it is the first one to have a soul!"
The bird puffs up his chest feathers happily, "And it's already breaking several unspoken natural laws, I do believe that it quite easily holds the record for smallest Worldsoul", he chitters.
"Belldrop my dear, would you mind keeping open a chorus while I call some colleagues to inform them of their disproven theorems", the magpie says as he happily hops of the console.
"Yes Father", the dryad responds, but the bird has already flown out of the room clicking its beak in a cheery laugh.
Scarlet wheels back to Titania, who, for the first time in her life, looks completely discombobulated.
"Q- [Queen] Titania, what is a [Fairy Grove]?"
Who's your favorite Fey character?
