Chapter 107: Blood and Bark!

The same night, Damian quietly returned to Winterfell under the cover of darkness. He carried a sack full of weirwood seeds, his mind set on a bold plan to increase the number of sacred trees within the castle's Godswood. Winterfell's Godswood, unfortunately, had only one ancient weirwood tree. Damian, however, wanted to change that and see if he could grow a few more using his magic and his unique abilities related to plant growth.

Above, Ace helped him keep an eye on the surroundings.

A few meters away from the heart tree, Damian knelt on the soft earth, the moonlight casting pale shadows around him. He took a small hoe and carefully dug a hole in the soil. With great hope, he pulled out a seed from the sack, placed it in the hole, and covered it again with the rich dirt.

Next, Damian placed his hand over the freshly covered earth and began the incantation to accelerate plant growth, his voice barely a whisper among the rustling leaves.

He focused his magic, feeling it flow through his fingers and into the soil. But despite the spell taking effect, there was no change. The seed did not germinate, remaining stubbornly dormant. Frustrated, Damian activated the Luminara Veil, a magical sight that allowed him to see the inner workings of his spell. The seed was indeed saturated with his magic, but it remained unresponsive.

Pondering the mystery, Damian thought back to the stories he had heard of blood sacrifice and its ancient ties to the land. With a determined expression, he drew a knife and sliced his palm, letting his blood drip into the ground, hoping this would provide the catalyst he needed.

As soon as his blood seeped into the soil and touched the seed, it was absorbed, and almost immediately, Damian sensed a change. The seed cracked open, a white stalk emerging slowly from the earth, while roots spread downward, anchoring it firmly.

Damian felt a surge of relief and cast the spell again to accelerate the growth of the weirwood seedling. The spell worked, but the growth was painstakingly slow, unlike other plants that would have already broken through the surface and grown tall as him.

The weirwood seed seemed unusually demanding, requiring far more energy than any other plant Damian had worked with. Nonetheless, he persevered, casting the spell repeatedly until he had used up all his mana. His efforts bore fruit, as a knee-high weirwood sapling now stood before him, its bark a pale white and its leaves a vivid red.

Breathing heavily, Damian looked at the sapling with satisfaction. It seemed the secret to germinating weirwood seeds lay in the use of magical blood. The knowledge of this ancient requirement had likely been lost to time, buried beneath generations of tradition and forgotten lore.

He couldn't blame the Northerners for their struggles to grow new weirwoods. Even if they had known the secret, finding individuals with enough magical blood to sustain the process would have been nearly impossible. The First Men might have carried traces of magic, but it was a rare gift, and one that had faded over the centuries.

Surveying his work, Damian smiled wryly. He had used all his mana to nurture just one sapling, and it would take considerable time and effort to grow more. Yet the achievement was significant. Now the sapling could grow into a mature tree even if no one took care of it as they were quite hardy.

Walking towards the larger weirwood tree, Damian sat down on a stump and leaned his back against the bark, next to the carved face. He immediately started meditating to recover his magic. After an hour of meditation, Damian felt he had recovered enough and soon got back to work. With a wave of his hand, Damian took out football-sized stones that already had something written on their flat surfaces.

These were runic glyphs he had studied and combined with the fertility spell, designed to gather magic from the air and the depths of the ground, refining it and enriching the soil around these stones. The combination of runes and spell was meant to draw out latent magical energies and channel them into the earth and the air, invigorating the land and promoting growth in plants and animals. 

Unfortunately, there wasn't much magic in the air with the dragons no longer in this world, while extracting magic from the ground was a slow process. But the weirwood trees had access to magic from deep within the earth, though they kept it contained within themselves, rarely letting any seep into the air.

As a result, Damian had made some changes to the runes to extract magic from these weirwood trees and enrich the surrounding soil and air. This would help the vegetation around to grow more easily and faster.

He placed seven stones around the weirwood tree, one of them right next to the new sapling, and began the process of activating them. The method was quite time-consuming as Damian had to activate each of the runes etched on the stones with his magic and connect them to the weirwood tree, acting as a power bank.

This was his first time experimenting with runes, and he hoped it would work as he had studied hard for the past half month. It took him fifteen minutes to charge one stone, and he had to rest in between to recharge his own mana before advancing to the next one. While activating the fifth stone, it cracked, causing Damian to grumble in frustration. He had to study the stone again to see why it failed to activate. It took time, but Damian was able to spot his mistake in one of the runes. He soon took out a spare stone and started etching the runic glyphs on it again with the help of a chisel and a mallet.

After completing the changes, Damian once again started the process. Fortunately, this time the stone activated. Damian had to hurry because there wasn't much time left until sunrise.

In another hour, Damian finally activated the last stone, and as soon as he did that, he felt the changes. With the help of the Luminara Veil, Damian saw the stones making a connection with the weirwood tree in the middle, causing it to emit a faint glow which only he could see. The magic began to flow from the tree into the stones, then spread out into the soil and air.

He watched as the weirwood sapling responded to the influx of magic, its leaves growing a bit more vibrant and its stalk slightly sturdier. The other plants in the Godswood also seemed to perk up, their leaves unfurling a bit more as if reaching for the newly enriched air.

Satisfied with his work, Damian sat back on the stump, feeling a profound sense of accomplishment. The runic stones were doing their job, slowly but surely enhancing the magical environment of the Godswood and the surrounding land near Winterfell, though he could not yet discern how far the magic would reach. It would take time to fully manifest, but with these enhancements, the growth of the weirwood trees and other vegetation would be significantly boosted.

Damian took a deep breath, letting the cool night air fill his lungs. He had successfully planted and nurtured a new weirwood sapling, setting up a system to enrich the magic in the area. The thought of replicating this success on the Iron Islands filled him with hope. He envisioned a land where the sacred weirwoods stood proudly, bridging the North and the Iron Islands through their ancient magic.

As the first light of dawn began to touch the horizon, casting a soft glow over the Godswood, Damian stood up, feeling both exhausted and exhilarated. The night's work had taken its toll on his body, but his spirit was buoyed by the progress he had made. He had taken a significant step towards his vision of developing the North and the Iron Islands through the sacred weirwood.