Having finished atoning for the consequences of testing a weapon in a domain claimed by Order, subjecting its denizens to friendly fire in the course of ultimately benefiting them, an act of gratitude toward Mother next could be expressed after she had taken the time to acknowledge Halcyon's labors by providing sustenance to bolster them. What greater way could this be done than to go a step further and introduce her power to a tree in this grove not yet swayed to her will?

When Halcyon had drilled into the trees on their group's clandestine excursion into Eridanus, the intention had been to provide a safe environment for the fungus to flourish and avoid detection until easy removal was too late. This proved effective, but their cleverness had a drawback: it was difficult to distinguish between those already influenced and those yet to be without prying away bark to reveal the contents therein. At least their design granted them keen enough nostrils to overcome the problem; to politely put it, their fungus had a unique perfume, especially in such great quantities as these had grown to.

It must have looked quite ridiculous to any observers as they took to all fours and swept their snout about the area, seeking out an absence of this familiar smell. Nevertheless, the undignified performance worked, as eventually they ceased crawling about to stand and ascend a slim tree standing a small ways apart from the rest gathered here. No doubt the distance might have been a factor in its resilience thus far, but soon it would be brought into the fold of Order like all its siblings had already.

Following procedure from a mere few cycles ago, claws dug into and pried away stubborn bark from a spot hidden well in the tree's dense canopy. Summoned chitin formed into a glassy spiral on their palm, and twisting motions drove it into the inner bark they'd exposed. With their other hand they nestled a clump of fungus they'd plucked from ground level into the hole made. An appropriate offering given to Mother, they now could continue on and perhaps practice further in a place less likely to be desecrated by their attempts to learn how to better defend their comrades.