Anon12/24/25, 22:34No.4007384
Doctor Mlem: The Fall of Avidian TighnariCompiled by the Forest Rangers
from recovered correspondence and field evidence⸻I. THE MERCHANT WITH THE WRONG SHADOWTighnari always claimed scent was more reliable than sight.Which was unfortunate, because the visitor smelled like too many places at once.The merchant called himself Inazuman. His robes were clean, his manners polished, his voice smooth in the way of someone accustomed to being believed. He wore a broad straw hat that cast his face into shade.The shade bent incorrectly.Tighnari noticed this only later, in memory—how the shadow lagged behind the body by half a breath, how it stretched when it should have shrunk.But research had stalled for weeks. The Withering advanced faster than answers.
And the merchant had brought answers.From his pack he produced a Khaenri’ahn biome-core.It was old. Pitted. Cracked open like a ribcage.
Fungal threads webbed its surface—thick, luminous hyphae that pulsed faintly, stubbornly alive.“They do not decay,” the merchant said pleasantly.
“They adapt.”His eyes gleamed under the brim.“I hear you wish to stop a blight. This remembers how.”Tighnari hesitated.Then accepted the artifact with careful paws.“Thank you,” he said, already thinking of assays and microscopes.The merchant bowed.Just before leaving, his tail flicked once beneath the robe.Scarameow was gone before dusk.The artifact remained.⸻II. THE LETTERS OF AVIDIAN TIGHNARI⸻Letter I — To Collei
Day 1 of ContactCollei,A scholar from Inazuma visited today. Claimed familiarity with my work on Withering ecology.He donated a Khaenri’ahn biome-core overgrown with fungal structures. Preliminary tests suggest the growth resists Withering influence entirely.If confirmed, this could change everything.I’ll begin analysis tonight.—T(Handwriting neat. Margins precise.)
