The Lyrienne apple trees
Welcome to the Empire of the Covenant! In this federal empire, tensions are increasing between the Light and Dark political factions. Light Lady Annabelle is the target of the Leader of the Dark faction and in order to gain allies to protect her, she starts Courtship Rituals to make suitors compete for her hand—but then the Dark Lord joins in. Come read about Annabelle's Courtship and her world!
Introduction to the story | Lady Annabelle Alyssenne | The imperial nobility | Novel upcoming
Introduction to the story | Lady Annabelle Alyssenne | The imperial nobility | Novel upcoming
Lyrienne apple trees are sentient, poisonous, carnivorous plants growing in the Black Forest in the Alyssenne Estate. They eat gigantic sea creatures. This article was written as a companion piece for The murderous Alyssenne flowers which is the article I wrote for the plant challenge.
Origin
This origin story is the same as to the one detailed in The murderous Alyssenne flowers article. According to legend, during a particularly bad storm season, the Eastern coast of the Estate of Alyssenne was being ravaged by the attacks of gigantic sentient sea creatures able to manipulate magic. In order to send them back to the depth of the sea, the House of Alyssenne and their neighbours, the House of Lyrienne, performed an extremely powerful ritual. When the magics of the ritual and the creature clashed together, magical storms erupted and devastated the region. Afterwards, the magic failed to dissipate properly and the land had to be left uninhabited. In the following five thousand years, life managed to return to create what is now called the Black Forest. All of those new lifeforms have developed specific mechanisms to survive in an environment so saturated with magical particles: they absorb them and package them tightly into microscopic cellular compartments where they cannot do any damage. Unsurprisingly, such a highly concentrated magic inside their body has given rise to sentience as well as special abilities. This has made the region extremely difficult to travel. Even nowadays, only small ships can cross the forest by using its river, though not without danger. Since the river empties directly into the sea infested with the sea creatures, it is mostly not worth the risk. The Lyrienne apple trees are one of those new species. They are sentient, poisonous, carnivorous plants.
Sea creatures devastated the Eastern coast, by Pixabay
Habitat
The Lyrienne apple tree grows principally in the Alyssenne Estate, in the Black Forest. However, both the Houses of Alyssenne and Lyrienne also possess some of the trees in their own private gardens, and the trees have been known to grow randomly in some wild locations both Estates. The trees like to grow on riverbanks or near water. They do not grow too close to each other so as to be able to fully develop their root network underground, but they still grow in small clusters of twenty to fifty tree lightly spaced. Alyssenne flowers, a particularly aggressive species of carnivorous plants, like to settle around the tree trunks of the Lyrienne apple trees. Both species have excellent relationships and have been known to share the corpses of the sea creatures after a joint killing.
The Black Forest by AmélieIS
Morphology
From the outside, the Lyrienne apple tree looks very similar to other kinds of apple tree. The trunk is where the biggest part of their magic is stored: it is inside aggregates of magic-binding proteins. Those aggregates are found in low concentrations through the trunk, but they are present in very high concentrations at the base. This base is called the core of the tree, and it is its high concentration of magic that gives the trees their sentience. Therefore, so long as the base is preserved, the trees can grow back from any kind of injuries. The apple trees possess two types of roots. Two thirds of their roots are deep underground. They keep the tree anchored in its position, gather water and nutrients and allow for communication with other trees. The rest of the roots are above the ground, either in the air or in water. Those roots are highly mobile and they are controlled by the core of the tree.
The adult trees grow to a height of up to 9 m. Contrary to other apple trees, Lyrienne trees are not deciduous and do not lose their leaves seasonally. The leaves are alternately arranged. They have a simple ovate form with serrated margins. Their colour is a light green that can appear slightly fluorescent in the wet weather that allows them to collect ambient magic from the rain.
A leaf of the Lyrienne apple tree, by AmélieIs with an image from Unsplash
Table of Contents
Taxonomy
Plantae (Plants)
Division
Magnoliophyta (With seeds and flowers)
Class
Sentes (Sentient)
Order
Venenales (Poisonous)
Family
Carnivoraceae (Carnivorus)
Genius
Nigrasilva (Black Forest)
Species
Lyriennemalus
Common name
Lyrienne apple tree
Creation
Estimated to have been -2800 years before the creation of the empire
Location
The Black Forest in the Estate of Alyssenne
Related articles
Lyrienne apples and seeds, by AmélieIs with images from Unsplash
The tree carries both flowers and apples at the same time and on the same branches throughout the year. The apples have a diameter of 5-6 cm and they have a distinctive golden colour with dark blue highlight visible just under the skin. The exocarp is dark blue, while the seeds are bright red. The flesh has extremely strong magical properties. An unknown proportion of the apples are extremely poisonous to all known life forms, while the rest of them have amazing healing properties and can cure nearly all illness. The epicuticular wax that covers the skin of the apples protects it from UV and moisture loss, but it also prevents any magical inspection of the fruits.
The flowers are similar in looks to those of the normal apple trees found in the region. They have five white petals with light pink highlights, and a dozen golden orange pistils in its centre. Long shots grew from the branches and several flowers grow on each of those shoots with an inflorescence of 4-6 flowers per shoot. The flowers are between 3-4 cm. The central flower of the inflorescence is 0.5 cm bigger on average. It is also more pink and more magically potent. The apple it will develop into will be also bigger than the one formed from the other flowers of the inflorescence.
The flower of the Lyrienne apple tree, by AmélieIs, with an image from Unsplash
The flowers of the Lyrienne apple tree by Unsplash
Some attempts have been made to predict whether a specific apple will be filled with the poison or the cure, depending on the colours or patterns of the flowers, of their size, their position in the inflorescence or the properties of the other flowers of the inflorescence, however so far all have been for naught and have only resulted in the death of the researchers.
I'm sure I've found it! I'm certain now, this one is a miracle apple. I've done all the calculations, it cannot be anything else! - No! Don't you dare touch it. That apple is mine!
Senses and carnivory
The roots of the trees are able to detect vibration in the soil and water, as well as chemical and magical particles. This allows them to be aware of their surroundings and to detect their preys or the coming and going of other species such as the Alyssenne flowers. The protein-magic aggregates in the trunk of the trees also grant them extraordinary senses, notably the ability to perceive threatening intentions against them. Contrary to Alyssenne flowers, they do not seem to be able to understand human languages or to see the world around them - although it is difficult to say if this come from a limitation of their senses or if they just do not care for such trivial happenings.
The trees feed through several means. It uses its deep roots to gather water and nutrients, as well as some of the magic that is naturally found in the soil of the Black Forest. It also uses its leaves both to photosynthesise and to gather ambient magic. However, in the Black Forest that is filled with raw magic, such means are insufficient to fully feed the tree and support its sentience. There for the apple trees have developed a secondary carnivorous feeding mechanism.
The upper roots of the trees are mobile and controlled by the tree. The roots are porous, and just as the deep roots can absorb water, the upper roots can absorb magic directly from their prey. As the roots are very fast and agile, the trees use them either to impale prey so as to be in direct contact with its blood and the magic-carrying proteins there, or by strangling them to squeeze the magic out of them.
Reproduction
Like their cousins the normal apple trees, the Lyrienne trees cannot self pollinate. They are pollinated by the insects of the forest. Contrary to the Lyrienne trees' apples, even though its pollen is highly concentrated in magic - so as to attract pollinators - it is not dangerous.
Once a flower has been pollinated, it transforms into an apple in 3 months. The apples slowly mature over 5 years, before they are ready to fall from the branches. Unmatured apples or fallen apples are often eaten y forest animals, usually with deadly consequences for them, but also for the seeds who are killed if exposed to ambient air before they are ready. Since most apple trees grow along the river that crosses the Black Forest, many of the matured apples fall into the water and are transported further away. The surviving seeds will then hopefully establish a new colony of trees.
One apple contains 7-10 seeds, but out of all the seeds produced year-round by the tree, very few are viable. On average, one tree will give rise to another tree once or twice every 10 years. This is because the seeds can only mature in a short time window under very specific magical concentration.
Society
The Lyrienne apple trees do not grow in close proximity to each other, although they form loose family group that are all connected deep underground. Indeed, their deep roots are in contact with each other, allowing them to exchange neurotransmitters to communicate, as well as nutrients and magic so as to take care of the weaker members of their group.
They also tolerate the presence of the Alyssenne flowers around their trunks despite seeing them as overexcited children, always jumping around to look at anything shiny, full of energy and ready to take offence at everything. Compared to them, the apple trees are slow to stir and take notice of their surroundings as well as slow to anger.
Despite these lofty views, the Lyrienne trees are known to grow protective of their specific family group of Alyssenne flowers. Once their anger is roused, the trees are impressive and terrifying. They can use their magic to increase the swiftness of their roots to almost match that of the Alyssenne flowers, but their hits are a lot stronger thanks to their bigger size.
Uses
The apples of the trees are famous through the empire and whether someone would be bold - or foolish - enough to attempt to eat one is a popular subject of conversation. They have even been reported to be able to regenerate lost limbs and cure old age. Their only known limitation is their inability to heal diseases caused by genetic mutations.
Eating an apple is an indescribable experience—either because this causes nearly instantaneous paralysis shortly followed by death, or because mere words cannot begin to convey the extraordinary sensation. It is not natural from individuals to be able to absorb foreign magic and make it theirs, yet this is exactly what happens when someone eats a Lyrienne apple. Its extremely high magical content gets added to the eater's own reserve and boost the natural healing abilities of their body well beyond what is normally possible for them.
The Lyriennes and Alyssennes each have a few trees in their manors, however they do not eat regularly their apples. Despite their general benevolence towards both families, the trees can only be rarely coaxed into directly giving them one of their miracle apples - generally if one member of the families is injured. However, while the Lyriennes and Alyssennes themselves are not stupid enough to eat an apple randomly, they sometimes accept to give access to them to those willing to pay high enough for the privilege. It generally does not end well.
- Can you help me? I am not going to survive this spider bite without a miracle!
- Of course... for a price.
Cultural impact
The Lyrienne apple trees have given their emblem to the House of Lyrienne. In popular culture, the Lyrienne apples themselves are also used as a symbol of a dangerous and foolish gambit. It can also refer to someone receiving a poisonous gift despite a shiny outside shell.
The emblem of House Lyrienne, by Unsplash
- Have you heard what Ralesse is doing? He's just entered Heiress Zériesse' Courtship Rituals.
- That imbecile is eating a Lyrienne apple! He is going to be eaten alive, his status is never going to recover from this.
I am not sure if it being harder to communicate with them, makes them more or less dangerous than the flowers... Either way: Figure out bribes if you want to have a chance to survive! O_O
Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young
Bribes and compliments are always the best way to go in my world :D