After another day in the king's wood, Max reached a small town, deep within the forest. This was most likely where the men had come from. It was lined with small wooden huts which were not in good shape. The wood was brittle and on one house, the roof was sagging. It was a sad sight. In a motion of good will, he touched the hut with the sagging roof and activated overhaul. It disassembled for but a fraction of a second before rebuilding more stable than the original had ever been.
"H- how?" A voice came from behind him, weak and feeble, like a small kitten who had yet to find its voice. Turning around, he saw a small child, cheap rags for clothing, big, innocent eyes and shaggy brown hair. Max smiled at the little one, "I think it looks much better now, doesn't it?"
She nodded slowly, gripping something in her hand harder. It looked like a wooden star with 7 prongs. The seven who are one, or also known simply as the seven… he wondered if they really existed, like the Lord of light did… it was possible, he supposed.
"How did you do that?" The little girl asked, staring at the reconstructed hut.
"It is a gift passed down through blood", it wasn't a lie, quirks were genetic and he suspected that his children would have quirks too, at least some of them. As seen with Deku, even children of two parents with quirks could be quirkless. So most likely not all of his children would have one.
"Why is your skin that color?" She asked, pointing at him.
"Why is yours that color?" He replied.
This seemed to confuse the little girl, "isn't everyone's?"
"Evidently not", he chuckled.
"Evi- what now?"
He simply smiled and continued walking.
"Wait! M'lord wait!"
He stopped and turned around, the little girl wasn't looking up, eyes glued on the ground, "could you… do that to the other huts too? Make them better? During the winter, the snow kept falling in. I don't want to feel that cold again once the summer ends…"
Right, the seasons on planetos lasted years at a time. It must be hard during the winter years, when the sun seems to be chased away by the snow clouds, "and what can you give me in return?"
"Erm- we have… meat! You can eat with us!" She told him and his stomach grumbled.
"Sounds like a fair deal… what is your name, little one?"
"Mary and I'm seven!" Mary held up seven fingers.
"Well then, let's get to work"
It was easy, a simple touch and the huts were better than ever. Curious eyes followed the two as they walked from hut to hut.
Mary lead him to her hut last. It was among the bigger ones and it was in relatively good shape. Sure, some of the wood was rotting but compared to a few others, it was nothing. Once again, he placed his hand on the wood and reshaped it. What caught him by surprise was that amongst the wood was something different, some sort of red sap. It was only a little, distributed through the wood planks but when he called it out of the wood, it was a coin sized, red pearl. His powers told him that this wood wasn't oak or pine like the others but something unfamiliar and the sap which he reassembled outside the wood was even more mysterious. It was kind of like normal sap but at the same time, it was very different. Something lurked hidden beneath the surface of this sap.
As he held it against the light, he saw that it refracted light like a bloody diamond.
Holding it, he could feel a supple pulse of an energy enter him. Like electric current, pulsating through his soul. Was this-?
"Mary, what kind of wood is your hut made from?"
"Daddy cut down one of those heathen weirwood trees for our home", Mary looked proud and Max understood. A weirwood tree, a symbol of the old gods, weeping red sap like blood from its 'face'...
He had hit the jackpot.
He had the power of a weirwood tree in his open palm but how to access it?
He got an idea, a stupid, reckless idea but what was life without a little risk?
Max placed the sap in his mouth. The change was immediate. Whereas the sap had previously simply leaking magic into his hand, now it was being absorbed at a rapid rate. He could feel a warmth bloom from his throat and gut, like spiderwebs, creeping through his system. The energy slowly intensified and seeped into his every cell.
He knew instinctively that it was overhaul's doing. Had a normal person swallowed the sap, it wouldn't have broken down. The human gut had no proteins to dissolve this kind of sap but with overhaul taking care of that, the magic was free to enter his bloodstream.
It felt as if he had been watching life through a dense fog before and now for the first time, he looked at what the world was really like. The colors were more vibrant and vivid, the sounds more crisp and the smells sharper.
"Are you okay, m'lord? You have been standing there for a good while" Mary asked him, tugging at his clothes.
"Yeah, I'm fine, better than fine really", Max smiled brightly, which seemed to ease the little girl's worry, "now, you said something about meat?"
"Yes! Daddy just came back with a deer a few hours ago! Let me show you!"
Her father -After having been brought up to speed- was more than willing to let him eat with them that day, "I have been meaning to fix these huts but you have beaten me to it"
"You keep saying that since winter ended", Mary chuckled, bouncing up and down, "I'm hungry, when is the stew ready?"
"Soon, dear, soon", her mother said, standing above a cauldron, which smelled heavenly after almost two days of eating nothing but wild fruit.