You thought that this would be something that Novalis
would be behind, right?
Well ... you'd be correct, sort of. There are
Servitors and Soldiers of Flowers scattered throughout
the National Arbor Day Foundation, but they're hardly
the only members of the Host represented there. They
aren't even the majority: a plurality, true, but not
the majority. There are just as many Servitors of
Revelations and War. Yes, I said "Revelations and
War". Litheroy and Michael love this holiday.
Why? Simple, really. When people are worried about
whether they're being overheard, they have quite a few
clever ways to ensure their privacy, and one of the
classic methods is to go outside. Once outside,
they'll go to some trouble to make sure that no humans
or recording devices are around.
But almost nobody ever looks at the trees.
Basically, Michael and Litheroy have been using the
holiday to 'seed' (pardon the pun) sentient listening
posts throughout the United States. Some of the trees
planted every year (usually the ones to be planted in
cities) are instead tree vessels, complete with a
reliever of War or Revelations inside. Said relievers
spend up to a decade listening and observing
everything that goes on around them: eventually they
get relieved (gee, the puns just keep coming, huh?)
and someone else gets the vessel. It'd be boring work
for a human, of course, but relievers find it a useful
way to get used to the corporeal plane.
The intelligence thus gathered may not be immediately
useful, but it does keep Marc's statisticians happy.
It can also function as an early warning system of
sorts (again, not often, but enough times to help make
the whole project cost-effective). It can make a
dandy punishment detail, too: Servitors who can't
learn restraint just might get Bound into a tree
vessel for a year, in the hopes that they'll get the
point.
Incidentally, Novalis goes along with this because: a,
this is hardly violent activity (the relievers are
supposed to watch and report in, not shoot out laser
beams at fleeing demons); and b, she figures that
having Servitors of War with training in patience and
restraint can't be a bad thing. Besides, the tree
vessels are sometimes handy resources for her own
Kyriotates. Besides, the idea of Michael cheerfully
doing something that serves her Word amuses.
Needless to say, Hell knows about this little
operation, but short of burning down every tree that
they see, there's not much that they can do. Some
demons do just that, but they tend to have exciting
lives as a result of all the disturbance that they
cause. More sensible demons just avoid talking in
front of plants, which is one reason why the Demon of
Parking Lots has so many friends...
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