"What is that thing? Have you seen one before?" Valerie asked Ren, as she covered her nose with the back of her hand in an attempt to keep the smell away.
He glanced back at her, before focusing back on the threads of ethereal energy he was feeding into the strange black tree.
"I have." He answered monotonously, "This is called a Death's Hand, or at least it was originally. These two have been corrupted by the same thing that turned a normal creature into that abomination.
Certain races cultivate them, but outside of that they were especially rare. At least they are supposed to be. I won't bore you with all the details, but essentially their seeds aren't physical and are carried inside the souls of certain beings.
Naturally souls go away with the Lord of the Dead, so without a way to extract the seed and cultivate it properly, it's unlikely to sprout nevermind fully grow enough to bear fruit."
