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Stepping away from Marlowe, you walk up to the gap in the window and try to find an angle that will let you see as much of the tree as possible. You can see at a glance that it seems to have grown right through the floorboards, as some have been pushed upwards out of the way of the tree's roots. But there's no way it grew there naturally in a single night—someone must have brought it here.

Looking at the broad, many-pointed leaves, you can tell at once that this is a big-leaf maple. You've seen a few of them around the outskirts of town, but you've never seen them anywhere more than in the forest. In fact, this particular kind of maple is more common there than almost any other deciduous tree—though you're sure, if someone planted this tree here last night, it had to have come from somewhere closer.

As you're thinking this, your eyes drop to the tree's trunk. You frown as you take in the strange markings etched into the bark. They look familiar—but it still takes you a moment to even consider it as a possibility, because how could it be? How could this be a tree you've seen in the forest?

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