The Grove-Warden is an articulate, aware tree that keeps a grove on the mountain road below Ulmira’s Step. Unlike its brethren, it can speak — in a low, slow voice, and among its own kind in an unknown tongue — and it has appointed itself their shepherd. It honors "the ways," stays off the path, and demands penitence of travelers who stray into the grove and trouble the trees.
Its grove is blighted. The other trees still move, rooting and seizing what comes near, but their minds are stultified and their hearts cold — a reduced personhood, caught between life and death, so that the Warden itself does not know whether they are alive or dead. It has tried to guide and steer them, with little success.
When Draz blundered off the road into the grove and Heyou was caught trying to sneak past, the Warden spoke for the grove and demanded amends, entrapping both in roots until Sylvie offered her healing. Drawing on the "heart of the earth" that once empowered her, Sylvie laid hands on the trees; they reported their roots felt strengthened, and the Warden released the captives. It also told her what a Blessed Branch truly is — a natural rarity on the small, hardy scrub-trees of the high crags — and asked whether the party would return this way. It said it would watch for them.
Status: Watchful, and owed a return visit.