Magic:
1) Kill the silkworms (painfully?) deliberately with the grove-keeper's knife, embedding betrayal/sympathetic power/whatever.
a) Walk to a selected (or random? does the specific tree even matter that much?) Mulberry tree
2) Ritual dance/preparation/whatever with that Mulberry tree with weird magic shoes that probably have some weird magic design.
3) Burn the tree (normally? with special oil?)
And a 'how would I, Shard, do it':
(
Blue: Additions)
0)
Time: Night before dawn. Walk into Grovekeeper's Hunt. Equip Magic ritual shoes.
1) Kill the silkworms,
collecting their blood/essence/whatever as I do so.*
2) Walk to selected Mulberry Tree.
Select either the most centralized or significant (ex: most damaged, magically potent) Mulberry tree. **
3) Ritually prepare the Mulberry Tree as symbolic of all Mulberry trees in the Grove,
to be either poisonous to Silkworms or otherwise unwelcome to Silkworms (your choice how to kill silkworms) by adorning it with Silkworm Blood/Essence from step 1***.
4) Sacrifice the Tree by
burning it as the night ends and the dawn rises****. This is for maximum symbolic power, by tying this change to the Day-Night cycle.
5) [Ritual Over]
* Might not be needed but would be a nice flourish.
** The trees might already be sympathetically connected and similar enough that staking out a specific tree isn't even needed.
*** Poison? Spiritual trauma? The methods to kill are so many.. the results, the same.
**** Optionally also do it at the turning of the year at Yule, or some symbolic timeframe like that like an equinox or solistice. On my part I would pick the turning of Summer-> Winter, also conveniently a Thing-Meet time.
~~~
Was. Barki's father is dead, from what's been said.
He can still be disappointed in the afterlife. He's certainly still watching over Barki with whatever it is Einhenjar use to look into the mortal realm, Barki is still his son, after all.
