"It wasn’t bark he’d exposed, more like a rough layer of dark purple crystal, almost like amethyst. Another, heavier swipe broke a big chunk of the amethyst crust away. The hole exposed more crystal inside, a column of what he took for near-pure quartz that made up the interior of the tree. Lush pink sunlight shone into it, revealing a vertical lattice of capillaries with what looked like dark viscous fluid moving through them extremely slowly. “Son of a bitch,” Ozzie grunted. “A fucking jewelry tree.”"
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