Red flags: Unbelievable nature you've never seen before!, no external source cited, low image quality could be hiding AI artifacts, lacks scientific name for plant, OP is an aesthetic blog (no offense, I see you credit most of the artists you post, OP <3).

Green flags: Common name of the tree provided (although the leaves don't look like any olive tree I've ever seen).

Reverse image searches and citation trails all seem to lead back to now-deleted Reddit posts. Google Images says it's this one in r/NatureIsFuckingLit, and TinEye says it's this one in r/interestingasfuck. Both were posted back in 2020. This is important because the rise of AI images was in 2022.

People in the comments of places this image is posted throw around botanical terms like "dichotomous branching" [branches split into two at the nodes] and "divaricated" [branches grow far apart from each other], which are cool, but don't tell me what the tree is.

Searching up "Black Olive" on iNaturalist finally got me some answers, and it turns out that YES. This is a real tree! This tree is a Dwarf Black Olive (Terminalia molinetii, Formerly Bucida spinosa). The above photos are some particularly nicely framed shots of a tree with particularly small leaves, which really highlights the branching structure. I really wish we knew the photographer's name. Here are some more photos of the same species:

Terminalia molinetii by jriveracruz50 on iNaturalist, posted under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

This tree is native to Southern Mexico, Belize, the southern tip of Florida, and Cuba. Dwarf Black Olives are completely unrelated to Olive trees in the Olea genus that I'm more familiar with (the former is in Order Myrtales [Myrtles, Evening Primroses, and Allies], and the latter is in Order Lamiales [Mints, Plantains, Olives, and Allies]).

Or, hear me out:

He teaches the girls the way he was taught as a child.

Beldaruit loves big, showy magic. He enjoys magic that inspires wonder— still maintains a childish sense of joy even in his old age.

Meanwhile, Qifrey teaches Coco of a "gentler sort of magic", after giving her the rundown on what sorts of magic are forbidden. To me, this feels exactly like the sort of thing Beldaruit would say.

Imagine Qifrey quoting Beldaruit to Coco. Not even quite realizing what he's doing it. She's just so much like him, he slips into Beldaruit's shoes even more with her than the other apprentices.

But she's different from him. Untouched by the silverwood. Softness can't hurt her the way it can hurt him. Same goes for all four of his girls.

Qifrey would not isolate himself from Beldaruit if it was an issue of discomfort. The silverwood impacts every single one of his decisions, and the decision of where to live was most definitely included in that.

To me, Qifrey's estrangement from Beldaruit is twofold.

Bel too good of a mentor. He is observant, kindc passionate and eager to teach. All traits that qifrey shares; all traits that would be extremely useful and good with any student that's not a silverwood host.

Beldaruit would almost definitely figure it out simultaneously to Olruggio. Anyone at the great hall might. And then Qifrey would have to erase their memory, and he'd hate that.