in my mind , i could sense their roots under the soil , creeping in helical tangles of ever-increasing complexity outward and in all directionsout beyond the perimeter of the helsingr wood , out below yamis under city , out along the banks of the river , out to the nearest coast and thereupon out into the sea ; the roots crept down further along the continental shelf , downward into the abysses , downward into the ocean floor , burrowing under the corals and under trenches , and then back up again to sprout in the darkened forest on a foreign continent : all the trees of the world now had conjoined roots , for they were now of one conjoined consciousness !