And her name is…

Tiago hugs me before disappearing to exit from his own room incase someone is watching. He’s worried for me. He’s right. Anyone being from Orthoire is at risk of such prejudice and I know he’s starting to suspect that’s the origin of my bloodline, if he doesn’t already. Sioga from that particularly small country walk the line between deities and animals, and one wrong step is all it takes to push them away from reason. It’s why their numbers are small, why they keep to themselves, why my mother’s arranged marriage was both an utter surprise, and political necessity.

I still haven’t found a book that says what happened after she ran away. From the developments recently, me asking anyone about it directly would give too much away. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure Wulfric has some suspicions and if he and Tiago ever got to talking one of them would figure it out. I can feel myself starting to smile at how I could drop a few misdirects their way.

I go down for lunch and Nyx runs into me in the hall. She apologizes for missing our walk and I ask how her patient is.

She rolls her eyes. “Fine and feeling stupid. It could have been much worse,” she admits. “How was the walk without me?”

I don’t want to lie so I tread carefully. “I got a lot out of it, despite the snow.”

She might already know, but if she doesn’t I don’t want to make her have to lie for me. We meet up with Vera along the way, who starts to beg for my help. I’m stunned by the notion but offer to do what I can. She explains to me that an evasive plant got into her greenhouses and she’s tried everything.She had started thinking about what I’d done to the tree outside and tested the dust she could find from it, which wasn’t much. It seems to be benign, so she was hoping I could eliminate the plant for her.

“At this point if you have to kill everything in the greenhouses it would be faster to start over than keep fighting this never weed.” She sounds exhausted and I can see dirt under her finger nails. “I’d be eternally grateful.”

“It’s okay Vera, I don’t know how much help I’ll be. I’d have to feel out the problem to know for sure. How about we eat quick and go after?” I offer and she nods, explaining the problem more thoroughly and everything’s she done so far while we eat.

She works herself up worrying about how different plant killers or other things she’s tried might affect me, but I insist I’m not worried. I’ve heard of never weed before and, if it’s all from one plant like she believes, I will only need to find one shoot above ground. After lunch Nyx joins us and we walk through the halls on the main floor that connect to the rows of attachedgreenhouses. It’s warm enough that I could walk around in shorts quite happily, but I’m in a stupid dress and want to get out as soon as possible.

“Where is the biggest cropping of shoots?” I ask and she points me to a section along the left edge where a cluster of pointy leaved vines climb the paneling. “You have no purpose for it at all, right?”

She shakes her head. “Absolutely not.”

“You know how it works, if it’s supporting any of the other plants once it’s gone they could snap or die.” I remind her but she’s shaking her head that she doesn’t care. “Okay. I can delete it all.”

Her face lights up. “Really? You’re sure,”

I sit in the ground with my back to the paneling and wrap my hand around the main thorned stock by the ground. “Absolutely. I used to weed the garden back home all the time like this. Dusting is new, but the process is the same.”

I feel the bite of the thorns in my palm but I like it, it grounds me. Focusing on where I’m touching the plant I sense it’s road map of roots and vines as they connect over the space and extend into the yard. I start pulling the energy through the network of plant material from the farthest point towards myself. This part is the most difficult, and if I work too quickly I can leave sections behind that could regrow. While it is one out of control plant it’s easy, a dozen of out of control plants would be a pain in the ass.

I am steadily pulling the energy like a long thread and weaving it into my own tapestry, feeling like a glutton. I really don’t need this right now, but Vera came to me and it’s not like I’m going to tell them what I did after breakfast. Still, despite how satisfied I feel I still feel like there is something missing.

*Bang*

There’s a loud rap on the panelling behind me and smacks me in the back of the head. The sound and sensation is so startling I yank on the thread and kill all the never weed at once, but also every plant in a meter radius around me. I also squeak with surprise and find myself blushing bright red at both the sounds and my half failure.

“I’m sorry Vera, I didn’t mean to,” I insist, looking up at her as she pouts at an empty pot.

“It’s not your fault. That made me jump too.” She turns to an entrance leading outside as Ricard walks in. “What the fuck was that for?”

He scoffs at her. “She was taking in large amounts of energy, your welcome.”

“Umm no, she was killing the never weed that’s killing our food supply! If she missed any because of you I say it affects your rations first.” Vera is angry but I’m trying to contain my laughter.

Ricard looks pissed that people keep standing up for me, and I have a terrible poker face when things turn in my favour. He glares at me and I wave my hand with the dried blood on it.

“I do think I got it all,” I try to assure, but I’m also thinking back on what I did because I could have missed some of the smaller roots. “If you find any I can always do it again, with permission of course,-“ I eye Ricard considerately, “- I wouldn’t want to actout of line.”

Ricard huffs something I’m sure is meant to be insulting, but he’s back outside before I care. Next, Nyx is in front of me and pulls me to my feet to check my hand. Her brows are pinched together but it takes me more than a moment to realize she is checking more of my bodily wellbeing than just the hand.

I pull my hand away. “I’m fine Nyx.” I look over and see Vera mourning the loss of one of the collateral plant deaths so I turn back to Nyx more seriously. “Don’t look for what you don’t want to find.”

She looks over me considerately, but I notice that her eyes have gone wider. Nyx isn’t saying anything, and I’ve already said too much. Nyx is smart enough to figure things out on her own, but I’m nearly certain she can sense some things in my biology.

“I’m really very sorry Vera,” I say, more just for something to say.

She stops sniffling and turns to me. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it.”

“What if I can fix it?” I offer, walking over to her carefully.

“Can you?” She questions, hope dancing in her eyes.

I shrug. “Maybe, if it’s onlymostlydead.” I go to the plant and touch the dried out stem.

It’s crunchy at the top, but as I move my way down closer to the dirt it squishes more than crunches. It still has a little life left in it, and I can work with that. All of the ones I hadn’t meant to kill still have some sort of corporeal form, but they are very withered. I doubt any of them will be able to recover on their own, even with the never weed no longer strangling their roots for nutrients. I walk around to all of them and try to gauge which are the most likely to survive with my help.

“I can only do one, maybe two,” I inform her, creating a restriction that doesn’t exist. “Do you have a preference?”

She points to the one she’s been quietly sniffling beside without hesitation. “This one, only this one. The rest have others I can propagate and restart, but this one is from too far away for me to get another any time soon.”

I nod and go to sit beside her. Truthfully, I hadn’t thought this far ahead. To fix this plant I need to bleed but I don’t exactly have anything to cut myself with and my hand is already healing from the thorns. Looking around I don’t see anything sharp I could use, but as I run my tongue over my teeth in thought I hit my canine and have an idea. My sharp teeth extend into my tongue and I can feel my mouth filling with blood. I lean over to the plant like I whispering to the stock and quietly spit into the dirt.

The reaction takes a minute, but as my blood seeps into the soil and over the stem the colour starts to return. I do it again, leaning down further to hide as much of what I’m doing as I can but I know they’re watching intently.The plant starts to perk up at the colour returns. It’s in its own pot on the ground but the never weed likely grew up through the bottom hole for me to have nearly killed it.

Vera’s face starts to light up as the plant is recovering and it grows slowly, but soon I can see a bud forming at the top. My blood must be stronger with all my siphoning today and moment later a flower like a marigold, if they were made of real gold, blooms from the top of a stem. Vera and Nyx audible gasp and I’m sure I’ve done something wrong.

“What?” I gasp, backing up from the plant, ready to apologize again.

“I’ve never seen it bloom!” Vera verifies, moving in closer to look at it.

She gently touches the petals, and then observes the light gold dusting of pollen on her finger tips. Nyx moves forward too, looking over the flower like it will reveal the meaning of life. For all I know, maybe it will, but I back up and stand, brushing off the skirt where my knees pressed into the dirt. They are so into the flower I’m sure they won’t notice me leaving, and I’m worried they’re going to have questions.

I’m starting to back away when Vera shoots up and runs over to hug me. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” She squeals, nearly picking me up. “This thing has barely been hanging on and I’ve tried everything! Thank you.”

I pat her back gently. “It wasn’t any trouble, don’t mention it,” I return, feeling a little uncomfortable but then I start to cough and she releases me.

I’m rubbing my chest as the coughing continues and it takes a minute for me to figure out the problem. A little magical rebound from taking so much so quickly, like when I killed the tree yesterday. I continue to rub my chest as the coughs turn small and pathetic.

“Are you alright?” Vera asks, her hand moving to my shoulder.

I nod as I finish coughing into my elbow. “Fine.”You need to lie down. “I should… change,” I return suddenly, gesturing to my dress and then fanning my face. “Maybe shower too, it’s very warm in here.”

I give them a small laugh before heading to the door. They’re unsure of what to say and I’m honestly glad for it as it lets me get out faster. I back through the door quickly and turn to start back down the hall, watching behind me in case they decide to follow.

“Ooff,” I huff out as I walk into someone tall and solid, which honestly could be anyone except it smells like a cherished leather book.

I look up and my eyes meet Wulfric’s. He looks surprised but then his hands move and I realize they are resting on my hips to keep me steady. I nearly bounced off him when my face met his chest and the realization that he’s not letting go of me has my face flushing. I squirm a step back and he seems to have to force himself to let go as I step around him.

“Sorry general,” I mutter. “Don’t let me keep you.”

“Theo wait!” He calls after me but I’m already rounding the corner and running up the stairs to my room.

Once inside I close and lock the door. My heart it racing and my chest aches.Let me fix it.I refuse, unlacing the dress as I move toward the bathroom and climb into the shower. It becomes clear quickly that I though I have an abundance of energy I lack the patience to enjoy something so rudimentary as a shower. I leave the water quickly and lay stark naked on my bed.

What am I doing?