Chapter 210: Roots of her own

Luke guided Lauren across the threshold and placed her hand against the inner edge of the doorframe. Sella stayed beside her while he turned back toward the walkway. The Warden shifted away from the arch, leaving the route into the vault clear.

The second glider had climbed onto the low wall beyond the frames. Its body was no larger than a heavy cat, with a long tail and folded membranes between its forelegs and hind legs. A hooked claw clicked against the stone as it turned toward Luke.

"The roof stops them dropping straight onto us," Sella said. "Watch the openings between the posts."

Lauren used a brief Oracle’s Glimpse, then lifted her free hand toward the nearest gap. "The one on the wall comes through there. It lands beside the frame."

Luke moved back along the paving until a stone post stood between him and the creature. The roof hung low over the outer edge, leaving little room for it to pass above him. He lowered the spear enough to keep the blade clear of the beams.

The glider’s hind legs compressed against the wall. Truth Behind Motion caught its commitment to the jump, and Luke held his position as the membranes snapped open. The creature sailed toward the gap, then twisted around the post to reach him.

One outstretched membrane brushed the stone. The glider folded that side too sharply and landed crookedly on the frame’s rim, scrambling for purchase. Luke stepped in and drove the point beneath its exposed ribs before it could turn toward the doorway. He withdrew the spear as the body slid off the edge and struck the paving.

Brown flecks drifted from the fallen creature. Luke saw a small claw settle beside the post, but movement in the neighboring opening pulled his attention away before he could reach for it.

The other glider swept in from the branches beyond that opening. It struck the shaft sideways and hit his left forearm, claws scraping across the leather guard as he brought the spear between its jaws and his face.

The weight drove him against a post. He kept his elbow close, but the creature’s rear claws found his sleeve and tore the fabric above the guard. Violet lines flared across Lauren’s blindfold as she checked another brief glimpse.

"Down against the frame," she called. "Don’t lift it."

Luke lowered his forearm toward the stone rim beside him, forcing the glider’s feet against the hard edge. It loosened its hold to spring away, and he turned the shaft across its body to push it off the walkway.

The creature tumbled into the garden. Luke recovered his stance beside the post as it scrambled up the low wall again, dragging one folded membrane through the leaves. Lauren kept her hand against the doorway, her blindfold dark now that the glimpse had ended.

"It’s below the opening," Luke told them. "Still moving."

Sella took a long-handled rake from beside the arch and held it across the gap while Luke brought his point around. The glider climbed until it saw the spear, then dropped from the far side of the wall and disappeared beneath the shrubs.

Luke stayed under the roof and tracked the shaking leaves until they stopped well beyond the frames. The ache was in his left forearm. His right wrist felt unchanged, and both hands still held the spear securely.

Sella kept the rake across the opening while he checked the adjoining gaps. Once he was back in position to watch the garden, she leaned closer to examine the torn sleeve.

"Let me see the arm."

Luke held the spear in his right hand and extended his left. There was a shallow scrape above the leather, but the teeth had not reached him. Sella propped the rake against the wall and rinsed the mark with water from her flask while Lauren rested her fingers lightly near his elbow.

"Can you hold the shaft properly?"

He closed his left hand around it again. "Yeah. Nothing’s slipping."

Lauren released him, and Sella turned to the nearest frame. The moss lay within reach of its inner edge, where she could collect it without stepping through the exposed gap. Luke kept watch while she examined the pale cushion beneath the raised lid.

"Cradlemoss. Still healthy under here."

Lauren remained at the doorway while Sella loosened a strip from the edge of the patch. The grower checked beneath it for copper strands, then slid it into a shallow tin. Fine white threads held the cushion together, with droplets caught between them.

Sella brought the tin to Lauren so she could examine it without moving closer to the garden. Ancient Root Recognition answered faintly through the small piece. Lauren ended the attempt after feeling no trace of the foreign graft structure they had encountered in the vault.

They returned inside with the moss and the claw Luke retrieved from beside the post. Sella hung the rake beside the arch, then closed the garden door and slid its bolt into place before Luke lowered his spear.

"I’ll have the outer beds checked before anyone starts working there," she said. "That second one may come back."

In the workroom, Lauren gathered their copied instructions while Sella selected two boards to take for comparison. Luke set the claw on a corner of the counter long enough to free both hands and secure his spear across his back, then put the small piece of loot away.

One of the boards carried a list of plants beneath the picture of a flowering branch. The signs beside the names varied, and Luke watched Sella compare them with a note in the terrace growers’ cramped handwriting.

"Aster Hollow," she read. "That’s where the first stock came from."

Lauren turned toward her. "The stock for the grafts?"

"For several of them." Sella traced the signs beside the drawings. "These notes list which plant to use for thicker bark, and which gives more flexible branches. They weren’t always using the same host."

Luke compared a broad-leafed branch on a thick trunk with another drawing of a stem bent almost into a loop. Neither resembled the small cutting supporting Lauren’s seed.

"Does that mean we chose the wrong tree?"

"We chose one that could support the seed. We haven’t tried changing its properties." Sella wrapped the board in cloth. "I’d rather read the rest before deciding what any of these signs would mean for your Heartwood."

Luke added the name to their copy while Lauren asked Sella to keep that board with their notes. She wanted to examine it before anyone changed the plant supporting her seed.

"Is Aster Hollow nearby?" he asked.

"Beyond the western ridge. I haven’t bought stock from there in years." Sella picked up her satchel. "There should be an old route sheet in the nursery."

They left the workroom with its cover secured and the dry sample returned to its bowl. The Warden remained beside the planting beds while Luke guided Lauren back through the passage. Above them, a breeze stirred the surviving pieces of green glass without dislodging any onto the cleared path.

On the walk to the city, Lauren carried the tin in one hand and held Luke’s arm with the other. She asked Sella how they would know when the new roots were strong enough to support the graft. The grower could describe what she looked for in an ordinary cutting, but not how much root growth the Ancestral Graft would require.

At the nursery, Lauren asked for the cloth and scissors before Sella reached for the watering can. She set the tin beside the pot, then held out the copied diagram for Luke to read.

"Tell me where the sleeve ends. Both edges."

Luke described its position beneath the leaves and the gap left beside the join. Lauren found the wooden support with her fingertips, then used Ancient Root Recognition to locate the seed’s existing feeding connection. Her thumb rested on the support beside it while she checked the opposite side.

"This is where it’s attached," she said. "I need to leave that clear."

Sella placed a strip of cloth beneath Lauren’s free hand. "Make the sleeve loose enough that the moss has room. It shouldn’t pull on the join when it gets wet."

Lauren spread the cloth on the bench and measured it against the support before asking Sella to cut it. She arranged a thin cushion of moss across the middle, leaving the ends bare for fastening. When she lifted it toward the seed, Sella held the support steady while Lauren brought the corners together.

Luke stayed beside the diagram instead of reaching for the pot. He read out the warning about the leaves when Lauren asked, then described the narrow opening she had left along the join. One corner had folded inward, and she eased it back with a fingertip before tying the cloth to the support.

"Check underneath," she said.

Sella inspected the loose lower edge and adjusted one fold so it would drain. The seed remained where it had been, with its leaves upright and its feeding root still visible through the gap. Lauren ran a finger along the support, making sure neither fastening pressed against the living stem.

Sella moistened the moss while Lauren watched her status. No mana had left her beyond what she had used to examine the connection. She touched the rootstock again and waited through several faint pulses, following the narrow flow toward the seed.

"There’s another strand," she said. "On the side facing the moss."

Luke bent closer. A pale tip projected from the branching groove, separate from the root holding the seed against its host. It barely reached the damp cushion, but Lauren kept her attention on it until a notification appeared.

[Ancestral Graft Seed: Independent root development begun.]

[Maintain connection to host during cultivation.]

[Integration remains unavailable.]

Lauren withdrew her hand and rested it on the bench beside the pot. Sella left the scissors well away from the new growth and asked her to point out where the tip had reached the moss.

"Here." Lauren indicated the spot without touching it. "I’ll be able to check it through the stock while the connection holds."

"Then we can leave the wrapping alone."

Luke placed the copied instructions beside the pot, weighted beneath a spare tray. Lauren reached for his hand as he moved past her. She squeezed once before letting him go to the basin, where he cleaned his spear and rinsed the last traces of blood from his fingers.

They still needed to report the encounter and his scrape after disconnecting. Luke checked the remaining time while Lauren gathered their copied instructions from beside the pot. Sella handed her a folder, then went into the shop to find the route sheet.

She returned with a creased page marked with roads and distances. An illustration occupied its lower corner, and Luke bent closer when he saw trees growing from terraces along the side of a gorge. Narrow bridges crossed between them beneath a waterfall.

"That’s a nursery?" he asked.

"The receiving garden, according to the label." Sella pressed one finger against the route. "This is the way I used to send orders. Ask someone who travels west before trusting it now."

Lauren held out her hand for Luke. He sat beside her and described the drawing, moving her fingertip along the road until it reached the cluster of terraces. The place lay beyond the edge of their current local map. Nothing on the sheet told them whether the bridges still stood or the road remained passable.

"Put that with the graft notes," she said. "I want to know whether they’re still growing those trees."

Luke folded the route sheet into their new folder. He could still picture the bridges when they left the nursery, and he asked Sella to find out when her last order from Aster Hollow had arrived. She went looking through her records as they headed for the courtyard.