Page 44 of Growing Memories (Valley of Sylveren #2)
Chapter Twenty-Five
They relocated to the back room at the Mighty Leaf. Though Song’s Scrap was practically a brand-new place compared to the last time Eunny had seen it up close, it was still far from being comfortable for lengthy visits. Plus, the Mighty Leaf had tea and snacks.
Yerina let the younger women in, promising to drop off a fresh pot and whatever extra pastries she could snag from the displays. Eunny didn’t follow the others over the threshold, hesitating as shame burned beneath her skin.
She faced her aunt, raising tentative eyes as she mumbled, “About earlier… What I said. I’m sorry. I?—”
Yerina pulled her into a gentle hug. Not her usual, full-bodied, joyful type, but a softer embrace. Tender with emotion, the kind that told Eunny she was still loved despite her aunt’s hurt.
“I know.” Yerina clasped Eunny’s shoulders, holding her at arm’s length as she fixed her with a serious look. “But none of that now. We always have later, and you all look…determined.”
A dozen replies popped into Eunny’s head.
Words of fighting, of thwarting Bioon, of prevailing for once, because weren’t they due a victory against her scheming?
But Bioon was family to them, much as Eunny would rather forget and Yerina would not.
Their divergence of opinions on the matter wasn’t new, but Eunny’s outburst had gone beyond any of their previous disagreements.
It was still too fresh, too raw. Deserved more attention and feeling than she could properly give right now.
But her aunt knew that, and conveyed her reassurance with a squeeze of her hands.
“We are,” Eunny finally said.
“I wouldn’t expect any less.” Yerina made a shooing motion. “Go on. I’m going to make a pot of the new black spice blend.”
“Thanks, Auntie.”
Yerina bustled off, and Eunny joined her friends in the back room.
Zhenya had out her notebook crammed full of random inserts and pages covered in her handwriting in multiple colors of ink. She conferred with Dae over a two-page spread while Calya made her own bullet-point list on the back of an old order form.
“What is this?” Eunny joined Zhenya and Dae, twisting around to try and make sense of the drawing from her place across the table.
“It’s a flower from my Adept One studies.
It didn’t work for our intended purposes, but it reminded me of the delegation plants.
It had a similar imprinting process spelled into it.
” Zhenya scanned her notes. “That one did transfer even after propagation. Not very useful for large-scale production if you have a resource locked down to one person.”
“Did you figure out how to break the effect?”
“Not during Adept One, and my research ended up changing focus,” Zhenya said. “But some Magister levels kept up the work. Professor Rai might be able to put me in contact with them.”
“Worth a shot,” Eunny said, grim-faced. “Not fast enough for my current problem, though.”
“You’re probably not alone in this, whether you like it or not,” Dae said slowly. “There are records of the sample I took back to Rhell, and the Restorers are interested in growing more.”
“If it can be brought to seed,” Zhenya said. Dae gave a conceding nod. “Which still needs you, Eunny.”
“Which would rope me in with the Rhellian government. Possibly the Order of Sylveren, or at very least the university, since I used school materials for my experiments,” Eunny said. “I’ve had worse bedfellows.”
“Better to not be the sole target when dealing with the Coalition,” Calya piped up. “It’s nice when you can spread the blame.”
Eunny fingered the vial in her pocket, the dried leaves sliding along the glass. “Yeah, the Coalition is shit when it comes to sharing.”
“Good luck to them,” Dae muttered. “If the plant can help save Rhell, then Ez will go to war to keep it.” She looked to Zhenya. “All right, so we’re back to you getting your last cutting to complete its life cycle. Are there better storage options if we need to smuggle the seeds out in a hurry?”
“I can look into something with more protection enchants,” Zhenya replied. “I’ll head back to the Grove and see what I can put together.”
Eunny glanced at the room’s small wall clock and winced. “Bioon will be back in the morning. Probably early, knowing her.”
“I’ll work fast,” Zhenya promised.
The remaining trio settled in for a long night, the Helm sisters rebuffing Eunny’s concern.
“Hardly my first all-nighter,” Calya said. “And I love beating the Coalition at their own game. It happens so rarely.”
“We might not,” Eunny warned. “Will HNE’s trustee be okay with this? It’s not really applicable to the shipping business.”
“As far as Mr. Wembly is concerned, I’m up here tidying accounts after the mess Brint made.” Calya’s shoulders lifted with an indifferent shrug. “My work for Helm Naval’s been done. How I spend my recreational time is my business, and Mr. Wembly can report that to Andrin.”
“Caly,” Dae said, her tone long-suffering. “You really shouldn’t call Papa that.”
Calya rolled her eyes. She started to respond, but it was interrupted by the door opening to admit a tall man with long, pale blond hair, his travel leathers splashed with mud.
“Ez!” Dae jumped up to greet her partner.
Ezzyn bent to kiss her, his hands filled with a heavily laden tea tray. He murmured his thanks when Eunny relieved him of it, then dropped into Zhenya’s vacated seat with a grateful sigh.
“I left about a day behind you, give or take a few hours,” he said in answer to Dae’s unspoken question. “Took a windrunner from the Lower Sohn here.”
“What happened with your testing?” Dae asked.
“That’s why I rushed here.” Ezzyn looked around at all of them. “When we exposed the plant to containment zone soil, it’s like it restructured itself internally. The grovetenders haven’t seen anything like it.”
“Does it neutralize the poison?” Eunny asked, hope welling in her chest.
He shook his head. “It grew well, but it doesn’t have a restorative effect on its own.
” He leaned forward. “The plant itself, though, it definitely works for healing augmentation that can cleanse the sickness in people if they’re treated early.
The cutting you sent, it had traces of the Valley in it, the way magic feels here.
It’s hard to explain, and we need to run more tests, but it seems like we can attune?—”
“What does all of that mean?” Calya interrupted. “For those of us who don’t speak arcane.”
Dae and Ezzyn talked over one another as they tried to give examples Calya would understand.
Eunny paid attention with only half an ear, turning this latest information over in her mind. The scattered morsels of ideas she’d been acquiring for the last couple months began to coalesce.
Seeds that grew well, even thrived in the blighted soil of Rhell.
Plants that amplified healing magic, that could be personalized, like the healing draught Dae had received at the Healing Hut.
Those plants could—maybe—be vessels for the kind of magic that withstood the poison.
A merging of the protection inherent in the Valley and the plants’ response, altering their form when grown in the blight.
Ezzyn turned to Eunny, pulling a folded slip of paper from his pocket and handing it to her. “I almost forgot—your aunt said this was left for you.”
She quickly scanned the page, eyebrows rising as she took in the hastily written words.
“It’s from Ollas. He heard back from Nocren, the Sentinel who’s been liaising with the Coalition.
Says that they’ve been forwarding all the reports from Ollas and Rai and the samples from the elective to some rural site out in Desmond’s Landing. ”
“Desmond’s Landing,” Dae murmured, confusion clouding her face as she thought. “Why does that sound… Oh! Caly, isn’t that where Brint’s shady side project was held? The one that got him in trouble with the Coalition and the board for Avenor Guard?”
“Brint?” Eunny said, naming Dae’s ex-fiancé, Calya’s ex-business partner, and overall human waste of space.
Calya frowned. “Possibly. The protection route went to the lower river rather than up to the Landing. But, there’s not much out there. Isn’t it protected forestland?”
“He was trying to cover up a problem with an environmental project,” Dae said slowly, squinting as she tried to dredge up memories. “That was why he came to Sylveren last year, to try to scam some grovetenders into helping him.”
“What does that have to do with the Coalition, though?” Eunny asked. “Why would they send class reports out to the middle of nowhere?”
Her words were met with shrugs.
“Maybe they’re hoping to scoop the school and bring a working version of the plant to market first?” Dae suggested.
“They’re sponsoring the elective. I’m pretty sure the school’s justiciars would?—”
“Worry about that after you have your own plant in hand,” Calya said. “Now, then. Presuming all this success is repeatable, what’s next?”
“If we can push a new generation of seeds, I’ll need to get them to Rhell right away if the Coalition is on the hunt,” Eunny said. “We’re talking greater good, here—think I should see if the university will help? They might call on the Sentinels to facilitate some safe passage.”
“There are HNE windrunners with the latest hull enhancements in port at Renstown,” Calya said. “I can arrange for one to be reassigned.”
“You will want to talk to the school eventually, or maybe even the Order,” Dae said, gaze going unfocused as she stared off in thought.
“We’re looking at multiple cross-border dealings.
Growing the plants in Rhell, infusing the leaves with healing magic in the Valley, and then transporting them back to Rhell… Caly?”
“Our riverboats can handle the Lower Sohn waterways,” Calya said. “That segment of the fleet is down, though, and lumber prices are terrible right now. If you’re talking premium speed enchantments, the wood required for that is niche.”