Chapter 8: Some Seedy Business

Seed frowned as they considered August’s request. “Would you like to come to the back room with me?” they asked, and he nodded, assuming Seed wanted to give the information out of Amy’s earshot. August’s head was still reeling from the revelation that Amy was trying to take over the other side of the river. Really, the idea that their friend was trying to take over anything was pretty alarming. People on Earth don’t just conquer places, he thought as he followed Seed through the door in the back of the room. That’s not a thing you’re supposed to do, unless you’re a tyrannical regime or something. August shook his head. He needed to stop catastrophizing.

Once the door was closed behind them, Seed looked at August. They were in a normal-looking kitchen, with open doors that August could see led to a bedroom and some kind of washroom. “Would you like some tea?” they asked, gesturing at a kettle on the stove. “It’s not very good, but it isn’t disgusting either.”

August shook his head, confused by the halfhearted offer. “No, thank you.” Even without the poor reviews and the humidity of the house, August had become very cautious about accepting food from people without testing it first.

Seed shrugged. “Suit yourself.” They poured themself a cup, then sat down at the kitchen table, gesturing for August to sit across from them. August noticed that when Seed sipped the tea, their eyes glowed for a few seconds afterward. Probably good that I turned that down.

“So, you want to know more about Amy’s plans?” Seed pursed their lips thoughtfully. “I don’t have a lot of details. She asked me if I wanted to help, but I prefer staying on this side of the river. Besides, my kid can’t cross the river and I wouldn’t want to go over there without her.”

“You have a kid?” August asked, unsure why the information surprised him. After all, he knew next to nothing about Seed, so why wouldn’t they have a family life?

Seed nodded and sipped the tea, their pink eyes briefly glowing again. “Yes, and she’s still too young to go to the other side of the river, so I generally stick to this side.”

August remembered the conversation that had led to this field trip, about how there were no kids that lived near them except Glow. “Why can’t kids cross the river?”

“Oh, it’s been that way for a long time, a few generations at least. I don’t know exactly why, but from what I’ve heard, someone put a spell on the river so no child could go inside the area it encircles. I don’t know if someone in there doesn’t like children or if there is some danger that they’re trying to protect children from, but in any case, it acts like a giant invisible wall for them.” Seed finished their tea and put the cup down on the table. “I think that’s one of the things Amy is trying to end. She doesn’t like the barrier, and she also doesn’t like that there’s no order on the other side of the river. From what I’ve heard, your homeland is much more organized and efficient than it is over here, and I think Amy wants to recreate that.” They shrugged. “It sounds a bit unnecessary to me, but I also don’t consider it any of my business, so I stay out of that part of things and just help Amy get her medicine.”

I suppose Earth is organized and efficient, August thought, although I don’t know that I’d want to recreate that here. This world was strange and chaotic, but August wouldn’t consider Earth a model society either–except maybe Denmark, but even they had some issues. As far as he’d seen, this world didn’t have any racism, sexism, or queerphobia, and while he didn’t know their situation with poverty, he doubted it was worse than anywhere on Earth, especially since people here seemed willing to give each other things and only ask for favors in return.

“Do you know how she’s planning to take over the other side?” August pressed.

Seed shrugged. “I don’t know. Again, I haven’t really felt the need to get involved with it. She’d probably tell you if you asked her, though.”

“Ask her?” August repeated with surprise.

Seed nodded. “If you want to know something, why not ask the source?”

Because then she’d ask us to help her, August thought, looking at the door that separated him from Amy. And I’d have to make a decision. “I’ll… think on it,” he finally answered, standing up. “Thanks, Seed.”

Seed also stood. “Was this conversation helpful? And to be transparent, I’m just looking for validation right now, not honesty.”

August blinked at their bluntness. “Oh. Well, then, yes, it was very helpful.”

Seed smiled brilliantly. “Wonderful, thank you!” They poured another cup of tea and brought it with them through the door to the front room. August followed and found Amy and Cecily still chatting like old friends. He felt a pang in his chest. What if Amy was planning something truly terrible? What would that revelation do to Cecily?

“Hey, August!” Cecily interrupted his thoughts. “What have you two been up to?”

“Just talking, getting to know each other,” August answered quickly. Seed’s face immediately started turning red, like they were holding their breath. After a few seconds, August realized that they really were holding their breath, and their eyes started to bug out.

“Seed? Are you okay?” Cecily asked, standing up from her chair.

After a few more seconds, Seed finally took a gasping breath and blurted out, “He wanted to know about Amy’s plan for the other side of the river!”

“Seed!” August cried at the same time that Amy yelled, “What?”

“I’m sorry, August, I didn’t know you were intending to keep that conversation a secret,” Seed said, looking genuinely embarrassed.

Amy got up and patted Seed on the back. “Don’t be sorry, Seed, he didn’t know about your honesty situation.” She looked at August. “Seed can only tell the truth. That’s a helpful thing to know about someone if you plan to have secret conversations with them.” Her eyebrows were arched and her tone was wry but not angry.

“What’s everyone talking about?” Cecily demanded, joining the small circle they had formed.

“I’ll… excuse myself,” Seed said, still flushed. They downed the cup of hot tea in one swallow and blinked their brightly glowing eyes, then hurried back into the kitchen.

“Just be grateful you didn’t meet their kid,” Amy chuckled. “If you think only telling the truth is a curse, imagine how frustrating it is when you can only lie.” August watched her nervously, but she just smiled and gestured back at the chairs. “Let’s sit down.”

“You’re not upset?” August asked hesitantly as they all sat.

Amy shook her head. “No, of course not. I didn’t want to give you any more of an information overload than necessary today, but I really should have known better than to bring you to Seed if I didn’t want you to find out everything. Since you’re already figuring it out, I might as well catch you up.”

Cecily’s stomach chose that moment to growl again and Amy laughed. “Maybe we should discuss this over food. We can stop back here on our way home to pick up my medicine when it’s ready.”

Amy poked her head through the back door to tell Seed they were leaving, then the three of them left the muggy house and were back in the colorful town. The fresh air was a little jarring after being surrounded by so much steam, but it helped clear August’s head for a brief moment before he started to stress out again.

“I’d like to know what’s going on, since the two of you seem to be several steps ahead of me,” Cecily announced as they started walking, Amy taking the lead.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Sure, we can walk and talk,” Amy obliged, her tone still casual and friendly. Maybe this isn’t as big a deal as I’d imagined, August thought, comforted by how unconcerned Amy seemed about it. Evil masterminds aren’t this open to discussion.

Amy continued, “I spent my first few years here trying to make sense of the place, but that was obviously fruitless.” She gestured at a bush that appeared to have tiny flames growing on it like flowers. A man with gray hair was plucking the bush’s own leaves off to feed the fires. “Then I tried to find a way to fit into this crazy world and make some kind of life here, but that just felt pointless. It took me a few more months to realize that it felt pointless because it was pointless. Everything here is pointless! There’s no reason for anything, which means nothing really matters, which means nothing I do matters either!” Amy looked back at the twins. “Are you following?”

“Let’s just say yes,” Cecily answered, and August nodded dumbly. He didn’t know where this was going, but he was already regressing back to his previous stress levels.

“Great! So, I figured that if nothing matters, I should just do what I want. And I decided that what I want is to be in charge for once, to create some semblance of rationality in a place that has none. So, I’m taking over the land inside the river. Ooh!” Amy pointed at a teal and red building. “This place has delicious pastries. Are you up for dessert for lunch?”

“Umm…” August looked at Cecily and could see her mind was also racing. Amy’s declaration that nothing mattered had taken them both by surprise, especially after how kind Amy had been to them over the last few hours.

“I wouldn’t turn down dessert for lunch,” Cecily finally said. August widened his eyes at her and she shrugged. “I’m hungry and I want to secure some food before we get too deep into this.”

Amy grinned. “That’s fair. Again, I’m sure this is a lot to take in, but it will be easier with something in your stomach.”

They went inside what turned out to be a small, quaint-looking bakery, reminiscent of one August liked back on Earth. Amy talked to someone at the counter, handing them a small box before coming to sit down at a round table with August and Cecily.

“I traded them some homemade matches to pay for it,” she explained when Cecily gave her a questioning look. “I don’t like exchanging Favors, it’s too unpredictable.”

August was dying to know what that meant and finally figure out what favors were, but he felt like the current conversation was too pressing to deviate from it. “So, you just want to be in charge?” he asked carefully, not sure how to word his question in an inoffensive way.

“Pretty much. In a world where everything is possible and nothing matters, why not take advantage of it to do something I would never be able to do back on Earth?” Amy got back up to claim a fresh plate of pastries from the counter, bringing them back with her. They were lightly steaming and smelled amazing enough to make August momentarily forget both his anxieties about Amy and his fear of unfamiliar food. Cecily immediately tucked in, and after a moment August grabbed a pastry, too. If they disfigure us, at least we’ll be disfigured together this time, he thought, feeling his twelve toes pinched into his shoes, a relic from Puddle’s muffins. The pastry was filled with warm orange berries, tasted wonderful, and didn’t have any immediate negative effects, so August kept eating.

“So, you’re a nihilist or something?” Cecily asked with her mouth full. “Is that what’s going on here?”

Amy had a bit of pastry on her face as she nodded thoughtfully. “I haven’t put a label on it before, but I guess you could say so. I grew up believing in God and a higher purpose to everything, but getting zapped into another universe kinda shattered that worldview. It’s pretty clear to me that no one is in charge here, deity or otherwise, so there’s no one to care about what I do.”

“What about the other people here?” August asked. “Wouldn’t they care?”

“Honestly, I’m not so sure. People here are so happy-go-lucky, it’s almost scary. They accept bad luck like it’s nothing and just keep going, probably because they’re so used to it. Sometimes I wonder if they’re even real or if they are just some NPC-type creations that exist to support any Earthlings that show up.”

Seed seems real, August thought, furrowing his eyebrows. Puddle and Glow seem real. Bright… I wish Bright wasn’t real. August couldn’t believe that those people wouldn’t care what happened to their home, or that their feelings didn’t matter.

“Seems like a lot of work to put into something just because you don’t have any reason not to do it,” Cecily commented. August was relieved that her natural suspicion was finally revealing itself.

“It keeps me busy,” Amy replied, lifting a shoulder. “And it really would be nice to be in charge, especially if I can fix whatever is happening with the river!”

August finished his pastry, which had been surprisingly filling. Without hunger to distract him, though, the effect of Amy’s words felt like they were twisting his insides. August knew he was overly sensitive about some things and Cecily had told him many times that he took too much responsibility for other people’s feelings, but he felt like Amy had strayed to the opposite extreme.

“And your plan for accomplishing this involves robots? And Puddle?” he asked, once again remembering the giant Roombas that had gone after his neighbor.

“Yes!” Amy’s eyes lit up. “You see, Puddle is the key. I’ve done some digging, and I think the spell that keeps kids from inside the river was cast by one of Puddle’s predecessors–probably a grandparent or something. Not many people have been to Puddle’s home other than the three of us, but Bright says it’s some kind of hub of magic, with a lot of power radiating from it. That’s why the trees move away from it, and that’s how the barrier on the river has been intact for so many years. Puddle must have been able to make some kind of exception for his own child, but he’s keeping all other kids out for some reason.”

Amy paused and let out a small sigh. “I tried to ask him about it three years ago, but he refused to tell me anything and stopped letting me near Glow. We haven’t spoken since.” Her face showed a hint of regret at that, but it passed quickly. “It’s probably for the best. I’ll need him out of the way for my plan to work, so it’s better to keep my distance in the meantime. However, it sounds like you two spend a fair amount of time with Puddle and Glow, right?”

August wasn’t sure whether to lie at this point, but Amy didn’t wait for a response either way. “Maybe you two could help, since Puddle hasn’t pushed you away yet! It could be nice to have someone on the inside,” she mused, causing August’s gut to twist even more.

Cecily stood up. “Wow, lots to think about!” she said, a little too loudly. “Should we go see if Seed has your meds ready, Amy? We can circle back to this conversation later; I’m sure August and I will need some time to process everything. Like you said, it’s a lot of information.”

Amy stood up as well and August nearly knocked over his own chair as he scrambled to his feet as well. “Fine by me,” she said. “It took me months to reach the conclusions I did, so I get it if you’re not quite there yet.” The three of them left the bakery and Amy took the lead back toward Seed’s house. August and Cecily trailed a bit further behind her than they had before, and when there was a few feet of distance between the twins and Amy, Cecily leaned over.

“What are you making of all this?” she whispered.

“I don’t like it,” he whispered back.

“I agree. She makes a few decent points, but her methods make me nervous.”

August reared back a bit. “‘A few decent points?’ Like what?”

Cecily was about to answer when Bright suddenly dove down from the sky to land next to Amy. He pointed urgently at Seed’s house, which was now within sight, and August noticed a large shape standing in the doorway. The shape ran toward them and Amy took a few steps back to stand between August and Cecily. When the person reached them, August wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or alarmed to see Puddle’s enormous frame, but he felt Amy tense up next to him.

“August and Cecily! There you are!” Puddle exclaimed, the relief on his face making August feel guilty for his own uncertainty. “I got worried when you never came home from the market.” His eyes narrowed slightly and he nodded at Amy. “Amy. It’s been a while.”

“Well, you never come visit anymore,” she answered innocently. “And you don’t like it when I come to visit either.”

“What I don’t like,” Puddle replied flatly, “is when you send your little friends to visit, like you did this morning.”

“What little friends?” Amy asked in the same tone of false innocence, and Puddle sighed heavily. The tired look on his face reminded August of his earlier theory that Puddle needed more friends. It’s probably hard to make friends when one of your former friends is now sending robots to attack you, August reflected. We didn’t discuss that possibility in psychology class. Amy and Puddle stared each other down, and August was alarmed to realize that he didn’t know which–if any–of them was in the right.

“August and Cecily, I can walk the two of you home,” Puddle offered without taking his gaze from Amy. Are they having a staring contest?

“Maybe don’t accept that offer,” Amy told the twins, also not looking at them. “I may or may not have sent more friends after Puddle, and I’d hate to have you two caught up in that.”

“You what?” August asked in alarm, causing Amy to finally break focus and look at him. “You sent more robots?”

Amy was frowning hard. “Yep, and now I’m regretting it because they’re supposed to be tracking Puddle and I didn’t expect him to come here. Of all the days to break your usual pattern, Puddle, today was not a good one!”

“So where are the robots?” August demanded, then saw three large Roombas rolling toward Puddle’s back.

“Right there,” said Amy.

Cecily sighed. “This is the longest day of my life.”