That out of the way, I wish to discuss my personal request. Just a question, have you ever gardened before?

What was with the strange questions? Was this just a product of the Great Csillacra being a plant?

'I can't say I have. Is that important to the request?'

Not particularly, I was simply wondering if you had experience in the field. It is related to my request, tangentially at least. You see, I had broached the topic of reproduction today because I had planned to segue into it, however I judged your . . . reserved, response to mean you were uncomfortable with the subject.

'I find it uncomfortable to talk about, yes.'

A difference in values then. Regardless, I am a living being, much the same as you and your wife, and I have my needs. Needs that I have repressed until now. Simply put, I wish to successfully complete the act of reproduction.

Donovan raised an eyebrow, not quite sure if he liked where this was going.

I have been incredibly reserved, you see, fearful for the lives of my limited children. They are vulnerable, delicate little seedlings unable to fend for themselves, and up to this point I have been unable to determine a method in which they could successfully be made to grow independent of myself. They must be a certain distance away from me lest their growth be hindered, which makes things difficult. I have no way to teach them as you would your young.

That is only the beginning of my problems though. As you might imagine, my children would be . . . politically dangerous, the possibility of a party external to the Sanctum gaining control over them would be incredibly worrying, and the possibility of control through conquest would undoubtedly open the gates to endless war between the major powers. The root of my issue, if you would pardon the pun, is that there is nobody that I can both communicate with and trust to keep my young safe aside from the Arboreal Maiden, who is bound to the Sanctum by way of process.

At least that was the case until you arrived.

You, child, are capable of understanding me. I know not why, but you have a level of willpower that allows you to breach the restrictions, a form of brute force only the Arboreal Maiden has demonstrated to this point. At the same time, I believe that entrusting my child to you would not only keep it safe, but increase the trust between us. At the moment, our relationship is more akin to master and servant, a relationship I do not personally like. You are being pushed to complete tasks on my behalf that most would normally see impossible, the only compensation I am able to give you is necessary to further my own goals. You are doing something incredibly important for me, but all I have been able to grant you is the opportunity to survive.

Your survival is something I should have been able to guarantee, but I am unable to.

My child being in your care will give you two things. The first of these is that you will be able to reap the boons of my child's development, whatever they may be. There is a reason that my body has become the core of the Sanctum, reasons that I will not spoil for you, but you will come to understand that these boons can benefit even your modern technology. The second of these is that you will have something like a hostage, and incentive and a promise from me to ensure I will not take actions to harm you. It will be a reminder that you have my support when in need.

Donovan rubbed the bridge of his nose.

'Can I talk this over with Diana?'

I would prefer it if you didn't. As the one I have chosen to complete my will, I would like for your decision to be purely yours. You may speak to her once she figures it out, but until that point I don't wish for her to have influence over my child. You must become my child's equivalent of the Arboreal Maiden, as uncomfortable as that may sound.

'. . . can I let Arc know at least?'

That . . . is an acceptable compromise. I suspect that it will be your primary method of monitoring my child in your absence, so it would be natural for it to know. I only ask that you make sure it maintains the secret. Additionally, I would ask you not to experiment on my child until it is old enough to provide consent, some fifty years at minimum, as I wish for it to grow undisturbed.

'Is fifty years enough? You live for a long time, don't you?'

I could grow to four or five times my current size in a century if I so felt like it. My growth, and the growth of my children, is actually quite fast in comparison to others. Our fundamental source of energy and growth is split and split alone, something which we can generate ourselves, much like a star. As a matter of fact, our cores must be integrated into a star.

'?'

Don't worry about the specifics for now, just understand that your star, or what's left of it, is what you might consider fertile soil for us. Your star was powerful, it still is, but its current 'consciousness' is incredibly weak.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

'Wasn't it killed though?'

Not quite. It is incredibly difficult to kill a star completely, something that mortals don't fully understand. You can increase its volume so that it is unable to fight or efficiently produce split, but until you pierce the core you cannot kill it. Eventually it will regenerate, returning to it's original status. However in this weakened state it becomes easy for control to be established over it, perfect for the child I plan to place in your care. To that end, you should not worry about your home system being barren. You may not have a planet, but your system will be able to support life, your star will 'revive' once my child is strong enough to assume complete control.

'Wait, hold it. You are planted in a star? Where is it?'

Donovan wanted to ask if that technically made it a parasite, but he thought that might be a little rude.

You are inside of it, child. The forest you see all over the outer wall here? That is the interior of the star's surface, I remodeled it to make it a pleasant playground for the Skwiven. As you can see from it's turquoise color, it is fairly strong. However it wasn't always this way. I grew from a red star, and it took me a very long time to bring my star to this color.

At the moment, your star is effectively weaker than that red star, so I feel it perfect for my child.

Donovan whipped his head around, that was a star? Weren't stars supposed to be hot?

I apologies for my intrusion, but that was only the case in a universe without split. They do provide warmth, but they no longer need to fuse matter to maintain themselves. Hydrogen, helium, and other lighter gasses are fairly effective at keeping split from escaping, insulators you might call them, owing to the higher than average speed that the atoms move around. I won't bother with explaining it to you at the moment, but it is quite the fascinating phenomena.

'Do you use hydrogen then?'

No, my body is far better at containing and conducting split. All fibered structures are. Gasses are simply better than solids, their chaotic movement somewhat imitating fibrous materials.

'Is that why muscles are so responsive to split?'

An astute observation, that is indeed the case. Of course when it comes to pure storage there are better structures, various crystal lattices and four dimensional geometries, but when it comes to transport of pure split and invoking change upon the outer world, fibers are much better. I am certain you also understand that this is why split is manipulated in strands, right?

'That makes sense.'

Back to the my question. Will you accept? I can train you in how to raise it.

There was a hint of desperation there.

Please, you might be my last chance. . .

Donovan was hesitant. Sure, this was a lot of power being placed in his hands, forfeited to him even, but there was also a lot of responsibility that came alongside it. There was a lot of risk too.

'Fine. I'll bite. I accept your offer.'

Thank you! Thank you!

There was genuine joy and relief, a wave of happiness crashing into his mind to the point where even he got the jitters.

Oh I thank you forever! I promise I shall never renege on my promises!

'That's good and all, but I will need to prioritize my goals. You understand, right?'

That is fine. My child will be largely self-sufficient. All I ask is that you protect it and teach it what I know.

'Great, good. We can talk more about that later. What is the last thing you wanted to talk about?'

Ah, my apologies. That was unbecoming of my status. Yes, I wanted to know what it was you needed, both now and for the future. I understand that you have had a conversation with the Arboreal Maiden and the Merchant about what they can provide, but I want to know what they have been unable to.

'Why?'

I won't provide too many details for the sake of brevity, but I have some methods of . . . acquiring, yes that is the proper word, materials that most people would be unable to refine. Rubber, or any other substance that is produced by trees that you might need, is something I can easily synthesize for you. I would prefer it if you made containers for these of course, just so that it doesn't make a mess. In addition, I can also gather a small number of whatever rare or heavy metals you might need. In my time a fair amount of trade has taken place here, including trade with minerals, metals, and artistic pieces, and I have had to clean up a fairly large amount of dust. There is probably a few thousand kilograms of each metal you can use in dust form somewhere on my body. It will just take some time to collect it all. Would you be interested?

'Absolutely. Dust form is better, actually, it melts better. I'm sure I can have Arc make an airtight box in a jiffy.'

Lovely, I shall get started with accumulating it, though I must warn you it will take a few months to get a useable quantity. What of your natural material concerns?

'I'll need to talk with Arc about what chemicals we will need in particular, but we need as much rubber as possible, we need to use it as a sealant to prevent fluid leaking and to cover wires. I have to ask though, why weren't we offered this before? This is going to throw a serious wrench in our plans.'

Truth be told, I was not thinking about what I could provide at the time. I fully believed that the only thing I could contribute was rebuilding you in a way that could use split. The idea that I might be able to give you something you were unable to produce yourself did not occur to me.

Donovan was pulling his hair out. Rubber was huge. If they had rubber, then Arc wouldn't be limited by wire length. Ships could also have air and water-tight compartments. Natural oils were also pretty big, if inefficient, as a guaranteed source of lubricant opened up the systems available to them.

'Can I count on you to provide materials like rubber for a time after we have left the Sanctum? We need to build a lot of transports for the Nekh evacuation, and they are going to have to be big if I want them to be efficient. If I can get rubber the build time for those ships will drop, even if it's by a few hours.'

Of course, though I will try to provide as much as I can before you leave so that you don't have to retrieve as much. Now, with that out of the way, what else do you need? I might not be able to provide it of course, but I may be able to give a suggestion.

'Manpower?'

I am unable to provide that, though you seem to have a grasp on it.

'Information?'

The Arboreal Maiden is a better source for that, I remain blissfully unaware of the working of the outer world.

'Those are the three things we need though, Resources, Manpower, and Information.'

What about your language?

'What about it?'

Nobody really speaks it, do they? What if I increased that number by one?

'How would you do that?'

Secret, though this little girl should be able to speak it somewhat fluently when she wakes up. . .