“That’s good to hear,” I said, understandably relieved. Not having to die in the short term was definitely positive.

“Anyway, can you help me out with the ether-gathering or not?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, I cannot. If I permitted it, it would be the same as embracing one of the two sides,” he immediately responded.

I sighed.

“Can you just stop? I’m getting really tired of your b******t. Just say what you mean,” I finally snapped. I had gotten annoyed by his largely cryptic manner of speaking.

For the first time, their expression changed, although barely, into a momentaneous grimace.

“How crass,” he mumbled in an offended tone. Nevertheless, they complied with my request.

“As you wish. For various reasons, The Garden cannot help you directly, but we can bestow upon you a seed through which another garden may be born”

“Good good. Then give it to me”

Their brow twitched.

“There is hardly anything that prevents you from being more courteous,” the Gardener mumbled.

“An essence must be infused in the seed for it to germinate. That will be yours,” they continued.

I nodded.

“How can I do that?” I inquired.

“You just need to be patient,” the Gardener said quietly.

They waved their left hand. The green halo immediately rose from the ground, saturating the air and illuminating the night. The earth started to tremble and suddenly numerous roots emerged from the ground around me and started climbing my body.

I immediately moved to tear them off me, but the Gardener stopped me.

“I ask you to bear with it. In your blood vessels flows what is needed for the seed to form,” they explained.

I let go of the few strands in my hands, sat on the ground and let the roots climb over my body. The further they scaled, the thinner they got, until a verdant and brown web covered my whole body, except for the head.

I felt countless needles pricking my skin as they penetrated my skin and made their way towards my blood vessels. After a quick thought to how they weren’t actually hurting me and how I hadn’t the actual strength to fight it back, I let them be.

At first the blood-sucking roots turned red, but after a while they changed colour and got dyed in an intense violet, shining a dim light bearing the same hue in the surroundings.

“So you were referring to my lymph,” I noted.

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“Curious choice of name,” the Gardener stated after a brief moment of silence.

I waited for the process to finish. It lasted for a long while. Although I was continuously losing blood, I replenished myself by consuming fruits of the Garden as they were given me by the Gardener themselves.

At a certain point I asked why the process got so long, and the answer I got was that the lymph was being extracted as it was being produced, because its concentration in my blood vessels was low. This was mostly due to the fact that I had consumed a fair amount of it in the previous battle against the gigantic spider.

Finally the light of the rising sun filtered through the leaves and the process came to an end. Slowly the roots covering my body shrivelled and disappeared into a fine cerulean powder. I brushed up my body and stood up.

“When will it be ready?” I asked the Gardener, referring to the seed.

During the long night I had sometime conversed with the Gardener about the nature of the seed.

They had explained to me that originally the Garden covered much less ground than it was today. In order to expand it the formation of new weeds was not enough, as they would not operate as desired by purifying the ground and the air. They needed to be born and linked to something which could sustain and regulate their operations.

That was the function of a seed, which functioned as a bearer of the essence of The Green: extending the domain of the Garden.

“It already is,” the Gardener responded, sinking their hand into the ground and grasping a portion of soil.

They came nearer and reached their open palm towards me. In the middle of the handful of dirt there laid a particularly small seed, less than a marble in diameter. Despite its small dimensions, a great amount of power could be felt lying under its outer layer. I took it in my hand and felt it pulse like a beating heart.

“Plant it there, where you wish to lay your claims. Command your land yourself, or designate a guardian,” the Gardener said.

I closed my palm and grasped it tightly. It was warm and it felt like an extension of myself, through which I could dominate the earth itself. I already knew what to do with it.

“You’ve been of help. Although I do thank you, I won’t promise to repay you,” I stated.

“I do not expect anything of the sort. It is beneficial to the Garden to keep you away, as your presence attracts undue attention,” the Gardener replied frankly.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Undue attention?” I inquired.

I didn’t immediately understand what he was referring to, but after thinking about it for a while something came to my mind.

“Are you referring to when the forest screamed against the sky? While I was with Caleb? Is that related to my sudden head splitting headache?”

The Gardener smiled.

“That is so, I’m speaking about the outsider who tried to expand their influence inside of the Garden. Obviously that is not acceptable, so the forest ‘screamed’, as you say, to reaffirm its authority and independence”

Although the Gardener was certainly dwelling into some additional details, I wasn’t immediately able to decipher their words. They were talking about an outside entity capable of exerting influence over the world, but I had never experienced anything like that, nor should it have existed.

I froze for an instant. It was a faint memory which had returned to my mind. Immediately after my re-birth, when I had reformed my body from scratches due to Tobias butchering of my old one, I had seen “something” similar to a pair of eyes looking down on me and onto this world. I had found it incredibly displeasing. Then, something came to mind.

“Is this somehow related to Caleb?” I inquired.

After all, it was the second time something strange had happened to me and it had all been connected to Caleb. When I had tried to kill him during the tournament I had almost been hit by lightning. When I had badly injured him a few hours ago, some strange thoughts had invaded my mind. It was difficult to accept everything as a coincidence.

The Gardener smiled even more widely.

“Of course it is. After all, he is her beloved child,” they uttered.

“Whose child?” I pressed them for more information.

“Mother’s, of course,” the Gardener said, immediately disappearing in a vortex of green light.