Chapter 220
“Hi! I'm Jay. Are you Natasha?” asked Jay after a moments hesitation. One of the ducks looked over at them and quacked loudly as if it wanted to be part of the conversation too.
Natasha sighed deeply. “Always with the questions. You students are exhausting. Can't you see I'm working on something?”
Jay blinked before he turned to look at the ducks and then back at her. “With the ducks?”
Natasha blushed, “The ducks are here for moral support.”
The woman was on the shorter side and was wearing a soft light blue cape over a cream colored blouse. She wore pants that reminded Jay of cargo pants with many pockets, some full, some not. Her boots were black and looked as if they had seen some use. Thanks to Jay's recent aura cleaning though the boots were spotless – just well used.
It was still summer and was warm enough that Jay thought it odd for Natasha to be walking around in the sun while wearing a cape. Maybe it was a magical cape, Jay wondered to himself as he returned to looking over Natasha.
This was not a woman used to just sitting in a room and reading. No, this was the kind of woman that went out and did things. She had a bit of nervous energy to her that Jay found off-putting but he needed her at the moment, not the other way around. So he ignored it and pushed on.
Jay wondered what she had been working on. “Are you working on something in particular?”
Natasha narrowed her eyes. “Why? Are you looking to tattle on me?”
Jay startled and gave her a surprised look. “What? Tattle on you? Tattle on you to who? And for what?”
Natasha pursed her lips. “Good point. I guess it won't hurt to tell someone,” she said with a final shrug. “It's not like it's a secret or anything. I'm working on unlocking the talent menu through meditation!” She said it with a grand tone of voice that was a bit too grand for her normal sounding words. She looked a bit disappointed when Jay didn't seem impressed.
“Ok? Is it working?” Jay asked as Natasha noticed a bug on her arm and carefully herded it on to one finger so that she could put it on to a tree rather than let it crawl around on her.
“No,” Natasha admitted with a sigh. “But I'm sure that it will!”
Jay nodded and looked out over the pond and watched the ducks play.
“What's the talent menu?” Jay asked, unsure if he was pushing his luck by asking more questions. They were questions about her and her work though so Jay thought that she might answer them even if she did say he was bothering her.
“It's an ancient way of enhancing one's normal Class Abilities! Everyone used to have them! And then poof – they disappeared over night. Now no one has them. If they could be given and taken away though there must be a way to get them back, right?” she asked Jay.
Jay shrugged – he wasn't sure that was how things worked, “Maybe?”
She huffed at his indecisiveness and continued, “No. There MUST be a way to get them back. Imagine if you could access all of the past upgrades that have disappeared over the millennia! It could open up a whole new age of power for humanity as a whole!”
Jay nodded even though he was pretty sure that the meditation she was doing wouldn't ever produce the results that she was looking for. She had, however, offered him a bit of a conversational opportunity and he took it before the moment had passed.
“So you know a bit about past upgrades? Long lost menu-items, alternate upgrade paths, that kind of thing?” Jay asked.
Natasha gave him a shocked look. “I'm the leading expert on ancient and alternative upgrade paths! I'm the one people come to when they have a question but as soon as I tell them what I'm working on its always 'Natasha is crazy! Natasha has gone off the deep end again! Natasha is talking to ducks now! No one gives me any respect!”
Jay nodded as her volume increased and the ducks momentarily zoomed over to the other side of the pond, just in case. They eyed her warily from the opposite shore of the pond as the two humans sat quietly. Jay wasn't about to argue with her. The scribe that had given Jay directions to find her in the first place had warned him that she was a little bit odd and was considered fairly crazy by the rest of the instructors.
Her moods seemed to swing wildly between stillness and anger. Still – she might have information that would be helpful to Jay, so he maintained a polite visage. Not a bad idea even if he hadn't needed information from her. She might not be crazy but if not then she might be close.
“What about Evolution? Have you ever heard anything about,” Jay began but was immediately interrupted by a loud commotion from Natasha.
“The Goddess' Garden! Humanity's True Path. Of course I know of it. The real question we should be asking ourselves here is how do you know of it?” Natasha asked, and all of her playfulness disappeared as she gazed at Jay with a considering and critical eye.
Jay felt like if he were to be honest with her that there was a better than zero chance that he would end up on a table in a basement somewhere being inspected and experimented on for the rest of his life. Not that there was a 100% chance of that happening, but a non-zero chance was still a chance.
“It's for private study as part of my optional classes,” Jay said as he lied as well as he could. Jay was good at many things, but prevarication was not one of them.
“Poop,” she swore, “I don't believe you. Try again,” she said and leaned in closer. Jay could smell clean linen and the hints of an ocean breeze thanks to her recent aura cleaning.
Jay decided to tell the truth while not telling her anything. “I'm not going to tell you. I will talk with you about it though. When is the last time you got to talk with someone about your work that was really interested in it?”
Natasha frowned, “I highly doubt a student like you would have any knowledge of the Garden that I lack – or that you have any real interest. You're after something but I'm not sure what.”
She glared at Jay and he felt as if things were moving in the wrong direction. So he did something foolish and decided to tease her. With information.
“The strength garden is made up of thick and smooth trunk like structures that terminate in blue flowers. If you zoom in you can see that the trunks are covered in tiny pores. Does that sound like something I would know if I weren't really interested in talking with you about it?” Jay tried. He wasn't sure that it would be enough to garner her interest but it was worth the attempt, he thought.
Natasha tilted her head to the side as if she were listening for something but finally shook her head. She leaned forward with a look of frightening intensity, “What does dexterity look like?”
Jay answered without pause, “Snarls of vines. They bear berries and have tiny blue flower petals.”
Natasha let her breath out and sat back. “Snarls? You poor thing. You do know about the Garden! I can't believe it. The only people I've ever talked to about it were Librarians, scholars, or high level adventurers.”
“High level adventurers?” Jay asked. “Why would they be interested?”
Natasha blinked before she spoke. “I keep forgetting that you're a student. You don't know yet. Answer me this – what is the maximum level?”
Jay shrugged, “I have no idea.”
Natasha looked at him strangely and went suddenly still. “That,” she said with a worried look, “is not what I was expecting for an answer. Most people say twenty. I guess not everyone knows, maybe? It's twenty. You can level up to 20 and then – bam – you're stuck. You still earn experience points but they don't level you up anymore. So once you hit level 20 you start searching for new ways to grow. When that happens people inevitably find their way to me, just as you did.”
She looked him over from head to toe twice before she stated flatly, “You're nowhere near level 20 though. So why the interest?”
Jay grinned, “Again, I'm going to be honest and tell you that I'm not going to tell you. I'm happy to talk with you about – what did you call it? The Goddess' Garden?”
Natasha nodded, “Sure. Or Gaia's Garden. There was a time when 'growing your garden' was an adventurer's life's work. That was so long ago that there is great difficulty in even finding written records of it but we know for a fact that it once existed for most if not all adventurers.”
“And now it's gone?” Jay asked as two ducks splashed each other and made quacking sounds. The other ducks looked on without joining in themselves.
Natasha grinned. “The Goddess rarely destroys. She might un-link one thing from another, or sever a connection here or there, but no, I believe that all of the past upgrade paths still exist. They are just unreachable for us. So it is not gone but unreachable. An important distinction,” she gently chided Jay.
“What do you know about the Garden? Just that it existed?” Jay asked in hopes that she would continue to share her knowledge with him.
Natasha shook her head. “I know plenty. I know enough to know that you shouldn't know any of this.” She looked at Jay as she considered something that she kept to herself. Finally she shrugged. It startled one of the ducks who momentarily disappeared under the water.
“I'll tell you what I know. In return – you'll tell me what you know. I think that is only fair, right?” Natasha offered reasonably.
Jay got that feeling that he often got when he was about to be taken advantage of. It popped up once in a while and while the feeling didn't tell Jay how he was about to be taken advantage of it was sometimes just enough to know that it was about to happen.
“I'll tell you some of what I know. You can decide for yourself if it's true or not. Deal?” Jay said as he renegotiated some of the terms. He would not be required to tell her every last detail he was aware of that had anything to do with the topic at hand.
Natasha didn't answer him and let the silence grow uncomfortably.
Jay thought he knew what she was doing. It was called many things but Jay knew it as the silence trick, and it was easy to do. You just didn't say anything. Most people are uncomfortable with silence and will talk over it just to make it go away. When bargaining sometimes saying nothing was the best thing to say as it forced your opponent to do the talking.
Jay didn't take the bait and stayed silent as well. She would answer when she chose to, Jay didn't need to hurry the process along by interrupting the silence.
“Fine.” Natasha finally relented and Jay smiled as she was the first to speak. Jay could walk away from their conversation and would only be a little disappointed if he didn't get his questions answered.
Natasha however would be haunted by the fact that she had met someone with answers in regards to the topic of her life's study and she had failed to obtain them. She couldn't bear the thought of not knowing something and so had agreed to the deal that Jay had countered with.
“Deal. You go first. What do you want to know?” Natasha asked as she put the entire weight of the conversation on Jay.
Jay blinked, he had been unprepared to be put on the spot. He wasn't a scholar and hadn't organized his thoughts in to a logical series of questions. He tried the first thing that came to mind.
“Why are the gardens different sizes?” Jay asked.
Natasha blinked in surprise, “Now how the Goddess would you know about that,” she mumbled quietly to herself but quickly proceeded to answer the question. After a moment's thought she smiled evilly and offered up her own question.
“What is your lowest stat?” she asked and hoped that Jay wasn't paying attention too much.
“Um..” Jay said as he mentally brought up his attribute statistics.
STR: 2 (+5) <+1>
DEX: 2 (+5) <+1>
INT: 3 (+5) <+1>
WIS: 3 (+4) <+1>
CHR: 3 (+3) <+1>
He fiddled with his menu a bit so that it only showed a single total number instead of the breakdown by source.
STR: 8 | DEX: 8 | INT: 9 | WIS: 8 | CHR: 7
The notification popped up with a single line and he smiled. It was much easier to read than before.
“Charisma is my lowest, at 7,” Jay replied readily and without guile.
“Well that 7 means your Charisma garden is size 7. It will be your smallest garden bed. Your Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom are all the same size at 8 and are just a bit larger than your Charisma garden bed. Finally, your Intelligence garden bed would be the largest at 9.” Natasha explained as she tried to nudge the conversation from theoretical to practical by relating things to Jay's actual statistics.
“And the plants inside?” Jay asked.
“Ah. Well that is something entirely different. And a second question – you only get one to start. My turn!” Natasha insisted with a strident tone of voice that brooked no dissent.
Jay nodded, “What would you like to know then?”
Natasha didn't have to even think about it, she knew what she wanted to ask. “Why can't anyone unlock the Garden through meditation anymore?”
Jay smiled in spite of himself before he smoothed the expression off of his face. That was an easy one and he answered, “Because no one knows how to meditate properly anymore.”
Natasha made a sour face as if she had bitten a lemon rind, “If you don't know the answer you don't have to be flippant about it, you can just say so.”
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Jay shook his head and managed not to smile before he spoke, “Not being flippant. Not playing any games. That is the real answer and I know it to be true. You're looking at the wrong things. You have been focusing on the Garden instead of the meditation. Maybe study that instead?”
Natasha opened her mouth to speak but then closed it and made a hrmmm noise in the back of her throat. She muttered to herself about meditation as if Jay weren't there anymore. When she didn't offer Jay his next turn he decided to ask anyway and she looked up from her musings as he spoke.
“What about the plants in the garden beds? If the garden bed size is based on my statistics then what do the plants represent?” Jay asked plaintively. He really wanted to understand the Evolution garden.
Natasha waved that off as if it were obvious. “That? The plants are you. Fool,” she said as she shook her head. “How could you not see that?”
Jay thought back to high school English class when the teacher would have the students interpret the writer's intent for each book they had read. It was always a nightmare for Jay. Something always represented something else and you were just supposed to know. How? Jay hadn't ever figured it out and was relieved when he'd barely passed the class.
“I'm not that great at interpreting things I guess?” Jay offered noncommittally.
Natasha nodded as if she had suspected as much and explained. “The plants are you. How they look, how they are arranged in the bed, the leaf arrangement especially – they are a visual representation of your body.”
Jay thought his body was already a great visual representation of his body and couldn't understand why it needed to be represented differently at all.
“Before you ask, no. You don't get physically stronger by growing the plants in the strength bed. I told you that the plants represent you but that isn't entirely correct. The plants represent your ability to absorb mana and how that mana can be directed throughout it.” Natasha explained somewhat poorly.
Jay was about to ask another question but Natasha cut him off with a shake of her head.
“My turn. Is the Evolution menu's first letter capitalized or not?” Natasha asked and before Jay could stop himself he had accessed his menu to check.
Natasha watched as his eyes momentarily unfocused. That was enough proof for her and she was now absolutely certain that Jay had somehow gained access to the Evolution menu. Why else would he check his menus unless to check on the Evolution menu item's capitalization? Something he could not do unless he had it.
Natasha had played a little trick on Jay, and he had fallen for it. If M'redith had been there it wouldn't have happened – but she wasn't, and so it did.
“Capitalized,” Jay said in a tone that made him sound quite sure of himself.
“Are you sure?” Natasha asked. She was teasing him a little but also wanted to hear his response.
“Absolutely,” Jay said. A bit too sure of himself, he realized after a moment when Natasha flashed a predatory grin towards him. Uh oh. Did he give something away that he hadn't meant to? He went back over their conversation so far but couldn't find any error on his part.
“Your turn,” Natasha said as her grin remained on her face. She seemed quite pleased with herself.
“You said the plants represent my ability to absorb mana. So the entire garden is me and shows how I absorb mana. Each garden bed represents a mana collecting system in my body. The beds do not represent physical or mental characteristics such as strength or intelligence.” Jay said slowly as he worked his way through what he had learned so far.
Natasha nodded seriously as her grin faded. It hurt to grin for that long she had discovered.
“So what does it mean when one of the beds gets full of plants?” Jay asked.
Natasha sighed. “You still don't get it? Ok. Take any garden bed. It has flowers. Those flowers can be grown further, by you. Once they fill the garden bed you have to expand the garden bed by increasing the associated character statistic. So if your Strength garden bed was full you'd have to put a point in to Strength next time you leveled up.”
“Wait,” Jay said. “Is that how we are supposed to know how to spend our character statistics points?”
Natasha made a hrmm sound. She was so intrigued by the question that she answered it even though it wasn't Jay's turn to ask a question. “I hadn't thought of it that way, but yes. If you could see your Evolution menu then you'd theoretically know exactly which statistic was growing 'full' and in need of an extra point.”
The two went quiet for a time as they both pondered but over different things. Jay thought that he might have a grasp on what the Evolution menu represented, but not what it did. When did the 'evolution' happen? Natasha on the other hand was considering how to get Jay to tell her more about the menu item she was now sure that he had. Her eyes sparkled at the possibilities.
It was still Natasha's turn so she tried something else. “How do you fill the garden beds?”
Jay shrugged, “I don't know,” he said just as he realized he knew exactly how to fill the beds. “Just thought of it actually – you fill them by doing the correct meditation – not just any meditation.”
Natasha grinned, “Almost right. You have to focus on a subsystem when you meditate. Strength, Intelligence, Charisma and so on – you pick one and focus on it as you meditate. Or, alternatively, you clear your mind, and work a little on all of them. That part I've got down pat – I just need to figure out how to do the meditation correctly now!”
Jay nodded, “So you just think about strong things if you want to work on your Strength garden bed?”
Natasha shook her head. “No. You need to tend your garden when you meditate. Focus on the plants, where they are, where they should be. Every leaf should be positioned so that it absorbs the most mana without taking away from any other leaf's ability to do so as well.”
She smiled as one of the ducks looked over at them and quacked, as if in agreement. “The more detail you can hold in your mind the greater the results will be. There are entire books dedicated to 'growing your garden' that describes various plant arrangements and growing methods. They all leave out one thing though: how to perform the meditation itself.”
Jay shook his head, “I can't answer that question right now.”
Natasha frowned, “But that is my question,” she pointed out with one raised finger.
“I can tell you something about the meditation – do you know about the sludge?” Jay asked and Natasha shook her head in confusion at the unfamiliar term.
“When you do the meditation correctly you perspire a thick and oily sticky substance through all of your pores. It's gross and foul smelling and almost impossible to get off as it is oily, so water doesn't work, and sticky, so rubbing at it just makes it worse. When you start sweating that stuff you'll know you're meditating correctly,” Jay offered. He was sure that he hadn't let anything about the meditation method itself slip in to the conversation. That was the real secret to all of this and he wanted to keep it to himself for now.
Natasha however looked surprised. “Where on Eden did you learn that?” she asked in shock. “I know about that but haven't told anyone else - as I own the only book that mentions it - that I've manage to find anyway.”
Jay smiled faintly, “An authoritative source. My turn. The entire Evolution menu seems to be all about growing a garden that collects mana as efficiently as possible. Where is it going? What does the actual evolution do?”
Natasha shook her head and didn't answer his question, “Sorry – is there no chance of you telling me where you learned about the... sludge, as you call it?”
Jay was thankful that she was currently in a polite and not a threatening mood. “No – I'm not offering sources, just information for right now.”
Natasha nodded as one of the ducks decided that it wanted more from life and waddled out of the pond. It quickly disappeared in to the forest of sunflower stalks. The other birds watched him go with confused duck looks.
“Right. Well then to answer your question, if the garden is you then the evolution is in to a new garden. A new body. One that is better suited to absorbing mana.” Natasha said simply as if it were obvious.
“Goddess I hate that I have to ask this question but I'll kick myself later if I don't. What is mana?” Jay asked with a hesitant look.
Natasha laughed. “Try asking a hard question! What is mana? Mana is everything and nothing all at once. It is the energy that makes up every living and non living thing in existence in Eden. Do you have any idea what Eden is actually made up of?”
Jay nodded. He actually did know. “Electricity.”
Natasha shook her head and said no but then paused to consider it. “Electricity? That is an energy source. That would mean that...” she said as she mumbled to herself in thought.
Jay cleared his throat and Natasha looked up, surprised to see him. “I wandered off again, didn't I?”
Jay nodded and looked away, over towards the ducks. The ducks looked away from Jay as well.
“Sorry about that. I get lost in my thoughts easily. What were we talking about?” she asked as she shook herself to regain focus and ran her fingers through her hair before tousling it and then smoothing it back down.
“Mana?” Jay offered as simply as possible, not wanting to set her off again.
“Oh, right! Mana! Think of it as the fuel that runs everything – especially Class Abilities. That is probably the most obvious effect. The more mana a body can absorb the stronger their Class Abilities will be – as well as the stronger their Class Ability options will be when leveling up. It is a massive upgrade over and above a normal level up. It effects every part of a person,” Natasha said as she waved her hands about as she spoke as if to add emphasis.
“So we're all mana.” Jay thought out loud.
“No. We're electricity if what you said is correct. Mana is what is used to force that electricity to do what you want it to. Cast a fireball. Summon a puddle of water. Turn dirt in to rising motes of light,” she said with a raised eyebrow directed towards Jay.
“It's all electricity – until the mana shapes it in to something specific. How much mana your body can absorb determines the shapes you can form. Get it? Think of it as a guiding force, not a physical object.”
Jay rubbed at his forehead. He could feel a real rough migraine headache coming on. Would a heal from Aiden take care of that, Jay wondered. Aiden was with his girlfriend at the moment though so that wasn't even an option. Maybe he'd stop by the infirmary if it didn't go away, Jay decided before he turned back to paying attention to Natasha.
“I think it is your turn,” Jay pointed out after a minute had gone by in silence.
Natasha looked up in confusion, “You're still here? What time is it?” she said urgently as she looked up at the sky for a moment before she visibly relaxed. “Plenty of time. Next question then,” she said as if she hadn't just mentally wandered off by herself for a few minutes, “How do you use the controls on the Evolution screen?”
Jay sighed and Natasha watched him curiously and with an out of place intensity as he answered, “I've no idea. As far as I know the Evolution screen is only for viewing, and not for performing any activities on the garden.”
Natasha grinned and nodded. “I'll have you know that has been a major point of contention with scholars. Many insist that the screen can be used for planting, managing growth, correcting plant spacing, etc.”
Jay shook his head, “They're all wrong. There are no controls for interacting with the garden on the Evolution screen.”
Natasha nodded, her grin still plastered on her face. “You've no idea how happy that makes me! I've been on team non-interactive for as long as I can remember. Now I know I'm right!” she said excitedly and wiggled in her seat for a moment due to her nervous energy.
That was when Jay understood that Natasha was treating him as if she knew his answers were correct. That was a lot of trust. Jay wondered what he had let slip in the conversation that had made her think that way. A moment later he realized that if she knew that then she would, at the very least, suspect that he had unlocked the menu item himself.
Crap, Jay thought to himself. Oh well, can't change it now, Jay thought and moved on.
“Congratulations?” Jay said as if unsure of what he was supposed to say.
“Jay this means that I was right, you don't understand. I've spent my life working on this stuff. You never really know anything – it's all guesswork as the data is ancient. The best you can hope for is to be probably correct!”
She took a deep breath, “There are scholars who have based their entire careers over their views on the Evolution screen. They'll never know if they are right but now I do! Do you have any idea how powerful that feels?” Natasha explained in a rush as she shook her hands as if they were wet and she were trying to dry them.
“You really just want to know, huh?” Jay said just as something clicked in his mind and he finally understood Natasha's motivations – something that he very rarely managed to do with other people.
“ALL I WANT is to know!” Natasha replied as if she were thrilled to find someone that really got her.
Jay realized that Natasha was a collector. She collected knowledge, and the rarest most desired knowledge to her was ancient knowledge that existed now only in pieces, so old as to be inherently unknowable. That was part of the allure. She was chasing prey that she would never catch.
Then she had met Jay, who seemed to know some of that unknowable knowledge. Then he had shared that with her as if it were no big deal, he had done so almost off-handedly.
As soon as Natasha had realized that Jay might have unlocked the Evolution menu item himself she had decided that she was going to do whatever it took to cultivate a professional relationship with Jay. Jay might not know it yet – but he had just made a new friend.
Natasha gave Jay a frown. “That is all a lot to think about. I might have to revise some of my past conclusions. I've so much research to do!” she said as she got up without saying goodbye.
“Um. The library is closed. For a week.” Jay pointed out.
Natasha let out a strangled scream of frustration. “Who closes a library??” It appeared that she hadn't heard the gossip yet about the library and Jay wondered how long she had been out here in the meadow with the ducks. Hours? Days?
Jay shrugged, still seated on the bench. “Librarians. A guard drew a sword and tried to force his way in.”
Natasha spat on the ground and managed to once again surprise Jay. He hadn't taken her for a spitter.
“You've got to be stupid to pick a fight with a seven foot tall Librarian especially when they're on their own land. Besides, they're the Goddess' favorites,” Natasha insisted with a huff.
“That seems to be the general consensus in the Guild,” Jay added. “You think the Librarians are favorites of the Goddess?” Jay asked curiously.
Natasha nodded. “You see anyone else seven feet tall? She gave them an edge over the rest of us for a reason I'm guessing.”
Jay nodded but kept quiet. He was momentarily intensely aware of the marks on the backs of his hands. Gaia's marks. Jay was thankful that he had successfully kept them hidden up until then. He felt full of secrets sometimes.
“Good talk. I have things to think about and do. I will see you again. Soon.” Natasha said as she faded out of view right in front of him.
Jay said “Good talk...” but she was already gone. Jay stood alone. He heard a quack and looked down.
The duck had returned from the patch of sunflowers and rubbed its head up against one of Jay's boots. Then it flapped its wings and returned to the safety of the pond.
Jay sighed and got up. He worked his way through the flowers and back to the tunnel of greenery he had fought through to get to the pond.
He had learned quite a bit and felt like he now had a good grasp of the Evolution menu. He would use it as a guide while meditating to try and grow his flowers in to the proper shape. Jay was sure there would be a bit more to it than just its shape but would deal with that when he got to it. His first thing to do would be to locate a book on 'tending his garden.' It would be an older if not ancient book and so difficult to obtain but money wasn't an obstacle.
He tugged a thorny plant off of his leather armor and moved further into the greenery.
If only the Library were open.