In the end, Sowwy was unable to push the words out of herself, but she was also unable to escape the delicious human pestilence persistently infesting her valley.

I was an incredibly tasty nut that she could not swallow. A coconut masquerading as a pine seed, perpetually lodged in her throat.

As snow buried the house and winter froze the waterfalls solid, we settled into another routine. During the day, I worked on expanding and reinforcing my network of formation arrays throughout the house while Sowwy slept in the shed.

At night, she would help teach the cabbage-girls while pretending she wasn't getting attached to them.

Unlike our duo, the Cabbage-spirits didn't function in cycles, they had rhythms of activity and inactivity. They enjoyed "rest" rather than sleep.

The cabbage-girls were still quite simple in their cognition and behavior, more like spiritual toddlers than full people. They could speak basic words and follow simple instructions, but their understanding was limited. Most of their communication consisted of mimicking phrases they heard and expressing basic needs like "hungry" or "cold."

Like Sowwy they didn't really understand clothes, nor did they had a need for modesty since they lacked any sort of conventional anatomy - they were essentially humanoid arrangements of violet leaves and fibrous plant matter.

Their "skin" was actually layers of fine leaves that could unfurl or contract based on temperature and spiritual energy levels.

I made simple necklaces with little wooden tags with numbers on them to keep track of them.

Their intelligence seemed to develop in stages, like watching a flower slowly unfold. At first they could only mimic simple words and respond to basic stimuli. But as winter deepened, they began showing signs of more complex thought and individual personalities.

Zen-1, the first to awaken, was the most advanced. She had progressed from just saying "cold" to forming complete, if simple, sentences. "Zen-onnn want story," she demanded in the evenings, settling near the hearth with her violet leaves unfurled to catch the warmth. "Zen first. Zen-onn spesssiall."

The others were still at various earlier stages of development. Zen-4 was obsessed with touching everything, while Zen-2 spent hours staring at her own reflection in water buckets. Zen-9 had developed an odd habit of trying to stack things into towers, though her lack of coordination meant they usually collapsed. Zen-7 hung around me like a duckling, following in my steps and pawing me softly for Qi.

Teaching them was an interesting challenge. Sowwy, despite her constant protests about not being a teacher, turned out to have surprising patience when it came to demonstrating basic skills. Patience that probably came with being naturally undying. I wondered what would happen if the wolves did eat her. Would she just remanifest again in a century without her human memories?

The spirit bird spent hours showing the spirit veggies how to properly channel and refine spiritual energy, though she adamantly refused to teach them any "dangerous" techniques.

"No lightning!" she screeched whenever one of them tried to mimic the Young Mistress's signature purple sparks.

The passive-aggressive traits of their progenitor began manifesting in amusing ways. Zen-3 had mastered the art of the dramatic leaf-rustle of disapproval while Zen-6 developed an imperious stare that was likely a comedic replica of the Young Mistress's famous "I'm surrounded by clueless peasants" expression.

It was particularly funny on her because she had no idea what she was doing herself 80% of the time.

"They're getting her personality traits," Sowwy observed one night, watching as Zen-8 threw what could only be described as a cabbage tantrum because her sister wouldn't share a shiny spirit rock. "It's... disturbing. Could you not maybe have picked out a different person to turn into a cabbage?"

"You have personality traits," I pointed out. "Just differently awful ones. Like randomly shrieking at midnight."

"I do not randomly shriek!" Sowwy shrieked. "I emit carefully timed vocalizations designed to inspire terror in anyone who dares to enter my domain!"

"That was definitely a random shriek just now," I said, watching as several cabbage-girls mimicked Sowwy's shriek with varying degrees of success.

"Stop that!" Sowwy shrieked at the shrieking cabbages. "You are NOT banshees! You don't have a domain to protect from annoying wolves! Cease this shrieking at once!"

I laughed at them, not bothered by the shrieking one bit thanks to the sound dampening formations carved into wooden necklace hanging on my neck.

"This is your fault," Sowwy glared at me as the cabbage-girls made all sorts of shriek-adjacent sounds. "You've turned them into little monsters."

"Pretty sure they were always veggie-monsters," I shrugged.

. . .

Spring arrived with a rush of melting snow and new growth. The cabbage-girls had progressed remarkably over the winter months, particularly in their understanding of dampening formation arrays.

I'd taught them to carve tiny formations into everything - stones, sticks, leaves, even their own fibrous flesh.

They took to it naturally, perhaps because they were essentially living formations themselves. Their violet leaves would often unconsciously arrange themselves into intricate patterns that mimicked the flow of spiritual energy.

One morning, I discovered Zen-1 had carved an entire wall of the house with microscopic formation arrays overnight. The patterns were crude but functional, creating a subtle resonance that helped regulate temperature.

"Look!" she said proudly, pointing at her handiwork. "Zen-1 make warm!"

"Great job," I praised her. "Keep it up."

Inspired by the older sister, the others began carving formations into everything they could reach. Soon the entire house was covered in their experimental arrays - some functional, others purely decorative, and a few that did peculiar things like making objects float randomly or creating tiny rainbows in unexpected places.

It was very basic, very simple kind of magic, but it was magic nevertheless and they found endless entertainment in it.

Sowwy was less enthusiastic about their growing formation abilities. "They're going to blow something up," she predicted darkly, watching as Zen-5 carefully carved tiny arrays into a wooden spoon. "Just like you did."

"They aren't me," I pointed out. "I'm a river of fire, they're just cabbages. Like plants, their heartcores are basically non-existent, spread out across every cell, every fiber. They can't pour Qi into a thing to blow it up, the best they can do is bend reality ever so slightly with an ungodly amount of formations."

As spring deepened, the cabbage-girls began spending more time in the fields, their violet leaves soaking up both sunlight and spiritual energy. They seemed to thrive in the valley's unique environment, where streams of death-essence from the glacial waterfalls mixed with natural life-force from the soil.

One morning, I found Zen-1 had planted herself in a patch of earth near the original burial site, her legs literally rooted into the ground.

"Zen-1 grow," she announced proudly when I found her.

"What exactly are you growing?" I asked, crouching down to examine her root system.

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"Me," she replied with an imperiously adorable look.

"Good on ya, kiddo," I patted her head.

Over the next few days, more of the cabbage-girls followed Zen-1's example, rooting themselves in various spots around the valley. They would spend hours just... existing, their violet leaves spread wide to catch both sunlight and spiritual energy.

"What exactly are they doing?" Sowwy asked one evening, perching on her favorite boulder to observe the planted cabbage-girls.

"Reproducing, I think," I replied, watching with Qi-sight as tiny violet buds began forming along Zen-1's root system. "As cabbages do."

"They're going to get eaten if they just sit in the dirt like that," she pointed out.

"Uh-huh," I nodded, burning a formation into the nearby rock with my finger. "Do some shrieking. Scare the big bad wolves away."

"I do NOT exist just to..." Sowwy began indignantly. Her metallic feathers bristled. "Fine! But only because I don't want anything disrupting my domain!"

She launched herself into the air with a dramatic flourish of feathers, circling the valley while unleashing her signature banshee wail.

"Good murder birb," I grinned up at her burning emerald circles across the cloudy night sky overhead like a crop duster.

The first sprouts emerged after about two weeks - tiny violet shoots pushing up through the soil around the rooted cabbage-girls. Each sprout had its own unique leaf pattern, though all shared the same general violet hue of their "parents."

"Look!" Zen-1 exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the dozens of tiny shoots surrounding her. "Me!"

"Not exactly you," I corrected, examining the sprouts. "More like... your children. Little baby Zens."

"Baby... Zens?" she tilted her head quizzically.

"Yes," I nodded. "Like how you came from heart of Zheniya, these come from you. But they'll be different. Their own people."

"Own... people," Zen-1 repeated thoughtfully, looking down at her sprouts. "Mine?"

"Yours to protect and teach," I nodded.

"Prrotek how?" She asked with a concerned expression.

"Formations," I said, handing her a rock with a ward on it. "Make enough of these and you'll bend the world to your will."

"Daddy... can you bring me... more rocks?" She asked.

I felt instantly warm at her words and offered her a hug. Then I walked off, returning with a whole barrel filled with pebbles gathered from the waterfall. "Here you go."

By summer's end, the valley had become a thriving nursery of spirit-cabbages. The original twelve had each produced between twenty to thirty offspring, creating a population of several hundred violet-hued humanoids in various stages of development.

I walked around the field of cabbage with my shovel on my shoulder and a big smile on my face, letting out Qi into the ground with every step. A thousand rocks painted with formations crunched below my feet, dampening my fire and redirecting it into the roots of my garden of life.

The new generation grew at the same rate as the old, but none of the little buds had died because of the ungodly amount of formations protecting them from the elements. The cabbage-moms watched diligently over their kids, armed with slate knives, obliterating any snails or hungry bugs that dared approach.

Where the original Jade Mistress Zheniya never had children of her own to care for, her spiritual descendants were proving to be remarkably nurturing parents. Each of the original twelve took their reproductive role seriously, carefully tending their sprouts and teaching them formation basics as soon as they developed enough awareness.

Without sleep, the cabbage-girls sang to their kids, whispered to them about the sun and the stars, about cultivation, curses, spirit beasts, me and Sowwy. They told tales of the mighty shovel and the angry birb, of warmth and cold, of formation arrays that could make rocks float and water dance.

The new generation of cabbage spirits had awakened early, filled with love and wisdom of their parents.

The power of the ancient curse pouring down the falls and permeating the soil became converted into warmth and nurturing energy, filtered through thousands of tiny formation arrays carved into every available surface.

Even Sowwy seemed affected by the valley's transformation. Her nightly patrols became less about terrorizing intruders and more about watching over her ever-growing "flock."

She would perch on her favorite boulder, emerald sparks dancing around her as she observed the cabbage-spirits with what could only be described as grudging affection.

Hands reached out to her as she carefully walked between the violet cabbage-spirits and she reached back to them, petting each one.

"I am NOT being affectionate!" she insisted whenever I caught her gently preening damaged leaves or teaching formation basics to the newer sprouts. "I'm just... maintaining order in my domain!"

"Uh-huh," I grinned. "Just maintaining order by singing lullabies. Sure."

"Those weren't lullabies!" she bristled. "They're... spirit beast terror vocalizations! Meant to ward off predators! Maybe if enough of them do it at the same time, nothing will eat them during the day when I'm asleep!"

"Aww you do care," I grinned at her.

Sowwy's metallic feathers bristled with indignation. "I do NOT care! I just... I just don't want anything disrupting the natural order of MY valley!"

"Our valley," I corrected, watching as a group of young cabbage-spirits practiced carving formations into rocks under the supervision of their "parent." "And face it - you're basically like their scary aunt now. Ha ha."

"I am NOT their aunt!" she shrieked. "I am a terrifying spirit beast! I..."

She choked as an ocean of violet petals unfurled below her wings.

"What is happening?" She spun.

"Winter is coming," Zen-1 said. "It is time."

"Time for what?" Sowwy demanded.

Zen-1 disconnected from the spot she was inhabiting, cutting herself from the roots in the ground with a stone slate knife.

"We're fixing you," she said, rising up and walking to Sowwy. "All of us. All at the same time. We are the shovel now."

"Fixing... me?" Sowwy backed away nervously as hundreds of violet faces turned toward her, leaves unfurling in perfect synchronization. "What are you talking about?"

"The curse," Zen-1 said simply, advancing with graceful steps. "The thing that made you. The pain that birthed you. We can eat it now."

"You can't just..." Sowwy's jade-blade-feathers bristled defensively. "I AM the curse! You can't separate it from me!"

"Watch us," Zen-1 laughed with an imperious expression, spreading her hands wide. "Mom."

"I'm not... you can't... what if I... what if I die?! What if I stop existing?!" Sowwy backed away as emerald light began streaming from her metallic feathers into the waiting leaves.

Hundreds of violet-hued spirits turned their faces towards her, with their leaves unfurling like radar dishes.

"You won't," Zen-1 said. "Because you are no longer the curse. You are more. So much more."

The emerald light of Sowwy's curse streamed into the waiting leaves of hundreds of cabbage-spirits, their violet hue taking on a metallic sheen as they absorbed her essence, devouring it and breaking it down across each of their cells.

I watched as the Jingwei's Dantian became pure white instead of green. In physical reality, her metallic feathers began to lose their harsh, blade-like quality, becoming softer and more organic-looking while still maintaining their iridescent sheen.

"What... what are you doing to me?" Sowwy gasped, sinking to her knees as more of her cursed essence was drawn out of her.

"Cleaning you up," Zen-1 grinned imperiously. "Nomming on that which sustains us."

"Stop..." Sowwy pleaded weakly, her metallic feathers drooping as she slid lower, a hundred hands holding onto her. "I... I don't know how to be anything else..."

"Then learn," Zen-1 said, echoing my words from months ago. "Be more. Be free."

I stabbed the shovel into the ground and walked up to Sowwy and offered her my hand.

"W-what?" She blinked at me, seeing the first time I had put down my bird-smacking weapon at night.

"Trust," I said simply. "Like they trust you. Like I trust you."

"You've never trusted me," she let out, emerald tears streaming down her face as more of her curse essence was drawn away. "You always had that damn shovel... always... smacked me whenever I tried to eat you."

"The shovel was for your own good," I smiled. "To keep you focused on me instead of random hikers. To give you something to hate besides yourself. But now you don't have to hate yourself or me anymore. Now you're clean, pure. Now there's only humanity in you, not the swear of a dying god that made you."

Sowwy stared at my offered hand through silver-white tears, her feathers trembling.

"I... I'm scared," she admitted quietly. "What if there's nothing left of me once the curse is gone?"

"Is there?" I asked her. "Or is the collective ocean of a thousand cultivators you've eaten over the centuries enough to make up a person? All those memories, all those lives - they're part of you now. The curse just kept you from embracing them properly, kept you locked in an endless cycle of hunger and violence."

Sowwy reached out hesitantly and took my hand. Her feathers were warm and soft now, no longer the razor-sharp metallic blades they had been.

"I feel... different," she said. "Warm. Not... hollow anymore. So... strange."

I reached out and hugged her tightly. So did Zen-1.

So did the twelve other cabbage-spirits who had cut themselves from the ground. So had many others who were able to reach out to us.

Sowwy dug into me, sobbing into my embrace, her hands warm.

"I think we're going to need a much bigger house for winter," I told her with a grin.

The End