The Elvar homeworld, known to them as Ega, is home to a host of fantastical beasts and wondrous herbs. Their world, having been in the Garden since time immemorial, has gradually permeated with power and most organisms born, hatched or germinated there have some level of control over Aether, what we call Sunlight (Note: This author feels that their name is a better fit for the mysterious energy, as humanity coined the term before people knew about Florescence and the ability to draw directly from Concepts. But I digress.). This can manifest in a multitude of ways. The plotaca for example, roughly translated as demon hog, is a quadruped forest dweller with a hide resistant to fire, and hooves and tusks that burn with an ethereal flame. It also seems to have some slight phasing ability as projectiles unempowered by Sunlight cannot hit it, simply passing through as though it isn’t there. Fauna and flora of the kind only found in a Burrow on Earth abound on Ega thanks to the higher ambient energy levels. Counterintuitively, this means that Drasils aren’t as big of a problem, as the Burrows they form do not warp the nature around them to the degree they can on the human world. This has allowed for experimentation with harnessing the vast Sunlight reserves a Drasil can draw upon, and with Pope Everwandering’s abilities, the Elvar managed to punch a hole through space and create the portal hub that connects the Garden worlds. Of course, we share the same Sun and with high enough technological advancement, can hopefully one day sail the stars and travel around the Garden directly instead of having to rely on a foreign power.

* Excerpt from “Elvar, Friend or Foe?”

Musa bounced from foot to foot, both nervous and impatient, as his new glaive gleamed against the wall a short distance away. The students were assembled in the multi-purpose hall, all giving their ammo one last check or giving their blades one final pass of a whetstone. The atmosphere was subdued, a few people talking here and there but most just nervously staring at the waiting vehicles. Three huge armoured buses, grey and squat, waited with open doors for the massed Seeds.

“Seeds. Over the past month I’ve seen everything you can do. I’ve seen how you learned to work with your teammates. You could be better. But right now, you’re good enough. Using your Concepts outside the comfort of a sterile environment is the only way to advance them. I don’t expect any of you to make the jump to Sprout on this outing, as it should be a relatively weak Burrow. Do not underestimate it however, never forget that every living thing within a Burrow would love to tear you apart if you give it the chance.”

Mr McLeod was being ominous as usual, his cliché words given more weight by his intimidating stature. He wasn’t wrong however, Drasils of any kind were a big deal, especially while they were still barely better than human. Musa’s team was all wearing sleek black Kevlar with hardened ceramic plates in particularly soft spots, black leather boots and sheaths or holsters as required, with the exception of Jas, who’d somehow dyed his entire getup a brilliant white. McLeod continued to talk, filling them in with details they’d already gone over countless times.

The past month they had figured out their synergies as best they could. Guns and other long-range weapons didn’t put Musa in enough danger to trigger his battle sense, so he’d traded his short spear for a glaive, for a bit more distance at melee range. It had a wicked curved blade at one end, a short stabbing spike on the other and a four foot long gunmetal grey-black shaft. It was a bit short for a glaive but he had to get closer than was strictly advisable in order to advance his Concept. He did carry a sidearm however, just in case. Mike had initially also wanted a long-range weapon, figuring that his Seed would make him a great sniper for tougher targets, but realised that a sustained connection to whatever weapon he was empowering with Penetration would make it stronger over time, something he couldn’t do with bullets. His compromise was to carry a bandolier of flechette darts, which he could imbue before throwing, while using a gigantic double-bladed battle axe.

Jas, with his Everradiant Seed, was using an invention specifically for cultigens like him, a prism dagger along with a black-rimmed tower shield on his left arm. The crystalline dagger was made to focus any emission-type Concepts into the small blade, giving Jas both a small but powerful laser and a wide area blinding effect if he released all the Sunlight at once. He had further embossed another prism in the centre of his shield, though they had yet to see it do anything. Birgitte was their walking armoury. She was outfitted with throwing knives in several sheaths around her body, a .50 cal rifle in two pieces strapped to her back, two pistols at her sides and a submachine gun on a sling, currently in her hands. It was an odd contrast, seeing the petite, attractive girl absolutely bristling with weapons but they had decided to make the most of her Seed. Empty sheaths attached to her would refill themselves over time and empty magazines would reload without any effort on her part, just a small constant drain of energy. She also carried a second bandolier for Mike, in case he ran out of flechettes. She could only carry it all because manifesting a Seed in your soul put you at the very limits of human capability, no matter what you looked like and advancing to Sprout would augment your body even further, making you undeniably superhuman.

“Guys are we ready to roll out? This will be our trial by fire. Mr McLeod will only step in if looks like we’ll die so it’s best to just put him out of our minds.” Mike said, looking over his team.

“We’ve been ready for days at this point Mike,” Birgitte responded with some heat, “the real question is why this low-level Burrow is making you act so different? Ever since I joined your team, you’ve been less confident, less talkative, even less touchy! You love touching people, it’s like my biggest pet peeve about you! Tell me honestly, so we don’t get killed in the field, is it me?”

Mike looked a bit shocked at the outburst, while Musa and Jas had noticed Birgitte’s growing impatience with Mike’s new standoffishness. Musa knew the reason, of course, but it wasn’t his story to tell, so he told no one, while Jas, the perceptive little elf, had seemingly guessed already.

“I had no idea I was making you feel this way, I swear it’s not you, it’s… Ah fuck. Its my dad. He was a graduate of this Academy as well as a full Guild adventurer, so he would go outside the city regularly to cull Drasils, before they gather the power to make something that could break through the Bulwark. He was a pretty powerful guy, Flower of Ember. He probably could have set off a small volcano if he wanted to.”

“Past tense? Is he dead? I’m so sorry I had no idea!”

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“No, it’s okay, you didn’t know. His team went a little too deep into the forest and found a Burrow that was older than any they’d seen before. The monsters were way beyond anything they’d encountered previously and the air was so charged with energy they never once tapped out their Flowers, even after hours of fighting. Realising they were out of their league, they started to retreat, to call Mafui’e and nuke that thing. But the tree was out for blood. It became clear that they wouldn’t get enough of a respite to turn tail and run, so someone had to hold the monsters off while the others got away.”

“Your father?”

“Yeah. Crazy bastard actually ran further into the Burrow, aiming directly for the Drasil and burning anything that tried to stop him.”

“I’m sorry, you don’t have to contin-“

“No, its about time you knew. You too, Jas. I’ve been holding out.”

“I had indeed made conjectures about your recent erratic behaviours, my friend, but the details were a mystery to me. Please, continue.”

“That’s mostly it. He was able to pull enough heat off the rest of his team that they could come back to New London and call for reinforcements. Worldshaker arrived, but too late for my dad. His soul… broke. We’re not sure if he tried to draw energy from the Drasil itself, like the elves, and was simply overwhelmed or if that’s what happens when someone pushes their Flower hard enough to ascend but without the requisite energy around to do so. Imagine that, a Burrow old enough to repel a squad of the best Burrow-killers in the world, and it still doesn’t even have the energy to scuff Worldshaker’s boot.” Mike chuckled darkly as the rest of the team looked at each other in worry.

“He’s still alive, little more than a man-shaped shell though. He can’t eat, drink, even piss under his own power. Any Sunlight in him just leaks away instantly and he won’t respond to his name or the f- the faces of his family. One of the most powerful men on the planet. Now a cold day gives him a runny nose, heh.” The large blond man’s eyes were glistening at this point and his voice had started hitching. Musa stepped in.

“Mike, you’re gon-“

“SEEDS! It’s time, pick a bus and let’s get going.”

Mike wiped his eyes, sniffed, and straightened his back. With a look back at his team, he started walking towards the middle bus. They followed in silence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Already approved to go out, the armoured buses trundled past the gate nestled within the Bulwark. The titanic wall itself would have been a marvel of engineering, had it been engineered. In the earlier days of Integration, before the Elvar discovered Earth, humanity was ravaged by Burrow beasts. Drasils grown big and strong were spreading their influence and encroaching on human territory. Being somewhere between a sapient and a non-sapient, they didn’t understand that we just wanted to be left alone and attacked in force whenever a human entered their space. One of these attacks, a thousand-strong herd of thunderfeet, threatened to completely flatten the fledgling capital of Eurasia. Shield, a Guild adventurer, and Marathon, a Guild researcher had performed a Graft before the herd and Shield had combined their Flowers of Sanctuary and Persistence, shaping the energy into the hundred metre tall, thirty metre thick barrier that both surrounded New London and the farms around it and prevented hotspots from forming, allowing them to keep the city greener than any other. As it was a graft-chimera, and a shockingly stable one, it did not need to follow the laws of physics. It bent around hills and went through wetlands, without any weak points or wear. It didn’t sink, it didn’t sag, even the gate hinges worked noiselessly after hundreds of years. It almost boggled the mind the sense of sheer durability around the wall, it would likely outlast Worldshaker and the man was immortal.

“We’re finally outside, holy shit.”

Birgitte was looking out of the reinforced windows at the lush green vegetation, completely over grown and casting a green tint on the inside of the bus. Jas was just as excited.

“Ah finally! I am once more in harmony with Father Nature, his viridescent beard even appearing in this forsaken world of metal and stone.”

“I thought you were an atheist? It’s literally in your title, Prince Jas Everradiant of the Secular States.”

“Silly human girl, Father Nature is no god and we do not worship him. He is simply a fact of life, a force so irresistible you cannot help but be awed when in his presence.”

“So he’s a metaphor? Then wh-“

Birgitte and Jas continued chatting in the background, as Musa studied his friend in the chair opposite his own. Mike was silent, sitting back in his seat and watching the ground pass by just out the window.

“You good?”

Mike turned his head and looked Musa in the eyes before glancing away. “Nah, to be honest. It felt good to finally let the rest of the team know but I have this.. balloon.. of anxiety in my chest that keeps getting bigger as we get closer to the Burrow. You’ve seen my dad. I would rather die than end up like that. Which makes me feel guilty that we’ve kept him alive all these years, as if he’s still in there somewhere, suffering because we’re too pussy to put him out of his misery. Even that’s better than the alternative though. That he’s truly gone and we just have a meat puppet in our house, wearing his face.”

“I work fucking hard. I’m the leader of a strike team, I’m one of the top fucking students in our class and I could beat up anyone in this bus. Yet I’m deathly afraid of making the same mistake my father did and overestimating myself. So I work even harder. Only, the harder I work, the more I realise how big of a gulf there is between me and him and someone like Mafui’e and how little that work actually matters. Most cultigens try their whole lives and never make it past Bud. Only Mafui’e has made it past Flower. And even that was a fluke, if we hadn’t tried to erase Panama with something that could feed his Concept, we’d all either be dead or speaking Elvan. There’s too much random chance to this. My father could have been the next Gardener, if the researchers are right. Instead he’s a vegetable. No one can say the same won’t happen to me.”

Mike took a breath, having run out of words to say. Musa, having listened quietly, went over to sit next to him and put his head in his friend’s lap. “Jeegaretō bokhoram.” He said in a low voice.

“What?”

“It’s a saying in my mother tongue. Well, my adopted mother tongue. It doesn’t really translate to English but its essentially ‘There’s nothing I won’t do for you.’ Bro. I am completely serious when I say this. Yes, most cultigens don’t become heroes with official names and all that, but you’re not most cultigens. You’re a kickass fighter, a wise leader and a certifiable genius. This is all known. And you’ve got me, the next Gardener in your corner. If you stumble anywhere, I will pick you up. If you can no longer advance, I will cut a Drasil right out of the ground and plop it in front of you. If you become a vegetable, I will feed you and clothe you and wipe your fucking ass until I’m powerful enough to fix you, then you’ll ascend with me. When I say we’re in this together, We Are Fucking In This Together. I know you believe in me, even if you don’t believe in yourself. Well, believe that I will drag you to the top with me, kicking and screaming if necessary, until you figure out that you don’t have to face these demons alone.”

They sat in silence, watching the forest outside whizz by as Jas and Birgitte continued chattering by the window.

“Thanks dude.”

“No problem bro.”

“Would you really wipe my ass?”

“Ehh, I was exaggerating for effect.” Musa’s cheeks dimpled as he grinned, “kinda like you when you said you could beat anyone on this bus.”

“Oh fuck off.”