Ollas turned to the greenhouse door, a smile already spreading across his face as he looked for her. Eunny came in, a glass jar from her water propagation setup in one hand. She set the jar on the counter, bumping her hip against his side before letting an innocent amount of space form between them.
Ollas cupped her cheek and went in for a kiss. Happiness zipped through him from head to groin when Eunny’s tongue darted out to tease his lips before she pulled back.
She pouted at him. “You get up too early.”
“Creature of habit. Got to be up with the sun.”
Eunny huffed a laugh. “Well, Professor, fancy some more experimentation?”
He’d rather do more experimentation of her, but there’d be time for that later. He made a noise of pleasant surprise when she showed him the explosive growth of her cutting. “This is amazing. Did you add something else to the water?”
“Nope. As you said, I guess they like us.”
Ollas gave her a quizzical look. She spoke in a light tone, but there was something veiled in her expression. He looked from her to the plant. “You mean, from us…sleeping together?”
“Or they just really like my new place,” she said. “Ever hear of that for imprinting enchantments?”
“No, proximity alone shouldn’t be enough to satisfy the spellwork,” Ollas muttered, more to himself than Eunny. He gestured to the dead plant he’d set on the counter. “Nothing about these has been typical or ordinary, though.”
Eunny glowered at it. “Unacceptable. You want for nothing. All the food and water a plant could ask for. Get to live all cozy inside. The least you could do is grow.”
“To be fair, they’re doing that part really well,” Ollas said. “One failure in?—”
She transferred her glare from the plant to him. “Don’t excuse their malicious compliance.”
“They’re plants, Eunny, they don’t have malice.” Ollas paused, mouth twisting. “Most don’t. None that we’d grow in the school’s greenhouses do, anyway.” He edged away, reached into his pocket, and withdrew a sealed jar with a tiny brush attached to the lid. Uncapping it, he dabbed a light green powder onto the dry, flaky parts of the old vines that hung around the antechamber’s windows.
“Appeasing our future floral overlords?” Eunny teased.
Ollas shrugged. Trunk wasn’t a hotbed of activity, of either the magical or mundane sort. Hard to say if the aged resident protection plant retained any of those instincts or if it had gradually lost them as it went creaky with age. But, he figured it was better to be safe than sorry. “We could always conduct more research. See if we can get the cuttings to grow more.”
She laughed. “Oh, Nev, I intend to.” His cock stirred in response to the way her voice lowered. “However,” she continued, “I’d rather you have my full attention, and in the meantime, I’ve heard back from Dae about the baby plant she took home. Transplanted like a champ, and it has healing properties.”
“Really?” Ollas grabbed the notebook where he was keeping a record of the delegation plant experiments. “Did she say what the growing conditions are?”
“It was a short note, but I know it’s planted in contaminated dirt,” Eunny said. “Strong preventative qualities, not a cure.”
He copied down her words. “More than what I got back from the Sentinels, though that’s not really their fault.” He pointed to where the redacted logs sat on the counter. “We might be on our own for this. I’ve got another contact to try, but…”
Eunny perused the papers, which were more blackened bars and scratches than words. She let out a low whistle. “You weren’t kidding. Oh, great, more Coalition fuckery. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they inserted themselves, since they were part of the delegation, but this is ridiculous. What do you need to censor in a report about a failed trade delegation? Aside from them failing, I guess, but that’s a moot point.”
“The Sentinels have a ranger working with the Coalition now. Maybe he’ll have better luck. But in the meantime”—Ollas gestured with his pencil toward her rooted cutting—“we have a shipment of soil from a containment zone. Want to try potting this up?”
“Sure. Need me to grab anything special?”
“The amendments the elective is using for the healing trial. Time to see if our theory about these plants wanting light magic holds up.”
Eunny left to gather the requisite materials from the Adept levels’ greenhouse while Ollas retrieved one of the enchanted terrariums being used to house smaller amounts of Rhell’s blighted soil.
When they met back up in Trunk, Eunny lifted her cutting. “Can I do the planting?”
“Of course.” Ollas offered her a pair of gloves, but she shook her head.
“I want to feel the soil, like a proper grovetender. I’ll be quick, promise.”
He hesitated. “Is that wise?” Even though the contact would be brief and they were in the Valley, the thought of her unprotected skin touching the corrupt ground made his hands shake with the urge to snatch her away.
“I won’t tell if you don’t.” She flashed him a quick smile, though her eyes remained tense. “Talk me through this again.”
