“You’re elementalists, though.”
“All magic is rooted in light,” Zhenya said. “If you have a surge, we’d probably feel it. And it’s more about preventing one from happening in the first place.”
“We’ll be with you the whole way, if that’s what you want,” Dae said, nudging Eunny’s shoulder.
It sounded too easy, based on faith Eunny wasn’t sure she shared. Their trust in her was triggering the deep-seated urge to distance herself from such caring.
She forced herself to take a deep breath, hold it, and release at an equally slow pace. She’d said she was tired of being scared. Tired of running. That she wanted the life she’d abandoned. The life that had lost its spark. Yet, now, that passion had been rekindled, in so many ways. Ollas. She was tired of feeling guilty, of being scared, and using those feelings as reason to deny herself a different future. But those thoughts and words were empty if Eunny wasn’t prepared to do some work.
“What do you want to do about the last plant in the meantime?” Dae asked. “Hide it?”
“If the Coalition already knows about it, then that won’t work for long,” Calya said. “They have a lot of sway with the Council of Standards.”
A faint tugging sensation flared in the back of Eunny’s mind. It was a soft, slow gathering of tension, the tiny strands of life in the cutting beginning to pull taut.
Eunny stared at the vial of dried leaves Dae had given her. They hummed at her. No, they weren’t humming. They were vibrating, the minute movements creating a whisper against the glass, resonating with a pull coming from further away.
Eunny couldn’t say why, but there was a sense of finality to the last cutting stowed somewhere in Trunk and the way it felt in her mind. To her magic.
Her fingers closed protectively around the vial.
Hang on a little longer, baby duck, she thought. Don’t go dying on me now.
Eunny took another deep breath, rolling her shoulders back as she exhaled. “All right. How do we stop my mother?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
They relocated to the back room at the Mighty Leaf. Though Song’s Scrap was practically a brand-new place compared to the last time Eunny had seen it up close, it was still far from being comfortable for lengthy visits. Plus, the Mighty Leaf had tea and snacks.
Yerina let the younger women in, promising to drop off a fresh pot and whatever extra pastries she could snag from the displays. Eunny didn’t follow the others over the threshold, hesitating as shame burned beneath her skin.
She faced her aunt, raising tentative eyes as she mumbled, “About earlier… What I said. I’m sorry. I?—”
Yerina pulled her into a gentle hug. Not her usual, full-bodied, joyful type, but a softer embrace. Tender with emotion, the kind that told Eunny she was still loved despite her aunt’s hurt.
“I know.” Yerina clasped Eunny’s shoulders, holding her at arm’s length as she fixed her with a serious look. “But none of that now. We always have later, and you all look…determined.”
A dozen replies popped into Eunny’s head. Words of fighting, of thwarting Bioon, of prevailing for once, because weren’t they due a victory against her scheming? But Bioon was family to them, much as Eunny would rather forget and Yerina would not. Their divergence of opinions on the matter wasn’t new, but Eunny’s outburst had gone beyond any of their previous disagreements. It was still too fresh, too raw. Deserved more attention and feeling than she could properly give right now. But her aunt knew that, and conveyed her reassurance with a squeeze of her hands.
“We are,” Eunny finally said.
“I wouldn’t expect any less.” Yerina made a shooing motion. “Go on. I’m going to make a pot of the new black spice blend.”
“Thanks, Auntie.”
Yerina bustled off, and Eunny joined her friends in the back room.
Zhenya had out her notebook crammed full of random inserts and pages covered in her handwriting in multiple colors of ink. She conferred with Dae over a two-page spread while Calya made her own bullet-point list on the back of an old order form.
“What is this?” Eunny joined Zhenya and Dae, twisting around to try and make sense of the drawing from her place across the table.
“It’s a flower from my Adept One studies. It didn’t work for our intended purposes, but it reminded me of the delegation plants. It had a similar imprinting process spelled into it.” Zhenya scanned her notes. “That one did transfer even after propagation. Not very useful for large-scale production if you have a resource locked down to one person.”
“Did you figure out how to break the effect?”
“Not during Adept One, and my research ended up changing focus,” Zhenya said. “But some Magister levels kept up the work. Professor Rai might be able to put me in contact with them.”
“Worth a shot,” Eunny said, grim-faced. “Not fast enough for my current problem, though.”
