“You’re probably not alone in this, whether you like it or not,” Dae said slowly. “There are records of the sample I took back to Rhell, and the Restorers are interested in growing more.”
“If it can be brought to seed,” Zhenya said. Dae gave a conceding nod. “Which still needs you, Eunny.”
“Which would rope me in with the Rhellian government. Possibly the Order of Sylveren, or at very least the university, since I used school materials for my experiments,” Eunny said. “I’ve had worse bedfellows.”
“Better to not be the sole target when dealing with the Coalition,” Calya piped up. “It’s nice when you can spread the blame.”
Eunny fingered the vial in her pocket, the dried leaves sliding along the glass. “Yeah, the Coalition is shit when it comes to sharing.”
“Good luck to them,” Dae muttered. “If the plant can help save Rhell, then Ez will go to war to keep it.” She looked to Zhenya. “All right, so we’re back to you getting your last cutting to complete its life cycle. Are there better storage options if we need to smuggle the seeds out in a hurry?”
“I can look into something with more protection enchants,” Zhenya replied. “I’ll head back to the Grove and see what I can put together.”
Eunny glanced at the room’s small wall clock and winced. “Bioon will be back in the morning. Probably early, knowing her.”
“I’ll work fast,” Zhenya promised.
The remaining trio settled in for a long night, the Helm sisters rebuffing Eunny’s concern.
“Hardly my first all-nighter,” Calya said. “And I love beating the Coalition at their own game. It happens so rarely.”
“We might not,” Eunny warned. “Will HNE’s trustee be okay with this? It’s not really applicable to the shipping business.”
“As far as Mr. Wembly is concerned, I’m up here tidying accounts after the mess Brint made.” Calya’s shoulders lifted with an indifferent shrug. “My work for Helm Naval’s been done. How I spend my recreational time is my business, and Mr. Wembly can report that to Andrin.”
“Caly,” Dae said, her tone long-suffering. “You really shouldn’t call Papa that.”
Calya rolled her eyes. She started to respond, but it was interrupted by the door opening to admit a tall man with long, pale blond hair, his travel leathers splashed with mud.
“Ez!” Dae jumped up to greet her partner.
Ezzyn bent to kiss her, his hands filled with a heavily laden tea tray. He murmured his thanks when Eunny relieved him of it, then dropped into Zhenya’s vacated seat with a grateful sigh.
“I left about a day behind you, give or take a few hours,” he said in answer to Dae’s unspoken question. “Took a windrunner from the Lower Sohn here.”
“What happened with your testing?” Dae asked.
“That’s why I rushed here.” Ezzyn looked around at all of them. “When we exposed the plant to containment zone soil, it’s like it restructured itself internally. The grovetenders haven’t seen anything like it.”
“Does it neutralize the poison?” Eunny asked, hope welling in her chest.
He shook his head. “It grew well, but it doesn’t have a restorative effect on its own.” He leaned forward. “The plant itself, though, it definitely works for healing augmentation that can cleanse the sickness in people if they’re treated early. The cutting you sent, it had traces of the Valley in it, the way magic feels here. It’s hard to explain, and we need to run more tests, but it seems like we can attune?—”
“What does all of that mean?” Calya interrupted. “For those of us who don’t speak arcane.”
Dae and Ezzyn talked over one another as they tried to give examples Calya would understand.
Eunny paid attention with only half an ear, turning this latest information over in her mind. The scattered morsels of ideas she’d been acquiring for the last couple months began to coalesce.
Seeds that grew well, even thrived in the blighted soil of Rhell. Plants that amplified healing magic, that could be personalized, like the healing draught Dae had received at the Healing Hut. Those plants could—maybe—be vessels for the kind of magic that withstood the poison. A merging of the protection inherent in the Valley and the plants’ response, altering their form when grown in the blight.
Ezzyn turned to Eunny, pulling a folded slip of paper from his pocket and handing it to her. “I almost forgot—your aunt said this was left for you.”
She quickly scanned the page, eyebrows rising as she took in the hastily written words. “It’s from Ollas. He heard back from Nocren, the Sentinel who’s been liaising with the Coalition. Says that they’ve been forwarding all the reports from Ollas and Rai and the samples from the elective to some rural site out in Desmond’s Landing.”
“Desmond’s Landing,” Dae murmured, confusion clouding her face as she thought. “Why does that sound… Oh! Caly, isn’t that where Brint’s shady side project was held? The one that got him in trouble with the Coalition and the board for Avenor Guard?”
“Brint?” Eunny said, naming Dae’s ex-fiancé, Calya’s ex-business partner, and overall human waste of space.
