Though she didn’t look away from the plants, Eunny felt Ollas turn beside her in question.
“I was brought along for the delegation to check the veracity of some goods supposedly being negotiated for the deal. But really, my mother wanted me to see if these were legitimate healing plants.” She glanced at Ollas. “But why would the Coalition want seeds for a plant that can only act as a preventative for the poison? Dae and Ezzyn didn’t work out their containment wards until years later. They couldn’t have known then that we’d have a way to control the spread at the expense of making the corruption stronger.”
“She wanted you to test the seeds… Seeds that had a strong imprinting spell enchanted into them,” Ollas said slowly.
“Do you think the imprinting spell was meant to keep the supply restricted?”
“At least at first. Their bloom cycle has some unique parameters,” Ollas said with a wry smile. “You did say that the Coalition only cares about profit. Even as a preventative, these plants are valuable.”
But engaging in self-serving trade like that with the Eyllics during wartime wasn’t allowed. The rest of the Empyrean Territories would’ve blasted Graelynd for encouraging profiting off a humanitarian crisis like that. Eunny wasn’t versed in the terms of the alliance between the nations, but she guessed that monetizing potential cures, not to mention using the trade delegation as a front for those shady dealings, went against the agreements the Territories had with each other. And it wasn’t even Graelynd doing it, but the Coalition.
The Coalition who’d orchestrated the delegation. Who’d gone to great lengths to recover the strange plants. Bioon hadn’t seemed bothered by Eunny’s reveal that the plants were dying. The Coalition had trashed the records regarding the seeds, stolen what they’d thought were the remainders of the plants. Bioon, who’d shown up on behalf of the Coalition to have an interest in the elective. Who had Ollas and Rai supplying progress reports at a ridiculous rate, which were then being sent off to some random corner of rural Graelynd. Her mother, who came with her fucking threats disguised as a deal. So many parts, yet none of them fit together in a way that made sense. It needled at Eunny, but the last piece refused to come clear.
“Have you heard about anyone else taking notice of these plants?” Eunny asked. “Aside from Zhen.”
Ollas shook his head. “Rai knew I was dabbling, but they’re unrelated to the work we’re doing with the elective, so we didn’t discuss it much. Or, they were unrelated, but Ezzyn mentioned the way they change in heavily poisoned ground, and those could be interesting?—”
The sound of footsteps pounding toward the greenhouse caused them both to look up. Bioon, flanked by two men in combat leathers, appeared in the doorway. Dressed all in black, her expression a cold mask—Eunny could see why her mother was known informally as the Scourge of the Coalition. Bioon strode forward, exuding arrogance with every step. “Eunji, give me that plant and?—”
There’d be no reasoning with her, not while Bioon viewed the greenhouse as yet another domain she’d conquered.
But in all the frenzied hours Eunny and her friends had spent strategizing, reasoning with Bioon had never been part of the plan.
Eunny glanced at Ollas. He gave her a tiny nod. “Go!”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ollas pulled Eunny toward the rear antechamber, the one that had housed their secret seed project all term. She grabbed their potted cutting, now the size of a small shrub and bursting with unopened buds, and scrambled inside.
Ollas slammed the door shut behind her. Then, hitting a rune emblazoned on the wall, he locked them in together.
Ushering Eunny toward the back of the antechamber, Ollas faced the door. Eunny’s mother appeared in the half-window. The door handle rattled when she tried it, but it didn’t budge.
“Open the door, Mr. Nevin,” Bioon said. “Do not make this worse for yourself.”
“Says the thief.” Eunny came up beside him. She stared at her mother as if seeing her in a new, unflattering light. “What are you doing, Mother? There’s no sneaking off into the dark this time. The school will know what you’ve done, and so will the Sentinels.”
“True, but I have a job to do, Eunji.” Bioon’s arm moved, but the door hid her hand from view. “A duty, and you would see my point of view if your judgment about the Coalition wasn’t so clouded.”
Ollas stepped away from the door, scanning the wall. The greenhouses weren’t exactly armories, and when it came to tools that could serve as weapons, the antechambers were even more lacking than the central room. The long-handled hoes and big shears hanging on the other side of the wall would’ve come in handy right about now. Even worse, Trunk was just the storage building. No fancy, blade-like protector plants in here.
“You threatened your own sister and her business, but I’m the one with the shit judgment?” Eunny said, incredulous. “You want to steal the thing that could help save Rhell!”
“They’re effective against the poison, then? Those plants are Coalition property, and as such, the organization will see to their distribution. An organization that keeps a nation prosperous can’t be sentimental.”
“They’re not Coalition property, though,” Eunny said slowly, gaze going distant as she thought. “You had me check them at the delegation. They’re Eyllic.”
Bioon’s expression went carefully neutral.
“Why was the Coalition negotiating for plants effective against the poison? If you were there to bargain over something like that, Rhell should’ve been involved.”
“It was a complex situation, and it wasn’t necessary for you to be privy to all of the topics being discussed,” Bioon said with a dismissive shake of her head.
“How did you even know about them?” Eunny asked. “Now. Here.”
“The Coalition has been monitoring the elective’s progress closely. Its successes have great implications for the market?—”
“I’ve never mentioned them,” Ollas said, earning a withering look from the older woman. “Neither has Rai. These aren’t part of the elective at all.”
