"Oh, like what?" asked Con, perking back up again. "Not for me, mind ye, but there's interested parties I know."
"Oh, well, I had that pot array for mint varietals, and we've narrowed down the ones we like best, so I can sell off the rest," said Julian. "And then there's the lollabells that keep trying to overgrow their patch, and haven't been useful for Alex even though we thought they might be."
"Oh yeah, it turns out I like lily-of-the-valley for that more," said Alex with a shrug. "That goes in the workshop, we get new plants in whenever I use one."
"Yeah, it's got a very limited season," said Julian, "but it's easy enough to force-bloom in our little tabletop hothouse."
"Aye, those are a useful bloom for all they're poison, too, outside of a potion," said Con. "Lots of things they can make stronger."
"I have to decide what else in spring, once I see what's come back well and what doesn't, though I suppose I'm likely to have everything that can come back do so, given everything." Julian giggled and then stifled it in a big mouthful of cream and meringue.
"There were a few annuals we won't replant," said Alex. "I never did find anything for those one flower spears, what were they?"
"Oh, the fleur de lance," said Julian. "Yeah, I ended up selling those to Mary Margaret, she found someone that wanted them for decoration."
"So, there's some space," said Julian with a shrug. "I'll have Alex send you a butterfly with the final list, if you like."
"That'd be a kindness," said Con cheerfully. He had a single meringue and a few berries in cream, and he was eating them neat as you please, wide mouth lightly stained with red.
Alex smiled and had another big bite of his own dessert. His life wasn't perfect, but at least he had friends.
And no chance of poison, here at home.
Chapter 37
The next morning, they all got dressed for exercising in the cold and trooped down to the Source. Horace nipped through the Way to retrieve Cody, and soon enough the five of them were doing knife practice with some interesting spell variations that seemed to please James and Jacques quite a lot.
Julian liked something that combined any cut with a sleeping spell, so that he didn't have to try to kill someone to subdue them.
Alex seemed to be a fan of the one that encouraged bleeding from any and all small cuts, weakening a foe in a different way.
He pretended that Julian was the vicious one, but Julian knew better.
Once they were all worn out and declared doing well enough for one day, they trooped together across the stone path, which had cleared itself of ice for Cody and stayed that way until the Source's favourite humans could come for a visit.
The doorway was as strange to the senses as ever, bright and loud but also somehow muted inside the waterfall cave. Ivy curled around each doorpost, in and out of each realm as though there was no difference, and the swirl of the Way beckoned.
"We don't have time to go through today," said Alex firmly. "You know the time difference is bad for us."
That pressure relented, thankfully, and Julian sighed. "We're adapting, but it takes human-slow time for us sometimes."
He could feel a little tickle inside him where just a tiny bit more power was making room for itself, filling him up even more full than before, making sure its human would be fine without it for longer.
"We'll be fine if we take it slow while we change," said Alex. They didn't always understand the nature of the changes that the Source wanted from them, but it seemed to happen no matter what, so they were trying very hard to roll with it. Julian's magic senses had expanded, as had Alex's plant senses, though they were each still much better at their own discipline. They'd both increased their capacity for power by quite a lot, though right now it seemed they were dependent on the Source to keep topped off so they could keep doing big spells without exhausting that power.
He could see how they'd be limited to how far they could travel, but also had hope that they'd stretch beyond their current limits within the next few years. Julian was really a homebody, but being stuck in a certain radius was different than wanting to stay home.
"It's strange to see how it changes you," said Cody, "because it reminds me that I used to be less than I am now, as well."
"The Source wants us to be strong for it," said Alex.
"It wants us to be more versatile, too. And I think it's... proud of us?" Julian tried to sort out the feelings that leaked around the edges of the sunspot-bright power, barely able to be discerned for the energy obscuring them. "It wants us to be the best ourselves or something."
"It's pleased about our bonding, anyway," said Alex, sending a little tingle of love down to Julian. "I can always tell it wants that to keep expanding and strengthening."
"I can see that, too, sort of," said Cody. "I'm afraid I'm unlikely to bond for it, but at least I have my hounds and my friends."
"We should arrange a couple of days where we can come visit the hounds," said Julian. "I want to play with your puppies."
