Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
“You found this rather quickly,” Wyatt said when we met at the plot of land adjacent to Siskiyous Community College and the Wildflower Trail.
“This patch of thin forest hasn’t been used in decades. I have proposals in with the college and the city. If it gets approved at the next city council meeting, you’re looking at the site of Weed’s new botanical garden.”
It was strange to be in the woods, spending time with Wyatt without Callan, even if it was under the guise of field studies.
Callan would have come with me in a heartbeat if I had asked, but between keeping up appearances for his field study with the politicians in Sacramento, his secret project of creating new medicines, and our normal school duties, he was busy.
“It looks good. A parking area can go right there, off the road. We can put a sign over here, then they can walk between these two oak trees to enter the gardens.”
I smiled, surprised at how invested Wyatt seemed to be. He had much more important things to take on, so it was endearing that he was committed to the garden. “Have you secured the funds from the DBI?”
Wyatt nodded. “It’s all approved. Just get me the agreement with the city for purchasing the land, and you’ll be able to break ground.”
“I hope I can make your deadline of midsummer. That’s only a few months away.”
Wyatt tilted his head. “You’ve never seen magical botanists plant a garden, have you?”
I frowned. “Not exactly. They’ve done some service planting in town, but they had to keep it reined in for the sake of the locals.”
“Well, then, you’re in for a show. Once we get the walls up and some fertile soil in the ground, this place will materialize in no time.”
“I hope so,” I said, trying to envision what the space would look like when it was complete.
It would be a garden I could walk through with my aunt and Bryce, and with Maci.
It would be a way to share myself with them without revealing everything.
Perhaps it could be a place for my aunt to feel in touch with her magic. I couldn’t wait.
“Do you have any news about Professor East?” I asked.
Wyatt nodded. “He’s making the rounds through the conservatories, trying to change the tides. He’s in Florida now, working to make changes to the state law about human access to the public lands before it’s too late.”
“Thank the leaves,” I said, a spark of hope igniting in my chest.
“The DBI has agents working on similar influence campaigns. Hopefully, we can move the needle. But Professor East wanted me to remind you that Evergreen Academy is the heart of the society of magical botanists. Whatever change we can enact there will reverberate throughout the entire community.”
“Professor East said that?” I asked, heartened by the idea that he knew we were working on something and that he thought it was meaningful.
“He did.”
The clearing in the forest became quiet except for the sounds of birds singing and jumping from branch to branch. “Did he ask what our plan was?”
“Yes. And I shared what I knew of it.”
I nodded. “There’s an update.”
Wyatt studied me, waiting for me to say more.
“We have a way for me to access the charging circle. And I’ll be able to use the Dandelion of Desire to boost my powers.”
Wyatt cocked his head again. “How’d you manage that?”
“I won a very unconventional game of Capture the Roses.”
Wyatt smiled, and I couldn’t help noticing how similar it was to his brother’s smile. “Nicely done. And how is making the new Floracantus coming along?”
“I’ve been practicing daily. I get close, but the shields dissolve after a few minutes. It’s like they’re not sticking to the soil properly. I was hoping you or Professor East might have ideas about what’s going on.”
Wyatt looked off into the distance as if thinking through a complicated math problem.
“The soil seems to be the key. When Eli helped bolster the shield, he did it by infusing more nutrients into the soil, correct? What has your process been for connecting with the soil when you set up the mini shields?”
“Let me show you.”
I went through the steps of using the Floracantus I had created to develop a shield. But after a few minutes, the shimmering dome that only I, the caster, could see, had dissolved.
“The Floracantus’s hold on the soil is too shallow,” Wyatt said after quietly watching my whole routine.
“How can you tell?”
“Tree affinities are particularly good at understanding soil attachments. And I’ve had extra training on it with the DBI, since tree communication networks are valuable sources of intelligence. I was sifting through the soil as you were working.”
I nodded, my curiosity piqued. “And you could tell the attachment was shallow?”
“It was shallow, but something else was going on. The soil seems to react to you more quickly than most. It’s almost as if you’re scattering it without meaning to.
” He crouched and rested on his heels as he contemplated something.
“Can you try a different Floracantus? One working with a tree’s roots? I want to watch for something.”
I wasn’t sure where he was going, but I didn’t protest. I wanted any scrap of information that could help me make the shield as powerful as it needed to be. I said a Floracantus to increase the water uptake in the roots of a nearby Cypress tree.
“Interesting,” Wyatt said once I had completed the process.
“What is it?”
“Have you heard that some botanists have heightened abilities that are slightly outside the realm of plant magic? Like Callan’s power sensing abilities.
That skill is connected to his wind manipulating powers.
All lead tree affinities have some level of wind manipulation, but his are much stronger than most.”
I thought about Kai and his ability to waterbend that I had witnessed in Florida. “Yes, I guess I have.”
“Sometimes, they’re referred to as extra-affinity powers, since they’re outside the normal affinity groups.
A few pop up every generation, but they seem to be getting more common lately.
The DBI has been trying to track the frequency, but botanists often keep these extra powers hidden or don’t realize they have skills beyond what’s normal.
One of those abilities has to do with an increased ability to work with soil.
Like the others, it’s rare, but based on what I just saw there, I think you have it. ”
I mulled over his words, remembering when I had found the mushrooms in the soil based on the soil’s pH during the fall equinox scavenger hunt.
Kaito had seemed surprised that I could sense the soil, but I hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
And not long ago, Yasmin had mentioned that I was good at manipulating the soil when we were learning how to activate Rosie. Could Wyatt be right?
“If I do have this soil ability, what does it mean? Can I use it to connect more deeply with the soil?”
Wyatt nodded. “Yes. I believe you already have been, but since you haven’t had training on it, your skills aren’t refined.
Thankfully, I once worked with a DBI agent with this skill, so I know something about how he did it.
” He touched a hand to the ground. “I guess I’ve got something to teach you in field studies after all. ”
Wyatt and I continued to meet daily, finding new spots along the Wildflower Trail to practice connecting with the soil. Each session, I uncovered layers of the soil I hadn’t paid much attention to before.
Different soil had different profiles and could vary widely based on its inorganic composition, the nutrients in the area, and the organic material that was mixed in.
As I learned the nuances of the earth under my fingers, I was able to latch the shield Floracantus more deeply into it.
Each day, the shield was lasting longer and longer, and after a week, Wyatt and I went to test my latest shield after leaving it overnight around the Evergreen Conservatory.
“It’s still here,” Wyatt said, a grin spreading across his face. “It didn’t dissolve overnight.” He held up a hand, and I high-fived it.
“Think it’s permanent, or will it fall eventually?” I asked.
I could sense Wyatt using his tree powers to sift through the soil. “I think you attached it to every level and component, like we were aiming for. Unless you choose to uproot it, that shield’s not going anywhere.”
I smiled in pure relief then tilted my head up to the sky, letting the warm spring sun bathe my face in photons. “So, you think I’m ready?”
Wyatt nodded. “I think you’re ready.”
“Will you be on campus for the spring equinox, just in case I need you to check my soil prep?”
“I think you’re better at soil prep than me now, but I would like to be on campus to support in other ways if needed. I’ll sneak in again, like I did for the Floral Fete. If my mom is there on the spring equinox, as I suspect she might be, I don’t want her to see me coming.”
“About that. Callan heard through his scouting vines that security may be tighter on the equinox than it was during the Floral Fete. But I think I have a way for you and some of our other allies to get in unnoticed.”
Wyatt arched an eyebrow. “I’m telling you you’re cut out for the DBI.”
I laughed. “Keep dreaming, Rhodes.” Then I told him about the petal portals.