Chapter 11 #2
Sibling Kell. Another follower of the Three Above. Great. Oaklin tried to reverse course, their muscles already priming for flight.
“Won’t Sister Talla be upset if you leave?” Oaklin asked. “I’m sure you can just give me directions and I’ll find it.”
And then I’ll turn around and pretend this never happened, they added silently. Alas, it was the wrong strategy, and they should have known.
“Yep, she’ll be pissed,” Lior agreed without breaking her stride. “Part of the benefit, honestly. Consider it my primary hobby. Other than reading, of course.”
“Is she really that bad?” Oaklin asked, giving in to the inevitable current that was Lior’s energy.
Lior nodded. “The actual worst. I’m not exaggerating,” she said, leading Oaklin down the side of the temple block and around a corner.
“I swear, I’m not a naturally spiteful person.
She’s just special. She’s awful to everyone who doesn’t match her deeply unhealthy work ethic, but she has a special hatred in her heart for me because of the whole Enchantrix War thing I told you about. So, you know. She started it.”
“Very mature,” Oaklin said with a grin to soften the words.
Lior shrugged. “Nah, not even slightly, and I’m okay with that. The Three Above mean for our lives to be for more than just work. Even work in the service of others. Ah, here we go.”
At the end of the block, a small window was cut into the side of the temple building with a cheerful yellow awning propped above it.
Inside the window, a person in lightweight white robes carefully arranged a collection of cut flowers in peaches and pinks, squinting from behind lightweight gold-wire spectacles.
Their features were ageless and intent; they could just as easily have been twenty-five as fifty-five.
“Oaklin, this is Sibling Kell. They’re the farmer in charge of the temple’s cut flower gardens and apiary. Sibling Kell, this is my friend Oaklin, the new farmer who moved into Granny’s old place,” Lior said, with a hand on Oaklin’s shoulder. “They had a question for you.”
Oaklin, briefly thrown off by the feel of Lior’s strong hand on them, completely blanked on the question. Instead, they said: “I had no idea the temple had a cut flower garden or bees. I’d love to see them sometime.”
It took everything Oaklin had to stop themself from slapping a hand over their own mouth.
No, actually, they would not like to see anything associated with the Three Above. Not even a garden. Spending more time with a Sibling of the Order was a terrible idea.
Too late, though. Sibling Kell had brightened, their eyes alight with eagerness even as they avoided direct eye contact.
“I’d love to show you the gardens! Let’s go!”
“No, please, it doesn’t have to be—”
Sibling Kell reached out and grabbed the shutters, slamming the window closed without another word.
“It doesn’t have to be right now?” Oaklin said weakly. Lior squeezed their shoulder and shook her head.
“Yes, it does,” she said. “Kell loves nothing more in the world than their gardens and bees. You’ll love it too, though, promise. They’re a sight to behold. Kell does incredible work.”
Before Oaklin could protest further, the door beside the sales window popped open and Sibling Kell beckoned.
“Through here! It’s fastest,” they said, rocking from foot to foot with impatience. Oaklin barely managed to conceal their sigh as they followed.
Fortunately, it was a short walk as promised. They cut through an empty dining room and a dormitory hall. “My room’s just down there,” Lior said with a wink—and before long they emerged into what Oaklin always assumed would be the empty fields beyond the western edge of the village.
They were far from empty.
“Oh,” Oaklin breathed, taking in the vision before them. “Wow.”
Rows of mounded soil stretched across the vast field behind the temple, each one bursting with a riotous whirlwind of color.
Oaklin couldn’t name many flowers other than the ones Granny had taught them in the woods, but they suddenly wanted to know every single one—bobbing puffs of yellow, broad faces ringed with rays of red and orange, swaying blooms atop slender stems, purple, indigo, green, gold, all of it dancing in perfect synchrony.
They came in spikes and spires, clusters and waves, discs and diaphanous clouds, and even ones that looked like tiny dragon mouths.
Bees flitted from one flower to the next, covering their fuzzy bodies with yellow pollen before returning to the hives at the back of the field.
Kell walked them up and down the rows, naming each flower and greeting the bees, and Oaklin followed in a haze of reverence.
Maybe there is something sacred here after all, came the thought, unbidden. Maybe there is some good to be had.
“You like it,” Kell said, beaming. No question, just certainty.
“I love it,” Oaklin agreed, drinking in the view with Lior’s arm pressed alongside theirs. “This is stunning. I came here for seeds for the farm, but seeing this…”
The sudden doubt was crushing. How could they create something this beautiful?
“Ah, Granny always used to plant my special pollinator blend around the edges of every field to ensure the crops were well pollinated and the good bugs were thriving,” Kell said, hands clasped to their heart.
“I can’t tell you how much it means to me to see you doing the same.
Two years was such a long time to see that beautiful land empty. ”
Oaklin’s heart quavered with the sudden terror of disappointing this gentle soul. “Well, keep your expectations low. I’ve never grown flowers before, and I’m not sure—”
“This blend couldn’t be easier, promise,” Kell assured, leading them back through the temple to the door they’d entered through.
A moment later, the shop window banged open and Kell held out a large envelope heavy with tiny seeds.
“Just scatter them on the ground and they’ll do the rest. They need light exposure to germinate, so you don’t even need to cover them.
I’ve deliberately excluded anything fussy.
Just lots of good-quality forage for the pollinators with staggered bloom times so you always have something flowering. ”
“Wow, that’s incredible,” Oaklin said, staring down at the envelope in reverence. “What do I owe you?”
Kell waved a hand.
“Nonsense. Gift of the temple. I’m just happy to see you feeding the bees. If you happen to have extra clary sage at the end of the season, I like to make an oil from it. You let me know, and I’ll come cut it myself.”
“Clary sage,” Oaklin acknowledged with a nod. “You can have all you want, assuming any of it grows.”
“Oh, it’ll grow,” Kell said, smiling with an edge of mystery. “I’ll see you at the market tomorrow, and the Farmer’s Union meeting next week, right?”
Oaklin dithered. “Oh, uh, I was thinking of skipping the market this week, actually. Not much to sell early in the season, and the time is maybe better…spent…”
They trailed off as Sibling Kell’s expression grew visibly distressed.
“You can’t miss your second market ever,” Kell said, wringing their hands. “Your new customers will think you’re unreliable! Tomorrow is the most important time for you to be there.”
Oaklin grimaced. That sounded…unfortunately logical.
“I’ll be there,” Oaklin said, their soul heaving a massive sigh as they hefted the envelope of seed.
So much for playing it safe.
They had a lot of harvesting to do for tomorrow’s market.