Chapter 31
Zamyran Greenhouse, Growing District, Realm of Calderre
Head bowed in the darkening greenhouse, Connor pressed his hand to the twining bark. Rich amber filled his lungs as he breathed in as much of the warm velentha scent as he could.
Comfort and peace wound through him on the sweet fragrance. Throat swollen with emotion, he cried out in his mind, letting the pain out.
After doing the final interrogation with the men they’d recovered from the fortress, he’d desperately needed something to soothe his soul. The velentha grove had called to him, and he’d found his feet taking him into the growing district where all the specialized greenhouses were located.
He’d entered the Zamyran greenhouse, ignoring surprised and confused looks from workers as he walked intentionally toward his destination. It had been a long time since he’d found himself in the rainforest growing house.
The first time had been to pick up Celina after she’d been spending time with her friends, one of whom was the adopted daughter of the greenhouse master.
The girls had liked to spend time trading secrets among the plants, and Alayna in particular loved the Zamyran greenhouse that grew plants and food from the southern realm.
Nestled toward the back, the small grove of velentha trees glowed softly as dusk settled, inviting him to drop his burdens at their roots.
He’d personally spent the past few days interrogating the two prisoners who had held the children captive in Eldridge.
Moreso than Alison, he wanted the two men dead for their treatment of the children they’d rescued.
They’d broken quickly, but the information they’d spewed had wrenched his stomach into a permanent state of illness.
Caused waking nightmares of Opal and Veda in danger, crying and screaming at their hands.
Destroying someone else in the process of questioning took a particular hardness.
Interrogations were always draining. He'd witnessed and participated in some dark things over the years during his undercover missions, as well as during interrogations. But knowing the children who’d been abused made the situation completely different.
After all the years he’d spent doing exactly this, something inside him had finally broken.
His time on the mountain, with his memories shadowed, had changed him more than he cared to admit.
It had allowed him to unveil part of himself that was always there.
The part of him that wanted to protect and defend, not attack.
He had to wonder where he would have ended up if his parents had lived. What truer path he might have followed if he hadn’t felt the driving need to keep his mother’s legacy alive.
In truth, her legacy was never at risk of dying. Morgan and the others who were running the refugee program were keeping it alive and well. He’d do what he needed to protect it. To protect his family. And then… then there would be a reckoning inside himself.
“Connor?” A soft, lilting voice spoke into the nearly dark room.
The muscles in his shoulders strained in protest as he straightened. How long had he been standing there? The quiet and the darkness told him it had been longer than he realized.
He turned to find Alayna standing a few feet from him. A talented plant mage, she had taken after her adoptive father and was now responsible for many of the specialized greenhouses.
“Alayna, hi,” he greeted. “Sorry for invading your territory without asking.”
“It’s okay.” She brushed off his apology with a flutter of her fingers. “I just grew worried when you went without moving for so long.”
“It’s dark, you probably need to lock up and get home.”
“I don’t mind. Stay a little longer.” She started to walk away but paused to turn back to him, face cast with worry in the low light. “Are you sure you’re okay? The plants are… distressed.”
His mind cleared a bit as he puzzled over her statement. He hadn’t been around her much in recent years but remembered her as being Celina’s quietest friend. The soft-spoken girl had a tendency to speak oddly when she was younger, if she spoke at all.
“Distressed… because of me?”
Alayna rolled her lips as if she were debating her words. “Not because of you, exactly. But emotional energy is still energy. They… absorb it… in a way. It’s hard to put into words.”
“Having spent the last few months trying to teach Opal and the other children about their magic, I can appreciate that. Magic doesn’t always translate into explanation well.”
Her eyes lit as she smiled. “Very true.”
She reached out to caress the purple leaves with affection. He swore that the velentha branches stretched to greet her. His imagination was proven correct when the rustling of leaves wound around her still hand as if to hold onto her.
“Any luck on your new project so far?” he asked hopefully.
Celina and Morgan had secretly entrusted Alayna with the extra drug vials they’d brought back from the fortress to study. She’d been analyzing them, trying to determine what they were made of and how they might be countered.
The military was doing their own research, but no one was currently comfortable trusting them exclusively with the precious vials they currently had.
Not with Alison still in a position of authority where the drug investigation was concerned.
They’d tried to force it under Morgan’s lead with the impact to the refugee program, but Alison’s reconnaissance division was equally involved.
Alayna glanced over at him. “Not that anyone else might agree as progress, but I think so. It’s just a matter of time, Connor. We’ll figure it out.”
“I had a hard time with an interrogation earlier,” he confessed.
“Hmm,” she murmured, not pressing him for more information. “And you felt drawn to the velentha grove?”
“Yes.” How did he explain his affinity for the trees? “They always ease the burden I’m carrying. I’ve spent so much time in Eldridge over the years, I guess they’ve grown on me.”
Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she studied him. “You know, your father liked to do the same with the weeping kostana trees.”
“You knew my father?” he asked, surprised. She would have been very young, probably no more than eight or so when he died.
“We met a few times in the cold weather greenhouse. I don’t know if Celina ever told you, but I struggled a lot when I arrived as a refugee.
Didn’t speak for a long time. The plant mages they tried to pair with me as mentors didn’t really want to work with a child so young, let alone one who had problems. I used to sneak away from their lessons and hide in whichever greenhouse we were working in. ”
She paused to trail her fingers through the leaves of another velentha tree, as if she was giving them all equal attention.
“Your father came in one day. He was very upset, and from my hiding spot, I watched him do what you did just now. I could feel the trees respond. They wanted to help him, to draw him in. So, I helped them connect to him. It was the first time I willingly used my magic after arriving in Calderre. He may not have been able to feel the plants, but he felt me.”
She smiled, remembering. “Looked straight at me through the foliage. When Vikram, the plant mage who was my assigned mentor at the time, came searching for me, he lied and said he hadn’t seen me.
Small to him, but significant to me. He told me once that the weeping kostana trees reminded him of home.
Helped him feel less alone when he was missing his family. ”
Connor vaguely remembered his father describing the garden his grandmother had kept, including the trees that produced the unique kostana spice his father so loved.
The trees thrived in the cold climate of the north.
Their branches weeping with light pink blossoms unless they were coaxed into canopies.
Though they grew easily enough at higher altitudes, they weren’t naturally prevalent in Calderre.
“I never knew.” It was comforting though, to think that his father had struggled sometimes. Had been drawn to nature to unburden his emotions from time to time like Connor was.
“Velentha trees grow best in the shadows. Maybe that’s why you feel so drawn to them, besides the familiarity.”
“Really?”
Alayna nodded. “The ones you’re used to seeing in Eldridge are a bit different from their ancestors in Zamyra.
Smaller and less hardy. True velentha trees grow robust in the southern rainforests.
The gold veins actually glow in the right conditions.
I can’t completely duplicate the effect of the rainforest canopy here in the greenhouse, try as I might. ”
He’d always wondered why they were grown in the rainforest greenhouse rather than the more moderate climate of some of the other greenhouses, including the Refugee Garden that contained exclusively Eldrin plants.
“Do you remember them from before?” he asked.
She had once been a refugee from Zamyra, secreted out of the realm when she was Opal’s age and her magic put a death sentence over her.
“Yes, there were a number of them near our village. They like the areas that aren’t overly dense but are still shadowed by taller trees.
I used to sneak away to look at them sometimes.
Even then, before my magic woke, I used to hide among the plants and fall asleep.
” She held out her hand. “Try something for me?”
Grateful for the surprising reprieve, he let her take his hand and press it against a section of trunk just below where it began to branch out. The bark beneath his palm was a cross section, letting him feel the different sections twining together.
“Raise your magic with mine and direct it around and above the tree.”
Warmth tingled where her palm touched the back of his hand. He felt her energy bubbling beside him. It was gentle, yet distinct. The feeling of rain drops on his skin.