Chapter 406:Leaf’s Full Birth IV
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Leaf lowered her gaze again. The Flesh Fairies began gathering above her in a loose circle, drawn by the focus of her attention. The Dryads also noticed the shift. One by one, the five plant women turned from the outer edge and watched their queen in silence. Even the Flesh-Treant behind them seemed to settle more deeply, its huge root-mass shifting once as if bracing itself around the moment.
The whole Trinity was paying attention.
That was exactly as it should be.
Sekhmet crouched slightly, bringing himself lower to Leaf’s level without making the gesture obvious. "You do not have to plant everything today," he said. "You will think first. You will feel the soil. You will decide what position is good for them. How far they need to be apart without causing any problems to their growth. How many you can plant and make them grow with your current power."
Leaf listened with complete focus. She understood everything Sekhmet told her. Then she replied, "Yes."
Sekhmet added, "You do not plant them for beauty."
Leaf blinked once. Then nodded again. "I will plant them for strength. To make the land stronger."
Sekhmet replied, "Good."
That answer was better than he expected. Faster too.
Bat Bat raised one hand again, because of course she did. There won’t be a conversation without her asking something less important. "What if strength becomes beautiful?"
Sekhmet looked at her.
Bat Bat lifted her chin. "It was a valid question. Why do you look at me like that?"
Leaf answered before he did. "Then we keep both."
Bat Bat froze.
Then she turned slowly toward Auri with a face full of unbearable triumph. "You heard that."
Auri folded her arms. "I heard that Leaf has taste."
Bat Bat accepted this as a victory.
Sekhmet let the moment pass and looked back at Leaf. "You will do this with them."
He did not need to point. The Flesh Fairies were already hovering above her. The Dryads had already begun drawing closer. The Treant remained still, but attentive.
Leaf turned and looked at her Trinity in full. The five Flesh Fairies drifted nearer at once, tiny wings buzzing softly in the wrong air of the Void Land. The five Dryads stepped inward from the edges of the patch, looking elegant, deadly and silent all at once. Behind them, the Flesh-Treant lowered one great branch-arm slightly, as though offering its strength to the work before even being asked.
Leaf touched the top of one box again. Then she looked at them all. Her voice, when it came, was no longer uncertain at all.
"We plant together."
The reaction was immediate.
The Flesh Fairies circled faster, little bodies bright with intent. The Dryads did not smile, but something in the stillness of their faces sharpened into satisfaction. The Treant’s many eyes blinked once in unison.
It definitely meant yes.
The command had landed. It was not as an order stolen from Sekhmet and repeated carelessly.
As hers.
Bat Bat saw it too and went soft with awe for half a second before remembering herself and becoming annoying again.
"She is already sounding more important than us."
Leaf looked at her. "I am important. Everyone is important. We all are important."
Bat Bat put both hands over her heart as if struck by a beautiful weapon. "I love this version of you."
Sekhmet almost smiled looking at both of them. Then he looked at Leaf one last time and made the line of command plain.
"You build this zone first. It will be quiet. Strongly. No spreading beyond what I allow. No waste of time and effort. No careless experiments."
That made Bat Bat look personally attacked by the phrase careless experiments, waste of time and effort, which only confirmed its necessity.
Leaf, however, only bowed her head once. "Yes, my king. I will do whatever you ask of me."
The Flesh Fairies lowered around her in the air. The Dryads inclined their heads. The Treant lowered itself again, slower this time, like an old fortress learning reverence.
And in the middle of the widening Bloodlands patch, with two stolen boxes of seeds resting at the feet of a newborn spirit queen Sangufey, Sekhmet saw the shape of the future become just a little clearer.
A hidden nest. A stronger center. A land that would not stay empty forever. And that was where the moment settled.
Leaf did not waste the moment. She looked from one to the other, then up toward the five Flesh Fairies circling above her, then toward the five Dryads who had come in closer, and finally toward the Flesh-Treant behind them. The tiny queen in her small form drew in one slow breath and let it out with visible care.
Then she pointed. Not at random places.
At the left side of the widening Bloodlands patch, where the dark ground had softened most cleanly and where the roots beneath already seemed eager instead of merely alive.
"There," she said.
One of the Dryads moved at once. She was the greenest of the five, petals folded close around her hips and chest, with leaf-heavy hair and thorned forearms. She knelt where Leaf had pointed and placed both hands against the ground. The soil stirred. Not violently. Deeply. It loosened like something waking from old sleep.
Leaf pointed again, this time nearer the center but not too near the Flesh-Treant’s main root spread.
"There too."
A second Dryad obeyed. This one was darker, more crimson than green, with bark-flesh skin marked by vine lines that pulsed faintly under the wrong sky. She did not kneel. She crouched low and drove her fingers into the earth. The soil opened faster under her touch, as if blood-corrupted nature answered better to strength than gentleness.
Bat Bat watched with complete fascination. "They are gardening like murder priestesses."
Auri folded her arms. "That is because they are."
Bat Bat nodded as though this only improved matters.
Leaf hovered between the two boxes and laid one tiny hand against the first lid again. This time she did not merely feel. She listened. Her crimson eyes sharpened. Then she looked toward one of the Flesh Fairies, a pink-toned little creature with bright red eyes and translucent wings that shimmered like stained petals.
"You."