Draith
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Chapter 148 - Stroll Through The Garden
🕑 Added 2025-07-01 14:00:20 +0000 UTCThe next few hours were a positive blur of activity as Vaserra set people to organizing. She didn't limit herself to the northern vale, which was called Sheep's Home by the locals, sending off other members of her pack to prepare the other vales. When I'd explained exactly how much help I could provide in a few hours, Vaserra had stared at me blankly for several seconds, as if struggling to believe me. Then she'd started barking orders so loudly I thought her voice alone might cause an avalanche.
Ignoring the city's name the best I could, I asked for some seeds to spread on our own. I still had backup seeds in my pendant, but those would require extra instructions and special treatment. The locals already knew how to tend to their local crops.
Even if they hadn’t had much space to practice until recently.
While Vaserra was still organizing people, I started walking. Calbern was at my side, using his incredible precision to throw seeds to the edge of my range. As I walked, I used a second order spell I'd purchased from Keeper for setting up Nexxa's new settlement.
Astria's Garden.
With my newly enhanced memory, I pulled forth the spell's description.
While the wilds hold many wonders, it is the garden where life blooms most beautiful. In my many years, I have always appreciated most, a fully flourishing garden. Yet far too often, I find them out of season, neglected or far too often, turned to ash.
This simple spell rectifies such deficiencies with the grace required of a proper phoenix, causing even the most devastated of gardens to soon return to full bloom.
Despite the description, Astria's Garden wasn't a particularly simple spell, technically requiring two separate spells to cast.
The first, it's targeting component, called Astria’s Grasp was capable of scanning specific seeds as I held them in my hand. Once scanned, I had to use the second half, Astria’s Wave, which would target matching seeds within roughly a hundred feet of the caster.
Astria’s Wave would function much like Bloom, helping the seeds to grow. However, since the targeting was so narrow, the spell didn't have the same mental load as Bloom did, nor did it cause anything except for the associated crops to grow.
With our dozens of greenhouses, the spell wasn't much more efficient than Bloom, since the major bottleneck there was already in the number of hands we had to harvest the crops.
Now I had access to open fields.
Every fifty feet, the seeds Calbern threw would burst upwards as I drew mana in from the storm. Behind us, I could hear the murmur of the crowd shifting, with Vaserra's voice echoing over them as they set to work.
“A more honest day’s work than I’ve put forth in a rather substantial period,” Calbern said, still throwing the seeds in neat arcs.
“You have too much fun when you’re driving around Fang to call it honest work?” I asked, feeling a bit awkward at the way I had to wave my hands, since people in the distance had started waving back.
“Indeed, master Percival. Though I must admit to some amusement. Have you always sought to incite violence with fruit?” Behind us, Vaserra was yelling at a group of people who’d gotten into a fight over the bountiful crop, as though they were afraid we would just stop making more.
“Wasn’t exactly on my bucket list,” I said, shaking my head.
“Your… bucket list? A rather unusual idiom.”
“It’s… it’s a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. And kicking the bucket refers to dying, though I’m not certain why,” I said, shaking my head even as I continued waving my hands to the side.
“I believe the Tethered have a similar expression, though I suspect the nuances are different. How was it phrased again,” Calbern said, not stopping in his motion as he tilted his head back a degree. “Ah, yes. Knots left to tie, falls left to die.”
“That’s… appropriately morbid,” I said, chuckling softly.
“It is at that,” Calbern agreed as we continued the work. “Shall we return to our stroll through the garden?”
“Ha. Yeah, let’s do that.”
It took us six hours to fill their fields to overflowing. By which point, we'd walked up and down both sides of the vale.
Exhaustion and a weary sort of pride could be seen on the faces of many, though it had become apparent part way through that they didn't have the facilities to hold everything that'd been grown.
That was fine. For the moment, they wouldn't have to go hungry. And I was already thinking of how I might work the spell into an enchantment. One that could convert Vaserra's abundant Ice mana into the Nature mana she needed.
It would be complicated, yet it would be incredibly useful to her and half of the work had already been done with Bevel's scribing pen. It wouldn't work as well as having me cast the spell myself but it'd be something she could use on her own.
When I suggested the idea, Vaserra's response took my breath away. Literally.
She squeezed me so tightly, I couldn't breath, tears streaming down her cheeks. When she released me, she coughed, patting my shoulder with enough force to cause me to stumble. "Ah, my apologies. It is just… these have been hard times, and not only do you offer aid freely, you are already thinking to solve my issues in the future. Truly, what did I do to earn an ally so great as you?"
"You cared for your people," I said, even as Restore Form fixed my busted ribs. "Though I wouldn't mind it if you moderated your appreciation. Not all of us are tough as a Frost Wolf."
She laughed, shaking my shoulder as she gestured at the laughing crowd around us. "I shall do my best, but come, we should depart before we get swept up in their festivities. I suspect there will be many who eat more than their fill this night."
"Shouldn't you stop them?"
"I am their protector, not their nursemaid," Vaserra replied, patting me on the shoulder again, though this time with a more appropriate amount of force.
"Right," I said, both of us following her to where Frost Lily and Fang were waiting.
We only traveled for an hour before setting up camp, Sheep's Home still visible on the horizon when we stopped. There were cooking fires spread from one end of the winding city to the other, a glistening river of light that followed the actual river the city was built alongside. Each of the Frost Riven’s vale cities seemed built in a similar manner.
"I owe you more than a few days of hunting for this, Percival," Vaserra said as we sat at our own cooking fire, her gaze distant. "You have been a better friend and ally than I could've expected from any man, even one of my own clan. If you ever have need of me, do not doubt that I will answer."
"I mean, I still need a place to put those refugees for Nexxa," I said, accepting a bowl of stew from Calbern as he joined us. “Wouldn’t say no to a nice fertile valley.”
"I have told you what I know, though I have hunters in the southlands who will confirm what beasts reside there. Yet such a simple task does not come close to equaling what I owe," Vaserra said, shaking her head. "Our empty storehouses have been vexing me since the days I first escorted you through my lands."
"Yeah, that's my bad. Really should've come earlier," I said, letting out a long sigh.
"These aren't your people. You didn't owe them your aid. It was my father's duty to care for them, as it is now mine," Vaserra said, her totems clacking as she shook her head.
"I mean… I guess. But I don't really want to think like that. If people are suffering, and I can do something about it, especially if it’s as easy as waving my hand, then… well, I know exactly what it's like to be on the other end, with people seeing you in pain and just… ignoring it," I said, looking down at my bowl. "So, I guess… just do the same thing. Pay it forward, as my people say. I helped you, so help others in turn. People are going to be wandering in along the high road, over the coming months. Help them get to my domain. Or Nexxa's, once we've got her set up. That'll be more than enough."
Vaserra let out a soft huff, taking another spoonful of stew instead of responding.
The three of us sat in silence for several minutes before Calbern spoke. "I have found myself questioning quite a few things since master Percival ascended. Many of my beliefs, simple ‘truths’ which I had assumed to be simple facts of life, which turned out not to be so true after all. A most astonishing accomplishment, considering how rarely he can set his own collar correctly."
"We all need people to do the things we can't," I said, my hand reaching up to said collar. "And I swear these collars are designed to only be adjustable by people who aren't wearing the damn robe."
Vaserra laughed at that, patting my shoulder. "Cubs should mind their elders."
With a humph, I took another bite of stew. Despite the chill wind stealing the heat of the meal away, I still felt a kernel of warmth in my chest.
The next morning, we traveled to the next vale. Which they also called Sheep’s Home. When I asked about the shared name, it was very painfully pointed out to me that it was both pronounced and spelled differently.
It wasn't. Not from what I could tell.
Four of the five vales called themselves some variation of Sheep’s Home. Vaserra admitted that she simply called them by their positions, such as the northern vale and the western vale, for exactly that reason.
Honestly couldn't see the fault in her logic.
The planting had been completed during the night by some very eager city dwellers. It didn't speed the process by much, though I the route itself was somewhat improved, meaning I only had to spend five hours being a walking super-greenhouse.
It took two days to finish the rest of the vales, during which I sent Calbern back to my domain to let Tamrie and the others know what I was doing. Instead, I rode atop Frost Lily with Vaserra as we crossed between the remaining vales.
When we were done, Vaserra picked me up and danced around, swinging me at the end of her arms. I was far too large for this to have been the first time I experienced a whirlyround or whatever it was called, but that didn't stop her.
Thankfully, my improved mental processes seemed to reduce nausea, since I was only slightly dizzy when she regained her composure.
She couldn't stop herself from bursting out into spontaneous fits of laughter though. Not even when we returned to the Frost Riven's fortress atop the high road.
It was only as she was taking me back to the bluff that the sudden bursts of laughter seemed to subside. Instead, a sort of calm seemed to spread over her.
I barely noticed at first, as I was fist deep in Frost Lily's hair, since the wolf had grown in power just as much as Vaserra had, and her stride had grown with it.
Getting tossed off of a speeding wolf was the sort of experience I wasn't looking to repeat.
When we drew to a stop near the bluff, I finally noticed Vaserra's calm. Her head was tilted back, the wind softly blowing through her hair, the totems clacking gently as she sat there atop Frost Lily's now still form. "You can feel it, can't you?"
I mirrored her posture, closing my eyes as I attempted to feel whatever she might be talking about. The wind was mostly quiet, this close to the bluff.
It didn't take long to pick up what she was talking about. There was a change to the mana. Instead of the flood of storm mana I was used to, there was something new. Something I didn't recognize.
"Change is coming. Great change. Greater than has been seen through the entire history of our clan, I think," Vaserra said, her hair clacking as she shifted in her seat a couple feet in front of me.
"The Pillars are failing," I said, having told her not long after I'd first figured it out myself. "And people are waging pointless wars."
"It's more than that. Old things wake," Vaserra said, holding her hand upward, her fingers spread. "Secrets long lost are being found. Dragons fill the skies. Strangers from beyond the stars walk the land, finding themselves lost upon our cliffs."
Well, that was one thing I hadn't shared with Vaserra. Though considering Esbee, it was possible there were others. Which led me to ask, "Strangers from beyond the stars?"
"Yes. One of our recent bonds, as it was forged, something was caught. It was with three voices she spoke instead of two, when she was whole," Vaserra said, smiling softly. "A gift, at least for them."
"Not the first I've heard of something like that," I said, letting out a long breath. "Don't suppose they mentioned where they're from?"
"Ah. It was difficult to pronounce. Not Elinder," Vaserra said, working her lips. "I believe she said it was… Venus?"
