Plants and Proffesors [Hadrian]

[Pa'haite]

55 Summer 512 AV
Morning

The air was warm, but with a crisp coolness to it that said that the sun's summer heat had not quite sunken in. It was one of those days that would make one grateful to live in a place like Zeltiva. The breeze flowing over Mathews Bay was subtle, just enough to make the trees rustle lightly. There was the quiet hum of birds, insects, and animals alike as the untamed area outside of Zeltiva came to life. The scene might have been perfectly beautiful. If it weren't for the desolation that overshadowed everything else.

The clearing here was just that. A clearing. There was nothing growing within it, save for a few trees and bushes lying at the very edges. It might have looked like a fire had burned everything away, were it not for the lack of any sorts of remains. No dead, blackened plants, no ash, no signs of life, simply dirt. It was undoubtedly another a scar from the Valterrian, an area affected by the violence of the war and the damage of the djed unleashed during it.

Now, after years of lifelessness, Pa'haite had found it, and had been slowly working to bring the clearing back to life.

Her steps were delicate and graceful, her bare feet hardly making a sound as she walked back to the clearing. In the Konti girl's cupped hands she carried a mound of soil, the young sprout of a flowering bush growing from it. It wasn't much, a weak green stem with light green leaves. Once it started growing in its new home, however, it would bring the area that much closer to being the beautiful place Pa'haite imagined it to have been hundreds of years ago.

When she reached the spot she had planned for, she knelt down, all the while sending the sprout feelings of reassurance. With extreme gentleness, she eased it into the hole she had dug a while earlier. It fit snugly, as she had expected. After a little extra dirt patted in, the plant was safely transplanted.

Pa'haite smiled slightly behind her scarf. Touching a small hand to one of the leaves, she asked it a few questions just to make sure all was well and that it didn't need anything else.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian walked the environs of Zeltiva with impunity, but then he had been traveling for years, and his magical skills had grown by leaps and bounds since his graduation from the University some two years previous. He was in tune with the flows of djed around him, particularly the souls of living things, and so it was difficult to sneak up on him. Besides, it was likely Ethan was flying overhead to keep an eye on him, or Xnnn stalking through the trees nearby. But he was a bit distracted today, his attention divided between the book about local medicinal flora he had borrowed from the library and attempting not to stumble or run into anything, and so the Konti's presence didn't trip his internal alarums, but her gnosis flared up in his senses fit to 'blind' him as he neared the clearing, leaving him blinking and shaking his head, purposefully shutting down his auristic faculties, the better to not be overloaded. "H-hello?"

[Pa'haite]

Pa'haite was distracted by speaking to her little sprout, and so hadn't heard anyone approaching. Usually she paid very careful attention, listening to the sounds around her for people in the area. As it was, she was completely unprepared for the sudden voice she'd hear out on the edge of the clearing.

"H-hello?"

Immediately her head shot up and she looked towards the source of the voice. Through the trees she could see a figure standing there, but she couldn't see enough of them to know who or what it was. Taking caution, she stood up, and took a small step towards it. Silently she stared at the shape, waiting to see whether or not this person would be a threat.

[Hadrian]

Were he a threat, he likely would have made no noise at all, or at least not stuttered when he announced himself. But Hadrian approached cautiously, seeing that it was indeed a Konti, whose race was often blessed by the divine, whether Avalis, Rak'keli, or Laviku, but this felt different, and she stood in the lifeless clearing, a blot of darkness in his senses except for the incandescent burst of new life. He paused again, well enough away as not to be threatening or threatened. His book came up so she could see what he carried. "Don't mind me. I'm just looking for specific plants hereabouts..."

[Pa'haite]

Pa'haite took note of the man's book and nodded. Another scholar type. They usually seemed to be harmless enough. Of course it wasn't her own well-being she worried about, but that of the wildlife around them. Hearing his intentions, her mind was set more at ease. She was ready to return to her work on the clearing, but hesitated. Earlier in the season another scholar type man had come through looking for plants, and she had ended up having to stop him from poisoning himself.

No, this man was different though. Pa'haite wasn't necessarily skilled in specific magics, but as a Konti was able to sense at least a little of the incredible djed this man possessed. He seemed to have a higher understanding than most she had encountered, and so surely must be more than capable of avoiding such ridiculous mistakes.

Not quite turning her back to the man, she returned to kneeling next to the plant. Before she had stood so abruptly, it had pushed to her a request for "food" for it's soil. With a touch of her hand to its leaves she asked it to explain what it specifically needed.

[Hadrian]

He had an idea she might be a celebrant of Bala or Caiyha the way she was tending to that plant. His hand itched where the Lormar symbol lay, the seal that Eyris had placed there. He was a seeker of wisdom, and the nature goddesses had a wisdom all their own. He decided it was best to be solicitous. "Do you need water?" he asked, his hand coming up unbidden, pale blue res whorling up into a globe of glowing energy almost at a whim. It came so quickly now, and his control had gotten so fine. His advancement had been quick, really, once he surmounted those first mountain-high hurdles. Every time he spoke and she didn't, he felt out of place, like he was making noise in a place where silence was golden. And so he stepped forward cautiously, the res beginning to transmute into the purest water, still moving within its sphere, his control maintained by keeping some of it in energetic form, which responded better to his will. He knelt nearby, where he would not be in her way, but she could see his offering and nod or shake her head per her requirements.

[Pa'haite]

She glanced up just barely when she heard the man asking if she needed water. After pushing the image of water toward the plant as a way to ask if that was what it required, it answered with a yes. Pa'haite felt slightly uncomfortable getting help with what she treated as her own enormous garden. All the same, the plant needed some good freshwater, not the saltwater of the Bay. It was always a problem trying to get a hold of some. As she reached the river areas, the plants tended to be less friendly to her, being outside of the biome that was under her care. Not to mention the difficulty someone of her size had in carrying enough back. So pride aside, if this man happened to have water with him, she was willing to take his offer.

When she looked up she saw the man kneeling nearby with an orb of water in his hand. Her brow furrowed. She had heard of Reimancy from her mother, but had never gotten the chance to see it. Moving back a little bit to make room, she nodded to the man, gesturing towards the plant, and watched him with curiosity and the slightest bit of worry for her plant.

[Hadrian]

He nodded and without apparent effort, the globe of water whorled down to dampen the dirt around the transplanted sprout, and then he did her one better. Spreading out across the ground from him came that blue glow, and she might even feel it tingling beneath her. It was not so very taxing to create a good deal of res anymore, though he would likely need a good meal, a healthy meditation, and a long nap when he returned to the city proper. Once the glow had spread to about the size of a large room, his eyes went half-lidded, willing the res to spread downward a good foot or so, and then, when it was evenly distributed, he transmuted the lot of it into pure water. The glow disappeared, but the witch probably heard the piping, tinny songs of forgotten seeds coming awake. "Most of the water is too deep for the sun to readily evaporate it," he explained, remaining crouched down nearby the seedling. "If you want to help the soil, though, I would suggest earthworms. My, ah..." He flushed a little. "My mother used them to help turn the soil and enrich it."

[Pa'haite]

She watched on, seeing as it behaved as normal water would be expected to. But when the glow of blue began to spread underneath her, Pa'haite stood again, looking down at the ground with wide eyes. It was strange, the feeling that came from it and touched her feet, though not exactly unpleasant. She looked around, seeing that it had spread wide throughout the clearing. As it suddenly seemed to sink down, she followed it, kneeling back down, her hand on the dirt, looking at it in confusion. Then she made the first sound since the man's arrival.

A small exhale escaped her lips beneath the scarf. She could feel it. Like a hundred tiny breaths being taken at once, an unseen burst of life beneath the ground. The entire area around her, though it may be silent to the man, became alive with the sound and feel of Nura, insects and plants alike joining in the happiness of the new life and hope soon to be restored in the scarred clearing.

Pa'haite nodded at the man's suggestion, eyes still filled with wonder as she gazed down at the now moist soil. She knew he was right, earth worms were definitely the next step. Looking up she saw him go slightly red. When she heard him mention his mother she herself couldn't help but look away uncomfortably, simply nodding again.

Just then the thought occurred to her. She found the little slate and piece of chalk she kept in her pocket and brought it out. It was very unusual for her to "speak" without being first prompted to, but the situation seemed to call for it. In rough common, she wrote a simple thank you and displayed it to the man.

[Hadrian]

It took less than an instant to read her words, of course. He considered her for a moment, wondering if she were truly mute or just playing at it for whatever mysterious reasons, but instead of vocalizing, he just nodded to her, accepting her thanks and implying she was welcome to his help. He paused for a moment, for while he could not speak the language of Life, he could sense auras better than almost anyone he had met in his travels, and he felt the faint susurration below, what he assumed was seeds responding to the water, beginning to unfold some of their hidden, dormant complexities. He looked back at her then, severe eyebrows high in surprise. Clearly he had never experienced something quite like this before. He wondered what it would feel like to witness the birth of a sentient creature, whether the dreaming aura of an unborn child would blaze forth with birthing. After a moment of quiet appreciation, one eyebrow hiked up in question as if asking her what else he could do to help her. Certainly he could churn up the earth for the worms, but he wasn't sure she would appreciate his means despite the ends. If she was a Witch, it was likely she cared less for his life than for that of a blade of grass.