Cultivating Plants

The Tecolatan stood from the bench. At first, he only seemed like a shell of his former self, a brittle film that the wind could carry away or outright destroy, but a second later he regained his composure. He stood tall and strong like an oak, of skin and build that fell not short.

"Let us get going then," his tone was distant. "There's still one last thing to do in Asina."

He kept his silence, and unlike before, it was now oppressive. Aloe didn't like that as silence was supposed to be the ultimate form of peace and comfort. She had enjoyed silence all her life, but it had now become a threatening thing, far more violent than the one she had experienced at the chasm.

She kept herself from commenting on anything, telling herself that the boy needed the time and silence to think. That anything she did now would be taken as an offense.

Words festered wounds; time closed them.

She did not believe her own thoughts.

Soon it became clear where they were going, and when they reached the entrance, Xochipilli finally spoke to her.

"Nesrine wanted to see you for a long time." And with that, he went away. Her disciple didn't even bother to look back.

Aloe took a deep breath. Am I wrong? She kept asking herself, even if she knew that wasn't the case. Her decision was the best one for the world. Maybe the worst for herself, but… when has that mattered?

Mother Nature let out a grim chuckle as she walked inside the Imperial Laboratories. The many buildings and wings of the place were fuller than the last time she had been there, yet not a single person laid their eyes on her. Subterfuge didn't make someone invisible, yet once you were as inconspicuous as her, there was no difference at all.

Sometimes she wished she could forget herself as the passersby had.

It didn't take her long to reach the head of engineering's office. There was no need to ask if she was inside as she had felt her vitality before even entering the building. Aloe knocked on the door to announce her presence, otherwise she wouldn't be noticed.

"Who goes there?" A feminine voice said over the sturdy wooden doors.

"Aloe," the druid responded softly. The next moment she heard a thud and a yelp, and her enhanced senses allowed her to see in her mind how the engineer had stubbed her toe on the desk. "I have been told you wanted to see me," she added unaffected by the events.

"S-sure!" Nesrine said with a pained voice. "Please come in!"

When Aloe opened the door, the first thing she thought about was how the office hadn't changed in the slightest. Then as her eyes lingered on Nesrine, she thought the opposite. Nesrine had been a young and brilliant mind when she had met her for the first time, but now… she had a mature gaze to her. Mature everything, truth be told.

The vegetable woman grabbed the side of her head as a slight discomfort grew. How long has it been? Like the perennial mountain, time had lost its meaning.

"It's been a while, huh," Nesrine interrupted her trail of thought with a similar comment. "I know I'm not exactly presentable, but oh well, I have never been. I'm glad you showed up, though."

"Why did you want to see me?" Mother Nature slowly pranced into the office.

"Oh, don't be that tense. It's nothing important, really. I just wanted to thank you."

"Just… that?" She added with confusion.

"Sure," Nesrine shrugged. "You are quite the hard woman to get a track of. If it wasn't for you disciple, I would have never had the chance."

"What did Xochipilli tell you?" The druid inquired sternly yet softly.

"Him? Nothing. In any case, I was the one who told him to send you to me. Sorry if I overstepped a boundary, but it's getting harder to get out of the labs as the years go on. My presence is needed all the time, thank you for that," Aloe frowned at those words. "Oh, it wasn't sarcasm, I'm truly thankful. Maybe all this work is tedious, yes, but thanks to you we have been able to revolutionize engineering, sanitation, and the whole world. So yeah, thanks for that. Truly."

Aloe felt as if she had been slapped. A gesture of gratitude had never felt so… off-putting.

"I accept your gratitude," she responded politely and then turned around on her heels. "If you excuse me."

"Wait!" Nesrine stopped her before she could take a step and then she rushed toward her. "Okay, there might be something else. Would it be possible for you to share more of your monster flora?"

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Mother Nature slowly turned to face the engineer. As she did so, the druid noticed how close the woman was to her and how fast her heart beat. That accelerated pulse wasn't that of a mature woman making a mad dash, Aloe knew human bodies too well for that to be the case, but she couldn't point out exactly what was the reason.

"No," she answered softly.

"Dunes…" The head of engineering replied weakly but not fully deflated, as if she had been expecting that answer. "How about exploiting applications of existing ones? Can we at least have a tea over a brainstorming session?"

"Haven't you found all the possible applications over these… years?" It was hard to accept that a handful of years had gone by. It certainly didn't feel that way to Mother Nature.

"I must say that my attention has been fully taken by the Radiating Undergrowth, and as by our promise, I haven't shown any monster flora that I didn't consider appropriate or hadn't had the chance to test. Some of them have been in a testing phase limbo for a handful of years already as I have to conduct the experiments alone. So if you aren't up for a tea… could I convince you to allow some assistants to help me with my research?"

"A tea is fine," Aloe implicitly shot down the possibility of any foreign assistance. She had taken too many risks all those years ago by even showing her that many evolutions, but it slightly comforted her knowing that Nesrine was no oathbreaker and that she had not been tempted or forced to be one.

Mother Nature was unsure what she would do – what she wouldn't do – if she found out that was the case.

Nesrine guided her to the adjacent room to the office where they had discussed many times about her evolution years prior. As Nesrine prepared the tea – which didn't take long as the water boiled fast thanks to the engineer's personal Radiating Undergrowth – the two women discussed a bit, mostly a bit of catch-up. Trivialities that brightened the sore mind.

"Here," Nesrine said as she placed the tray with the tea and pastries on the low coffee table.

"Hmm, it smells quite spicy," Aloe commented as she sniffed her cup. And she couldn't help but find that spiciness familiar.

"It's a personal herbal mix," the head of engineering giggled softly.

They drank and talked for a solid amount of time, enough for them to refill their cups at least once. Nesrine mentioned how she was dissatisfied with the experiments she had made with the Moonlight's Tooth as her dreams of yet another perpetual motion machine proved futile as the orbiting seeds didn't have enough strength to move anything, and unlike the Radiating Undergrowth, they didn't have unlimited stored energy and the seeds would end up either gliding away or falling to the ground. Yet the more the engineer talked and drank, Aloe didn't fail to notice how her blinking became more frequent, and her body temperature rose along with her pulse.

Then it hit her.

"Nesrine," Mother Nature interrupted with a stern tone. "Is this tea made out of Grace's Exaltation?"

"Well yes, but…"

The engineer didn't have time to finish her sentence as Mother Nature stood up and threw the teacup to the ground.

"You dare drug me?" Her tone was full of rage, and her expression became more vicious by the second as memories of that substance kept flowing into her mind. Nonexistent bile gathered in her throat.

"No, no!" Nesrine frantically shook her arms around. "This is a misunderstanding."

"How so?" Mother Nature's hands trembled. Again, it's all over again.

"I normally drink this concoction! I was drinking the same tea, wasn't I?"

"That matters not for this foul substance," her voice echoed in power and her eyes shone in emerald. "Now, either give me a better excuse or die."

"D-die?" The engineer had been sitting all this time but her legs trembled nonetheless. A hint of water appeared in the corner of her eyes. "You are misunderstanding it, really! This is so diluted that it has no effect beyond being a spicy stimulant!"

"Is that why you wanted me to come? To drug me? Who are you working with?"

"Nonono!" Nesrine threw herself to the ground, somehow losing her equilibrium even when sitting down. "I… I… am not working with anyone…" She added weakly between moans and sobs.

"I have not failed to notice you have not dismissed the drug claim."

"I really did not intend to drug you; this tea is unable to do anything beyond skipping a heartbeat."

"But," Mother Nature smelled a but incoming.

"But… it's true that… well… I want you…" Nesrine added the last part in the softest of whispers.

"What?" Mother Nature exclaimed in confusion for she had clearly heard the engineer's words, nonetheless.

"You are gorgeous, Aloe! Yet you disappeared for so long… I wanted to meet you more, and now that I had this chance… I thought it would be the last one I could have. I have been aching for you all these years. You are such a gorgeous woman."

That gaze on her eyes, that coloration on her cheeks. It unsettled Mother Nature. But at the same time… she couldn't help but be enticed.

The mature woman crawled on the ground slowly, pathetically, and she grabbed the vegetable woman's naked feet, if such vegetal extremity could be even called one.

"Please…" Her tone was aching, full of passion. "Make me yours."

The Grace's Exaltation hadn't affected the druid in the slightest, her passive toughness was way too elevated for that, and yet… that enticement grew. The longer she kept her silence, the stronger the desire in Nesrine's eyes grew.

You need this, an awful side of her whispered. You are two consenting adult women, it was a disgusting and familiar voice: hers and not at the same time. That desire is not just from the tea, and you know it. She has intoxicated herself with you.

But as she saw those dull eyes of Nesrine, Aloe couldn't help but think: No.

A short yet powerful negation.

I have intoxicated her, she told herself. If I hadn't been here, nothing of this would have happened. Glamour wouldn't have tainted her mind. I am the awful drug here. I should have stayed away.

Is that what you truly think?

Yes.

Aloe took a deep breath. Her eyes went from shining emeralds to a dull, inconspicuous green. She felt her thoughts clear from the sleekness of subterfuge, completely free from the chains of lustful glamour. Too long had she been donning that internal infusion. Too much pain it had caused.

But now, she didn't wield it, nor did she have for a long, long time.

"No," she finally spoke aloud her thoughts.

Mother Nature didn't give Nesrine enough time to protest as she left the room the next blink.

She had done it.

She was free from those awful chains of mortal debauchery.

She was different from Aaliyah.