Cultivating Plants

The key to secrecy wasn't subterfuge, but trust. Xochipilli was well aware of that fact, and whilst he might now have the support of the assassins, he still wanted to get even more support. To execute his plan, there were many steps to be taken and met, and for that, he needed the help of a certain group.

"So, what do you say?" Xochipilli asked Shinobiyorutsurai, the sound of the engine of the aircraft and the outside wind mostly muting his voice.

"It is hard to say, my liege," the vine dryad responded. "This goes against Mother Nature's wishes."

"But it's for her well-being, shouldn't you prioritize that?"

"Well…" She professed her doubts.

After having lived around dryads for most of his life, the Prince of Flowers had discovered that whilst their loyalty to their mother was true, they still had an ego of their own. Some of the dryads didn't care that much for Aloe, and whilst he was somewhat certain those wouldn't betray him, he was completely sure that they wouldn't help him. He needed the assistance of dryads who deeply cared about Aloe but weren't blinded by loyalty like Aleahilhahiba.

"I have come to you first because I know that despite your acts of servitude, you are a free spirit, Shinobiyorutsurai. The fact that you were the only dryad interested in the airclipper shows that," the Prince of Flowers's voice was calm and soft like a caress. "So I'm asking that free spirit to not be bound by her nature and help her mother, instead of being satisfied with complacency and stagnation. You are one of the few dryads that have never fallen asleep, and that is the kind of help I need."

Dryads didn't need to sleep, and they didn't do it for pleasure as cultivators with lots of vitality might do. No, they simply did it from time to time out of instinct. Their vegetable instincts sometimes overtook them and they would just stay still – sometimes for years on end – until someone called for their attention.

"A-are you sure, my liege?" Shinobiyorutsurai's voice trembled.

"Definitely," he wasn't.

But the one thing he knew was that this was their last attempt. Aloe had closed herself off since she returned from Asina that day, fully closed off. The Chlorotrophy had its many trunks and branches expanded until it became a ball of tangled wood, making it impossible to peer inside of it. Aloe lay inside, he could feel that with his vitality sense, and she could sense everything too, but she failed to respond.

After having distanced herself from the world this much, Xochipilli was confident that this was their, nay, his last chance.

"I…" the dryad's voice was weak, completely eclipsed by the Voyager's engine, but the druid was able to hear it nonetheless thanks to his passive enhanced senses. "I will follow you in this endeavor."

"That warms my heart, Shinobiyorutsurai, truly," the Tecolatan man bowed with a palm in his chest. "Now, for starters, I need to confirm something. Could you slice one of your vines?"

The dryad tilted her head in confusion but did it, nonetheless. A human might have wrongly interpreted it as a rite of initiation, but the dryads didn't have that sort of mentality. And besides, it would be a weak rite of initiation when a vine was but a single hair for the dryad.

"Thanks," Xochipilli said after another vine had carried the cut vine over him and he picked it up.

He led his hand into his cape, and from a pouch sawn into it, Xochipilli took out an Aloe Veritas leaf. The cut had been cauterized with the fire technique of the flowing stance so the ink was preserved, and by just applying a bit of force, it started flowing again. Just in case, he had evolved and grown this Aloe Veritas himself as technically there was only one planted at all times. He doubted that using that plant would raise suspicion but being cautious cost him nothing.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As Aloe had done many times when he was younger, he rubbed the cut vine on the bleeding section of veritas leaf. By arcane phenomena, the blobs on the leaf's surface started moving until they were assembled into readable text.

Species: Heartgrowth

Sobriquet: Synergic Symbiont

Description: A member belonging to the Corputumentia family, their species is known for their ability to mimic organs and complement the body of their host.

Alignment: Life, Chaos

"I guessed as much," he added with a sigh of relief and annoyance.

The Prince of Flowers had hoped that the description would have told him its unevolved predecessor, but the existence of the evolution was helpful enough. Over the years, Aloe had dropped many tidbits involving sensitive information that she had explicitly avoided sharing with him. Now, he had finally tied all the clues together.

"Let us land now," Xochipilli calmly told the dryad driver. "I have the long task of evolving hundreds of fungi and desert flora in front of me."

"There is a lot of nuance to Enlightenment, is there not?" The Prince of Flowers mused as a ball of fire floated on top of his hand, and through slight finger movements, it threw slight bursts of flames.

"Yes, and since the introduction of Nurture by the first cultivator-assassin, Hassan, the nuance has increased dramatically," Josephine informed calmly.

"Hassan, huh? I think Aloe has mentioned him once."

"Really?"

"They were contemporaries," the druid explained. "I think he killed her mother."

"Oh," the assassin led a hand to her mouth. "I guess that explains why she hates assassins."

"No, that's not the reason, I can confirm that much. When Hassan did that, he wasn't an assassin yet." As soon as he stopped speaking, the ball of fire collapsed. "Dunes."

"Enlightenment requires a lot of concentration, and it's hard to do that whilst you are high on opium," Josephine kept a teacher-like tone. "But your progress is nonetheless commendable. You have managed to reach this level of mastery in less than a week."

"It still isn't fast enough," he added grimly.

"I understand that you worry for Mother Nature's well-being, but you should take things slowly. Enlightenment can destroy your mind if you are not careful," the assassin never referred to Aloe by her name. That was something that Xochipilli had noticed and identified as quite problematic. Zeal could be dangerous.

"Still, I need to continue gathering power."

"If that's the case, I feel like you are powerful enough, monsieur. With your vitality alone, you can rival Grandmasters, and assassin-cultivator ones at that. The only one that might present an issue might be the Calipha."

"That's the problem, the Calipha might present an issue. If that's the limit of my power, then I can do nothing. This isn't about being strong or powerful or – heaven's forbid – staving weakness away, but being an equal. I need to be an equal to Aloe."

"That… might be an issue, Prince of Flowers," Josephine stated softly, warily. "Mother Nature is… inconceivable, and even if you are putting yet another vital art at your disposal, I doubt that would bridge the gap. And besides, it's… blasphemous."

"No," he quickly dismissed. "This is what she wants."

"What she wants?" The assassin tilted her head in confusion.

"Yes," the druid nodded. "She told me that I wasn't capable enough, strong enough, mature enough to shoulder her burden. That means that for me to do that she needs an equal. And she will only acknowledge me if I manage it."

He truly and utterly believed those words.

"I see," Josephine said slowly, though there was a smile drawn on her face.

Perhaps this wasn't the outcome she had expected, but it wasn't one she wasn't against. After all, the Prince of Flowers was the one and only disciple of Mother Nature.

"This means that maybe we could accelerate the training," she added. "If you refrained from using up your vitality and switched to the sense stance, we could get more used out of each attempt."

"No," he dismissed instantly. "I need to keep using up my vitality and the recovery stance to refill it."

"I may… intuit that this is how you increase your vitality. How the 'druids' do it. But… may I ask how you do it?"

"No, you may not," Xochipilli answered neutrally. "You have been spoken one fundamental truth, and that is that I am the one and only disciple of Aloe. This method is only known by her and me, and even if the dryads may know of her existence, they do not know how to perform it. So no, Josephine, the secrets of the druids stay with me."

"As you please, Prince of Flowers," the mature woman spoke with respect. That had been the answer that she wanted to hear. A reinforcement of her faith.

"Now that you have gotten a grasp of the fire anchors and have practiced with shadow stepping, we can get to one of the most important techniques of modern Enlightenment. Shadow anchoring."

"Shadow anchoring?"

"Indeed," she nodded. "I have the feeling you are going to enjoy it greatly, monsieur."