Cultivating Plants

The catacombs of Sadina remained a cold and soggy place even after the canals of the city had long disappeared, yet a prime location for the assassin community to gather. Though on this occasion only two of them gathered in the cylindrical chamber.

"Did you know that this is the resting place of Grandmaster Umar?" It was the old and coarse voice of Zayn Gerges that spoke.

"There is no assassin that does not know of him, monsieur," Josephine stepped out of the shadows of a corridor and into the main chamber. "The most powerful assassin in history."

"He was around my age when he died," the Grandmaster calmly strolled around the damp room. "An assassin so powerful that his presence lasted in our world – our hell – for a full minute. Even myself, as an assassin-cultivator, I doubt I can leave such a potent and lasting presence when I inevitably pass away."

"What do you intend to say with this?" The woman strolled around the upper atrium of the chamber where once Grandmaster Tareek had seen his mentor perish.

"Many things really. That we still don't know that much about Enlightenment if a man who lived two centuries before us and had access to the unrefined drugs of modern medicine could gather such power. But also how we, the assassins, can affect the world even after our untimely demise."

"Ah, I see how it is," the mature assassin sighed. "You could hide better your arguments."

"Well, yes, you are one of the few people who stood in the world of ideas, lingered their whole being inside of it, but there's more to my ramblings. Would you be interested in a history lesson?"

"Hmm, I will bite," Josephine said as she walked down the atrium into the center of the cold chamber where the Grandmaster awaited.

"It is common knowledge that Grandmaster Umar lingered in this world for a full minute after his death, but his exploits do not end there," Gerges pressed his back against the cold stone. "Some assassins reported seeing the Grandmaster's ghost for many months after his death, his disciple Tareek remarked in his diary that he personally talked with him too."

"That is far more time than three minutes," the female assassin commented as his eyes lingered around the cylindrical room. By now there weren't traces left of the battle that marked said Grandmaster's death, but she could still feel the imprint of it as if it still lingered in their perception.

"Quite," the Grandmaster nodded and chuckled. "I would have dismissed it if it wasn't because we have way more evidence. During the fall of the Sultanah, many assassins died and their lingering minds kept attacking Aaliyah-al-Ydaz even after their death. You know that much, right?"

"Yes, from what I heard assassins would 'immolate' themselves against the Sultanah, and she would stand tall even after her mind was assaulted by thousands of them, and her body by tens of cultivators."

"That aspect of history has led me to believe that Aaliyah-al-Ydaz might have been an assassin herself, but alas, it's only a personal theory of mine," the old assassin shrugged.

"And what has all of this to do with Grandmaster Umar?" Josephine squinted.

"Because many assassins died and lingered on within the world of ideas," Gerges continued without being affected by her snarky tone, "it was probably one of the most documented viewpoints of the world of ideas in assassin history as for the first time the world of ideas became more expansive than our own hell from the sheer amount of observation. And you know what many accounts said?"

"Enlighten me," she shrugged.

"They saw him."

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"Umar?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Once the Sultanah died, they saw a man in the world of ideas. An old man of cyan, deprived of the red of intoxicated assassins."

"So he could not be another Grandmaster," Josephine reasoned and Gerges nodded.

"A man who had died many months ago appeared there for one last time, and our brethren described how he made it inside of Aaliyah-al-Ydaz."

"Inside the… Sultanah?" She expressed her doubt.

"Quite. Though I can't say what he did there, many accounts – even of conscious assassins who weren't peering into the world of ideas at the time – agree that the Sultanah had come back to life after that, if just for the briefest of moments."

"The formation of the Evergreen…" Josephine said in the softest of whispers. "Are you implying that it was Grandmaster Umar that led to the creation of the Evergreen?"

"Not at all," Gerges dismissed her with a flicker of his hand. "I just wanted to make it explicitly clear that Grandmaster Umar had been living amongst the dead for many months and, just perhaps, he even influenced the hell of the living."

"But this is just a theory of yours."

"This is just a theory of mine," he admitted. "If you need more proof of Umar's post-mortem existence, some villages of the coast of Tecolata showed the presence of Enlightenment through druids."

"Are not those simple pagan herbalists and spiritualists?"

"They should, but they weren't," a smile was drawn on the old man's visage. "I have absolutely no proof that it was Umar's doing, after all, Tecolata was discovered centuries ago by Loyatan Grandmasters through an extensive use of drugs to stay long in the world of ideas, and it is quite a bit easier to cartograph the world when non-populated regions become suggestions of space, rather than actual separations. Called it Groenland, they did."

Josephine sighed. "I am getting tired of your conjectures, monsieur. Tell me straight where you want to go with this."

"Josephine Alcanza, come back to us," Zayn Gerges stated plainly.

"I am afraid that I cannot do that, Grandmaster Gerges," the woman's eyes threw daggers at him. "I must remind you that it was your lack of faith that pushed me out of the order."

"Faith, yes… we could say this is a matter of faith," the old man puffed some air out of his mouth. "I am aware of your recent actions and the little cult you started. You are wasting all of your potential spreading the word of the 'Mother Nature' when you could do so much more with us. With your personal experience, we could understand far more than we know of the world of ideas. We wouldn't only tread behind the steps of Umar but overtake him."

"You are a man that only sees profits, you could never understand the weight of my faith."

"That is where you are wrong, Josephine. I understand your faith completely, and that is why I want you to stop."

"You want to stop me?" The female assassin laughed heartily. "Does the head of the Gerges Pharmaceutical Company not have something better to do than pester a local priest?"

"That could be the case if you preached the word of Sulnaya or one of the polytheistic beliefs of Loyata or Tecolata, but the word that you are spreading… is not one I can tolerate," Gerges eyes pulsed with red.

"So this is what it is all about, is it not?" Josephine giggled, her eyes becoming bloodshot like his. "A little, petty, personal revenge."

"Aloe Ayad is a danger for this world, it cannot be kept around, especially as a symbol of adoration!"

"You are right," the woman's tone was cold and cutting. "Mother Nature is a calamity unlike any other, and this is what the world needs!"

Josephine's scream echoed all throughout the underground chamber.

"I thought you were just a zealous woman, but it seems I overestimated you," the Grandmaster's gaze steeled. "You are just crazy."

"Death is quite the life-altering effect," the female assassin's visage drew a smile, an ugly one that reached from side to side of her face.

"It seems I will have to remove you first," Gerges stated calmly.

"Oh, I would like to see you try."

"You sound cocky for someone about to fight a Grandmaster."

"I am no longer a measly Initiate, you know?" They began circling the walls of the chamber, keeping each other always at the same distance. Both kept their hands inside their coats, unable to be seen by the other.

"But a Grandmaster you are not."

"Perhaps," she smiled. "But you would not like to make this location the resting place of another Grandmaster, would you now, monsieur Gerges?"

"You are insinuating you can kill me?" The old man let out a dry chuckle.

"Not at all," the mature woman swayed her head in negation. "I am insinuating that there is no future where you live. Simple as that."

The next instant Zayn Gerges found himself right in front of Josephine with an extended palm bursting with fire. It was a rapid exchange, there was no chance for words. Yet the female assassin managed to respond with a smile before she disappeared. Gerges kept his guard up, shadow-stepping around the chamber multiple times in quick succession, and sent a pulse of tobacco to try to find her mind, but there was no sign of the zealous woman anywhere.

"Nince-damned hells!" He stomped the ground as he cursed.

It was crystal clear that she had run away through a readied shadow anchor.