“Care to explain this bloody debacle, Preacher?”

Barbara almost rolled her eyes at the man. You know this could have been avoided if you’d listened to me, you old fool! Sun, I should just cleanse this entire room. She glanced at the two Flowers standing guard at the doors, watching over the Council proceedings with bored stares.

“There was an… anomaly with the Burrow we chose, sir. Sometime between Renshaw leaving and the day of the delve, the Drasil massively ramped up its intake of Sunlight somehow, aging weeks in a matter of hours. Link can confirm this. Our staff researchers are working on finding out what, or who, was responsible.”

“Who? It’s the bloody fennecs again, isn’t it! We should have taken care of them and their whole planet centuries ago.”

Racism. Why am I not surprised, Councilman North?

“Now now, no need for that kind of language here, North, we’re all distraught at the events of last week. Preacher, please continue.”

Ever the conciliator eh, East? Maybe an actual threat will give you a backbone.

“As distasteful as the councilman’s language is, he may not be wrong. Several unknown Elvar bodies were recovered in the cleanup, impaled by roots that led back to the Drasil. Our current theory is that these Elvar were on some sort of suicide mission and used their own souls to fuel the Drasil’s enhanced growth. This is corroborated by witness statements from Juggernaut and a student, who saw three of them use some sort of device to get the Drasil to feed on them.”

“But why? What did this achieve? While regrettable, the loss of a few Seeds isn’t exactly the crippling blow one of the Prophet’s fanatics would kill themselves for.”

Astute, yet cold. No wonder South made a great Chancellor before me.

“We do not currently know what their main goal was, but a boy was taken. Michael Aleksander, Vulcan’s son. Eyewitness statements say he was hit by a bolt of some sort of energy from the Drasil and disappeared. He was brought to the Drasil by the elves themselves so whatever they planned, it involved him somehow.”

“They took Vulcan’s boy? That man is a bloody hero, we need to prioritise his return at once! Do you have locator Concepts?”

“Yes, councilman, for the past week we’ve been using every relevant Concept we have access to in an attempt to find him. Our efforts have been unsuccessful. We can only assume he’s off-world.”

There was a stunned silence in the room at that. Councilman West, quiet until now, spoke up.

“You do realise what you’re implying, Chancellor? Pope Everwandering is the only one who can enable travel between worlds.”

“We know he wasn’t just disintegrated; we have a Bud that can see the memories of dead people and she cannot see the boy. We know he isn’t anywhere our staff can locate him and some of them can find anyone in the world. Barring unknown Seeds that can somehow hide him, he must be on another planet. Our locator Concepts don’t work across worlds.”

“That makes no sense. Why would the Pope take a random Seed? He welcomed us with open arms to the Garden once Worldshaker ascended. He knows this could mean war. He helped write the damn Pact stopping Worldshaker from just going through a portal and destroying Ega’s core.”

Why indeed, councilman South. Sun only knows, but we cannot let this go unanswered. They killed my students. Sun give me strength to strike everyone involved down.

“We haven’t made any formal accusations as of yet, but we’ve begun an investigation into the histories of any Elvar living in New London. We’re labelling them as unaffiliated extremists, but they had to have had help. They were wearing Academy gear and knew when we’d be there. Not to mention how they stayed hidden all this time, since they have none of the proper Elvar documentation. Either Elvan sympathisers or human traitors gave them the tools needed to do this. By the Sun, we will burn out this infestation and find that boy, whatever it takes.”

“Whatever it takes? Are you willing to start another War of Annihilation over one boy? No matter who his father is, we need to take a step back and let cooler heads discuss this. I know you’re angry, Preacher, but we cannot commit the resources you’ll need for this.”

And there it is. Does it not shame you that your cowardice has become predictable, East? Do the lives of the students mean so little? I need some Sun before I burn this place down.

“Might I suggest a recess? This tribunal will drag on most likely and I still need to run my Academy.”

“Indeed. I need to take a piss and this Academy is a bloody maze.”

After a bit more waffling so the Guild Council could show they were big, strong men, they released her for a ten-minute recess. She stood up from her low chair in front of the gallery where the most politically powerful men in the world could look down on her and walked out, nodding to the Flowers at the door.

The Sun shone through the glass of the corridor outside the room and permeated her body, instantly releasing the tension in her shoulders and putting a smile on her face. I need to calm down. I get too irritable in the shade and that won’t help the dead kids be avenged.

In the week since the ill-fated delve, Barbara had barely gotten a wink of sleep. That didn’t bother her that much, her Flower providing all the energy she needed to function, but the lack of free time also meant she couldn’t just bask in the glory of the Sun as she did at least once a day when things were less hectic.

Angry parents, angry councilmen, angry teachers, all of them came to her as if she could do more than she was already doing. She looked through the glass walls out at the students eating, conversing or just walking along the grass of the Academy grounds. Most other cities had to completely scour their limits of any greenery exposed to the sky to prevent Drasil formation. New London was lucky, incredibly lucky. And these elves threatened that.

She hadn’t said so in the tribunal, at least not yet, but she suspected the main point of boosting the Drasil was to force the evolution of something mean enough to break through the Bulwark. It was a crazy idea, the impenetrable wall was even older than her, but a week-old Burrow had been able to create something strong enough to knock Juggernaut unconscious after just ten sacrifices. Yes, he’d been supressed at the time, but he was a legend and rightly so. That implied a scary amount of power. Just like that boy.

She had noticed the sword in the Mirzadeh boy’s hand before it disappeared. It was an impossible thought, graft-chimeras were created with people’s Concepts and were completely unique. Even cultigens with the same Concepts couldn’t recreate a graft-chimera that had already been formed, as if there was some sort of record. Yet that sword had been there, 40 years after it had first disappeared from Vulcan’s own hands. If he could recreate graft-chimeras at Sprout level, graft-chimeras that already let him fight with a Bud’s level of power, what would he become when he bloomed again? If he became a Flower? I’ll need to keep an eye on him.

She noticed the few Elvar students in their little groups. They always tended to stick among their own species, but over the past week they had started getting actively avoided. Humans would cross the street rather than pass them by. A few had started getting slurs scrawled on their doors. She was afraid her actions would make the problem worse before it got better. There was nothing else to be done though. They’d have to tough it out until the rot had been stamped out. Sun give me strength.

She closed her eyes and repeated the phrase, both mantra and prayer, in her head a few times before opening them with a new purpose. I will find Michael. I will punish those responsible. I will make sure something like this can never happen again here. I swear on the Sun.

Resolve bolstered, she took a deep breath, absorbing the life-giving Sunlight and flashing her Roots for a little extra pep in her step. She turned around and walked back into the tribunal.