The wind howled and ran through the trees branches. The forest shook and the vibrations shook the grounds, all the blades of grass quivered, accompanied in their motion by the throbbing pebbles scattered all around.

The noise of nature slowly started to change, from the creaking of the branches to the swinging of the trunks. Part of the forest started to glow in a pale green colour which saturated the air.

The chaotic gusts of wind gradually found an order, guided by the motion of the emerald halo through the air, and the branches started to synchronise and move in unison. Each tree vibrated at a different frequency and in different directions. Complex patterns arose by the fusion of the sound waves coming from every direction.

- You. Who? - the Garden of The Green articulated its first words to a visitor after who knows how many centuries or millennia.

“I go by the name of John Doe, as I lost my past one,” I answered to the trees.

A rumble spread as the wind was made to change direction to form new words and continue the dialogue.

- Wants? - the verdure inquired about my objective.

“I came here for economical reasons”

A roar exploded and the winds grew sharper against my skin.

“I came here for ether. Not for the trees,” I continued in a calm tone.

This seemed to appease the forest, as the surrounding atmosphere calmed down. Nevertheless, the air over me continued to press down on my weary body, made heavier by the green halo.

“I’ll also apologise for…”

- Not. Care. -

I didn’t complete the phrase. I could have expected its complete disregard for the wellbeing of the beasts inhabiting the forest. After all, they were not truly living beings, but only simulacra. Fortunately, it seemed the Garden had indeed inherited the will of his past master, as it should have from how I had imagined it.

I cleared my throat.

“Well then. I need funds. The quickest and simplest way is to extract ether from the mana-born weeds of the forest”

- Plunder -

“The forest should be able to recover without any difficulty from any degree of ether extraction. Weeds shouldn’t be particularly difficult to produce”

- Exploit -

“Yes, but the resources would be used to strengthen the population and reconstruct the Gamma Perimeter. It was a place full of cultivated fields and flourishing orchards”

- Sacrifice -

“But it would be a small sacrifice. The profits in terms resurgence of plant and human life, even if done elsewhere, should be more than enough to justify it”

- Preserve -

“This world is going to burn in a few years. The Garden will disappear anyway, but by using its resources others may live”

The wind immediately died down. The last floating green sparks expired and there was darkness all around me. The Garden had fallen into a pensive silence. I didn’t know if the will behind the forest was trying to evaluate the truthfulness of my words or if it was simply pondering all that had been rapidly discussed.

The Garden existed for only one purpose: the preservation of the natural life the Legion of The Green had cultivated into the world. To do this, weeds were regularly formed to clear the air and the ground from mana and ether and avoid the corrosion of the true living trees of the forest.

Weeds were only an instrument, they didn’t have any intrinsic value. For this reason, the Garden shouldn’t have paid much attention to someone reaching the forest to break them down. If a visitor were to behave beyond what it would consider unacceptable, it could simply strike them down once the problem arose.

I found it quite odd for it to be so inquisitive. After all, after performing a few tests in the first days of my stay here, I had carefully watched my behaviour around the trees. I had even avoided running through the foliage while being chased by the giant spider, just to limit the damage inflicted to the forest. It seemed to be unusually wary of me.

“Don’t take it to heart, dear visitor. We are simply curious about you”

I snapped around, turning towards the source of the sudden words. In front of me there was a person. Their dark long hair contrasted with their albino androgynous appearance.

Their extremely clear light-grey eyes gave the impression of missing irises at first look. Their slim almost scrawny physique made them look weak, but the pressure that exuded from their poise gave the opposite expression.

“There is no need to be on guard. We have no ill will against you,” the person spoke in a clear and musical voice.

My eyes were two thin slits. I scanned the unexpected presence. My senses were not as sharp as they should be due to my fatigue, but I could still recognize how the air and the ground seemed to be vibrating in resonance with their breaths.

They were not human. They were a geogenai.

“And you are?” I inquired.

“I’m just the humble caretaker of this beautiful land,” the genai responded.

I kept my eyes on them. The leaves seemed to follow his every word. It was clear they weren’t a simple caretaker, but the master of the Garden. Here, they were the absolute authority and they could employ the entire strength of the Garden.

Nevertheless, I didn’t feel threatened.

“I’ll call you the Gardener then. My name is…” I tried to speak, but I was immediately interrupted.

“Oh, there’s no need to introduce yourself, John Doe. I’ve been watching you since you reached this other side”

I stopped.

“You’ve been watching me?”

“Through the sky and the stones, wherever mana touched, every time you stepped outside the fences of abominable tarred pylons”

It was weird.

“Why?”

“You tore through the Veil. It’s been centuries if not millennia since that happened. Even Tobias went out of his way to look for you”

The more the Gardener spoke, the more I became convinced that my intuition was right.

“Are you referring to the temporal anomaly?”

“I see you call it that”

By now, I was almost sure.

“Did you also watch my re-birth?”

“Partially. It was a peculiar event and not even my eyes could capture everything”

He had seen me come back to life. He was being exceptionally polite towards an intruder. He had appeared immediately after a not particularly amicable conversation between me and the Garden.

“You are afraid of me, am I correct?” I simply asked.

The Gardener smiled at me.

“Afraid? That’s not quite the correct term, but it is explanatory enough nonetheless. It has been so long since I saw someone like you”

“And that is?”

“The Crimson”