Chapter 06: Horticulture in Gardens

The assignment itself was simple enough: “Restore a plant to good health by spring.”

It should have entailed neither excitement nor daring risk, especially once Jhun found Felix, rather once Felix found Jhun. Luna had paired off with Ty as benchmates before Jhun had even arrived at Tals’Hayun’s greenhouse, but their friend Felix was very nearly enthusiastic in offering Jhun his hand in partnership, Ty’s prodding pushes notwithstanding. The two boys shrugged at each other, one a few heads taller, the other a few nods more optimistic. They weren’t the whispering, conspiring pair that Ty and Luna posed one potting bench over, but Jhun had been gifted a partner. He thanked his ancestors for their protection.

Tals’Hayun invited calm at the front of the greenhouse, like an imposing sentinel, a brickwarden built to control crowds and enforce the law. They stood two meters tall, their muscled shoulders a clear sign of their physique under flowing layers of hemp and cotton. Two large weathered hands gestured grandly to emphasize the professor’s words, which were delivered in a slow, driving rhythm that always seemed to find its closure.

“I hope all of you have had the chance to sit and marvel for a moment at the brilliant display of color our garden has created– we leave behind the deep summer greens to find all manner of goldenrod shining in the sunlight, blue mistflowers painting our swales, ironweeds and asters flooding the sightline with their fuzzy purples. Our fortune is a simple one: beauty and comfort.”

Jhun hadn’t yet noticed these details, nor could he– or Felix, as evidenced by his wild looking about. Neither could peer past the thick blanket of foliage that stretched across the walls of the greenhouse. Inside this cocoon, warmth sprang eternal, like a dewy late morning under a seed moon.

“Not to worry,” Tals’Hayun continued. “You’ll get a chance to see it for yourself.”

“We must also give thanks for the bountiful harvests we’ve seen this summer, which I’m sure you’ve all enjoyed intimately. The growing season stretched an extra two weeks beyond the last, continued evidence of changing times.

“We must take care to relish this moment. A long summer has meant extra work to keep systems alive– the sun feeds, but it also demands of us cultivators. Hayuwasi has struggled under a summer long water shortage. The cloudseers forecast wet winter winds, which may alleviate the drought, but at what cost?”

They bent down to reach under their master potting bench, producing a bare, twiggy sapling in a burlap bag. They smiled wearily.

“Nevertheless, following the bloom and the grayfall, we must celebrate and reflect. As gardeners, we can only look forward if we first look back. A plant may spend years growing to its full potential, a tree a full zyuga to come to fruit. Some seeds must be sown seven generations ahead of their fruition. How will the garden host and sustain these treasures in the making?

“Your task is to rehabilitate one of our more downtrodden plants-- look to the delicate grasses that have been beat down, to the bogs that never found consistent moisture during a droughtful summer, to the younger trees and bushes that weren’t quite ready for the extended heat.”

The gardener peered closely at a branch end, their attention obviously stolen away by some minute sign.

“Vigiculture will be key-- you must not take it for granted how the path plays out. You must study and take note, but prepare for the eventuality that what is becomes what was. Else the situation may outgrow your study, with or without your permission.”

They took a glass bottle from the end of their bench stores, head shaking as they sprayed down the naked plant in a fine mist.

“An absolutely healthy plant might suddenly grow a scale infestation, right under your nose.” Another close examination begat a satisfied smile. “And there is nought for us to do but keep watch.”

“Understand that yes, even those vying for the Huntress’s Blessing needn’t focus on anything more than the final trial– this design holds true. As xifoclasts, we want you to take things at your own pace, to show us what you’ve put together by cyclim. That end result truly is all that we judge, whether you take the plant trial or the oral trial, whether you choose to do it in a single month or six.

“But have no doubt: If you wish to reap a praiseworthy mark at cyclim, you must sow and cultivate your seeds from the start. Everything you learn now, whether it’s about horticulture at large or your specific plant, builds towards, among other things, your ability to succeed here. Ultimately, I’m asking you to cultivate your rangerly skills. A champion masters their body; a mystic their aura; a mage their mind. A ranger masters their whole self, not just as a singular entity, but as a part of a larger system. Learn where you fit and serve.” There was a twinkle in their amber eyes.

Tals’Hayun gestured for the class to rise and follow them out of the greenhouse, and Jhun strained to catch every word over the bustle of shuffling feet.

“Today you make an investment. I watch not for pure competence, but mindset, approach, and understanding. I seek your connection to the dirt, to the earth through the fungi to the roots of your plants. Let your mind expand beyond just your four limbs-- who are we, as parts of the bigger ecosystem? As you cultivate this plant and yourself, how do you impact everything around you, one seed, one tree, one death, one discovery at a time?”

They wandered through the garden together, Felix as quiet as Jhun as they admired around them a dense forest freshly watered by a midnight shower. Jhun began to see the colors of late summer for the first time– those golds, purples, and blues that Tals’Hayun had recounted before. Even white flowers, many too small to see from a meter away, came into focus as Jhun crouched to study the growth at his feet.

If he had seen what he saw now, it would have been obvious to Jhun since Convocation that food would be shared freely here: Sudalijhe’Yi itself was a neverending garden. As Tals’Hayun painstakingly pointed out, every hedge and bush in sight served a unique purpose. Back home, Jhun had only known Oma’s floral garden, an ornamental place auxiliary to the home. He had known plants as sensory luxuries, touches of color and sweetness in the gray depths of Chatorena. Now the talisichke helped him uncover a world of botanical possibilities, far more than flowers.

The options were endless– whole plant tonics for good health and vigor, root medicines for snakebites and disease, rubbed balms for aches and pains, steeped teas for spell sickness, crushed leaves for energy and warding, stem infusions for sleep, and of course, food in every form, size, and flavor. Some fruits simply hid under foliage, like the green apples, while others hid in plain sight as vivid ornaments, like the purple beautyberries and golemic squash.

Astoundingly, not all of his classmates had followed, instead getting lost in their own whims. Luckily for Jhun, Felix appeared rapt with the professor’s every word, but even Ty and Luna straggled too far behind to hear how goldenseal looked nothing like goldenrod– or anything golden at all, for that matter–or why only certain bogs had suffered the summer extremes.

It was then that Jhun committed his fatal mistake, one which turned a simple assignment into an outright commotion: He dwelled a moment too long, marveling at an impossibly formed set of glassy carnivorous ewer plants, indulging a whimsy instead of seeking out an easy specimen.

“Should we try it?” Felix asked, to his benchmate’s surprise. “Ewer plants are truly special.”

Jhun hesitated. “I don’t know anything about them. Aren’t they difficult?”

He didn’t expect Felix’s massive shrug, or he might have stifled his laughter.

“We don’t have anything like these back home. But they look nice, don’t they?”

Jhun nodded, still smiling. “Indeed.”

Five sets of clear, slender stalks extended several cemmies from the boggy ground. A sallow liquid pooled at the bottom of each ewer, like melting half-finished ginger wine flutes. Some of these ewers were as clear as zitreglass, Jhun thought.

“Ah, have you boys spotted the problem here?” Tals’Hayun’s gentle voice drew Jhun back to reality, where the gardener’s finger pointed to a stunted growth, half the size of the rest and still quite green.

“This particular plant is lacking a nutrient that is vital to its ewer production: silicate. All of our ewer plants, including some cousins over here–” Tals’Hayun gestured to a cluster of pink and orange ewer plants, oblong pods that puckered to a cup a meter high– “have thrived under the protection of the thick maple-beech canopy overhead. But moisture was not the only thing this glass ewer plant needed. I managed to undertreat this singular plant in my fertilizer application five months ago, and now we’ve run out. Monsoons have cut off silicate shipments from Toluwaka this year.”

“I see, Talisichke. And how much would it cost us in credit to acquire more fertilizer?” Felix asked the obvious question.

Hayun's forehead folded into a mass of wrinkles, their eyes shining wide with delight. “Well, this is quite the specific product to barter for. If you made a request on the bounty board, I’d expect it to be fulfilled by next spring.”

“Spring?” Jhun interjected. Then, more meekly, “That would be too late.”

“Yes. We’ve faced issues with all of our traditional supply lines: The Silverglades themselves are prohibited right now–” Felix nearly interjected, his face the image of confusion– “Zydrean terrasilicates would work fine, but at about ten times the cost, and a waste anyway; silicate powder from koskema colonies are at record low numbers in the Blackwoods; diatomite in Rudwater Bay only blooms in the spring; and volcanic ash from the mountains has, of course, not been found in a zyuga.”

The few remaining students around them took their cue to move on, as Jhun might have, if Tals’Hayun wasn’t looking at him and Felix so expectantly.

Jhun exchanged a nervous glance with Felix. The master gardener didn’t seem to appreciate how hopeless they made this all seem.

“So. . .” Felix massaged his head. “That leaves us with the option of. . .”

“The silicate powder, I’d reckon. It makes for a simple hunt, koskema.”

“Koskema?”

“It’s a situni– high in yoric magic– which lives in the Blackwoods. Once you find a colony, it’s light work to avoid the reaper ants and the clay golems. But there lies the challenge--the koskema is not an easy find. Few huntresses can commit to such a hunt, and to what end? The diviner must have patience to match their power, tenacity to match strength.

“Unfortunately, I believe Billy has yet to pass her trials, or she could lead you straight to a reaper ant colony with her nose any time of the year. No, without a trained opposum, we must use a divining focus, which means you must move quickly.”

The boys nodded along, not quite keeping up, while Tals’Hayun studied their bilunar calendar, a massive spiral carved into a slate panel.

“Only under a blood moon will your jv̇gwah connection be strong enough to complete this hunt.”

“A blood moon,” Felix repeated. “Like this weekend?”

“Very good, Felix,” Tals’Hayun said. “The last one for five moons.”

“Aiya, what will we do?” Felix grimaced. “I’ve already told Alex I’d join her hunt tomorrow. Tals’Hayun, how many do we need for this one?”

Jhun caught his breath. For a moment he’d forgotten the hunting protocol. Any hunt that extended outside the walls of Sudalijhe’Yi had to be explicitly sanctioned by a member of the Council of Twelve, who would judge the proposal for feasibility, responsibility, liability, and reasonability. At the document’s core lay the squad breakdown: If the assembled members were deemed insufficient, the hunt would be prohibited.

And for a hunt like this? Just to feel safe, they’d need a square around an arrowhead, at minimum. Where would they find seven rangers? Jhun, Rowan, and who else?

“Five at most,” Tals’Hayun answered. “If you can find five, I’ll approve it personally.”

Five. . . was two less than seven, and almost seemed doable, for the right ranger.

That would not be Jhun– not today. He sighed, feeling his rationality take back control. He and Felix would find a more modest project, one which would be happy without demanding wanton adventure.

Felix yelled next to him, “A fuzz bulb, Ty? You’ve outdone yourself this time!”

Jhun wondered if he heard a hint of jealousy in the young gardener’s voice as he waved Ty and Luna over.

“Thanks, do you want to help take care of it?” Ty asked. The pot in her hands didn’t contain more than a mossy rock on bare soil.

Ty's smile grew overwide as she noticed the ewer plants around them. “I like where your head is, making Onawa jealous. Serves her right for abandoning us yet again.”

Felix blushed, stammering over his words. “Oh, well, I can help, of course, yes! But Ty, if you want to help us with our glass ewer plant, you could be our auramancer, do some divining for us.”

Ty frowned. “What are you hunting?”

“Koskema,” Felix said.

“Which is. . .”

“Some kind of spirit. Not a faerie, the other one. Ehh. . .” Felix stammered.

He turned his large head towards Jhun, and the girls followed. Jhun could feel Tals’Hayun’s presence behind them, busy with a set of shears yet undoubtedly listening in. And many wide eyes on him, expectant.

“Er-- It’s a situni, right? A jv̇gwah spirit– hidden somewhere in the blackwoods. It seems this one can raise clay golems for defense. But the main challenge is apparently in finding them.”

“We need five huntresses!” Felix added. “Which would come down to a point, a hammer, a hound, an extractor, and. . . a sentry?”

Jhun bit his lip, hoping his surprise wouldn’t bleed through. Of course Felix would be a capable huntress, just as Jhun has studied so hard to be; they’d all passed initiation one way or another. Jhun would have to stop underestimating his new friend.

“Ah, sure. I was thinking of a basic square guard around the extractor.”

“Wait,” Ty asked, “So, Jhun, you’ll extract? Or sentry?”

I could hammer, he thought. But it just made sense for him to play extractor, or sentry, at the very least. But Ty didn’t have to make such a blatant assumption.

“If that’s what the squad needs,” Jhun responded, leaving the implication that he could be a hound, or even point.

“So if we put Zinny on hound, me on point, Jhigili as hammer, and Luna as sentry. . .” Ty mused aloud.

“I won’t be there,” Felix said. “Sorry. Alex’s hunt, you know.”

Ty let the annoyance linger on her face for several seconds before shaking it all away. “Of course you’re doing that too.” Her frown deepened. “Wait, isn’t that this weekend?”

“We’d have to leave by tomorrow,” Jhun blurted out.

Neither girl could respond at first, the disbelief frozen into their faces.

“Ah, then there’s the catch.” Ty said slowly.

“That’s a very quick assembly,” Luna added. “And it’s a blood moon this weekend.”

“Exactly!” Felix said, almost too quickly.

Jhun picked up from his partner’s lead. “That’s why we have to leave now. Like I said, the hardest part is finding a colony. We’ll need the blood moon to make it possible.”

“So all the work falls on me, doesn’t it?” Ty said. She shared a look of concern with Luna, a hundred calculations behind her eyes. “Do you have a divining focus?”

“Aiy. Hm. We’ll have to go get one,” Jhun said, “from. . .”

Ty said, “The alchemy labs, probably. Jhigili, you make sure you talk to Yoza, since you’re not even going to be there.”

“Who wrote this hunt?” Luna asked.

“I think Hayun might have written it themselves,” Jhun said, casually looking around to spot the professor. He needed their help before the questions grew too elaborate.

“Aiya, okay.” Luna nodded in satisfaction.

“And how ready are you, really?” Ty asked.

“No, don’t worry,” Luna said, a knowing smile wide on her face. “Jhun doesn’t do anything if he’s not fully prepared. If he wants to set out, then we’re long past ready.”

Ty glared at Jhun, who kept a straight face. He'd let Luna speak on his behalf, even if she wasn’t. . . correct.

“Tals’Hayun!” Felix said, bowing his head. “You said you’d approve the hunt, no? For tomorrow? What paperwork must we fill for your approval?”

The master gardener joined the four students in front of the bog, their forearms covered in mud and grit. Somehow they’d found time to complete much more than just the pruning Jhun had seen.

“Paperwork? Well, that will be left to your lightrunner for the first cycle. Beginning next tree moon, we’ll expect full documentation, but for now, it remains quite optional.”

“Oh yeah,” Ty said. “Who’s the lightrunner?”

Lightrunner? Jhun’s momentum came to another tumbling halt. They’d need five for the hunt, yes, but they’d also need a lightrunner– a bloomed ranger that could watch for their safety and give guidance during hazardous situations. Jhun hadn’t considered one at all.

But maybe like Luna said, Jhun was prepared, at least this time. He had one fallback, one who had made Jhun promise to call if he needed an osa to come to his rescue.

“Yoza?” It came out as more of a question than he wanted. “He’ll be free, right?”

Ty nodded enthusiastically, more impressed with Jhun than she’d ever been before. “Except to work in that lab all weekend, of course! You two take care of that, okay?”

Jhun hesitated. This seemed too important a task to leave to Jhun and Felix alone. Would they find the right focus? Could they convince Yoza to join them?

Ty scoffed in his face, the derision clear in her eyes. “Are you– is there something wrong?”

“I– I don’t know.” Jhun looked at Felix, whose bushy eyebrows matched his worry.

“Can we all go together?” Felix asked, only the slightest shame in his voice.

“Do we truly need to?”

Ty wanted an answer of no; her glare challenged Jhun to find an excuse. He tried his best.

“I just think we should maximize our chances here. We want to get on his good side. You know how to do that, like at Convocation, right?”

“With Luna? How do you know about that?” Ty asked.

Jhun didn’t answer, unsure whether she was serious. Surely she remembered him watching Luna do her song and dance for Yoza, and then witnessing Ty confront the Crown Regent, of all people.

“Let’s do it,” Luna said. “It’ll be a quick weekend hunt.”

Jhun grinned, despite himself. Her mind seemed made up already.

“It’s going to take some time, Luna.” There was no use in misleading them. “A week total, probably.”

She grimaced but didn’t respond.

Ty said, “Okay, let’s do it, then, the five of us. Thanks for nothing, Jhigili.”

“I’m coming with you guys right now!” He retorted as he took off with the girls. “And I’ll do the sunshoot dance, too.”

Jhun wiped a drop of sweat off his brow, a final hurdle inadvertently taken care of.

“A few hours of work for a week-long hunt? Let’s see you pull your own weight, saya’gardener– you’d better work magic on our bulb plant!”

Suddenly Ty, Felix, and Luna all stopped and turned to look at Jhun and Tals’Hayun, who remained together a dozen meters back. For some reason Jhun held the aforementioned plant in his hands.

“Don’t worry,” Jhun said. “I’ll take care of both of our plants! You go on ahead!”

Tals’Hayun let out a belly full of laughter. “Why don't you leave that with me, and I’ll find it a comfortable home in the greenhouse. And for your glass ewer plant, I’ll simply find a tag and mark it for future reference, yes?”

“Yes, that would be perfect.” Jhun paused, unsure of the etiquette to follow. “Thank you for all your help, Talisichke. You honor us deeply.”

There was a twinkle in their eyes, like amusement. “I’m thrilled to be of use! Good luck on your hunt, Jhunaluska. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Jhun must have let his doubt creep into his face this time, for Tals’Hayun insisted.

“Trust an elder. I declare you competent, at the least. Please, be as wise and brave as you must, as much as I trust you to be.”

It was an odd request to Jhun’s ears, hot with blood from excitement. “I’ll do my best.” He gave a deep bow-- to disagree would be heresy.

And maybe it was for the best. Oma would have fainted if she knew how rashly her kkoma was diving forward. He needed every drop of confidence that could be mustered as he ran to chase his squadmates– he would trust Tals’Hayun’s word for now.