Rosalyn Ebonbloom's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

The bell rang twice from the main hall — the signal that meant elders were coming through the workshops. Rosalyn looked at the table where the jasmine cutting had died around the seed. The husk sat there, brown and twisted, with the seed buried somewhere inside it. She'd meant to dispose of it yesterday, but she'd wanted to watch it one more day, to see if anything else would happen. Now footsteps were coming down the stone corridor outside her door. She grabbed the husk and shoved it into the honey-colored chest her grandmother had left her, the one with the carved badger emblems on the lid. The chest was full of dried herbs and old soil samples — nothing forbidden, just clutter. She buried the husk beneath a layer of pressed ferns and latched the chest shut. Her hands were shaking, which annoyed her. The door opened before she could step away. Elder Kael stood in the doorway, his white beard bright against his dark robes, his staff planted on the stone floor like a judgment. Two other elders waited behind him in the hall. Kael's eyes swept the room, lingering on the table where the husk had been. A single pale tendril remained, thin as thread, curled against the wood grain. Rosalyn didn't move to hide it. Hiding would draw attention. Instead she picked up a watering can and stepped toward the shelf of common plants by the window. "The grimoire isn't here," she said, her voice steady. "You're welcome to look." Kael walked to the table and touched the tendril with one finger. It crumbled to dust. He turned to face her, his bright eyes unreadable. "Jasmine," he said. "Midnight jasmine. From the greenhouse." Rosalyn set down the watering can. She could lie, but the math had already shifted. Kael knew what jasmine looked like when it died after bonding with something else. He'd seen it before. "I took a cutting," she said. "Three days ago. It didn't survive." Kael studied her face for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "You'll replace it," he said. "And you'll stay out of the greenhouse for a month." He didn't ask what the jasmine had bonded with. He didn't search the chest. He simply turned and left, the other elders following behind him. Rosalyn waited until their footsteps faded, then opened the chest and lifted the husk into the light. The seed inside had split completely open, revealing a dark green sprout with leaves shaped like tiny hands. She'd lost the greenhouse, but she'd kept the one thing that mattered. The elders still didn't know what she had.