Letter 5

Poppy,

I visited the gardens today. I guess it was not quite what I was expecting. For one, the gorble was so excited to be outside that he almost flew for the first time. That made me feel guilty for keeping him cooped up all this time, but now I know better.

One of the Class 3 Librarian's told me that if he isn't flying by his second birthday, he might never learn. So I need to do more to help him.

The herb and vegetable garden here is very impressive but I wasn't able to take it all in. I kept having flashbacks to the Greenhouse Initiative, you know when we started out. All of the hopes and dreams we shared. And now all of it is gone.

The Herbalist though was the first person I've met here that treated me like a real person. She told me to call her Nella, and she didn't seem concerned about me being near the plants at all. She didn't act like I was about to attack her, and she even said she could use my expertise in the future. She's not an earth mage herself, just trained in plants: her power is water based.

The librarians want her to grow some seeds that have been stored in ice here for more than a hundred years, bringing some extinct plants back to life. While it sounds interesting, I don't think I can bring myself to go back.

In terms of the crack, she gave me some enchanted and water resistant moss that she said would hold up for a little while, but would need regular replacement and wouldn't be an effective long term solution. I think she was hinting at me using my powers to fix it but I didn't mention it, and neither did she.

So I took the moss down to the sublevel 3, and used it to pack the empty space in the rock face. It was unusual stuff, you would have been fascinated. Maybe I should have taken the time to enjoy working with a plant again but I just felt so different and strange that I couldn't.

I did hum to the moss, the way you showed me at the Greenhouse. But it felt silly when I tried it.

The moss was soft and bouncy but also durable. It couldn't be pulled apart, instead it just stretched endlessly. It also rooted into the rock face before I'd finished the job. I hope that will satisfy the Chief Librarian for now.

Your dearest friend

Willow