Chapter 720: Before the First Petal

Chapter 720: Before the First Petal

Edda crushed a flower between her fingers and handed the remains to Lu Pei.

He accepted them with the uneasy care of a man wondering whether he had just been given something expensive.

"Road cup," she said. "Worth nothing to a refiner. Smell it."

The collector did. Leon caught the sharp green scent from beside him.

"That smell in your basket means you’ve damaged something," Edda continued. "Stop packing and find it. Don’t keep pushing flowers on top."

She wiped her fingers on a cloth. The demonstration had taken less than a minute, but all four collectors checked the spacing of their empty trays afterward.

They had left the garden before dawn. Nerin carried food and a stack of light screens; Edda wore her tool roll across one shoulder. With the two guides, twenty people now followed the narrow path toward the hollow.

Morning light reached the hills as they passed the first outlying gardens. A man stood on a low wall clearing leaves from a water trough. Farther down the slope, washing hung beside a roof mostly hidden by trees.

Nerin raised a hand to the man. The greeting was returned, followed by a long look at the unfamiliar party behind him.

Leon found himself looking back.

He had been inside the realm long enough to become used to abandoned camps and contested deposits. There was something strangely pleasing about laundry. Whoever had hung it expected to return, complain if it rained, and wear those clothes again tomorrow.

Then he noticed the cultivated trees below the house, each bearing fruit wrapped in fine mesh.

And probably knows exactly what those are worth.

He wanted to visit Asterbank when they had time. Not as eighteen armed strangers appearing without warning, but with something useful to trade and enough patience to learn what people here considered ordinary.

For now, Edda kept them moving.

The path climbed between stands of red-barked trees and emerged above a shallow valley. Leon felt the changing energy before he saw its effects. A patch of grass beside the path had put out fresh shoots, while the growth a few paces farther uphill remained unchanged. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He crouched and held his palm above it.

The difference was small but distinct. Energy rose through the lower soil in a slow, sustained current. The neighboring ground had not yet received it.

"It doesn’t come evenly," he said.

"No," Edda replied. "The hollow has deeper channels. The surge follows those first, then spreads."

Loriel knelt beside him. She examined the new shoots and looked toward the valley floor.

"So the plant on the warmer slope isn’t always first."

"Usually," Edda said. "Unless the ground beneath it is slow. Watch the plants, not just where they’re growing."

Leon let them compare what they sensed. Unequal supply had occupied enough of his recent research that he was tempted to sit down and study the difference properly. The plants ahead would not wait for him to finish taking notes.

He marked the place on his route sketch instead.

At their next stop, Edda showed the collectors an immature sun cup growing beside a stone. Its yellow petals remained folded around the center. Lu Pei had to lean close to see the clear point she indicated.

"The bead gathers here," Edda said. "Cut below the collar when it’s ready. Keep the cup upright."

She demonstrated the angle beside the stem without cutting it. Loriel asked whether the surrounding leaves continued feeding the flower during the window.

"Leave those on until we sort it," Edda said. "People who strip them in the field lose more than they save in space."

The second collector adjusted the sketch in his notes.

Leon watched them pass the plant one at a time. Four competent people could still ruin a valuable patch if they hurried past the part they did not understand. He had promised Edda they would listen. So far, they were keeping that promise for him.

Once the demonstration ended, he drew the household aside to set their priorities.

Sun cups came first if the field was ready. Frost-thread would be gathered separately when its stems developed the pale growth Edda had described. Emberseed could wait until they knew whether its later window fitted their return schedule.

Ira looked mildly disappointed at that last part, then glanced at the sun cup sketch.

"Bring back something worth waiting for," she told the collectors.

"We intend to," Lu Pei said.

Vyra assigned a carrier to each collector and kept the two recorders moving between the pairs. Edda’s share would be separated after sorting, so nobody needed to interrupt each cut with arithmetic. Seraphine checked the approaches with Wen Shu while Ira stayed near the rear of the column.

Loriel asked to work beside Edda during the first collection. Leon agreed. She would recognize changes the collectors might miss, and he wanted her to enjoy the chance to learn without being pulled away to answer every ordinary question.

The next ridge gave them their first clear view of the hollow.

Yellow flecks covered the lower slopes, with pale bands winding through the shaded ground beneath the trees. From this distance, the colors looked almost painted onto the land. Then a gust moved through them, and Leon saw thousands of closed flowers shift on their stems.

He smiled before he could help it.

There was enough here to make the cases at their backs seem very small.

Nerin saw his expression. "Wait until they open."

The young man shifted the screens on his back and began pointing out the strips that were easiest to reach. He knew where a basket could be set level and where the grass hid loose stones. Then he mentioned a drying frame he wanted to buy with his part of the earnings.

"Your own?" Leon asked.

Nerin nodded. "A small one. I use my father’s now, but his orders come first."

He sounded embarrassed by how modest it was. Leon looked at the screens he had carried all morning and hoped the harvest would cover it. Another capable supplier would suit him very well.

They descended toward a fork in the path and met a woman coming the other way with two empty baskets. A younger girl walked beside her, holding a bundle of cutting cloths against her chest.

Edda stopped. "You’re early, Tessa."

"Apparently we’re late." The woman lowered a basket. "Strangers are sitting across the lower path. They want half."

"Half of what?" Edda asked.

"Anything we take out." Tessa looked at Leon’s party. "Your people?"

"No," Leon said.

The girl beside her stared at the swords and cases with an expression he could not quite read. Tessa touched her shoulder and moved her farther up the path.

"I’ll try the western side," she told Edda. "My brother’s already over there."

Edda watched them leave, her mouth tightening.

Leon sent Wen Shu ahead before asking another question. While they waited, he checked the slope beside the path. The energy beneath it had strengthened since their last stop.

Wen Shu returned quickly.

"An armed group at the lower approach, Senior Brother. Their collectors are working behind them. They’ve put stakes across both paths."

Leon looked past her toward the yellow-covered ground.

The petals nearest the bottom had begun to lift.