Hidden Growth - Astire

Astire felt the faint thrumming that she had grown as used to as her own breathing fade as she stepped into the lands of the Grove.

It wasn't that she was *surprised* at the wards across the duidic kingdom disabling her technological augments, per se – she'd known it was going to happen.

She just hadn't realised how used to them she'd grown.

Since they weren't helping her anyway, she divested herself of the subtle layers of near-transparent metal that plated her limbs and body, removing the lenses that were resting in front of her eyes.  The augments simulated the transfer of tactile sensation, and she'd grown used enough to it, dulled as it was, but…it was nice to feel the breeze on her skin for real. She had to admit, she could see the appeal of a place where technology was useless.

A twinge of a headache from her bound spirit dragged her attention back to reality.  She could feel its violent urge to desecrate the place, to – as the notices had put it - 'fuck with the trees.'  She pushed the spirit's influence away, absently.  It had told her, when she'd first bound it, that she enjoyed forcing it to do her will.  And although it had been her intent to use its malevolence for good, not specifically to punish it for its cruelty…there was a part of her that was afraid it was right.

Suddenly there was a druid there.  She wasn't sure if she'd just been distracted suppressing Alrik's spirit while he'd walked up or if the trees had disgorged him out of nowhere.  "This way."

She was far from the first to arrive.  There were already a good dozen attendees, to say nothing of the people of the Grove themselves – and of course a bewildering array of flowers and plants.  The little flower creature who'd volunteered to undergo the experiment – currently hanging around her shoulders like a shawl, mixed in with the akashic-formed flowers that were woven around her neck and shoulders - looked around curiously, and she could feel its curiosity and excitement, its petals glowing and dimming.

"*Don't wander off*," she whispered to it, in the tongue of plants.  It slumped reluctantly back around her shoulders.

The atmosphere was lively, with some of the other adventurers swapping notes and regaling each other with the stories of their adventures.  They'd obviously already had their own contributions examined, and there was a part of her that wanted to ask them what it had been like, what the druids had asked.  But her guide was still watching her, ever so polite but with an obvious encouragement to carry on.

She made her way through the assembled horticulturists until she found the druids overseeing the delivery of the new arrivals, waiting patiently for her turn to hand over the little flower creature.

She knelt down on the grass opposite the druid, who raised an eyebrow at her flowery regalia but didn't remark on it.  If they were making notes, it wasn't on paper.  And she couldn't help but feel as though the trees were watching her. Judging her.

The flowering vine turned eagerly to look at the druid as soon as Astire unwound it from her hair and set it down between them, and the man reached out and stroked it with one finger, and it settled down.  It had never obeyed Astire that readily. "A friendly little one," the druid commented.  *Is there anything else?* went unsaid.

She cleared her throat. "Um, yes.  I…I used magic to infuse it with magical properties." She mentally kicked herself.  What else would she use but magic to infuse something with magical properties?  "It…it would be easier to see in the night, but it track the movement of the stars, the moon and the sun, and can glow.  I…I thought it might be helpful for navigation?  *Show them*," she whispered to the flowering vine, and it obediently closed its largest flowers and brought them together, where they faded into translucency to reveal a map of the celestial bodies above them. "Oh, and it can hold and make use of an *ioun stone*," she added.  She wasn't going to mention that that had been an unexpected side effect of her experiments.

The druid nodded. "So do you have a name for this little one?"

Astire paused.  She hadn't thought of that.  "I suppose…I suppose we could call it a Starflower?"