Bloom

45: The Petals In The Wind

Red anemone. Striped carnation. White clover. Clovenlip toadflax. Black dahlia.

What do they all have in common?

"Ah, the first bloom. Black dahlia. How fitting."

They are symbols of things many don't say outwardly.

How about Eglantine roses?

"Wounds that need to heal."

Lobelia?

"I want to inflict pain on you."

Purple lilac?

"...purple flowers hold pain..."

Belladonna?

"But a belladonna plant... holds an indescribable pain."

Every flower has a meaning in its petals.

Just like how we have meaning in this world. We are our own symbols of peace. Prosperity. Hope. Continuity.

What's going on?

A voice is swirling around Tulip. It invades their headspace, although they aren't sure where they are. They can't move, can't speak, can't open their eyes. Then the familiarity strikes them at full force.

It's Mortelline.

Slowly their eyes part. They are laying flat on their back, with their arms outstretched on either side. High above them looms an enormous red petal that blankets the sky. Only small holes peer in sunlight. To their right is the tall goddess, her back facing away from them. She's not wearing a dress; some sort of outfit that resembles battle armour, but no weapon is drawn. She appears deep in thought. She turns her face slightly, enough for Tulip to make out the outlines. Pepper isn't around. Neither is Dante, or the apple-obsessed goddess. The atmosphere is strangely calm.

"I had meddled with curses that afflicted many troubled deities who went against the rules of this realm," she says directly to them. "Ones who approached our methods the same way my child envisioned. I did it, though, because it was in the fine print of time. Death with a capital, like all of us, follows these orders. Anyone who dares to challenge them is considered a tear in the delicate fabric. And yet... of all the deities I had cursed, it had to be an anomaly that would make me question our fate."

She pauses, then faces them with her hands rested behind her back. Her hair hugs her shoulders.

"You know, Tulip, the curse lifted long before you made your escape."

Did she say my name?

"It was wrong of me to test your limits, knowing full well the damage it had done to your body."

Wait... what is she saying?

"But how could I have known that you tangled with the curse and made it your own?"

----------

"Tulip?!"

Pepper's voice is beginning to crack from yelling. Their eyes search for any sign of Tulip, but the area is covered in red, twisted with green thorns and leaves. Someone pops out behind a thorny trunk. It's Dante. He's wearing a frown on his face.

"Did you find them?" Pepper asks with desperation.

He sighs, shakes his head. "No sign of Stellalume, either."

"Damnit," Pepper mutters. "What if she captured them? What if we're too late? What if-"

"She couldn't have," Dante interrupts their soliloquy. "You saw how that flower attacked her. She'd be close to mortally wounded if that was a direct strike."

Pepper stares at the ground with furrowed eyebrows. Their energy is somewhat scary to Dante, but he remains planted in a confident stature. He picks up the sounds of wind blowing in a southerly direction, which tells him escaping will be easy, finding his friend will not. He pats Pepper's shoulder to get their attention.

"Let's keep looking, but together this time."

Pepper nods. They stand up and follow Dante while scouring for any sign of blue in a jungle of red.

----------

How did you get here? How did you find me?

Those questions beckoned to breach from their mouth, but were blockaded by an anxious wall. They can only stare in bewilderment. Then Mortelline said,

"But how could I have known that you tangled with the curse and made it your own?"

It seemed to be rhetorical. She paces, chuckles to herself.

"You needn't worry about Stellalume," she says as if reading off of Tulip's other worries. "I advised her... to never step foot on my property again. Goodness, though, she was in quite bad shape."

'Quite bad shape' echoes in their mind. They don't know how, or what they did. All they remember was a splitting pain that stopped as a rosebud emerged from their spine. Nothing after Stellalume's blurred screams and moistened dirt on their cheek recollects. They're alerted back to Mortelline and her stiffened posture.

"Pepper, they... told me things about you."

Another pause.

"Seeing my child giddy about returning home. The sparkle back in their eyes, is more than I could've ever asked for. I was blinded by rage, so much so that I didn't recognize it. Then I was reminded of it through the lens of someone else. And yet..."

She lifts a hand, balls it into a fist and rests it under her chin. Her lips quiver. She shamefully covers them with her hand.

"Love blooms in the strangest of ways. It can be rich in colour, and that is all we want to see, all we dream of. We don't want to see the tears in the petals, the broken leaves or the withered stem. The bloom can, will, eventually turn into a wilt. Tulip..."

Her gaze is filled with pain, desperation, and hopelessness, all wrapped into one.

"Can I trust you to not leave my child's side?" She says while trying to fight back tears. "Can I trust you to love them so much as to not leave them empty? To riddle the rest of their life contemplating on what went wrong? What could've been?"

She takes a second to turn and wipe away the sadness. Tulip stays still, watching, absorbing the words. They've never seen Mortelline be so emotionally vulnerable, but they understand now.

"... her lover's eyes were a pure blue... when she was expecting her lover to return from a long absence... her doorstep turned up empty. When her lover disappeared, her search for love was taken with it."

Though they don't know what happened to the goddess in red entirely, they can tell she doesn't want her child to be broken in the same fragments, the same way her own delicate heart was. Mortelline kneels beside Tulip with a warm yet pained smile.

"When my time comes, when I have to disappear, I hope to not be forgotten. However, I also hope to not leave behind a deity in peril."

Finally Tulip is able to sit up. Instead of turning away, instead of backing off, they do exactly the same gesture as they did with Dante, and hug Mortelline.

"I won't let you down."

Their voice is dry and brittle, but enough comfort for Mortelline to return the gesture. It feels like the air has gone quiet, and the rose's scent has gotten stronger.