The One

Izar and the leaf

During break one day, Feray made her way to the hill behind the campus. Whenever she had time alone during the day, she visited this place—it was where herbs grew, most of them wild. She spent her time here looking for new herbs she had not yet seen, or ones she already knew about and wanted to study more of. Whichever her reason, exploring the hill was one of her favorite pastimes.

This day, she ventured a bit farther than she usually did and came upon a bloodred leaf in the shape of an equilateral triangle. It was rooted to the ground under the shrubs, barely noticeable. Feray knelt beside it, stooping down further to get a good look at the thumb-sized plant.

As she was peering at it, she sensed a familiar presence. Feray perked up—and sure enough, she was right about what she felt: it was Odessa, except Waylon was following close behind as well. He kept his expression unreadable, and Feray could only guess that he did not wish to be there.

"...Ms. Palmentere." Feray stood and bowed her head. Despite all that she knew about the grand sorceress, all that information had been obtained in Izar's or her own animorbis. Odessa was not aware of what she knew.

"You have found the thousand-year leaf," Odessa noted, glancing down nonchalantly at the leaf—hidden beneath the shrubs if one was standing. "Waylon dear, could you pick that leaf for me please?"

That's not a request. Feray stepped aside, knowing that neither she nor her brother had any choice in the matter. Without meeting anyone's gaze, Waylon picked the leaf and handed it to Odessa.

The sorceress examined the leaf in her hand for a moment before a smile crept up to her lips. "Are you aware of what this is?" she asked, shifting her gaze to Feray.

The girl shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't. I am only a first-year student still."

"Yet incredibly curious," Odessa added. "More than what is good for you."

Feray said nothing this time. Odessa was planning somewhere with that accusation, yet she could not tell where.

"This plant grows once every thousand years," the grand sorceress continued, "And today, the Inglebirds have robbed it of its life. For compensation to all of Refica—"

"Wait, but—" Feray interrupted, unable to stop herself. It was Odessa who told Waylon to pick it, wasn't it?

"I am the law," Odessa declared, her amethyst eyes glinting in warning. After a moment of silence, she continued where she left off, as if she had never been interrupted in the first place. "—Your brother shall taste the fruit of this poison."

Without even waiting for a reaction, Odessa pressed the leaf against Waylon's chest. There came a glow, and the leaf disappeared—presumably into him.

Then, she turned away and vanished.

"Poison?" Feray found herself mumbling after the grand sorceress. She glanced at Waylon, who seemed to look just fine. "Are you okay?"

"She did say it's poison," Waylon noted, as calmly as ever, "Though I don't feel any different." Saying so, he lifted a hand to his own chest, the exact spot Odessa had just touched. A soft blue glow emitted from his hand. Waylon closed his eyes and opened them again a moment later. He shook his head.

"Nothing?" Feray guessed.

"No clue."

Zanna, Feray, and Waylon spent the next two weeks in libraries and bookstores, as well as their herbology teachers, trying to find any information they could about the strange leaf. Their efforts were futile, although Feray did come across a few volumes of her interest, which she kept in her animorbis. In her laboratory, she experimented with various ingredients and successfully made some potions, but none of them were directly or even remotely relevant to the leaf.