LOREN
Loren had safely stashed the other two roses at the Launceleyn manor, hidden deep within the depths of the building. Although he was loathe to part with them, he figured they were safer there than they were anywhere else, given how reluctant everyone seemed to be to approach his home. Of course he’d placed them on a high shelf so that the children couldn’t get to it. The third he had carefully tucked into his pack, along with all the supplies he’d need to plant and care for it. Once upon a time, the Launceleyn had moonlighted as a farmer, so he knew how to make sure plants thrived.The instructions from the gods still burned in his mind, and his feet urged him onward faster and faster. Somehow, he managed to prevent himself from running towards the center of the Hollowed Grounds. Towards the place where this whole blight seemed to have originated. Towards the place they’d first come to in this insane new world. Towards the Spire.
It loomed in the distance even now, even partially in shambles as it was. He still hadn’t gotten the whole story about what had happened there, the battles won and lost, the lives taken and saved, all the chaos that his friends had been forced to endure without him. Soon the librarian finds himself in its shadow, but he keeps going, approaching it and circling it until he finds a patch of sunlight. This will do.
Kneeling, he set his pack down carefully and pulled a trowel from within. Carefully, he dug a small hole in the earth, just large enough to accommodate the rose, which he pulled from the pack next. He paused for just a moment to gaze at it with a look of beauty and hope. This had to be their salvation. If it wasn't, none of them knew what they would do.
Ronin
A beggar's book
outworths
a noble's blood
