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His appointment set for today was still a good three hours off … But Amon had learned his lessons by now, one of them being he needed to calculate in some extra time – loads of extra time, actually – if he was to drop Nephrite off at Twilight Designs so that he could go on about his job undisturbed. Especially, he groaned inwardly, since she'd discovered her apparent love for botanics. He wasn't quite sure just who or what to blame for it – his room mate's cooking, maybe, which the young fiend always observed with wide, fascinated eyes … Or that old hag from the bazaar, with her strange shop of 'medicines'. He'd left Neph with her a few times, when Athan hadn't be around – it had turned out that she was just about the only person Nephrite would stay with, instead of zooming right back to him once he left. In any way, previously, it had been enough to pick a path which would avoid the boutiques offering all kinds of accesories. But now ...

Nephrite floated a little bit ahead of him, very much enjoying the fact that the sun wasn't up and about yet to hurt her. There was an elegant silk shawl wrapped around her shoulders nonetheless, ready to be pulled up and double as a hood, should that Bright Hot Thing suddenly come up unexpectedly. In her hands she balanced a rather large book, an old edition of the 'Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs', rapidly browsing the pages while peering at the plants left and right to their path for comparison.

Amon sighed. If he'd only known what he'd started by getting her the book … He'd thought nothing of it at first, when she'd requested it from him, thinking it certainly was much cheaper than the flask of perfume (which she managed to break in less than two minutes!!) the last time around.

'This?' Nephrite inquired, interrupting her guardian's train of thoughts and holding up the book in front of his face, causing him to almost collide with it.

„Mint,“ Amon read to her obediently. „It supposedly helps with digestion, flatulence, stomach cramps, blahblahblah. Blah. I only ever drink it when I've got a cold.“ He made a face. He wasn't very fond of herbal teas in general, as they only ever seemed to be connected to some sort of sickness. „It tastes great in tzatziki, though,“ he added, as an afterthought.

'No blahblahblah,' Neph shot back at him. 'Read. All,' she insisted, her tail lashing with irritation.

„Yes'M … Relieves heartburn, nausea, anxiety, vomiting, nervous ten--“ Amon stopped in the middle of monotonously reciting the text when the book was dropped into his hands without further comment, the his charge zooming off to examine something far more interesting she'd spotted just now.

Another Shadow Fiend.

Great, he thought, flipping the pages of the heavy book shut with an audible clap. Hopefully three hours will be enough.

'Hello?' Nephrite offered hesitantly to the older fiend, hands clasped in front of her body. She never actually stopped floating, but there was a …small bop downwards in her hovering about which made Amon swear she'd just curtsied. She's definitely watching too many fairytale movies, that's what.

Nephrite – quite unperturbed by her guardian's general annoyance – lowered herself to take a peek at the plant that seemed to have caught the other's interest, gently brushing her slender fingers across the leaves while her other hand caught the long silken sleeves of her robe to keep them from dragging on the ground. She loathed to get dust or dirt on her gowns.

'Not what you're looking for.' She concluded. The other's disappointment had been quite visible upon his face. 'What are you looking for?' She inquired, ever the curious one. 'I know a little about plants. I have a book.' She pointed at the tome her guardian was holding, consciously ignoring that he tapping his foot. 'I'm Nephrite.' She remembered belatedly she hadn't introduced herself yet.

“I'm Amon Silverchair,” her guardian added. “Not wanting to seem impolite, but, unlike the young lady here, I'm actually on a schedule. We're on our way to Twilight Designs anyway, so, maybe, if you and her just could talk there …?” Perhaps this would even work out to get there faster, he hoped.

Nephrite glanced at her guardian over her shoulder. She could clearly sense his impatience, and that he was grumpy and annoyed by this new distraction.

“Go on,” he waved her off nonetheless, a look of resignation upon his face. It was hard to say ‘no’ to her when she looked at him like that. That little minx certainly had a talent to twist him around her little finger … “Just keep in mind, the sun will rise sooner or later. You might want to be done until then.”

There was a small surge of gratitude directed at him through their bond, akin to a quick kiss on the cheeks, and her tail swished almost coquettishly as Nephrite floated to close her distance to Hawk. Amon sighed as he followed at a slower pace, not to pleased at the prospect of traipsing for god-knows-how-long through overgrown gardens to look for some obscure weed.

Nephrite peered up at the elder fiend expectantly, her delicate brows momentarily knitting with confusion. So, he could see things he hadn’t found yet? That was a little strange, but also very fascinating. ‘Show me, please? Then I can help.’ That had to be a very, very special flower he was looking for, and she definitely wanted to know more about it now!

Amon returned the glance with an equal amount of annoyance, his free hand (the other still holding onto Nephrite’s tome) searching the pockets of his blazer for his cigarette case and lighter.

Nephrite leaned into the Seer’s touch, trusting and completely relaxed, her almond-shaped eyes closing for as long as the shared vision lasted. ‘That one’s not in my book …,’ she murmured, a little disappointed, but at the same time fascinated. If it wasn’t in her book, then it had to be something really rare and special. She wanted to find it. And she wanted to know what its scent was like.

‘I’ll look for it,’ she announced. ‘I’ll-’ She interrupted herself when she caught the characteristic sound of her guardian’s lighter being flicked open, a small, but noticeable twitch going through her tail. ‘No smoking!’ she hissed mentally, turning to glare at her bonded. ‘It’s bad!’

“Hasn’t killed me yet,” Amon retorted, quite unimpressed. It had become some somewhat of a nuisance lately, her disapproving of his smoking habits. He sort of appreciated that it was out of concern for him, but he did not approve of her hiding his lighters or cigarettes – or flushing them down the toilet. “Listen. You get to look for your obscure, nameless greenery – and I get to smoke in the meanwhile. Deal?”

Nephrite continued to glare at him for a second or two, before she abruptly turned a 180 degrees with a very audible mental ‘Tsk!’

‘I’ll find your flower,’ she promised Hawk instead, jade-green fingers brushing gently against the Seer’s arm before she propelled herself as high into the air as her strength would allow, her silken robes fluttering. Some spot still lit by moonlight …

‘Glad to help~,’ Neph chirped happily. ‘What do you need the flower for? Do you know someone who’s lost?’ She twirled in the air playfully, thinking it was fascinating that there were plants that were only mentioned books. Or none at all even. Books broke so very easily, after all.

It was so frustrating that she couldn’t read those strange signs that made up the descriptions in her edition of the ‘Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Herbs’, but only admire the detailed images. The labels and signs in her Granny’s shop all made perfect sense, though, which was strange.

“How come you know where to find it?” Amon inquired, though not really expecting an answer. He lit up a cigarette and inhaled the smoke deeply, his eyes closing momentarily. Thank you, thank you, he had needed that.

He picked his way along the overgrown path carefully in the darkness, cautious of the vines and tendrils that might trip him. The fiends sure had it easier in this environment, being able to float about like that. They also saw a lot better in the dark than he did, he knew for certain.

‘Amon …?’ He had practice enough by now at least to recognize when Neph was ‘whispering’ to him instead of openly broadcasting her thoughts into all directions.

‘What is it, Princess?’ he replied to her in the same manner, or – at the very least – he tried to. He very much relied on the fact that Athan had ensured him at some time that the average fiend per se wasn’t able to pick up on his thoughts just like that.

Which had made him wonder with quite some unease about the non-average ones.

‘Amon, where is … North?’

He almost laughed at that, especially what with the embarassment she felt about actually having to ask seeping through their bond. He had already noticed it before, her directional sense was terrible.

‘Oh, YOU!’

He ignored her indignation, instead looking up at the stars still visible in the cloudy night sky, and then Dürem’s skyline. ‘Over there,’ he thought, trying his best to point her into the correct direction. He very much preferred to speak aloud to Neph, and wasn’t accustomed much to be directing his thoughts at her.

‘Thank you~!’ She replied and zoomed off determinedly into the direction given. Amon couldn’t help but admire her as he followed her with his gaze, thinking she looked quite beautiful up there.

He should have kept his eyes to the ground, though.

He gave a small, surprised yelp as his right foot got caught in something, sharp thorns tearing through the fabric of his trousers and into his skin. In his desperate attempt to retain his balance, his next step inevitably landed him in a big puddle of muddy water left after the previous evening’s downpour. He swore, despite his resolution to not do so in Neph’s presence. But the sensation of cold water sloshing into his dress shoes, drenching the socks …

And Neph’s amused laughter ringing through his head did not help the situation any.

‘Are you hurt?’ She inquired though, after only a little while, having paused in her flight to look over her shoulder.

“Only my pride,” Amon muttered darkly, trying to shake some of the water from his shoes at least, albeit knowing it was an attempt doomed to fail. His right shin burnt in a way that made him pretty sure those thorns had gotten him good. No way of checking, with the lighting as bad as it was, but he could feel something warm seep down his leg and thus safely assume he was bleeding. He had lost his cigarette too. Instinctively he reached for his pockets, but only to play with the lighter some, flicking it open and closed a few times, but never igniting it.

‘You, go look for that weird flower of yours,’ he finally told the young fiend bond to his soul. He could feel her excitement, just how much she wanted to find it. And despite everything, he just … couldn’t bring himself to spoil the experience for her. It was … like a treasure hunt, or something. Something he’d never been able to experience for himself as a child. ‘Just try to not take too long, ‘kay?’

‘Okay~’ She chirped. As funny as his stumbling about had been, she could sense that her guardian was uncomfortable, and possibly hurt (she wasn’t sure, but he was obviously trying to hide something from her), which sort of threatened to ruin the fun for her … Because part of her now wanted nothing more than to return him home, soak him in a nice hot bubble bath, and look after his possible injuries.

But she also very much wanted to find that flower, the vision of it still temptingly fresh and vivid in her memory. It was so pretty! And she wanted to please that elder Shadow too … She hesitated, her being torn visible by the strange figure of eight she danced in the night sky before making up her mind. ‘I’ll make this quick,’ she promised to her guardian, her robes fluttering as she turned, her gray eyes searching the ground below.

A flower that only grows in lost places …, she repeated to herself. There was a path down there, but overgrown so badly she doubted anyone would have recognized it as one from ground level, but pointing into the right direction. But even from above, it was hard to make out just where exactly it was heading …

She lowered herself to thoughtfully glance upon the thicket. No, certainly no one had tread this path for a very long time, not with this mess of vines and thorns barring their way. Not that it was much of an obstacle to the likes of her …

She gave the thorns a doubtful look, and – after a moment of hesitation – undid her sash and moved to hang her silken robes into the branches of a nearby tree as securely as possible. She knew that she could move through solid matter alright – but her gown was a different story some times, she’d noticed, much to her chagrin.

Her fingers played with a branch of the thicket for a moment, mindful of the thorns, curiously inspecting what was still there of the leaves. It looked like Rosacae, though she had no way of telling the genus. If she could have, she would have drawn a deep breath, before she dove in, her long, fabric-like tail shimmering and swirling with every movement she made.

It was dark within the thicket, almost too dark to see even for her. It was like being inside a cave, one that was entirely made up of thorns and twisted branches, dead brown leaves, and the occasional shriveled rosehip still dangling here and there.

Before long she came across the withered remnants of a wrought iron gate, askant in what was left of the hinges, and looking like it would crumble under the lightest touch. She would have loved to touch it, but that would have meant to become corporeal again, and make herself vulnerable to the thorns. So, for a little while, she simply marveled at the blooming roses it depicted, before she phased right through it, aware that she couldn’t afford to remain idle for too long.

Her eyes wide with wonder, she passed by the overgrown remains of trellises and pergolas which had collapsed due to old age and the sheer weight of the vines covering them. There were marble columns which had once been part of a gazebo, now barely distinguishable from the surrounding flora, darkened and withered as they were.

‘I think,’ she said to no one in particular, her eyes drifting half shut, ‘this was a rose garden once?’ In the ethereal state she was in now, she couldn’t help but notice the scents. The damp earth after the recent rainfall, the rotting leaves, but there was also something heavier, sweeter … Intrigued, the young fiend allowed that scent to lure her in, to guide her, as she drifted forward. It was getting brighter up ahead …

A rose garden? Well, it might have been, at some point in history, Amon figured, staring at what looked like a massive fortress of thorns to him. Some hundred years ago, maybe. Now it looked like something fit to guard Briar Rose’s sleep. “I,” he announced sternly, “am most definitely not going in there.” The scratches in his right leg had begun to burn badly, but he ignored it, instead heading to collect Neph’s robes before they could end up in the mud.

How could it be that someone was lost-but-not-lost? Nephrite didn’t quite understand, but she decided to let it rest – because she was almost certain that it would turn out to be one of those ‘grown-up’ things that no one ever explained properly to her anyway because she supposedly was ‘too young’.

“Has to suck, to possess such a ‘gift’,” Amon muttered under his breath. He couldn’t possibly imagine any sane person wanting for this – not unless you were someone who thoroughly enjoyed meddling. He flinched slightly at the piercing glance the Seer shot him, the same kind of knowing look Mang gave him occasionally. It didn’t fail to make him feel highly at unease – there were things in his past very much he preferred to be left forgotten and not touched upon.

Nonetheless, he muttered a small, reluctant ‘thank you’ when Hawk offered his guidance – had he realized the fiend was actually blind, the irony would have made him laugh like a madman.

He was genuinely grateful though, when the elder fiend followed Neph into that mess of thorns to join her side. To imagine the vulnerable petite fiend in there all alone … Then again, it was Hawk’s fault she’d dove in there in the first place. Amon frowned, carefully folding Nephrite’s silken robes over his arm while he glared at the bush, hoping she wasn’t about to get herself hurt. He did care for her, no matter how much he loathed having been charged with her presence against his will. If there was any sign of her being in danger, he would force his way through the thorny branches without a second thought.

Managing to hold both, robes and book, with his left, his right dove back into the pocket of his blazer to nervously toy with his lighter once more.


Nephrite certainly felt relieved when the elder fiend joined her side – while this ‘garden’ mostly just felt sad, it also had something certainly spooky about it.

‘It must me something really special,’ she replied respectfully, ‘if they want to protect it his much …’

When they came upon the small clearance, her gray eyes widened, staring at the flower in wonder. ‘Hawk, it is so beautiful!’ She exclaimed, hovering close enough to touch it. But the plant seemed so fragile, she didn’t quite dare. Instead, she closed her eyes once more, thoroughly enjoying its scent. This close, it was almost overwhelming. She would recognize it everywhere, from now on.

Her eyes snapped open when Hawk spoke again, his words snapping her out of her quiet reverie. The bulbs? Oh right, if they wanted the plant to thrive, they’d probably have to take the whole of it. So far she’d rather been interested in the use of plants, not as much growing them … Though she had picked up some of the basics.

‘Just some of the bulbs?’ she inquired. ‘Or do you want to take the whole plant?’ Bulbs were very much like seeds, she remembered. A new plant could grow from them.

Already she carefully measured the space left between the desired flower and the wall of thorns shielding it. Not enough space for Hawk, she thought, but it looked like she might just fit in without getting hurt … too much. She was still small, after all.

It was rare, very rare, for Nephrite to turn fully corporeal, legs and itty bitty feet and all, her weight barely enough to leave an impression on the soft ground as she knelt down. And she didn’t like it. Oh, she so didn’t like it. She went ’Eep!’ when the thorns caught in her hair, tearing at her carefully styled updo. But even more so she hated the feeling of the moist, soft soil her physical form was resting upon. She was very glad, now, that she’d decided to leave her robes behind. They would have gotten torn and dirty on top of it!!

Nonetheless, her small fingers dug into the ground, but she exclaimed a loud mental ‘Ewww!’ whenever she happened to come across a worm, or a bug, or – worse even! – a centipede. But the excitement which flowed through her when she happened to touch upon the first, small, onion-shaped object … Not just one, a small cluster of them even!!

The plant … The young fiend’s face lit up with surprise and delight. Really, she could have it?! She halted her excavation for a little while, to look at the flower and think just how pretty it would look in her hair. Part of her rejoiced at the thought of parading around something so special and rare. But the would wilt and wither before soon.

If only …

Her thoughts traveled back to old Mang’s apothecary, to the many dried herb bundles she’d seen dangling from the ceiling, the buds and berries floating submerged in strange liquids for preservation and later use, tea made from petals … Granny would know what do do with it, she was certain.

‘I want it, yes please.’ She nodded. ‘Can I keep some of the bulbs too?’ Not like she had any place to plant them … yet. But she really did want a garden too now. Amon, she was certain, would no doubt react all grumpy and complain at the idea – but she was pretty sure that, in the end, she’d get what she wanted. She almost always did.

‘Here.’ She carefully dropped the bulbs into Hawk’s waiting hands one by one as she dug them from the soil. ‘Is that enough?’ It didn’t feel right to her to just take it all, so she left a good part of the cluster untouched. Now the plant itself … Nephrite reached out to touch lightly upon the stem, mindful of its many thorns. She had nothing with her to cut it, but maybe if she twisted and bent it some carefully, she could snap it off …

“How much longer until you’re done?” Amon complained, giving the thorny wall first Neph and then Hawk had passed into a hostile glare while he kept waiting for the two fiends to reappear. He was feeling cold and uncomfortable, and – as if the weather wanted to spite him and add to his misery – it had started to drizzle just a little while ago. Too light to even be noticed underneath that mess of vines, but definitely enough to add to his overall discomfort. At least it was too late in the year to be bothered by ticks or mosquitoes …