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Still February 19, 2023

Despite Niter's eagerness to see the promised plant life, Hestia patiently finished her tea and then packed up travel mugs and a wax bag of handmade cookies to take with them. "You need to be prepared," she explained solemnly, like a warm drink was the equivalent of keeping rope and signal flares on hand.

When they finally got going, she led Niter back outside and toward the most massive building in sight. Along the way, they passed by more of the bobbing spheres of fire until they reached three huge basins with a much larger ball of flame above two of them. Pointing to the smallest, Hestia said, "That one is mine, it represents me, the World Keeper. The next represents Mars, I think this world was um...under it's jurisdiction or something like that? But nobody attached to Mars has visited, so it doesn't have a flame lit. The next one, the biggest, represents the All Flame. It's supposed to represent everyone everywhere, but it's a lot smaller now than the one from memory."

Turning to Niter, she asked, even more solemn now, "Before you leave, would you light a fire here? I'll take good care of it."

Hesitating for a moment, Hestia admitted, "We think it might've been part of why everything blew up. Something went wrong with the flames. But they're fine now!" She quickly reassured. "They'd been fine for a long time, and I started lighting and taking care of them over a decade ago."

She turned her gaze toward the fires, expression fond, "The atmosphere here has a special gas in it, it's why the air sometimes smells especially sweet. The basins that hold the flames draw in the gases in the air, condensing them to a small air. With the right placement and degree of friction, a person can light one with just the snap of their hand. That's all it takes."

Walking up the temple steps, Hestia remembered to ask, "You aren't claustrophobic are you?"

"Oh no, not at all. It's just that the Under City has some fairly narrow tunnels. I wouldn't want them to alarm you," Hestia assured him, leading Niter through the massive temple. The walls were full of reliefs, many fairly abstract in design, but some featured figures in robes that were somewhat similar to the one Niter was wearing. It should be noted that none of them seemed to be in the midst of some sacrificial right. Actually it was more like they were...cleaning?

Soon they reached a narrow door, open and waiting in a shadowy corner. With a snap of Hestia's fingers over a nearby sconce, a small ball of light appeared, showing a stony stairway that led down and down and down.

"All of the growing areas and garden are underground. It's quite extensive, actually. Much more than I've had a chance to explore." She sounded a little proud of it. And she was. Not everybody could live out adventures worthy of Indiana Jones in their own home!

"They're more of a moss? Spongey with very tiny leaves, but sometimes there's flowers as well, so we've settled on calling it moss-like." Well, Algol had settled on that and Hestia was very happy not to have to remember, let alone pronounce, a more scientific name.

"They don't need light at all, quite the opposite really. It can't be fond at all in the upper city, and the samples we tried to bring to the surface dried up very quickly. We've found it primarily grows on specific types of stone, though."

The stairs opened up into a hallway. On one side there was a stone wall, roughly blocked off by stone rubble. Hestia pretended she didn't see it and pointed to a hole with a ladder going down, "The closest growing room can be reached by the ladder." A glimpse through the hole would show a faint red glow that was unlike the bobbing lights of the torches.

Swinging her hand over to point at a nearby door, she added, "There's also a pharmacy through there. Most of the plants in there would have come from other worlds, but they're so old that handling them at all just turns them into dust."

"I don't know...I think killer plants are very cool," Hestia muttered, more to herself in a a sulky little voice. But no, now was not the time to dwell on cool factor.

"A cave full of the poop of bat things." She gave Niter a hollow gaze without even glancing at the rubble. "Don't look at it," she whispered, a flush of embarrassment rising. In a rush she went on, "The garden's this way."

And yes it was the hold with the ladder, which she didn't even bother climbing down, instead opting to just jump.

The room was definitely not a very standard sort of garden. There wasn't even any dirt, but instead a series of long rectangular slabs covered in a glowing red moss of sorts. The plants were differentiated by hues that varied from a near pink to fire engine to a red that was almost black. here and there, several were speckled in bright white flowers that bore a strong resemblance to white violets.

One section of the garden contained what was clearly a small lab, with tools and instruments of the familiar Earth variety. On the other side was an arched doorway, with more glowing red beyond it, along with the sound of running water.

"It was all mostly dry and dead when I first came down here, but after awhile it just kind of...picked itself back up again. Not really needing much help from me. I'm ah, not very good with plants myself," Hestia admitted while also feeling a little proud that her world's plants were able to raise themselves.

"The world did it," Hestia explained, suddenly a little absent as her mind began to connect bat-poop->plant growth->she'd potentially been keeping a whole section of the ecosystem out of the picture, leaving magic to be the sole force to allow for any growth at all. "I heard it from others too, and seen it here. The more time and energy we put into restoration, the world ah...matches it? Like with the plants here, but also with structures fixing themselves, little by little. Insects and animals coming back."

If the bats come back, she'll have to free them right? Free them to poop all over...

"You seem to really enjoy plants?" Hestia decided to firmly focus on anything other than her future in bat poop, and Niter did seem enthusiastic about her world's somewhat limited plant life. Idly, she wondered if his world was one of the ones that was abundant with it.

Hestia was reminded of the time that Mindy had grown leery of Mrs. Lee's greenhouse and had her attach googly eyes to all the plants in it to make them "less menacing". The result had been....

Well, she'd had to carefully remove them the next day. Apparently a lot of their googly stares has been deemed "sarcastic."

Niter clearly had a much less complicated, much more wholesome relationship with plants. She didn't know why non-plant life was making fun of Niter, but she very responsibly held back the offer to beat the s**t out of people. Because she was a peaceful senshi. Who cared about everyone. And was focusing on harm reduction.

At the question, Hestia relaxed the jaw she hadn't realized she was clenching with a hurried, "Of course! If you can get it to survive on Earth, you'll have to ;et me know." Moving to the corner with the lab equipment, there were a number of small pots and specimen jars, along with rocks similar to the large slabs the plants grew on.

"There will be a tea sample too! In the giftbags, that is."

Oh...oh yes, this was meant to be a test tour, wasn't it?

"Do you think the plants here would be a good draw, for people to visit?" Her voice took a turn for the uncertain. Where magical explanations could be taken with ease, it was the restoration of her world's purpose where she found herself less sure.

There was a stretch of companionable silence as Niter was given free reign to inspect the plant beds and the small lab area in the corner and Hestia mulled over his words. Later the corrupt would find himself settled in the next chamber over, on a bench and surrounded by an abundance of hearthflame, a lush and thriving carpet of it that covered the walls of an immense vertical garden. Stairs, seats, and statuary climbed up and up, presumably back toward the surface. There were small fountains too, and their soft trickle finally added a bit more life to the otherwise quiet world.

Sitting next to him, Hestia asked again, "Would you like to light a perpetual flame before you go?"