Aria’s POV
The staff sprouted first.
We didn’t notice until morning. The Warden Coren left it leaning against Sen’s table when he walked out without it. Just wood. Worn smooth from ten years of counting blades.
Overnight, green broke through. Tiny leaves. Not mint. Not ridge stone. New. Pushing out from a knot in the wood where his palm had rested.
Keth saw it and didn’t yell. He whispered: “It’s growing.” Like he was afraid loud would break it.
Mara knelt. Didn’t touch. Just breathed on it. The leaves shivered.
“It grows without asking,” she said. “Even in dead wood.”
Ridah stood from the knife under the tree. Roots and blue cloth and stones still holding it. She walked to the table. Put her palm near the leaves, not on them.
“He left his weight here,” she said. “Looks like
