The morning of the three hundred and twenty-fifth year brought a different kind of energy to the garden. It was not the energy of discovery or the energy of completion. It was the energy of connection. The web that had been spreading across the land was now thick and strong, and the garden was its heart.
Sian and Lira had passed on the guardianship long ago. The current guardians were a pair named Theron and Elara. They were young but wise, raised in the garden's traditions and connected to the wider web of communities that now stretched across the land.
They felt the energy of connection that morning. It was in the song threads, which hummed with a resonance that seemed to come from far away. It was in the water, which carried a different quality, as if it was connected to other waters
