We did finish eating first. The food was too tasty to interrupt.

  Terenei stacked up the empty containers, which could be recycled just like pretty much anything else; meanwhile, Heket stretched, then got up.

  She retrieved her colpsed mecha from the back of the wagon and did something to it, then set it on the ground and stood back.

  Like watching a car become a robot in an old cartoon, although without the iconic sound effects, the colpsed mecha unfolded itself in a complex series of moves, until it was its normal size, crouched and motionless.

  Heket climbed into the capsule, not closing it, and reached for her gloves. We’d already considered locations, so without hesitation, she made the mecha walk around to the far side of the wagon.

  The mecha had, as it turned out, tools on top of the fttened oval that the legs were attached to, and Heket could reach up with the arms and swap them out. One made me think of a hoe; the one on the other arm was more of a hollow triangle made of two bdes joined at the end. Dragging the tter through the soil and using the former to chop at it, it really did only take her a moment to create a plot of nd that certainly looked garden-like to my untrained eye.

  She made neat straight-line furrows and then backed off a couple of steps.

  “Seeds go in the furrows,” she said. “One at a time, the width of your palm apart.”

  Serru and I obeyed—while Terenei fielded curious questions, about half the adolescents and several adults even more intrigued by the mecha than they were about the frolicking friendly feathered not-dinosaurs.

  Heket used the hoe to sweep the dirt shallowly back over them, then made her mecha retreat a few steps and crouch so she could hop out, removing her gloves.

  “It’s all up to you from here,” she said cheerfully. “That’s the best foundation I can give you.”

  Terenei handed me a pail. It was smooth shiny metal, but brightly painted on the outside with happy-looking fish swimming through seaweed. “I borrowed it from one of the children, she brought her toys in it. It should be about the right size, I think.”

  It was, and it was already full of water. That was certainly easier than pressing multiple cooking pots and teapots into use, if I could even work on water spread through multiple vessels.

  I set it on the ground, knelt beside it, and brought up my dispy, trying to ignore our audience. Growth first. I plunged one hand into the water, just to make sure, while activating that ability with the other.

  The water flickered, deep inside, and began to glow gently green.

  Back on my feet, I spshed water carefully along the rows of seeds, making sure they all got a drink. Would it have been enough water under other conditions? I had no idea, but by the time I reached the st one, there were tiny leaves peeking out into the sunlight back at the first ones.

  I probably couldn’t rush it by giving them a second helping. Better to just wait.

  It was weird to watch them grow in stages, though, like they were under a slow strobe light.

  A young human man brought two children over and crouched next to the developing pnts to expin to them how they produced those first leaves and sent a root downwards at the same time, and as they gained strength from air and water and soil and sun, they grew, and could gather more which went further into making them thrive. I was hardly about to object to the fast growth being used as a science lesson as well; if anything, it was interesting to listen to while we waited. Heket offered her experience as a farmer, and the teacher even asked her to expin a couple of things further. Several other adolescents drifted over to eavesdrop, and were welcomed with a smile.

  I could hear Terenei’s voice behind me, but there was nothing in the tone suggesting that anyone was armed rather than curious.

  “They’ve stopped growing,” Serru said. “That is normal size.”

  The pnts were the height of my knees, each stalk branching repeatedly, and that was visible through the deeply-lobed dark green leaves. Unsurprisingly, they were all absolutely identical, although rotated randomly.

  I went to refill the pail, and repeated the earlier process. This time, I spshed water with a faintly yellow glow at the base of each pnt.

  Buds formed at the end of each stalk, and grew in pulses, and finally opened.

  The flowers reminded me of daisies, but there were two yers of petals. The inner ones on top, which were shorter, were a deep purple that approached bck; the longer outer ones beneath were a vibrant yellow. From straight on, they did look a little like the sun being eclipsed, which presumably accounted for the name.

  “They’re all yours,” I told Serru.

  I could practically see the calcutions running in her head, how many to harvest and which ones, as she chose several of the fully-developed blooms and cut them free with precise strokes.

  “These can afford to lose a few more flowers,” she said, without looking around, “but if you folks let them be, they’ll flower for... well, normally about three weeks, then go to seed naturally. Some of the seeds will fall and they’ll regrow the same pnts here.” She retreated from them, tucking her collection into her bag. “Someone needs these ones right now. We have no immediate use for the rest, but since there are none currently avaible locally, it might be good to have a source until that stabilizes.”

  “They don’t need heavy watering,” Heket added, Myu draped around her neck. “Rain will probably be enough around here, unless you have a full week without any.”

  “And they’re beautiful,” observed the man who had been teaching the children. “Thank you.”

  Serru shrugged. “Excuse me. I need to take these to someone.” She gnced at me. “Are you all right, if I leave you?”

  “You’re faster alone,” I said. “Terenei’s here to protect me from the crowd. The sooner your alchemist gets those, the sooner he can make that potion and end someone’s nervousness. It’s fine.”

  Although I admit I was tempted to make up a need to get back in the ke. That was tempered considerably by the number of aquians present: it might not have been much of an escape.

  “Possibly we should have done this somewhere less public,” I muttered to Heket.

  She chuckled. “Perhaps. This is a great many people for Myu.” She gently unwound the little cat and passed her to me. “Perhaps you could settle her in the wagon and stay with her to reassure her, while I take care of my mecha?”

  Myu didn’t look all that distressed to me, but what did I know? I cradled her against my chest, one arm supporting her, and nodded.

  Someone helpfully opened the back of the wagon for me, but otherwise, once I was in it with my attention on Myu, I might just as well have been invisible. Terenei was still talking; Heket got caught up answering questions about her mecha rather than just colpsing it, but she didn’t seem to mind. I sat next to Myu on the floor of the wagon, and she climbed on my p.

  “I think,” I murmured to Myu as I watched Heket wade her mecha out into the water, “this is less about me protecting you from the crowd, and more about you protecting me. And I’m grateful, believe me.” Heket went farther out until her capsule was completely submerged, with only the elongated oval that supported the legs still above the surface. As I understood it, there was an air-exchange system that ran through the central column. That meant she could do farming tasks just as easily for aquatic crops as terrestrial ones, as long as the water was no deeper than that.

  Myu just purred and rubbed her cheek against my hand.

  The interest eventually wore down. This was a school town, after all, even if the snt here was towards the past. We were able to rex again. Heket made her mecha small and tucked it away in the wagon. Myu came down onto the grass to enthusiastically chase a length of ribbon Terenei produced from his backpack. Serru returned to tell us that the alchemist was delighted and grateful and had insisted on paying her more than the usual price under the circumstances, and he intended to spread the word to his colleagues about the pnts here at the park.

  The bad news was, he had no idea what a morning star crystal was either, nor did anyone else. I was definitely getting apprehensive about that. Fine, it was an ultra-rare item. Maybe it was too far away, out of reach of my sporadic Find Nearest efforts, or maybe it was somehow immune to it. Give me a quest or something instead of leaving me with no idea where to even look for it, when getting that was the key to finding out whether I had a potion formu that could protect my friends even when I was gone, and everyone else besides!

  I went for another swim, just because I could, and was joined by several other aquians. At least there was no need to talk or answer questions, and we could just enjoy pying in the water. They didn’t seem to mind that I was considerably less graceful and smooth, they just compensated. The underwater farewells when I headed back to shore gave me pause—aquians could communicate underwater? Well, of course they would have to, logically, but the mechanics of it would have to wait for another day. I just waved and switched back to legs so I could spsh my way out to rejoin my friends. I hoped they didn’t think I was being rude.

  The others were sipping that really tasty fruit juice and nibbling on cookies, just because they were good, and talking about... well, nothing, really, just casual chat about anything that came to mind, cookies and music and the disruption to Shallows traffic and how useful it would be to alchemists to have access to a way to get any pnt at any phase at need and how efficient Heket’s mecha was at farming. Myu curled up next to Heket and had a nap while Heket worked on her current string project. The ornithians finally tired of pying in the water and came up onto the grass to groom themselves and each other while they dried out in the sun.

  “I don’t think I’m ever going to find everything there is to find here,” Aryennos said via the communicator chokers, “but I think I’ve done what I productively can for one day. I have lots to tell you. I’m going to have to come back here before I put everything together into one book to release, though, because there’s just so much more.”

  “Do you think that the parts you haven’t found yet are important to Nathan getting home?” Serru asked.

  “Probably not. I mean, I can’t be sure because I don’t actually have the information, but it probably isn’t. A lot of it is about the Moss Queen. I found an excellent source about her. But it has some things in it relevant to Nathan too.”

  “Are you going to be all right, listening to details about her?” Terenei asked Serru, his hand nowhere near his choker.

  Serru paused, considering that, then nodded. “I’m rather interested, in fact, and I’m prepared for it to be unpleasant. And I’m not alone.” She pressed the button again. “Fair enough. We’ll come get you and you can eat and then tell us about it on the way to the festival.”

  “Eat? Oh, yes, I really should, shouldn’t I? The librarians here shared some ftbread and fruit with me at lunchtime but we were all rather intent on research.”

  “Yes, you should. Someone else will have to remind them. We’ll be there soon.” She let go of the button on the choker. “At least he ate something. The things you’ve said about your world and developing health issues from an unbanced diet only really apply if one keeps persistently eating species-inappropriate foods. He sounds excited and I don’t think we’ll be able to keep him from trying to tell us everything at once. He may choke if we try to encourage him to eat first.”

  “Very true,” I sighed.

  I was more worried about Serru, but she knew her own limits better than I did. It wouldn’t be helping her to get all protective. Like I had any right to make that call for her anyway.

  It didn’t take long to pack up, re-harness the ornithians, and pile ourselves back into the wagon.

  Aryennos was waiting for us on a carved stone bench outside the library, and he was practically twitching with excitement. He scrambled into the back of the wagon, fished out his notebook and dropped his azure satchel at his feet, and took a deep breath.