Queen of night

The garden was huge and lightly shaded, and the soil was moist to the touch. The tower must have expended a lot of magic to keep the temperature even though it was still winter. Eizan set his stupid basket aside and quickly put on an overall and gloves; Duobing watching him did the same. Then he picked up the paper he had noticed upon arrival and looked through it; it was a list of tasks to accomplish. Whoever managed this garden didn't want only magically enhanced herbs. He browsed through the collection of tools and chose a hand trowel; the soil was already prepared, and he just had to transplant the seedlings to the designated area, which wasn't hard to find.

"Do not touch that!" someone screamed behind him. He turned around to find Duobing with a lopper, about to cut the plant before him into submission. He shouldn't have left him to his own devices. "But the list said to trim the chrysanthemum," Duobing murmured. "Does that look like a chrysanthemum plant?" The newcomer shot back, "And didn't you read the sign?"

Eizan's eyes slid to a small signpost that said 'Poisonous Plants', and his eyes constricted. "Quickly! Wash your hands!". "It's already in his system; go to the infirmary for detoxification." The newcomer said to Duobing After he left, the newcomer turned to Eizan, who was still squatting by the seedling he had just transplanted. The first thing he noticed about the newcomer was his shiny bald head, which seemed to draw the sparse lighting in the garden to it; it completely overshadowed the newcomer's obviously handsome face. Having noticed what he was looking at, the newcomer's smile changed to a frown.

"I am Elder Cornish, and this is my garden, not the Tower's, do you understand?" The newcomer introduced himself and left a warning immediately. Eizan nodded his head and refocused on transplanting the seedlings. He had some experience as his mother kept a culinary garden behind their kitchen, but because of that, he could only identify those few herbs. "You are experienced; that is a relief," elder Cornish drew closer, "and you can read—" the sarcasm was directed at Duobing's careless mistake, "there is an inventory of the herbs and plants in this garden; find it and know them by heart; I wouldn't want to lose you too soon," and with that, the elder left the garden to him.

After he was done with the transplanting, he walked around the garden inspecting the mulches and pulling out the weeds while deliberately avoiding the poisonous section; there wasn't anywhere in the requirements that he had to take care of the poisonous plants, and there was Duobing... oh well! When he was done with the task, it was nightfall, so he took off the overalls. He looked around the garden again, and a particular dead plant in the middle of the garden caught his eye.

Eizan was grateful he hadn't pulled off the gloves. What if the dead plant was poisonous? He walked around the plant, trying to figure out what species it was and why it hadn't been uprooted. The stem was dry and chalky; its leaves were dead but somehow still hadn't fallen, and a flower sat atop it, its petals drooping.

"It's a moonflower; Queen of Midnight," Meredith suddenly appeared in front of him; he fell back, frightened, on his buttocks. She came forward and squatted on the other end of the flower, scrutinizing it closely but never touching it. He glanced in the direction she came from and found no entrance there; did she just... materialize out of thin air? Oh! This will take a toll on his poor heart. "It blooms only under moonlight; that is why it is placed in the centre so the moon can shine directly on it. Fascinating, isn't it?" she looked up at him from the flower. "It is but a dead plant now, with no hope of revival. Off you go!"

Eizan stood up, walked a short distance away from the flower, pulled off his gloves, dusted his pants, and grabbed the herb catalogue after he kept everything in its place. With his back to Meredith, he missed the sly smile that found its way onto her face. A stone's throw away from the flower was a small drop of blood glistening brightly in the diffused light shining in the garden. It rose in the air and fell onto the flower after he left, and Meredith watched, hoping for a reaction, but after waiting for a while there was none. Disappointed, she conjured a malleable protective sphere and entered the poisonous section.