Aridi -

What emerged was not a sprout but a thin, luminous root. It curled through the dust like a question, then dove straight into the earth. Kaelen followed it with his eyes as the ground beneath his lean-to began to soften, to darken, to remember .

That night, the spring grew into a stream. The stream cut a path through Low Sutta, past the Citadel’s sealed gates, and into the dead fields beyond. And where the water touched, the aridi began to forget itself. Grass returned. Then shrubs. Then, impossibly, a single acacia tree bloomed in the center of the market square—its roots tangled around the broken bowl where Kaelen had planted the seed. What emerged was not a sprout but a thin, luminous root

The Overseer sent his guards. The guards saw the tree. And one by one, they set down their spears, knelt by the stream, and drank. That night, the spring grew into a stream