Lysette took the rest of the evening and into the overnight to meditate and Cultivate back in her room while Danitha slept. The first part of the night went rather uneventfully. As expected, her Star had brightened just a bit, no doubt when she’d come to an understanding about her being the Demigoddess of Reciprocity. Most of the traces of red and brown light had been subsumed by a warm, comforting orange that now filled her entire realm.

And as similarly expected, her garden, for lack of a better term, now had an extra forty or so plants to tend to. It seemed that barely a third of the congregated students had taken her advice, and that was just perfect. Less work for her at the moment, and it would serve as a better way to measure exactly what sort of growth her followers could expect. And so she relaxed and got to work tending to her plants, moving them about and arranging them as best she could, making sure each had adequate access to light and sufficient room to grow over time. Water would come later and as for soil— Lysette was still working on that last part.

Followers. That was something she’d not expected to ever hear in relation to herself. Part of the reason she’d taken a position as Osstia’s herbalist is because a lot of time would be spent out in the fields, just tending to plants, cultivating them and sometimes harvesting them when needed, either for a client or just to sell to passing peddlers. Sort of like what she was doing now, only in a physical sense as opposed to a merely metaphysical one.

But here she was, doing her part to make the best of the shit situation she’d been dealt. Unfortunately not in a literal sense though— manure was a great fertilizer, after all. Still, though it was a monotonous task to pass the night away, it was just as nice of a way to not think about everything going on all around her, at least for a few hours.

Once she’d arranged her garden in a suitable pattern, she devoted the remainder of her night to Essence harvesting. Again, it wasn’t much—only a few traces of Essence floated through the air throughout the night, but it was better than nothing. And with another twenty-five days until the next new moon and the next assignment from Zarielle, there wasn’t much else to do during the nights.

She had considered trying to see if she could sleep to pass the time, but short of being physically knocked out or exhausted to the point she reached after dueling Serrena, the best she could really achieve was a temporary stupor not unlike being half-asleep back when she was still human. In any event, on this night, she was more motivated than most, and about half an hour before the dawn, she processed the small amount of crystalline powder she’d collected into a liquid sap. She was doing her part to strengthen her believers, knowing that they were, in time, going to do the same for her.

That too was reciprocity, of a less pernicious variety, and one that came even more easily than the retributive kind to Lysette. She toiled her fields throughout the early morning, watering the fields with the saplike fluids of her Divine Tree as the first lights of the new day peered in through the window in the physical realm. The glow of the sun was both comforting in its all-encompassing warmth, and yet foreign and disconcerting as it dispelled the gentle embrace of the night and signaled the start of a new day.

Lysette roused from her meditative stupor shortly after the herald of day seeped in through her window, readying herself as quietly as she could while Danitha continued to sleep, her deep breaths and quiet murmurs recalling some of the times when Celica would come over to Lysette’s place for overnight sleepovers. The two really looked a fair bit alike and Danitha was probably only a couple of years older than Celica. Maybe if circumstances had been different, the two could have been good friends, even sworn sisters. The thought made Lysette pause for a brief moment before she returned to her tasks.

She sighed as she entered the bathroom, trying to suppress those memories again. It was cathartic, at least for a moment, to have shared what had happened with the other students last night, but she also knew that she couldn’t dwell too much on the past. Enough dwelling to remind Lysette of what she had lost and let that simmering anger fuel her need to inflict divine retribution on Asterion and his supporters, but not enough to blind her and distract her focus from her current tasks.

After quickly readying herself for the day ahead, Lysette slipped out the door and headed downstairs. She walked past the front desk and briefly exchanged pleasantries with the resident assistant on duty at the receptionist desk before making her way to the library. It was finally time to do some research on the strange truffle she’d picked up days earlier and figure out if it was edible or otherwise useful in some capacity. At the very least, Lysette hoped it could be sold for good money for artifacts she could either Deconstruct or otherwise use to assist in her Cultivation efforts.

She entered the library and walked over to the head librarian’s desk, greeting Juniper with a slight smile as she approached. The two were far from anything so casual as ‘friends,’ but with Lysette’s frequent trips to the library to research the world or study various Cultivation techniques or magic artifacts or other such things as came up. And sometimes just to browse and read more about whatever topics caught her eye as she wandered through the bookshelves.

“Ah, if it isn’t one of my favorite students. Something in particular you’re interested in today, Lyse? Or just here to browse?”

Lysette reached into her bag and pulled out the strange truffle she’d found days earlier during her mission for Zarielle, laying it on the desk. “I’m interested in trying to figure out what this is, Miss Juniper. I can tell that it’s quite a potent truffle, but it’s not one I’m familiar with. It looks a bit like a black oak truffle, or perhaps an especially dark burgundy pecan truffle, but I don’t think it’s either of those.”

“You certainly know a few things about your fungi, Lyse. I’m impressed.”

Lysette nodded. “I did some work as an herbalist for a few years before I found my way to the Academy. That included work on fungi, both those with any medicinal purpose, as well as species of blight and how to identify and treat them. But the most interesting thing about this one in particular is that it seems to contain an immense amount of Essence within it.”

“Well, I don’t immediately recognize the species either, but I think I know just the right book to answer your query. If you would follow me for a moment.”

Lysette did as instructed, keeping just a few paces behind as they meandered through various bookshelves and up to the second floor. The two wandered around yet more, eventually arriving at a thick wall that seemed made of some sort of metal or stone. It was thick enough and well-enough sealed that, try as she may, Lysette was unable to find any way to peer inside. Juniper pressed a few keys on a small keypad, but though she obscured the button presses with her body, Lysette’s aurasight was able to easily peer around the librarian’s body and track the combination: 5356295141. Easy enough to remember.

“I’m afraid I must ask you to wait out here for just a moment. This area contains some restricted books that I can’t allow students to look at without special permission from a faculty member.”

“Is it okay for me to read this one then?”

“The book I’m getting for you is only here because it’s old and needs to be properly stored in a cool and dark environment to prevent further degradation to the paper and bindings.”

Lysette nodded, though she did peek through the door with both her eyes and aurasight before Juniper closed the overly thick door behind her. She wasn’t able to glean much— only that there were a number of very old and poorly-maintained books inside. The cold, musty air that buffeted Lysette as Juniper closed the door behind her at least partially confirmed the words.

All she could do while waiting around was look through some of the bookshelves. Interestingly enough, and almost certainly by design, the nearby books were all related to library science— archiving mostly, along with other books on storing, cataloging, and preserving documents. She took a few minutes to look through one of the newer-looking ones, and while the information was interesting enough, it wasn’t anything relevant to her current aims, so she merely stored what snippets she could and set the book down as the door opened and Juniper returned, carrying an ancient-looking codex of some sort in her now-gloved hands as she closed the door behind her.

“Here you are, Lyse. Please, follow me.”

The two entered a small enclosed room, and Juniper set the tome down on a large cradle, opening it up toward the middle of the text.

“This is an old text on rare and unique magical plants and fungi that have been discovered over the previous few centuries. As long as you’re careful, you’re welcome to pore over it, though it needs to remain in one of the viewing rooms.” Juniper pointed to a small box of thin, transparent gloves. “And please put those on while viewing.”

Lysette smiled and thanked the librarian as she left the room, closing the door behind her. And in the silence of the enclosed room on the second floor, she got to work. Some of the plants identified were rare, but not unheard of to a learned individual in the field. The phoenix root Lysette still had in her room was one such plant. There was also information on a few rarer variants of otherwise common plants listed such as black lavender and its use for treating gastrointestinal discomfort or golden rosemary and its use as a broad spectrum first-line antitoxin.

Diving further, she found some information on some particularly pernicious species of fungus, including more than one mobile and carnivorous species and at least two known to attack humans, before finally getting to the section near the end on plants used in Cultivation. Black willow was known to absorb Essence out of the soil, making its bark an important commodity used by Cultivators— she knew that black willow was valuable, but not why. And finally, she found a small footnote about the all-too-appropriately named Black Essence truffle.

A rare species of truffle known for absorbing massive quantities of Essence out of the ground, often amassing quantities sufficient to distort local flora and even weather conditions. While there are isolated instances of these strange fungi being reported, a few each decade, further research is needed to better understand the biology of this species and its effectiveness as a Cultivation effector…

Lysette sighed and shook her head. She knew what it was now— the fact she found it in an isolated fog patch all but confirmed it. And while she considered the prospect of eating it herself, the part about a lack of information as to its effectiveness or safety gave her pause. Even if it were effective and safe on humans, there was no guarantee both would be still true for her. With that in mind, the only suitable option was to sell it. And so she decided that, in the afternoon, after the auction house opened, that she would go and find out if it had any financial value.