There is a part of you that still can't believe the role you played in Guardian Sires Plant becoming… well… Guardian Sires Plant! You can't believe that your desire to simply protect and make your fellow Chosen comfortable would lead to such a glorious ascension to Guardianhood.
If anyone deserved to become a Guardian, it was Sires Plant. This you know.
And, somehow, someway, the Sires Plant deemed you worthy to serve them, to stand by their side. You stroke your now enchanted Tome with a sense of pure reverence: it has changed shape and function to fit you, instead of you having to change to fit it.
This sort of… solution… it fills you with an enormous bubbling of relief and, indeed, the beginning of peace. Of acceptance.
Change… can be good.
You smile and trot back from where you were searching for various plants and also conversing with Wick about your upcoming trip to find the Heart. So far, you have mainly found seeds and some dried fruits. Different jars in corridors and alcoves within the tombs contain seeds that beckoned to you, that urged you to take them with you, telling you that they could still be awakened and grown to full planthood. Not unlike how Sires Plant was awakened!
It is just a start, but you do not fear a scolding from Sires Plant about not yet retrieving fully-fledged plants. They would not do such a thing as berate you, especially when you are trying your best.
When you arrive back in the Great Hall, right by the column decorated with entwined serpents and images of verdant, fruit-laden gardens, you see the now-familiar form of the Guardian Sires Plant, their flowered head rising high towards the ceiling, their stem now as thick as the trunk of the largest of trees and entwined with leafy vines (indicative of the presence of Sire Host).
As you make your way over to Sires Plant you are abruptly hit by a heady, sweet scent. It reminds you of just-expired cream and overripe apples that had been roasting in the sun far too long. It is so strong that you pause and sway, bending over to clutch your knees. Eyes tearing slightly from the unexpected and overwhelming stench, you pull yourself to attention and peer at the Sires. From their vines, underneath their large, red and white fleshy petals, are bunches of fruit with spiky exteriors. Most of them are green, though you notice a few which are yellow… no, golden! They even emit a slight glow similar to that of the golden pears.
“Sires Plant!” You call, waving your hand.
The flower angles toward you and you hear their warm greeting in your head.
“My dear Sed, you have returned.”
You dash across the remaining distance and stand before them, letting down your already bulging satchel of plant seeds and fruit pits.
“I wished to return before I embarked on a quest with Wick and Adamo. They are off to find the Heart soon!”
“I wish them luck, then. That all of you can make a safe journey to the Heart. The Library tells me it can be perilous.”
You glance at the spiky fruits growing from Sires Plant's body. “You were able to start producing… um… uh they're not pears but… they look great!”
A wave of bemusement washes over you from Sires Plant. “They may not smell as enticing as the Serpent's pears, but I hope that they–and I–can still serve the Chosen well…”
You nod while pulling out your Tome. Flipping to the page about Amenken's Tomb, you begin nestling in to a crook between a pile of stone debris and the base of Sires Plant.
“Take your time,” you urge. “We… we can wait until your fruit is ready. There doesn't seem to be a massive danger um… yet?”
There is a humming sound from Sires Plant that sounds a lot like an 'I don't know' or a 'wait and see.' By now, you are used to reading Sires Plant's body language and other nonverbal cues. It is a language of its own, one you have rejoiced in learning even when it was difficult and confusing. So different from your experience learning to read and write with Brother Johannes…
It was not Brother Johannes' fault, of course. He was a marvellous teacher. Just…just… you murmur the word 'help' and the texttospeech enchantment activates for the entry about the tomb Library Incarnation. It was like… he and the other monks didn't have the right knowledge, the knowledge that Sal shared with you and that Sires Plant granted you full access to.
Sires Plant listens to you read for some time and then as, you set your Tome down and reach for a scroll that you had found in one of the vessels containing dried dates, they speak up:
“Sed, your words are beautiful but… I can't stop thinking about… what you said before…”
“Before?”
“About… staying.”
You pause in your perusal of one of the scrolls that had been translated into the universal language of the Libraries. Your brows are knitted together as you respond.
“I wouldn't take that back, Sires Plant. I want to stay with you, to help you.”
Their fleshy petals wave and you sense a level of agitation from your friend. Another wave of sicky sweetness rises from the new Guardian, but you find the smell no longer bothers you as much as it did in the beginning.
You touch the mark of Sires Plant on your forehead, feeling the slightly raised outlines of a rafflesia flower between and just above your brow. Maybe this quick adaptation to the smell of the fruits was thanks to your deepened connection to Sires Plant?
When the Guardian speaks again, it is with a plaintive tone.
“Dearest Sed, I want that as well. But… in order to do so, you would be stuck in the Library. In all of the Library. Like the Guardians, like the Employees, like the Pests. It would be forever.”
“That doesn't sound so bad!” You protest, gripping your reskinned Tome in suddenly sweaty hands. “To… to spend eternity with someone like you Sires Plant… it doesn't sound bad at all!”
A beat of silence and a lick of breeze whistle through the gaping hole in the tomb's ceiling.
“Even if it meant no longer being truly human? If it meant never going home and never being able to interact with the many, many Guests of the Library Incarnations?”
You feel your lower lip begin to tremble despite yourself. Is Sires Plant trying to convince you to leave them? After all you'd been through? Together?
No. You refuse to believe that so easily. You're no longer the simply-swayed Sed of the past. You've changed nearly as much as Sires Plant themselves!
“How would I know if you don't even let me try?!”
“It is not something you can just 'try', Sed. Once you decide… one way or another…you cannot go back..” Another too-sad, too-morose response.
You leap to your feet, swing the satchel of seed-filled pots across your back, and stare up at Guardian Sires Plant.
“But it is MY decision in the end. Not YOURS. And, now, I decide to go find the Heart and bring as many plants as I can find!”
With that, breathing heavily, feeling only slightly hollow inside, you turn your back to Sires Plant and stride off to your meeting place with Wick and Adamo.