Chapter 5
“Welcome home, o Lady of Darkness!”
Quercus had gotten into my home with no problem, because of course he did. Could any affini just do that? He carried me into my room and deposited me on the bed. A vine moved to unclasp the Shroud’s brooch.
“N-no!” I shrieked. Quercus left it alone.
“I just wanted to help you get undressed for bed, Serenity. It’s late now, so I think we should talk in the morning,” he said. I didn’t stop him as he pried off my shoes and even my skirt. I would’ve screamed bloody murder if he touched my panties, though.
“May I remove the cloak? I’m not going to take it from you, I promise.”
“It’s a shroud,” I moaned.
“That’s quite morbid if you go by the proper definition.”
“I don’t caaaare.”
…
“May I remove your Shroud, Serenity?”
I looked at him. At some point my contacts had reverted to the original setting. He was squatted beside my bed, still towering over it.
“Go ahead…” I couldn’t stop him, anyway. “I can’t stop you, anyway.” Those damn drugs.
Quercus unclasped the thing and gently slid it out from under me.
“Don’t you dare decompile it.”
“I won’t, petal.” A vine removed my bag. Oh yeah! That thing had the smoke bombs in it. “Now what did you need these for?”
“To blind an affini long enough to escape if I needed to.”
Quercus made the most peculiar expression in response to that statement. “According to your compiler’s history, you made nine more. They are…?”
“I really don’t wanna say but they’re in the closet.”
“Thank you, Serenity.” Vines peaked over the side of my bed. “Do you usually sleep with your shirt on?”
“No but I’m not wearing a bra and I don’t want you to see the goods. A-and by the goods I mean my breasts.”
“That’s fine, petal.” My bed wasn’t made, but Quercus tucked me in all the same. “I’m going to give you some Class Z xenodrugs. All they will do is help you sleep. Alright?”
“Okay…”
I felt a pinprick.
I woke up on my back. Huh? I never slept on my back. But here I was all the same. I sat up. Did I… smell something? Apparently I was squinting while trying to figure out what I smelled, because the world sure looked a lot more infrared all of a sudden. But yeah, I definitely smelled something… cooking.
I got out of bed and… one second.
I turned off the infrared. After that I figured I’d head out and see what was going on.
“Good morning, Serenity!” Quercus took up pretty much the entirety of the kitchen I often forgot I had.
I mouthed something but before I could speak I realized I felt very naked. I mean, sure, I did have my panties and a t-shirt, but… I scurried back into my room and looked in the closet.
All three shrouds were in there. The original was… probably the one that was neatly folded up and had a note on it. The note was from Quercus, indicating that he’d taken the liberty of washing it. The Dark Lady would… tolerate this breach of her boundaries.
Oh, who the fuck was I kidding? I was probably a floret already. Even so, I donned the Shroud before heading back outside my room. For… safety.
Quercus hadn’t moved, but smiled at me when I came over to investigate. He was making waffles.
“I made sure to look into your patterns of consumption recorded by your compiler!” the plant said. “Will these work for you?”
They already looked and smelled amazing. “Uh, yeah, these’ll work.” Well, it was time to find out where things stood. “Why are you making me breakfast?”
“No reason to discuss your future on an empty stomach!”
Great. Ominous AND revealed nothing.
The waffles were basically the best thing I’d ever eaten, which was par for the course. Quercus insisted that I sit at the table to eat them, though. Jerk. Once breakfast was over, he decompiled the dishes, and did his best to sit down at the table with me, which meant that… now came the part that I was dreading.
“Let’s discuss what happened, Serenity.” Here it came. At this point I didn’t see any reason to keep the filter.
“Some asshole tried to come and pick me up and wouldn’t stop and then I cried.”
Quercus nodded. “And then?”
“And then I guess they called you over and you gave me that bullshit truth serum to make me say things that would get me in trouble.” I did all I could do, which was stare angrily at him.
“I’ll start by saying what I know,” Quercus said. He steepled his hands, or rather, he steepled little bark-covered tendrils. “Serenity, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what domestication entails, and the false image of it you’ve created terrifies you so much it’s making it impossible for you to live happily.”
“I know what domestication is,” I said back. “Or I know enough to know it’ll end me.”
“To be a floret is to live the best life one can,” Quercus said. “Nothing more, nothing less. No one has any desire to rewrite who you are, and no one wishes to do away with the Dark Lady of Evernight. In fact, we all find it quite endearing.”
So he knew. That just figured.
“Evernight cannot exist as some pet,” I practically hissed.
“I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.”
“Then you know nothing of who she is!” I declared. “Of who I am!”
“Serenity, is the Dark Lady so weak as to fade away the moment she finds herself in an unusual situation?” Quercus asked.
Dad had thrown the Shroud away, and then that had been the end of her. But then the start of me. Would I have still learned I was a girl, under the Shroud? Were Evernight’s end and my beginning tied to each other? But on the flip side, it had been so exciting and scary and fun and nerve-wracking to bring her back. Serenity and Evernight had to be able to exist in tandem. But of course, that wasn’t what Quercus had asked.
I didn’t know how to answer what he’d asked.
“I think you’re counting her out too soon if you don’t think she’ll survive this, Serenity.”
And here came the memories.
“She… it’s in her nature to be self-sufficient. She has to be self-sufficient.”
Quercus rumbled, but not in a laughing sort of way. “Serenity. The way the Terran Accord deified the trait of self-sufficiency was a—“
Enough.
“YOU LISTEN HERE, YOU FUCKING PLANT! You DON’T get it! You don’t! You don’t know a damn thing…” And here came the waterworks.
“Then help me understand, Serenity.”
“When… when my mom had her stroke, Evernight stepped up. I didn’t know how to handle it, but Evernight did. She did everything she could to help. She was strong. And w-when mom d-died… she knew how to keep going. For years, she… kept me going.”
For a moment I wondered where Quercus had gone, but then big thick arms wrapped around me. He didn’t hug me as much as he enveloped me. He was warm, and I felt a deep thrumming. It was not unlike when Cereus had picked me up, but it was still distinct from hers.
I stewed in the memories, as well as Quercus’ weird rhythms, for a good few minutes. Gradually my breathing steadied, and gradually I stopped shaking.
Quercus slowly pulled away, and then returned to the other side of the table. He didn’t immediately say anything. I didn’t either.
He broke the silence first. “I had no idea of the correlation, Serenity. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not gonna keep me from getting made a pet.”
Quercus cocked his head. His beard followed. “I never said you were obligated to become a floret. You must’ve come to that conclusion on your own.”
“I’m… gonna still be independent?” I asked.
“Not… entirely,” he said. I groaned. “Allow me to explain. We all think you’re really something special, Serenity, but you’ve also displayed some disturbingly feralist tendencies.”
“Feralist? Like, what, those riots you put down in June or whatever?” Back when the affini were brand new. Interesting times.
“Your initiative to create smoke bombs seemed peculiar, at the very least. But when you told us why you made them…” Quercus shook his head. “I’m disappointed, Serenity.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever, plant-dad.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely fair to Quercus. But still.
“Besides,” he rumbled, “did you really think that would stop an affini?”
“It was less of a think and more of a hope,” I admitted.
“At least you didn’t try to use them. But on that topic, why did you feel the need for lowlight and infrared vision?” Figured he was going to ask about that as well.
“So I could see in the dark. And because it’s cool.” I shrugged.
“I don’t want to have to use the Class D, petal.”
“What, so you want to just put words in my mouth, do you?” I retorted. Quercus just gave me a pointed look. “Wanted an edge over the affini,” I mumbled.
“You thought to use our tech to get an advantage over us, did you?” Quercus… chuckled. I think that was chuckling. Stars, when he put it that way, it sounded really dumb.
“Don’t take away my contacts,” I said, looking squarely at the table.
“Petal, your contacts are prescription. We won’t take them away.” The affini’s eyes creased. “Besides, shouldn’t the Lady of Evernight be able to see in the dark?”
“The DARK Lady of Evernight, thank you very much. And, uh. Yes. She should.”
Quercus produced a stack of papers. “Now, I spoke with your care team to figure out how we can best help you.” I had a care team? “We think the appropriate move would be to assign you to a wardship for a time being.”
“The heck does that mean?”
“All will be revealed, o Dark Lady,” he replied. My cheeks burned. “A wardship differs from a domestication in a few specific ways. Most importantly, if all goes to plan, it is merely temporary. What will happen is that to ensure the best level of care and guidance, you will be housed with an affini who will act as warden.”
“Greeeeaaat. I’m a prisoner!”
“That’s not at all what a wardship is, petal.”
“You used the word, not me.”
Quercus just shook his head. “Continuing on! The warden will ensure you are given proper care and enrichment. If all goes to plan, it will prepare you for the resumption of your life as an independent.”
“And if all doesn’t go to plan?”
“I think you already know, Serenity.”
Right. Be good or succumb to floreternity.
“Do you have any questions for me?” Quercus asked. And I did have a question. It was a long shot. If I was unlucky, it might also be a mistake.
“Can I choose my warden?”
Quercus made some kind of noise. Maybe it was a thinking noise. “I can’t promise anything. But is there someone who you would prefer?”
“Cereus.” Quercus looked mildly confused. Shit, what was her full name? I hadn’t shortened it the other way because… it had been too close to my name! Right. “Um… Selenicereus. Selenicereus… Duuuu… Duh. Duh-something.” Plant names were hard.
Quercus rumbled again, as he was wont to do. “Now what a funny coincidence that is… someone did indeed request to be your warden. One Selenicereus Dulcidea… oh my, that can’t be right… 25,000th Bloom?”
Pbbbt. What a dork. Yeah, she totally wasn’t that so-called “Queen of the Night.”
My caseworker continued on. “Oh, there’s a note here. They’re in their second bloom. I suppose they just have a penchant for grandiosity. How interesting! Well then. It seems you have a preference for Selenicereus Dulcidea, and Selenicereus has a preference for you. With that in mind, I find it very unlikely you’ll be paired with anyone else.”
Thank the stars. She was leagues better than a complete stranger. I hope.
“I guess that’s that, then?”
Quercus stood up. Or, no, he rose. Or, no, he ascended. He became taller. “I will get these papers filed. When I come back, I’ll help you with the move.”
Okay. So I guess this was happening immediately. “I have to move?”
“Ms. Dulcidea would feel rather cramped in this hab, don’t you think?”
“Eh, she can have the couch.”
Quercus rumbled somewhat more than usual. Giggly rumbles, not angry rumbles. I think. “Serenity, you really are precious. Now, I’ll trust you to wait here for the time being. Say your goodbyes to the place, if it helps you. If you’re feeling ambitious, you may even get started with your packing. But remember, I will help you when I return.”
The affini left, and I was alone. Say my goodbyes, huh. I guess I’d start with the room I was in.
“Goodbye, couch. Goodbye, TV. We watched a lot of anime together.” I looked up. “Goodbye… Hab AI.”
“Farewell, milady. I will pray for your health and happiness.” I forgot to consider that it might respond.
“T-thanks.” I’d barely lived here a few months, but I guess I’d grown attached. Damn Class Gs were making my eyes wet again. There were trials ahead for the Dark Lady of Evernight. “Goodbye, compiler. I appreciate you even if you did end up ratting me out.” Really, though… I’d survived worse things, hadn’t I? Now I’d just… toe the line like I always had. Evernight was not some innocent babe! She knew what survival took. And Cereus… she was like, the least affini affini. That was probably a good thing, right?
Right.
I flopped onto the couch for probably the last time. It was such a comfy piece of furniture. All this was happening because SOME ASSHOLE wouldn’t take no for an answer. Typical fucking affini!
And as soon as any control over the situation had left me, I’d… done one of the things I could never do. And realizing that had just sent me cascading over the edge. And Quercus… had taken me in my most vulnerable moment and put DRUGS in me to make me talk.
It was that damn first plant’s fault. For so brazenly disregarding my wishes. But also…
It was my fault. For losing the control I’d always so carefully maintained. Additionally…
It was Quercus’ fault. For swooping in and taking advantage of my weakness.
I couldn’t possibly know what was going to happen to the one who’d bother me while I was out on my walk. Somehow though I doubted she was going to get an omnipresent babysitter because of it. And as for what Quercus had done… I wasn’t sure the affini even had any notion of malpractice.
But here I was, being placed under a plant’s ever-watchful gaze for what I’d done. They were taking my house, but that couldn’t surprise me too much. After all, they’d given it to me in the first place. The plants giveth, the plants taketh. Oh, but how wonderfully merciful of them! I was being given my very own shot at redemption. Praise, oh praise our benevolent overlords!
Quercus had called me a feralist. Or, well, he’d said I’d displayed “feralist tendencies.”
Back when the war was announced to have ended, the affini had swept into this city and presumably every other one. They were the new law of the land. And materially, yeah, our lives were undeniably improved. This whole “post-scarcity” thing was pretty damn cool. I hadn’t even realized just how destructive work had been to my health.
Not everyone was as thrilled with the new status quo. I don’t remember if the protests were peaceful at first. But I remember the slogans, and I remember Free Terranism. It all seemed pretty risky to me, so I did what I always did; keep my head down and stay out of it. I was still more or less trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, anyway.
I remember how the word started to be thrown around, especially by the plants. “Feralism.” Marches in the streets. I remember hearing the rumors as the affini did their block-by-block pacification. Something about a plant completely enveloping a thrown IED and shrugging off the internal explosion like it wasn’t that big a deal at all, really. And then, soon enough, the reports that things had calmed down, and no one had even died. But those were the feralists. The ones fighting back.
l did a lot of hiding in my apartment. My roommates were all rumors and speculation. There’d been a gentle but insistent knock on our door, one day. An affini had come in and asked us questions. Told us we were all going to be settled into new homes soon, and wanted to know who wanted to be housed together. We said we all wanted to, of course. We’d been pooling rent for a reason.
They’d told us there would be no more rent payments. The new housing was free, and there was enough for all of us. Bullshit, we all thought. This was just another scam. So the affini, several of them, showed us what they were talking about. The city had already been transformed, and more was still to come.
I ended up in a home of my own. Never in a million years had I thought I’d be able to live on my own. I may or may not have become a bit of a hermit. Could anyone blame me? I was living in what may as well have been a castle, and I had a machine that printed food. There was some attempt made to keep up with my roommates, but I was mostly an observer. The groupchat got weird pretty quick, though. One of them was a pet, now? And they thought we should all be pets? I quietly took my leave. That was weird shit to be involved in when I could just be snacking and pondering getting back into writing.
I stayed like this, cloistered, for maybe a week or two. Life was pretty good. I made a blanket that looked like the Shroud I once wore and cried.
And then the wellness checks had started. That’s when I met Quercus; he told me we’d be working together on my well-being. What? “I was fine,” I’d said. Great, even. Living it up. He asked me if I had any friends. Or if I was talking to anyone at all. Or even just going outside. I blew him off, at first. But he seemed to think socializing was an important part of my well-being. Same with going outside. And if I wasn’t at least going to attempt the latter, an affini would be more than happy to help me. A few visits went like this, and each time he was more insistent. So I gave in and started making forays into the wild green yonder.
We’d discussed other things too. We reviewed my medication, and I learned that plants apparently had super hormones that put the ones I’d been taking to shame. And they had so many other drugs besides. I politely declined demonstrations.
“Quercus Enraptae has returned, milady.”
Quercus told me he was proud of me.
“Why?” I asked.
“I’m so sorry it slipped my mind to tell you in the midst of all these changes,” he said. “I’m proud of you for doing what I asked. For letting out the you that you’d been hiding away.”
“Ah,” was all I said, as I idly swished the Shroud around. Moving was really easy, it turned out. Quercus had all of my belongings and keepsakes together for me. We’d make it all in one trip.
“One… one more thing I’d like to say, Serenity. While I and the rest of your care team strongly believe this wardship is for your best, I…” Quercus somehow had a free vine to rest on my shoulder. “I’d like to apologize for my role in all of this. It’s my own lack of observance that prevented you from getting the help you needed sooner.”
Well now. This was… juicy. “What do you mean?”
“It was a realization I came to last night, and one that dawned back upon me while I was filing your paperwork. You had misconceptions not only about what domestication was, but also what we as affini are. And your misconceptions about us were paralyzing you with fear and, well, preventing you from living happily.” At some point we’d stopped walking. Quercus rumbled. A third type of rumbling. “It was my job to make sure you understood who we were, as affini. I failed. Without me keeping you properly informed, you came up with your own ideas instead. And no amount of apologizing can return to you the months you lost to crippling anxiety.”
Oh. How could I interpret what I’d just been told? I guess I’d been freaking myself out. And Quercus was trying to take responsibility for me freaking myself out? But there was always stuff to be freaked out about. Not just affini. They were just the biggest factor right now, especially with me being assigned a mandatory babysitter.
But there was a lot worth freaking out over. Aliens taking over was freaky. Becoming a pet was freaky. Work was freaky. School was freaky. Dad was freaky. Mom was freaky.
“Once I finish getting you moved in,” Quercus continued, “I’m going to report my failure. I have no doubt that Ms. Dulcidea, for all her eccentricities, will do a far better job attending to your needs.”
Let the guilt fester, plant. You still insist on putting me through this. But… I felt bad about it. Totally wasn’t fair, but I still did. Okay, so what could I actually say? We were walking again, which meant I was on the clock. I had to think of something.
“Um. Quercus, hey.” Oh, yes. Great start. Real authoritative. Sound like you’re afraid of him, that’ll get the message across.
“Yes, petal?”
“It’s not your fault. The world is just a scary place.”
A vine ruffled my hair. They sure did love doing that, didn’t they?
“Serenity, you’re such a kind sophont to try to remove the blame like that. But the Compact is here to, among other things, ensure there’s nothing more to be afraid of. I was so focused on getting you to do things for your well-being that I didn’t put enough effort into figuring out what your reservations were in the first place.”
“You did try to find out what my hangup with people was,” I pointed out.
Quercus shook his big bushy head. “It was too little and too late, petal.”
An awkward silence fell over us as we made it to the place with all the highrises. I wasn’t sure what to say to make Quercus stop sounding as if he just murdered someone. He had tremendous guilt over this, for some reason, but what about the whole truth serum business? As much as I would’ve liked to go off on him about that, I just… couldn’t. Not as he was at the moment. Not when the big guy made it sound like he was about to face an affini firing squad because I got a little scared on his watch.
Well NOW who was I supposed to be mad at? The one who tried to pick me up, I guess. Sigh. I didn’t even know them. They looked distinct, just like every affini. I tried to put their face in my mind, even as we entered a building, walked into a luxurious and well-lit atrium, went past a bunch of people who were laughing and having fun, probably, and stepped into an elevator. A Quercus-sized elevator. I don’t think I could even reach all the buttons.
It hit me. I was in plant territory, now. Okay, all of Terran space was apparently plant territory. But human sized buildings were about to be a thing of the past for me. About to? No, they already were.
Exiting the elevator just made me feel smaller. It led us onto a balcony overlooking the atrium, with a railing that reached above my head. All but the top of the railing was glass, or some other clear material, which allowed me to peer at the floors below. We appeared to be on the third floor. Across from the railing was a number of evenly spaced doors, no doubt leading to individual hab units. One of these doors would lead to, well, my new home.
A door opened as we approached it. Casually leaning against the frame was Selenicereus, who greeted me in her unusual affect.
“Welcome home, Dark Lady of Evernight.”