"Hmm, the tea has grown cold," Naila commented after filling her cup again. "Time really flies when reminiscing the past, huh?"

  Aloe frowned. "What time is it? It's hard to guess it in this enclosed room."

  "A bit past lunchtime."

  The druid's frown intensified. "How do you know it?"

  "There," the calipha pointed at a device that moved and made ticking sounds.

  "What's that?"

  "How do you not know about clocks?" It was the sultanzade's turn to frown.

  "So they are called clocks… I have seen some of them before at train stations and airports, but I considered them to be decorations. Who would have guessed that there would be such sophisticated devices to show the time of the day. But past lunch time you say?"

  "Indeed," Naila nodded. The amber-eyed cultivator had relaxed severely since she had met her at the throne room as time passed whilst she was telling her tale.

  "I fear I must put a stop to your narration for now then."

  "I have yet to reach the best part, Aloe," she said with a hint of sadness.

  "I have to do… some things before."

  "Hmm…" Naila inspected her from foot to head once she had stood up. "You are free to go, but when you return, please do not cause as much of a ruckus."

  Please, the words felt so odd and alien coming from Naila's mouth, let alone the mouth of someone who was apparently the calipha.

  "Fret not, I know how to behave myself." The sultanzade didn't respond and simply smiled softly at the druid's commentary.

  Naila hadn't been the only one who had calmed down, Aloe felt more human now that she strolled her way through the luxurious corridors of the palace of Asina. She contained herself and kept her glamour on a leash as she made her way out to the city. She didn't need to be unleashed. For now.

  As calmed down as she was, the nerves were destroying the Mother of Plants. There were many conflicting feelings inside of her. She wanted to hear Naila's story. She had abandoned Xochipilli for half a day. She had…

  "She's dead…" Aloe whispered to herself. "Everything's so… empty." Her lower jaw trembled from powerlessness, or rather, slowness. She had been too slow and lost the one thing that kept her moving. She was now on a train that had run out of fuel. "…No." The druid gritted her teeth. "There are things still there. I have duties to fulfill. I can't leave Xochipilli alone in Asina. And Naila is my only link with the past, I have to at least explore it. I still have… a few days."

  What she did after those days, she didn't know.

  The capital city of Ydaz was bustling with more life now than in the morning. People were rushing from side to side, up and down, their steps echoing through the streets. A cultivator of her level had to waste a lot of presence of mind to keep themselves from being overwhelmed by the copious amounts of information coming from all possible channels. The city was so lifeful that it reached the point of being harmful.

  "Life, huh?" She carried her umbrella open over her shoulder, and she stole many gazes from the passersby. But only stole them, for she was now contained. "What a curious word."

  Before she noticed, the Mother of Plants found herself in front of the hotel where she had left Xochipilli. She felt a mixture of trepidation and nervousness that almost paralyzed her, but her massive body carried too much momentum to be stopped. Whether she wanted it or not, she was a force that no one could halt. She had left the child alone for too long, so she did not have the right to lose more time.

  Fortunately, the young druid seemed to have heeded her orders and he had remained in his room even if a bit too much time had gone by. She could know that alone from his vitality.

  Aloe stepped into the room stealthily without making any noise nor announcing her presence, and she was exaltedly elated to find Xochipilli training Nurture. Specifically on his switching time between them. He sat crisscrossed on the bed with his eyes closed as if he were meditating, his face completely serious.

  "Oh! How adorable you are!" The tree of a woman closed the distance of half a room in a blink and grabbed the child from the armpits and led him into her bosom with an embrace.

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  "Ah!" The boy yelped before he noticed who his aggressor was. "You took long…" Xochipilli responded simultaneously with a pout and a blush.

  "Sorry, my quest has… deviated a bit from the path I expected to take."

  "You didn't kill her?" He asked with the innocence a child could only portray.

  "Xochipilli! Don't say those things!"

  "Why?" The young druid asked with veritable confusion. "Wasn't that the whole point?"

  "I mean… yes. But there's no need to be so… straightforward about murder. Murdering is a bad thing."

  "But what if it's a bad person?"

  "That's… there's more nuance than that Xochipilli. I would have preferred if I didn't kill so many people. Killing is bad."

  Killing is bad. She repeated the mantra in her head like a reminder, lest she was to forget it. Aloe had meant the words she had spoken, yet her heart seemed unable to comprehend them. She didn't really care for the people she had killed. Not anymore. It was a hard thing to assimilate.

  "I see…" He didn't. But neither did she. "So what are we going to do now if you are not going to kill her?"

  "It's not that I'm not going to kill her, Xochipilli," the Mother of Plants caressed his head. "She's already dead; has been for a long time. There's no quest anymore."

  "Isn't that good?"

  "I… it should be," she revealed. "But I have bottled these feelings for so long that I no longer know what to do with them now that the glass is broken, and I have no place to pour them on."

  "But you have!" Xochipilli stated as a matter of fact.

  "Where, child?" Aloe said with a wry smile.

  He patted at his chest with both hands. "On me!"

  "Oh, Xochipilli…" Sorrow overcame her. "Those are not the feelings I should pour onto you."

  "But they are feelings, nonetheless. Your feelings, in fact!" The child stated with innocent zealousness. "I can carry them! I can hold them!"

  "Oh, Xochipilli…" Aloe reiterated, but now her lips wavered and slowly turned upward into a motherly smile. She would feel like crying if she could feel anything anymore. Instead, she wrapped him in a tighter embrace and dropped him alongside herself onto the mattress. "How can you be this cute?"

  "You are crushing me!" The boy protested and thrashed around with his closed fists. Obviously, he didn't hurt her in the slightest.

  "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, I have perfect control of my strength." She tightened her embrace more to prove that. "And even if you were to be hurt, I could just heal you."

  It was a fact. She could just heal him from anything. But she noticed how she was completely willing to follow that promise, that she wanted to hug him so much that she would continue even if she had to break his bones.

  That's… that's wrong. Her embrace lost all of its strength and the boy took a deep breath of freedom. Aloe's arms became heavy as mountains, dropping on the mattress, as she became aware that she would have crushed Xochipilli's bones and healed them as if nothing had happened. No… just because I can't do it doesn't mean I should. It was hard to keep in line with what she had long considered common sense. They were no longer guidelines or norms, just… vague suggestions.

  "Is there something wrong?" Xochipilli asked as he stood on top of her with his head tilted and his bottom on her belly.

  "Sorry, I have spaced out." With a deep breath, she stood up from the bed, making the child fall from on top of her with a yelp and roll dramatically across the mattress.

  Truth be told, she had been spacing out since the very morning. Her mind was still lagging behind, partially stuck in Naila's revelation. As much as she ached for answers, it still deflated her being without her revenge. Some said that revenge didn't fill up, that it served no purpose and offered no comfort, but then why was she feeling this empty?

  Xochipilli didn't seem to notice her gloominess – mostly because she kept it completely hidden with her glamour – and bounced on the mattress before he recovered his equilibrium.

  "I've asked this before, but what are we going to do now?" He asked.

  "What do you mean?" She turned to face the child.

  "Well, we came here to complete your quest, but as there's no longer one, what are we going to do now?"

  "I still have some things to do here in Asina, I guess I'll stock you up on food and leave you here…"

  "No!" Xochipilli jumped outright in a rare act of defiance. "I want to go with you!"

  "It's dangerous, child. I can't bring you with me. We are dealing with the daughter of that monster, and whilst she may appear friendly at best, she still is her mother's daughter. She has no alliances but to herself."

  "You brought me to the Cottonpull field," he refuted.

  "I needed you there to confirm if your parents were there." It was only the moment she had spoken those words that she realized how insensitive they were. The boy was deflated by sadness. "Oh, Xochipilli. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that."

  The Mother of Plants pushed the young druid into her breasts and caressed his hair.

  "If you are sorry…" the boy responded slowly, "then you will bring me with you."

  Aloe looked down at him and raised an eyebrow. He had a wry smile drawn on his visage. "That won't work."

  "If it's dangerous," he continued, "then you can protect me. Can you not?"

  "I… Of course, I can." It was a fact. "But I wouldn't like anything bad to happen to you. I wouldn't be able to deal with my consciousness after that."

  "Maybe you wouldn't, but I would!" Xochipilli stated with such might and confidence that he almost believed it.

  How can this boy continue to stand up after everything that has happened to me? How can he be stronger than you, Aloe? You are pathetic. When everything failed, there was nothing better than self-deprecation to slap some sense into oneself.

  "I…" She sighed. "Alright."

  "Yesh!" He jumped out of her embrace with his characteristic slip of strong accent.

  "But you need to promise me that you will heed my every word and order, understood?"

  "When have I done otherwise?" Aloe had the feeling that he had at some point, but she couldn't recall it, and he did keep himself to the room as he had promised, so she gave the child the benefit of the doubt.

  Against her better judgment, she brought Xochipilli to the palace of Asina.