"Why not bring it to the court sages?"
"Because they'd lock it behind thirty scrolls of red tape. I need answers, not ceremonies."
She reached out, stopping a hair short of the leaf. "May I?"
"Please."
Her magic stirred like warm wind, invisible but felt. A silver thread of mana slipped from her fingertips, curling over the leaf's surface. She closed her eyes. Mikhailis watched, holding his breath.
After a moment she exhaled, brows knitting. "It's… almost asleep. Like a seed waiting for spring."
"But it's a leaf."
"Exactly." Her lashes lifted; excitement sparkled in her violet gaze. "A leaf that thinks it's a seed. Something rewrote its memory."
Mikhailis's jaw slackened. "That matches a hunch I had about Verdant Canopy." His voice dropped. "A biological memory vessel."
Serelith lowered her hand slowly, as though afraid to stir the dormant pulse. "Imagine what it could contain."
