Chapter 499: Hexagons are the Bestagons
The court of flowers made Anise feel like they had stepped into a mad botanist’s lab. Every single surface was decorated with flowers, vines, and plants that she had never seen or heard of before. The outer walls of the hall looked like the branches of willow trees, woven into an incredibly dense an thick lattice. However, the inner walls of the meeting building were vibrant and alive, flooded with wild blues, pinks, purples, and reds coming from vines, branches, leaves, stems, and flowers of every imaginable shape and size. There was no roof to the building, although Anise could still sense some kind of energy barrier covering the top of the building. The room itself smelled of fresh grass, mixed with the scent of rain.
The massive building was also packed to the brim with people. There were dozens upon dozens of rows of seating, each higher than the last. The seating was arranged in a giant hexagon, with the center of the building resting at the lowest point and every row of seating ascending in elevation.
Sitting upon these seats were an unimaginable variety of people. The most common two kinds of species were plant-people and (mostly) normal looking humans, but Anise saw plenty of other species mixed in. There were a few cows who stood upright like people, a few tulip-sized insects that had seats near the front of the amphitheater-style building, and a few humanoids with plant parts mixed into their body. Near the front of the audience, Anise saw two women who looked like regular humans, except for the fact that their hair was made entirely of tree roots and their skin was green.
Standing in the center of the room were five more shrub-people, just like the one that had led them here. When the three of them and the guard arrived, one of the shrub people looked at them.
“Intruders/Invaders/Fertilizer?” asked a shrub with pink flowers growing from the lower half of its body. This one’s voice sounded distinctly feminine, but that didn’t put Anise’s mind at ease. The fact that communication with these creatures was half-conceptual meant that she understood exactly what connotations each of their words carried - even ones that that speaker themselves may not mean to convey. Being referred to as potential fertilizer by a plant while surrounded by unknown and potentially hostile creatures was far from reassuring. Even worse, Sallia had just sent a suggestion for Miria to send the other refugees their way - so if things went poorly here, Miria wouldn’t have time to change plants before the lava incinerated the refugees.
“Prospective Guests/refugees/non-enemies,” replied the plant that had guided them here. “The guests requested audience/conversation. The interlopers/intruders/guests claim they are not from this world - they claim they are outsiders/extraplanar guests/refugees.”
Anise nodded to herself. She had already suspected that these creatures had some sort of connection to the conceptual side of reality. When she had spoken to the shrub, she had only stated that they were outsiders - and yet, the plant now claimed that she had introduced herself as an extraplanar guest. While she didn’t quite know how it worked, she was now sure that if they weren’t careful, they could give away a lot of information in this Court of Flowers without meaning to. Tricky word choice would fail here. They would need to be honest about their intentions - deceit would be very hard to maintain, and they needed help.
“Understood/Acknowledged. Thank you for bringing them here. Guests/Outsiders/Potential Fertilizer, explain/discuss/elaborate on your purpose.”
Anise glanced at Sallia, since, after all, Sallia had once been a noble. She probably had the best way of phrasing diplomatic language. To Anise’s surprise, Felix and Sallia both looked back at her.
<Am I the one that you want explaining everything?> asked Anise, baffled. <Sallia, you would be the best for this, right? You’re better at handling diplomatic stuff. Well, Miria would be even better, but she’s not here right now.>
<You’re definitely the purest of heart here.> Felix’s mental voice had a certain wry amusement to it. <I think that’s important here. The fact they knew we were extraplanar visitors makes me think they understand any concept we believe is relevant to our words. You can present us in the best light, I think.>
Anise blinked in surprise, before she glanced at the plant person. She cleared her throat and did her best to sound diplomatic.
“We came because our original world was destroyed by the universal tree,” she said, trying her best not to sound nervous. “We escaped with the power of group spellcasting. After opening a portal to this world, we ended up right in the middle of a giant fire. Our people need a place to seek refuge.”
The plant council glanced back and forth at each other for several seconds.
One of the women near the front of the amphitheater cleared her throat. She was one of the humanoid-looking creatures, although she had an arm that looked as if it were made of bark instead of flesh.
“Do you mean the orangeflow/hot lava eruption? The molten liquid nourishes the plants of the upper gardens, but it is hardly a threat to those within it.”
Anise blinked in surprise. The lava… wasn’t a threat? Was there something she was missing?
“I don’t understand,” she said. “How can lava not be a threat?”
“The plants will drink/devour/consume the lava before it threatens any but the outermost people in the upper garden. Only the very weak will perish there, and only due to the heat. Those with higher Vitality/life force will be fine so long as they do not stray from the center.”
Anise felt some of the weight on her shoulders vanish. She had been desperately sprinting forward, trying to keep up with the plant guard, because she had believed they were running out of time. She had believed that Miria and the refugees might die in a few minutes if they didn’t move now. It appeared that they had a lot more time to work with than they had expected - which was a relief. It also explained why there were no toxic fumes or boiling heat in the area, despite the erupting volcano near them. Apparently, the plants above ground were so magical that they could treat lava as fertilizer instead of a deadly calamity.
“Since they are refugees from the enemy/Universal Tree/Extraplanar invaders, I vote that we give them respite/peace/sanctuary. They tie directly to the previous issue we were discussing,” said one of the councillors.
“I concur. The upper planes failed to protect them, but we are allies/companions. Failure to provide aid is unbecoming/not hospitable/unseemly.” Anise felt a slight strangeness at the edge of her mind when she heard that it would be unbecoming for the plant people not to provide aid for them - as if there was a much deeper underlying cultural concept that wasn’t being conveyed properly.
Anise ignored it for now. If these people were willing to give them help, then she was happy to accept it. However rude the shrub person’s cursing had been when Sallia nearly stepped on it earlier, at this point, they didn’t really have a whole lot of options. Anyone that was willing to lend a helping hand was welcome at this point.
Before Anise could get too happy, one of the other six plant people in the center spoke up.
“I dissent! After the end of the war, our supplies have dwindled/been consumed to naught but the bare minimum! Should we take in a large group of outsiders, we won’t have enough to feed ourselves!”
“Eldrianna makes a good point - but it is unbecoming/not hospitable/unseemly to turn away a guest in need. Furthermore, they are allies. We cannot break Guest Rites/Hospitality,” said one of the plant people near the front.
A few other plant people in the first few seats began to speak up, arguing for or against taking them in, while Anise hoped that they would agree.
<The seating arrangements seem to be based on status,> said Felix, interrupting Anise’s thoughts. <The more prestigious someone is, the closer they sit to the front, and the more vocal they are. Notice that some of the plant people have referred to the plant-people sitting in the center as ‘Councillor/leader/thinker.’>
<I also notice that there aren’t many humans in the first two rows - they start being more common in the third row and up,> said Sallia.
Anise blinked in surprise. She truly hadn’t noticed those details.
A few moments later, one of the other plant people spoke up.
“We cannot take them in ourselves, at least not long term, but we cannot break guest rites/hospitality either. I vote that we take them in for a few days, then help them to a nearby island and let them acquire resources themselves.”
The room paused, before one of the councillors near the front nodded.
“That is a good solution/idea/proposal. Those in favor?”
Several people in the first five rows of the room raised their hands. Anise didn’t even need to count to confirm that the majority of the people in those rows now had their hands raised.
“Majority vote has been established. We will take them in for five days, feed them and house them, then send them to one of the nearby uninhabited islands with sufficient resources for their needs. After that, their survival will be in their own hands.”
Anise wasn’t entirely sure whether she should feel relieved or worried, but one thing was clear - at the very least, they had secured a temporary haven to rest.