//------------------------------// // Chapter 30 // Story: H A Z E // by Bandy //------------------------------// Day by day, Hypha and Flannel tended to their garden of stones. They washed them, watered them, meditated on them, poured their energy and attention into them. Day by day, the energy grew. Forty seven of the forty eight stones remained obstinately barren, but the one promising plot flourished. The mycelium wove a tapestry over the rock. Then, overnight, a miracle sprouted. Six little brown buds appeared. Disturbances in soil indicated at least another dozen were about to spring up. Flannel stomped around the room like a bucking bronco, hooting and hollering. “This calls for more ice cream!” He raced away without so much as a glance back. The sudden silence drew shut around Hypha like a closing curtain. Even if the worst came to pass and the mushrooms turned out to be duds, this was still an incredible feat. The culmination of so many hard-earned lessons and countless sacrifices. But something still gnawed at Hypha. By the time Flannel returned with the ice cream, it had bloomed into full-on dread. All that ice cream turned to concrete in his stomach. Up until now, his goals had seemed so simple. Kill Romulus. Survive. Everything on the other side of that horizon seemed as far away as outer space was from the sky. Now, seeing those mushrooms clinging to the rock, he wasn’t so sure. If he could grow mother sky here, he could do it anywhere. But what was he supposed to do with this knowledge? The question flooded his mind with possibility and terror, swamping him completely. What did he have? Two MIA monks in Red and Blue, one of which could be dead for all he knew. A conscripted co-conspirator in Flannel. Thirty pounds of sacred mushrooms, with more on the way. Hardly a firm foundation. He felt panic start to seize hold again. Flannel seemed to sense this and gave Hypha the room. Now alone, he dropped into meditation to clear the haze. He was floating in the terrarium, focusing his attention on relearning the subtle body rotations necessary in order to maximize pitch and yaw while in flight, when he heard the door swing open. He thought nothing of it. It was probably Flannel coming back to check on him. He was utterly unprepared for the sound of a smooth, satanic baritone booming out, “Look at this! The little cage bird can fly.” Hypha went stiff. His whole body rolled upside down, then plummeted back to earth. He fell on his belly directly in front of senator Giesu, landing so hard he bounced off the cloudstone. “That’s a neat trick,” the senator said. “How does it work?” Hypha sucked in frantic gasps of air. “Huh, huh, S— S—” “Shh. I’ll only be a moment.” He stepped over Hypha and examined the line of growing stones, dragging a hoof through the thin dirt. “I’m just here to check in on my investment.” It took another minute for Hypha’s lungs to finally accept air again. He picked himself up off the floor and staggered over to where Giesu was fiddling with the grow stones. Every aching bone in his body screamed at him to get away, to hide, to find a corner and curl up in it. “Senator. Please don’t touch those. You’ll contaminate the samples.” Giesu pulled his hoof away and moved onto the next one. “How soon will they be ready?” he asked. Hypha didn’t have the nerve to lie. “A few days, senator.” “What about the rest?” he gestured to the long row of empty grow stones. “This was only a sample batch.” “Why are you testing? Just do it the way they did in Canary’s Cage.” “Those mushrooms and these mushrooms aren’t the same.” The senator pursed his lips and nodded. “Did you ever meet the director of Canary’s Cage?” Hypha nodded. “Shame what happened to him. The last time I spoke to him, he went on about how much he wanted to see Derecho one day. He would have been thrilled to see your efforts come to fruition.” The tremor returned. Moving made his ribs ache. He tried to get himself under control, but then the senator turned to face him, and those brown eyes bore through him in the same steely, dispassionate way as when he’d cut Hypha’s arm off. He couldn’t pull himself together. He didn’t stand a chance. “Will these enhance my strength?” the senator asked. “No, senator.” “Liar.” Hypha opened his mouth, but only a tiny squeak came out. “When I took them in Canary’s Cage, I didn’t feel stronger. I only saw visions.” “W-what did you see, senator?” “Lionhawks picking at carrion. Sometimes hippophants charging foals. Mostly it was snow leopards.” He raised an eyebrow. “Do you know what those visions mean?” Hypha’s legs went out from under him. He fell on his belly, rattling his already-bruised ribs. “Don’t hurt me,” he wheezed. “Please. Don’t. You’re in charge. You’re in charge.” Giesu waited patiently until Hypha wore himself out. Then he looped a hoof under Hypha’s armpit and hauled him up to his hooves. He laid Hypha against a rock to keep him steady. The smell of rich, loamy earth choked the air. “I came here because I’m counting on you,” the senator said. “Do you remember the conversation I had with Romulus at the dinner? The one where I gave you to him.” Hypha nodded. “Romulus wants more campaigns. More treasure. But even with the treasure from the last campaign, I’m bleeding capital faster than I can consolidate it. There can’t be any more campaigns.” He put his head right next to Hypha’s. “You shouldn’t be here. But if you’re going to eat up my funds, you might as well be of some use to me. I need enough mushrooms to supply the legion, and I need them to be ready in a month. I want my own personal supply as well.” “I can’t promise—” “You have to.” Giesu put his hoof on Hypha’s good foreleg and squeezed. “You have to be ready. Do you understand?” He started twisting Hypha’s hoof, slowly at first, until the whole thing was bent entirely to one side. Hypha let out a grunt of pain. “You have to deliver, or not even Romulus can protect you. He’s protecting you out of a misguided feeling of earth pony solidarity. He thinks keeping you here like a pet is a mercy. I understand what’s really going on, though. You just want to die, don’t you?” Hypha let out a terrified squeak. “When all this is over, I’ll give you what you want. Find me, and I’ll make it stop. I promise. I’ll have your bones taken back to the Stonewood mountains. I’ll put them in Roseroot. That was your monastery, right? Roseroot?” Hypha nodded. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Giesu gave his arm one final agonizing twist and said, “If you help me, I’ll help you.” He let go. Hypha collapsed. As the senator strode out of the room, his cape billowing behind him, Hypha crawled to the nearest grow stone and clung to it for dear life as more tremors overtook him. The stone felt dead when he touched it. Worse than dead. Never alive. By touching it, Giesu had cursed it to never produce life. Hypha felt a horrible dread creeping towards him. The spirits of the earth were reaching into the sky, and when they found him, they were going to choke the life out of him for letting this come to pass. Sometime later, Flannel came knocking on the door. He carried with him a tub of ice cream wrapped in a cloud and two big spoons he’d pilfered from the kitchen. “Hypha!” he called out. “I got someone to sell me a snowcloud. It’s not all melted this time!” He looked all around the ceiling of the terrarium. “Hello? Where are you buddy? Hy—” He tripped over Hypha’s limp body. Cherry chocolate chip ice cream splattered across the floor.