Chương 17: Daughters of Nature

The Empyrean of Information woke up the next day in an infirmary at the Life Tower with his whole body bruised. Or rather, it felt bruised because there were no imperfections on his skin.

"Was it necessary to go all out in a sparring?" A dark-skinned woman wearing alabaster white open clothes asked him, though he was still shaking off the ringing in his head.

"Yes," he said taciturnly and the woman responded by bonking his head with a stick.

"Ouch," the gnosiamancer reacted by reflex as the hit didn't hurt at all. If anything, it was more confusing that she had a stick in hand.

"Isn't it against the healer's code to hurt a patient?"

"Not really," the dark-skinned woman moved her legs, resting one atop another. It was that fullness of those thighs that revealed him her race as a dryad. Only a plant woman could have such massive and full legs, for their kind didn't follow the same rules celestial races did due to their vegetal nature. Clonazepam was already a human-looking dryad, but if it weren't for the nurse's exaggerated legs, he wouldn't have been able to tell she wasn't one.

Especially because she was deprived of any and every hair, unlike Clonazepam who did have vines for mane, just making her look like a rather attractive woman who was deprived of eyelashes and brows.

"Now, I won't blame you for it," she continued.

"I have had worse cases here. Way, way worse. But never a gnosiamancer. Let alone an Empyrean."

"It seems my presence here hasn't gone unnoticed," Nolotl let out a dry chuckle and cracked his neck. The nurse may have healed his body, but some parts still felt out of place.

"Empyreans tend to be rather noticeable, especially when you are one of the few Tezlans hosted by the academy," the gnosiamancer shrugged at that statement. Though it was true 99% of Tezlans were biomancers, so she was bound to know any other that the academy hosted.

"Your fellow Empyrean has just passed by to see how you were faring, though you were still knocked out cold."

"Clonazepam did?" The comment surprised him, though he inferred the dryad was talking about the Life Empyrean as others would have made no sense.

"Yes, my young sister cares for her brethren, even if they may not share a same progenitor," the dryad stood up from her chair, making the long strips that composed her white attire to drag across the floor like some sort of royal mantle.

"So maybe an apology is in order for scaring her. You just fainted in the tower she represents, after all."

"I must admit I didn't know Clonazepam cared for us so much, now I feel like an asshole," Nolotl forced himself out of bed, but almost collapsed. Thankfully the nurse was there to catch him.

"You are perfectly healthy, but your body, mind, and soul are desynchronized from the healing," the nurse explained as she helped him stand up.

"Life healing only affects the body, so the soul is basically untouched, so I'd recommend having a bit of water and running a check to bring your mind up to speed."

"Can do," Nolotl nodded and assessed himself through the Cognition. Healing tended to do that, there was no free recovery in this world. Any type of healing, self-applied or not, passive or otherwise, had a price. A good handful of Alignments could heal, but only when one was assisted by several that operated in all planes of existence could a healing spell be without disadvantages. Perhaps that was why he felt the pull of the Cognition coming from the nurse.

For gnosiamancy was the only school of magic that healed the mind, especially her specific one that could be intuited from her turquoise eyes. Dryads were the most peculiar of the races as they were mandated by her progenitor, Mother Nature, to always progress in the aspect of Life, so it was equally as impossible to see a non-biomancer dryad as it was to see a male dryad.

But he had his personal doubts over the existence of such progenitor, mostly because dryads talked about Mother Nature as a living and tangible being yet simultaneously a force of nature that permeated reality. However it may be, neuromancers were called the mages that took the mantle of biomancy and gnosiamancy, and they specialized in the healing of body and mind. Though in Tezlan and Cahtul they were usually called oneiromancers. The terian felt the dryad's caress on his mind.

Most dryads had the liveness of spring to them like Clonazepam, but this nurse had the maturity of autumn. A cold touch preluding the harvest season, long devoid of pollen. It was always hard to describe the experiences of the Cognition, for they operated under different rules to the Physicality. Nothing much, just disorientation, the dryad mused over the local Cognition and popped back into the infirmary, the trick revealing that she had access to either the Telepathy or Lesser Read Thoughts Boon.

"A bit of water and you're fixed."

"You are saying that as if I am inebriated," he professed with a frown.

"I'm saying that because you have been out cold for six hours and previously been exercising beyond the recommended limits. So yes, a bit of hydration is in order," the nurse walked away and filled a glass with water straight from the tap.

"That… I cannot argue against." Crestfallen, Nolotl accepted the glass and finished it in one go, albeit slowly. Surely the nurse would have protested if he downed it in a single gulp.

"Okay, I admit it. I really needed that water."

"Of course you did," she scoffed with her arms crossed.

"Don't talk back to your physicians. We have studied the body for longer than you have been alive."

"I'll keep that in mind." Now that his head had stopped spinning, the gnosiamancer finally stood up from the bed.

"Before I depart and give that apology, could I have your name?"

"I'm not going to bed you, boy." The nurse responded aggressively, leaving Nolotl speechless.

"That… wasn't my intention at all," he answered veritably with a mixture of confusion and shyness.

"It was common courtesy."

"Oh, sorry!" She suddenly apologized with her arms raised and eyes wide open.

"You wouldn't know how hotblooded and genital-thinking our biomancers are. The men, the women, and… just everything. All the time. Just thinking about procreation." Her voice was filled with sheer exhaustion.

"Oh, trust me, I know," he growled as dark memories tried assaulting his mind. An incident that wasn't even related to this loop.

"I know." The infirmary grew silent after that, but quickly the neuromancer took the reigns back.

"Quetiapine, that is my name." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"Nolotl Xocoyotzin," the terian responded in kind, even if she most likely already knew it.

"May our travels connect us again." That was a common topomancer farewell, but it just felt right to say it.

"You shouldn't say those things to a physician," Quetiapine responded.

"You better avoid them."

"I'll take a note of that," Nolotl waved her goodbye before leaving the infirmary. The moment he stepped out of the sterile room and back into the tower, the humidity assaulted him again. There must be some topomancy enchantments to keep both places this separate from each other. That was his first thought. Finding Clonazepam wasn't difficult, even without any spells. That was because the corridors guided him as flowers bloomed before him to the right direction. Yes, the Life Tower was very much alive.

The only reason why it hadn't guided him before was because it didn't care. But Clonazepam was the prodigal daughter of the dryads and that had granted him a modicum of attention. Following his trend of not using any type of medium that would have made ascending easy, Nolotl took his time with the stairs.

"Hmm, now that my concept of death has changed, I could take such risks…" He mused over tens of flights of stairs.

"I mean, according to Enantyum, only his will is what dictates my continuous existence. Not even the ambush will put an end to my life… Maybe next loop I'll start taking elevators. If there is such following loop." The diviner knew better than to trust blindly in the existence of such an all-powerful time loop. It was just simpler and better to play it safe until he could demonstrate the effects. He knew even more intimately how easy it was for a life to extinguish, and falls were high on the accidental death list.

And dying at the start of the loop wasn't the best use of his time. Once again, if it did exist.

"I guess it's no longer the first day…" The gnosiamancer checked the time over the Cognition, and sure enough, it was early the morning of Third of Space. A few numb legs and breathless pants later, Nolotl finally reached his destination. As much as he loved to exercise whilst studying, most of his actual exercise came from those starless staircases.

"You can enter," Clonazepam's voice said over the door before he had a chance to knock.

"How did you know I was here?" The Empyrean of Information asked as he opened the door.

"The tower told me," she stated as a matter of fact, which it very well was.

"I'd like to have that connection with my own tower," he strode forward and walked around the indoors greenhouse the Empyrean of Life had in the room. There were some alchemy instruments littered here and there alongside some books, but it was plainly obvious to even an untrained eye that this was a garden first. A breathing and awoken garden. The voices were shallow, pinpricks of consciousness, but he could sense them, nonetheless. These plants were sapient, conscious of their existence like a bird would.

In a way, that was what dryads were, the terians to the floral and fungi kingdom. They were sentient like terians and celestials, but these plants were sapient like animals. Nolotl didn't especially like how that red flower with smoldering embers was looking at him. Well, in the way a flower could look at a person.

"Could you even have such connection?" Clonazepam turned her head away from her experiments to face him. Like always, she boasted a motherly smile even if she was the youngest of the empyreans. And by far at that. Her attire was different to the one she had been using the day before at the cafeteria, namely for the lack of one. Dryads preferred nakedness, but at the same time, they were civilized, so they took a middle ground where they grew plants over their more sensible tidbits.

In her case, she boasted thick vines similar to the ones on her hair that covered her private parts in a V-shape, akin to a modern swimsuit that were so popular with merfolk—terian cousins with aquatic roots—now opening their beaches to the teleportation network. As much as Clonazepam's body was voluptuous and curvaceous, it was hard feeling any lust over a plant. But that was mostly him, there were certainly people who didn't have such qualms.

A claim that proved even stronger after experiencing Quetiapine's outburst.

"Yes, I could make that connection in many different ways," he explained.

"Not only would it be possible to make the Information Tower into an intelligent being…"

"Doting an object with intelligence doesn't make it necessarily alive," the dryad refuted.

"Some people would like to argue that, but going back to the question at hand, enough gnosiamancers gather in the tower that there's a… Cognition created from their sheer presence. Whilst nothing has gestated in all of the academy's history, if a gnosiamancer were to research it and will it, it certainly would be possible. In that sense, the tower would become conscious and have a mind of their own."

"That I could consider being alive," she nodded.

"So are you going to grant your tower with the miracle of sentience, if not outright sapience?"

"Uhm, I'm rather occupied at the moment." But it would be possible. Especially if one had the ability to ignore the passage of time.

"I don't discard the idea, but I'm not here to talk about towers and sapience."

"Oh," the biomancer opened her mouth with a perfect 'o'. Her whole skin was green like chlorophyl, yet her lips were fleshy pink like any other person.

"Indulge me then."

"Indulge you, I shall," the prince floundered his cape dramatically and kneeled in Tezlan fashion. Not only Clonazepam was an Empyrean like him, but in a way, she was also royalty. Daughter of not just Lon, but Mother Nature herself.

"I came here to apologize for my unsightly display. I should have not worked myself to unconsciousness in your tower." Clonazepam frowned at his words.

"Don't take me wrong, I appreciate your apology, but what do you mean 'in my tower'? Are you collapsing in other places?" Nolotl responded with a warm smile.

"Nolotl!" The dryad protested and her vine hair ends erected like the tail of a cat, not different from the snake-hairs of gorgons.

"You cannot do that to your body!"

"Fret not, I am well aware of the fact," he bowed down.

"No, you are not!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him around. Even if the terian was built like a brick wall, he couldn't even compete with the Empyrean of Life as he was thrashed like a cloth doll.

"You have to respect your body! Those are the teachings of Mother Nature!"

"I'd love if you…" he took a brief pause as his world spun around, "respected my body first."

"Oh, sorry," Clonazepam let him go, and even if he was in free fall, Nolotl managed to catch himself and stop the fall with his arms.

"I tend to get a bit… personal when people do not respect the teachings of mother."

"I see…" Note, for the future. Perhaps even past. The Empyrean of Information sluggishly stood up and fixed his clothing.

"Well, that would be my business. Unless, you have something else to teach to my bones, I'll remove myself from here at once."

"I do have one conundrum," the biomancer mused as her eyes shone with the vibrant emerald of life.

"I'm all ears." Nolotl supported himself on the wall next to him, mostly because he wasn't seeing straight.

"You have been a composed person every time I've seen you, Nolotl of Tezlan, but yesterday I got the feeling that you were out of your game, and with all the sparring till you passed out… I know I may be overstepping boundaries here, but are you facing any difficulties?" There was no way to not be moved by the Empyrean of Life's words as her intent and mannerisms were so motherly. It almost made him forget he was well over a decade older than her.

"I…" She's right, no matter what I say. The terian stopped himself. I am facing difficulties, and the fact that I didn't hide them enough for her to notice means that they are plain obvious. I need to work on that. And also not be erased from existence. But the fact that she was able to notice such hidden issues when I tried my best to follow the script of the previous loop… Perhaps people aren't as deterministic as Enantyum thinks.

"There have been some complications, yes. They are related to the total celestial alignment, so as harsh as they may be, they will disappear in little more than a month." Clonazepam visually relaxed with those words and why would she not? He had purposely spoken them to lead her to a sense of security. Dryads were sensitive creatures, and some said they could smell lies, but Nolotl had only uttered truths, no matter how incomplete and obfuscated they may be.

The issue was, of course, how long it would take him to step even a single second past the zenith of the total celestial alignment.

"That puts me at ease," she placed a hand on her chest, slightly sinking into her soft vegetal body.

"We may not have interacted much with each other since you became an Empyrean not that long ago, but I want you to know that you have a confidant in me."

"I'll remember that," Nolotl graciously nodded and left the dryad's garden. As much as he enjoyed being in the Life Tower and being reminded of sweeter times at Tezlan, he had to keep moving. The daughters of nature had been a pleasant surprise, both in their behavior and their unusual hominid look for their species, but the script needed to be played out.