Unsatisfied with the result, and unimpressed with the Creator’s experiment—frankly,pissedthat his magnificent world had been put in the hands of such idiots—Luc returned to the trees. He ate of the fruit himself but didn’t feel any different, perhaps because he was already a higher being.
Would the Creator’s power not affect angels? No. Luc had to be missing something.
Closing his eyes, he reviewed the tree’s design: its plump, mildly sweet, red fruit; its dark green foliage; its rough, mottled bark; its deep roots.
Its roots…its roots…
“We need to get to the roots. That’s the source of the tree. Whatever is in the fruit originates from there. We’ll have to dig.”
“Dig, sir?” Braun had returned; he now stood beside Luc. “Are you sure we’re allowed to disturb anything here? The humans were acting strange when I left them. I don’t know if we should have?—”
“It’smyGarden, and I saiddig.That’s an order.”
Braun shifted on his feet, his eyes clouded with uncertainty.
“If you don’t want to dig, stand guard then. But I have need of your sword. The new one.” Luc inclined his head, making sure Braun felt the weight of that phrase.
The new one.The one Luc had made for him.
It worked. After a moment, Braun handed the sword over without comment, and Luc thrust it into the ground at the base of the tree, knowing the deepest roots would descend vertically into the soil about twenty feet down. Though the sword had been fashioned to repel dark matter, Luc found that it easily sliced through Earth’s crust.
In no time at all, he’d removed huge chunks of the soil and exposed the ends of the roots. Down in the pit he’d carved out, he cut the end off one root and tossed it up to Braun.
“There’s a mortar and pestle in my traveling pouch. You see it resting by the tree there? Grind up that root.”
“Um…” Braun swallowed, peering over the lip of the pit. The pitch of his voice rose. “Sir?”
“Either grind it up or go home,” Luc called up, covered in dirt. Moisture had formed on his skin, making it stick to his hair and his robes. Irritated, he swiped his hand over the back of his neck. His fingers came away damp.
He’d forgotten that effect of the sun’s heat. Or he’d miscalculated how sweat would actually feel. There would be no sun in his next world; he’d make sure of it.
“Make up your mind,” he ordered Braun. “If you’re not assisting me, you’re wasting my time.”
Braun turned the root over in his hands. For a silent, motionless moment, he stared past the root, past Luc, to some hidden place in his mind. His expression shifted in increments.
At last, he snapped his attention back to Luc.
“Right away, sir.” He straightened, then inclined his head and lowered his voice. “I will always assist you, sir.” With a brief smile, he hurried away, and Luc was left to dig up the roots of the second tree.
Soon, there were two massive holes in the ground that he didn’t yet know what to do with, but he’d come too close to his goal to be thwarted. Hehadto access the trees’ powers. When Braun had ground up the root from the first tree, Luc sat down at the base of the tree, on the opposite side from the pit. He retrieved Hadri’s goblet from his pouch, commanded it to fill with hot water, and brewed an elixir with the powder.
He sipped the dark, smoky liquid.
He waited.
He didn’t have to wait long.
Pain shot through his skull, doubling him over, and he heard Braun asking if he was okay until the ringing in his ears grew too loud for him to hear anything else.
Colors flashed behind Luc’s closed eyes. Light and dark. Sparks. Smoke. A thousand voices. Silence.
He saw everything that had been created and how it had been createdand why. He saw the events of the past and the future. Infinite images flashed before his eyes, and he understood, but as soon as the knowledge came, it left him. He tried to retrieve it, but it was too much, and he could only remember bits and pieces.
Perhaps his mind was limited in its capacity to understand. Perhaps the Creator was playing a cruel trick on whoever dared to access his secrets. He’d given Luc a maddening taste and nothing more.
Still, Luc knew he must drink from the second tree if it held even a small part of the Creator’s power. He’d come too far. He would take anything he could. His pain having subsided, Luc sat up, leaning heavily against the tree’s trunk. With ragged breaths, he commanded Braun, “Brew a second elixir. For the other root.” He pointed at the root Braun had ground up while he had been preparing the first elixir.
The boy protested, fretting at Luc’s state, but Luc snapped at him, and he acquiesced.
