Fall of hart; Chapter I

“I thought you didn’t like gardening?”

There was an air of confusion in Dove’s voice.

“I’m eh on it.” Sele replied, shaking her head.

“Maybe you’re mixing up me complaining about the garden demon that’d be on my case when I was growing up? She still gives me the creeps to this day.”

“Maybe!” Dove nodded.

“But it’d be awful to let a mean gardener ruin your whole perception of gardening itself.”

“Yea, I guess so.” Sele responded, as the two approached the rather ornate entrance to the greenhouse.

Sele held the door open, and the duo entered.

Sele had been a bit too ‘busy’ to properly connect with all the embassy hubub that’d been occuring, but she had a surface level understanding of what it was all about from both the news’s perspective, as well as Dove’s.

It wasn’t until Dove mentioned the prospect of insider work at the embassy that Sele had even considered visiting – but really, Sele was more interested in an excuse to spend more time with Dove in between their busy schedules.

It smelled sweet inside the greenhouse – perfumey, even. But unlike the perfumes aisles Sele was familiar with, the smell was much easier to breathe as opposed to an artificial and suffocating feeling.

Sele was a bit awestruck by the surroundings, as this was her first time visiting the greenhouse – to the point where her pace began lagging behind.

With a gentle grab of the hand and a tug, Dove snapped Sele back to reality… almost.

“What were we… here to do, again?” Sele asked, as Dove led her further into the greenhouse.

Dove stopped in their tracks.

“You… you didn’t forget, did you, Sele?” they nudged.

“Uhhhhhh…” Sele trailed on. She kind of did, but didn’t want to let Dove down.

“We’re… gonna… garden, right?”

Dove gave Sele a blank stare.

“We’re going to plant some heavenly flowers! It’s super important! I told you and you were super excited!!” Dove said, gently shaking Sele by the shoulders in a playful manner.

“I’m betting you I was drunk off my ass when that happened.” Sele said with a chuckle, though all Dove gave in return was a frustrated huff.

“Though, I do know I’m still excited to be able to spend time with you.”

That was able to finally crack a smile from Dove.

The duo walked a bit further in to the greenhouse, turned a corner, and found themselves facing a rather ornate looking garden shed… though, given its intricately detailed metalwork and marble exterior, Sele would’ve thought it was some kind of pavilion or house, had it not been for the cracked open door revealing shed equipment on the inside.

“Geez, what kind of budget does this place have?” Sele asked.

Though her question was intended to be a rhetorical remark, Dove piped up anyways.

“You’d be surprised, actually!” Dove replied rather enthusiastically.

“The church down here was really generous financially! And even then, some freelancers seemed pretty enthusiastic to help out, and there was some pretty impressive talents among them!”

“Ohh, that’s good to hear!” Sele nodded.

“I mean, if I got to do my freelance building work or whatever in a place like this… I’d sure as hell do it for free, too.”

Dove smiled, before opening up the shed’s door a bit more and motioning for Sele to follow them inside.

It was spacious, so Sele was able to fit inside with plenty of wiggle room.

Most of the shed was occupied by various types of gardening tools – all of which seemed to be impeccably clean.

But in the back corner, there was a seed store fridge with a glass door Sele could see through – and though the interior of the fridge was lit up by electricity, it also seemed that there was something else lighting it up. Something… otherworldly.

Dove could see that Sele was staring, and grabbed her hand to lightly tug it towards the fridge.

“Here! This is where the seeds are!” Dove exclaimed.

Dove and Sele moved towards the fridge very carefully, whether intentionally or not – as it seemed that the fridge had some kind of aura of importance that required delicacy around it.

Carefully, Dove cracked it open, and the shining light from inside seemed to brighten to a degree that forced Sele to squint.

“There’s some gloves over on that shelf, Sele – put them on and grab the container on the front left, carefully!” Dove said in a hushed manner, as if trying to not disturb the seeds.

Sele simply nodded, and did as she was instructed.

After putting the gloves on, she carefully reached for the seed container that Dove had pointed out… and though she didn’t quite consider herself to be nervous, she still found herself involuntarily trembling a little as she grabbed the container.

Dove closed the fridge, carefully waited to ensure it was sealed, and let out a deep sigh.

“Pheeeew… thank goodness that went alright.” they said, seeming relieved.

“Admittedly, Primrose’s attitude is a bit much for even me… so I wanted to be extra careful with these seeds.”

“That’s fair.” Sele nodded.

“I’ve only met the guy over the phone, and even then I could smell his pretentious vibe.”

Dove had to stifle their laugh a bit, before their eyes drifted to Sele’s shaking hands.

“Oh-! Are you feeling OK, Sele?” they asked, gently placing their hand on Sele’s wrist.

“Yeah, uh, I have no idea what’s up with that. I’m feeling fine, seriously!” Sele replied, as to try and reassure Dove’s worries.

“Well… I can help if you’d like! Better safe than sorry, after all.”

With a sweet smile, Dove went to grab a pair of gloves for themselves, and grabbed one side of the container with one hand – and Sele’s slightly shaking hand in the other.

A restored sense of calm washed over Sele, and together, the duo exited the garden shed and found their way to the empty plot that had been marked for them.

Sele and Dove set down the container, and carefully, Dove unsealed the lid. Revealed to be inside were four rather large, almond-shaped seeds. They looked like completely ordinary seeds otherwise, but were set apart by shimmering gold detailing that almost looked like it was painted on.

“So… what do we do now?” Sele asked.

“We just… plant them, right?”

“Mhm!” Dove smiled back, scooting the seed container over towards Sele.

Sele took a deep breath in, and grabbed a trowel to begin turning over soil to dig the first hole.

But as she went to grab a seed to plop it in, Dove grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Wait! Erm… sorry. There’s a special way to do this, I should’ve mentioned earlier…” they said a bit hastily.

“No, no, it’s okay!” Sele replied.

“Why don’t you show me, so we can learn together?”