Novelty

The pounding continued but appeared to fade away. Pachama moved her head as though following the Thianthus’ path. “He will continue to seek entrance, but he knows he cannot break in. Only his arrogance will not allow him to see that. He will only tire himself out which works to our advantage.”

“You mentioned ‘we’. I only see you.” Callie turned to her hostess.

“As I mentioned, you are in Synthian. The rest of the Dianthus court waited until I met you and explained the situation.”

“What is my situation?”

“A delicate one. You are here because you need to survive. You are also here so that we may teach you how to handle the rest of your powers. If you made the wrong move and fell into the wrong...petals, you could be forced to make a terrible decision that could result in many deaths.”

“Why didn’t you step in to stop the Thianthus?”