The Gardener's Bargain

Chapter 11: The Gardener's Bargain

Consciousness returned in jagged fragments.

The scent of crushed herbs. The groan of rusted chains. The *drip-drip-drip* of water echoing through stone.

I tried to move—and agony lanced through my skull like a hot nail.

(System Alert: Mental Energy Recovering – 23%)

(Physical Integrity: 61% – Multiple microfractures detected)

"Don't."

A cool hand pressed against my chest. Lina's face swam into view, her cheeks hollowed by exhaustion. Behind her, Joren paced like a caged animal, his fire reduced to embers in his palms.

"You've been out for two days," she whispered. "The Grand Elder... he's done something to you."

I followed her gaze downward.

Black veins spiderwebbed across my arms, pulsing in time with some unseen rhythm. Where they clustered thickest at my wrists, the skin had split like overripe fruit—revealing glimpses of something *beneath*. Not bone. Not muscle.

Roots.

(Decay Veyra Mutation Detected: Symbiosis with Worldroot at 12%)

The door groaned open.

He entered without footsteps, his robes whispering against the damp stone floor. The parasites in his sleeves writhed like living embroidery.

"You're wondering what you've become," he said, tilting my chin upward with a claw-like nail. "The answer is simple: mine."

A flick of his wrist. The walls moved.

Not stone—*veins*. The entire chamber was alive, a grotesque fusion of root and rock that constricted at his will. Joren lunged, but tendrils snapped around his throat, suspending him midair.

"Your friends are resilient," the Grand Elder mused. "But resilience without purpose is just... delayed failure."

He pressed a finger to my forehead—

(WARNING: Soul Invasion Detected!)

—and the world split.

I stand atop a mountain that isn't yet rotten. Below me, the Verdant Dawn sect chants as their elder plunges a dagger into the earth. Blood flows into the soil. The ground screams.

"We bind you," the elder intones. "We break you. The mountain's heart will be ours."

The earth remembers this sin.

Then—the corruption. The parasites. The way the roots turned black as they drank the poisoned blood.

The birth of Project Eclipse.

I gasped back to the present, bile rising in my throat. The Grand Elder smiled.

"Now you see. The Verdant Dawn made us monsters. I merely perfected their work."

(System Analysis: Memory imprint matches geological records. Verification: 89% accurate.)

Lina's chains rattled. "You're lying! The Verdant Dawn protects—"

"They *farm*," the Grand Elder snapped. "Harvesting mountain essence to fuel their ascensions. But you..." His eyes locked onto mine. "You can unmake what they wrought."

He gestured. The roots peeled back, revealing a yawning tunnel.

"Join me. Purge the corruption at its source. Or watch your friends become the next vessels for Eclipse."

(Choice Prompt:)

1. Submit– Gain access to restricted knowledge (Accelerated Decay Leveling)

2. Defy – Immediate combat (Survival odds: 17%)

3. Bargain– Propose alternative (Diplomacy check required)

I looked at Joren's purpling face, at Lina's trembling hands. Then I smiled.

"Let's make a deal."

The Grand Elder stilled. "Speak."

"Give me three days," I said. "Let me walk the mountain's memory paths. If I can't find a way to purify Eclipse by then..." I extended my blackened hand. "...I'll become your weapon."

(Diplomacy Roll: 83/100 – Success!)

For a long moment, only the drip of water answered. Then—laughter.

"Clever child." He severed Joren's bonds with a flick. "But know this: the mountain lies. Its memories are wounds, not wisdom."

As he vanished into the shadows, the roots retracted, depositing a rusted key at my feet.

Lina snatched it. "What was *that*?"

I stared at my corrupted hands. "A chance to learn what we're really fighting."

(New Quest: Walk the Memory Paths – 0/3 Locations Discovered)

We found the entrance hidden behind the barracks—a fissure exhaling air that smelled of lightning and burnt sugar.

Joren lit the way as we descended into a cavern frozen in time:

Hundreds of petrified trees stood in perfect rows, their branches fused into the ceiling. At the center, a single living sapling pulsed with sickly light, its roots sunk into a mound of...

(Soul Rot Identification: Human remains. Estimated count: 300+)

Lina retched. "This is where they tested the first parasites."

I approached the sapling. The moment my fingers brushed its bark, the vision struck:

The Grand Elder as a young man, kneeling before the Verdant Dawn elders. They hand him a dagger. "Cut the mountain's heart out," they command. "We will remake it stronger."

He obeys.

The mountain screams.

(Decay Veyra Level Up: 6 → 7)

(New Insight: Eclipse was always the Verdant Dawn's project. The Grand Elder is just the latest gardener.)

Joren's voice shook. "Lishen? You're... crying."

Black sap streaked my cheeks. The sapling withered at my feet, its final whisper echoing through the roots:

"Find the prisoner in the deep dark. He remembers the before."

...