Chapter 213 The Finished Graft

Orven arrived at Sella’s nursery with a narrow plant carrier in one hand and a tool case in the other. Luke met him at the gate and took the carrier while Sella came out to greet them. A padded cover hid most of the little tree inside.

They had arranged the visit through the carters’ yard after Luke and Lauren delivered his note. Several days had passed since the lift accident. The Bureau had reviewed their report and cleared an examination of the graft, with separation permitted only if its independent roots were ready. Trait training could follow outside Heartwood. Integrating it with Lauren’s skill still required a separate review.

Sella led Orven to the sheltered bench. The moss sleeve had filled out since their last visit, its loose weave threaded with fine white roots. Above it, the seed’s branching seam had opened around a short stem bearing three leaves.

Luke set the carrier beside the bench and put his spear against the wall. Lauren already had a chair beside the pot, with their copied instructions spread beneath a piece of glass. She asked Luke to find the page describing separation, then moved it toward Orven.

"I can follow the new roots now," she said. "But the old connection is still there."

Orven crouched until he could see beneath the sleeve. "Does anything still pass through it?"

"Less than before. I haven’t tried stopping it."

"Don’t. Show me where the new flow reaches the stem."

Lauren rested her fingertips against the exposed stock and used Ancient Root Recognition. Luke watched her free hand move toward the moss, stopping short of the white strands. Orven followed the position she indicated, parting the loose cloth just far enough to see inside.

The original feeding root lay along the host’s pale stem. The new roots spread through the moss in several directions, joining the graft above that old attachment. Luke could distinguish the larger ones, but the finer branches disappeared among the fibers.

Lauren’s finger hovered beside the opening. "It’s coming up through these. I can follow it into all three leaves."

Orven asked her to check the far side while he examined the visible tips. Sella brought a shallow pot filled with damp growing medium and placed it on the bench. Neither grower reached for a blade until Lauren had finished describing the two supplies.

"The new roots are feeding the stem steadily," she said. "The old one barely carries anything."

A window appeared as she finished the examination. Lauren straightened, and Luke leaned over her shoulder to read it.

[Ancestral Graft Seed: Independent roots mature.]

[Host separation available.]

She read the messages aloud for Orven. He checked the final section of the root sleeve, then opened his tool case and selected a narrow knife.

"We’ll keep the moss around them. There’s no reason to pull new roots out of something they’re already holding."

Luke cleared the space between the two pots. Orven fitted a curved support beneath the moss before undoing the sleeve’s fastenings, so the graft’s weight no longer rested on its attachment. Lauren kept her fingers against the stock while Sella held the loose cloth clear.

The blade approached the old feeding root. Lauren drew a breath through her nose and watched the living connection through her ability. Luke found himself gripping the edge of the bench until the knife passed through and Orven eased the graft away.

Nothing sagged. The three leaves remained upright as Orven lowered the supported root mass into the prepared pot. Sella settled the damp medium around it without covering the new stem.

Lauren moved her hand from the old stock to the new pot. She stayed there through several pulses, following the flow from the moss into the leaves. Her shoulders gradually lowered.

"It’s still feeding itself."

[Ancestral Graft matured.]

[Compatible skill: Oracle’s Heartwood.]

[Integration available.]

Luke let out a pleased laugh, and Lauren turned toward the sound. He caught her offered hand and squeezed it, then let her return to the pot before he distracted her from checking it.

"We can actually use it now," he said.

"Once we’re cleared to." She closed the integration prompt without selecting it. "I’d like to finish choosing what it will become first."

Orven cleaned his knife and returned it to the case. Sella examined the old stock, then moved that pot away from the graft’s new roots. A pale mark remained where the seed had rested, but the host’s own leaves had not drooped.

"That one stays with me," she said. "It has earned a quiet corner."

Luke carried it to the shelf she indicated. When he returned, Orven had uncovered a small ironbark specimen from the carrier he had brought. Its dark stem rose between two padded supports, with a single branch extending over the rim.

"You asked me to bring this one," he said to Lauren. "Have you settled on it?"

"Ironbark. I need more protection from something punching through the trunk. We can work around stiff branches."

Luke nodded beside her. If someone reached the trunk with a blade, he wanted the bark to hold long enough for him to get back to her.

Orven set the specimen beside the graft, leaving their pots separate. "Then we use this branch. The new roots keep your graft alive while it takes the pattern from the ironbark. Neither plant needs anything from your body."

Lauren checked the contact point before he moved the branch closer. It would rest against the opened side of the graft’s stem, above the roots and below its lowest leaf. Orven fitted a small wooden cradle around the two stems so their weight rested on the support rather than on each other.

He let Lauren position the graft’s side of the cradle. She found the branching groove with one fingertip, then withdrew her hand as Sella adjusted the ironbark branch into contact. A green thread appeared between the two surfaces.

[Compatible training stock: Ironbark.]

[Trait training available: Layered Bark.]

[Record this growth pattern?]

Lauren read the offer, waited for Orven to finish checking the support, and accepted. Light traveled up the ironbark branch in thin lines. They reached the graft and spread around its little stem, leaving dark seams beneath the smooth surface.

Luke moved closer without touching either pot. The seams began dividing the stem into uneven sections, overlapping near the base. A fresh rim formed along one edge while he watched.

"Is it growing bark already?"

"Starting to," Orven said. "The older grafts were grown to copy quickly once they had roots of their own. Let it finish before we disturb the contact."

The light settled into a faint, steady glow. Lauren checked her mana and found no draw beyond her earlier use of Ancient Root Recognition. She left the plants alone while Orven and Sella compared the recovered boards with the notes he had brought.

Luke moved out of the way when Sella spread another board across the workbench. Lauren took his arm, and he led her to the bench beneath the nursery awning. She sat close, her shoulder brushing his as he lowered himself beside her.

"I was going to offer to bring him the boards," Luke said quietly. "I don’t think they’re letting either of us touch them now."

Lauren settled against the back of the bench. "They’ll be occupied for a while."

Luke took her hand and brought it to his mouth. He kissed her knuckles, then kept her fingers loosely in his while a worker carried a tray past the awning. Lauren leaned against him, and the woman smiled as she passed.

For several minutes, they sat without discussing the next procedure. Luke could hear the carters in the adjoining yard and the steady drip from the nursery trough. Lauren’s thumb moved across his palm once before she let their hands rest between them.

When Orven called them back, he had marked two places on the copied diagram for Sella to inspect while they were absent. The training contact would remain in place until the graft finished recording the pattern. Sella knew how to release the cradle if either plant began to suffer.

Lauren checked the graft once more before leaving. The roots continued drawing from their own pot, and the new bark had spread only a little farther. She reported both observations while Luke gathered the loose copies into their folder.

At the courtyard, they made their notes before disconnecting. Lauren described the completed separation and the active training pattern to Shaw after the technicians freed them from the capsules. He checked her readings, then asked for the wording of the new system messages.

The following days brought no new symptoms from either of them. Luke’s real right hand remained weaker than the one he used in Powerforge, and he kept to his existing exercises while Lauren recorded the cultivation results for the review. Neither of them tried to reproduce the graft’s new connection outside the game.

At their next approved visit, a dark pattern of overlapping plates covered the graft’s stem. Sella had left the cradle in place, but the green thread at the contact had faded.

Lauren touched the pot and opened its description. Luke read beside her as the old training message disappeared.

[Growth pattern recorded: Layered Bark.]

[Ancestral Graft ready for integration.]

Sella loosened the cradle and drew the ironbark branch away. Lauren checked the graft after contact ended, then asked for a padded carrier for its pot. Luke helped pack it once the check was finished, leaving both the host and the training stock at the nursery.