In the darkness behind closed eyes, Archie found a profound connection to his essence. After two more weeks of training with Tarragon, he could envision winding pathways within his body like the fractal cracks of a canyon. Even channeling essence into a different finger diverted the stream of essence into a minutely different path, but Archie learned how to recognize the difference.

And he learned how to override those natural paths. Each success earned him a new challenge. First, he added another noodle to his arm that he needed to weave around. Then he got rid of the noodles entirely and smeared his arm with patches of flour that reacted more easily without the buffer. He learned how to make his essence leave a spiral that looped around his forearm. He covered his arms and legs with flour that let him see how his entire body worked together. Even with his eyes closed, he could envision the patterns he was making on both arms as he sat in the dirt.

And he could feel the face in front of his.

He opened his eyes to find them just inches from Blanche's. She let out a single laugh that filled Archie's nose with her fruity breath. He loved the sweetness of it. It was always sweet after Blanche spent time in the greenhouse snacking on all of the things she grew. The smell of it made him want to put his lips on hers—even after the equally funny and traumatizing experience of dislodging a seed from her teeth and spitting it out.

But Blanche didn't always want to be kissed. Citing trauma from having a sister that had no problems bringing her boyfriends around the house, Blanche saw such public displays of affection as sinful. Not that she saw all affection that way. In private, Archie could hardly keep her off of him. And it wasn't just a kiss she sought. Her hands got greedy, and twice in two weeks Archie had to find an excuse to not follow her back to her empty room. He preferred the semi-private places—the greenhouse at dark, the balcony of the lounge, an uncrowded street.

He had a difficult time understanding why he didn't take her up on her offer. Part of him wanted to, and he had more than one dream in which he did. If he wasn't training, he was thinking about her, and with each passing day, his eyes wandered more and more and his imagination went wild.

Even Oliver put the pressure on, offering to take Barley and Benedict out for a night of drinks anytime Archie wanted.

But Archie wasn't ready. In searching for a rational explanation for what might have just been being a chicken, he compared his physical relationship with Blanche to his training. He needed to learn control first. Learn the right paths. If he rushed forward to fighting, someone could get hurt. And even though Archie had more thoughts of the relationship never ending than he did it ending soon, he had to consider the worst case scenario of having a messy split and then having two more years of class together.

But he liked kissing her. He didn't need to rationalize anything about that. He leaned forward and tried to steal a kiss, but she leaned away just in time and looked at Barley and Akando on the other end of the greenhouse.

"Did I distract you?" Blanche asked.

Archie looked down at his arms where lines of orange still remained in the flour. "Nope."

"Hm." Blanche stood up straight and crossed her arms. "I can't even get your full attention anymore," she teased.

Archie laughed and shook his head. "I'm trying to make zigzags. You know, sharp corners. But it always ends up rounded."

Blanche looked at Archie's relatively barren plot of soil. "When are we going to plant something together?"

Uh-oh. Archie didn't like the tone of that question. He saw the hidden weight behind it. He saw the hidden question behind it. When were they going to plant something like how he and Nori had done? He wondered where Nori was. She seemed to always be out and about, hardly ever staying in the Academy beyond class and sleep. He really only got to talk to her when they worked at The Gift on the weekends, and he hadn't had a mind yet to ask what she got up to in her spare time.

He realized he hadn't answered Blanche's question. "Tomorrow. Let's figure something out tomorrow."

"Okay." Blanche didn't seem satisfied, but she didn't press the issue, instead returning to pruning the leaves off her multi-fruit mini-tree.

Archie had half a mind to reassure her, but he also thought he was far enough out of hot water to afford him a bit more training time. He closed his eyes and got back to work. A minute later, he felt that face in front of his again. He used the element of surprise and leaned forward for a kiss without opening his eyes.

Blanche pulled away just as he made contact. But her breath had no sweetness, having been replaced by the smell of old bread.

Archie opened his eyes just in time to see Sutton fall backward.

"Pleh! Pleh!" Sutton spat and wiped his lips with his arm.

"Sutton!" Archie jumped up and then realized what he had done. He scrunched his face up in disgust and spat in the dirt. "Ugh!"

"Hey!" Blanche chastised him with a strong point of the finger. "Don't go kissing anyone else, and don't spit on my crops!"

Sutton stayed seated on the ground and rubbed his lips again and again. "I'm glad to see you too, Archie. Clearly not as excited…"

Archie grabbed Sutton by the arm and pulled him up. "When did you get back?"

"Just an hour ago." Sutton pushed up his glasses and looked at Archie's arms. "What's with the flour?"

"Oh! Essence control. Check it." Archie stuck his arms out in front of him and started a thin strand of essence on the outside of his forearm. He slowly made the line move to the inside without bending once.

Sutton leaned down to examine Archie's arms. "Interesting. Can you write letters in the flour?"

Archie scoffed. "Uh, I can almost do a zigzag."

"Hm." Sutton leaned back. "What else did I miss?"

"Blanche and I are, uh…" They had never spoken about what they were. Archie flipped through the words. Dating? Not serious enough. In a relationship? Too formal. Together? That could work. "We're—"

"'I'm aware," Sutton interrupted. "I saw the painting in Petrichor. And your mother talked about it all the time."

"Yeah, that sounds like her. Did you stay in my room?"

"I did." Sutton pushed his glasses up and gently shook his head. "The lack of bookshelves explains a lot. I built a small one for you. Nailed it into the wall. With your parents' permission, of course. I even left you a few books."

Archie laughed at the thought of Sutton with a hammer and nails. "I was surprised at how long you stayed."

"Yes, well. I would have stayed longer, but a series of increasingly stern letters made it clear that I was stretching the definition of what it meant to be an active student of the Academy."

"Aubergine put the clamps on you, huh?"

"He explained that it is his mission as headmaster to ensure all of his students achieve a well-rounded education before they specialize too far in one field."

"You were just hoping to get out of Tarragon's class."

"I didn't mind missing it, no." Sutton finally cracked a smile.

"So. The tree. Pretty incredible, isn't it?"

Sutton blew out his cheeks. "In a multitude of ways. For starters, it must be forty feet tall."

"Forty?" Archie's jaw dropped. He looked over at Blanche. "How big was it when we left?"

"Maybe fifteen feet?"

"And it's still growing," Sutton said. "But that's the least impressive thing about it. The garden that's been built around it has already gone through a harvest cycle. And the crops it's grown…They're almost dangerous, they're so potent. Your father cooked with a serrano pepper that burst into flames in the pan."

Archie laughed. The thought of his father pioneering new cooking challenges warmed his heart. "Do they taste good?"

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"The ones we've dared to try? Absolutely. Your lord mayor has formed a council to manage the tree."

"Manage?"

"That includes protecting it, don't worry. That seems to be the main focus. I made sure of that—I may not be an official member of the council, but I attended all of their meetings while I was there. Your father is a member. As is Head Chef Anise, who is providing regular correspondence. Beyond protection, there are many situations that the council must navigate. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime position. I considered dropping out of the Academy for it."

"So is the essence spreading?"

"That's what I was tracking. It seems to be doing two things—spreading and cleansing. The spreading is apparent in the quality of the crops that grow around it. As for the cleansing, I started taking regular samples of soil at fifty, one hundred, and two hundred feet. By extracting at regular intervals and putting them in jars, I've been able to assess the effects of the tree."

Sutton cleared his throat in preparation for his scientific musings. A year ago, Archie would have dreaded the lecture. Now, he was all ears.

"Head Chef Anise developed what is now known as an Ambrosial measure. It's remarkable how quickly she can work. It's a seed that grows into a single stalk that grows according to the essence around it with no regard for light or water. And then it stops growing. It even has thorns at uniform inch marks for measuring."

Sutton's eyes widened and he gave a goofy, open-jaw smile to express his wonder. "And it does all of this while consuming minimal external essence. So when I first arrived, the three samples I took were of small, but statistically significant difference. Soil from fifty feet away produced a stalk of about one and a quarter inches. The two-hundred-foot sample grew just under an inch.

"Three weeks later, a new close sample measured at three inches. The farther sample measured at two. Interestingly, some of the older samples started growing again. Minimal amounts, but again, drastically significant. We thought it might be a flaw in Anise's design, but our new operating theory is that the previously inert soil had latent essence that could not be accessed due to being bound to a sort of anti-essence—the effects of your grandfather's salting."

Archie clenched his teeth. He had done his part to undo the damage of his grandfather, but the thought of having Gluttons as ancestors was not something that he thought he would ever come to terms with.

"First, we set out to confirm that the growth was not a defect in the Ambrosial measure, which Anise confirmed using soil from around the city. As expected, her measures did not grow beyond their initial spurt."

Sutton took another deep breath. His gestures grew more animated and his words quickened to the point that Archie thought he might lose track of them.

"The law of essence conservation dictates that essence cannot be created or destroyed, only recycled. Some members of the council theorize that the Tamani tree transcends this rule and is creating new essence. Some theorize that the Tamani tree is purifying essence that has effectively become damaged over time. It has been…the most heated topic of conversation amongst the scholars."

"Which theory do you believe?" Archie asked.

Sutton took a deep breath in through his nose. "Actually, I'd like to know which one you believe in before I bias you with my own conclusions. You have a unique perspective in that you were the one in the cave."

"Well…Blanche, what do we think?"

"We?" Sutton grumbled. "Yes, collective thought, so productive."

Blanche did what she did best and ignored Sutton. "It doesn't create new essence."

Sutton scoffed. "You sound certain."

"Because I am. The essence in the tree was very distinct. When I was growing plants around the tree, I could tell they were still using the essence they had when I got there. It was just…louder."

"Yeah," Archie added. "I think it's cleansing, because even my essence has felt different ever since I was in that cave. It felt like my essence had been washed."

Sutton nodded and felt his breast pocket for a notebook that wasn't there. After an aggravated sigh, he smiled. "I believe essence conservation to be an absolute law, if for no other reason than the ramifications of it being false are too consequential to have a stable society. Selfishly, I'm glad your anecdotes align with my beliefs. So you've felt a change in your own essence?"

"Yeah. Everything is easier. Control, volume, all of it. Things just flow better. Of course, you have to consider that my leg was cleansed just a week or so before I was in the cave. So that could have something to do with it. But Blanche has felt it too."

"Is that right?" Sutton asked.

Blanche crouched down and started getting back to her crops, her patience for Sutton's academic nature running thin. "Yep. You're the worst conjurer in the class now. I was even beating Nori for the first week."

Sutton rolled his eyes and gave his full attention to Archie. "So given the law of essence conservation, we can assume that the essence we are using is the same essence that has been around for a thousand years and has likely seen many uses over the millennium. My theory is that each time essence gets used, it gets damaged. So, in principle, the amount never changes as it continues to satisfy the law of essence conservation. But bit by bit, it is rendered inert. I don't think it is necessarily good science, but this could support some of the more outlandish fairy tales we are told occurred several centuries ago. Perhaps with more potent essence, such unfeasible feats of magic were possible."

"Makes sense."

Sutton held his hands out wide. "I thought you'd be more excited about this!"

Archie scratched his head, bits of flour flaking off his arm and onto his shoulder. "It is exciting! I'm just making sense of it all. Not that I'm confused. It's more…processing."

"Well, process this. I think Sain has become the most important place in the world."

Archie recoiled. "What do you mean?"

"This cleansing process is effectively breaking the law of conservation. On a superficial level, this means a new level of farming and culinary excellence that can only be achieved in Sain."

Archie grinned. "So Petrichor is going to be the greatest restaurant again."

"Like I said." Sutton pushed up his glasses. "Superficially, yes. But this goes beyond restaurants. Sain could be the central hub of science for the next century. And even that pales in comparison to its significance as a place for pilgrimage. You already saw some that came just to feel closer to their god. What is going to happen when word gets around that you can purify your essence and unlock your true potential by resting in the shade of the tree?"

Archie took a deep breath, a tickle of a laugh on his lips. "A lot of people are going to come visit."

Sutton's face hardened. He did not reflect Archie's optimism. "And what happens when someone tries to control it? What happens when someone tries to destroy it?"

"Well, the council is in place to control it, right? And who would want to destroy it? Gluttons?" Archie stood up straight with a jolting thought. "The Gluttons couldn't go near it!"

"No, I think the Gluttons will look to control it. Even from afar, they could determine which Chefs could utilize its power. As for destroying it, not everyone is as excited about technological advancements as I am. The tree could foster a more dangerous world. An extremist might not take kindly to that idea. And the world is not as uniform in its worship of Ambrosia as you might think. I've heard anecdotes of tribes in western Kuutsu Nuna that see essence as a curse."

Archie's spirit flushed itself of any positivity. He had meant to bring life to Sain, not trouble. He felt very small and the greenhouse very big. The air grew thick, pouring into his lungs like sludge but never giving him a full breath. "I need to go back."

Blanche perked up. "What?"

Sutton shook his head. "No, you don't. I don't mean to alarm you. The tree is a good thing. I just want you to consider all angles."

"Okay, but if something bad happens and I'm not there to stop it, how am I supposed to live with myself?" Archie blinked. Black spots hung in his vision, the tall crops and glass walls of the greenhouse spinning behind them. "I brought the tree, Sutton!"

"Hey, hey," Blanche jumped up and put an arm around Archie. "It's okay."

Her touch stabilized the world. Archie could focus again.

Sutton put his hands on Archie's shoulders and spoke directly into his face. "The council is aware of everything I've just said. They're more than capable of navigating these challenges. You just focus on being a student."

Archie gently shook Blanche off and squinted at Sutton. "My dad told you to say that, didn't he?"

Sutton conceded with a dip of the head. He considered Archie's flour-covered arms. "So you're working on essence control. What's the end goal?"

A bit of smile worked its way back onto Archie's face. "I'm going to fight in the arena."

Sutton pursed his lips and patted Archie on the shoulder. "Well, that's…that's inspired, Archie."

Sutton said his hellos to Barley and Akando and then left. His words rattled around in Archie's head. Loosely zigzagged lines curved out of control on Archie's arm as he struggled to stay focused. He wondered how older adults kept track of so many potential consequences. Everything in life seemed to have them. And he wondered how Sutton was so far ahead of the game. Archie just wanted his biggest stress to be a girl and a play-fight. But no, the world was much bigger and much more serious than that.

He could train for that, though. After all, he wanted the fame and glory of being a prize fighter, but he also wanted more than that. He wanted to be strong enough to protect the people he cared about. Yes, that was it. He would train and learn to fight, and then if the time ever came, he'd be ready. Essence poured through his arms, turning in semi-sharp bends.

Motivation came easily, but Archie still had a lot to think about. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep without talking things through, and so rather than rehashing the conversation with Blanche, he found himself sitting at one of the lounge's little tables eating dinner with someone that he had neglected the last few weeks.

"I meant what I said, you know? I really am sorry we haven't spent more time together. I've been so busy with training."

Nori chewed through a big bite of Archie's apology pasta. "It's fine," she said with her mouth full. "Really."

"And I've been busy with Blanche."

Nori nearly coughed out her food.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Archie stammered. "Not like that."

Nori swallowed and wiped her lips. "I was about to say…"

"It's, no. Oh, god." Archie put his palms over his cheeks as they flushed with heat. Words spilled out of him. "I'm trying to go slow so I don't screw things up. I'm clueless on this stuff, Nori. I never really, you know, growing up. She was my first kiss, did you know that?"

Nori covered her mouth and giggled. Her cheeks turned redder than Archie's. "Mhm."

Archie laughed and hung his head. "Anyway, those two things are all I've been able to think about. And now all this stuff from Sutton…"

"It sounds like everything's being taken care of, Archie. Just focus on life here. That's what I've been doing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Did you know that there's a Guild of Pastamancy? They have a little museum. You'd love it. A lot of stuff about the invention of the trams. And they have these diagrams…"

Archie laughed through his nose as he forgot about all of his troubles.

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