Chapter 99: Reaction to Vital Energy
Morden stood there for a long moment, hand still resting against his mother’s door, before finally deciding against opening it.
’Not yet. I am not ready to go there anymore. Not until I have answers.’
He returned back toward the garden instead, his eyes settling once more on the swaying roses. They were still moving faintly even without his touch, like the excitement from earlier hadn’t fully worn off yet.
’If I want real answers, I need to actually study this properly. Not just stare at it and hope understanding happens on its own.’
He grabbed a spare pot from the small shed near the side of the house, one his mother used to keep extra soil in, and carefully dug up the smallest of the rose bushes, roots and all, doing his best not to damage it in the process.
The moment the roots settled into the fresh soil, the bush gave a small shiver, leaves rustling together in what almost sounded like relief.
’Okay. That’s good. That means it’s still fine.’
He carried the pot inside and set it down carefully on the kitchen table, stepping back to study it properly under better light.
Nothing about it looked different from any normal rose bush up close and not even from any angle he tried. The only thing setting it apart was the way it moved in a subtle and rhythmic way entirely unprompted by any breeze this deep inside the house.
’I need to do more than just staring at it. I need actual information.’
Morden’s mind ran through everything he’d learned tonight, the Old World, the Attributes, the Matrix’s quiet effort to erase things it couldn’t predict, and even with all of that fresh information sitting in his head, none of it explained a rose bush dancing at his touch.
’Mona’s surely not going to tell me a damn thing. She made that clear enough already.’
He thought about Darlus and Lisa next, but both of them needed rest just as badly as he did, and dragging them into another mystery didn’t sit right with him either.
’The Library. The Bearer’s organization has one, doesn’t it?’
He remembered passing it yesterday, back when everything about the organization still felt overwhelming and unfamiliar. He hadn’t given it much thought since, too caught up in missions and survival to consider spending time somewhere as quiet as a library.
’Worth a shot. Better than sitting here guessing.’
Morden checked on the potted rose one more time, making sure it wasn’t in any obvious distress, before heading back out the door and making his way toward the Bearer’s organization for the second time that day.
He arrived there again, and just as he had expected, the crowd had increased massively. The place has gone from being crowded to being massively crowded.
This time, he didn’t head for the elevator that led underground.
Instead, he asked one of the receptionists near the entrance, a young woman who barely looked up from her desk, where he might find the Library.
She pointed him down a side corridor without much more than a passing glance, clearly used to Bearers asking for information about locations. She was nothing like the woman that made a conscious effort to remember his name.
The Library, when he finally found it, was larger than he expected, with rows of shelves stretching back further than the entrance suggested, quiet enough that his own footsteps felt uncomfortably loud against the polished floor.
’Where do I even start with something like this?’
He wandered the shelves for a while, scanning titles that meant absolutely nothing to him; most of them were dense and technical, like they were clearly meant for Bearers with far more experience than he had.
Eventually, he found a section labeled "Natural Phenomena," tucked into a quieter corner near the back, and at first sight, something about the title felt close enough to what he needed that he decided to start his search there.
He pulled a handful of books from the shelf, carrying them to a small table nearby, and began flipping through pages with more patience than he usually had for anything related to books, even in his past life when he used to work.
Most of it was useless, general information about the Omnisphere’s ecosystem and basic details about Genetic Beasts he already knew from the little experience he had.
’Come on. There has to be something that can help me.’
He was halfway through the third book when a particular passage caught his eye, tucked into a section about environmental anomalies in living things around Bearer’s active areas.
His eyes scanned the page carefully, reading it twice just to make sure he understood it correctly.
’Reaction to Vital Energy.’
The book explained it plainly enough: prolonged exposure to high concentrations of Vital Energy, the kind naturally produced by Bearers, Genetic Beasts, or places like the Old World and the Omnisphere, could cause certain organic matter to mutate in small but often harmless ways.
Plants absorbing enough of it over time could develop unusual responsiveness, heightened growth, or in rare cases, behavior that mimicked simple emotional reactions.
’That’s it. That has to be it.’
Morden sat back in his chair, the pieces slowly clicking into place in his mind.
’The incident at home involved Bearers, and one even ducked in the middle of the plants long enough that his clothes had gotten stuck.’
’This means—’
He stopped himself before finishing the thought, though the implication settled heavily regardless.
The book didn’t offer an exact answer, only vague warnings about prolonged exposure and a short list of documented cases, but none of them sounded quite as extreme as roses dancing under someone’s touch.
Still, it was something. A real answer instead of another riddle wrapped in half-truths.
’Libraries are much better sources of information,’ he said while nodding.
’Small steps. This one’s actually mine, not something handed to me by a Flaming Lion who only gives half of what I ask for.’
Morden closed the book slowly, his mind already turning toward what came next, toward the potted rose still sitting on his kitchen table, waiting for him to figure out exactly how much of himself had already started bleeding into the world around him without his permission.
’Vital Energy. Mutation. My own house.’
’What else was affected?’