This soil…the earth that nurtured this tree and the young women who came from it for decades. It will hold the first heartroot back in the Natural World. I remove the necklace I found with Lilian’s journal from around my neck and bury it first. Then, I carefully unpot the heartroot and arrange its roots around the token.
The tree represents the throne.
Lilian’s necklace represents that dark place my consciousness would go to.
The heartroot encases it all. It restores the balance. The heartroot remembers where it has been, and my hands pat earth tightly around it.
A perfect mirror of Midscape in the Natural World, now complete. The missing piece that kept the worlds out of balance, restored. I sit back on my heels, staring up at the tree with a little smile. All it took was a plant, a necklace, and some understanding.
“Thanks for making it simple, Lilian,” I whisper.
“What did you do?” The Head Keeper asks.
The Keepers have surrounded me, looking on in confusion. They can’t feel the magic that’s beginning to flow through this tree. They don’t know that the essence of this world is being soaked up by the branches that scrape the clouds and pushed through the Fade—through a tangle of roots—and into Midscape.
They aren’t aware of any of it. But I am. Because even though I might never return to Midscape again, I will always be the last Human Queen.
I finally say, “I ended it.”