The thought had come up many times before, of course, but as Protea failed to notice the ambient lighting slowly growing brighter with simulated dawn, this figure she was checking - well, it had to be a typo. It had to be an error. Sure, Miss Vyllatiy had said and confirmed galaxies, plural, but this...

 

A galaxy count of two she could accept, the Milky Way a new frontier for a seasoned star empire to overtake, growth covering it like the invasive (if rather symbiotic) species the Affini were. It was a quantity one could vaguely fathom, even if hundreds of billions of stars was a number that would have left a human dizzy trying to understand the necessary complexity, the potential hundreds or thousands of orbiting bodies around each, the vastness that no one being could ever hope to experience except apparently the Affini were immortal because they'd biomodded their species to the point of complete unrecognisability from the normal life forms they were once in the distant past.

 

That would have been okay.

 

A galaxy count of two digits was an extravagant surreality that had no place in any amount of logic that even an artificial being like Protea could ever be programmed with.

 

Trillions. Trillions of stars. Tens, maybe hundreds of trillions, depending on Terran estimates and density and- the number of species in the Compact was-

 

Protea felt weird. Was she dizzy? Was this what dizziness felt like?

 

"Rise and shine!" Miss Vyllatiy's voice snapped her out of that spiral of calculations and consideration. The Affini came into the room, drawing Protea's eyes up - the surroundings just as opulent as the bathroom had been. Thankfully, her bed was sized for a human rather than one of the titanic plants. Unfortunately, she all but had to crane her neck to look up at the confused alien's face. "Oh! I didn't expect you to be awake." She knelt before Protea, still bringing herself nowhere near eye level, holding a glass of reddish liquid in her hand - iron-infused water. Perfect.

 

"Yeah, I'm designed for continuous operation for up to a week, if I override the biorhythm simulations." She extended both her hands to accept the drink, the glass taller than her head- not because it was Affini sized, it just seemed made to hold that much. "How did you know I needed this?"

 

"Elenia's design documentation. Some of it is, well, just a bit delirious and incomprehensible, so we're still deciphering it, but she was working on putting together a user manual in case a prospective owner wanted to get information from a book instead of from you; lucky me though, I like both. It means I get to surprise you from time to time." Her voice was almost as bright as her eyes, and just as eager, especially when she clapped her hands together to continue: "So! You ready for the big day?"

 

"Big? I thought this was just going to be a standard battery of tests." Protea tipped the glass back against her lips, swallowing steadily to work through the huge supply of the fluid. The iron in it wasn't necessary for her functions, exactly; some of her alloys contained it so it made a good supplemental repair material, but mostly it was there to give her blood-like coolant the right hue. And the right taste, in case an owner was interested in testing that. She was pleasantly surprised to note the trace presence of numerous other metals, not part of this drink's usual composition but helping to reduce long-term maintenance issues, in the same way as preventative medicine.

 

It wasn't even a bit required, but Miss Vyllatiy had gone out of her way to make a solution this complex. Of course, the ship's compiler tech probably made it a breeze to actually process the materials into their final form, if any real processing was involved at all, but sometimes it was the thought that counted. Her programming wasn't quite sure how to categorise the gesture socially with how committed the Compact was to the wellbeing of all kinds of sophonts... which didn't include her, but they seemed to treat her as one anyway, just in case.

 

Sweet. It was at least sweet, if it wasn't outright affectionate.

 

"It is, but figuring out new life is hard and we could use all the documentation you're comfortable with. Elenia's notes are helpful, but... what was the saying, 'comply but verify'?"

 

Protea swallowed down the last of the water and set the glass aside while coming to her feet, the Affini doing the same. Just when they were near eye level. "Trust but verify," she corrected. "I suppose that's reasonable."

 

"Then let's get going! No time to waste!" She extended her arm down to take hold of Protea's hand and strode off, taking the lead with enthusiasm. "I don't have the tools I need here, but I had a nurse set aside one of the medical spaces for us, and an engineer grab us some equipment more suited to you. Most of the cuties we get to monitor are biological, especially in this galaxy so far, so some things had to be changed up."

 

Off through the living room, towards the front door and whatever lay beyond, rapidly approaching as Protea scrambled a bit to get into a jog just to keep up with the much taller woman's swift pace. "That makes sense, yeah." And she would have kept talking, unaffected by their pace, until she saw what was outside, and the breath in her largely unnecessary lungs was used up in a slow sigh of awe.

 

To call it grand would be an insult to any owner who cared much about art or architecture, a small part of her mind informed her. To say it was beautiful, or bold? Far too mild. Incredible? That was closer.

 

"Absolutely spectacular." She barely even realised she ran the process to speak at all.

 

The first thing that struck her was how gorgeous it all looked. No space was wasted on the ugly or the purely functional, where any inch of room on a Terran ship or station was never spent on aesthetics, with the exception of the places an executive or admiral would have to see. Living, presumably growing wooden statues lined a nearby lavishly open square of space, turning it into a literal sculpture garden with help in setting the stage from a number of unusually terrestrial-looking marble works, some built into the corners of nearby buildings. Humans, Rinans, another invertebrate-like species Protea couldn't identify, and animals of all sorts had their forms represented, with a massive centerpiece seemingly veiled at the moment by a cloth so intricately patterned with flowers... no, stylised paintings of flowers of thousands of different kinds, that it could have been understood as the work itself. It still might be, for all Protea knew. The rest of the street wasn't slacking either, honeycombed architecture complemented by elaborate woven tapestries in ancient Earth's styles, though Protea could see similar works lining another street nearby, in Rinan style judging by the subjects. Celebrations all, it seemed, of the Milky Way's inhabitants.

 

Speaking of the streets, though, the next to perplex was the scale of it all, stretching out vastly not just in width and length, but height as well: a fair handful of meters above, she could see other people making their way around on elevated walkways. Below, the floor tightly woven plant fibres but just slightly transparent, she could swear there was an entire other similar level! This street stretched on with no end in sight, disappearing to the curvature of the station - no, the habitation ring of this impossibly enormous ship, Protea reminded herself, well before her sensors stopped perceiving it from distance or obstruction. The narrowest place she could see aside from the occasional alley between structures was a section of street divided in three parts by median strips of tall foliage, and she could still imagine a dozen humans walking shoulder to shoulder down each section - though, she supposed, with the amount of space an Affini took up, that only made sense.

 

Third came the variety. Houses, stores, restaurants, galleries, even a bar and a tattoo parlour stacked together, those last two crafted in an Affini take on some old Terran architectural style - hell, some of the space seemed to be taken up by open lounge-like buildings that seemed to exist purely for social interaction. A human could stay here on their own, Protea thought, and never even have to see another street, all their needs provided for right here.

 

Lastly? The people. Affini in a wealth of variety of colours, from pure greens to black and white and greyscale to pastel to jewel toned like much of Miss Vyllatiy to utterly beautifully rainbow in one case, in varied (still extremely large) sizes and even a few different forms, one taking after Rinans and a sparse handful having drawn inspiration from other forms entirely, with numbers of limbs and heads and other features seemingly rather optional, varying even among the human-inspired. Humans, presumably florets (though some were alone) walked at their owners' sides with pleasantly dazed expressions on their faces, marveling at the artwork or, more often, the Affini they clung to. They milled about in much less of a rush than Miss Vyllatiy, several of each species waving to her, two of the Affini looking as though their hearts were about to melt on seeing her, like a human might stare at... well, a cute animal. She had no intention to either way, but it would almost hurt to inform them that she was a machine - though, if the Affini clinging to her was any indication, perhaps they just wouldn't care?

 

Miss Vyllatiy, for her part, seemed all but oblivious to the lot of it. She was far too excited to get the pair to their destination, presumably that building with the full wooden carving of a staff with intertwining snakes on the front - a caduceus, symbol of medicine. Whether it was far from the Affini's habitation unit was impossible to know; Protea had to use most of her processing power recording new stimuli and understanding new concepts about... this ship, the Compact, the Affini themselves, florets, life here - everything.

 

In they went, severing the pair from all of that and bringing them to a largely wide-open central room with a reception desk, a pair of hallways, and perhaps two dozen doors in sight. At the front sat a human, somewhat surprisingly, in a colourful, many-hued dress and bright white latex over the rest of their body but the head, hands, and feet, the last of which were unseen, but the tapping of shoes as they stood from the desk was probably proof enough. Their dark hair tied back in a tight ponytail, and a necklace of flower petals - light green, deep, vibrant pink - adorned their neck. Finally, there was some kind of thin, candy-coated stick poking out past their lips, and as they walked around to greet the newcomers Protea caught a glimpse of an intricate flower painted on the back of their neck, the same shades as their necklace.

 

"Hey!" they greeted, voice feminine and maybe just a bit bubbly. "Lucidae and... Protea, right? Kora Orythii, Two Hundred Forty Third Floret, she/they." A hand was held out to shake, the other keeping a clipboard clutched to her belly - but something didn't add up here, with those clear eyes and that very present expression.

 

"Yeah, that's me, for now." A handshake, polite but kept relaxed, if a bit sped up to match Kora's own. "Um, sorry for asking, but you don't seem much like a floret."

 

"Oh, yeah, have to keep a clear head when I'm on duty. I'm a nurse, and I can't afford to be cloudy when I'm taking care of people's health, obviously. Mistress has my implant keep my bloodstream clean while I'm working. Come on, I'll show you to your space!" With that brushed past like Kora's said it a thousand times already, she turned down one of the halls connecting to the room and quickly brought them past the first door. This entire space was as elegantly designed as the rest of the ship thus far, if more brightly lit. The colours in here were all light, presumably either to ensure they were clean or simply for a sterile medical atmosphere; given Affini tech, the former probably wasn't a concern that needed worrying about. They wouldn't leave something as important as disinfecting up to human - or, well, sophont error.

 

Protea was ushered to a seat in an extraordinarily comfortable chair beside a cart of various machines and tools; Kora started listing off all their functions to Miss Vyllatiy as if Protea wasn't there at all. While she noted it, she was programmed to expect it. If she was going to be used as a servant by her owner, she shouldn't be opposed to being treated as though invisible.

 

"... and that should be everything! Let me know if either of you need anything and I'll get out of your way, okay?"

 

"Thank you very much; good girl," Miss casually added, patting the top of her head. Kora smiled and blushed, but didn't have all sign of thought leave her eyes like the other florets she saw on the way did whenever their owners touched them. Off she went shortly after that.

 

Finally alone again, the Affini turned to her charge with a broad smile. "Alright! Stars, where do we even start? There's so much to you..." She seemed to take a moment to shake off some of that palpable excitement and compose herself. She grabbed a strangely plant-like (well, perhaps that was far from strangely aboard this ship) cable and stepped around behind Protea, expression gradually growing slightly more serious as she did her best to rein in how happy she seemed to be doing this. "Right, I need to connect this to you. The port's at the base of your skull, right?" Protea confirmed the assumption, kept her eyes forward, and shortly felt the device click into place inside her skull with a small electrical jolt. Nothing she couldn't handle.

 

After making sure the fit was comfortable (which it was, of course, this clearly custom built to fit snugly inside her), Miss Vyllatiy walked around once more and picked up a tablet off the cart on her way, tapping at it with eyes growing wide and fully golden as Protea watched. "The documentation was right - a fully file-free operating system! There's nothing like you anywhere else in the Accord... that we have intelligence on yet, anyway. It's beauti- Right, though, I wanted to examine your physical structure for now." She quieted down for a time, but looked no less pleased with her findings while she went through whatever she was looking at. It was entertainment enough for Protea just to watch her face change, expression flowing from one positive emotion to another moment by moment and - she could swear that one was a rather different kind of excitement on her face with a very brief grin, but it left so quickly it was hard to tell.

 

The next batch of tests was easy enough - vision (better than most human's, though there were settings to reduce it or shut it off entirely), hearing (whispers from the Affini in each ear, progressively quieter), smell (various flowers and chemicals)...

 

Touch: "Let me know if you're uncomfortable at all, okay?" A curtain of vines swept over one side of her body at various pressures, while the other was poked and prodded with a wide range of intensity. Each left her gasping, but she tried to squirm as little as possible so she didn't impact the results too much. When the vines came away, she was a little flushed - which only increased as the process repeated, the stimuli flipped on either side. Protea cleared her throat once it was done. "Ideally, we'd get another set of data without clothes in the way..." Oh no. "... but that can wait for another time." Oh, thank the stars... not that Protea would mind, exactly, but she's programmed to have a bit of embarrassment about that sort of thing.

 

Taste: "Open wide." The vine held above her mouth was pricked with a needle that protruded from one of Miss Vyllatiy's fingertips. Slowly, sap dripped into her mouth, each drip a different flavour. Her face scrunched up at the more bitter ones, but she kept her jaws wide and her tongue steady. This felt strangely intimate as well, even though no part of the Affini was touching, save for that which was let freely go: the fluid of her body's vessels, her very blood. It showed on her cheeks, she knew, and left Miss Vyllatiy grinning again, though she seemed to catch herself after a moment and return to a calmer demeanour.

 

Others came after that, including cognitive tests (mostly mathematics and logic puzzles, especially since Miss had to admit "who's the cutest little machine on the ship?" was not, in fact, a question that prompted any real demonstration of cognitive function (though she was made to answer "I am" regardless)), thorough examinations of her motions and reflexes, and some exploration into her default reactions to social situations, images designed to provoke certain responses in humans, and so on. Mostly, these confirmed hunches Miss Vyllatiy had from her observations so far, but she insisted that data was still data. The process stretched on, but Protea didn't mind; it all settled into a rhythm soon enough.

 

After getting most of the way through, the plant woman ran her hand over Protea's head and stepped back for a moment, looking over the tablet. "Alright, give me a minute; I'm just consolidating everything so far. Shouldn't take long."

 

"How come you're so interested in this stuff anyway?" Protea asked. "In... me? I know I'm something new but, why you specifically?"

 

An awkward chuckle rumbled out of the Affini's chest. "That's... a question I've asked myself a lot, actually." She pressed her thorned teeth into the lip of her wooden face while she paced, considering just how to answer. "Well, I'm the ship's only dedicated expert on this sort of thing. We have tons of people who've worked with new biological species - even a few who directly helped with the cotyledon projects for the humans and Rinans." Noting a confused look, she elaborated: "Right, when we first encounter a new species, one of the things we do is find a few members who either volunteer or need medical care beyond our other capabilities (which only really happens when we don't know enough about them yet) and outside the reach of the rest of their kind, and we do research on them to find out how to help them better, including how to properly integrate a haustoric implant."

 

That part, at least, didn't need much explanation; it wasn't too difficult to find information on it. "If I understand correctly, a core grown from a particular Affini, implanted on the back of the neck where it connects to the nervous system, makes them more in sync with their owner, provides readouts of their hormone levels?"

 

"Very good!" A pair of pats on Protea's head, Miss not even looking up from her tablet. "It's the back of the neck for humans, anyway. Other species sometimes have different structures for their nervous systems. Right, anyway, off track - a lot of people here have experience working with animal species, but machine intelligence? That's my field... even if," she quietly muttered, "a ton of people here technically have more experience with it than I do."

 

"You're still in your first bloom - so that puts you somewhere under three hundred years old, right?"

 

Miss Vyllatiy suddenly flinched and stopped dead in her tracks like she'd been shot - not that most weapons would faze her, Protea imagined. "Yyyyes," she tentatively admitted, "but that doesn't mean I'm not good at this-"

 

Before she could go too hard on the defensive, Protea interrupted with reassurance. "I just meant that the others have had more time to get that experience. You're clearly passionate, and I believe you can handle this."

 

The Affini's cheeks paled in places, and the bright hues of her flowers seemed to bleed out into her leaves - her equivalent of a blush, apparently. "Oh. Uh, thanks. Anyway!" After clearing her throat, she continued on. "When I heard that you and your siblings were aboard, I jumped on the chance to work with you. You're the only one who was active, so we're trying things out with you first before we rush into activating the others. All I have to do is flawlessly and comprehensively figure out how you work under essentially all circumstances without messing up at all. You know - no pressure." With a grin so nervous it looked nearly manic, she set down the tablet.

 

"Anyway," she continued again, "I'm going to try something. Let me know if you're not alright with this, but I intend for it to be fairly long term if that's okay." She tapped a few buttons on the tablet, and Protea-

 

Huh. She definitely felt something change. A proverbial switch flicked, a figurative gate and perhaps literal logic gate shut tight. She'd just lost access to something. "Oh - wow." She held a hand to her temple, eyes on the floor as she tried to comprehend and diagnose the issue, get used to the odd feeling. "What did you just do to me?"

 

"If I did that right, you shouldn't be able to intentionally, consciously, instantaneously alter yourself anymore. No sweeping personality changes, no calculated projections of what who you may or may not see as an owner might like you to be, just... well, for lack of a better word, truly organic growth! I should be able to turn it back on if you want," said in the tone of someone trying to not make it obvious how much they fear that outcome.

 

Protea shuddered, thinking this through quickly - she wouldn't be able to alter herself to please others, at least not in a manner timely enough to matter, but... supposedly, she didn't have to anymore. A core part of her being was all but screaming, saying that this was wrong, that she should have the option, but what was she going to use it on anyway? She had no owner, her creator had no investment for her to protect anymore, and she didn't have a purpose for that function anyway.

 

... Yeah. Just for that function.

 

Something to process in her next sleep cycle.

 

"I can work with this, I think, at least for now. Do we have anything else?" Leaving the strange sensation and troubling thought behind, she returned her eyes roughly skyward - that was to say, the direction of Miss Vyllatiy's face.

 

"Just two more sets of tests, uh-" On picking up the tablet again to read them, her leaves slowly changed colour like before. "Well, the first is seeing how you operate under pain, if you're okay with that, and the other is- Hmm. Uh, we'll get to the other one. Why did I write this down?..." the plant muttered to herself, at a volume she'd forgotten Protea could hear.

 

"I'm designed with pain in mind; you don't have to worry about that. I'm ready whenever you are." That left the Affini looking over with a bit of disquiet on her face, but soon enough she set the tablet aside.

 

"Alright. Technically I could just stimulate your pain sensors directly, but that's not really useful data for how this functions outside of a lab environment, with external causes - the psychological effects, and all. The rest is probably in working order." She sank to her knees and sat on her heels behind Protea, still towering over her, and wrapped one arm gently around her stomach, hand gripping her side - a minor blush out of her for that. "This'll do some damage, but not more than you can repair easy enough. Are you ready?"

 

"Always." The word was immediately followed by a wince as she felt a sudden, sharp prick through the skin of her shoulder - a glance revealed the same finger Miss Vyllatiy'd used to puncture her own vine, needle extended and breaking through by a matter of millimeters. The sting was almost soft, almost gentle, testing her without any real hurt applied. A good starting point. Protea took a sharp breath - "You can keep going."

 

Miss Vyllatiy's middle finger let out a needle of its own, and she gave a shuddering sigh. "So, here's a tool that'll keep this good." In the needle went, provoking a gasp this time - it sunk deeper than the last, into flesh. This one had a bit more punch, but it was still a thin sort of thing designed not to hurt too badly, and this area wasn't too sensitive. "It's usually used for situations more... intimate than this, but it works-"

 

"Safeword or traffic lights?"

 

"- Oh. I forgot that you'd probably know... Traffic lights?"

 

"Yeah, something from back on Terra. Why they're used is a long story that involves horses, I think, but... Green means good, more, yellow means slow down, red means stop completely."

 

"That, um... That works." Embarrassment in her voice. It was kind of cute.

 

Protea would've had more time to appreciate it if the next needle didn't plunge in, a good bit deeper than the others, the fingertip brushing her skin. She jolted a bit and sucked in a breath, but all the same nodded. "Green."

 

"I'll never understand human inventions... This spot should be more sensitive." The needles withdrew, and the hand came up to the part of her back that showed near the dress's neck; a needle pressed gently against it, giving her time to brace - then, all at once, it slipped in. This was a much keener sensation, and left Protea with widened eyes.

 

"Green." The word barely got out of her mouth before a new needle went in, closer to the agitated sensor. She grit her teeth, then nodded, and in went the third again, nearly grazing it. That was enough to draw a yelp from her lips, get her clutching at the arm around her belly. "Yeah, I definitely felt that one! Ow, ow..."

 

Miss Vyllatiy shushed her, stroked her hair, kissed the top of her head while pulling her fingers smoothly out. "You're doing great; such a good little machine. Can I try one step up?"

 

Protea melted back into the praise, shut her eyes, and nodded mutely. A vine wrapped around one of her hands and turned it upward, palm towards the Affini. She had just enough time to mentally prepare before it was pierced, nearly the most intense yet. Her other hand gripped down on the plant matter within reach, and in turn vines wrapped around that arm, steadying it. Another, like last time, closer to the sensor: this one brought out a proper cry, short but definitive, making her double over forward - or it nearly did, anyway. Vines stopped her from going too far, or moving that hand at all, sturdier than steel. Vyll- Miss Vyllatiy hesitated, as if in worry, but Protea assuaged it. "Green." She could take it.

 

The last of the Affini's thorns on this hand drove in deep, missing that sensor by a scarce millimeter. The reaction was a little delayed this time, but Protea's lungs pushed out a short scream over her synthetic vocal cords. Panting, an all but hardcoded response to the small scale agony, she shivered against the vines and was rewarded by surprisingly yielding wooden lips pressing against her temple, then the other, and finally her cheek. "Good girl." Miss's voice had a bit of a tremble to it now, and Protea was fairly sure she could guess why. It wasn't worry or concern, at least not mostly.

 

The needles were withdrawn slowly, one by one, least severe first. The Affini was silent throughout, but Protea wasn't. "Good data?" All she got was a quiet hum in the affirmative.

 

A vine ran over the tiny pinprick wounds, coming away with a trio of tiny streaks of not-quite-blood, and then suddenly Miss Vyllatiy stepped away. "So! The, um, the last test was going to be... pleasure," she admitted with a low mutter, "and we can still do that so just do it if you want the tablet'll record it and come out when you're done I could do it myself but it would, um, um, really wouldn't be professional anddataorsomethingokaybye!" The alien was a blur of colour out the door before Protea could even reply.

 

After the half minute or so it took for Protea to process the confusion, Kora suddenly opened the door with a "Heads up!" She tossed Protea something long and green and - silicone. Body safe, she knew by touch when she caught it. "Knock yourself out, I don't ask questions. Had weirder in here." With a wink, the nurse disappeared, leaving Protea alone with the door shut.

 

Well. This certainly was a bit of a situation to just be left in. Protea didn't have any strong feelings on the matter, exactly, but she was plentifully baffled.

 

... It was for the data though. To help with Miss Vyllatiy's research. And the better they understood her, the more they could help not only her, but her siblings. She didn't particularly care about either - but the Affini really, truly seemed to. She'd left Protea adrift without any real purpose by rejecting ownership of her, but maybe this could be a fraction of direction, of drive.

 

That was a very romantic and high-minded way to justify the obvious: all that praise and closeness had gotten her pretty worked up, and if she was going to... fix that, which she didn't necessarily have to but had a strong desire for just that, it may as well be in a context that produced something worthwhile for someone other than herself and her own suite of needy pleasure receptors.

 

And so, she slipped off her underwear from below her dress in quick, pragmatic fashion, pressed what seemed to be the power button and- wow that was quiet and strong, was that really the default setting? Affini tech standards applied to a Terran device with Earthly materials. Something fascinating to think about when she wasn't already in the process of grinding herself up against it, faster than she realised and with eyelids fluttering. She was dripping, breathing heavily and moaning with a probably unnecessary softness. Still, even if the nurse was well aware what she was doing in here, she didn't feel a need to broadcast it.

 

Another few pushes and she slid herself down in her seat; a small change in angle was all it took to slip the toy inside herself, bringing a much-needed fullness and satisfaction. She needed more, and she wasn't in any rush to slow down. Hips rolling, a hand braced on the back of the chair, she angled the thing up and down in time with her other movements, alternating between pressing it or its small protruding arm hard into the densest clusters of sensors inside and outside her body, spot and clit taking turns - and all she could think about, all that came to mind, was the way Miss Vyllatiy had called her a good little machine while stabbing her needles in, the way she'd gotten so flustered, and the way that this was helping her out.

 

She found a side button to raise the intensity, then swiftly decided that wasn't enough and hit it twice more, and that was enough of a shock to get her body shaking and her throat letting out a broken cry of complete abandon.

 

She sat there, coolant working overtime to turn her skin pink and shed all the waste heat from the processing it took to take in that much data - intentionally inefficient, by default, to simulate its all-encompassing and body-heating nature. Protea wasn't about to complain. That most definitely worked.

 

With a bit of shame, if only a bit, and no small amount of embarrassment, she rose to her feet on shaking legs... only to realise she didn't know what to do with the toy. She wasn't about to hand it back soaked as it was, so she just awkwardly left it on her similarly soaked seat and took a moment to collect herself, cool off, and brace herself to walk out the door with a stoic expression.

 

Miss Vyllatiy was waiting at the opposite wall, looking away, with her leaves flushed the same tones as her flowers once again. Wordless, she offered her hand, and Protea took it as they started back out again.

 

Cute, Protea thought. She gave the powerful vines a small squeeze, and received one in kind.