Cultivating Plants

“Oh, heavens, that was stressful.” Aloe led her hand to her heart and sighed after closing the office’s door behind.

“What was stressful?” Jafar, who was resting her back on the wall, inquired at her side.

“Dunes!” Aloe jumped. “You scared me!”

“Don’t know how, you’re the one who told me to wait here.” The guard shrugged, his saber clinking with the wall as he leaped out of it. “Anyways, how did it go? Besides stressful, that is.”

Aloe groaned at man’s incorrigible behavior. “Honestly? The meeting with the emir was more stressful, it was a voyage of emotions. The agitation just sort of carried over this conversation, I was too dazed to notice my emotions until now.”

“So how did the meeting with the emir then?” Jafar started walking through the colossal corridors and Aloe found herself following him.

“Overall good. There have been... interesting developments. Though everything would have been smoother if you told me that the emir was... I don’t know, a woman?” Sarcasm spurted out of Aloe’s mouth like a dog with rabies.

“Oooh...” Jafar stopped dead in his tracks.

“Yeah. Oh.” Aloe’s reaction was shorter and more aggressive.

“I knew I had that nudge in the back of my mind telling me I was forgetting something.”

“Really?” The girl squinted so hard that it was difficult to tell if she even had her eyes open.

“In my defense,” Jafar said raising his arms with open palms. “a lot of things have happened as of late. And the city’s change of ruler wasn’t as recent as others. How long has it been now, two weeks maybe?”

“I don’t care if it has been two weeks!” Aloe shouted, finally letting out her indignation. “There are still people talking about the previous emir’s death and that was five years ago! How’s it that I didn’t hear anything about this change?”

“The previous was an assassin assassination – for the sake of redundancy – and this one a succession,” Jafar explained.

Aloe frowned. “The emir Hassan wasn’t old, how’s it that he has gotten abdicated? He didn’t die, did he?”

“The matter about this change in leadership is a bit blurry, a lot of hearsay is floating around, but the emir didn’t die nor step down. Apparently, he angered the Sultanah and has been made out.”

“So... he has been disowned?”

“I can’t tell that,” Jafar responded as he started walking again, his footing not as solid as it should be.

“Can’t or won’t,” Aloe asked following closely behind.

“Can’t.” The guard answered, but he performed a curious gesture with his hands. He circled around the corridor, especially pointing to the archway windows and the shadows.

I see. Aloe realized the hidden meaning behind the gesture. Jafar doesn’t want to talk because he fears prying ears and eyes, though I think he’s telling the truth when he says he doesn’t know. Now that I think about it, Tamara was also preoccupied with others hearing our conversation as we went to her office to discuss business.

After the nonverbal exchange, conversation between the two died out, and not until they made their way out of the palace of Sadina and reunited with Mirah who waited at the bottom of the stairs did any conversation restart.

“How did it go?” Mirah asked, worry written all over her face.

“Fine,” Aloe responded with a practiced smile. It was getting hard lately to perform a natural one. “The emir just wanted to talk with me about Mom.”

“What exactly?” The housewife pried further. “Was it some compensation for her service? You aren’t that well with your finances, right?”

“I... um.” Compensation was a rare bonus gifted to workers, especially if they were of lower origins. “No, she just wanted to talk about how she was friends with my mother and how she-“ Aloe stopped herself midway through the sentence. I shouldn’t tell them about how the previous emir was the cause of her death and the outbreak in the palace. Aloe put force on her fists but continued talking as if nothing happened. “-is saddened by her death.”

Mirah scoffed. “If she was truly sad by Shahrazad’s death, she would have spared a few drupnars. Or more like a few drupnarun by looking at the place she lives on.” The woman crossed her arms, her breasts were highlighted by the gesture. “Whatever they told you, those are lies. If Shahrazad was such a good friend of hers, she would neither have died nor you would have gone out of that palace empty-handed.” 

Aloe’s expression relaxed as confusion overtook her. “You are... hmm... rather affected by the fact the emir didn’t give me anything.” 

Even if Aloe wanted to be mad at a sultanzade – an ill-advised action course – she hadn’t expected anything when she entered the palace, the fact that Rani even offered her a job was more than she expected. Hmm, I shouldn’t tell them about that. Especially since I didn’t take on her offer, that will raise a lot of brows and questions.

“For heaven’s sake! She’s an imperial and an emir! She could literally gift you your weight in gold!” Mirah continued with her tantrum. “Of course, I’m afflicted! They did you dirty!”

It didn’t go over Aloe’s notice that Mirah had been talking about ‘them’ instead of ‘she’ all this time. Nor she asked why. The reason was quite obvious. Her anger wasn’t pointed at the emir specifically but at all the sultanate’s imperials.

That smells like there’s some story there. Aloe thought as she released the pressure on her fist. But I’m not gonna pry. I want them to do the exact opposite so I shouldn’t encourage them.

“I mean, it isn’t that difficult to get the little plant’s body weight in gold.” Jafar joked to defuse the conversation, but that prompted an automatic reaction from Aloe, who kicked his sheen.

The man was unfazed.

Huh. Aloe blinked. That was reflexive. The man is so good at angering me that my body reacts before I do.

“That’s even weaker than normal, little plant.” Jafar continued pestering her. “Maybe we should go to the garrison training grounds and make you gain a bit of muscle.”

“Don’t say that to poor Aloe!” Mirah defended her. “She’s had a rough and long day and she’s devastated. Besides women with muscles aren’t attractive.”

I would like to say otherwise. Aloe kept her thoughts in her mind, lest her words gave them more fuel to shove into the fire.

So she just groaned. “Are you done?”

“No, not really.” Jafar grinned.

However, it seemed that wasn’t the case for his wife as Mirah slapped him on the back of his head. Even if the sound of the hit was enough to make nearby birds fly away, the man was unfazed, his neck built like a marble column and his cranium like a fortress wall.

“So,” Mirah turned to Aloe, her voice tone sweet and motherly. “What are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean?” Aloe frowned at the question.

“I was thinking whilst waiting and...” She lingered a bit with her words, shaking her body around lightly, but finally ceded. “...maybe you would want to sleep at our house tonight?”

“Oh.”

“You can stay how long you want. I know you had a rough day and you are still mourning so...”

“I’m going to cut you there.” Aloe raised her hand. “I am fine, really. I can comfortably be at my house.”

“But-“ As Mirah restarted talking, Aloe interjected again.

“I mean what I’m saying. I’m fine.” She forced the fakest smile of the whole day. “I just need a bit of rest and time alone. If I need help you will be the first I will look out for. Alright?”

“I-I guess?” Mirah replied, taken aback by the refusal.

“Let her be, Mirah,” Jafar added, his voice calm. “If she says she wants to be alone then just let her be.”

“I... fine...” The housewife responded in defeat. “But please, don’t hesitate to ask for help.”

“I won’t,” Aloe said, her smile ever-so-slightly more sincere than before.

“Alright...” Mirah sighed and smiled back at Aloe. “We’ll leave you alone. Today.”

Aloe sighed but waved at them as they disappeared into the thin crowd of the bazaar.

“Truth is, don’t feel pain.” She whispered to herself, only to leave her mouth hanging as she remembered something. “The ‘toughness’ internal infusion... I probably should deactivate it. I haven’t seen any side effects of maintaining an infusion for long on plants, but I don’t want to try it now...” Aloe took a step forward. “But I want to try something now that I think about it.”

Aloe shifted in a tranced state as she walked with a destination in mind. She moved on autopilot, her concentration on her internal flow of vitality. Every time she had changed her internal infusions, she had been stationary, but nothing stated that she could do otherwise.

The girl walked slowly, not trusting her ability to do both things at the same time. If she already took five minutes to infuse herself whilst totally still, she expected far worse results in movement.

Breathing in and out in harmony with her steps, Aloe shifted her vitality flow back into place. It was likely her imagination as the change in time was minimal, but going from infusion to default was faster than going from default state to infused state, or than infusion to infusion.

There... close... Her thoughts were muted as her concentration lingered on pushing her vitality back into place, and much like the latch of a door – once the push was enough – everything settled to normal with a quick switch.

Too normal for her liking.

“Ugh!” Aloe clutched her stomach as all her cramps suddenly assaulted her mercilessly, bile swelling up in her throat. Keep it inside. Keep it inside!

Her head became light and her thoughts blurry as the pain overwhelmed her. Struggling to stay conscious or keep the contents in her stomach, Aloe waltzed over to the nearest bench on the plaza she was currently on.

Sitting down helped her a lot, most of the pain numbing hastily. But she didn’t hesitate to delve into meditation to restore her ‘toughness’.

“Worst idea ever,” Aloe muttered under her breath, having difficulties talking from the gag of the bile.