After a difficult day, Seth was relieved when the odd guardsman finally agreed not to report on the ghost. If his dad or Priest Joe found out about it, they would be duty-bound to purify it, no matter how harmless Landon was. On the way back to Lith, his mind was buzzing between the random words he had learned in this new tongue and the insights he had gained into his Plant and Virtue essences. Now that he knew to draw mostly from the plant’s own essence like he would draw from the Virtue circulating in his own body, healing and purifying the plants was much easier. He was developing a theory that he could apply some of the same principals to healing, which could make him much more efficient.

The chance to heal the foliage had mostly been an excuse for going back to the ghost, but he was actually looking forward to both now. He knew that if these trips were going to become more regular, he would have to show some improvement and actually help more of the jungle. He resolved to spend more time at the start of the trips on plant purification. The rest of the walk was spent trying to figure out how to explain his ideas about Plant essence to his dad.

Sheldon left him at the gate, heading toward a squat brick building that was the guard station. Seth took a roundabout path back to the temple, which was large enough that most roads in the relatively small outpost passed near it. On the way, he decided to stop by the ‘town bakery,’ which was neither in what most people would consider a town, nor a place where people usually bought baked goods; its primary purpose was to mass produce rations for the people that manned the outpost. As with many other nominal amenities in Lith, the bakery was where whatever baker that had pissed off someone in their guild that year was assigned. Most of them hated it, being a year or so of boring, unrewarding work in a dangerous environment.

Lith’s baker was expected to produce a constant amount of specific bread products each day, mostly hardtack, plain loaves, and bowls, with anything more interesting coming out of their own pocket. Seth stepped into the bread production facility and nodded to the baker, who was surprised to see him.

“Good evening,” Seth said. “I wanted to apologize for getting your name wrong the other day and see how you’re doing. If you want to get used to essence-aligned places without going to a church, spending time on the temple grounds will help you gradually build up a tolerance.”

The man’s hopeful expression diminished somewhat. “Name’s Al. I’m fine, ‘preciate you telling me about that, I guess. Sounds easier than imaginin’ donating to the poor while I make fifteen trays of hardtack each morning.”

Seth nodded. “I would like to buy some bread too. Do you have anything with a bit of sugar in the dough? My Value stipend as an acolyte isn’t very large, so nothing too fancy please.”

“Sure!” Al said, mood improving considerably. “I don’t make ‘nough for sugar to be worth it neither, but Nathan, he’s a soldier, brings me honey he finds on patrol sometimes. I used some to make a small batcha breadsticks, how ‘bout one of them?”

“Thanks, but I’m not sure I can afford something with honey.” Seth said reluctantly. “It’s pretty Valuable.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it.” The baker said dismissively. “I get the honey free, won’t charge you for it. Pay the Value of this bread bowl and it’s yours.”

Seth touched the bread bowl in question and filled its Value. Al took it out, then handed him a warm breadstick that was slightly uneven at the ends and rectangular, but smelled good. The bread bowl definitely had more dough in it than the breadstick, but Seth knew the man needed to make at least a little profit. His mouth full, he nodded to Al and left, wondering what the baker had done to get assigned to Lith. His dad told him that people tended to be nicer to priests, or maybe the man was nice and just annoyed the wrong person.

Back on the temple grounds, Seth headed for his parents’ rooms, but was waylaid in the narthex by Priest Joe.

“Seth!” Joe said as he approached. “Glad to see you’re back alright. I’d like to talk to you about how your work at the ritual site went once I get the report from the guard captain tomorrow. Is that alright with you?”

Seth nodded, and turned toward the side wing of the building.

“Just a moment.” The priest stopped him again. “Your mother isn’t feeling well. Levi is healing her, but you know how long it takes to even marginally improve her condition. I’m sure that she would love for you to go visit her bedside tomorrow before you meet with me in the afternoon.”

Seth sighed deeply and turned back toward the entrance. Joe looked at him for a moment, then patted him on the shoulder and walked away. Seth went back to his dorm to change, jammed Philip’s door to make himself feel better, and walked to the greenhouse. Even though he could heal, he wasn’t nearly strong enough to help his mom. It took all his dad’s effort whenever her condition worsened. Priest Joe had gently suggested contacting a Temple of Finality for hospice care, but Levi and Seth had harshly refused. The distant sounds of Philip swearing at a door barely improved his mood as he got ready for bed that evening.

The next morning, Seth was up with the sun. He watered the temple’s greenhouse, two gardens, and nearly twenty planting beds, had cream of wheat in a bread bowl for breakfast, then went to see his mom. All the curtains in his parents’ bedroom were open as wide as possible, and the room glowed with the morning sun. Lola was already awake and looking better than Seth had feared. She just looked tired, lying there with her thin, graying, blond hair hanging unkempt around her face. The bulging mole on her right arm was dark enough to see through the old threadbare robe she wore to bed.

She gave him a warm smile and frail hug as he came in, and Seth had to be careful not to squeeze her as tight as he wanted to. She was thrilled when he told her about the connections he was starting to see between his two essences, and kept him for over an hour as she made him try to remember what all of the Chaotic plants had looked, sounded, or smelled like. When he finally begged off for his meeting with the Head Priest, he shook her hand with as much dignity as he could muster, and left the room as she chuckled. She had taught him how to be polite with people when they first moved to Lith thirteen years before, and apparently his four year old self had decided the proper way to greet everyone was to give them a firm handshake while staring at their forehead.

Seth walked through the temple sanctuary, expression dark. He had taken the opportunity to briefly examine her Vitality, and the strange areas that seemed to be constantly healing had spread further. He opened Priest Joe’s office door without thinking to knock. The Head Priest looked a bit surprised, but gestured for him to take a seat.

“How is your Mom doing?” Joe asked.

“Better, but not well.” Seth grumbled.

“Of course. I’m sorry.” Joe said as he pulled a piece of paper from his desk.

Seth shrugged wearily, and asked, “is that the report?”

“Indeed.” Joe said as he skimmed it for the third time. “For such a taciturn fellow, that guardsman certainly writes excellent reports. Captain Samira actually complained about the excruciating level of detail.”

Seeing Seth’s blank look, he clarified, “she has rather high standards. Anyway, while I didn’t necessarily need a comprehensive list of every Chaotic plant Mr. Sheldon saw, nor the several mentions of where there aren’t tunnels in the ground, his specific descriptions of how each plant looked once you purified them are helpful. Though he lacks the understanding to assess your essence use itself, he observed and tracked your slight improvements during the day. Do you have anything to add?”

Seth was relieved that Sheldon had carried through on his promise not to mention the ghost. Looking at the choppy but highly detailed report, he reflected that he might have misjudged the man. Looking at some of the Chaotic plant descriptions, several of which Seth had apparently overlooked, he had an idea.

After loosely explaining his thoughts on Plant and Virtue essence similarities, Seth asked. “Would it be possible for me to use the advanced reference texts occasionally? I suspect that some of the Chaotic plants are interacting with other essences, and knowing the proper Church of Virtue approach to them could be helpful.”

Of course, this would also let him look up otherwise restricted information on Loss essence creatures like ghosts, but the Head Priest didn’t appear to notice his slight deception.

Joe considered for a moment, then slowly nodded. “You’re close to becoming a Priest anyway, that should be fine as long as you don’t try to use them for too long each day. Accessing too much information will wipe out your Virtue long before your father or I would have any problem.”

“I could use them for an hour before I go to bed.” Seth suggested. “That way my essence will be restored overnight.”

Joe shook his head. “Half an hour, but otherwise that’s fine. Now, do you still want to continue going back to the ritual site?”

“I thought most of this conversation was based on that?” Set said, confused.

“Well, yes.” Joe said. “But I had to ask plainly. You are approved to go four days a week, starting tomorrow. For today, you should spend some time with your father.”

Seth was surprised. “Four days a week? With Sinday off, that would mean Sheldon isn’t doing regular guard duty at all.”

“The guard captain apparently agreed with you that the remnant Chaos was a significant potential threat.” Joe said. “Now, you’ll find your father in the greenhouse. I do believe that he’s overwatering the plants again.”

Seth found his father pouring half a can of water on a bedraggled azalea, staring into space. The whole greenhouse was misty, but Seth could still tell that Levi had been crying. Seth sensed his eyes being gradually healed to stop them from becoming bloodshot. Seth slowly took the watering can and leaned against him.

“It’s getting worse.” Levi whispered.

“I know, Dad” Seth pulled his father into a hug.

____________________________________________

Over the next few weeks, Seth threw himself into purifying the jungle foliage and trying to understand the ghost. The advanced reference texts of the Virtue Church mostly addressed how to prevent or get rid of ghosts, but there was some information about how they worked and their altered mindset. Seth found that the ghost, Landon, had no mental disconnect between his belief that he was teaching Seth English as part of his “student teaching” role in Mrs. Tibbons’ classroom, and the knowledge that he was in another world. It was only when Seth mentioned the events surrounding his death that he had a problem.

Landon’s ghostly form still had everything that he had died with, and the various objects worked the same as they had when he was alive. He even complained about how the shoes he had bought were a little too tight on his toes. The texts said this was normal, and the reason why a warrior ghost killed in battle could be especially dangerous. What was less normal were the things Landon actually had in his rucksack. He occasionally complained about not being able to find his ‘phone,’ but Seth quickly figured out that he had dropped it as he was being killed by the boars, and that mentioning it was very bad for the ghost’s mental state.

What Landon did have however, was something called a laptop. He used something on it called flashcards to help teach Seth vocab, and the shifting drawings on the item were incredible. On a few occasions, Seth managed to convince Landon to show him the hundreds of drawings of Landon’s world and family. It took Seth about a month to reach a decent understanding of the English tongue. Landon said that was fast, and that the only reason it was that easy even with Seth’s diligent study was that English and Yslish had similar ‘grammar.’

Seth still didn’t know plenty of words that just hadn’t come up, but he had reached a point where he could usually describe what he meant well enough for Landon to tell him the term.

Then, everything changed when Landon showed him a drawing of his uncle in a ‘hospital.’ It only took a few more questions for Seth to understand that healers in Landon’s home were very different from here, and that they knew far more about the causes of disease.

While Seth knew Landon himself wasn’t a healer, he had to try. “Do you have any doctor knowledge?”

“Well…” Landon paused. “I do have…but maybe that’s not a good idea.”

“What isn’t?” Seth pressed. “I’m a doctor, if I get more doctor knowledge, I can help more people.”

He chose not to mention his mom.

“I’m not sure about bringing that kind of information to another world without modern medicine.” Landon said, conflicted.

“What if we make the deal?” Seth leaned forward. “I tell you more of here, you tell me your doctor knowledge.”

Seth had largely avoided talking about his home, to Landon’s obvious frustration. He was interested in Landon’s home, and was a bit worried that telling him too much might affect Landon’s mind somehow. But Seth was desperate, as his mother had had another, longer period of weakness and bedrest. The offer turned out to be exactly what Landon needed to hear.

“...Oh, fine.” He said, annoyed. “How about you start by telling me where your magic comes from, and I’ll tell you what kind of…doctor knowledge I have with me.”

Seth shrugged. “My I-came-out-of-my-mother-owed is using two what-things-really-are, like my Mom and Dad.”

After some back and forth they figured out that the words Seth lacked were ‘birthright’ and ‘essence,’ but that they also didn’t mean just what they did in English. Essence seemed to be similar to how Landon used the word magic, and English lacked the concept of an actual birthright other than rich people getting things from their parents. Once Landon understood that a birthright was the collective term for the gift you get from your mother and the gift you get from your father, he pulled a book with a nice spiral drawing on the front from his bag.

“Oh, so it’s genetic?” Landon asked. “That’s what the textbook is about, actually.”