Faral paused, and the dark purple lotus swayed gently upon the surface of the fountain.
"I'll first explain what the lotus truly is."
Zhu, who had been preparing to poke one of his petals again, slowly withdrew her finger.
Herkid immediately leaned forward.
Mara smiled at his obvious eagerness but said nothing.
Faral continued. "This lotus was originally nothing more than a spiritual plant."
Zhu looked at the magnificent flower. "Nothing more?"
"It was exceptionally rare," Faral corrected. "But it was still a plant."
"Ah."
"The spring beneath this fountain is not an ordinary source of water. It is a Spiritual Spring. For countless years, the lotus grew here, continuously absorbing the spiritual energy produced by the spring."
Herkid's expression changed. "Countless years of uninterrupted spiritual nourishment..."
"Precisely."
"Then it evolved."
"It did."
Herkid stared at the lotus with renewed fascination.
Spiritual plants were already rare. Most were harvested long before they had the opportunity to mature, especially those capable of improving mana circulation or strengthening the soul. A spiritual plant allowed to grow undisturbed for thousands of years was almost unheard of.
"The lotus gradually developed a consciousness," Faral continued. "Not a consciousness like yours or mine. It could not reason as you do. It possessed no language. No understanding of morality. Its thoughts were primitive."
"A semi-sentient spirit," Herkid murmured.
"Yes."
Zhu frowned at the flower. "So this thing is alive?"
"Technically, all plants are alive."
"You know what I mean."
"I do."
"And yet you answered that way deliberately." Zhu frowned her brows. This stinky fart just seemed to want to aggravate her of late!
"Yes."
Zhu narrowed her eyes. "Stinky Faral."
The lotus swayed peacefully.
Mara hid a smile. "So the spirit inside the lotus is the one that trapped you?" she asked.
"Yes."
The lightness in the courtyard faded.
Faral was silent for a moment before continuing.
"When I encountered the lotus, I was traveling in my spiritual form using Astral Projection. I had no physical body with me. I was merely a wandering soul passing through this place."
"Was Hollowveil already like this?" Herkid asked, gesturing toward the ancient buildings surrounding them.
"I do not know."
Herkid blinked. "You don't?"
"I have no memory of my arrival."
That answer seemed to trouble Faral more than he allowed his voice to reveal. "I remember being somewhere else before I came here. I know that much. I remember traveling."
His voice became quieter. "But where I came from, why I was traveling, and where I intended to go..."
The water continued trickling gently into the fountain.
"...all of that is gone."
No one interrupted him. "When I passed near the Spiritual Spring, the lotus sensed me."
Zhu looked down at the flower.
"What did it want with you?"
"I cannot know with certainty. As I said, its consciousness was primitive. I do not believe it understood what I was."
"Then why trap you?"
"Instinct." Faral's answer came immediately. "It sensed a powerful spiritual presence and reacted."
Herkid frowned thoughtfully. "Like a carnivorous plant catching prey?"
"Possibly."
Zhu's eyes widened.
She immediately moved a little farther away from the fountain. "You could have mentioned that before I put my hands in the water."
"It has shown no interest in consuming you."
"That is not as comforting as you seem to think it is."
"I did not intend it to be comforting."
"Of course you didn't."
Faral ignored her. "The lotus possesses an innate spiritual ability. Before I understood that I was in danger, it had already activated."
"What kind of ability?" Mara asked.
"A binding ability." The lotus's dark purple petals glimmered faintly.
"My soul was pulled into the lotus and bound to its physical body."
Herkid's eyebrows rose. "Immediately?"
"Almost."
"You couldn't resist?"
"I did." There was something in those two words that silenced him. Faral had already demonstrated enough power for them to understand what that simple answer meant.
He had fought.
And he had still lost. "I attempted to escape for a very long time," Faral continued. "I do not know whether it was years, decades, or centuries. Time became difficult to measure."
Zhu's expression slowly lost its playfulness. "But you never got out."
"No." Faral said in a solemn voice.
"Why?"
Faral did not answer immediately. Instead, the violet light surrounding the lotus grew slightly brighter.
"Because at the time I was weak."
Herkid leaned closer. "Do you remember what happened? Why you were weak?"
"I cannot recall."
Zhu frowned. "Oh boy that is some extensive memory loss"
"Indeed." There was no sadness in his voice just resigned to the situation.
Faral's voice remained calm.
"At first, the lotus and I were separate. It was the captor. I was the prisoner. Its spirit occupied the plant, while my soul was merely bound within it."
The fountain water rippled. "But spiritual beings do not remain unchanged when connected for prolonged periods."
Mara seemed to understand first. "You started to merge."
"Yes."
The word fell heavily between them.
"Over time, my soul became increasingly intertwined with the lotus's spirit and physical body. Its spiritual energy entered me. My own spiritual energy entered it. The boundaries separating us gradually became less distinct."
Herkid stared at the flower. "So after all this time..."
"We are both bound to the same vessel."
Silence followed.
Zhu looked at the lotus differently now. Until that moment, she had thought of it as a beautiful flower containing Faral. The reality was far more complicated. Faral was not merely sitting inside it, waiting for someone to open a door.
His soul had become part of the prison itself.
"Then why don't we just pull you out?" Zhu asked.
"I cannot leave."
"You entered my mindscape."
"My consciousness entered your mindscape," Faral corrected. "My soul remains bound here."
Zhu paused. "Oh."
"What you encountered was an extension of my consciousness. Similar to how I am able to communicate with you despite being physically located here."
"But you still don't know why you could reach me outside the forest."
"No." Faral's voice had a tinge of frustration. "How many times are you going to ask?"
Zhu grinned. "Just checking."
"Your persistence is admirable."
"Thank you."
"That was not praise."
"I accepted it as praise."
Mara laughed softly before returning to the problem. "What would happen if someone destroyed the lotus?"
The courtyard became still.
Faral answered simply. "I may die."
Zhu's smile disappeared. "May?"
"I do not know."
"That's not a very good answer."
"It is the only truthful one I can provide."
Faral explained further. "The lotus is now the physical vessel anchoring my soul to the material world. If it is destroyed, the lotus spirit will almost certainly perish."
"And because your soul is connected to it..." Mara said.
"My soul may be destroyed with it."
Herkid's expression became serious. "Then destroying the lotus is completely out of the question."
"I agree." Zhu folded her arms.
"So we can't pull you out, and we can't destroy the flower."
"Correct."
"And both you and the lotus spirit are stuck inside the same body."
"Correct."
"That sounds very inconvenient."
"It has been."
"For thousands of years?"
"Possibly."
Zhu grimaced. "Very inconvenient."
Faral seemed to decide not to respond to that.
Mara stepped closer to the fountain. "But you said there was a way."
"A possibility," Faral corrected.
"What's the difference?" Zhu asked.
"A way implies confidence."
"And a possibility?"
"Means we may all fail disastrously."
Zhu stared at the flower. "You really know how to encourage people."
"I prefer accuracy."
Herkid's attention sharpened. "What is the possibility?"
For several seconds, Faral did not answer.
Then the lotus began to glow. Violet light moved through its petals, traveling along delicate veins that had previously been invisible. The water surrounding it responded, sending soft ripples across the fountain.
"We separate us."
Herkid frowned. "Separate your souls?"
"Temporarily."
"Is that possible?"
"I believe so."
Zhu pointed at the lotus. "Wait. You just spent all that time explaining how completely tangled together you two are."
"Bound," Faral corrected.
"Tangled."
"That is an oversimplification."
"Still tangled."
Faral ignored her. "The lotus spirit and I share the same physical vessel, but we remain two distinct spiritual existences. Our connection has deepened over time, but we have not become one."
"Yet," Herkid said.
The lotus became still.
"Yet," Faral agreed. That single word caught Zhu's attention.
She looked at the flower more carefully. "What are you planning?"
"If the lotus spirit could be temporarily removed from the physical vessel, there would be a brief period during which the body would be unoccupied."
"Except for you," Mara said.
"Except for me."
Herkid slowly stood. Understanding began to dawn on his face. "You want to take control of the lotus."
"Yes."
Zhu blinked. "So instead of escaping the flower..."
"I would become the flower."
She stared at him.
Then at the delicate purple lotus.
Then back at him—or at least at the flower she had been addressing as him.
"Faral."
"Yes?"
"You do understand that this does not improve the flower situation."
Mara burst out laughing. Even Herkid failed to suppress a smile.