The moment Liora stepped close enough to see it clearly, the Compass of Returning Paths at her side began to vibrate violently, far more intensely than it ever had before, its silver needle spinning in frantic, directionless circles as though overwhelmed by the sheer gravity of what stood before it.
She knelt beside the sealed bloom and searched for some marker, some label, some small identifying detail the way every other flower in the garden seemed to possess. She found only a single title, engraved so faintly into the soil beside the stem that she nearly missed it entirely.
*The First Namer.*
No name. Only the title of what they had once been — the very first being to ever give a name to anything at all.
As Liora watched, transfixed, the sealed bloom began, ever so slowly, to open.
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