Side Story: The existence of Bloom

Sitting down with his legs crossed, Bloom stared at a small clay pot in front of him filled with soil, along with a single item more relevant to him and his interests, the seed of one of the giant trees found in the succubus lands.

With only a bit of intent making it sprout, the great spirit watching with interest as the first bit of red it held poked above the dirt, the colour matching the leaves it would eventually grow as it kept going, starting to split and rise up higher before his eyes as both branches and trunk were formed, softer flesh hardening into proper wood and bark and leaving a small sapling before him by the time he finished feeding it his power, tilting his head at it as he did.

He knew he could do significantly more to grow it if he’d really wanted, his creation had shown him as much once he’d been stabilized, but that hadn’t been the point. He’d wanted to watch it, to feel it grow and see what that meant and he compared what he’d witnessed to the changes in himself, wanting to understand them too.

Earth, water, and life spirits, that’s what he’d originally been. A group of separate entities, each with their own goals, desires, and ambitions, even if they tended to relate to their elements, before being merged together into something new. Arguably the world's first artificially created great spirit, depending on if one considered Mora’s birth to qualify as such or not, and the one who’d paid the heaviest price of existence.

Grace was in a similar boat to him of course, the world’s new blessing spirit had also initially reacted badly to its existence, but the scale of it was different. Everyone who Grace had been was aware of what they were agreeing to and when it had gone wrong, there was immediately someone by their side to help. For himself, he’d had time to wallow in his existence, to feel the wrongness of his inception and in some ways, the feeling still clung to him, even if he could manage it.

After all, no matter how poorly it had started, it wasn’t like his new existence was bad either. Where he’d experienced the world through earth, water, and life before, now he was experiencing it through the plants around him, only at a scale incomparable to a regular spirit.

Inside though he was, all around him, he could feel the plants of Anailia, from their greatest trees standing among the city’s buildings to its smallest grasses and all of them felt within the reach of his magic, not just the tree he’d grown before him. He could send his mana anywhere, spending a bit to grow one elderly incubus's vegetable garden and a bit more to make a flower patch blossom. Even the plants he didn’t touch with his power he could feel growing in smaller ways, their cycle of life driving their branches out a bit further and their roots a bit deeper in their quest for growth and survival, all while he was also aware of the other side of it, plants that were too old, too weak, too diseased, all slowly dying in the area too.

Something he didn’t know how to feel about either. He was the great plant spirit, all of the plants of that world were within his domain of power but did that mean he should help them thrive? It admittedly felt enjoyable, he liked giving them a bit more life to hang on for a bit longer but he also knew that there was a natural order to things. It was something every life spirit was well aware of. Things had to die so others could grow. If he protected everything within his domain then that would leave no room for new growth to take place, nor would those plants help nourish the soil if they were never allowed to fall.

And as alive as they were, plants were also tools to the people of the world, something he didn’t want to get in the way of. He remembered when he was many separate beings, all of them occasionally watching the inhabitants of that planet from time to time and for as long or as brief as it would end up being, he knew that most of them were just trying to get by and they used plants for so much. To feed themselves, to build their homes, their tools, to make clothing and more. If he couldn’t ignore a plant then he was putting himself in direct confrontation with the goals of the planet’s population.

Then, maybe I could try growing a forest. He thought, liking the idea when he had it. The world has a few dead areas, deserts where nothing grows and barren mountain ranges. Maybe I could take one for myself to play with.

It would undeniably give him more room to experiment with what he was and learn in a way that would fit his station. A good forest was like an organism itself, the different plants and creatures within it determining if it would survive and thrive or not. If he could build something that would work in a way that would allow it to live for centuries down the line, it would be a good bit of practice for his power, held off only by an arrival as a smaller plant spirit joined him.

“Oh, hello there,” Bloom greeted happily, briefly forgetting the role that came with his new existence before he went on. “Is there something I can do for you, little one?”

“Apologies, great one. I have a question.”

“Then tell me and I will do my best to help.”

“I’ve been doing my best to understand my magic but I realize I know little about the plants of the world themselves. Could you teach me?”

“I-”

His first instinct was to say of course. It seemed like a simple request by all accounts but one that hit an immediate wall when given the barest amount of thought. While he may have held some plant knowledge from the time he had been a collection of life spirits and from the spells and other relevant information that Ben had put into his mind, he didn’t know any deeper details of the vast majority. He could grow them, sure but what interesting traits did they have? How did they affect the land and the other plants around them and what uses might they have beyond that? It was a massive hole in his knowledge that, if he’d been born on his lost world like any other great spirit, he would have been able to learn as he grew but as things were, he couldn’t help. An answer that felt entirely unsatisfying given his station.

“If you’re willing to meet me again in a few days, I’ll try to give you the answers you’re looking for,” He tried to say confidently. “Let me gather some information to give you the best explaination I can.”

“Thank you! I’ll let the others know!”

Rushing off before Bloom could react to the idea that even more spirits would be joining, it only increased the pressure and forced him to put together something to do, leaving him to abandon his plant body where it sat to return to his true form instead before flying off to gather what he’d need before looking for help.

---

Going across the world and gathering thousands of seeds from every different plant he could find, all too soon he was back in Anailia, just beyond the city’s limit in the fields he’d started helping in ever since he’d been made, finding a few of his friends out there at work and rushed towards them after growing a new body for himself from the grass beneath his feet, getting to three of the dryads working fields of strange trees, the ingredients of the world’s strengthening potions that housed the souls of the forbidden gods, all being grown under their power.

While put under the control of the country, if they were going to be grown in a quantity that could ensure that shares made it to all corners of the world, plant mages were a must with the ones that were brought all holding an awakened form of that power, with each of them being some of the greatest sources of mortal help he’d gotten when it came to learning to fill his role while at the same time, became valuable companions as well. While there may have been a passing interest in mortals in all of the separate spirit lives he’d lived before becoming one, with the change to his thoughts he found their company far more enjoyable now than ever before, with the dryads as a species instantly becoming some of his favourites.

While not plants, they also weren’t exactly not not plants either, falling partially within his domain in a way that couldn’t help but interest him. While they were capable of photosynthesizing to an extent, it wasn’t such a great one that meant they could forgo food and half of their heritage always left its mark, the plants that would help birth each one leaving them with leaves or flowers growing in their hair, making them a race he was actually capable of casting healing magic on, a surprise that left his feeling in touch with the life spirits he once was, even if his lost earth and water aspects didn’t get to enjoy that same sense of familiarity. Still, he enjoyed getting to see them and he believed they enjoyed seeing him in return, with the first to notice him calling out his arrival, driving the three of them his way.

“Bloom’s here!” Centri yelled, plain excitement in her voice as she, Velin, and Tash all ran his way, having him surrounded the moment they noticed.

“You changed your body,” Velin said, not shy in placing her hands against it to feel the difference while the other two examined him as well, leaving him to laugh.

“Hello, my friends, I did. I was in a bit of a rush but I’m sorry to show up like this while you’re working.”

“We can take a break,” Tash told him, the other two agreeing with happy looks in their eyes. “We just weren’t expecting you. If we had been, the others would have tried to work an extra shift.”

The dozen responsible for maintaining those fields would have each wanted to get a bit of his time if they could, Bloom too unused to mortal behaviour to think anything of it, either what they were saying or the way they hadn’t stopped touching him, with the great spirit too focused on the reason he’d come.

“Well, I’m sorry I came unannounced, I’ll be here tomorrow to help though, just like I promised. I’m sorry to say it but I actually came to ask a favour.”

“Of course!”

“Absolutely!”

“Anything!”

“Really? Thank you so much,” He told them, reshaping his face into a grin to match how he was feeling on the inside. “Then if you don’t mind, do you think I could get you all to teach me a bit?”

“Sure, about what?” Centri was the first to ask, letting Bloom open up the body he’d created that had ended up storing the seeds his true form had held, spilling them onto the ground.”

“Could you teach me about all of these?”

“Are these… Seeds?” Velin asked, bending down to pick a few of them up and getting a nod in return.

“Yeah, I realized I don’t know enough about the plants of the world and seeing as how you’re all experts, I was hoping you could all teach me.”

Though their reactions looked grim, even Bloom had enough knowledge about mortals to tell what their fallen faces implied, with Tash being the one to speak first.

“Bloom, we’re fairly knowledgeable about plants but this is going to go pretty far past that,” Tash explained, sounding pained to let him down. “We know about the ones we grow and have uses for, maybe a few more beyond that, but we don’t know everything about all of them.”

“Oh.”

The single word held all of his disappointment. They were his best idea but it seemed it wasn’t meant to be, all of them able to tell how it affected his mood and left Centri to ask about it.

“Do you mind telling us why you want to know? Maybe there’s something we could still help with.”

“...It’s embarrassing but I don’t know much,” He said after a moment. “And just as bad, the other plant spirits don’t know much either and I’m meant to guide them. One asked me to teach them but I still need to learn myself so I’m trying to but… I don’t have enough experience being me.”

It felt almost shameful to admit. Great spirits were supposed to be more than that, that was what he’d always believed but already he couldn’t live up to the role, and didn’t know what to do until one of the dryads, Velin crouched down on the ground, digging through the pile of seeds he’d left there as he did.

“Velin?”

“I may not know about every plant but I can teach you about the ones I do if you collected any samples from them,” She told him. “And if you didn’t then later, we can go out and find some. Things don’t need to be all or nothing, Bloom. We can teach you what we do know and then you can figure out the rest while you go. If the other plant spirits don’t know anything either then they’ll understand once you explain that to them.”

“She’s right,” Centri said, she and Tash joining to find what examples they could help with among everything that had been brought. “And we’re all always happy to help you. When you see the others tomorrow, they’ll know things we don’t too. There’s plenty of time for you to find out more so just take things as you can. When you need it, we’ll try to be there for you.”

He didn’t know what to say but the plain willingness to try to help him left him touched as he lowered himself to join them, seeing what they’d spot. He’d run to them with a request, giving it little thought, yet still they were going to try for him. He called them friends but it wasn’t like they were spirits, the same connection wasn’t there. Still, he felt like he was seeing why a few of the other great ones found themselves drawn to mortals.