Basil called Thym and the twins into his room, looking happier than he had in days. Finally with some good news for not just the twins, but all those who cared about Virgo’s future.
“So I was following up about something Thym and I were talking about, specifically the usage of alchemy interrupting or weakening the immune response of your plants," he took a deep breath.
His guests had taken to his room like teens during a slumber party. Parsley was already making themself comfortable on his bed, and Thym, having not found anything to do with their hands for approximately one and a half minutes, appeared to be looking for something to pull apart. For better or for worse, Basil's tidy space didn't offer much on that front. Basil released a sigh. He was still damned exhausted.
"-And that led to another idea. Perhaps there was a lethal change in the rate at which the energy transferred. If we could confirm that, it could indeed mean an issue with the seeds. That spike in energy might have also led to a transference through the soil, leeching the effect to the rest of the plants. I checked previous data on successful records on the growing of plants just like the ones currently being killed by the blight. Thanks to the twins' and others' responsible collection of said data, it was quite easy to calculate the amount of energy given over the course of the specimens planting as well as the rate at which energy was transferred to them…"
Basil was interrupted by loud squeaking. Thym was trying to rock in his wooden desk chair and was succeeding only in tilting it side to side. At his confused staring, they frowned and sunk to sit on the floor instead.
Basil cleared his throat.
"Important to note, is that even with alchemical seeds of larger and smaller varieties from the same source, there remained an even and expected distribution of energy. Comparing the typical to a blighted sample, we’d be able to identify a spike that could’ve killed a plant. In my measurements of the latent energy in said samples, I noticed something else: What happened to the seed as the plant died."
"What?" Thym asked. They stepped over to the bed to sit by the twins.
"In response to the decline in health, the alchemical seeds went dormant, no longer passing energy into the plant or into the soil. Comparing other seeds involved with blighted plants showed the same. The amount of energy left in them consistent with the start of the blight." Basil continued "And just to add to that, placing that seed into another test plant, it activated, and started passing energy into it again. Guess what didn't happen?"
"No blight?" Thym followed.
Basil smiled. “None. No effect on the plant, nor the soil”
"It's not alchemy!" Thym all but cheered.
“And So-?” Coriander cradled their chin in thought.
Basil straightened, his eyes darting as he thought through it, a sense of determination regained. “Something is inhibiting the plants' growth, their ability to take in energy, killing them. Not the seeds, not anything to do with the plant. Not alchemy. ” He looked to Thym as he reaffirmed what they said. “We need to stop looking for an alchemical cause and refocus entirely.”
“So we just… rule it out?” Parsley asked with obvious reluctance “But we’ve spent so much time-”
Basil shook his head. "We should have ruled it out long ago, but we saw an obvious pattern and our worries kept us coming back. Even knowing alchemical weapons are only ever made through explicit intent by masters of the craft, Alchemy and the danger of it proving destructive was our first thought, our recurring concern. But something else is happening here, it has to be.”
“So what else could kill the plants? And why only the alchemical ones? All of us here take such good care of them...” Coriander asked, dejected.
Basil paused.
The keep was still in trouble. Even if they were sure it wasn’t the fault of alchemy. It’d be hard to disprove unless they could find the true cause.
Thym rolled off the bed with a huff and took to pacing around.
“You all jumped to Alchemy poisoning right, so like? Now that Alchemy is out...are there like- plant poisons?”
That was all it took.
Coriander’s eyes went wide.
“Herbicides?” Coriander determined. “I’ve got a book on them back in our lab.”
Parsley was squinting in thought “Say, If the seeds went dormant when the illness started, couldn't we determine the date the blight originated?”
"Sounds like we've got a couple good places to start in figuring out the real issue!" Thym cheered and stood at Basil's side. "To the Quinlan lab!?"
He couldn't help but smile. There was a glimmer of hope. "Yes, I'd think so."
