Professor Variegata was standing by a stack of small baskets, and the vine that was often snaking around her wrists was in full motion today, moving across her forearm and palm like a calming massage.
“We’ll be doing a foraging task today. Here’s your objective,” she began. “You have thirty minutes to return here with a basketfulof edible foods. At least two different types of foods are required. You must prepare whatever you forage for consumption, so don’t get too creative. Nothing poisonous, of course, unless you know how to counter them.” Her eyes shot to me. “Please pair up. Any questions?”
When we all shook our heads, she took a seat on a large stump and gently waved a hand at us in the universal signal ofwell, get going.
I looked around as harvesters who were well acquainted began to group up in twos. When my eyes landed on Kaito, a second-year I knew, I caught his eye. “Want to be partners?” I asked.
“Sure.” Kaito reached down and picked up a basket. “I wasn’t expecting this to happen outside of the campus walls. You’re local, right? What’s best for foraging around here?”
I thought about it for a moment. “I admit I’ve never foraged before beyond picking blackberries. Those are in season, so we should keep an eye out. Mushrooms are common here too. Do mushrooms count even though they’re fungi and not plants?”
Kaito contemplated it. “The only rule was that it had to be edible.”
“Okay, I think mushrooms and berries are our best bet. Maybe some nuts.”
Kaito began to walk, the basket swinging from his hand. “I’ll reach out with my senses to see if I feel any, but with the quantity of trees out here, I don’t know how loud those signatures will be.”
I nodded. “I’ll do the same.” I was grateful that the task was happening outside the gates, which meant my powers were alive and well. I didn’t have much experience using my powers to locate something, but I tried to tap into what I did know. Last year, during a game of Capture the Roses, we’d used our tree affinity powers to have the trees communicate and guide us to the other team’s rose. Maybe the same could apply here.
I searched my brain for what I knew about theRubusgenus,which contained brambles like blackberries and raspberries. Nothing very helpful came to mind, so I tried envisioning the roots and rhizomes, the green leaves, thorns, and dark, juicy fruits. I pictured the blackberry bushes I had seen growing up, clinging to the edges of roadways.
“Let’s get out of the forest,” I suggested. We were walking near a river that ran parallel to a road when I sensed a change in the soil nearby. My attention was drawn to a massive oak tree whose roots were creeping out toward the river. Without a word to Kaito, I shot toward the tree and began to scan the ground below it. “Kaito, over here!”
“What is it?”
I pointed to the pale-brown shapes in the ground. “It’s a mushroom gold mine.”
“And they are edible?” Kaito crouched down next to me and began to examine a mushroom. One look at the distinctive pits and ridges that formed the mushroom’s cap was answer enough, and Kaito seemed to know his mushroom anatomy too. “Good. These are morels. We can eat them.”
Kaito was already tugging the mushrooms from the earth and adding them to his basket. “How’d you sense them?”
“It wasn’t them. It was something about the soil. I think the pH is a little higher here.”
“You could sense the soil?” Kaito paused the mushroom collection to look up, a piece of straight black hair falling across his forehead. “That’s not a common power.”
I knelt and helped him collect the mushrooms. “I’m not very precise about it, but yeah.”
“No wonder Kale Brightmoor is trying to schmooze you.”
“Noticed that, did you?”
“He personally tasked you to join the harvesters today, right?”
I nodded.
“My mom says all this affinity separation has been brewing fora while. All it takes is for one affinity to start a power grab, and the others will follow. Each board member wants their affinity group to have the most influence in society.”
“Wouldn’t it be better for all the affinities to work together? We’re all magical botanists, right?”
“That’s the idyllic scenario and one Evergreen Academy was established on. Times are changing, though. As the environment becomes more under threat, magical botanists get more… desperate, I guess. Ready to find our second edible item?”
I nodded in agreement and looked around, trying to process everything Kaito had said. Changes had obviously been happening within the society over the summer, and Callan wasn’t the only one to notice. My eyes snagged on something farther along the road.
“I think those are blackberry bushes.” We hurried toward the bushes and began to pick the plump berries. With my harvester affinity active here outside the gate, I didn’t have to be careful as I plucked the berries from the vines. The thorns that would normally poke me had no effect. I smiled and quickened my pace until we topped off the basket.
“I’ll work on cooking the morels by pulling water from the air and steaming them as we walk,” Kaito offered as we began to hurry back toward the grounds.
“Brilliant,” I said.
