I tilted my head upward, taking in a few slashes of light from outside. The light in the room had a soft green cast, due to the moss that was creeping over the dome above.
“This is spectacular,” I said, imagining what it would be like to grow up with this as your playground and study area.
“Meadow, there you are!” Meadow’s mom pulled her into a hug, and I watched with amusement as Meadow tried to escape the full force of it.
I recognized her mom from the brief glimpse I’d had on the summer solstice at Evergreen Academy. Meadow’s mom had the same heart-shaped face and espresso eyes as Meadow, but instead of the black hair touched with a few faded pops of purple, her hair was a more natural black, her skin a warm brown, and she stood with much better posture.
Her outfit indicated she was already dressed for the gala, and she looked regal in an evening gown of deep-green. Still, there was a hint of working scientist remaining in her formal dress. She wore a badge hooked to a lanyard hanging from her neck, showcasing her credentials.
Meadow’s mom finally released her from the hug. “Callan, Hollis, hello again. And you must be Briar. I’m Marisol. It’s a pleasure to have you here. Now, I wish I could chat longer, but you all need to get changed for the gala. Meadow tells me you have some observations you need to make for a school project? Help yourself to any equipment. Enjoy yourselves tonight.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Meadow murmured and led us to a multipurpose room that was reminiscent of a swanky spa. Thewalls were wood-paneled, the air a touch humid. Callan and Hollis peeled off to the rooms on the right, and Meadow and I stepped behind separate curtains to get dressed.
When I emerged in a business-casual outfit I had prepared for the annual strategic meeting, Meadow shook her head. “Sorry, that’s not going to cut it. Luckily for you, I keep a few outfits here.”
Meadow riffled through a closet that was camouflaged to the room behind a wood-paneled door and then held up a silky basil-green dress. “You’re a little taller than me, so it might be a bit short, but this is more on dress code. Now, you knowIdon’t care about those sorts of things, but if you stick out like a sore thumb, it’s not going to do us any favors.”
I took the dress from Meadow and changed, and then we both tackled styling our hair. Other magical botanists began to enter the room, entering in hiking clothes and leaving runway ready.
“I’m not in a hurry to get out there. It’s going to be a social nightmare for me,” Meadow said. Both of us were fully ready, but we plopped down on some cushioned benches and snacked on nuts and hummus.
“Everyone wants to talk to the daughter of the moss conservatory caretaker, I’m guessing?” I asked.
“Not only that, but they want to know about school, what I’m planning to do afterward, etcetera, etcetera. Sometimes, I try out different outrageous responses just to see how they react. We can hide out in here for a bit and pretend we’re working on the ‘research project’ you all supposedly traveled here for.”
I laughed. It felt good to unwind with Meadow like this after the intensity of the morning and before we put on our party faces and joined the others.
“How long will your mom be the caretaker here? Is it an elected position?”
“It’s application-based. Or, at least, it was.”
“What do you mean? Is something changing?”
Meadow’s expression tightened. “There’s a proposal out to shift the position to a founder’s descendant appointment only. My mom might be safe, but she’s in an interesting position. She’s not a founder’s descendant, but my dad was before he passed away, and I’m obviously a founder’s descendant. It’s hard to say what will happen if this proposal goes through. My mom has put on a brave face, but I think she’s privately nervous.”
Something clicked into place then. “Is that why you were eager to join the Root and Vine Society?” I whispered even though the lounge was now empty. “Are you against that proposal?”
Meadow sighed but nodded. “Callan, Hollis, and I are a new wave of founders’ descendants. Or maybe an old wave. We want things to remain fair across the society of magical botanists, like it was for our grandparents. But there are a few powerful people in the current generation of control who are trying to move power back into the hands of founders’ descendants as the fracturing between the affinities is brewing. They seem to think that will make us stronger.”
It tracked with everything Callan had ever told me. “And that’s why we need the book.”
“There are groups trying to resist these changes in other ways, but the book would be a major point of leverage, for sure. If this proposal passes tonight… a lot is going to change for the mosses who aren’t founders’ descendants.”
“It’s being voted on tonight?”
“Yep, and word is that some of the other affinities have similar proposals up for discussion at their annual meetings this week as well.”
My stomach dropped. No wonder Callan had been so eager to get the search for the book underway. While I didn’t fully understand the structure of the society, it was clear from the reaction of these three that things were changing. And if they—founders’ descendants who stood to benefitfrom these changes—were actively resisting it, what did that mean for people with less power, like my friends back at Evergreen Academy?
“Well, I guess we’ve left Hollis and Rhodes on their own for long enough. Ready to do this?”
I took a deep breath and smoothed the skirt of my borrowed dress. “Lead the way.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
When we returned to the main room, the atmosphere was transformed, with the lights lower and the place already beginning to fill up. Meadow had been right—the moss conservatory’s annual strategic meeting more closely resembled a swanky early New Year’s Eve party than the board meeting I had been picturing.
Each attendee was dressed in varying shades of green, and moss boutonnieres were pinned to our chests as we entered the main room. I smiled when I realized Meadow had bucked the green dress code as much as possible, wearing a silky black pantsuit with only the moss boutonniere adding a splash of green. I spotted Callan and Hollis, who were both in deep-green suits.
