Bloomed Roots Novels & Stories

"It's been raining constantly the past few months, so the Flame Roots must've already matured. As long as we look around at the wetter areas, we should be able to pick up quite a few Flame Roots." "Flame Roots are amazing things, and a mature Flame Root is incredibly valuable. There was a five-hundred-year Flame Root a few days ago sold for two thousand spirit crystals!" The moment he heard that, the other guy's eyes widened. "Two thousand? Why has the price soared by so much? I saw someone selling Flame Roots before. A five-hundred-year-old flame root is already one of the best, but it was only worth a thousand and five hundred. How could it go up by so much?!"

he says I crouch down again doing it dramatically and take the bud a little roughly I am irritated doing the same thing for the whole bloody past week I touch the bud and will it to bloom glaring at it And it did bloom beginning to unfurl its petals still I didn't leave I don't know what came over me It bloomed it unfurled completely still I stared at it A white beam began to form below it I could hear Gorgon calling my name but I was in some trance I stared until the white beam enveloped the flower completely and then the flowers exploded into various tiny pieces and then everything turned black

When he awoke, he would discover the ground outside his tent wet, as if rain had recently fallen there and nowhere else. On the afternoon when Kaed found him at the outside ridge, digging in the ground with a shovel far beyond the time the others had quit working. "Hey," she whispered. "You'll dig to the underworld if you keep at that." He did not glance up. Sweat marked his temple, his movements stiff and automatic. "The roots are moving too far toward the river. They'll smother the current." Kaed got down next to him, observing the earth. The roots he was discussing throbbed weakly webs of silver light coursing under the ground. They weren't killing the river; if anything, they appeared to

There was a sudden haze in my memory that made me drop the memory. "W-what happened here?" No idea what these roots are. I have never read of a plant that lives like this. What I see are the roots similar to vines and the body is black. It's moving a little but it's not attacking anything. Inside the store was similar to a ballet bark, and it was even slightly moving and lurking.

**Kelly Thompson's POV** The Seeds don't fall-they *root*. Each one pierces the earth like a bullet, sprouting into monstrous hybrids of flora and flesh. Trees grow skeletal hands, flowers bloom into screaming mouths, and the air thickens with pollen that glows like emerald fire. The Rootmother watches from her thorned throne, her laughter a chorus of cracking bark and dying gasps. **"You've done well, daughter,"** she says, her voice vibrating in my fungal-riddled bones. **"Now watch your world *bloom*."**

The heavy steel platform ground to a halt. The doors hissed open, and the brilliant morning sunlight of the Glass Conservatory spilled over us. "You broke the parameters," Franco breathed. He stepped forward, waving his armed guards back with a sharp flick of his wrist. His dark eyes darted between me and the lethal operative standing obediently at my shoulder. "The Apex Bloom was designed to leave one survivor. A single, ruthless victor. You spared the soldier. You defied the architecture."

Because under the rubble A pulse throbbed. Strong. Growing. Matching us. The vessel wasn’t done. It was learning again. And next time It wouldn’t run. It would come back.

"You are making the planet look like a dream again. They cannot find the dirt because they cannot see through the light." Suddenly the ground moved. It was not a ship. It was something from under the dirt. A massive black root burst out of the ground near Junes mother. It was not made of wood. It was made of the black metal as the Investors ships. "The plants!" the soldier yelled. "They are not just growing up. They are growing down into us!" June watched with horror. The roots started to wrap around the survivors legs. They were not crushing them. They were plugging into them like charging cables.

“Do you smell it?” My frown deepened. “What nonsense are you blabbering about? Have you lost your mind?” He turned his head away from me, doing that weird sniffing thing. “The whole palace needs to be rid of moonveil blossom.” Moonveil blossom. There was nothing like that planted anywhere on my grounds. “I think you have officially lost it and you better pray to the goddess that I don’t lose my shit.” “Who put this flower here?” He motioned to the discard bouquet. “Whoever put this here is bathed in the moonveil blossom.”

“I can smell dead plants and mud. I can feel the roots of trees or hedges or something dangling from the roof.” “What kind of trees?” “I don’t know.” “Get up. Feel the roots, smell them.” I stand up, bumping my head painfully hard against the roof of the enclave they’re holding me in. Clumps of dirt and mud rain down on me, but I ignore it as I reach up to feel the roots. “I don’t think they’re very deep. Thick roots, but spread out. I don’t know.” I stand on my toes to smell it, concentrating on the roots and the tree above. “I’m not sure. It smells kind of…citrusy.”