Guardians' Bloom

Guardians' Bloom is a striking red flower that grows in scattered clusters wherever Tauria's soil meets open air and light. Its wide petals surround a dark, almost black centre that produces a compound scent — bitter at the surface, and something underneath the bitter that Giliad has not found a word for.

The Vargor will not cross ground where Guardians' Bloom grows densely. They avoid it not merely with dislike but with a purposeful deliberateness that suggests the knowledge is old — carried in their instincts from long before the Taurus tribe arrived. Dendera began planting it along the settlement borders before Giliad had confirmed the mechanism. She was right.

Giliad's Field Note

The active compound is in the root secretion, carried through the soil rather than the air. Dendera's border planting is laid out with military precision: rows, spacing, coverage arcs calculated as if she were placing sentries. She is, in a sense, placing sentries. The flowers do not object. — G.