As I walked back into The Bloodstone, Alphonse just lowered his parasol as he walked ahead and used a knee to pop the top of the counter open as he nodded softly as a gesture for me to go behind the counter. I folded my hands in front of me, looking at the spots of dried blood on my fingertips as I walked ahead.

            “My office is upstairs, I’ve got a tea set up there, I’ll be right down” he said as he leaned the parasol on the back of the counter as he went up the stairs and I heard things rattling around. I looked around the ground floor, just…wanting to look around a little and not really knowing what to do; it was like being in a botanical garden almost. All of the planters had these ornately written tags staked into the dark sod, names written in English and French on them and they looked strange too, none of them were normal looking plants.

            One of the firsts ones I saw was this plant that grew to maybe my waist with thee thick, lobed leaves with were a neon green color, a few large bulbs near the top that were a swirled light orange and bronze mottled at the tips in a dark blue color, they were growing in the planter quite close, but seemed to need that by the very ordered manner they were placed. The tag called that Glozzine.

            The second planter had this thick shrub like plant with tiny, blunted leaves that were a light red color with huge flowers speckling it in silvers, gold and dark purple and filled the entire planter with their colors, tall, thin spiraling tendrils out of the flower centers thickly covered in bundles of bright yellow pollen, the tag called those Eeclore.

            There were more recognizable plants and things about the ground floor, ones I did recognize because of my own planters of herb and spice plants, but these were allowed to grow massive with either magic or just time itself: full grown bushes of rosemary, basil plants that crawled around metal trellis with leaves the size of my hands, a long planter of the bright purple flowers that grow saffron, vanilla orchids, full trees of various fruits and other herb/spices…there was even a full grown peppercorn tree, but its branches were filled with the floral pink peppercorn berries and bright green buds. There were things that I never thought I was going to be able to see in this state because of how difficult it is to keep or grow, like holy basil or the dozen or so types of orchids. There was a long planter along the left wall filled with fully grown bushes of tea.

            At the end of the floor were these huge planters of fully grown trees reaching high into the upper floors, their heavy green boughs casting this maze of shadows around/over me, the smell of the room was incredible; it was heavy, pungent and just as floral as it was woody and herbal. It was pleasantly warm, no more humid than it was outside and it was…comfortable inside the greenhouse area, it was no different than being outside walking through the wetlands.

            “So sorry about that…some of the pieces were not with the set” Alphonse said as he walked down the stairs holding a large pewter tray covered in a rather full tea-set of all miss-matched pieces; to the extent the lid of the teapot wasn’t of the same make of the pot or the teacups were set on drastically different saucers, it was…cobbled together in that way that makes it almost tacky, but in that thrifted together and well loved manner that made it seem perfectly normal for everything to not match or go together.

            “It’s alright” I sighed, he nodded softly as he led me to this small inlet at the back of the ground floor, the smooth stone floor ended in a curved end between a few planters of trees that nearly pressed against the ceiling high above, the bright light of the sun almost entirely blocked by the thick canopy, a gray stone coffee table was set with flanking loveseats of different styled velvet; one looked Victorian era with emerald green colored velvet whereas the other was Colonial era in white wood and cobalt velvet, a woven hempen rug under everything in this ornate mandala like pattern and shape that faded off to thick tassels at the edge dip-dyed crimson. He set the tray down before taking the lid off as he flicked a few fingers as his eyes milked over black and a few tarry bubbles lifted off his hand before one burst over the top of the pot and clear, clean water flooded into it as he flicked his other and the bubble burst leaving a flame softly floating in the air above the coffee table as he set the teapot above it and started just messing and fiddling with everything, flicking his fingers as the bubbles floated off then returned leaving clippings of various plants in his hands which he crushed in his hands before depositing them in the warming water. The green glass of the pot letting me watch the colors and herbs step into it as this heavy steam started rising while he…just off the cuff started throwing together some sort of tea blend.

            “I’m…sorry that that happened to you” He said, softly steepling his fingers, like a nervous tick, eyes still entirely black as the color retracted inwards to just his irises as the black bubbles vanished.

            “Is that…your magic?” I asked, he nodded

            “Everyone’s magic smells and looks different, mine…shows as black bubbles.” He shrugged

            “It’s pretty…like pearls” I said, he looked off a little as he twiddled with his hair a little, “Why did everyone treat you like that?”

            “People…don’t like me, most people could easily say they hate me” he sighed as he sat back on the green couch, softly resting his hands over his knee as he crossed his legs, “Because I have no idea what I am, how I am like how I am and everything like that they don’t like to be around me because they don’t know when I may…snap”

            “But you’re so kind…how could someone hate you?” I asked, he smiled softly at that

            “Thank you, but there is no changing how they treat me. Baton Vyolèt has treated me like this sense the day I stepped foot inside it.” he said with a shrug, “That was over a century ago, so…they leave me to myself.”

            “Isn’t that…sad?” I asked, “Or lonely?”

            “Well, I do have all of my plants, but there is also Simone.”

            “Simone?” I asked, he whistled as there was a soft bell jangling before the plant to my side burst as a long, slinky ink black sphinx cat bounded out of the planter and hopped up onto his lap, this large silver almost armor like collar with a large black stone set at the center, glowing yellow eyes and purring like an outboard motor.

            “My familiar, she’s been with me sense Academy.”

            “Academy?”