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Shining Thistle

by Kalisara

"Weird guy. Never causes any trouble, though."

- The owner of the Nine Dancing Bears, next door to the Prose in Petals

"I know his secret. We all do. It's sad and beautiful and I made a song about it. No, I'm not telling you. Go away."

- Lily-upon-the-Water, nymph of the rooftop pool

Shining Thistle is a Haltan, a rare sight outside the Eastern forests with his leaf-green hair and long-toed, invariably bare feet. He arrived in Nexus nine years ago, purchasing a pair of derelict buildings in the most run-down part of Cinnabar and turning them into a greenhouse named the Prose in Petals, one of the most exotic commercial establishments in Nexus (and, Nexus being what it is, there's a fair amount of competition).

Since buying the two buildings, Shining Thistle has shored up foundations, put in windows, carted in several tons of soil, and planted seeds. Lots of seeds. Also tubers, cuttings, bulbs and a few stranger things. Nine years on, the Prose in Petals is an urban forest - vines clamber the walls, trees grow up through the buildings (strategically placed holes in the floors help here), blossoms and shrubs grow on every floor, and the roofs of the buildings - linked by an elaborate bridge overgrown by jasmine - are exquisite meditation gardens, one centered around a still pool, the other accented by three gently dancing fountains.

Inside the Prose in Petals, it is virtually impossible to tell that one is in a building in the middle of a city, rather than a lush natural forest or the garden of an isolated monastery, save for the extraordinary variety of growing things. Among his glades, Shining Thistle tends to such delicate and expensive plants as the Blue Tongue Orchid, keening iris, copperheart vine and violet-eyed empress: the greenhouse is also favoured by several rare species of birds, bees and butterflies, and a number of wood and water elementals who can be found among the trees and pools.

Shining Thistle himself is a quiet, reclusive man, with a wry sense of humour that few people see. Most of his friends are the elementals of the garden, who he converses with regularly. He seldom leaves his greenhouse, sleeping amidst the trees and flowers, and spends the money he earns from his plants primarily on more plants. Although he speaks longingly of Halta and its trees, he steadfastly refuses to say why he left.

Rumours

• The greenhouse is inhabited by Fair Folk (most versions of the rumour say one or two, although a persistent variant insists there are dozens, if not hundreds, and that the greenhouse is bigger on the inside than the outside).
• Somewhere in one of the 'secret' areas of the Prose in Petals is a tree of the Peaches of Immortality.

Secret

When Shining Thistle was a young man, he fell passionately in love with a young woman, and vice versa. Unfortunately, his lover was Linowan, and their marriage thus impossible. They intended to run away to Nexus together, but an ill-timed raid and resultant battle forced them to make separate escapes, promising to meet up later. Shining Thistle still waits for his lover, though he has no idea whether she is dead or has abandoned him, or might still turn up someday.

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