Chapter 27

Ava Jenkins knelt in the rich soil of Emerald Valley, her fingers deep in the loam. To any observer, it was a quiet December evening in Italy, but to her, the garden was a symphony of biological data. She felt the pulse of the wheat, a strain she had spent months editing to thrive in the smog-choked ruins of the cities. With a pulse of her Forest power, she accelerated the cell division, watching the stalks thicken and the grain heads heavy with nutrients that shouldn't exist in such toxic times. The...