#palisander

ASK: Nice teamwork, Orchid and Pali! Awesome to know you two would stick your neck out for the greater good!

PALI: Hardly. I was more focused on getting out of there alive. Obviously he didn't feel too dissimilarly. At least he left something that's actually worth my time.

AQUA: Welp, I've skimmed most of it! It's a biography of one of the Empire's last rulers, Empress Meadowbrook. She kinda looks like you, huh?

PALI: Why would Orchid need something like that?

ORCHID: If I remember correctly, he was the patron mew of the whole Empire. It's like a role that you get for being an origin mew. They basically worship you as a living god.

PALI: That... actually explains a lot about the way he is... Anything else interesting in here?

AQUA: Uh, not much, she was the last ruler of the Empire before the Collapse. They say a light as bright as the sun appeared in the middle of the night, swallowing the Capital and leaving nothing left. No one was really sure what happened though.

PALI: Really? That certainly is an ominous tale.

AQUA: Oh! She apparently had three kids!

PALI: Whoa, really?

AQUA: Yeah! See, they even have portraits. Ipomoea, the Crown Princess; Helianthus, Prince of the Great South; and her youngest son, Amaryllis. Says here that he perished in the fall of the Capital. Aw, that's sad!

ASK: Wen@Palisander: "So quick to ignore a vital detail just for the sake of indulging your curiosity, even if only hypothetically. I wouldn't want anything to do with any place with a caste system," he scoffs.

PALI: Honestly, I'm not surprised about that. It was a lot more common, even back in my time. I might ask Aqua about it later, for the sake of archaeological curiosity. So much to learn, so much to understand...

ASK: After a moment, his expression shifts to something more thoughtful, "Though, provided you were born towards the end of an empire, that would mean Orchid was alive during one. Maybe a dusty tome somewhere mentions him- or someone like him, since he so conveniently can't remember, hm?"