Silence settled over the circular chamber after the chairman's words.
"Prove that you are Wildflower."
Kira didn't answer immediately.
Her gaze slowly swept across the seven people seated around the table. They weren't enemies, yet they weren't allies either. Every one of them carried years of authority in the way they sat, spoke, and watched her. Whatever Wildflower had become after her death, these seven people had shaped it.
"The flower isn't enough?" she finally asked.
The elderly man known as Information shook his head.
"It proves you found one."
"Or stole one," Finance added.
"Or were led here intentionally," Enforcement said without a hint of warmth.
Kira nodded.
"I would've said the same."
That answer earned her a few curious glances.
The chairman folded his hands together.
"You claim nothing."
"I've claimed nothing," Kira corrected calmly. "Your florist brought me here."
The old florist smiled but remained silent.
Trade opened a thick leather ledger resting before him.
"If you're not here to claim the title of Founder..."
"I'm not interested in titles."
"...then answer our questions."
Kira gave a slight nod.
Trade slid a map across the table.
"Ten years ago, Wildflower consisted of a handful of safe houses."
He tapped several marks spread across the Empire.
"Today it reaches every province."
He looked at her.
"If you had been leading us..."
"...would you have expanded this way?"
Kira studied the map for a long moment.
"No."
Several brows lifted.
Trade frowned.
"You disagree?"
"I disagree with the structure."
She reached forward and gently turned the map toward herself.
"The routes all return here."
Her finger rested on the underground city.
"If this place falls..."
She drew a circle around it.
"...everything falls."
Trade remained silent.
Kira looked at him.
"When I imagined Wildflower..."
The words slipped out before she caught herself.
A strange feeling settled in her chest.
Imagined.
Not built.
Imagined.
She pushed the thought aside.
"It was never supposed to grow like a tree."
Her finger separated the routes.
"It was supposed to grow like grass."
The room fell quiet.
"Cut one patch."
She traced another.
"The rest survives."
Transportation slowly leaned forward.
"So you would've divided the routes."
"I would've made each route believe it was the only one."
Information looked up from his reports for the first time.
"They already believe that."
Kira smiled faintly.
"No."
"They know this city exists."
Nobody spoke.
She continued quietly.
"If one courier is captured..."
"...he should never be able to betray another."
Medicine spoke next.
"When the western settlements were struck by plague..."
She paused.
"We gathered every physician here."
Kira immediately shook her head.
"A mistake."
Medicine frowned.
"We saved thousands."
"You also gathered every healer into one place."
Kira met her gaze.
"If the plague had spread here..."
"You would've lost every physician."
Medicine slowly looked down at the records before her.
She didn't argue.
Finance adjusted the spectacles resting on his nose.
"Every branch now reports its income to a central treasury."
"And?"
"You disapprove."
"I do."
"Why?"
Kira answered without hesitation.
"Because wealth attracts thieves."
She looked around the chamber.
"If one treasury is robbed..."
"Every branch starves."
Trade quietly closed his ledger.
Transportation folded her map.
No one interrupted anymore.
The questions had stopped feeling like a trial.
Instead...xa
They had become a discussion.
The chairman watched Kira with growing interest.
"You speak as though you've considered these problems before."
"I have."
"Then why weren't they ever implemented?"
The question caught her off guard.
For the briefest moment...
Kira saw herself years ago.
A small room.
Papers scattered across the floor.
Dozens of sketches showing independent cells connected by invisible lines.
She remembered writing one sentence across the top of the page.
A garden survives because every root survives alone.
She remembered wanting to build it.
She remembered believing she had time.
Then...
Nothing.
The accusation.
The betrayal.
The prison.
The execution.
Her fingers slowly curled beneath her sleeves.
"I never had the chance."
The room grew still.
The Seven Gardeners exchanged subtle glances.
Trade lowered his eyes.
Transportation stared silently at the map.
Medicine's expression softened.
No one spoke.
It was the old florist who finally broke the silence.
"Everything she described..."
He looked around the table.
"...came from the Founder's earliest journals."
Kira's head turned sharply toward him.
Journals?
She had never written journals.
Or...
Had she?
The thought vanished as quickly as it came.
Enforcement stood.
Unlike the others, nothing about his expression had changed.
"The philosophy proves nothing."
He looked directly at Kira.
"Anyone could have read old notes."
The chairman gave a small nod.
"One final question."
Enforcement's voice echoed through the chamber.
"The Winter Vault."
"Where is it?"
Kira didn't even pause.
"It was destroyed."
A heavy silence followed.
Then Enforcement laughed.
A single, humorless laugh.
"Wrong."
He looked toward the others.
"The Winter Vault still exists."
Trade slowly exhaled.
Medicine closed her eyes.
Information lowered his reports.
The disappointment in the room was impossible to mistake.
The chairman rose from his seat.
"It seems our answer has been found."
Kira said nothing.
She simply looked at each of them one last time before lowering her eyes.
Only the old florist noticed the faint smile that disappeared from her lips almost as quickly as it appeared.
Everyone believed she had answered incorrectly.
No one realized she had never once looked surprised.
No one realized she had been watching them just as carefully as they had been watching her.
And no one noticed that when the Winter Vault was mentioned...
Only three people around the table had reacted with certainty.
That was answer enough.