The next three days passed faster for the nameless man than he had expected.
On the first morning, he handed the gardener two entire pages of instructions. One explained how much water should be used in each part of the flower bed; the other indicated which white stones marked newly planted seeds and therefore shouldn't be moved. The gardener read everything in front of him, asked two questions, and promised to follow the instructions exactly as written.
"You can change something if you notice I'm wrong," the man said, standing beside the flower bed. "Sylphie said some plants might need more water if it gets too hot."
The gardener nodded. "If I need to change anything, I'll write down what I did."
"Excellent."
Kael, who was watching the conversation from a few meters away, didn't interfere. The man checked the pages once more, put away his notebook, and spent the rest of that morning tending to the plants as usual.
The eleventh sprout appeared the following day.
