Using the spell to target each of the favorable plants, she found that it included most of the garden. The only plants that were excluded were those that would grow swiftly or preferred having others upon which to climb.
With everything settled, Ash cast the spell and watched as the garden came to life around her while she channeled magic into it. She'd expected at least one or two plants to wither, unable to survive within the garden, but everything thrived.
Silva moved around when Ash finished with the spell, a gentle hand grazing several plants reaching new leaves and flowers to the sunlight that filtered through into the serene grove, a soft smile curving her lips. She saved the four rare plants for last, spending about a minute with each of them before seeming satisfied.
"Marvelous. Every one of them satisfied in their placement and growth," her eyes moved again around the garden, "And I spy that as it settles properly into the seasons, this garden will always be filled with life."
Ash had been meticulous, trying to take into account everything, including how the garden would look to outsiders. She smiled pleasantly but moved to check her rare plants herself as soon as Silva stepped away from them. Wading into the frigid waters, she looked the two water bound plants over before moving on to the two by the shore. With a light sigh, she looked towards the water itself, knowing well the two plants she wanted more than anything to see in the pond.
Her research had come to the final conclusion that the divine plants, as they were often called, could truly not be cultivated under normal means. Their locations in the wild were all always within a few miles of a starseeing pond if not within the ecosystem of the pond itself. They were considered uncultivatable because the ponds in the temple were sacred and the temples kept them clear of all plant-life beyond grass. That included the shoots belonging to the divine plants, plucked well before any could recognize them.
Seeing her pond with the marvelous plants alongside it, she wanted nothing more than to see them all restored to their places within the temples. Certainly, the pond was a symbol of Sidus' power, of the stars that he symbolized, but the elemental gods themselves, the first six to come into being, had been woven from that very tapestry of existence. Umbra had come first from the darkness before all and with Sidus had come the birth of the stars. Each elemental god had stepped into the vast lands formed by the sky and its stars, born alongside that which they watched over.
Prudentia looked at the pond and nodded at Ash's line of thought, "Even those of us that came later play our own role in that tapestry of existence. Ours, though, was not power that needed guidance at first. When the power grows too great to be left to its own devices, the next generation of gods begins. We do not know for certain, of course, because there is only one complete generation of gods, that of the elemental gods as you call them, but we believe there is another to come after Lucrum though we do not yet know what their domain or their origin will be."
Silva looked to her and spoke simply, "I would like to ask your permission to teach this spell to some few of my followers. It will aide them well."
Ash gave a slight nod, "I fear, though, that they will not accept it as readily as you might hope. A belief has spread that the spells you give are the only forms they are meant to have. Magic combining that of two domains could be met with enmity rather than acceptance."
Prudentia grumbled at that, "My fool followers, thinking they are spreading wisdom when in truth they are spreading fear of growth. I believe that, much like Sidus, we may all have to remind them of the full of what we are. We have been so gentle that they have forgotten we each have our cruel sides."
Before long the two goddesses took their leave and after several silent minutes Luna spoke up from where she knelt on the ground, "I still cannot fathom how you do that, Asha," she grumbled as she stood and dusted her robes, "Look at and talk to a sacred being like they're anyone else."
Ash spared her a slight glance, likewise having trouble understanding how she could kneel for so long without growing bored of it or annoyed by all the pomp and circumstance. She waded out of the pond, a scowl still tilting her lips downward as she contemplated how to deal with the botanists. They would want proof of the growth of the divine plants and she was reluctant to invite outsiders into her grove.
Not knowing what she was, they were likely to take her grove as an act of sacrilege. On the other hand, if she told them what she was or showed them, she increased the risk that someone would try hunting her for her parts.
"I was never taught to do so and find that they generally see such things as annoying after the first minute or so. They know what they are but blind worship is not what they seek and so they tend to find the posturing annoying. If you would like, in the future I can ask if they would mind if you stood while we spoke."
It was a small step, but a necessary one to change how people interacted with the gods and Luri was a good candidate to start with as it seemed they would be dropping in on Ash's life often. She didn't want her dear friend constantly on the ground at a moment's notice.
They walked the garden mostly in amiable silence as they waited for everyone else to ask permission to return and gather once more so they could discuss dinner. Gardenia and Yarrow were the first to request permission to rejoin them.
As they appeared, both of them stared around the garden in awe. They hadn't been aware of Ash's plans to use magic to grow the garden. Fi and Fel also joined and likewise stared at the garden, walking through it in awe at what they were seeing. All four of her guests eventually ended up by the pond, looking at the four divine plants that were now growing near it.
"Marvelous," Fi said, her voice holding notes of awe that summed up what all of them were feeling.