The bathroom was overflowing with flowers. Long stems dripping wet, petals floating on the surface of the counter, spinning slowly in dance, everything brimming and soaked. The tub sank under the abundance of lilies and the toilet suffered with violets.

Letu closed the door. Senly must have been crying again. It was the evening of her last day, after all. Her things were packed, the crown polished and set on top, a truth Senly hadn't been able to look at for days. Letu sighed and went to find her ward.

Dusk was a beautiful time on the Larchipelago. The pink mist, the bursting forth of nightbirds from their ground nests, filling the purple-frosted sky with powdery wings, bringing sleep to the land below. Fully-blossomed trees bowed for the night, petals turning to liquid rain that would feed the heart of the island.

Senly was at the edge, sitting beneath the dripping cherry tree, feet kicking free into the sky. Her hair was all vines and leaves, her eyes sap-amber. But her normal vitality had been lost to the clouds and her contemplation of her future. Sylph rested in her arms, a soft ball of fur that alternated color with each thrum of her purr. Senly pet her absently, face still wet with tears so that tiny cherry blossoms sprouted on her cheeks.

"Why the sorrow, Senly? You're going home," Letu said gently, settling down behind her ward and running her hands through her tangled hair.

"And I'll never leave." Senly clutched Sylph tighter. "I'll never dance, I'll never run, I'll only stand and watch forever. The woodfolk aren't my home."

"What you do is a great sacrifice and most will never understand what that means." Letu squeezed her arm around the girl's shoulders. "But you will be keeping the world safe. The woodfolk sent you here so you'd know what you protect."

"I don't need to be a tree to protect you." Senly buried her face in Sylph's azure fur, letting it change quietly to pale yellow, then mint green before scooping the cat off her lap. Sylph's tail twitched but she otherwise didn't move. Senly stood then, gripping one of the bridge posts leading to the next island in the Larchipelago.

"You cannot go," said Letu.

"There are plenty of trees. They don't need me." Ivy sprang up around Senly's feet, crawling outward with her stifled panic, her anger, the confusion of a child who doesn't understand why she must be still in a world that would never stop moving.

"You are their queen, love," said Letu. "They need you more than anyone. You are their heart. Their strength. The woodfolk will fall without you. Enlentientu will fall without you."

"Falling is better than not moving at all," Senly said, impassioned with hope she could not have. "Are my dreams worth nothing because I was born a tree? Why am I denied the choice everyone else has?"

"Please, child." Letu held out her arms. "Don't walk away."

"I have more to see," said Senly. "If I'm going to protect it all," she lifted her chin and flowers blew from her face, "then I'm going to see it all."