Osanna nodded. I can store upwards of fifty seeds with me. Right now I have about forty more, of various different plants.

Niko nodded, looking thoughtful. "How many of your own do you have?"

With me? Maybe five plants. At home, though, I have a few dozen now, I think.

"When we get home, remind me to contact my sister, maybe I can wheedle my way into a few ice roses for your collections," Naomi said to Osanna, nudging her. "I meant to, last summer, but it didn't quite work out that way." And while she was at it, she would see if Cassiopeia had managed to breed any other translucent flowers. For Osa, Naomi would brave her family.

Osa visibly perked up, looking excited at the idea. She always loved getting new plants, thus why she'd snuck a few from the past few realms while they were out and about.

"I thought you'd like that idea," Naomi teased. She knew very well that Osa had accumulated some new seeds over the last week or so. She would have been surprised if Osa hadn't done so.

Osanna grinned and nodded, quite happy with the idea. She was going to have a lot of fun once she got back home to go plant things.

Luckily, Naomi managed to get through the night unscathed, and the unpredictable 'jump' waited until morning to whisk them away again. She had never been so glad to see the trees that surrounded her house, and actually almost hugged one in her glee.

"Look," she said to Osanna, "home."

Osanna grinned hugely and she actually did run over and hug a tree. It felt good and welcoming and normal.

Oh gods it feels good to be back. She looked at Naomi with a huge grin.

"I know, it really does," Naomi replied, grinning back even as she shed her outer jacket. It was really too warm out for such a thing, at least for her. "I wonder how long we've been gone."

Let's go check. Osanna bounced inside to go check a calendar. She knew what day they'd left, so now all she had to do was turn on a computer to check the date.

She blinked. Four and a half weeks. Wow. They'd been gone just over a month.

Naomi blinked as well when she saw the date.

"That... I'm not sure if that surprises me or not," she commented finally. "We were barely gone two weeks or so, on our end, but I guess time moves differently while we're elsewhere...?" She didn't wait around long for any sort of reply, though, instead going back to her own place to check on things. It was a good thing she did, too, since there seemed to be a message waiting on her machine.

Nomia, her father's voice came from the answering machine, I realize that perhaps your last visit did not go as planned. You will return at the earliest convenience and we will see if this time you might stay longer than three days.

Naomi snorted as she listened to the message. Her father wouldn't call her anything but Nomia, which just made her insist on 'Naomi' even more. Well, at least it would give her an excuse to visit and try to wheedle a few ice roses out of her sister... Rolling her eyes, she clicked the machine off and went to find Osanna again.

Osanna was busy checking on all her plants, cooing silently at them. They all seemed okay, but she double-checked them all anyway. She usually spent a while with them every day, so she knew they were rather neglected.

She noticed Naomi and looked over at her, raising both her eyebrows.

"I've got to go pack a bag real quick," Naomi said when she got closer to Osanna. "Hopefully this time I'll find the opportunity to slap Andromeda..." She sighed. "Dad left a message on the machine, he wants me to go back for a while."

Osanna nodded. Okay, well, you know where I'll be. She paused. Or where I should be, anyway. Long as no one screws with anything again. She shrugged. She didn't mind spending some time with her plants again.

"Alright," Naomi said. "You know how to contact me if you need to." She knew that Osanna could take care of herself for a while, so she wasn't worried about that. Turning, she went into her house and started to pack for a stay with her family.

She could already tell it was going to feel like a really, really long trip, no matter how long she actually stayed.

Osanna nodded and left her to her packing, instead going back to her own house. She tended all her plans and then relaxed for a while, figuring she had some time to relax and get used to home again.

Naomi quickly packed up what she could, checked in with Osanna one last time, and then left again. She'd wanted to enjoy being home for a while, but it was best not to make her father wait too long. Even with minimal stops, it still took her longer than she liked to get up north.

It took a much, much shorter time for her to have her first clash with her stepmother.

"Nomia," her father's mate said distainfully.

"Niobe," Naomi replied. Clearly, Niobe and Corvus still had a good relationship between them: Niobe was pregnant.

"I don't know why Corvus wants you back here, but I want it to be known that I don't like it in the least," Niobe said. Naomi stopped herself from shrugging.

"I don't know why, either," she said. She knew Niobe didn't like her. "I'll stay out of your way, like always."

"See that you do," Niobe sniffed. Then she walked away. Naomi didn't bother watching her go, instead going to see if her room was still the way she'd left it last time.

Surprisingly, Naomi spent the majority of the visit training with her father. She wasn't sure why; maybe he'd realized that she was woefully untrained or maybe he thought it was just time to train her, but either way, she was grateful. She hadn't realized just how little she knew. In between her training, she'd taken to wandering about the estate, and it surprised her one day to stumble across an old leather-bound book in a room that Niobe had just left. Old books weren't unusual in the household, considering the age of some of the occupants, but this one seemed a little strange to her. There was a page marked, and Naomi opened it to the page.

The page was covered in tiny, neat handwriting in what looked like Latin, but she was clearly able to make out her own name in a few of the spots, and what looked like a diagram of a pentagon with each of the corners numbered. The book itself seemed to give off an odd kind of energy that drifted along her senses in such a way that she could have sworn she'd felt it before. The entire thing seemed suspicious to her. She and Osanna were tossed into different worlds (five, including their own, which seemed to match the diagram), and then she finds what looks like a magic book? It seemed to be a bit too much to be coincidence. Closing the book, she tucked it under her arm, checked to make sure nobody was around, and then took it back to her room and stashed it in her things.

Her visit with her family didn't last much longer than that. Niobe kept giving her hostile looks, and her siblings kept giving her the metaphorical cold shoulder, so she spent another week or so with them in order to get the plants for Osanna, and then headed home again.

Osanna had spent her time lounging about. Quite literally. When Naomi got back she was in the middle of a small field of one of the new plants she'd gotten, having let them spread before confining them to their own space so they didn't infringe on her other plants. She was stretched out, soaking up sunlight with her plants. And both their houses were sparkling clean, the downstairs portions at least. Osanna didn't think Naomi would mind much.

Naomi nearly yelped in surprise when she almost tripped over Osanna.

"Osa~" she said, "don't do that, I almost fell on you." She stepped carefully amongst the sudden influx of green until she was leaning over her friend. "Do I have things to show you~" she said. She reached into her bag and pulled out both the book and the packet of seeds she managed to wheedle out of her sister, and held both out to her friend. "Look!"

Osanna grinned in pure delight at the packet of seeds. Thank you~

She paused at the book, though, tilting her head to the side. What is it, where did you get it, and why does it feel... off?

"Good, you feel it too," Naomi said as she carefully sat down next to her friend. "I wasn't sure if it was just me." She set the book in her lap and opened it up to the page with the diagram, showing it to Osanna. "Look. Do you understand any of this?"

Osanna looked over the page briefly and shook her head. No, not really. Then she paused. Okay. What happened? She looked at Naomi, just daring her to say nothing did. Because Naomi had just sat down in the middle of a bunch of flowers and none of them were freezing.

Naomi blinked.

"What do you mean, what happened?" she asked, not sure what Osanna was asking about. She'd already accepted the fact that she'd gotten some training, and it wasn't exactly at the forefront of her mind at the moment.

You. You're different. You seem more... relaxed. And you sat down in the middle of my plants. Nothing's freezing, and you aren't mumbling about plants. Osanna's eyes narrowed faintly at Naomi. What happened?

Naomi blinked as Osanna explained. Then it dawned on her what her friend was asking about.

"Oh," she said. "I got some training while I was gone. No big deal." Except it was a big deal, since she'd never had proper training before now. "Anyways, this book. Somehow, I think it may be the source of our problem. Maybe we can figure out how it works."

Osanna frowned at that. No big deal? Really? Sighing, she shook her head and looked at the book again.

Maybe, she agreed. I don't know how to read this, though. I could always ask my grandfather...