The Enchanted Greenhouse

Terlu Perna is a woman in her twenties who works at the Great Library of Alyssium. In the Crescent Islands Empire, only elite sorcerers are allowed to cast spells. However, loneliness drives Terlu to break the law and use magic to grant her spider plant, Caz, sentience. After Terlu’s arrest, the head librarian, Rijes Velk, pleads with the judge to show mercy because Terlu’s magic harmed no one. Unrest in the empire is growing, and the judge is determined to make an example of Terlu, so he sentences her to “be transformed into a statue and placed in the Great Library, to serve as a warning” (4).

Terlu’s sentence is carried out immediately by a sorcerer who assures her that she will live. Frozen in place, she alternates between a vague awareness of her surroundings and a dreamlike state in which she imagines herself surrounded by sunlight and laughter.

Terlu awakens and sees that she has been moved from the library to a snowy forest. Suddenly, the spell on her breaks, leaving her aching but alive once more. There’s no sign of the person who brought her to the forest, so she staggers through the snow until she reaches an enormous greenhouse.