Both the protagonist and her love interest are severely impacted by loneliness. Over the course of the novel, their compassion for each other and their fellow living creatures allows them to break out of isolation and build a caring community on the island. Laiken and Lotti’s character arcs and the greenhouse’s transformation also speak to the importance of empathy in escaping isolation.

Terlu and Yarrow demonstrate the importance of compassion and connection. Laiken’s paranoia drives the gardener’s family from Belde, and he spends two years with only his cat and non-sentient plants for company. Due to his abandonment issues, Yarrow initially resists allowing himself to grow close to Terlu, but he shows empathy by offering her food and shelter when she’s a complete stranger to him. Likewise, he begins to open up when the kindhearted Terlu helps him protect the greenhouse even though she has “plenty of reasons not to and no real reason to stay” (122). The protagonist faces an even longer and more intense period of isolation than her love interest. Her loneliness sets the plot into motion by motivating her to break the law: “She’d made herself a friend because she could not handle one more day of being friendless, of being so far from her family, of living sequestered in her silent and empty corner of the library” (3). Instead of meeting Terlu’s pain with compassion, the empire’s severe legal system condemns her to an even more secluded state by turning her into a statue. Rather than allowing the injustice and loneliness she has suffered to embitter her, Terlu uses these experiences to become more understanding and compassionate towards others in need, such as the greenhouse’s imperiled plants and the refugees fleeing Alyssium. Through their kindness, Terlu and Yarrow teach one another that they don’t have to be alone anymore.

Laiken turns the enchanted greenhouse into a place of isolation and decline, but empathy literally and figuratively revitalizes it. The sorcerer’s dismal story serves as a cautionary tale of how damaging seclusion can be. Whereas Terlu was forced into isolation due to external factors, Laiken sentenced himself to solitude and condemned the sentient plants to the same fate. Laiken’s attempt to cast a spell that would “isolate the entire greenhouse from the rest of the world” accidentally destroys over half of the complex (311), offering a grim illustration of what happens when people’s fundamental need for connection is not met. The author further emphasizes the importance of belonging by making the greenhouse’s salvation the culmination of many plants and humans’ collective efforts. Near the end of the novel, the narrator describes the nascent but growing community on Belde as “the seed of a village” (361), using the story’s botanical parlance to contribute to the resolution’s hopeful tone and underscore the story’s message about empathy as the cure for isolation’s destructive effects.