NB: I want to thank the lovely Velvet Storm for kindly allowing me to use and expand on her idea of the Tree of Love for this story; she first mentioned it in her own wonderful Casskins story "The Knight and His Lady" and it really intrigued me. If you haven't read it yet, please treat yourself and do so!
Cassandra Cillian stretched her arms wide and arched her tired back, then dropped gratefully onto the soft leather sofa cushion in Jenkins's sitting room as the Caretaker slipped out of his suit coat and draped it over a nearby chair arm. With a loud sigh of relief, he plopped down onto the sofa next to Cassandra and instantly began to cuddle up to her, wrapping one long arm around her and hugging her close. The small clock on a side table softly told them it was one o'clock in the morning.
The previous few weeks had been a whirlwind of celebrations and activity. The Christmas season had been given over to decorating, gift-wrapping, cooking, eating, teasing, laughter and drinking, with barely a break before New Year's Eve and its accompanying celebrations. And all of that had taken place in between several minor missions for the Library. Now that January had finally arrived, things were finally getting back into a more normal and subdued routine for everyone, though there was still some catch-up to done on the workload, hence the lateness of the hour for the Caretaker and the Librarian.
Cassandra sighed happily now and snuggled into her knight's side. She was feeling pleasantly warm and happy, and Jenkins was feeling relaxed and contented this evening as well. Both were tired from the long day's work, but even so neither was quite ready for bed yet.
Cassandra was especially reluctant to let go of the holiday season's excitement. She'd been keeping a secret from Jenkins over the last few months, one she had hoped to share with him for Christmas, but her nerve failed her. She decided earlier today that she was ready to tell him about it, and despite the late hour she was ready to share it right now. She just needed to get Jenkins down to the Heart of the Library.
"Do you know what I feel like doing?" she asked casually.
"Hmm? What's that, my dear?" he replied sleepily, eyes closed; he was near to dozing off.
"I'd like to take a walk. In the Heart of the Library."
Opening his eyes, Jenkins raised his white head and gave her a quizzical look. "The Heart of the Library? At this hour?"
"Why not? I bet it's really beautiful this time of night, very peaceful and romantic," she enthused as she looked up into his tired eyes with her own wide, excited ones. "Come with me, Jenkins? Please? We've been so busy the last few weeks that we've hardly had a quiet minute to ourselves, and I miss that."
He almost refused, but at the last second relented. Her requests were usually so small and innocuous that he never had the heart to deny her. With the busyness of the holidays, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Cassandra would want to have a little 'couple's time'. But in the Heart of the Library, in the middle of the night? That struck the immortal as odd; but then, his Librarian wasn't exactly what one could call 'normal', thank goodness.
"Very well, then, when you put it that way, my dear, how can I refuse?" he said affectionately as he stood up stiffly and held his hand out to her. After helping her up from the sofa, he grabbed his coat from the chair and shrugged back into it, then offered her his arm. Cassandra linked her arm through his, and they started out.
They were silent as they made their way through the darkened hallways of the Annex and then the Library, partly due to weariness, partly due to the fact that they didn't need to speak to express themselves to each other. The way Cassandra held onto the Caretaker's arm and leaned lightly against him as they walked; the way Jenkins deliberately shortened his normally long-legged strides so that the petite woman could easily walk with him—these and all of their other little gestures and movements expressed as perfectly as words how they felt about one another.
Soon they stepped off of the elevator and into the lush forest in the Heart of the Library itself. The sky above was clear, with the glowing moon just past full and the brilliant stars of the Milky Way bathing everything in a cool, blue-white light. Cassandra never understood exactly how the Library could contain the sky, while the sky still continued to exist outside of the Library, but the only explanation Jenkins ever gave her when she asked was, "It's magic," and so she left it at that.
It was cold and snowy in Portland right now, but here, in the Heart of the Library, it was like a perfect summer night, warm and dry, with crickets and tiny tree frogs singing all around them. As they strolled along the dirt path, Cassandra asked questions about the various trees and plants they passed by and Jenkins happily answered them all, pleased to be able to share some of his immeasurable knowledge with an appreciative learner.
"Let's go this way," the Librarian directed, suddenly pointing to a small side path that branched off the main walkway. "I'd like to see what's over here." Jenkins was hesitant, though.
"It's a bit dark for sightseeing, my dear," he cautioned. "I wouldn't want you to trip over a root or a vine and hurt yourself."
She grinned at him knowingly. "But I found something new in the forest that I think you'd like to see," she coaxed, moving a few steps down the small path and holding out her hand to lead him down it.
"Oh?" he questioned, looking doubtful. He prided himself on knowing every inch of the Library's Heart; he hadn't seen any additions to the forest in ages. "And what would that be?"
Cassandra practically bounced on her toes. "A Tree of Love!" she squealed.
He stared at her for a moment, then began to chuckle. "I think you must be mistaken, my dear," he said kindly. "There has never been a Tree of Love in the Library." He paused for a moment, then dropped his eyes to the ground.
"None that have survived, I should say," he corrected himself quietly.
The Librarian simply smiled. "Well, according to a book I found in the Library about Trees of Love..."
"Ah, I know that book," the Caretaker responded disapprovingly. "Unfortunately, it's a very elementary text. Very basic, practical information only. Nothing about their history or lore, really."
"History or lore?" Cassandra asked, intrigued. Jenkins, distracted now, began to unconsciously follow the Librarian down the small path as he began to fill in the gaps in her knowledge.
"Have I ever told you the story of the very first Tree of Love, Cassandra?" She shook her head, eyes wide and innocent as she walked slowly with Jenkins, his voice taking on the mixed tones of a lecturer and a storyteller.
"It is the story of Baucis and Philemon—do you know it?" Cassandra again shook her head. Jenkins began the tale, his voice soft and distant.
"The Greek gods Zeus and Hermes came to earth one day disguised as ordinary peasants in order to test the kindness and hospitality of humans. They travelled through one particular city, asking people to put them up for the night, but they were rudely turned away at every house they came to. Eventually, the two gods came to the simple home of Baucis and Philemon, a couple who had married when young and then grown old together over many happy years." Jenkins paused for a moment, and Cassandra thought she heard the old Caretaker sigh longingly before he continued the story.
"Though the couple was poor, they showed more kindness and generosity than their rich, but selfish, neighbors. After serving their guests what poor food and wine they had, Baucis noticed that although she had refilled her guests' cups many times, the wine pitcher was still full. Realizing then that their visitors were actually gods, she and her husband begged the deities to forgive them for their poor hospitality. Zeus reassured the pair that he meant them no harm, then warned them to leave the town, because he was going to destroy it and all the people who had turned Hermes and him away. He instructed Baucis and Philemon to climb the nearby mountain with them and to not turn back until they reached the top.
"And so they climbed to the summit, and when Baucis and Philemon looked back on the town, they saw that it had all been destroyed by a flood, except for their home, which Zeus had turned into a beautiful temple. Baucis and Philemon were given the honor of being the temple's caretakers. The couple was also granted a wish; they requested that when it came time for one of them to die, the other would die as well, because neither could bear the thought of living for even one moment without the other. And so, upon their deaths, the gods transformed them into an intertwining pair of trees, an embodiment of their true love and devotion to one another."
The immortal turned to Cassandra as he finished the tale, his voice slightly wistful. "All of the seeds that are planted and become Trees of Love today are descendants of that very first Tree that came into being thousands of years ago in Greece."
"That's a beautiful story," said the Librarian, truly touched. "What happened to the original Tree, the one that used to be Baucis and Philemon?"
"Ah, sadly, it was lost in an earthquake long before the Library could transplant it here to the Heart," he answered. "The best that could be done was to gather and preserve as many of the seeds from that original Tree as possible."
Cassandra slipped her hand into Jenkins's. He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze as they continued quietly along the dimly-lit path. After a few more yards, Jenkins suddenly saw it; ahead of them, in a small clearing, he spied a tree he guessed to be about 25 feet tall, with a beautiful canopy of large, lush, green leaves that glittered in the moonlight like jewels. The slender trunks of the two individual trees were tightly entwined around each other, their branches intermingled so that one tree's limbs were indistinguishable from the other's.
The Caretaker immediately recognized it as a nearly mature Tree of Love, the result of someone writing their own name and the name of their loved one onto two of the special seeds he had just spoken about, and then planting them together. As the couple's love grew and deepened, so the two plants that sprang from the seeds would grow and entwine themselves around each other, the two becoming one tree, the strength and depth of the couple's love determining how tall and strong it ultimately grew to be. When mature, a Tree of Love could, under the right conditions, produce exquisite, rose-like blossoms that gave off an indescribably sweet scent. Jenkins had planted such a tree for himself and Charlene not long after he vowed his heart to her, but it didn't survive. Both parties had to be committed to the relationship, otherwise the entire tree died.
"What a beautiful specimen!" he breathed in awe as he approached the Tree and touched its smooth, intricately twisting trunks. "I don't think I've ever seen a more perfectly formed Tree of Love!" He closely examined a low-hanging branch.
"And it looks as though it may be able to bloom soon—perhaps even in time for St. Valentine's Day," he said wonderingly. He turned to Cassandra and explained.
"The blossoms only appear if the couple that it represents…um…'consummate' their relationship beneath its branches. The blossoms that appear after that can then be pressed and made into a perfume that's said to be a very powerful aphrodisiac for that couple!"
He moved slowly around the Tree, examining it minutely, excited to have come across such a rare and magical item. "For a Tree to be this size, Mr. Carsen must have planted the seeds shortly after Colonel Baird arrived in the Library," the Caretaker continued commenting. Cassandra smiled, but refused to move.
"Flynn didn't plant the seeds," she stated matter of factly. Jenkins turned and looked at the young woman, regarding her with a perplexed expression.
"No?" he said, then his face assumed a surprised air. "Colonel Baird planted them?" He arched his eyebrows in wonder. "Indeed? Well, I must confess, I never had Colonel Baird pegged as the sentimental type."
"Eve didn't plant the seeds, either," said Cassandra, excitement building within her. Jenkins's face went back its original confused expression.
"But that's impossible," he protested. "A Tree of Love won't grow for a third party; only one or both of the parties in the subject relationship must prepare and plant the seeds. How could Mr. Carsen and Colonel Baird possibly have a Tree unless one of them planted the seeds?" Cassandra rolled her eyes in exasperation. Jenkins was a very smart man—a brilliant scientist, in fact—but sometimes he could be thick as mud.
"It's not their Tree," she squealed elatedly. "It's our Tree!" Jenkins gaped at her, eyes wide in astonishment, jaw dropped. Cassandra laughed at the comical expression.
"I planted the seeds! I wrote our names on the seeds and planted them myself, Jenkins, a couple of weeks after you told me about your and Charlene's Tree," she bubbled, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "I didn't say anything before now because...well, in case something went wrong or I didn't do it right, and it didn't survive. But it did survive! And when I saw how fast and how big it grew, how beautiful it was—I had to share it with you!"
For several long moments all the immortal could do was to stare at her, the long fingers of one hand over his lips in amazement.
"But…how can this possibly be?" he breathed, as if he was afraid to believe what he had just heard. "The size—it's far too large for the seeds to have been planted less than a year ago!"
Cassandra merely shrugged her shoulders. "That's when I planted them. I did some research and found that book in the Library that showed me how to do it, and then how to water it and everything. It sprouted in no time, actually, and then it grew like crazy. I thought that's just how it's supposed to work!"
The redhead shrugged again and made a questioning face. "Maybe it grew so fast because we just love each other so much…?"
Before the Librarian realized what was happening, Jenkins was upon her, his arms around her and holding her so tightly she had trouble breathing. As she slipped her arms around his waist and smiled against his chest, Jenkins buried his face in her red hair, eyes closed. She could feel him trembling ever so slightly.
"Cassandra," he croaked, his emotions choking him as he tried to control them. "I don't know what to say; you have no idea what this means to me..." He kissed her head as he tried to blink back the tears he felt coming to his eyes. Cassandra turned her face upward and raised one hand to his face, then stood on her toes to kiss him.
Jenkins suddenly pushed her roughly away.
"NO!" he cried, a look of panic on his face. Seeing the hurt and confusion on the Librarian's face, he hurried to explain.
"I'm sorry, Cassandra, I didn't mean to be so harsh," he apologized quickly. "But—you're not aware of an important piece of information regarding Trees of Love."
"What information?" she asked, her feelings still hurting from his rejection. Jenkins looked down as he spoke in a hushed tone.
"Recall how, in practically every wedding ceremony in the western world, the bride and groom kisses at the end of it: That kiss 'seals' the marriage, seals the union of the two people together. That kiss is a very faint echo of the original Seal of the Tree of Love." He paused for a moment to make sure she was listening to what he was saying.
"If a couple kisses while beneath their Tree, their love is irrevocably Sealed for all eternity." He brought his gaze back to her eyes. "Had you kissed me, our two souls would've been bound together forever."
"Yeah, truly a fate worse than death—thanks for warning me," Cassandra said sharply, stung. This surprise wasn't turning out at all like she had thought it would. Jenkins cupped her face in his large hands.
"You don't understand, Cassandra—when I say 'eternity', I mean just that. We would be bound together in this world, and the next, forever." He took her two hands in his and took a deep breath.
"In other words, it would be a de facto marriage," he said quietly, his face unreadable. "Not in the eyes of the civil authorities, no. But in the eyes of the Library, the Universe, the gods, every other entity and being in existence—Yes! And it would be an absolutely indissoluble bond. Nothing would break it. Not Time, not Death, not the End of All Things." He lowered his gaze again to the ground beneath them.
"I'm sorry, Cassandra, I don't mean to be hurtful. But this is something you need to know, before you do something you might come to regret," he said softly.
Cassandra felt numb, and her hands hung cold and limp in his. You mean something that YOU might come to regret, she thought bitterly.
"I want to ask you something, Jenkins," she barely whispered. "And I want an honest answer."
"Of course," he replied.
"If the Tree for you and Charlene had lived—" she began.
"Cassandra, don't, please—"
"—Would you have stood under it and kissed her? Would you have regretted doing that?" she finished, talking over the top of him. She waited for his reply, but he remained silent, and refused to look up from the ground. The Librarian sighed softly and gently pulled her hands out of his.
"I see," she said. She stepped back, looking around at anything other than the tall man in front of her, and wrapped her arms tightly around herself.
"It's getting late; we should go back." She turned and began to walk away. After a few steps she broke into a run and disappeared into the darkness.