Considering how long this plot has been brewing, it's no surprise that it's beginning to thicken up a little.

*******************************************************************************

Effie scowled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Anne shrugged. "Not much, really. It's just…. Plants in the bulbs don't operate on the same level that you and I do. They were designed to be able to talk to each other on a mental frequency, a telepathy, if you will. I thinks it's because the people in charge of designing them -- us -- knew that since we are human, putting us in a closed environment with no means of communication would not be a good idea if they wanted to end up with sane little energy producers.

"What intrigues plants with you is that they can hear you. Sound waves don't really travel through the bulbs, not with any clarity at least. So, to the plants, it's as if they are moving in a world without sound, and then all of a sudden you walk in, babbling away. Of course they are curious.

"You're crazy," she said flatly.

"No. And neither are you. You have just managed to repress many of the traits that make you seem different from the main body of humanity. Anything that makes you seem unusual, like picking up the thoughts of others, you have walled away from your conscious mind.

"Really, it's part of the reason you are such an awesome coordinator. You can literally pick up on the thoughts of others and find a common ground for them to all work towards. It someone has the wrong idea, you know, and you also know when they finally understand. It's a great way to use your talents, I am truly impressed," she commented.

Effie scowled at Anne. "I'm not a freak like you."

Anne snorted. "I'm not a freak, either. Different, yes, I'll grant that. But I'm not a freak. And neither are you."

She changed tactics a bit. "Back when we first met, do you remember why you kissed me? It's because I kept looking at you, remember? You thought I was too repressed to make the first move." She smiled at the memory. "I was trying to find a way to broach the subject, to figure out if you even needed me to. You are doing a very good job of repressing your talents. If you hadn't been, or if you had seemed to want to know how to use them, I would have offered to help you out, teach you how to use them. But you never needed me to, so I didn't."

"Thanks for small favors." Bitterness dripped from her voice, and Anne didn't know if that was an improvement over the scorn.

She sighed. "You can't have had no clue about this. I know you suspected something. I mean, it's not like the people in the little anti-plant conspiracy have been keeping you around because you are so fervently anti-plant. They knew as well as you did that you were a bit different."

Effie scowled but said nothing.

"What's the running theory? That you might be some sort of plant hybrid? They researched your genealogy, didn't they, but ran into a bit of trouble with your maternal grandmother. Seems she came out of nowhere, doesn't it?"

"She wasn't a plant. She grew old and died like any regular human."

"I wasn't saying she was. I know who she was, that's all."

"How? How do you know that?"

Anne settled back in her chair and folded her arms over her stomach. "Once, there was a very crazy man," she started, in lieu of explanation. "This man thought that all humans were scum. He knew they were, see, because he could look into their minds. What he saw there, the pain, the suffering, the planned petty cruelties, all the hurt that everyone carries with them, he saw evil, and in the seeing he found that he cared for being human not at all. And this man found someone who was above it all. Someone's mind he could not see into, someone who seemed special, above the petty concerns of mankind like a god is above the crawling of worms.

"He glorified this man, followed his every whim. Unfortunately, this man he decided to follow was not a god, but slightly insane and very bent on the destruction of humanity. So now we have two crazy men, one very powerful who lends an air of legitimacy to the first man's hatred of the human race, and one who's following greatly helps the powerful being spread destruction.

"So this crazy man was enlisted to fight the bad fight, to seed chaos across the face of the plant. If all went well, it would only be a few decades until the plague known as man was eradicated. And instead of seeing his family suffer through the coming apocalypse, he decided that it was a gentler end for them all to die at his hands.

"But he missed one. Your grandmother. She had run away from her family before the bloodshed began, had watched as her crazy cousin started acting a little more sane. She didn't join in with the rest of the family's rejoicings, noticed a gleam in his eye that boded ill. The night before he slaughtered them all, she escaped to the far side of the planet and changed her identity. In time she married and had children, and they had children, who in turn had you.

"And he went on to die at the hands of his master's brother, sure that his death was ordained and just, and that dying at the hands of a higher being was the best end he could hope for." Anne paused, took a deep breath, and continued. "Your great-uncle, once removed, was Legato Bluesummers. And gifts like he evinced tend to run in families."