4345.97 · April 7, 2025 AD
Eight Months of Silence
For eight months, Nathan Cowdrey has maintained a careful lie—working at Leaf & Bean whilst secretly investigating the Campbell family's botanical legacy through CliveMind. Now, as the White Rose Society closes in on the estate, his deception collides with his conscience. Through a portal, into a greenhouse, and across a threshold of trust he can never uncross, Nathan must choose what kind of Guardian he wants to be.
Trust is a fragile thing. Build it over months of morning shifts and casual conversations, and it can still shatter in a single moment of truth.
Nathan Cowdrey has always told himself his research was separate from his friendships—that investigating the Campbell family's unusual plants through CliveMind had nothing to do with the genuine connections he'd built at their café. But tonight, as he materialises on their estate through a dimensional portal, carrying warnings of an imminent raid, that comfortable separation collapses entirely.
The White Rose Society is coming. Within the hour, they'll breach the Campbell Estate's perimeter, targeting botanical research that represents generations of family knowledge. Nathan knows this because he's been watching—not as an employee, not as a friend, but as someone whose curiosity led him deep into secrets the Campbells never chose to share.
Now he stands at a greenhouse door, about to reveal eight months of deception to the man who welcomed him like family. Some guardians protect people from external threats. Others must protect people from dangers they themselves helped create. Nathan is about to discover which kind he truly is.
