Blade Maidens: Shorts – Latchkey – 1

“The Verdannian rose is many things, to many people. A symbol of luxury, something given to lords and ladies to earn favor in Telos’ most hallowed halls. A demonstration of power, inlaid on the breastplates of Verdannian knights as they charge into battle. Even a symbol of love at its most pure, born from Gyvenia’s bosom and said to be blessed with the Rootmender’s warmth.

What Verdannian roses most undeniably are, however, is rare.

Cultivated by the Liliaceae dynasty some centuries ago, the rose’s breeding and cultivation is a close-kept state secret. It is said that only in the royal gardens of Verdanna can you find more than 2 bushes at a time. And outside of the castle walls, only a handful of master earth-tillers are granted the privilege of growing the flower. For these families, a single bush of roses can prove as profitable as an entire field of wheat, or an orchard of sugarapples.

While most will go their entire lifetimes without laying site on the beauty of it’s petal, or feel the razor-sharp prick of its thorns, the chance of doing–and what such a sight could mean–has fueled countless generations of songsmiths and bards. All from a lone flower.”

– An entry in Harlo’s Harvest, a popular annual gardening periodical by elven gardener Harlo Hallowleaf.