---
Bat Bat looked at him first, because of course she did. She still had a small Leaf perched near her shoulder, and her face was shining with too many emotions at once to sort properly.
"Well?"
Auri did not ask the question, but she clearly wanted the answer too.
Sekhmet looked from Leaf to the growing land around them, then to the tiny fairies moving between the branches, then to the plant women spreading toward the edge of the patch, and finally to the giant flesh-tree monster standing behind them all like a living fortress.
Then he explained it simply.
"Leaf did not become stronger alone," he said. "She became the center of a Trinity."
Bat Bat blinked. "A what?"
"A Trinity," he repeated. "That means Leaf is only one part of what was born here."
That made Bat Bat look around again at the tiny fairies and the dryads. Then at the giant flesh-tree.
Her expression changed from delight to understanding.
"A real three-part thing?"
"Hmm," Sekhmet answered. "One system."
