While Fleya was a positive presence in Lann’s life, it was the garden that was the saving of him. One day, Fleya asked him to help her plant some seeds at the start of the growing season. Reluctant and grumbling to start with, she noticed that he soon began to enjoy the task; feeling the earth beneath his fingers and putting the small grains into the soil sparked something in him, something she’d thought had almost been lost for good. Later the same day, when she suggested he take over the running of the plot of land, the enthusiasm he’d shown for the idea had filled both of them with hope.

Over the next few days and weeks, he suggested plants they might cultivate, pressing her for information and greedy for the knowledge she possessed. She passed on as much of her considerable botanical expertise as she could, and what she didn’t know she looked up for him in one of the many books she had on the subject.

They had a bumper crop of fruits and vegetables at the end of the growing year, not to mention the herbs and plants Fleya needed to make her medicines and treatments, a process which now fascinated Lann.

One evening, after a busy day in the garden, the pair found themselves sitting across from each other at the table in the kitchen. More than nine months had passed since Lann had discovered his love of gardening.

‘I’m glad you have found something that interests you so much, Lann. It makes me happy to see you among your plants.’ She paused and reached over to collect his plate. ‘Tell me, what is it about the growing you like?’

He sat, considering his response for a moment.

‘The plants and the cycles they go through,’ he said. ‘I guess … in a strange way, they remind me of myself.’

‘Go on,’ she said.

He hesitated, trying to put his feeling into words. ‘The seeds are taken from plants that have spent their lives in the light, stretching up to Mother Sun for her life-giving energy. Then we put them into the darkness of the earth where they sit until it’s time to become that thing in the daylight again. I was taken from a world of light and plunged into darkness too.’

‘You wish a similar rebirth for yourself.’

‘I do.’ He shrugged. ‘But if I cannot have it, I like the idea that I can give it to other things, even if they’re just plants.’

She sat looking at him. He no longer appeared to be consumed by the sadness that had so blighted him during the first few months of his blindness, but she knew it would not take much to plunge him into unhappiness again. She tried to imagine what it must be like to have seen the world in all its splendour, only to have that ability taken away.