"Taste the fruit," Sedriil said, picking one of the mini-bananas and eating it. Mericlou ate the one that he had offered her.
The skin was soft and thin like an apple, and the flesh was firm yet smooth. It had a distinctively sweet taste, but with a very pronounced hint of nuttiness.
"Very unusual taste," she said, swallowing the piece that was in her mouth. "It's good, though. Aldrec said that I could eat as much of the fruit that I wanted, but even after a year, I haven't tried them all." She swallowed, and swiped her fingers across her pants to clean them. "This one's new to me."
"You just enjoyed a taste that no one else has known in over four hundred thousand years," Sedriil said.
"You're … kidding," Mericlou replied flatly. The fruit suddenly felt heavy in her food receptacle.
"This bush is called the Akansita, a plant that time forgot," Sedriil said as he stroked one if its leaves. "In the ancient times, it was used for decorating royal gardens. Only royal families or the extremely rich could afford it because its leaves extruded processed mineral deposits from the soil. In some species, like this one, it could convert whatever materials it leached into real gold. As a matter of fact, the plant's name is dwarvish, meaning, 'alchemy plant.'"
He broke the golden tip from one of the leaves, and handed it to Mericlou for her to examine.
"By the maker …!" She whispered as she weighed the mineral in her hand. It was gold! Real gold!
"Don't get so excited just yet, sister," Sedriil warned. "The really interesting part is the data that I found on the plant in the libraries of the Botanical Academy. The only reference to it is in some obscure documents recently unearthed. They were dated to be from the First Empire, almost near the dawn of civilization. The way the documents described it, there's still an ongoing debate over whether or not the plant actually existed."
"Then it looks like whoever thought it was real, was right," Mericlou said. "It's too bad they'll never know, though."
"But sister, you don't understand," Sedriil said. "Remember what I said about how long ago the plant existed?"
"Four hundred thousand years," Mericlou replied.
And then it hit her.
"Wait a minute! That can't be possible …"
"Why not?" Sedriil said with a curious expression. His tone was afire with android curiosity.