1.207

You meet up with Tiella and hand her the pollen you've collected. A strange, translucent-brown sludge has accumulated at the bottom of the vial, which she examines closely. "Well done," she says. "I think you may have found the cause of this unseasonal bloom."

You wait patiently as she scrapes the viscous liquid from the vial into a small dish, then dons a custom pair of hydrolens goggles set to maximum magnification. The sun travels far across the sky as she studies the contents of the dish, occasionally making notes in her journal. Finally, she takes off the goggles and invites you to look for yourself.

"I have a working theory," she says as the sample comes into microscopic view. "The liquid appears to the naked eye to be biological, but it's not. Do you see those subtle modifications in its cellular structure? I suspect that it's something the Estians concocted centuries ago to accelerate plant growth, and that it was somehow released into the environment once more. That would explain the bloom. There's a decent chance that the cloudhive bees themselves caused the spread of this compound, and now they're reaping the rewards. When the weather turns, and the cold rain comes, the bees will retreat to the warmth of their cloudhives and things should return to normal around here. Until then, we'll need to be wary of cloudhives appearing where they normally would not."

She hands you a glass cylinder with a spray nozzle. Inside, the thick brown liquid glimmers in the sunlight.

"Yet another gift from the Estians," she says."I don't know about you, but I can't wait to experiment with this stuff. Scientifically, of course."

Complete the POLLEN COLLECTION mission. Gain the Growth Serum reward card.

Visit Brookside when the festival begins (the day marked 216.2 on your day track) to reap the fruits of your labor.