With Lilith's passing, the garden gained another memorial.
Not a statue—a tree. A narra seedling, planted where she'd loved to sit, growing slowly toward the sky.
"Now she's part of it," Maya observed. "Like Anino. Like everyone."
"The garden holds them all."
The immortal flowers bloomed brighter around the new tree—welcoming it, incorporating it, continuing.
The Watcher and Gahom sat beneath its branches, eternal cats guarding eternal love.
This place, Gahom murmured. *It holds so much.
"That's what gardens do. Hold memory. Hold love. Hold hope."
*I understand now. Why you tend it so carefully.
"It's not just plants. It's everyone who came before."
The garden glowed.
The tree grew.
Love continued.