“She has a right to know,” Nashtra reminded him, his voice calm yet somehow also insistent. He turned to Cerys and explained, “You know that all plants breathe with a life of their own. Whereas most of them are good for us, and add to the air that we breathe, the air that this plant emits is noxious.”

“So it’s not oxygen,” she wanted to know, “but some kind of poison?”

James gave Nashtra a look that Cerys series figured meant that he wished the elf had not told her anything. “Think about some of the poisonous gases back on Earth,” he told her. “Many of them you cannot smell, but breathing in those gases, you fail to get enough oxygen, and very soon find yourself on the floor.”

“Or someone finds you on the floor,” Peter corrected him. “Because if you’re passed out, you can’t find yourself down there.”

James raised eyebrow and gave him a curious look. “Talkative now, are you?”

Peter shrugged and turned to talk to Bayani in a low voice.

“Promise to stay away from the black trees?” James asked Cerys. He wasn’t interested in working any harder to get to keep Peter’s attention.

“Sure,” she told him. Then she looked to her friend. “Got that, Himeko?”

Her friend nodded. “Keep away from the black trees,” she noted.