In search of entertainment, I became a pteridologist. That’s what a fern enthusiast is called. The glades were full of ferns, all sorts of varieties. Fascinating plants. They live through two generations, haploid and diploid—two radically different states, one green and rooted, the other minuscule and airborne. They reproduce asexually.” “Asexually?” Voleta echoed, crimping her brow. “Yes, it means they don’t need a partner to reproduce or thrive. They’re independent, self-contained.” “I like the sound of that.” “Perhaps you have a bit of fern in you.
