And so, the Reader told the first story. It was not a grand epic, nor a complex tapestry of characters and events. It was a simple story, born of a single question: ’What if?’
What if, the story went, there was a color that had never been seen? Not a shade of an existing color, but something entirely new, something born not of light, but of a feeling. The Reader described this color, not in terms of hue or brightness, but in terms of the emotions it evoked: the quiet joy of a shared secret, the gentle melancholy of a forgotten memory, the bright spark of a new idea.
The Gardener listened, and as the Reader spoke, a new flower began to grow in the garden. Its petals were the color of the feeling the Reader described, a color that shimmered and changed with every thought, every emotion that passed through the Arboretum. It was the first creation of the Reader, the first story given form, a testament to the power of a single, unanswered question.