Lilith looked at the yellow bouquet Novalis had given her, knowing that her expression was showing her disbelief. "Dandelions, dear? I would have thought that roses..."

"Roses," Novalis reassured her with a smile, "Are entirely inappropriate."

Shaking her head, Lilith let it go.

The dandelion theme continued throughout their dinner; the vase was filled with dandelions in seed, and the wine was dandelion wine. Lilith looked at her glass dubiously and did not drink. "All right," she said eventually. "I'll bite. What's with the weeds?"

Novalis smiled. "The dandelion is an interesting plant. Its greatest part is its tap root, which drives deep into the earth - three feet, thirteen, what have you. What we see is very little of the actual plant. The tap root makes it strong, because the plant won't die unless the whole thing is pulled up. And yet, it traps the plant - it produces so many seeds, and spreads them to all kinds of ground to grow, but there it itself must stay. A tough plant, that one."

Lilith watched her.

"I thought," Novalis said innocently, eyes pale, "that you'd like it."

"Ah," Lilith said, accepting Novalis's words and giving nothing back.

She drank her wine.