Sapphire wanders up to the surface and over to her tree in the late afternoon, asks if she'd like supper brought up here so she doesn't need to step away from her work for as long. 

"If that wouldn't be too much trouble! Or I can just eat haws."

"It wouldn't be too much trouble at all! It's nice out." (It is a sunny day, though rather chilly.) "What are haws?" 

"The fruit of the tree."

"Huh. Are they edible to humans? I mean, normally it wouldn't be safe because eating fairy food would make humans your vassal, but you already know my name." 

"Yeah, anyone whose name I don't have already or who is otherwise not stuck with me one way or the other shouldn't eat them but you could have one." She picks one and offers it.

She peers at it, curious, and then takes a cautious nibble. 

It's sour, vaguely appley, not especially delicious but pleasingly snackish.

"Ooh." She's pleased. "I don't mind bringing you a more varied supper, though, I'll do that in a bit." 

Downstairs in the Work Room, Leareth's mage rotates off with someone else, who settles in on the stool, reading a page of a book at a time while half-watching with mage-sight and then testing the gate with a pebble. 

The gate obstinately refuses to settle.

Promise accepts dinner. Grows her tree bigger and bigger and bigger, till she can open up its trunk and step inside, seal herself in there if she likes, though she can scarcely turn around in the space available.

Sapphire is so impressed! "Your magic is really powerful. Supposedly Tayledras Healing-Adepts can make plants grow faster, but not that fast." 

"I'd be slower with anything but my tree."

"Mmm, I see. Are you going to sleep up here tonight?" 

"Tomorrow. It's not big enough to lie down in yet."

"And it will be by tomorrow? Wow!" 

"I think I can get it that way if I work on it all day!"

Nod. Sapphire squints out at the setting sun, tugs her cloak more tightly around herself. "Anyway, I'm going in, it's nippy. You're welcome to stay out longer if you want to keep working, shouldn't be dangerous this area." 

"I'll probably stay up a bit longer. Thanks for dinner."

"You're welcome!" Sapphire heads back down. 

The mage in the Work Room eventually trades off with someone else for the night shift. They keep watching the gate. 

It settles the next day around noon.

The mage immediately Mindspeaks Leareth. 

Leareth is keyed to the shields on the base, he did many of them after all, and so he can reach Promise at the surface with Mindspeech. :Your gate is up: He's already jogging into the Work Room, checking the other side for any sign of trouble. 

The gate is thousands of feet in the air and nobody is about to crash through it. It looks down on a grassy slope dotted with various flowers. There's a little fairy village downhill with cute little fairy houses. Promise zooms in and waits for him to get his head out of the gate before she shuts it.

"Good work! Do you want to finish growing your tree before you try to get any plants from there?" 

"Yeah, at least enough to lie down. Then I can divide my time between the tree and my garden."