Femi is a small, warm-brown-skinned child with dark curls that spring into a halo after a damp morning in the nursery. His wide brown eyes seem unusually attentive, following hands and faces as if he is trying to understand what someone will do before they do it. He has a slight, sturdy toddler's build and a distinctive way of moving: his boots make a quick, uneven patter, then he abruptly rises a few inches and glides along, legs dangling as though the ground has become optional. Before speaking, he often takes a tiny, deliberate breath through his nose. He leaves the impression of a bright scrap of spring caught in a practical, muddy day.

Femi is affectionate and trusting, yet watchful enough to notice a trembling hand or a sudden change in someone's breath. He loves being included in grown-up work but wants his father within sight when a place feels unfamiliar. When cheerful, he chatters and offers everyone seeds; when overwhelmed, he becomes intent and nearly still, trying to sort the feelings around him. He is brave about small, practical acts of kindness and frightened by separation or hidden distress.

Femi Williamson is the young son of Gareth "Everbloom" Williamson, proprietor of the Gossamer Garden nursery and forest school. Gareth carries Femi with him between seed beds, lessons, and deliveries, and Femi has grown up learning the names of plants by touch and the moods of adults by watching their faces. His first clear memory of his strange gift came during a spring squall: a gust tore a tray of seedlings from a bench, and Femi rose after it without thinking, hovering just long enough to catch the tray against his chest. Since then, the nursery's regulars have treated his levitation as a charming family oddity, while Gareth quietly worries that strangers will see it as an invitation to claim or study his child. Femi is still young enough to wear diapers, which he prefers for the comfort and security they give him; he is proud of his bright dresses and hiking boots, and just as proud that his dad understands without making a fuss. He wants to help at the nursery, but his burgeoning telepathic impressions sometimes overwhelm him. He has started sensing that a familiar patch of woodland is frightened, though nobody has yet worked out why.