SpoilerYeah, after everyone was so cryptic about the Court's origins and the seed Bismuth, just finding it in a forest and having it explain everything seems way too easy. (It's possible that this is the reason why Ysengrin brought Annie here, but knowing Ysengrin, it was probably just because there'd be fighting and displays of power and she's gotta learn to be tough.)

And it'd make sense that few people know about the seed Bismuth because it's in some nasty old ruins that no one ever goes near, but so far, the explanation being offered seems totally harmless. There's no reason for people to be secretive about it, besides the fact that everyone in GC is written by Tom Siddell.

And speaking of which, considering how everything in GC raises more questions than it answers, I guess it's possible that Tom decided to just throw an easy answer at the readers so that he could use it to set up further plot stuff, but I just don't see that happening.

Spoiler(Assuming we are being told the truth by a thing which is actually the Seed Bismuth) the Bismuth was created in a union between the creatures of the forest and the humans of the Court, in Diego and Jeanne's time.

Bismuth claims that the humans made it grow too fast and the Court overtook the forest, and implies (via illustration) that the Forest's lot retaliated first. Coyote rocks up with Reynard and General Ysengrin during the squabbles, and splits the two with the Annan waters. Jeanne is pinned down there shortly after. It makes sense that Ysengrin became general of Gillitie Wood around this time, because what the heck else would there be to fight after the Annan became uncrossable?

The Bismuth is weird, though. It's clearly unhappy having been separated from the Court proper by Coyote, but the Court didn't want it back (the Court also erased any evidence of Jeanne being turned into a scapeguard-dog, though, so who the heck knows what their priorities are). The way it's talking to Annie doesn't immediately strike me as it needs to ask a favour of her. My guess is that, true to the intent behind its creation (and the fact it's happy that the Court's growing), it's an entity of goodwill and cooperation?

I guess that makes the three dog-gods the right folks to talk to. They were around during the fighting, and Coyote almost certainly knows, as the Bismuth was apparently just chilling in these ruins after the gorge was made (as opposed to, say, being hunted down and destroyed by the forest residents). Coyote would also know why the Bismuth got stuck on the Forest side. Ysengrin, being the dude who physically brought Annie here, might know for himself about the Bismuth, but may also be following Coyote's orders (or may have known but suffered from a faulty memory).

Idk this is a whole lot of conclusion-devoid speculation, I guess we can all fret until Monday