M.D.Syl
patreon
Chapter 84 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-05-30 17:22:23 +0000 UTCAuthor notes:
This chapter is dedicated to Pure_Grimoire for multiple helpful edits that improved my work.
Thank you very much for your support and help.
Chapter 84 Alchemy.
Persistence despite a harsh reality,
is the key to progress.
Only when one is consistent with their efforts,
do they see progress with their actions.
Only when you put one leg before the other,
will you reach your destination.
Amaret, the Great Sinner.
The garden is a stunning array of rose and lavender bushes. These are also the spell materials for the gravity and light elements.
While the roses and lavenders have already started to bloom, I notice a third patch that is still green. I know that it’ll take a while for the flowers in that patch to bloom. I can only assume that it contain flowers for the water element, since Luard was water focused.
A vast open area of green grass stretches between the flower shrubs on the sides. A single old gardener limps near the lavender, taking care of the flowers with his eyes half closed.
“Hello?”
The old beardless man turns and squints at me. “Mmm? Oh yes, hello young lady. Here to look at the flowers?”
“Yeah. Also harvest some lavenders and roses for now…” Aside from the use for a healing potion, lavenders can also be used as spell materials for energy spells… good to have on me in any case…
He wipes his bald head with a handkerchief “Ah! A sorceress. Welcome to my gardens, young lady.”
I’m glad he’s not scared of me… I guess he doesn’t have much to lose in his age… “Thank you. Can you get me a few batches of lavenders and roses? Also. What’s growing in the flower bed over there? Bellflower? Will they bloom in the summer?” Bellflower is the primarily used water element flower after all…
He looks toward the patch of soil near the wall. “Hm that? No, that will be sowbread flowers. They bloom during autumn and winter. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for them, young lady.”
“What’s a sowbread? Never heard of it…”
He turns to the lavender bush and use pruners to extract petals carefully. “Hmmm? It is not a known flower, quite shy. Loves the shade. It’s why it’s planted near the north wall. It can be used for water sorceries like all the other shy flowers.”
“Shy flowers?”
“Hmmhmm. Flowers who face down are shy and humble like the bellflower, bleeding hearts, Brigit’s trumpets. Sowbread is unique, the petals face upward, but the flower bows its head down in humility. It is in your water chants, is it not? Here is a humble flect flower… hmmmhmmm…”
I instantly prod him with my crown pool, to my surprise, he doesn’t have much magic in him. “Ok… I’ve had enough surprises for one day. Who are you and why do you know magical chants?”
He collects a handful of lavender petals and hand them to me. “Oh me? I’m Tiom, I’m just an old Loremaster, here to retire and take care of the flowers.”
Old priest to the god of knowledge… makes sense. “I’ll also need lavenders with their stems, for healing potions," I say as I fix the lavender petals in my belt.
He nods and turns to the lavenders. “Of course.”
So… the element of flowers have a pattern to it? I never realized, the books don’t mention it anywhere, just that… wait… actually the guidance book did mention that earth elemental accept thorny plants… and wood elementals accept edible plants… but nothing about the other elements, for the other elements it just names a flower as the "primarily used flower" for an element… I wonder how it works... “So what are the characteristics of gravity flowers?”
He carefully cut ten lavender stems for me. “Royalty. The characteristic is royalty. Rose, dahila, lotus, hibiscus. Hmmm… is this enough?”
I accept the flowers. I doubt I'll make more than ten potions. “It’s plenty. Thank you. Why are they royal?”
He limps toward the rose bushes and gestures at them, still in early bloom. “Because they attract your eyes and control your thoughts for a few moments. Hmmm… Of course, the same can be said about every flower, but these are more attractive. Gravity attracts, hmmm?”
I follow his slow pace of walking. “What about flowers of the light element?”
“Tall flowers. Lavenders, witchglove, knightspur… though, water elementals tend to accept witchglove and knightspur as well, you do need to offer a little bit more of them, but they do. You see? The knightspur grows tall and proud for light elementals, but its bloom faces down, humble, for water elementals. It has been quite a popular spell material back in the day.”
“Not anymore?”
“No. Both plants had been monopolized and the price had gone up sadly. Even a pack of seeds costs a fortune. We’re left with good old lavenders.” He leans forward and starts pruning the thorny rose bush for petals.
“Wait… earth elementals accepts thorny flowers, right?”
“Thorny plants in general. They’ll accept anything with thorns. Shrubs too. Earth elemental materials are amongst the easiest to get. They do prefer nettle, you have to offer much less nettle compared to other plants.”
“Do they accept rose petals too?”
“No. They’ll accept the stems with the thorns, but not the petals. And you’ll need to collect a lot of those stems.” He nods with his head toward the shrub as he hands me a handful of rose petals.
“I… I see.” So there wasn’t a chance to learn turn the wall into sand when we fought the vampiric spiders using a single old rose… but that’s good to know nonetheless… Looks like the spell materials are much more fluid in nature than I thought.
I place the petals of both the lavenders and the roses in my belt bag. The scent is something I’m quite used after carrying petals in my belt, yet, this smell is more vivid and fresh. This is nice… I wish I had a nice old wizard like him as my master instead of the hag… he’s way more fitting to be the wise old wizard from the bards’ tales… “Do you know other things about magic? Or just flowers?”
He sighs and limps back toward the lavenders. “If you have any questions about knowledge, you may address Jolla Silverquill. I’m no longer a Loremaster, I'm retired. I’m just here to tend the flowers.”
“I… see. Thank you. That was… both enlightening and pleasant.”
He turns and his wrinkled face crease with a warm smile. “Thank you. For not telling me to shut up and go back to my flowers.” He moves his fist across his chest in a weird gesture I don't recognize.
I snicker. “Don’t worry. I’m not Luard. I actually like gardening, not that I had any time for it for the past seven years. I might come down to help you if I have the time to spare. Sure you can take care of this garden all by yourself? I could hire a few extra hands.”
He cocks his head as if he didn’t hear me well. “Hmmm? No need. No need. I enjoy my work. I’d grow quite bored if I had someone else doing all of my work for me, got to keep busy or my brain wonders to places it shouldn't. I’d welcome your help though, when you have the time, of course. You are quite distracting, young lady.”
Is he flirting with me? He's sweet... “Of course, I'll come by to distract you from time to time. Can you plant wind element flowers in here? I do have some affinity for wind.”
“I’ll put in a request with Tasiya for some dandelion seeds. Hmmm… you won’t see any dandelions until next spring, possibly summer. They need a good time of cold earth to develop.”
“That’s alright. Thank you, Tiom.”
“You are most welcome, young lady. You’re the politest sorceress this castle had seen in the last twenty years.”
“My pleasure.” I head back to the palace, and make my way to the alchemy lab.
*
The alchemy lab is quite small. It features a desk with a copper cauldron. A box of empty bronze potion bottles, and a few metallic containers meant for measurements. A pack of thin candle clocks that are meant to measure time lay orderly in the shelves to my right. And at the corner to my left, near the gray stone wall there’s a bucket of clean water to use.
While I could evoke water magically. I’d have to wait at least a day or possibly more for the water to become natural water. This is true for every element evoked magically. Magically created element is considered unnatural for at least a day after it was evoked. After a day or more, depending on the amount conjured, the laws of creation recognized the element as a part of the natural order.
Like spell materials. Alchemical recipes would not work if the ingredients were magically created. Hence, I need water drawn from the river for my alchemy.
This rule is written in the first page of the alchemy book I’ve received from the Maven.
I flip to the third page with the ‘Lesser Healing Potion’.
A drop of blood from the alchemist.
Lavender or energy element flower substitute.
A single lizard scale of any kind.
A pair of fish scales
A pair of fish eyes of any kind.
Alright… let’s get started! I tie up my hair to make sure it won’t get into the cauldron.
“Nim.” <Water.> I do not conjure water. I take control over the water in the barrel and float them into the coppery cauldron.
“Anfero.” <Ignite.> I light up the prepared wood beneath the counter. I play with the contraption below the pot. It's an odd way to control the temperature by partially sealing the shaft between the fire and the cauldron. I open the shaft fully, and wait for the water to boil up.
I go over the recipe again and again while waiting. Then go over the Glitter recipe, comparing the two. Compared to glitter, a ‘Lesser Healing Potion’ seem easy. But even this supposedly weak healing potion is stupidly complex. Casting ‘Weightless Body’ spell is easier than this. At least it doesn’t seem like I have to deal with a rotten elemental for this.
The water bubble up and boil. It’s time.
I put the lizard scale in the water, weave four wood patterns, and chant. “Si to fullnokta xnaul si xa.” <This one wish to bless the water.>
Eight gems worth of wood mana drains from the mana pool in my abdomen. Leaving the mana pool almost empty. Green smoke comes out of the cauldron. When the smoke clears, the boiling water inside it turns blue.
I smile as I watch the reaction that was described in my book. I then add the lavender into the boiling blue water, I carefully form ten energy mana patterns and read directly from my alchemy book. “Reviss. Rit ler kas tak, kas rit.” <Energy. This water needs you, feed it.>
About twenty gems worth of mana flows from the energy mana pool in my heart into the boiling water. The blue water turns calm in an instant. Peeking into the cauldron, I note that the blue water vibrate lightly, and tiny sparks randomly flash inside it.
I fix a five minutes candle and nod to myself. Exactly like the book describes… “Anfero.” <Ignite.> I light up the candle and let the energized blue water boil for five minutes.
Next is a drop of my blood. I use my dagger to puncture the tip of my pinky and let the blood drop. I concentrate on the next spell. Similar to the ‘Lesser Cure Poison’ spell, this is a weave of light and wood mana. Unlike that harsh spell, this one needs only nine patterns, and only twenty gems worth of mana.
I draw mana from my necklace to form the spell patterns. It concentrates between both pools below my ribcage and flow into the water as I chant.
“Ton at revis, atno tonoar tonoto, kas rit ler tonoar atonome.” <Life and energy, here is some life’s blood, feed this water life’s healing.>
A blinding flash of light followed be a sharp deafening sounds come out from the cauldron. I spasm uncontrollably when an weak electric current travels through my body, nothing like the spell that hit me, but still I pleasant. I gasp and lean on the table when it passes. I take a deep breath and look into the cauldron, it’s now regular water with a wet lavender inside.
Again…
I repeat the steps. My next attempt I mess up even earlier and my Lavender doesn’t even energize the water to begin with. The energy patterns I’ve made were bad.
Again!
My third attempt meets with another blinding electric pulse just when my blood and bad life magic patterns meet the water.
I'm never going to figure this out, am I?
Again!
Only on my forth attempt do the energized water turn scarlet red.
Finally!
I lean over the cauldron, admiring the scarlet water inside. Only one last step… “Anfero.” <Ignite.> I light a twenty minutes candle on my right. I tuck a stray hair behind my ear and something drops into the scarlet brew of the potion below, a drop of my sweat.
*Puffffff* a tall rod of red smoke comes out of the copper cauldron.
Oh come on! Snakes!
Again!
As if to mock my effort, I hear a loud fart to my right. Ryon is leaning on the doorway, biting into an apple. "Watchya doin?"
"A potion."
He leans forward, green eyes gleaming. "A trick? What it do?"
"Heal you when you're wounded."
His shoulders deflate. "Ah that trick. Ya need to pay da gold coins for that trick. Ya can't make it."
"Watch me!"
"Fine, ah watch. Two sneaky thieves try an’ get into your room."
“What?!”
He shrugs. “Ah killed ‘em.”
“I see… Good job. Kill enough of them and they’ll avoid the palace. Don’t kill innocents though.”
He grins, green eyes gleaming like a cat in his darkened ebony face. “Don’ worry. Ah don kill no regular peeps unless ya order me to, boss lady. Only sneaky thieves and killers.”
“Good. You did a good job.” I smile and turn back to my potion. Go away and let me focus, please!
This is serious… why would thieves risk sneaking into the palace, and to my own room no less… Is someone testing me?
I’ll think about it later… I doubt they’ll get past Ryon… that half elf grew in Axero. Axero population is a thousand times the population of this place… Ryon survived there for at least forty years, probably longer… I can trust him to catch them…
He can’t be everywhere at once.
I’ll notify Marasi too…
“Do ah get da good food now?” Ryon interrupts me from my thoughts.
“Yeah. Go to the kitchen and ask Marasi to cook something good for you. Tell him about the thieves while you’re at it.”
“Marasi is da’ tiny freak, yea?”
I nod, focused on my potion.
Fifth attempt gives me another blinding flash. Ryon laughs and leaves, losing his patience.
I’m just bad at this… there’s no way I can make a simple healing potion… how am I going to make glitter?!
Should I try something simpler? A sleeping potion is probably a better idea for a first try…
No. I have to figure out glitter as soon as possible! That means I have to master a healing potion as soon as possible. I’m figuring it out today, or at least this week.
Again!
Sixth attempt I’m glaring the scarlet water again. I light up the twenty minutes candle and glare at the dead fish on the counter near the cauldron. “If you rot up my potion… I’m going to make you regret you ever heard the term fisherman!”
“Blaming the fish now?" Kolag’s echoing voice makes me jump.
"What?"
He snickers and nods. “How is that potion coming along?”
“How long were you standing there?” I tie up my hair again, trying to distract myself from the heat on my face.
“A while…”
Great… just great… “Failing and failing again… I have to learn this or Salik will die in six months. Also, healing potions should be useful for everyone. If I could just brew the rotten thing.”
“Why would Salik die?”
Oh snakes… he doesn’t know. Awkward... I probably shouldn't talk about it. “Salik… uhh… he have some sort of health condition that needs a specific magical potion. The hag gave him enough supply for six months. After that, I’m the one who needs to brew that potion, and I don’t know anything about alchemy.”
“You have six months to figure it out, I’m sure you’ll do fine. Inara? I have a problem. People here hate Noxi. Once they heard I worship Noxi, I’ve lost ten of my PeaceKeepers recruits.”
I shrug. “Then don’t tell them that you worship Noxi.”
“I can’t lie to them. Noxi is the god of truth. You expect me to lie about who I worship? How would I be able to face and offer prayer to the god of truth when I’m not honest about who I worship?”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t think I’m the correct person to talk to about that, I’m an atheist, remember? Maybe you should try Salik? Or Jolla, I think she worships Tukado.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think they can understand me like you do. Also, you know we have an elfling in the kitchen?”
“Yeah, I met the little guy. What about him?”
“You should never trust an elfling.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why not?”
Kolag fiddles with his pauldron. “Elflings… wreak havoc. They are too chaotic, and they do not know the meaning of responsibility. I have seen a town burn due to the chaos a single elfling caused, they are not to be trusted.”
“Oh I see. It’s ok, I know he have some problematic secrets. He actually cleared the winds about them. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to turn on him after he trusted me. I’ll trust him until he proves me otherwise.”
He grunts. “I hope you know what you’re doing…”
“I hope so too. Now, I need to concentrate.” I turn back to my potion, the scarlet water is bubbling lazily in my cauldron. I pick out the fish eyes and scales, repeating the patterns and chant from the book in my head. I eye the candle, it’ll burn out in a couple of minutes.
I do my best to ignore Kolag’s eyes on my right and place the materials in the cauldron when the candle winks out. I watch the fish scales and eyes float in the scarlet water, and carefully weave the twelve patterns that combine water and light mana.
“fainim, nimalo, num asano riquill. Oue nimfai rialaluwe, rilasula. Nimakee si rilaluwe, akeloki si ril. Asano si aluwe nufilata.”
<Life’s water, beauty, I (my) wish remember. Here’s a fish scale, eyes. Caress the wound, smooth the edge. May the skin flourish.>
Red smoke and vapor blow out of my cauldron like a strong wind. They’re followed by a foul odor of rotten fish. I cough and cover my nose. “Felul.” <Wind.> I use my magical breeze to clear up the tiny lab of the horrible smell.
Snaking great! What did I mess up now?
“Is it supposed to do that?” Kolag asks.
Snakes... does he have to be here when I mess up my potions and smell like a rotten fish? “No. It’s not supposed to do that,” I reply drily, eyes in my book. “Oh it's the rotten chant… it’s snaking Rialuwe, not Rialaluwe… Wait… one is rilaluwe, and the other is rialuwe… snakes… I’m starting to hate Nim too… Latsa.” I float my ‘Nim to Toml’a’ dictionary. “Huh… rilaluwe is broken skin, a wound. Rialuwe is unbreakable skin, a scale… different meaning, no wonder it messed up the spell. Rot… I really hate Nim now.”
“Ok…” Kolag echoes. “I’ll leave you to it. You’re clearly busy.”
Figured out that I don't want you to be near me when I smell of rotten fish? “Thanks. I’ll talk to you later, once I figure out this rotten potion!” Seventh attempt is the charm! Again! I can’t give up on this, and I can’t let Salik die.
While the seventh attempt end up with a blinding flash of electricity, and the eighth attempt ends with another blinding flash of energy.
The ninth is a success.
Finally! Rotten hell! Finally!
It’s already night outside. It may took me a while, but it was worth the time and effort. Now I can make sure everyone have plenty of healing potions to spare. It’ll also be a good practice for alchemy…
*~*~*
Interlude 84.1
Olfgram Gemhand
The room is dark and musty, the earthy ceiling is way below the street level. Five figures sit around the wooden table. The red bricks that frame the room end by a black rusty door, an iron door. Ordering this particular door from Apricot City cost a small fortune. But Olfgram has the gold for such things, and if Olfgram has any say, it’s going to stay that way, new queen or not.
Olfgram Gemhand moves his hand in his thick white mustache as he observes his four pillars around the table. They are the Five Fingers of Red Cedar City. Under Olfgram’s command they all became loaded with gold and gems. Olfgram is a business man, he’ll get things done, new Queen or not.
“Luard lost his head already? Any idea where he is?” Regihold Strongjaw asks. The burly dark haired man is managing the small street gangs for Olfgram. He is the one ordering all the gang bosses, making sure they all work together as they squeeze the shopkeepers for money. They pass a good cut for Olfgram. Of course, a cut used to go to Luard. Until now…
“Haven’t heard from him yet,” Olfgram grunts. Luard messed up, lost to some young brat upstart. She already released all of the most dangerous prisoners from the dungeons.
No, she didn’t release them. That rotten knight of Noxi did that. She made him the new Lawmaker. She put Olfgram’s little brother in a cell. By doing so, she declared a war on the Gemhand family.
But jumping into a fight with a sorceress is foolish, oh no. Olfgram isn’t here to fight her, yet. It’s quite possible that she did not know who Garion is. Olfgram would be a fool to declare a war so soon. If that brat could defeat Luard, the Five Fingers should thread carefully around her.
“I had two men to sneak into the Queen’s chambers to peep. They didn’t come back.” Arigald Redbeard notes, moving a hand in that red bush he keeps for his namesake. The scrawny bald man is the head of the thieves guild in Red Cedar City. He also manages a bit of the trade ships.
“Should I send some of mine?” Dana smirks at Arigald, moving a hand in her dark long braid. The beautiful middle-aged woman is the Head Zephyr who manages Koshavi’s temple in the city. But her work as the madam in that brothel is only a cover. Her whores are trained assassins. “That new General already paid a visit to my establishment, do you want me to get rid of him?” she turns her question to Olfgram.
“No. Not yet.” Olfgram taps on the wooden table, gathering his thoughts. If the Queen is unaware of their existence, killing her General will gather some unwanted attention.
“Should I send my runners to the outlaws?” The law growl comes from the last person in the room. A short dark skinned human man could be mistaken for an orc if not for his lack of stature. Mori Terroraxe. A former bandit leader who got tired of his old life, and Olfgram contact with the bandit groups outside the city. “I recently made contact with an orc tribe to the north. Could make it seem like a wild orc attack.”
Olfgram nods. Being prepared can’t hurt. “Talk to the orcs. Tell them to be prepared for a strike. This is too early to decide.
The dark skinned man nods. “I’ll talk to Balgrum then. Are we done for today?”
“We are done.” Olfgram stands up. “Lay low for the time being and assess this new Queen in your own time. No moves on her until I say so, we don’t want to make an enemy of someone who could be our friend.”
Kings and queens come and go. They sit on their fancy throne and pretend they care about giving orders. But everyone knows who the real ruler of Red Cedar City is. Olfgram pulls the strings. And if this new brat thinks she knows better, well, she’s not the only fish in this pond. Olfgram can invite sorcerers from other cities to visit, or possibly even reestablish contact with Luard.
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: formed: 1 gem replenished per five minutes.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 66
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 6 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 18 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 14 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 27 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 4 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 40/41 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray.
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s lesser shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body.
Spells known:
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison.
Focus capability: 13 patterns
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Wealth: 1496 Magic Gems. 1421 Golden Peas, 17 Silver Scales, 12 Copper Bits.
Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
1 potion of Lesser Healing. Self made.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
Fresh rose petals, 45g
Fresh lavender petals, 20g
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 11/100
Companions:
Kolag of house Befar
Salik
Zoe
Ryon
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> Fluent
Myrsha <Gravity> 7/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
Injuries and scars:
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 305 gems. 41,682 gold coins.
Kingdom’s citizen: 6,021 humans, 2,251 human children.
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder
Jolla SilverQuill
Talbot Bookkeeper
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom
