B2 – Chapter 14: A bit of elixir and learning

Tristan transported the trio and the horses to the Fey Realm. After handing off Onyx and Midnight to their fairy dragon handlers, Obadai went off to his assigned abode, while Tristan went over to the alchemy and potion-making area. Calling over fairy dragons, and channeling the power of the Realm through himself, he planted the various herbs that he had acquired – along with uncapping the jar of oil and putting the roots of one shrub partially into the substance, and some into the ground.

Invoking his will, and speaking in Elvish, he felt the Realm respond as the various substances took root, and the plant life sprouted with easy-to-harvest herbal supplies. The one with the oil, however, did not produce small amounts of oil that would drip from the leaves, like he had imagined. Instead, small spheres akin to berries with a slight skin were grown. Picking one off, he found that with a little bit of pressure, the skin would burst and release the oil inside.

Felicity watched and was enthralled with the process. “Oh! I got a bunch of nick-nacks. Let’s see if any of those can be buried to sprout up!” she opened her storage dimension and began pulling out all manner of odds and ends, swapping to her Elfanoid form as she did so. Tristan couldn’t help but chuckle and feel confusion at some of the items she pulled out. After a few minutes, she had a small pile of worthless items sitting on the ground and began pushing them into piles.

Tristan knelt and examined each item in turn. Most were just bits and bobs of junk. But he did find a few more valuable items he considered growing trees from; notably, other types of wood. He grabbed a deep, red bloodwood, and a blackwood. A cup made from the former, and a plate made from the latter – both with slight ornamentation. Holding them up, he got her attention by clearing his throat. “Do you recognize these types of wood at all from in the Fey Realm?”

Felicity glanced up from her spoils and shook her head. “Nope! We have purple, green, brown…no red or black. Oh! Or white!” She fished around through the pile and pulled out a small fork carved from a holly branch. “Here!”

Tristan took the three pieces of wood and looked up at one of the fairy dragons lounging above him in the canopy over the crafting and future-marketplace area. “Hey, mind going to grab me three saplings?”

The fairy dragon grumbled but nodded, slapped two of his sleeping fellows nearby, and after some brief arguing and some insults lobbed between them, they flew off. Returning a few minutes later, they delivered the freshly uprooted saplings. Tristan set to work, invoked the power of the Fey Realm through himself, and caused them to sprout up near what he had established as a carpentry area.

The three trees grew quite quickly; and the wood was absolutely stunning in the array of white, black, and red. Felicity walked over, “You’re not going to cut and hurt the trees, are you?”

Tristan shook his head, “We can use Flora spells like Plant Shaping to take off chunks as needed without hurting the tree.”

“Good! I like trees.” She walked over and hugged the black one, frowning as she stood there for a moment. “This one feels…weird. Scratchy.” She moved over to the red one and hugged that. “Hmm…tingly.” Last she hugged the white one, “Oooh!” she exclaimed, “I like this one! It feels full of life!”

Tristan raised an inquisitive eyebrow, “You can…feel trees?”

“Duh. Everyone can!” She grabbed him by the arm, flung him against the tree – which he allowed given he could resist if he chose – and she grabbed his arms and wrapped them around the trunk. “Now…close your eyes, and just breathe deeply.”

Tristan closed his eyes and began breathing. The first thing he noticed was the scent of the holly tree: it smelled sweet, almost like honey. Then he felt a faint thrum under his fingers. Almost like blood rushing through veins. He gripped a little tighter, and even through his gauntlet covered hands, could feel the pulse of the tree. It also…whispered to him. He couldn’t make out words, just faint sighs and echoes of sighs.

Pulling back, he looked at Felicity with a smile, “That is neat. I didn’t know that I could do that.”

She dragged him over to the blackwood tree, “Try this one! You’ll see what I mean when it feels scratchy.”

Tristan did so, and when he shut his eyes and felt the tree, he did not feel the scratching sensation that she had briefly described. Instead, he felt the surge of its inner life that felt ticklish in a way; as if reaching small feelers out to him. Pulling away, he looked at the enormous Queen’s Wood, “I wonder what that feels like,” he stated.

Felicity followed his gaze, and she shrugged, “It’s kind of boring. Just…dull.”

“Can you also hear whispers from the trees?”

“Yes. But they are assholes. Always hate us up in their branches.” She blew a raspberry at the blackwood tree, then looked back to her pile of nick-nacks. “None of this stuff is really valuable, is it?”

Tristan walked over and shook his head as he moved a few around with his foot, “Nope. Lot of junk. Sorry.”

She shrugged, “It was fun taking them. And I promise! I did not steal stuff that looked important. Mister ‘I don’t want to make people sad’.”

Tristan chuckled and pointed to the various herb bushes. “Start picking some of that for me. We need more elixirs.”

The next few hours saw Felicity gathering and preparing the various herbs, suspending them in wooden jars of oil when necessary, given the type of herb; all in Tristan’s direction. Tristan spent his time brewing up the various potions, and he only had to pause to send Felicity up to the top boughs to fetch the potion manual he had acquired, which had the recipes listed out.

“It looks like the difference between the minor, lesser, greater, and supreme versions of each elixir is determined by the amount of herbs utilized, prepared, and then processed into the correct form of potion. We could make a single supreme quality healing elixir, which would be valuable in a pinch, but would also reduce the total number we could make.” Glancing over at the bushes that were practically barren, Tristan sighed, “and we don’t have enough on this trip to make a variety. Either one supreme, two greater, four lesser, or around ten minor. Thoughts?”

Felicity looked at the various pots of clayware that were bubbling away on the artificed stovetop. “I think we should do two greater. One for me, one for you.” She looked at the other bubbling pots on the opposite side of the stove, “And the essence elixirs?”

“Same thing,” Tristan replied, “when it comes to potency. Just requires more herbs. Keep in mind, the one time I saw a healing elixir for sale of supreme quality, it went for fifty gold coins. A lot of money for a person.”

“What’s that equate to?” Felicity asked. “I never had a good grasp on money. We don’t have it here.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Given all your time in the Mortal Realm, you never picked up on how much things cost?”

“Cost, yes, but not how much people made.”

“Put it this way, an average farmer in the kingdom of Bhant – one of the richest farming regions in the whole Mortal Realm, from what I was told – makes one gold piece a Season. That’s nine gold pieces a year. This single elixir we’re about to make? Ten years’ worth of a farmer’s income.”

Felicity paled slightly at that, “I stole…so much from people,” she whispered. Her long, Elf-like ears flattened slightly against her head, and her whole demeanor instantly shifted from inquisitive and upbeat to being depressed and moody. “I am a bad person.”

Tristan frowned, “Well…you did something bad in the past, sure. But you can make up for it in the future. Start by less stealing. Other pranks that are relatively harmless? Fine by me. But a good person doesn’t steal.”

“Wait a second,” she said as she crossed her arms and became angrier, “You told me to steal from the king’s vault!”

“That’s because he had so much money he could afford to lose out on some.”

“Got it! Steal from people who won’t miss it!”

Tristan sighed and turned back to his potion-making, “Yes, that works for me.” He portioned the different herb compounds, mixed them together, and then dipped his finger down into each mixture, swirling the finger around as he spoke the spell phrase for Infuse Elixir. “Lisää tämän liuoksen luontaisia ominaisuuksia. Anna tälle aineelle minun voimani. Tuo esiin näiden ainesosien todellinen luonne.” (Increase the inherent qualities of this solution. Imbue this substance with my power. Bring out the true nature of these ingredients).