When described by the captain, the journey was ‘Wonderfully boring’. The pay was good and the cargo was valuable, but not interesting enough to steal. With only two passengers, she was hoping for a slow, quiet week. 

She mostly got her wish: Agwa and Anu spent their days, and nights, talking about circuits.

Anu had been a little disappointed to learn that Agwa hadn’t made the orbs entirely by herself, but was still impressed by her work. Agwa was an expert in herbs, not circuits, and had brought in other staff members to help her on her pet project: a poison detector.

The poison detector was really about 50 or so circuits, stuck together. The smiths at the Academy hadn’t considered making one before, but they were eventually convinced. The text orb was a harder sell: making it show text was easy but changing the text was hard. For the poison detector it wasn't an obstacle: the names of plants were unlikely to change.

They spent the first day going over the circuit design, Anu filling in some of the gaps of Agwa’s knowledge, and vice-versa. Kay did not enjoy sea travel, Anu’s cloak had been hung up, so that they could nap inside the hood.

The second day was very similar, more conversations about work, but Anu had begun to talk about the city. By the third day, Agwa had run out of questions on circuits, and had instead asked about Anu’s plans.

“Well, my plans are pretty much over”

Anu continued, “I wanted to leave home, I wanted to have a life outside of the mountain town. Not strong enough to fight, not enough mana, no money, no talent. I can make circuits though. I thought that would be enough to get into the Academy, but”

Anu paused, looking down at her feet

“If it wasn’t for Kay, I wouldn’t get to take the exams. I just want to pass, graduate, and maybe stay in Verse? I feel lucky enough already”

Aqua smiled, “Don’t worry. Dreams are hard, even when you’re young.”

With a sly grin, she continued, “When I first told people about the poison tester, they told me that I’d never get it to work, especially on unknown plants, but I found a way“

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She explained her dream was to modernise herbalism, putting tools into peoples hands, like circuits had done for spells. People with lots of mana, and lots of practice, could cast spells. Circuits let people use the mana around them to achieve the same, without much practice either.

Her dream was similar, distilling her expertise into a device anyone could use. Agwa had seen circuits applied to warfare, storage, tools, but their use for more domestic needs, or in rural areas was scarce.

“It was either impossible, or stupid, or pointless. So I learned how to make circuits, learned their rules, and then broke them. Ha.”

Agwa was beaming, a little proud of beating the smiths of the academy.

“Anyway, why I’m telling you this: I don’t want to hear your plans, I want to hear about what you wanted, before you got told it was impossible”

“Um”

Anu closed her eyes and tried to think back to some of the weirder things she'd imagined as a child.

“Travelling anywhere. I drew little circles when I was a kid, pretending they’d take me somewhere else. Not just that. I used to think you could keep drawing bits on to make it do everything, rather than having all of these specialised bits”

She blushed. Memories of arguing 'Nuh-uh, now my circuit is fire proof, no now it does water too' with the other kids, felt a little silly now.

“Those are pretty good dreams Anu! Your plans, and goals seem ok too, even if it's just keeping your head down and focusing on graduating. I think you’ll know where you want to be, or maybe where you don’t want to be, eventually.  The academy isn't going to easy, but being in the city might speed up your decision a little, that’s all. It has that effect on people”

Anu smiled, “Thank you. Oh, and I promised Kay I’d find more of the petals too”

“Well, one of your goals is about to be accomplished. Sort-of”

Agwa rummaged in her luggage, "Aha! This for for you!", and handed over a small bottle of oil. “It’s concentrated extract—A drop will make ten cups”

“Thanks, but, why do you have all of this stuff?“

Anu wasn’t ungrateful, but a little curious.

“The gardens are full of it. Oh. How much do you know about Verse?”

“I have been reading the history a little, but …”

“So. Fortress, Old town, New town. The new town is full of hibslock trees, especially in the gardens. Did you learn about the empire’s reformation? Anyway, the emperor was apparently very fond of mana weavers, thus the hibslock gardens.”

“… but why do you have a bottle with you?”

“It smells nice, and it’s used as a base in some medicines. I was also hoping to meet a mana weaver, some of the most interesting plants are usually found by their nests too. They don't mind you waiting in the nest if you put a drop of oil on, we think. It might just be taken a sign of non-hostility.”

“Is it safe? Like could I wash my hair with it?”

Agwa started to mumble, ‘Why would you ..’, “Oh, for Kay, right?”

Anu nodded

“I guess you could use it undiluted, or in a concentration. Maybe test a small drop first?”

“I’ll try something when I can get to a bath, or even a shower”

“Soon, Anu. Until then, can you show me some of your answers again?”

“Sure. Let me fetch my textbook”