Warmth was the first feeling Aloe felt. She wondered if newborn felt the same way in their conception. Then lucidity came back to her.
"Ugh…" The petite woman rolled in the dirt as she groaned. "This has been certainly on the top… something of worst experiences ever, blessed heavens I'm beat."
She put her palms on her head, slightly pulled down the skin of her face, then sunk her nails into her scalp. Her fingers and legs trembled from the overwhelming itches, even after having passed out for a solid while as the sun wasn't where she last remembered.
"Okay, okay…" Aloe sat down and took a chug from her waterskin. "It has done something, the Blossomflame has healed me at least, that's a victory." A victory that her body still remembered. "For being healed, I feel more beaten and exhausted than before." She said whilst looking at the evolved flower.
The Blossomflame was open as before, emitting its familiar warmth, though there was a distinctive lack of embers floating around.
"Got any more juice in you?" She poked the plant and it failed to respond back. "I guessed as much." She sighed. "Well, at least you have not withered like your little sister, so I guess I still can get a use out of you, even if you have unleashed the very hells upon me."
The conflagration was still fresh in her mind, how the flames drowned and… assaulted her. It had been a gentle touch, more than she had ever gotten, but Aloe couldn't say she had enjoyed the unilateral experience. She had had too many of those in her life as it was.
"Moment of truth," The cultivator gathered her breath and pushed her hands against the soil to stand up. Her equilibrium was still messed up, partially because donning any stance that wasn't sense already took a toll on her balance, but after some finicking, she was able to stand up. Truth was, she could already feel the strain on her hip. "Alright. So far so good. How about…" She took a step forward. Much like a house of cards, she folded with minimal movement. "Motherfu-"
Whilst not donning acuity, Aloe was quick on her feet – or rather hands – as she stopped her fall and mitigated it with her upper body.
"That's why I was using toughness," She groaned. "I guess I'm now dependent on you, little friend." Aloe caressed the Blossomflame again, petting it much like an animal. "I still have four days, so if you recover your juice soon enough… who knows? Maybe I'll march out here walking and all."
She didn't even believe her own words. Some called her pessimistic, most of those complaints had once come from her mother, but she was only being realistic. Having high hopes was the only way to lead one to high disappointments.
"Now that I'm here, I should get a bit of nectar. Who knows how many bottles Fatima will want?" Aloe stopped to ponder at her own words. "Fuck. How many bottles will she want?"
Producing the Grace's Exaltation aphrodisiac wasn't difficult, but getting to the oasis was. If she didn't have many bottles at hand, Fatima would demand her to come back, and whilst some excuse based on the lack of prime matter – which was partially true – could work, the sultanzade would be far from satisfied with such claims.
"Better start working then."
Recollecting the sap from the aphrodisiac evolved plant was a simple task as the substance was very thick, though it wasn't without its problems. If a single drop got on her skin, it would be as if she had consumed a dose of the diluted aphrodisiac. That wasn't much of a problem compared to how a spill on an Aloe Veritas would render the plant useless, but Aloe had neither the will nor the energy to relieve herself if she were to become aroused by the Grace's Exaltation.
With care, Aloe made a small incision on the glowing stem of the plant and put the flask she had been carrying on her satchels underneath the cut so all the crawling sap flowed into the container. It was a slow process, but she didn't want to risk it.
Unlike the diluted aphrodisiac, the sap directly extracted from the plant glowed with the might of gold and the sun. Of course, not at the same degree as the Myriad. One was a literal sun, whilst the other was a soft reflection on a looking glass. More than actual blinding light, the nectar emitted a radiance that was more eye-catching than glowing. Fluorescent, that's the word.
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What followed wasn't as pretty and composed. After bottling a whole flask of nectar, Aloe had to crawl her way out of the oasis and then cry for Fikali's assistance as the dweller had grown bored and decided to graze grass.
"Sorry for interrupting your meal, I know you haven't had a real one for a while, but I can't really move on my own at the moment." She apologized to the dweller by feeding her a handful of pistachios.
"Huo," Fikali grunted in understanding and ate from the woman's palm.
"Hehe, it tickles."
Fikali had to move slowly around the shack and greenhouse's bearings as the ground wasn't soft enough for a dweller, but it wasn't as if she was pressed for time. It beat crawling, that was for sure.
With some pathetic attempts, the cultivator sat on the only chair in the shack and opened her notes on the desk. They weren't the best and most complete, just some ramblings and rough sketches of the plants she had grown, but they were somewhat close to that of real apothecaries and herbalists. Emphasis on somewhat.
The Grace's Exaltation was the longest as it also held the recipe for the aphrodisiac.
"Heaven bless my foresight because I don't remember shit on how I made it." Aloe coarsely stated."
The first sentence read as follows: Mix water and Grace's Exaltation nectar in a ratio of 1-to-50, or one glass of water for every teaspoon of nectar.
"Hmm," Aloe took out the flask and shook it before her. "There can't be more than five teaspoons here. I guess I will have to make a second round. Ten bottles seem like a good number to bring back. Though I guess the water will be a problem. I brought only to drink for six days, so I'll have to boil water if I want enough for the whole order." The woman groaned in exhaustion at the sheer idea but continued reading.
Stir the contents for fifteen minutes until the nectar has dissolved with the water and has lost its glowing properties. A finished mixture will have the color of pineapple juice, though lesser ratios will have a color more resemblant to urine. Pour the mixture into a kettle and leave it heating just before boiling.
"Wait, boiling was part of the process? Nice, I'll use dirty water directly then." She frowned at the statement. "Is the boiling part of the recipe because I was too lazy to use boiled water when I was experimenting?" She was inclined to say yes.
The heat will mix closer the nectar and the water, whilst removing the innate spiciness of the nectar, only leaving behind its sweetness. Consumption shouldn't surpass two spoons per head.
"Or maybe not, but it certainly feels like something I would do."
Whilst her idea was to use water straight from the oasis, she was exhaustively exhausted to make a trip there and wanted to at least have a set of aphrodisiacs ready in case anything went wrong, so she decided to use clean water for the time being.
As all the waterskins were tied on the saddle, which was at the feet of the desk, Aloe picked them up and then poured them on the only pot of the shack. It was the one she used for soup, but it wasn't as if she intended to cook during her stay. With three waterskins she filled half of it and guessed there was enough water for the whole flask of nectar.
"I guess Fatima won't care if the aphrodisiac is too pure." She would never give the sultanzade the undiluted substance for fear of what will become of that woman after consuming pure liquid lewdness. Mainly because she would be the one around to suffer the consequences.
Stirring the contents was a bit awkward as she couldn't stand up for long and the chair wasn't tall enough to do it whilst sitting nor big enough that she could place the pot between her thighs, so she sat on the ground and stirred the mixture there.
"I've used a kettle so far… but I don't think a pot will be much of a problem. The recipe is just a documented experiment, who says I cannot experiment on top of it."
Lifting a half-full pot presented some difficulties, but nothing that the strength stance couldn't resolve. Fortunately, starting the hearth wasn't as demanding as many other chores, and she was quite practiced even if she hadn't done so for ages now. Soon enough, she had the pot with the mixture ready to be heated.
"I've brought flasks, but do I have ten of them… I would like to avoid using waterskins to store the finished product, but it seems I won't have much choice."
She could already foresee the future where she drank out of one of them instead of a normal waterskin and it sent shivers down her spine. The middle of the desert wasn't the best spot to be in heat.
As the mixture slowly heated, Aloe gorged herself in a lunch of stale water, dry jerky, and smelly cheese. Whatever that kept her alive. By the time the water was beginning to boil, the heavens had already acquired an orange tinge. Which led Aloe to inquire where the rest of the day had fled to.
For the time being she left the finished aphrodisiac on the kitchenette counter on the pot with a lid to protect it, but she knew she should do something with it in the near future. Just to verify the quality of the product, she slurped a bit from the ladle.
"Hmm~" Aloe immediately felt her body heat up and feel lighter, as if she had donned glamour. "I had forgotten how tasty the aphrodisiac actually was." She panted and bit her underlip in self-control. "If it's gotten me… like this this fast, then Fatima will approve of this batch."
The day was coming to a close and so was her lucidity, so Aloe decided to put a stop and directed herself to bed. There were many chores remaining, and she was already dreading them all.