An afternoon of attempting, and only occasionally succeeding, to reproduce her results followed for Kori, until they ran out of luminous moss at least.
“We’ll have Har inspect the products to verify consistency, it’s a good thing he’s not leaving until the morning. At a glance it looks like you’ve produced three more batches containing mana.” Looking over her results the other five pots of paste containing no traces of mana, “I doubt these will have any use, but it is worth having him take a look as well.”
Kori’s gaze drifts from her own work over to the other side of the workbench, where another series of containers sit. “Do any of yours contain mana, Spiritcaller Ortik?” Curious if her mentor has been able to reproduce her results.
“No. Not yet.” Clearly displeased with the fact, “I’ve yet to feel this sensation of something missing that you have described from the herbs as I work them. Just dumping mana into them doesn’t seem to be enough either. I suspect there is another Skill involved; one you are on the cusp of acquiring in all likelihood.”
“Another Skill, Spiritcaller Ortik? Really? I’ve already gotten two new skills today, could I really be close to getting a third?” Disbelief and excitement warring in her voice and on her visage. “What Skill do you think it is?”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. It may take creating different products to acquire it and we don’t even know how the first happened to try it with anything else. As for what the Skill is, I honestly have no idea. I will present this new information to the Circle to see if the others have any insight, and perhaps even commune with the spirits if necessary.” Ortik’s voice betraying his calm façade, hints of frustration at his being unable to accomplish the same task as his own apprentice bleeding through.
“For now, clean this up and then go fetch dinner. Your tutor will be here shortly and I’m sure she’ll want to push your new calligraphy skill.”
The evening passed just as predicted, tedious cleaning and scrubbing, dinner, and then a new type of training from the apprentice matron, a bowl of fine sand laid out and smoothed over for Kori to practice using the bone pen. The method actually working well, the pen leaving clean lines in the sand almost as clearly as it would on paper.
“Vri, when will I get to use actual ink to practice? This is better than the charcoals, but it’s still not the same as when I wrote properly earlier.”
“Soon. If you can get another skill level, maybe two, you should be ready. We can reset the sand as much as we need to, wasting paper while you’re still new to the skill doesn’t make sense.”
The training repeats throughout the evening, smoothing over the sand in the bowl and writing her letters and words, only to smooth them over and try again. Vri changes up the words, has her write sentences, write smaller, write larger, but its still just more of the same task.
The following morning, before the meeting while Kori would normally be getting ready for the day, Har arrives to take a look at the rest of the batches, “Hmm. These three are the same as the one I appraised yesterday.” He continues looking over the other batches present. “The remainder don’t appear as a finished product, just a herbal concoction. Did it really take fifteen additional attempts to produce three more usable results?”
“No. She created eight batches and succeeded on three of them. Oddly she knew long before she finished whether it was going to succeed or not.” Pointing to the grouping sitting apart from the others, “The other seven I made, though not a single of those was receptive to my mana.”
“Odd, does she have any Skills that would account for this?” Scratching his chin as he speculates.
“Not yet." Shaking his head. "I believe she is likely close to one though. I’ve no other explanation.”
"Sounds like a crafting skill of some kind, we don't often have a lot of need for those." Har speculates as he turns one of the pots over in his hands looking at it from every angle. "Definitely a mage skill of some kind too, since it uses mana. I can ask about with the townsfolk, they might have some ideas, but not many magical crafters in a town like Whatzakt so not sure if I'll have any luck."
"Thank you Har, hopefully we can make some determination." Looking towards his apprentice as he speaks, “It's quite odd for this to happen without explanation, but there were oddities in her mage apprenticeship too, before it was ended for failing to acquire the requisite Skills.”
He just has to bring that up… I wonder if Ylst will take me back now that I got [Mana Control]?
“I did get one of those skills when I made that first batch though.” Piping up to defend herself.
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“Yes, yet another oddity apprentice.” Giving her a shake of his head, “Go prepare breakfast. Har, will you join me?”
“Certainly Chieftain. I’d love to.” A broad smile as he accepts. “I’ll need to leave for Whatzakt soon though, I’m sure the others are already packing the carts.”
Instead of getting to quickly and quietly eat her breakfast, Kori spends the rest of the morning prior to the Elder’s meeting serving breakfast for the two Elders, brewing cups of tea, fetching food, and ensuring they had everything they needed, sneaking bites of her own between tasks as she could before they depart for the Elder’s Chambers.
Arriving at the Elder’s Chambers, Kori, having been instructed to bring the clay pots containing her ointment stands off to the side in her spot with her arms full cradling the four containers and waiting for instructions. It doesn’t take long once the Elders settle in and a call for any urgent business to be brought forward and go unanswered for Ortik to look to her, “I would like to introduce new business before we begin with petitions.” Motioning Kori forward. “My apprentice has something to show us.”
Kori walks towards Ortik’s side before he gives her a shake of the head and pointedly looks towards the center of the room. Realizing that he wants her to present as a petitioner would rather than from behind the tables. Scurrying around to present herself in front of the council, with a brief flashback to the last time she was in this position seven months prior.
Ortik waves her on with a circular motion of his wrist, from him it seems less encouraging and more impatient.
“Good morning, Elders. Yesterday while preparing herbal remedies to train my [Basic Herbalism] skill, I produced an unexpected result, one which may prove beneficial to the Clan.” Shifting nervously at being the center of attention in front of the Elders, “I am presently unable to reliably reproduce the results, succeeding on less than half of my attempts, but should I be able to gain an appropriate Skill that will hopefully change.”
“Please take a look while I read out the appraisal information provided by Elder Har.” She begins passing around the 4 pots of ointment. “What you see here appraises as being an Imbued Herbal Healing Ointment,” She completes reading out the description, looking at each of the attending Elders.
With a broad smile on her face Ylst speaks up as she finishes, “Pardon the interruption Kori, this ointment contains mana and you’ve produced multiple batches. Does this mean that you have finally learned [Mana Control]?”
A beaming smile on her face as Kori responds, “Yes! I finally got the skill when I made the first batch!”
Before Ylst has an opportunity to praise her success, Blonc stands from his seated position behind the low table, holding one of the pots in front of him, “How can I get more of these. How much does it take to reach the maximum effect? The entire pot of it or just a smear of it across the wound?” Barreling forward without giving Kori a chance to respond to his questions. “How long does it take you to make one? Can you make them in larger batches?”
His rapid fire questions driving Kori in on herself bit by bit, slowly slouching as she realizes that she doesn’t have answers for most of his questions.
Ortik raising his hand and clearing his throat interrupting Blonc’s questioning. “Please give her a chance to reply Elder.”
“Thank you, Spiritcaller Ortik. Unfortunately, I do not have most of the answers to your questions Elder Blonc. The only one I can reliably respond to is how long it takes to produce a batch roughly the size of what you are holding, and that is between 10 and 20 minutes, double that if my success rate remains as it currently is.” She gives him an apologetic shrug as she continues, “The other answers will require testing. We’ve not actually used it to treat a wound as of yet.”
“I’ll volunteer to test it. I’m sure there are a few banged and bruised trainees at the yard. Maybe I can send some out with scouts heading in the direction we found those goblin bodies a while back.” The excitement still evident in Blonc’s voice and posture.
Ylst gives a shake of her head as she laughs at his energetic responses. “Your trainees would make great test subjects Blonc, but I’d not trust them to do the testing.” Turning back to Kori, “Give it to them to test and you’ll have measurements like ‘A handful’ or they’ll start treating sore feet when it should be saved for actual wounds.”
It takes all of her efforts to not bark out a laugh as she listens to Ylst’s words. “What would you suggest, Elder?”
“I usually send a mage or two along with the scouts, let them hold onto it and preform the tests as needed. The feedback will be a bit more useful that way.” Giving Blonc a bit of side-eye as he tries to object but really has no valid argument.
Ortik steps in to finalize the agreement and restore some order to things. “Very well, that is acceptable apprentice, you may provide three of the prepared samples to Elder Ylst for testing. As to the matter of production, we will attempt to train this new Skill, which Elder Har will be attempting to identify with his contacts amongst the townsfolk as well. You will report back to the Elders as to your progress in one month. During that time, we will attempt to determine a method of training others in this skill beginning with the Circle’s apprentices.”
“If there is nothing else on this matter?” Looking around to the thoughtful faces of the other Elders, none of them make any move to ask any other questions. “Very well. Thank you, apprentice.” Dismissing her from her spot in front of the council. “Then we will move on to other business.” Pointedly turning his head from Kori’s position to her typical spot behind him.
Kori takes the hint and moves back into position, another long and boring Elder’s meeting stretching out before her as her mind jumps from speculation to theorization and back. Going over crafting the new ointment and what it means that she was finally able to learn the Skill that stymied her for months and led to being dismissed from her first apprenticeship.
Several hours later the meeting finally ends. If you asked Kori what was discussed after her little presentation, it’s unlikely that she’d be able to describe a single topic, thankfully her lack of attention went mostly unnoticed as there were no tasks asked of her.