Leila does a quick check of the time and her horoscope to see if it's okay for her to go to the well. It's after seven but before eight. If she hurries she might be able to fill a few pens before she has to move to another task. She says all of this to Jek who looks horrified every time she talks to them, but they have no problem holding up a conversation. She still hasn't figured out why. Is she saying too much or not using honorifics? How bad is her accent?

With a shrug she dismisses the rising panic, tucks the tablet into her pocket, grabs the handles of two non-enchanted buckets, nearly pulls something as she tries to lift them, then opts to two hand one bucket. Maybe she won't get that far after all. Jek backs away and lets her continue to try to do the chore, watching until she empties the first bucket into the first water trough, barely raising the level before going back for another full bucket.

It occurs to Leila that she's not going to be able to fill the trough before eight if she has to keep doing this back and forth. Setting an alarm to warn her five minutes before eight and then another alarm for noon she immediately turns off the alarm for five minutes to eight. Well. Onto the next chore! After a quick check to see if she's safe to go to the food stores to interact with bags of seeds, of course. Getting the all clear, she learns that the bags here are also not enchanted. And their contents are prone to shifting. And they're heavy and bulky. For her untrained body. Well, she knows where the kitchens are and she has permission to access and use the food stores. She'll work until she gets hungry then take a break.

An hour later she's moved three sacks, one of which is on the ground beside her, and only managed to get feed into two pens. She continues panting from her position sprawled out on her back. Her arms are like spicy noodles, burning and limp, and she thinks a piece broke off and is currently curling and burning in her back. But she did so well yesterday. With the magically enchanted barrel. Did she accidentally a magic to get it to work? Accidentally awesome. She whips out her tablet, sees that it's got a 25% charge, then checks to see if she's got any spells or runes in her notes. Nah. She's definitely going to have to go to back and copy the markings on the barrel. This magic stuff is game changing.

Leila wakes with a scream. Jek looks down at her, unimpressed, then screams back at her mockingly. She'd passed out on the ground with the bag of feed. She's embarrassed and apologizes, then whines when she tries to move and her body hurts.

"My back and limbs are crunchy, spicy noodles," she whines, wriggling around and her back and joints crack and pop dramatically. "Squee!"

Jek laughs at her intentionally ridiculous squealing cry for help, then moves back as she tries to pick herself up. She eventually does manage to sit up and then deflates as she sees the bag on the ground next to her. How's she supposed to finish her chores? There's nine feed bags and she'd only done two. This one doesn't count because it's not done yet. She idly wonders how many doses of healing salve it'd take to smear her whole body, then remembers that it was considered trash medicine but her hand hadn't been bothering her.

"Are these special bandages?" Leila turns to Jek as he continues snickering at her.

"Kinda..." he says, eyes shifting away like a car turning in the night.

Leila side-eyes him, making a point to let him see that she knows he's hiding something. Whipping out her tablet she goes to her journal and see's that earlier he had treated her with healing bandages. As in bandages that helped heal her wounds for her. Da frick? She keeps poking around, going back and forth between the message for the salve she'd used and the bandages he'd used and wondering if the stains weren't actually enchantments of their own. It only occurs to her to check the bandages after he removes them and she sees that her hand is fine. They didn't actually feel like fabric but she'd assumed it was the feel of the medicine on her hands changing their texture. She gains more magical insight and magical item use and expands her knowledge to show how little she knows. Be that way! At least she's getting updates... That already make this world better. You fucked up? Here's when and how. Do better!

She decides she needs to eat and head back to the Red Top kitchen to get another look at that barrel. She lets Jek know, then wrestles the bag onto her shoulders before staggering and hobbling to another animal pen. He keeps giving her wide-eyed side-eye but doesn't stop her or do it for her. She tells him that she'll be back to try again after her break even though he doesn't ask and finally heads back onto the trail. After she limps past the witchy tree some of the forest denizens finally start calling out to her. She's hurt and confused. They can help her. She sings, poorly, on purpose, about shady car salesmen before pointing out random inconsistencies. To a magpie-man she asks how much he's willing to pay to get the chip in his beak fixed. To a wolfman she asks how much is he willing to pay for bigger ears. To a pale "beauty" that hides her face behind red and black she asks if she's willing to trade her mystery for actual looks, otherwise who would call her beautiful? By the time she's out of the woods she knows that she's at least earned the looks of disbelief and confusion. Unlike the first time.

"Ignore me because I'm not worth your time, then try to take advantage of me? See if you dare in the future!" she struts to the back door, her tablet chiming.

She gets a notification that she's developed her skill in hexcraft, gained greater insight, and has expanded her magical knowledge. She's now got access to some basic "monster" anatomy information in her journal and unlocked a bestiary. She raises her free arm, doing a slow victory shimmy even as she scrolls through the new entries. Someone clears their throat and Leila looks up to see the old madame smirking at her in sympathy. She'd been caught celebrating with hip movement outside of a brothel. At least she wasn't doing any pelvic thrusts. She straightens and lowers her arm, rearranging her skirts before locking her tablet with a focused thought and putting in back in her pocket.

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"I'm not quite strong enough to do the tasks without triggering my trait, but I did manage three of the nine food bags, and I'm here to find out more about payment and runes," Leila says clearly, hoping that continuing to be straightforward and transparent will help her.

"I'm surprised you did any work," the thin red head says, eyebrows raised nearly to her hairline. "Figured you'd spend a day 'acquainting' yourself to the farm then be back here to warm beds. You're a hard worker," she nods more to herself than Leila. "Or so I'd like to say, but by your own admission you didn't finish the chores. Come to me after you finish them and I'll compensate you. We need the work but we don't need any cry 'pies claiming they need compensation for work they didn't do. Already got a few girls shirking their chores because they don't pay as well as the beds. Don't need you not warming beds and not doing chores." The woman sucks her teeth. "And that's the last I'll hear on that!"

"Can I study the barrel?" Leila asks.

She is offended that the woman would claim she wasn't willing to do the work when she already had done more than any of the others. Is that not proof of her conviction? Besides. She was here for a meal and runes. She'd earned that much, hadn't she? She's allowed to study the barrel, and when she does she finds that there are markings inside and out. Her journal slowly updates but she's getting tired and hungry. The older lady had told her that the kitchens she had access to weren't the Red Top kitchens. Those were for comfort girls. Leila had access to the kitchens at the farm and had to make her own meals. At least she's gotten the runes. Even if she doesn't remember the tablet is storing the information.

Thanking the old madame she wanders through the woods singing that she doesn't know what she knows and she couldn't make anyone beautiful but she wouldn't bullshit you if you didn't bullshit her. She gets numerous squawks and howls of those trying to drown out her new hit and a few items that scream cursed are thrown onto the path, but she just grabs a stick and ends up making a cursed wood rope as the limb absorbs the curses and the artifacts stick to it. When she passes the witchy tree the tree limbs flare with fine points of golden light as if the budding knots on the limb weren't new branches but beads of sap that have suddenly ignited. The thin whips of flexible wood drift up and Leila fights to keep hold of the branch even as the area fills with sunlight. Fumbling for her tablet she goes to her journal and sees that the witchy tree is attempting to consume the cursed items, gaining more magical power. Well, maybe this is what it's for?

She doesn't let go of the branch, afraid that it'll fly over and knock the tree out, and eases closer and closer until the tree knows that, yes, she's handing over the cursed items, and it would probably be a good idea to stop pulling. Once the tug on the limb drops and the limb flops down, Leila moves closer, presenting it, so the tree can pick and choose the pieces. Feeling like a concierge in a fancy restaurant, Leila makes idle comments on the pieces, going over their apparent quality of materials and how pleasing or unpleasing they are to look at. From weaker charms that threaten the wearer with tangles to stronger curses that thicken the blood or bloat and harden joints and flesh, they casually go over them all.

Leila learns more about magic, identifying, craftsmanship, and gains a stronger bond with the woods and this forest spirit in particular. As the witchy tree consumes some of the more fatal curses it blossoms into a young woman with braided locks filled with flowers. A notification that she'd helped a lesser spirit ascend into a greater spirit and Leila and the witchy tree, uninspiringly named Willow, practice jumping with a fist in the air until they say "Yatta!" in sync.

"We will always remember the help and aid you've rendered to us, and, as such, let this spot be a safe haven for you as long as my influence lasts," Willow gushes as she and Leila hold hands off the path.

"But will I be able to find the farm without you here?" Leila immediately panics. This was the only marker she had to go by! It can't leave!

"I have no influence on the lands beyond, but are you not already familiar enough with the lay of the area beyond this path?" the spirit asks her soothingly.

Leila does go to the farm on autopilot, when you commute along backroads for nearly an hour one way to a job you've worked for years, autopilot is a blessing, but she'd rather be sure with something this serious. She looks at her journal and finds that the path is marked on the map. She's not sure if that means she'll autopilot to this point but it wouldn't be fair for the spirit to be trapped here when it had been working so hard to get free. She acknowledges Willow's struggle, wishes her well in her retirement, then sprints to the farm to let Jek know that Willow is no longer a marker in case there's a protocol in place in case anything happened.

When Leila gets to the farm it's raining. She's still on the edge of the woods and the area she's in is clear, she can even see the sky, and the lands beyond are yet more proof that her map is accurate. She's moving along hidden paths in a world of magic, crossing over mountains, rivers and valleys with a quick hike and while the back ways are clear, this area is experiencing rain. But that brings up the point that if it ever rains in the forest, does that mean the rules to the paths have changed? Hopefully she'll read about it before she makes any mistakes.

She wants to find Jek, and they are allied under Hermit Farms so she can see his status has him located in the workshop, but she's unfamiliar with the area and really hungry so she wanders off to the kitchen. Hopefully nothing happens while she gets warmed up after her warmup and the cooling walk to the kitchens. She finds salted meats, fresh and dried fruits and veggies, a small fungus farm and more. She doesn't know what any of the items are after going to peel what she thought was a potato and turned out to be some kind of gourd, then just decides to just take a small sample of everything and hope for the best.

"Eat this," Jek says from in front of her and she manages to bite back on a scream.

How does she keep managing to tune him out? She vaguely remembers acknowledging him as he'd come into the room, barely hearing his questions as she tried to figure out if the things in the room were actually foods or decorations, and thenshe'd tuned him out completely. She apologizes after explaining all of this and he snorts while congratulating her on not screaming with a silent admonishment for being so forgetful. She accepts the sprig of green leaves on a soft stalk, eating it thinking it looks like what she thought mint looked like, but doesn't taste like it.

"Now eat this," he says while holding out something that looks similar enough that she wouldn't be able to tell them apart if he didn't differentiate between them.

She eats the new sprig and wonders what amazing health and satiety benefits the two herbs have when eaten together.

"Now take this bucket and go to your room," Jek says while handing her a pail with runes around the edge that she'd mistaken for decorative embellishments. "I'll see you when you recover."

"What?"