Taking the chance, Aya heads to the Artisan District to ask Risel if there was something that would allow her to see the grades of items she made.
Walking through the apothecary, Aya finds the elven girl in the middle of organizing some shelves.
"Oh, Yvlena! You came in at a lucky time I was just sorting through these potions and...I wouldn't mind some help." Risel says. She clasps her hands together, pleading with puppy eyes for Aya to help. "As the Harvest Guardian I officially request your aid."
[Quest
Risel the Alchemist Merchant wants you to help dust the apothecary.
***
Rewards
Explosive Potion recipe (Common)
***
Moon Point x500
EXP x200]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes/No]
Aya hits yes making the elven girl jump and clap in excitement.
"I really didn't want to do this on my own." She says.
"I understand Risel, let's get to work." Aya says.
[Yvlena Acquired Dust Mop x1]
The two waste no time dusting the shelves of the apothecary, Aya cleans and cleans until the numerous vials, beakers, and bottles shine in the sun.
Beside her Risel does much the same, humming a soothing tune. Aya takes a moment to listen to it, curious about the Alchemist. She pauses, letting the tune float through the speakers. It isn't long before her eyes widen.
Aya gasp, sucking in air so loudly she nearly chokes.
"What's that tune you're humming?" Aya says immediately struck by a memory. Her mother used to hum that song.
That exact same melody.
"Do you like it? My mother taught it to me, I used to hum this song while my brother and I cleaned my mother's apothecary together." Risel says smiling sadly. She pauses her cleaning with sad eyes.
"I've forgotten the lyrics though, if only Wren were here." Risel says with a longing sigh.
Aya chews her lips nervously contemplating. It couldn't be the same song, could it? But the melody was unmistakable.
"I know the song Risel." Aya says. Risel turns to her with a playful glare.
"Don't play around Yvlena, how could you know that song? It's a very old one, from the time before the war of the gods?"
"Let me sing to you." Aya says.
"Okay, but I'm gonna be a little upset if you trick me Yvlena."
Aya sits up in her seat ready to sing the song her mother and grandmother used to sing. She clears her throat, letting the words wash over her.
An old lullaby.
"Come little bird it's cold outside
The raindrops fall and the winds doth rise
Come little bird it's cold outside
Take shelter under these branches."
"Come little bird it's cold outside,
the snow falls through and you'll go blue
Come little bird it's cold outside
Take shelter under these branches."
"Spring, Summer, Autumn, and winter too
I see you through and through,
for a there's no place quite like home baby mine.
A bird you are and a tree I'll be."
Aya looks to the screen to see Risel wiping tiny tears out of the corner of her eyes. Aya laughs sadly, wiping her own teary eyes.
How long had it been since she had sung that song? Even to herself.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"Oh, Yvlena you do know it. It was just like being in the room with My brother all over again." The elven girl says bawling. Risel leaps into Yvlena's arms crying.
"I miss him so much." She says sniffling. "How did you know that lullaby?"
"Well, my mother taught it to me too Risel." Aya replies.
"She must be a wonderful person." Risel says. Aya smiles, overcome with the painful memories of her mother.
"Yeah."
[Quest Complete
Risel the Alchemist Merchant wants you to help dust the apothecary.
***
Rewards
Explosive Potion recipe (Common)
***
Moon Point x500
EXP x200]
[Yvlena is now level 7]
[Risel considers you a friend]
It's too much for Aya, she logs off allowing the first of her tears to fall as she tries to wipe them off with the sleeve of her shirt.
The tears don't stop, soaking through the sleeves of her shirt as she continues to weed silently in her apartment.
Soon Aya bawls much like Risel did, the pain in her heart swallowing her whole.
"I miss you so much, mom!" She cries, Aya didn't want to be here right now, holding her chest doesn't help with the pangs in her heart, and every breath she takes aches.
Aya collapses on her bed, curling into a ball and sobbing so hard her chest rattles.
Why did her parents have to be taken from her? Why her grandmother?
Only to be left with a cruel hag.
"It's not fair!" Aya cries, pounding her fist against her pillow! "It's not fair." She says again, defeated.
Through her window the evening sky rises and she sings to herself once more.
"Spring, Summer, Autumn, and winter too
I see you through and through,
for a there's no place quite like home, baby mine.
A bird you are and a tree I'll be."
"I hope I have the strength to be a tree too, mom." Aya says.
----------
Deep within the bowels of the Lumos inc archives, Fred Barkley works through the weekend.
The business with the Yvlena protocol proved to be so important the CEO made it his main priority.
Even though he was free to go home, Fred stays, typing away on his computer and trying to decrypt the mysteries of the ancient PC.
The machine spurs to life again, blinking and transmitting.
"It's sending something to Moon Valley, isn't it? The player must have activated something again. Just who are you Yvlena? What is your story?"
The computer screen flashes, printing words across the screen.
[The bird and the tree]
Fred reads the message, knowing it to be an old nursery rhyme albeit an obscure one. Not many parents still sang it to their kids.
The practice of lullabies dying out in favor of shutting kids up with screens.
"The song might mean something to the CEO, I'd report this but he never picks up on the weekends." Fred says throwing his head back and kicking his feet up unto the table.
"So I'm looking for a girl obviously, around my age. That would put her in her 20's early 30's Max. Among the older demographic playing Moon Valley, not much to go off of but it's a start." Fred says sipping a mug of coffee.
"Whoever you are Yvlena, I'll find you." He says.
----------
Aya wakes with a terrible headache and puffy eyes. She yawns, swallowing dryly and rubbing the dust from her eyes.
She rolls over, walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water and some aspirin.
After gulping down a few glasses, Aya runs her hand through her dark hair, so much like her mother's own, and stops to think.
Something was weird about Moon Valley. It couldn't just be a coincidence, right?
The setting, the Rose Manor, even the Harvest Guardian, and now the song.
Her mother had ties to the game somehow and the only way to find out was to keep playing.
There was no one else she could ask now, all she had was the game.
"What's that saying again, when a door closes, a window opens?" Aya chuckles, "It feels a lot like that right now."
Her voice is still shaky as she speaks, sniffling at the memories of her mother.
"I'll find out what happened to you and Dad, even if I have to turn every rock in Moon Valley to do it."
----------
Aya logs back into the game to be greeted by Risel, before she can speak however a message pops up.
[Secret Conditions Met
***
Reward
Rose Manor Secret Room Key x1]
"A hidden room within the Rose Manor? Could it be for me?" Aya wonders.
The girl decides to play as she usually would, after all, there was no compass when it came to finding out her mother's connection to the game.
"Risel is there something that can let me see the grades of items?" Aya asks.
The elven girl nods, pulling out a pair of intricate gold framed spectacles.
"This accessory comes with the added bonus of being able to see item grades, it also boosts [WIS] and [INT] these are the Adiri specs." Risel says.
Aya looks the price up and realizes they cost about 4000 Moon Points.
"Can I come back for those?" Aya asks.
"Sure, I can only really sell them to others with any crafting skills." Risel says, "And you're one of the only few to walk through."
Aya laughs.
"Thank you Risel."
[Affinity with Risel increased +2]
Aya walks out of the Apothecary and into the streets of the Artisan District still thinking about her mother.
"I'll head back to the Manor, maybe I can cut a few more of those weeds down." She says running towards the Floral District.
----------
"The seeds!" Aya says in surprise. On the land she had tilled, little green plants sprout from the soil. She didn't expect progress to come that quickly but it was a welcome surprise.
[Your crops are thirsty]
The menu tells her, she retrieves the watering can but it's all out of water.
Aya curses, wondering where she would get water now.
Just out of the corner of her eye, she spots something.
On one of the almost clear paths, Aya notices a well with a stone roof, hurriedly clearing the weeds, she ignores the notification about fiber and stops to marvel at it.
An old stone well sits before her. Celestial carvings adorn the roof, but the crank is rusty just like all the tools in her possession.
Aya winds the crank, lifting a bucket of fresh water to fill her watering can, and hurry back to the crops.
She waters each of the 6 patches with care, putting away the watering can when she's done.
[Subclass: Leveled Up
Herbalist(Harvest Guardian) 3/10]
[New Skill Unlocked: Crafting LV. 1]
"Nice! But I thought all production classes were crafters."
Aya reads the skill description.
[Crafting
***
Create useful items using recipes and raw materials]
"Not too helpful but I recall something about a foraging skill tree too, maybe I'll unlock that later." Aya says.
With a swipe of her scythe, Aya finds once again that the effort taken to weed the area decreases again.
"At this rate, I could be done with the front lawn of the manor in a bit." She says. "The sooner I'm done, the sooner I can find out what's within the Manor's secret Room.
As Aya works she doesn't notice a pile of weeds begin to rustle.
An enormous pile of weeds slithers along the ground, gathering a substantial amount of plants and vines from the ground.
"Eh? What going-" Before Aya could complete her sentence the enormous pile of dead and rotten plants and weeds roars.
Towering over Yvlena much like the Horned Rabbit Queen, she faces it.
[You have encountered Lawn Boss: Giant Weed Mimic]