After the headache of sorting out and assigning new people for their abandoned duties, they were finally released from the meeting. For Aleksi, that meant finding one of the outdoor day beds in the royal garden while the two younger folk went out to hone their skills. Nothing intensive, and certainly nothing with high stakes, but still productive in their own ways. And, at the end of the day, it was something they enjoyed.
Elijah was more than a little jealous of that fact.
“You’re leaving too much of the petiole when you cut off the leaves,” he said, as he looked over the work of his assistants. With his oncoming departure from Kulvik for more than a few days, they had to learn how to harvest and otherwise care for the plants that Elijah usually did on his own. “It’s only the leaves themselves that carry the desired properties. If you mix them together with any other parts of the Phoenixfruit trees, the final product is worthless."
Most of the herbs in the Royal Garden weren’t hard to tend to, but some had specific traits that you needed to remember. With this specific example, it meant an endless headache alongside long bouts of tiredness. It wasn’t something you would expect when consuming a Phoenix Drop, as the intended effect was an instant mental refresher.
And it only got worse with other plants. Simple alterations to the well-described process of caring for and harvesting the herbs had the potential of blowing up in the faces of his assistants both figuratively and literally. The difference between a non-issue and the need for emergency medical supplies was sometimes whether or not a Pomping Laceflower was put on its head within a minute of harvesting it.
Such an easy thing to mess up when a person got too lenient with the instructions.
“I don’t get how you remember all of this,” Oscar commented, as he redid the cuttings so they could fit Elijah’s requirements. “Different processes for different plants I get, but with the normal Phoneixfruit trees you take the leaves, the petiole, and the fruits themselves.”
“And with this new variant, you only take the leaves,” Elijah replied, before going into detail about how the two variants were very different. The branches at the top crown were much more curled, and, while the fruits that came from the new variant did look identical to the former, the amount which grew were in heavily reduced numbers. It was obvious if you knew what to look for. “But, regardless of whether you can see the differences or not, you still need to look up the ID of every tree you harvest from. Best not to take a chance with this.”
Even Elijah had to admit his mind could fail at some points, which was why he had happily adopted the former Royal Healer’s approach to systematically documenting every plant that resided within their gardens. The numbers in front of any plant designated what was what, allowing any person to look up information regarding them. With many of the herbs that the assistants harvested every weekend, it was a simple name and instructions to just harvest as usual, but with others, there were very strict warnings. While Elijah hadn’t taken up the habit of filling several pages surrounding a single variant just yet, he figured he would need to do so very soon.
“I have to give it to Oscar on this one, Elijah,” Mary said, as she finished trimming the Spiked Tassels. Just like the Phoneixfruit trees, these were also variants of the original that the assistants usually tended to on their own. “An increase in effectiveness is nice, but the normal versions already work to the needed standard, and this just feels like it's an unnecessary danger.”
Elijah… couldn’t refute that outright. Not with these plants, at least. In the past eight weeks, in those rare hours where he had the freedom to experiment with his Affinity, he had started to try increasing the purity of the Royal Garden’s flora.
A challenging task, in more ways than one. Increasing the effectiveness and growth of plants through strengthening their magical abilities was a simple endeavor, and it was one Elijah had done from the very beginning of his experimentation with his Affinity. The issue that came from this method, however, was that it didn’t work as well in the long term. A higher use of Mana internally meant that a plant needed a larger passive supply of Mana from its surroundings. If Elijah was around to supply it on his own, that wasn’t a problem, but he could hardly spend every day keeping the new variants alive.
He needed them to be able to survive in their current surroundings, which meant that all improvements had to come at a cost. A balance of sorts, one that the plants rarely enjoyed at first. Convincing those primitive minds to cut away parts of their nature without a net gain was not easy at the start, Elijah needing several days to make any variant that was even close to stable.
But after the first two weeks, progress had boomed.
Elijah had optimized the more powerful Sundrop Flowers to grow within the garden, alongside the larger Fireblooms, Elderglow Tulips, and Sunfire Daisies. Above them, there was even a variant of the Faerie’s Breath vine flower that he’d managed to make stable, the multi-colored petals shining brightly. Each was as beautiful to Elijah as they were dangerous, and he loved them regardless.
And, on that note, he did need to brew various concoctions from those plants.
After another two hours of going through the various variants he’d grown with his assistants, and how to properly and safely care for them while he was gone, most of the harvested materials were set to dry in their own rooms. The remaining materials were brought down into the laboratory.
“The process for the Firebloom cream with the new variant is identical to the original, so I trust you to make it, Mary,” Elijah explained, as the herbs were put on the different tables. “Oscar, I need you to prepare the Elderglow Tulips for infusion. Wear thicker gloves. You don’t want the juices on your skin.”
Since their journey was going to be a multi-week trip, and with how powerful the sun was during the summer months, Elijah knew it was necessary for some form of protection. Cream made with the Firebloom juices would make that a reality, as the plant’s properties could grant a person resistance to the rays for days at a time. It likewise carried a slight sensitivity to cold air, but it was a sacrifice Elijah was more than ready to accept when it stopped any chance of sunburn.
On the other end, the nights out in grass plains were rather dark, and there were no promises that the stars would brighten the world. The Elderglow Tulips fixed that issue since any liquid infused with them would glow with a strong blue light for hours if shaken. The original version carried that property, at least, the new variant shining through the night if it had gotten even a single hour out in the sun during the day. Not a bad concoction to have.
There were a few others that were processed as well, of course. Sundrop Flowers were spent on healing Pastes, Sunfire Daisies on ointment to tend to tired muscles, and Faerie’s Breath vines on eye drops that granted a person temporary night-vision.
Anything and everything that could prove useful on their journey. Even with the promised safety of their route, and even with several in their group who could sense the presence of others from a far distance, Elijah wasn’t one to take chances.
‘I can make this if you want!’ Dawn supplied from inside, as he closed the vials that held the eye drops. ‘Everything else too! You don’t need to be afraid.’
‘I’m not afraid,’ Elijah replied, ignoring the looks from his assistants as a low chuckle left him. ‘I’m just a little stressed.’
‘You don’t need to be stressed either. I’m here.’
‘Just because you can recreate all of this, it doesn’t mean you should have to,’ he said, to which Dawn made an offended noise. Their recent efforts had allowed the duck to be granted access to just about every plant found in the castle, allowing her to replicate their properties and some of the concoctions you could make with them. It was an incredible feat, anybody could admit that, but it still took a toll on her. ‘Pushing ourselves when there are easier options isn’t a good way to use resources, as I’m sure you would agree.’
‘... Fine.’
Even without a physical body to emote with, Elijah could easily visualize the pouting.
Before Elijah finished the preparations for the day, there was one more thing he brewed, this time with the Faerie’s Breath again. While it could make one capable of seeing in the dark in small doses, many more things could be seen once the size of the sample was increased.
Not to the point of a true psychedelic, and not anywhere near one in terms of its emotional and mental influences, but Elijah was a fan of the effects regardless. They certainly paired well with the Drink of the Fae.
“You know, it has been more than a decade since I last tried this mix,” Cleo commented, as she put a few drops of the concentrated liquid inside her drink. Elijah did the same, finding that the heated beverage gained a slight fuzziness on his tongue. Not bad. “I’ve wanted to, but there hasn’t been an occasion I found worthy of it.”
After the work at the laboratory had been completed, Elijah and Aleksi had left the castle grounds behind in favor of visiting their old friend. They’d already been there this very week, and every week before that for the past six, but this visit would be the last for a while.
“And us leaving Kulvik for a few weeks is that special occasion?” Aleksi questioned, getting some chuckles out of the Madame. “Here I thought we were being a ‘nuisance.’”
“Oh, I would never call the two of you that!” Cleo denied, even when all three could remember her rants two weeks before when they had reached a little too deep into one of the bottles. Elijah was quite happy he’d had access to the Royal Garden the morning after, else he feared the hungover would’ve had a real chance of striking him down. “Even with all those troubling agreements you can’t help but get into, you’re still good friends of this establishment.”
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Aleksi snorted while Elijah just sighed. Cleo had known about their departure before they’d said a single word about it, bringing out one of the bottles from a good year. The ears of those below just seemed to reach further and further into the political landscape with each passing day.
“Do you truly think that it’s such a bad idea?” Elijah asked, to which the madame shrugged.
“I’ve heard the ramblings of those two you care for,” Cleo replied, taking another sip of her drink. They did the same, feeling the warmth that ran down their throats. “They seek new sights beyond these walls. Too many bad memories inside. I understand that it’ll be impossible to keep them here, and our new queen knows that as well.”
“And with this agreement, we’ll stay attached to the country and she can sleep with the knowledge that her treasured pawns won’t escape her control,” Aleksi added dryly, chuckling at the glance Elijah sent his way. “What? Do you want to be promoted to a knight instead?”
“Save the sassiness for a day where we can drink more than a few glasses of this,” Elijah said, eliciting laughs from the two. He just rolled his eyes. “But, yes, it’s her way of keeping us safely within her sphere of influence. Jack has been talking a lot about visiting the other races these past two weeks, and Vera might’ve taken that as a threat.”
“Don’t take it as an insult,” Cleo reminded him. “She knows you’ll see her reasoning, and she’ll trust you don’t act out on it. Doing something simple for their first proper excursion wouldn’t hurt regardless. We both know how badly it can end for the more adventurous spirits.”
A loss of freedom, a loss of life, a loss of one’s soul. The dangers of the world were perhaps regaled through fantastical tales, but many of them were very real regardless. Elijah wished for none of it to touch them. Though he and Aleksi had stepped out of the shadows to help those two, the original danger was gone. The duo was now free to live, to experience what life had to offer.
Did that mean the danger of the world? In the contradicting nature that life usually was, yes, but nobody was forcing them to take on the biggest of challenges to start with. A small quest, a brief visit to a port city to the west, truly was a light introduction to what Elijah figured might become their last acts.
To let those two idiots see the world, and maybe even keep them safe while they were at it.
A far-fetched dream, I imagine.
After another twenty minutes of gossiping alongside two more glasses of the divine liquid, there was a knock on the door. Not a common thing, as very few would visit Cleo without her warning Elijah and Aleksi about it. Nor was it common for them to still be in the room by the time that anybody arrived.
Regardless, a button was pressed, the door was unlocked, and the bearded face of a certain Chronomancer peeked inside.
“You called, Madame?”
“I can’t say I did, Cas, but I did plan to do so in a few minutes,” Cleo replied, a grin on her face. Cas shared it readily, stepping inside and seating himself on the empty cushion that Elijah had wondered about. “Have a taste and tell me what you think?”
“Sweeter than expected, but that fuzziness on the tongue is very unique,” Cas answered before taking a sip from the Madame’s glass. Aleksi and Cleo laughed at the display while Elijah just looked on unamused. He’d already pressed the Chronomancer about his abilities fifteen years ago, feeling himself go half-mad before giving up on trying to understand the man. Those who worked outside of linear time were simply too strange for his tastes. “A great treat, though I still recommend that you partake in it rarely.”
“Because I’ll die an early death if I don’t?”
“No, it’s because you’ll empty your cabinet of bottles before the end of the year.”
“Oh, the horror.”
Elijah couldn’t say if it was said in jest or not. They laughed as if it was, as it was just some random prediction, but sometimes those predictions had come through. Cas had perfectly predicted the day of Grace’s birth, the year where the late queen had died, the year the late king made his final public appearance and the very minute that Aleksi suffered the consequences of getting wasted in the brothel’s basement to celebrate a round birthday. Many of those had been very long-term, the Chronomancer looking months into the future, and yet the man alleged he could barely look a dozen seconds ahead most days. It was… frustrating.
“I can only see the major events further out,” Cas reminded Elijah before he could hope to open his mouth. Yet again, he felt that bubbling inside that came from talking to the man. “I know you want to ask me what some of those are, but we both understand that I can’t reveal it.”
Oh, they’d gone over this spiel several times before. ‘Knowing about the future changes the future.’ It was what drove most Chronomancer to madness, what made those stories of crazy prophets seem so real, but the tales never mentioned how it was to live beside the people.
“Can you at least say whether or not those two will be safe?” Aleksi asked. Cas didn’t answer immediately after, just looking at the giant with nostalgic eyes. “I’ll accept a ‘maybe.’”
“If everything falls into place as it should, they should be safe from what is to come,” Cas confessed, emptying the glass after getting Cleo’s permission. “I’m putting down the last hints that should hopefully push us into the best future, but one Seer can’t control the whims of the world.”
That was just one more layer to the movements of the world, wasn’t it? While Chronomancy was technically outlawed by just about every country Elijah could name, he didn’t doubt that most of them had a few Seers sitting in the capitals, trying to discern what future would help their leaders the most. Pieces moved so battles could be won, small pushes steadily working up to a landslide of action that granted them victory. A grand idea, though the counter-pushes from all sides complicated it.
And as Cas had said, he could only do so much against the true Seers of this world. One hedge mage in hiding against the traditionally-taught armies of Chronomancers rarely ended unexpectedly.
“Since you’re here, I’m guessing we’re a part of the group that gets a few hints,” Elijah concluded, getting a soft smile from Cas in response. That he’d been allowed to even say the full sentence meant he was right. “What words of wisdom are you imparting on us today?”
“Some cryptic ones, as I know how much of a fan of those you are,” Cas explained, not seeming offended by the unimpressed look he got from Elijah. “My first piece of advice would be to trust the horrors below. They might seem uncaring and ready to throw you aside at the best of times, but they can prove very useful to you. My second… try to challenge yourself a little more. You’ll find the world can become a better place if you do.”
He hadn’t been lying about being cryptic, though the initial interpretation of the words was enough for Elijah for now. There were very few contenders for ‘The Horrors Below,’ and the most obvious one was the Dungeon. He hadn’t visited while healing from his injuries, as the higher density of mana in the air had a chance of irritating the process, but now the time seemed to have arrived regardless.
And as for challenging himself… that comment wasn’t something he needed to wonder about. Only a few days after the fight, Alin had dug through the library and found a book on Biomancy for Elijah. It had come for the warning that trying anything would be best to do after he had healed, as any pressure on his mana veins could cause more damage than the Dungeon could even dream of.
But now? This was the call for progress.
“Got anything for me?” Aleksi inquired, while Elijah was stuck mentally formulating a plan on how he could make this work. He’d already been planning on bringing a sample of most plants, on the off-chance he would need them in emergencies, but bringing some more for nothing other than experimentation wouldn’t hurt…
“I can’t tell you much, but I suppose a few quick words of advice wouldn’t hurt,” Cas gave in after the giant tried his best to make puppy eyes. “You want the two under your care to stay safe, and that is a possibility. Just stand strong, even when it seems impossible. They’ll survive. And… this might be pushing it, but let Elijah look at you once he finally gets his nose into those books.”
Books. Plural.
That heavily implied that it just wasn’t the heavy tome that Elijah had been handed by Alin already.
Even just thinking that made Cas wince, so he shot down the thought as his eyes moved to Aleksi. The giant had moved away from the casual expression, his face solemn as he nodded in unspoken understanding.
“I think we should all be going now,” Cas said ten minutes later, standing from his seat as he put away the glasses. “Louis will be visiting me very soon, the Madame is going to be busy with an angry customer, and the two of you have some friends at your doorstep who you’ll be happy to see.”
“Of course, he’ll be coming by one last time,” Elijah commented, brushing dust off his pants as he rose to his feet. “Now that I’m thinking about it, I suppose it was you who inserted the seeds for this whole situation into the young prince?”
“It wasn’t my fist that broke through that thick skull of his, I admit, but the following conversation was my doing,” the Seer confessed shamelessly, making Elijah roll his eyes. “It’s the better path for all of you, including that haunted mind who will help protect the royal.”
“Any desire to explain that comment?”
“You’ll figure it out yourself soon.”
Some day, Elijah was going to get Cas back for all of this. He had no idea how, but he knew he would make it happen somehow.
“You need a refresher before we move along?” Aleksi asked as they left the office, walking down the obnoxiously decorated halls of the brothel. Why they had moved over to the heavy usage of pink and blue, he would never understand. “You shook a little when you got up.”
“I’ll grab some energizer from the kitchen when we get back,” Elijah replied, looking up at the darkening sky once they left the brothel behind. It wasn’t night just yet, but anybody who wanted to pay them a visit at this time could only have more discreet topics to discuss, and those rarely took less than an hour.
Walking down the less crowded streets with their hoods up, they were able to go through the city without being discovered by unwanted nuisances. Not that it surprised Elijah, as any who walked these alleys at this time of day were very interested in avoiding contact with others.
Making the final turns, into the street he’d grown to care about these past decades, Elijah put down his hoods as he saw who was waiting in front of his shop. That purple robe alongside the other with lighter coloring was unmistakable nowadays.
“Alin. Grace,” Elijah greeted, while Aleksi swept the younger up in a grand hug. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight. What’s the occasion?”
“My dearest apologies for coming at a late hour, but Grace assured me that your night owl habits hadn’t dimmed in recent weeks, so… news of the second entrance arrived at my desk just an hour ago, and we figured you would want to join us for this last step,” Alin said, smiling with the expectation Elijah would mirror it. It faltered when he just sighed instead. “Were you hoping to end the night early? If so, we can—”
“Not, it’s quite alright,” Elijah assured him. “Just cursing the gift of foresight.”
“Ah… I see.”
For many weeks, a side-project for the remaining Royal Mages had been to break through the defenses of the second Dungeon Entrance and enter whatever horrors had been created in secrecy. The fear ward that Olivia had interacted with at the very front had turned out to only be the start of the defenses, layers upon layers of deadly traps sitting ready to kill any intruders.
But now, it seemed that the magical shields had been pierced and the traps mostly disabled. The last scars of the attempted insurrection were soon to be gone from the Dungeon.
As if Elijah would allow himself to miss such an event.