Sign: Snake

  Buffs: Serpent’s Kiss (Romance twice as easy)

  Debuffs: Curse of the Unspecified (Start the game with no gender, no name, and no other identifying feature)

EXP: 1,288

Alchemy

  Coagula (LVL 1, 24 SKP)

  Solvé (LVL 0, 29 SKP)

  Theoria (LVL 1, 23 SKP)

Botany

  Sowing (LVL 0, 5 SKP)

  Tending (LVL 0, 53 SKP) Ready to level up!

  ?

Cooking

  Fire (LVL 1, 28 SKP)

  Water (LVL 0, 24 SKP)

  ?  

Homesteading

  Fire Tending (LVL 0, 7 SKP)

  Tidying (LVL 1, 84 SKP)

  ?

Speech

  Logic (LVL 1, 23 SKP)

  Linguistics (LVL 0, 41 SKP) Ready to level up!

  Cajoling (LVL 0, 10 SKP)

Total SKP: 374

Inventory:

  Auros: 0

  Cards of Destiny: 5 of ?? Discovered

Names: 4

Evengeline, The Pure Snow (Holly)  

Vitas, The Wind Thief (Sparrow)

Gillygad, The Stiched-Up Wonder (Pitchfork)

Zinia, The Serpent’s Caress (Snake)

Passive Skills:

(Theoria LVL 1) Pure Substances: Some metals are especially luminous. Some hands are more precise than others. These hands shall become sharpened scalpels, made of the most luminous Silver. Higher maximum Quality points are possible for all potions.

(Coagula LVL 1) Coalescing Membranes: The membranes of the parts which make up the whole shall be in accordance. Ingredients combine more smoothly, producing higher quality potions.

(Fire LVL 1) Ignited: The Elemental branch of magic lends this Sorcerer the ability to cook faster using fire. Prepare fried or baked meals twice as quickly. Get burnt less.

(Tidying LVL 1) Dirt Buster: The magical branch of Purification lends this Sorcerer the ability to ‘Bust Dirt.’ Dust and grime accumulate at an infinitesimally slow rate on objects you have cleaned.

(Logic LVL 1) Rhetoric: The magical branch of Entreatment lends this Sorcerer the ability of heightened ‘Rhetoric.’ The structure of your arguments is smooth, regular, and orthogonal. Spirits and people are more likely to agree with you.

Spells:

Wild and Overwhelming Growth (LVL 1) Accelerate the growth of plants and fungi. Enchanted plants grow ten times faster (Overwhelming Influence), BUT enchanted plants sometimes disregard their original form.

Lesser Baptism (LVL 1) Create life in a still thing. Locked and unaligned.

There were two birds sitting in the kitchen.

Cheerful had returned from Galatea Summerby with her payment for Winter’s Kiss: 6 Bones and a lovely loaf of fresh bread. I plopped the coins into my pocket and listened to the merry jingle. I had money again!

The other bird was a gray dove. It took me a second to recognize it, but when I did, I realized that it was Mr. Solomon Beaugiron’s Familiar.

“Hello there,” I said, unsure about why the dove was in my kitchen.

“Greetings, greetings. I have a message for you; I’ve carried this message, this letter, from my master.” The bird’s coo’d in a high voice. Then dropped an envelope into my hands.

I flipped it over, and saw that it was addressed to me!

I ripped open the envelope, and read the letter, secretly pleased that someone remembered my existence.

Dear Apprentice Andy,

I would like to cordially invite you for another visit to my humble home (I have no formal address, but I trust you remember how to get there?).

Recently, I have received a shipment of pastries and wine from Celine City, and they are a rare delight, even for a trained and discerning palate. The quantity, I regret, is too large for me to consume by myself, and anyway, such things are more sweetly enjoyed in good company.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I would be most delighted to have you visit me once again. I surely hope there is no bitterness between us, from the last such visit? I am sure you understand that it was for everyone’s benefit to inform Mistress Addlebern of your location. If there is bitterness, then this: I am sorry. I would like to make it up to you.

Thinking of Mistress, perhaps you, Andy, can lend me a favor? I know it is rather brash of me to ask anything of you, but I must. I have written to her several times, and have not received replies. How is she? Perhaps you may entreat her to accompany you, if you do choose to visit?

Yours,

Solomon.

I smiled as I read the letter. I thought that taking a trip to Solomon’s cottage sounded lovely, and I had no bitter feelings over him selling me out to Tess, since everything turned out fine between me and the Sorceress.

Solomon had also sent me the tea, with Allheal and Comfrey, and I couldn’t forget someone who had once helped me.

There was just one problem. How would I get to his cottage? It was too far and would take too long on foot, and my feet were the only method of transportation I had available.

Then there was the second part of his request. He wanted Mistress to accompany me.

I thought about the letter, trying to come up with a reply.

An idea struck me. It was probably stupid, but I was lonely, and I had liked the man when I met him, so I decided to follow through with it.

I quickly wrote out my reply on the back of Solomon’s letter, stuffed it into the envelope, and gave it back to the dove. She took it and was on her way.

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After making my breakfast and sharing with Cheerful, I decided to check on my enchanted plants, and went out to the solarium.

They had grown. Oh, boy, had they grown!

The Amara and Belladonna, both victims of my Wild and Overwhelming Growth spell, had filled out the entire corner where I had placed them. The stalks of the two had intertwined, and they now resembled one huge bush, with two slightly different constituents.

I looked closely at both. The Belladonna had sprouted more berries. I picked a couple to stuff in my pockets, knowing that they could come in handy.

The first few berries were the same as I had always seen: a deep, midnight black. But the third berry I picked looked different. It was dark colored, but had a more blueish tint to it, and the skin was of a different texture than the rest.

I rolled the oddball berry between my fingers. It almost looked like…

I popped it into my mouth, intent on just tasting it, instead of swallowing it. I was definitely right, I thought, as I spit the mystery berry into my palm and the reddish juice squirted over my skin. It was undeniably a blueberry.

But what was a blueberry doing growing from my Belladonna plant?

I went over to my Allheal, another plant which I had grown with magic. It had sprouted a lovely white crown of tiny fuzzy flowers, and the plant was much bigger than the cutting I had put into the dirt a few days ago. I examined the flowers carefully, and plucked one from the tuft.

It was white, like the rest, but had a distinctly different shape and size. It looked more like a tiny lily, than the miniscule hairy flowers of the Allheal.

Scratching my head, I opened up Old Toad’s to look at my Growth spell.

Wild and Overwhelming Growth (LVL 1) Accelerate the growth of plants and fungi. Enchanted plants grow ten times faster (Overwhelming Influence), BUT enchanted plants sometimes disregard their original form.

Of course! The blueberry and the lily-flower were the plants disregarding their original form!

At first I was dismayed, thinking of how much extra pruning the herbs would need when they decided to sprout entirely foreign parts. But then I thought about it some more.

Blueberries weren’t exactly useless. I could at the very least eat them. What if my enchanted plants sprouted other herbs? I could prune the foreign stalks, and then it would be a simple matter of unlocking the new plant…

However, there were probably thousands of different plants out there. Surely, not all of them had Alchemical properties. What were the chances that my enchanted plants would sprout the herbs I needed to complete Old Toad’s Grimoire?

Well, I consoled myself, at the very least the extra pruning would help me level up my Botany skills.

With that thought in mind, I carefully picked through the Allheal, Amara, and Belladonna, looking for out-of-place leaves, berries and flowers.

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It was a laborious task, but soon enough I was done pruning the plants, and I had gained 12 EXP to Tending for my effort.

I went through the rest of the house.

The house was coming along from the dusty mess it had been when I was first plopped into the hallway with a maze of locked doors barring my passage to the outside world.

I spent some more of my time that morning clearing the front room, deciding that the glass containers that littered the shelves would be better kept in the store room. I swept and mopped, and cleaned the counter.

When the Sorceress came back, the house would be in decidedly better shape then when she left. Tess was still gone, and I hoped that she was close to finding Aleister. I found that I missed them both. Although the Sorceress and I had started out on rocky footing, I had grown to like her curt nature.

I was satisfied with my chores for the day (after earning another 22 EXP for Tidying). My Dancing Tongue potion was still steeping in a cabinet, and I was not excited to start another potions project. Instead, I had a spell to align, and a book to read.

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I learned my lesson from last time, and had chosen to align my Lesser Baptism spell while comfortably laying in bed. I saw my EXP go down by 100 points, before the world disappeared around me.

I was now familiar with the process. When I woke up in the star-strewn sky, the constellations forming a ring around me, I began to methodically check each Sign available to me, to see the effect it would have on my spell.

I was happy to note that after my reading on Wheel, it was now available as an option, although it was still a weak influence.

Align Lesser Baptism under Wheel? (Weak Influence)

Changing Lesser Baptism

The boonful effect cycles through the other Signs’ weakest influence (Weak Influence) but the enchantment lasts half as long.

It took me a moment to decipher the meaning. Best as I could gather, I would get all the benefits of the other Signs, one at a time. But, it would only give me the weakest effect (because I had only a weak influence with Wheel). Overall, I thought that was a great buff, if it weren’t for the fact that it was the weakest influence.

I checked out Snake as well, the constellation glowing a bright crimson, just like last time.

Align Lesser Baptism under Snake? (Strong Influence)

Mated Lesser Baptism

Skill actions performed by the enchanted object grant the Sorcerer one fifth of their SKP and EXP (Strong Influence) but the objects must be enchanted in identical pairs.

That was a very good buff! If, for example, I made a broom that swept, I would passively gain EXP and SKP for Tidying, every time it swept!

But I didn’t think I had two brooms, and according to the description, I would need to have two of the enchanted objects to gain the buff.

I looked at Pitchfork’s influence.

Align Lesser Baptism under Pitchfork? (Overwhelming Influence)

Dreaming Lesser Baptism

Enchanted objects work while the Sorcerer sleeps all night (Overwhelming Influence), but the enchantment is broken if the Sorcerer has nightmares.

I was starting to understand the limitations of the spell based on the alignments. Apparently, while I sleep, enchanted objects don’t normally do their thing. I wondered if they just powered down and took a nap at the same time I did? Also, according to Wheel, enchantment only lasted so long.

I didn’t think Pitchfork’s buff was very good, even with the overwhelming influence. What did I care if the objects worked while I slept?

I checked the other Signs, but really, Snake was the best one. I was sure I could find a second broom. Or, I could pick something else altogether to enchant. There was plenty of stuff in the Sorceress’s house just waiting to come alive!

Excited about the passive EXP and SKP gain I would get from enchanting, I selected the Snake Sign.

Lesser Baptism, Level 1 (Enchantment) Spell Aligned!

Mated With A Strong Bond, Lesser Baptism (LVL 1)

The starry night faded, and I woke up comfortably in my bed, the sunlight tickling my eyelashes.

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