Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

Bokuboy

The carriage dropped us off and we entered the academy. The guard didn't even look our way as we passed through the small gate. We walked all the way over to the botany department and Victoria's happy mood actually improved as she chose several workbenches to spread out the things she had rescued from the dump site.

The very first thing she did was put the virulent grass sample into its own separate habitat, like we had used for the flowers when we rescued them. Once it was secured, she opened the first of the three large canvas bags. She was taking her time as she reached into the first bag and carefully dug out the sample closest to the opening.

I chuckled at her over-care for something that had been dumped like garbage and we'd stuffed into a bag to carry back here. I used my magic knife to slice all three bags open onto each of the workbenches and the contents seemed to expand, now that the canvas wasn't holding them in.

Victoria gasped for a second, then realized I had made her task that much easier. “Thank you, David. I'll replace the bags as soon as I can.”

“You don't have to. I've got hundreds more.” I said and both she and Greta stared at me. “I took handfuls of them every time I went to the bath or storage areas at the garrison.”

“The... the whole time you were in the army?” Greta asked, surprised.

“They were free and I wasn't going to ignore the opportunity. They are just too useful to not take some of them whenever I could.”

Victoria was the first to laugh. “You are amazing, David. Truly amazing.” She pulled off the wooden medallion and handed it to me. “Thank you for loaning that to me.”

I raised my eyebrows at her, then remembered with her personality that she thought it was a burden to not be seen by men. “I'll give it back the next time we need to go get more samples.” I said as I accepted it from her and then I tucked it into a pocket. “How long will it take to sort all of this?”

“I'll have it done by noon tomorrow and we can work on splicing the magic and virulent grasses together during the afternoon class.” Victoria said.

“We'll leave you to it.” Greta said, completely understanding that Victoria probably wouldn't sleep at all tonight as she indulged in her chosen craft. She led me out of the building and we went across the campus to my dorm mansion.

“Would you like to stay for supper?” I asked.

“If it's not too much trouble.” Greta said. “We can brew longer if I don't have to leave almost right after we start.”

I nodded and the guards opened the doors for us. “Hope, Greta's staying for supper. Can you let the cook know?”

“She's already made extra, so it's not a problem.” Hope said with a knowing smile.

Greta nodded her appreciation and we went up the stairs to my ingredient preparation room. “You were right, David. The pressed one is dry enough to grind now.”

We did that and Greta cast several spells to determine which of the three drying methods preserved the most of the potential of the magical grass. Surprisingly, the last one with pressing and natural drying was the best and highest grade of ingredient.

“Now we know for sure that naturally drying it conserves the most magic.” Greta said and looked at the other two small piles of powder. “If we combine them, it might just be enough for one stew pot.”

“Should we?” I asked and thought about it. “You know that when we splice the grass together, it'll take more because it'll be weaker.”

Greta nodded. “We'll have to wait and experiment to figure out the concentration, then adjust the recipe accordingly when we do.”

“It shouldn't impact the recipe that much or the other ingredients, since we're only using it to enhance one of the common ingredients.” I said. “We're brewing it separately anyway and then we can measure out the same amount to use in the actual brewing of the potion each time. It shouldn't matter about the mass of grass added, as long as we have enough of the prime ingredient when it's done.”

“Hmm. I see what you're saying. It won't change the recipe as a whole, because we're changing the ingredient before it's added and not while it's added.” Greta said and I nodded. “We can't use your copy trick until we complete the upgraded ingredient, since that's what we need enough of to add to the recipe.”

“Agreed.” I said and we got to work with a small pot. Thanks to all of our previous preparation, we were done barely ten minutes later and had a very nice mass of the now uncommon ingredient.

“There's no way it was that easy.” Greta said with a huff. “After all of our speculation, calculations, discussions, and caution... and it sucked together perfectly on the first try? How did that happen?”

I had to laugh at her indignation. “Sometimes it just works out.”

Greta laughed softly. “All right, let's get everything we need to the potion room and brew up the recipe you've come up with.”

“You helped me refine it.” I said and she waved my comment away. “Greta...”

“I'll only accept praise if it works.” Greta said, adamantly. “You know all the hard work is meaningless if the potion doesn't complete after infusion.”

I nodded and we brought everything to the first large stew pot and then we had to stop because Hope called us for supper.

“Ah, dammit.” Greta groused and I chuckled at her mean expression.

“We'll be uninterrupted all evening, so we should eat while we can.”

“Good point.” Greta said and I escorted her to the dining room.

We quickly ate, barely speaking a word, and went right back up to the potion brewing room and started brewing the very first recipe for the rehabilitation potion. We both had memorized the many stages and I still took out the recipe for reference, just in case.

For the next three hours, we worked, and sweated, and performed each and every step carefully. We had only prepped enough ingredients for this one batch, because it was the first test and a proof of concept. If it worked, we could move on and try to construct the next recipe in the series, thanks to using this one as a base.

I had already worked a lot of things out on paper and Greta's input was invaluable, so I would need her help to continue on and refine what I had already done. I told her so as she handed me an ingredient and she laughed before she smacked my arm.

“Keep your mind on the potion in front of you.” Greta admonished me. “You can't afford to be distracted right now.”

“You just hit me. How is that not a distraction?” I asked, teasingly.

Greta snorted and pointed at the pot. “Brew, dammit!”

I chuckled and did as she said. We kept working and it took another hour and a half for the potion to reach the infusion stage after a long cooling stage. I had added my catalyst before the cooling stage.

“This almost goes against brewing rules, you know.” Greta said and put her hand near the side of the pot. “It's almost down to room temperature.”

“It's an essential step to let the extra magic from the grass to fully integrate with the potion before infusion.” I said and she moved her hand away as I increased the heat of the fire to bring the potion back to a boil. “I know it's odd and that's why this will work so well. It's not normally done.”

Greta nodded and watched as I poured my magic into the pot. Her eyes widened as it kept going and her breath sped up slightly. “D-David...”

“Almost.” I said, because I could feel that it needed a little bit more before it reached saturation. I hit the point that it wouldn't take any more and sighed as I stopped adding my magic.

“David, that was... how could it take that much?” Greta asked, clearly uneasy.

“The rehabilitation part needs lots of magic to activate.” I said and gave her a smile. “You could have done it.”

Greta shook her head. “I'd be exhausted afterwards if I tried to do that much in one infusion.” She looked at the slightly glowing pot. “Now we have to wait for it to cool again to bottle it.”

“We can't rush it, either.” I said and extinguished the flames. “Unlike nearly every other potion, it has to be close to activation before it can be bottled.”

“I'm very tempted to document all of this.” Greta said and then laughed bitterly. “It's just too bad that they won't take it seriously at the review board.”

“It's just too far from the accepted normal procedures.” I said and she nodded. “Too bad for them.”

Greta gave me a questioning look.

“You and I are going to overwhelm their entire setup with what we can do.”

Greta blinked her eyes several times. “We are?” She asked and then she gasped. “We are!”

I smiled. “We already started. Helena said she's already sold 3,600 cleaning potions already.”

“What? How did she do that?” Greta asked, clearly shocked.

“Sara told me she met with her mother at a lunch date near the docks and told her about the potion.”

Greta frowned a little. “I thought you weren't selling to them.”

“We aren't until they apologize for their behavior.” I said. “The man that owns the dock was at the next table and overheard them. He made a scene as he begged on his knees for a dozen cases, which brought the restaurant owner out and he heard what she was selling...”

Greta laughed at the situation. “How out of hand did it get?”

“The dock owner arranged to buy 20 crates, the restaurant owner bought 50, and half a dozen other people bought several cases each.”

Greta looked quite happy at the news. “It must have been hectic and crazy at your mansion!”

“It took about half a day for them all to come and get them.” I said. “Word's spread, though.”

“I can imagine how quickly, especially when they use them.” Greta said. “I assume she's selling them at a reasonable price.”

“She's also telling everyone there's only 9,000.” I said and Greta covered her mouth to stop her loud laugh. “She's keeping a thousand of them as a reserve.”

“She's a smart woman.” Greta said. “Which reminds me, mother's sent me a marriage proposal for you.”

I had to chuckle at that. “Even if it wasn't invalidated by my previous betrothal, I don't think I could agree to marry her.”

Greta smirked at me. “Are you sure? She's got a younger body because of you and she's adamant that you need to try it out for yourself. First, anyway.”

I shook my head. “I doubt your mother would agree to anything Helena would insist upon, considering Helena's stance on me not being used or abused for my skills.”

“That's what I told her.” Greta said. “She doesn't believe me.”

“I'll write up a letter in the morning and politely decline.” I said. “I'll send Sara to Helena with it and she'll add her own refusal, I'm sure.”

“I'm very sure she will.” Greta chuckled and then her face turned sombre. “David, I... I've been reluctant to ask about this...”

“Do you want to know what I did to the supervisor?” I asked and she nodded. “Well, I came across a very neat enchantment while I was researching. It was a very basic one that gave 'well feelings'.”

Greta thought about it. “That almost sounds like something that could be used in hospital wards.”

I nodded. “I think so, too.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Greta asked.

“Well...” I pointed to the wood medallion around her neck. “Imagine if that enchantment was reversed and attracted people and not pushed them away. What if instead of pain the closer they got to you, the feelings of enjoyment increased instead?”

Greta's mouth dropped open as she gasped. “No! You didn't!”

“I doubled the magic channels, reversed the flow, gave it a double infusion of magic, and also added in the block and wellness feeling.” I said. “After the mage there cast his interrogation spells on him, I'm pretty sure that the supervisor is having quite a good time right now in the men's holding cells.”

Greta stared at me for several seconds before she burst out laughing and had tears rolling down her cheeks at laughing so hard. I took her into a hug and she gripped me hard as her laughter softened and disappeared, leaving just the tears. I wiped at her face and then let her go to check the potion. It was still too hot.

“What did your sister do with the wound cleaning potion?”

“Once she tested it on the next patient that came into the hospital, the other healers nearly lost their minds.” Greta said with a laugh. “She initially refused to part with more than a few crates, then relented under pressure from the director of the hospital and sent all but two crates to other facilities.”

“How distraught is she?” I asked with a smile.

“She's devastated.” Greta grinned at me. “How much longer should we let her suffer?”

“How late do you want to go to bed tonight?” I asked her and her face flushed red. I took her hand and held it tenderly. “I misspoke. I meant what time do you want to return home to sleep. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for the trip back to the marsh and then the break for the king's birthday is next week.”

Greta took in a sharp breath. “This... this is the last time we can brew together until the academy starts up again?”

I nodded. “Helena has the whole week filled with activities that as the lord of the mansion, I must attend, not to mention the king's birthday party.”

Greta took a deep breath and let it out. “If it's not too much trouble, I'll stay in one of the guest rooms tonight.”

“Do you want one of the maids to retrieve your nighttime things?” I asked.

“If I can borrow something from them to wear, I'll be fine.” Greta said.

“That shouldn't be a problem.” I said and the potion was cool enough now. We quickly filled 36 vials with it and packed most of them into a crate.

Greta took one and did her diagnostic spells on it. After a few minutes, she gave me a satisfied smile. “It's complete.”

“Any idea what the effects are going to be?” I asked.

Greta shook her head. “Eludora is a very unique existence. We won't be able to determine how much of an impact it'll have on her until she takes it.”

I thought about that. “We'll have to have a healer with us tomorrow morning to monitor her both before and after she takes one, then we can gauge how often Eludora can take it safely without straining her body or causing her distress.”

“Her endurance is very low and we've already worked the potion down to its weakest strength. If I had to guess, she'll be restricted to once a week for a month, then maybe once every four days for the next month.” Greta said. “That's assuming the effects are beneficial to her.”

I nodded. “She might only be able to drink half the potion if she has any adverse reactions to it.”

“Well, I can arrange for the healer when I contact my sister in the morning, assuming we can brew up a few batches of wound cleaning potion for her.” Greta said and I nodded. “Good, then let's get to work.”

We did so and brewed three sessions to make 36 crates and almost 1,400 vials of potion.

“Th-thank... you... David.” Greta said with a yawn between her words. “My sister will...”

“It's time for bed.” Hope said as she came into the room.

Greta nodded slowly as her sleepy eyes blinked several times and she turned to me, clearly exhausted. “Good... night.” She said and then she absently kissed me before I knew it and then staggered over to Hope, who caught her dead weight. Hope chuckled at the scene before she essentially carried Greta out of the potions room to the guest room.

I shook my head and cleaned everything up, then transferred the crates down to the bottom of the stairs in the lobby for easy loading. I left the crate for Eludora upstairs, because that one wasn't going to be known or for sale. I was sure that there wasn't a huge market for it, considering there wouldn't be anyone that had slaves that would want to buy a potion to restore them to proper health. Weaker slaves were easier to control.

I went up to change for bed and Hope was already there and had a huge smile on her face. “She was asleep before you made it to the room, wasn't she?”

Hope nodded. “I needed Sara's help to get her changed.”

“Did you apologize to them because I don't have time for the b-word?” I asked and she looked like she was going to laugh.

“The b-word?” Hope asked and her eyes seemed to sparkle as she spoke.

“You know.” I said and nodded at the bathroom as I changed.

“Oh, come on. Say it.” Hope said with a huge grin. “I dare you.”

“Don't you want to sleep?” I asked her and held out my arm.

Hope looked at my arm, at my smiling face, then at my arm again. “You can let them have fun in the morning.” She finally decided and I climbed into bed.

I went to sleep almost right away as Hope cuddled my arm. Apparently, I was exhausted as well.