Chương 17: Chapter Seventeen

"So, demon clans don't operate like human and elven kingdoms. Instead of countries, we have clans. Instead of kings and queens we have clan leaders. The only benefit to being a clan leader is more work." Mandy nodded to me as we both listened to Dad's conversation with the elven queen. It was tense, but when Dad stated that he was trying to avoid another Mithinis, her tone slowly changed and they began to work together to try to limit the damage that would be caused by abandoning the Accords.

"Then why would you agree to it?" I asked, one ear still listening to Dad and the queen. She confirmed that Ander had not destroyed the other city, and that Benna did destroy Tenoth, though the queen did not know it was Benna. Or how it sounded like.

"Ahh, that's a generational story. One of your dad's ancestors stupidly agreed. And it's been being passed down ever since. And now he has it, and I'm his lowly helper." I gave her my best disbelieving look.

"It's always passed to the best suited of the holders' children. Or, if they don't have any their closest relative." I quickly looked at Boyan.

"Study hard, okay? I'll help. Whatever it takes for you to be better than me." Mom threw her head back and laughed. We had been trying to be quiet, but her laugh could clearly be heard by Dad and the queen through whatever device he was using to talk to her as they both stopped speaking. A moment later they resumed.

"I don't know Lyra, that might be a tall order." Mom teased while I grumped at her.

"Lay down and get some sleep. We're going to be moving early tomorrow, dear." I relented and laid down. Since I got back sleepiness had slowly been creeping up on me, overwhelming the shakes, fear, and guilt I had been going through. Mom must have sensed my tension, as she started singing a quiet song shortly after I rested my head. I felt her fingers running through my hair and closed my eyes.

Trying to pay attention to her song, and the feeling of her fingers through my hair that left me on the brink of shivering. The world turned cyan, then faded to a sea of my mana and the river that wasn't a river that didn't stretch all the way to the other side to form a complete circuit. In time even that faded. I woke with a start as Mom touched my shoulder.

"Time to get up. I have breakfast." She helped me up and handed me a bowl. Boyan, the lucky little tyke that he was, was still sound asleep. The sun hadn't even started lighting the eastern sky yet! I groggily sat up and took the bowl. After rubbing my eyes and yawning large enough to swallow the whole bowl, I dug in. Dad was putting the crates containing personal supplies in the back of the wagon. Only one remained, waiting for the blankets and bedrolls me and Boyan were still using.

I stood up, shivering in the cold air. Mom smiled at me gratefully and started folding as I quickly ate the porridge. I finished as Mom was bundling my things into the crate and ran off to Miss. Venderlyn, who was washing the last of the kitchen stuff to wash my bowl and spoon. After a quick conversation, where it was completely obvious that Miss. Venderlyn didn't blame me for the events of last night as I feared everyone did, I ran back and added my bowl and spoon to the crate.

Mom was picking up Boyan, so I headed over to fold his blankets and see if they would need to be washed and dried as we traveled. Luckily not.

"More Faerie Fire practice today. Are you ready for it?" I stiffened a little at Mom's question. In truth, I was ready for it. More. I wanted it. But after last night…

"Yes, but there's something I want to do first." Mom raised an eyebrow at me waiting for my answer as I worked. I don't know how she could make me fidgety without saying a word, but by the time I finished folding the blanket and started on the bedroll I explained myself.

"Yesterday… I couldn't do anything. I found wounded and… all I could do was tell them where to find you. I make potions. I have the herbs. The tools. A book that goes so much further into how to brew potions than I had been taught that every page I manage to read I barely understand. I should have been able to help. But I didn't. So…" I trailed off as Mom's arm wrapped around me from behind. I could feel Boyan stir and grab for my hair, but ignored him.

"I'm going to brew some potions to keep with me so I can help if… if…" My voice stuttered and Mom broke my heart with her words.

"It wasn't your fault Lyra."

"They were after me." My voice sounded hollow, and wet spot appeared on Boyan's bedroll.

"If I…"

"No. They. A group of educated adults, decided to kidnap you. A child in both demon and elven culture. It's Their fault Lyra. Not yours. Not ours. Theirs."

"But…" Mom's hug grew firmer.

"Making potions sounds wonderful." I fell into the embrace and Boyan started making gnawing sounds, which pretty much meant he had gotten some of my hair into chewing distance.

"We can work on the spell afterwards." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I nodded, and she let me go so I could finish my work. Dad paused in his own preparations to watch us, before going back to the horses. It didn't take long for us to get moving after that. I think everyone wanted to be away from here. I can't blame them. I do too.

As we settled onto the road and fell into the pace we would be maintaining, I took out my tools and started grinding the herbs I had collected on the way to Tenoth. Mom watched me work quietly. Eventually, her mom silence forced me to talk.

"It takes about an hour to make a potion, and I have enough to make seven. I thought I would make three a day, then work with magic with you. If that's all right." The white and purple flower had turned into a lumpy paste in my mortar. I had to grind until I got rid of all the lumps. Then, a step in the book that wasn't taught to me. Infusing my mana into the paste. According to the book, this brings out the natural qualities of the herb.

"That's fine. What are you doing? Can you explain the steps to me?" I had a suspicion that Mom knew how to brew, but I walked her through what I had done and was planning to do. Spelling out what I was doing, and what I was planning to do. Calling out the two steps that were new to me that I would be trying out. Mom only nodded.

"Be sure to be careful with how much mana you use. About as much as you used while working on the Faerie Fire spell should be enough." Aha! I knew she was understood what I was doing. I smiled to myself, but didn't call her out on it. My mana turned the paste cyan instead of the off-green color I'm used to. But everything I did with mana was cyan, so I figure it was normal. Mom looked at the paste, intrigued.

I measured out the appropriate bit of water into the small cauldron and sat it over the firestones I had purchased. Honestly, this kit was the only reason I was able to make something as we moved. Otherwise, I would probably set something on fire. I grimaced. Mom would love that. Well, Neera would. I'm sure she would laugh. I shook my head lightly to get rid of the stray thoughts and worked on getting the firestones burning the way the book recommended for this potion.

When I thought I had it right, I put the cyan paste into the water and started stirring it. Things got… weird. Or maybe, I was just seeing things I couldn't before. I didn't have Mana Sense until recently, and this is the first time I have brewed since I Became. I nodded to myself. Must be normal. My mana was 'clumping' together in small groups that didn't seem to break apart as I stirred. The book said to infuse with mana once it boils until 'the mana is saturated evenly among the mixture'.

It was certainly not even now. I waited until it boiled, and infused my mana. The whole mixture glowed cyan for a moment, then it all moved into clumps again. More clumps. But still clumps. I infused it again. Using more mana than before, though carefully otherwise Mom, who was watching me raptly, would tell me to stop. I ended up infusing it ten times before the mana stayed even throughout the mixture and was using about six times as much mana then I started with.

Mom had stopped watching me, and had started watching the cauldron that was now boiling merrily away. I only had to keep stirring and wait for half the water to boil off before I set it aside and let it cool so I can bottle it. It would leave me with a fingers-worth of liquid that would fill a standard potion bottle. I nodded to myself satisfied with what I brewed. I hopped the extra steps bumped the quality to Average. It depended on how much of the paste the water didn't absorb.

The more of the paste that was absorbed, then rendered down. It finished, and I removed the cauldron from the heat, turning the stones off as I did. It didn't take me long before I put it in one of my empty vials and held it up to the light, frowning. The liquid was cyan. And bubbling, even though heat wasn't being applied to it. My frown deepened and I sighed.

"I think I failed. I haven't failed a potion in over a year." Mom wasn't looking at me. She was looking at the potion. And her mouth was hanging open, a shield around Boyan was slowly fading away. What was… my attention was drawn away by a system notification. A couple of them actually.

NOTIFICATION: Attribute Mana Imprint Leveled Up: 2 → 3 NOTIFICATION: Attribute Mana Imprint Leveled Up: 3 → 4 NOTIFICATION: Skill Potion Making Leveled Up: 1 → 2 NOTIFICATION: Attribute Mana Imprint Leveled Up: 4 → 5 NOTIFICATION: Skill Potion Making Leveled Up: 2 → 3 It seems I can control that attribute fairly easily. But I dismissed the window and looked at Mom.

"Do you think it's any good? It seems dangerous." I commented watching it bubble from the side of my eye. Mom cleared her throat.

"Can you show me the book, and the page you followed to brew this?" Mom sat Boyan down in his area, which was a partly empty crate that he couldn't accidentally roll off of.

"Oh, um, sure." I dug in my bag, okay 'dug' is a little dramatic, and pulled out the book I had bought, flipping the old thing to one of the earlier pages titled 'healing potions'. I handed it to mom and pointed.

"I just followed this. It was basically the same as what I was doing, but with these two extra steps." I pointed to the two imbue steps, one of which was handwritten to the side. Mom blinked slowly. Then she started reading.

"The difference between a normal healing potion and an elixir is simply imbuing mana of sufficient quality during the condensing stage. If the mana can be properly saturated throughout the potion, you will get an elixir. The complex ingredients and steps listed later in this book is the elven attempt at compensating for their comparatively poor mana quality." Mom sighed and I swear I heard her mutter Fenly's name.

"Do you know what an elixir is?" Mom asked.

"A better-quality healing potion… right? It wouldn't make sense for it to be anything else."

"A better-quality healing potion." Mom repeated me.

"An elixir is a cure-all. It will heal you yes. But also, gets rid of diseases, poisons, anything foreign. It will cause bones to be reset and healed. It will…" She finally sighed.

"Yes, a significantly better-quality healing potion. There's more." Mom put her finger on the page's margins where more of Fenly's handwriting squished into the space.

"Did you read this?" I shook my head. Fenly's writing was small, hard to read, and I had been reading between bursts of marathon Mana Control training, so I didn't cover everything. Mom continued to read.

"It's possible, with sufficient mana quality, that you could take another step beyond elixir. What that step would be, I don't know. But wouldn't that be fun?"

"Fun." Mom murmured looking at the potion.

"I really don't think you failed Lyra." Mom finally said shoulders drooping just a bit.

"We're going to have to find someone with a high level Inspect skill to figure out what this is." She finally admitted.

"For now, how about you leave out the second imbuing step?"