301: Potion Making

Potion Making

With the conclusion of the conference came the start of an even busier schedule for the Crown Prince and his fellow delegates from Griven. There were countless social calls and visitations not only from the nobility of Othinia, but also the ministers and officials from the other kingdoms, some bearing gifts while others merely to purely establish connection.  0

Since the royal ball hosted by the Nefertiti Royal Family was happening tonight, Oriana and her colleagues were especially hard at work as well. 

As such, she skipped her morning meal in order to save time. However, she was still an hour later than usual. 

'Neil told me we might leave Nefer in two or three days, depending on the results of today's social visits. Today might be the last day I will get personal lessons. I cannot waste it.'

With this thought, she used the pendant and called her teacher. She braced herself to be scolded, but Rosetta took her away without a word, which surprised Oriana.

'I am late for the lesson, but she did not get mad at me? Strange. Is my teacher not feeling well?' 

This time, they did not appear within the meadow hidden in the forest, but inside a quaint yet clean cabin. The scenery beyond the window showed they were in some idyllic village near a river, but it was impossible for Oriana to determine where they were.

Oriana looked around that spacious cabin. She recognized it to be the standard workroom illustrated in the book. In the middle, there was a long table platform made of stone, with various utensils, burners and herbs neatly arranged. There were colorful liquids in the crystal flasks, as well as a pile of glowing stones that didn't look like jewels.

For their potion-making lesson, they needed such an arrangement, and Rosetta had it prepared beforehand in order to teach Oriana.

"Since you wasted the first hour of your lesson, we will skip practicing the spatial pocket spell and head straight to the study of potions."

Oriana had nothing to say but to apologize. It was indeed her fault, but in her defense, it was hard to juggle the life of a full-time attendant who is secretly learning witchcraft.

"Tsk." Seeing Oriana being obedient, Rosetta could only begrudgingly begin their lesson. She began to introduce the objects in the table to Oriana, naming each of them and their usages. Oriana realized she really didn't know most of them, and some were names she only read once in the potion-making book. 

"Potions are easy to make as long as you have the correct attributes, the recipe and the exact resources." Rosetta introduced her with all the herbs placed on the table. "For your first potion, I will teach you how to make that elixir which I give you to drink to regain your energy. You ought to have found out what it's called by now, right?"

"A recovery elixir," she answered confidently.

"And how many types of basic recovery elixirs are there?"

"The book listed fifty-two kinds of recovery elixirs."

"How many of them can be concocted by a potion-maker of the darkness attribute?"

"Fourteen."

Rosetta nodded, unable to nitpick since Oriana answered correctly, and started the process of handling the herbs. She raised two bright purple mushrooms the size of a palm. From their color alone, one could tell these mushrooms were highly likely poisonous.

"Each magic attribute can change the quality of an ingredient. Those with the light and water attribute are best for purifying ingredients, that is common knowledge. For the darkness attribute, we have a weaker albeit similar effect as our magic specializes in removing toxins and poisons, and even without manifesting it from our body, we can affect the more sensitive ingredients by mere skin contact…" 

Oriana began to realize why black nightshade would react to her black magic, causing failure to her medicine concoctions. Black nightshade must belong to the very sensitive category of herbs.

Removing poison!

It was not that her magic was corrupting the medicine, but it was removing the important properties of the herb,

Black nightshade was banned by the continent due to its poisonous nature, dangerous to both humans and animals once ingested. However, that very toxicity was an important component in the ancient medicine recipe to combat the worsening of dementia. 

In the right amount, black nightshade was a poison that cures. Without the toxin of the herb, the concoction would only end up as a disgusting black sludge.

Oriana paid attention to each of Rosetta's words. The woman placed the mushrooms on the table before gesturing in the air. Two beautiful stemmed roses appeared in her hand. She stuck the stem of the first flower on the mushroom, and it wilted in less than five seconds, causing Oriana to inevitably step back.

'That level of poison! And she was touching them barehanded just a minute ago?!'

The second mushroom, Rosetta wrapped it in a faint black fog before inserting the stem of the second flower on it. Even ten breaths later, there was no outward change on the rose.

"What I showed you is called astral mist refining, the simplest way to remove toxicity from fresh ingredients," Rosetta continued to explain. "It has to be delicate and controlled precisely, otherwise, you will destroy the ingredient itself."

Rosetta tossed the refined mushroom to a crystal bowl. She showed skillful gestures, enveloping the colorful liquid in the flask with black magic, as she mixed it with the refined mushroom, causing it to melt into the liquid. She then recited a spell to enchant a bottle before pouring the cooled liquid inside.

Finally, the elixir was completed. Not counting the explanations, it took Rosetta about eight minutes to complete the steps. "Now, you try making one."

As Oriana was a herbalist and was used to making medicines, she didn't have problems with the potion-making itself. The difficulty lied in the refining process, where she needed to remove the toxicity from the purple mushroom. It took her more than ten tries to not simply turn the mushroom into dust.

"I said to refine the ingredient, not attack it! Next time you turn it into dust, I'm going to force down your throat every ingredient you wasted!"

Of course, Rosetta guided her without filtering her words, correcting while insulting her every mistake.  Maybe the threat worked, because Oriana succeeded in refining the purple mushroom. Making the potion afterwards was smooth sailing, and in no time, she prepared the elixir on her first try. 

Rosetta tasted the potion and sighed in disappointment.

"You are only able to produce the lowest-ranked recovery elixir. Drink it, so you'll see what I mean." 

Oriana drank the potion she made and realized its effect was not even a fourth of what Rosetta would give her at the end of their lessons. 

"Teacher, may I ask you a question?" Oriana asked. "I'm curious about the refining process. You said earlier that some ingredients are sensitive to our magic, and their toxicity can be refined from mere skin contact. What if I want my black magic to not affect those kinds of ingredients? How can I stop the poisonous property from being refined?"

"You are asking a question similar to, 'How do you touch water without getting wet?'" Rosetta laughed. Her response caused Oriana to stiffen.

"Then, is it impossible?"

"What do you think?"

Oriana felt it was a trick question. "I believe Teacher has a way."

Rosetta cracked a smile, but for what reason, only she knew. "Indeed. In fact, it is easier for you than other Black Witches because the solution is something you innately have."

Something she innately has? A thought struck Oriana. "Divine magic?!"

The black-haired witch nodded. "The counter of darkness is light, and divine magic by nature is a higher attribute of light. For other Black Witches, we need to add divine blood as a catalyst to prevent our attribute from ruining sensitive ingredients. For you, however, you only need to inject your own divine magic to negate your magic power. You will need to find the balance yourself, though, since the purity of both your powers are not equal."

'So I guess that means I need to practice using them at the same time? I wonder how I can sneak time to practice. By the time we return to Griven, I must be able to prepare medicine for Grandpa on my own.'

After learning potion-making, Oriana requested to use the remaining half an hour to practice the spatial pocket spell. Though it was not much, she was able to increase the size of the spatial tear from barely an inch to about one-and-a-half.

She returned to the guest mansion feeling accomplished. 

Just as she was done celebrating inwardly, she thought of returning to her room to rest, but remembering how tonight was the ball, she felt a tinge of guilt for leaving most of the workload on her colleagues.

Despite her growing fatigue, she went to seek Neil. She found the young man holding a record, having a conversation with several messengers belonging from different noble families. 

"Neil, you look tired. Do you have tasks you can delegate to me so you can rest?" she asked after the messengers bade goodbye.

"You looked more tired than me, you know?" Neil shook his head. "Her Majesty Queen Seren had asked for you. Where were you?"

"Did her messenger say why?" she asked instead, diverting the topic.

"I'm not sure. You don't know?"

'Ah!' Oriana had almost forgotten about it. Attending the royal ball as her lady-in-waiting!

Afraid that Neil would ask her more questions, Oriana made some excuse before heading towards the guest mansion of Megaris. 

'I hope everything goes well. I hope I won't mess up tonight's ball. I hope no one will recognize me. Please!'

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