A List for the Wild Hunt

[Ataraxis]

When she was done ogling at the sheer beauty of the square – by blocking out her vision with her hands, no less – Lillian staggered around in search of a shop where she could glean more information on the synthesis of specific items. In the nearest library, she had learned of the peculiar craft, and needless to say, she was intrigued of what advantages this could bring. Too often has she nearly fallen prey to psychotic men or become a fleshy pasture for some blood-thirsty beast to graze, her powers failing to bring about any positive spin to her perilous ordeals. Anything she could find that would even the odds, be it a potion or a weapon, she would gladly take; and considering she only required the correct materials rather than pay a princely sum, she found these shops highly convenient.

“Um, excuse me!” she spoke tentatively into the dim entrance, poking her head into the shadows to study the strange interiors of the edifice. The stone walls were dappled with multi-faceted crystals, shining with every color in a strange progression, a tad eerie, but quite fascinating to behold. I’m not too sure what to do. This isn’t like any shop where the goods are already displayed for our perusal. Attempting another call as she tiptoed inside, she saw a silhouette idling in half a shade, one she could only consider as mystical. “H-hello. My name is Lillian.... but you don’t care about that, right.” Hearing no reply, she continued, if only for the pressing need to fill in the silence.

“My friends and I have heard about this Synthesizing, and were intrigued about what it could do. I’ve read about Crystals that enhance one’s power over fire and miraculous healing potions, but I’d like to know if there are other uses for this craft. Perhaps Ice Crystals rather than their fiery counterparts?” Desperation was battering at her confidence, but she gave a final try, hoping for an enlightening answer. “Are there potions that can permanently, um, make me stronger? It’d help be, seeing as my arms are so flimsy. And I’m not even talking about how I have the lung capacity of a two-year old, but that’s another story.”

“Oh, and maybe an enchantment to make my dirk more powerful? It’s made of Cillu, though I’ve no idea if that information is in any way valuable. It’d be very interesting if it could have the properties of magical ice! And maybe my friend would like to get his sword enchanted too! Though I don’t know which element. His name is Aiden, by the way! But you probably don't care about that either.”

When she stopped, sewing her lips shut, only one thing could be read upon her face.

Mortification.

By the Moonlit Mane of Suravani, SAY SOMETHING!

I require a list of ingredients for:

Ice Crystal

Ice Enchantment for the Cillu Dirk

Potion of Permanent Strengh/Stamina Increment

Enchantment of any Element for Aiden's Sword

[Lasair Anubail]

Aileen had been hoping that Lasair would hurry up and get her skinny little butt out here so she wouldn’t have to deal with the customer. Instead, when her sister made no move to come out, she had to move away from the shelf she had been organizing to approach the counter in the shop. What she found when she turned around surprised her enough to make her momentarily speechless.

There’s a human on the other side of the counter.

She’d never seen a human before. It was rare for them to come to Donnalaich and she never seemed to be around when one happened through so this was the first time she’d ever seen a human.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to wait until Lasair is available to talk about such items as those…” Aileen could only make things Lasair had already perfected. She wasn’t that great with experimenting.

Moving to a back curtain, Aileen was just about to open it up and yell inside when an intense flash erupted from behind it. It showered the entire shop in a light so intense Aileen had to clench her eyes shut. Just as the light subsided a blast of energy ensued and one tiny Fae that looked exactly like Aileen came flying out from behind the curtain and smacked into the counter.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

Aileen watched her twin sister come to her feet and held out a sword in front of her.

“I did it!” Then the blade of the sword bent over as if it were made of rubber. “Oh…”

“Lasair, you have a customer.”

“I do!?” Shimmering and translucent wings on the back of the Fae immediately perked up as she turned to the human in the shop. “Oh, Aileen, it’s a human!”

The small Fae hopped over the counter and came to stand beside the human who was just taller than she. Her eyes questing over her hair, her wingless back even her odd clothing.

“Lasair, she wants some custom work.” Aileen said to her twin, hoping to pry her away from the human before she scared it off.

“Really!? What does she want?” Lasair quickly climbed over to the other side of the counter.

“An Ice Crystal, An Ice Enchantment on a Cillu dirk, a potion for permanent strength or stamina increase, and some kind of enchantment on another sword.”

“Wow, that’s a lot…” The small Fae disappeared behind the curtain only to reappear a few seconds later with a large tome in her hands. “What was the third item?”

“Potion of permanent strength.”

“Right, right.” She disappeared again and came back with four large books that almost seemed too much for her small frame to carry. Quickly she set them down with a band and began flipping through the pages.

“Ice crystal… yes, I’m sure if you substitute that with that then maybe… yeah, that might work.”

Her sister cleared her throat.

“Oh yes.” Lasair turned to the human who had been neglected nearly this entire time. “Making the Ice Crystal should be relatively simple… I think if you replace the red scale with a blue, particularly one of an ice clue colour it should be good. Also… yes, umm, the crystal. Either get a clear one or a blue one, I think you call them Quartz and Sapphire in Common. Also, may I see the sword? I need to know what it’s made of, oh and the dirk too please.”

[DarkStorm]

"Come Chance... Lillian is already inside. Who knows what we are missing." Aiden beckoned to his son again, and sighed when the boy continued to ignore him. "Chance, it's just a bug!"

"But I've never seen one like this before." Chance replied, poking at the furry caterpillar inching its way across the wooden doorframe. It looked the same as countless others that the boy had insisted on investigating in his young six years. Sighing, Aiden leaned over his son and plucked the wriggling larvae from the wooden frame and placed it in his son's hand. Partially ignoring Chance's squeal of delight, he began to stir his son toward the still open shop door. Chance danced through it happily, running toward Lillian with the bug in hand like some kind of trophy.

Just as Aiden entered the shop, a flash of light blasted his eyes at the most inopportune of times. Blinded by the unexpected burst of whatever it was, Aiden's foot caught on some tough, unnamed object. He went down. Hard.

"Oh shi-" The words died abruptly as Aiden smashed into something that felt suspiciously like a rack of some kind, and next found himself on the floor. Somewhere during this startling event, his hand had seemingly liberated his sword from its sheath in anticipation of imminent attack.

"Bag Tart!" Chance shouted unexpectedly, and Aiden could only surmise that the boy had taken a trip of his own.

Shaking his head, Aiden waited for the confusion to pass, and his eyes to adjust. When they had, he climbed silently to his feet, wobbling only slightly. Walking past the still sitting chance, Aiden placed his Steel sword carefully on the table in front of the Fae women.

"That's the sword." Aiden gestured back at his son with his head, causing his mane of dark dreadlocks to shudder. "The Ice crystal is for Bag Tart boy."

"Oh... and sorry for the mess."

[Ataraxis]

Blinded! Oh the pain, oh the suffering! Lillian was doddering like a binge drinker, seeing stars and nebulous lights flickering in and out of sight. Though months of travels had inured her eyes to nominal amounts of lighting, they were and would always be particularly sensitive, not due only to years spent reading in the dark comfort of libraries, but also to some atavistic quirk of her blood.

“Oh my,” she expired woozily, still seeing translucent blots of grey flitting before her eyes. Her hands wandered to the side pockets of her knapsack, and from it she produced a small pair of glasses that she swiftly balanced on the tip of her little nose. As though by magic, the chaotic flashes shied away, as if they had been filtered through the lenses. Though her mentor had given them to her on the day of her exile from Fallien, she had never worn them. His parting words, however, had just proved to be quite useful. ‘Beware, for light can be your greatest enemy – just as these can be your best allies.’

For a moment, though, she had doubted the efficiency of this gift. Before her was the strangest of pictures, for the shadow behind the counter had somehow been sliced in twine, and from the pieces had grown two identical replicas. They chattered on to each other, one repeating the list of things Lillian had babbled about. When she was told to show the dirk, she executed herself without much thought, unlatching the weapon from her waist and settling in softly on the counter with a light clink.

“So, you two are twins?” she finally said, finding the comforting return of her wits. But it did not take long before doubt had seeped again, when she saw the flabby form of what had once been a rigid sword. “And what was supposed to happen with that?”

There was a racket in the back, and the mention of a set of words that were far too familiar. She saw the burnished man teeter forth, gingerly setting his sword on the wooden surface. “Decided to come in after all?”

[Lasair Anubail]

When the strange human man set the sword down on the table, Lasair decided it was okay for her to come out from hiding behind her twin sister. After all, it was everyday that some random human male just brandishes a sword in her shop and she preferred to keep it that way. Even the Draconians didn’t do that and they were unruly.

Grabbing the sword, Lasair quickly set to examining it. “Oh… it’s steel. Hmm… steel is such a mediocre metal to work with. It’s strong, but not very strong and it has little to no magic capabilities. You can enchant it yes… but it’s not as easy as enchanting mythril or some other such material. I think Prevalida is good at holding magic as well.”

“You’re rambling.”

“Huh? Oh… all right.” Then Lasair realized that the woman had asked her something and gestured her head towards the flimsy sword she’d left on the counter. “This?” She picked it up and watched the blade wobble to and fro, a stark contrast to the rigid one she held in her other hand “I was trying to enchant it…oh, well. Better luck next time! And yes, we are twins.” Lasair set down both blades back on the counter.

“Though a lot of the time you can’t tell unless you’re looking at us…”

It was clear that Aileen was the calmer more mature of the two Fae and Lasair, who happened to be the shop owner was just a little on the excitable and eccentric side.

“What’s a Bag Tart?” Lasair asked, looking towards the man and the smaller version of himself. “Oh, never mind I have work to do!” It was almost like she had the attention span of a fish. “Sis, where does Cillu come from again?”

“Fallien”

“Right, right, right!” Quickly, she grabbed one of the tomes on the table and began leafing through it, looking at all different kinds of known world materials including the glass trade of Fallien. “Oh, this is no good. Cillu may be too strong of a substance to hold an enchantment, now if you had Kiramaina glass that would be different. But we can always try!” Lasair picked up the dirk and twirled it around between her long thin fingers. “Yep, you’ll just need an Ice Crystal to enchant it with ice, so I suppose just double the list of ingredients I gave you for the ice crystal!”

“Now, as for the other stuff…” Lasair picked up the tome she had been reading from and handed it to her sister who sighed and walked off behind the curtain with it. “I need to know precisely what kind of enchantment you want on the steel sword in order to give you materials for it. And the strength potion is going to be very tricky… very, very tricky.” She quickly began leafing through a book written on potions, then picked up one of her own tomes and quickly looked through it. It was clear that even though it was written in Dheath, most of the experiments in there had been crossed out as failures. “I don’t even have a base potion to make this from so we need to start from scratch.”

She was on her third tome when she finally raised her head and turned back to the trio in her shop. “I have an idea! This one is going to require quite a bit though. The bone of a Cailpis Wyrven, two eggs, no wait… make that three just in case, from the nest of a Sleamhnaigh Wyrm. Let’s see, we’ll also need some mana dust, the tooth of an Algora, Ferrion leaves, a tri horned beetle—those are strong little suckers—and some purified water to wash away all abnormalities.” A huge smile was lining her face by the end of the list, as if she’d just overcome some great obstacle.

[Ataraxis]

“Kiramaini you say? Well, the blade may not be made of it, but there are dark blue beads embedded on the round guard and the pommel, as well as along the flat of the blade. It’s very inconspicuous work, but those who see it can truly appreciate it,” she said with a voice laced in nostalgia. Her father, a Fallien Glassmaker, was toiling over this ceremonial dirk for one of the priestesses of Jya’s Keep, the day he vanished without a trace. As it was incomplete, and since no one was informed of exactly who had requested the item to be crafted, Lillian made it her own, if only to keep a solid memento of her past. “Perhaps if the beads acted as a medium for the enchantment, the whole dirk could be affected?”

"And what about making my sword cast lightning every once in a while? What would I need for that?" Aiden asked, contending against the childish verve that Chance was so inclined to show, as he tried to squeeze out of his father's grip to hop about the store.

Seeing the redheaded Fae peruse the leather-bound colossi, Lillian could not help but feel a certain kinship. This Lasair was an odd one, indeed, but could anyone say any less of Lillian herself? As she watched her flip through the pages with such enthusiasm, the librarian even felt a strange desire to sidle the counter and take a peak herself. I wonder how much I could learn from those…

“From scratch?” The constriction in her throat was ominous, and she feared that she may very well become this Fae’s guinea pig. “Is it… going to be safe?” she asked, her entire attitude so feeble that it was pitiful. Still, the shopkeeper did not look up from her tome until she had found just the right combination for her innovative concoction. Listening to the list, Lillian found reluctant trust in her auguries. You don’t need to worry about the effects of the potion, Lily. Just worry about all the things that are going to kill you before you get your hands on even one of those components!

“I know where to find the Algora, the Sleamhnaigh Wyrms and the Cailpis Wyrvens, but I don’t think I’ve heard of Ferrion leaves or tri-horned beetles. Where can we find these? And could anything work for the bone? Like a chip of its horns, or claws, or… fangs?” In her mind, she was praying her goddess for an affirmative answer. If it were otherwise, the Wyrven would have better chances of picking its teeth with her bones than she had of taking his back to the store.

[Lasair Anubail]

“A lightning enchantment!?”

Oh, this was not good. Not good at all. The last time Lasair had tried to do a lightning enchantment it had turned out all wrong and steel just didn’t seem like the best metal to help conduct the magic necessary to perform it. Oh, not good. But that was what the customer wanted and the customer always got what they wanted…as long as she could deliver it. Hopefully the man’s sword would not turn out like the floppy one still sitting on the counter. Maybe if she just didn’t tell him the specifics of that mistake he wouldn’t worry about it. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

“I guess in order to make a lightning enchantment I would need a lightning crystal. However, lightning is very unstable in itself so, the basic requirements of just a yellow dragon scale and yellow crystal will not be enough. But what to mix with it that would help stabilize the magic effects and not electrocute the man every time he went to use his sword?”

Aileen cleared her throat once more as she came out from behind the curtain, “You shouldn’t talk to yourself when speaking of experimental magic and the electrocution of the person in front of you.”

“Oh?” Her wings perked a little, fluttering in a brilliance of shimmering colours behind her back as she looked up at the human male. “I suppose not.”

Sighing, the tiny Fae rushed passed her twin and into the back room, only to return less than two seconds later with two more tomes in her hands. Placing them on the already littered counter with a thump, she began leafing through them.

“Let’s see… a deterrent for the magic, perhaps some kind of metal. Dehlar is usually good for that. I wonder what else could contain the magic…what else. Hmmm…”

“Why not use some mana dust?”

“That would just increase the magic.”

“Oh…perhaps Dehlar will be good enough.”

Lasair sighed, perhaps. But she wanted to be sure instead of killing the human. “The egg of a Sheahda! That should do it nicely.” She smiled once one and slammed the tome closed, creating a small puff of dust to fly in the air. She really should clean more often.

“Oh, yeah… locations…” Grabbing another one of her books she leafed through the pages until she found one that had he ingredients they needed on them, a small description and their location. “You’re in luck, tri-horned beetles, Sheadha’s—which are birds—and Ferrion leaves can all be found in the grasslands.”

[Ataraxis]

“Mana Dust increases the potency of the magic, you say?” Lillian asked, unable to hide the interest from her tone. “Then I think we’ll get our hands on more of it, for the crystal and the enchantment. Though I think you’ve made it clear that the sword would be even more unstable,” she ended with an uncomfortable chuckle, eyeing the flabby sword on the counter with suspicion. I wonder…

Clearing her throat, she took her gaze away from the sister Faes, looking at grave Aiden and a particularly skittish Chance from the corner of an eye. “What do you say we make our way in Luthmor first, then the grasslands? When our business is done there, we can find transportation to Suthainn from Talmhaidh.” Noticing the glint of confusion that shrouded the piercing green eyes, she added with a teasing grin. “Have you ever ridden a dragon before?”

Hearing herself mention dragons, her mind suddenly reeled back to what dangers they would undoubtedly face, and her face was pale and sullen once more. Turning to Lasair, Lillian gave a coy nod and many thanks to the synthesizer. “You’ve been a great help. Now, we’ll go fetch the materials and come back as soon as possible!” she force out a cry of confidence, tightening her hands into little white fists, but soon she felt a breeze of despair blow over her, immersing her once more in dread and terror.

We’ll come back… hopefully.