DISCONTINUED The Alchemist, The Warrior, and The Medic

Chapter 3: The Book Hunt

Ophelia was sitting in the library reading. She was pretty sure she read every book a million times! She was still partially upset that she ended up missing Dr. Rivera at the expo.

She was glad Varian and Cassandra got what they wanted of course! But this wasn't the first time she decided to sacrifice her own joy for someone elses.

Still, she had to remember their joy was what mattered, ans besides, maybe a local bookshop picked up a couple copies while he was there!

She leapt up and decided she was going on a book hunt! After all, she'd never get the book if she didn't at least try.

Sadly, while the people of Corona enjoyed a good book, the bookshop in the main city completely lacked almosy anything medicinal. Just a small book with an ornate green cover and a picture of a leaf titled "Herbology: How Plants Can Heal Any Ailment".

She brought the book up front to the shopkeeper, who was a portly woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a bright kindly smile.

"Excuse me- miss?" Ophelia asks as she sets the book on the counter.

"Is this the only book here that involves- I don't know- first aid? Healing? Medicine?"

The shopkeeper examines the book momentarily, then nods. "Yes unfortunately so. The people here in the main city don't typically require such knowledge, I suppose we don't have much going at all for the medicinal profession. Most of Corona's focus is on a kindly relationship of trade with other kingdoms, and a strong military."

Ophelia nods, a little heartbroken at the prospect of not getting her book. "Well, I suppose that's alright." She sighs.

The shopkeep pities Ophelia, she's seen her around town before, though rarely. She doesn't seem to have many friends, if any friends at all. To be fair, most children in Corona are of the ages 1-10, and Ophelia seems signifcantly older than that.

"Tell you what, why don't you walk down to Old Corona? I believe they have more science oriented and healing books down there. Let me get you a map...."

Ophelia shakes her head. "No that's okay! My sister makes maps, she drew one in my journal with the whole kingdom, Old Corona included, inside. She never wanted me to get lost and get hurt growing up so, now I can find my way anywhere."

The shopkeeper smiles and nods, before glancing at the herbal medicine book. "Here, do you want this? I'm about to take it off the shelf anyway, you're the first person to touch it in 6 months."

Ophelia lights up and takes the book, any knowledge is still good knowledge! "For free? You mean it?!"

The shopkeeper giggles. "Yes dear. Now go on! You'd best walk to Old Corona fast. The Day of Hearts is coming and a lot of people will be using the main roads to travel for the upcoming festivities."

Ophelia nods, gently places the book into her leather bag. Eugene gave it to her. He called it a "sachel". She isn't really sure what the differencw between a bag and sachel is, but she appreciates it nonetheless.

Ophelia makes her way through the streets, and she does see people are coming to Corona a bit more than usual, but luckily, the celebration for the Day of Hearts is a couple days away, so she's only running into the early birds and not a large crowd.

She eventually finds herself in Old Corona, but as she checks her map, she notices Cass actually hasn't marked down much of the Old Corona shops. What's more, it seems some rearrangements have happened since she made the map. She'll remind Cass to update it later.

She sees one familiar place though, Varian's.. lab? Home? She isn't really sure if he lives there or not. But she knocks on the door anyway, hoping someone answers.