A Tale of Fortunes Cross

Ch.13: A Nasty Little Love Potion?

Just as they had both expected the hunting party had yet to return. They walked off and went to the edge of the village. Karaan asked what the plants looked like. Letholdus replied "Their called reptop. They are small plants about three or four inches tall they grow small red berries and have hard thorny leaves. A mature plant will have between three and five leaves. And usually a bunch of three berries. What we're interested are the leaves. Because the plant is so rare its considered a courtesy to leave at least two leaves on each plant meaning that you can get from one to three leaves from each plant that hasn't previously been picked. If you leave fewer than two leaves then the plant will be in danger of dying. If you leave at least two then it will grow the others back over time. And others can pick them later. Not many people know of this plant or are willing to pluck the leaves so there should be quite a few laying around. But that's only because of the courtesy rule. There was a time when the plant was almost whipped out so please follow the rule. The worst thing for an alchemist is when an ingredient is killed off by greed. What isn't very useful now could be very useful later on. Like grott weed. Karaan chuckled saying "I haven't heard that name in forever. That stuff is still around?" He replied "Yeah, but it's extremely rare now. It's grown by a few alchemists but even then it's extremely rare." Karaan chuckled "Well I hope we nave have to deal with it." Letholdus replied "We'll actually I've delt with it before. I use to make antidotes out of it. I've never really seen it growing in the wild but I've handled it a few times." Karaan with a surprised look asked "Wow did you ever touch it? I mean like actually touch it touch it?" He laughed "Yeah, a couple times actually. I had some antidote on me though. I'll tell you though it's a huge blow to your ego when you buy a plant for several gold pieces and then you go through all of that work just to have to use it on yourself." Karaan replied "Yeah I'd say so..." Letholdus continued "But on the bright side I've built up somewhat of an immunity to it. I can probably go about four days without an antidote. But then I wouldn't want to try it either. Besides I'd be as good as dead after just two." Karaan chuckled saying "Yeah I would imagine." They continued to talk about Letholdus experiences with grott weed as they searched for the reptop. After several minutes Karaan shouted out "I think I found one!" Letholdus walked over to look at it but it was just another plant. He pointed out the differences to Karaan "The berries are slightly smaller on the reptop plant. The leaves are a little thicker, and the plant itself doesn't get this big usually, but nice eye this one is much more common, but in this terrain it's much rarer." They continued to look for about twenty minutes until Letholdus found one. He asked Karaan to feel the soil around it saying "The soil changes every couple of feet around here, there's a large rock base about 15 feet of so under the top of the ground these plants will usually grow near the cracks of the base. The cracks tend to be wetter because underground water travels through them. But since they grow in the cracks it usually means that there are others nearby. Stay here and I'm going to see if I can find out what direction the crack is moving in. But don't pluck any leaves from this one it only has two." Karaan agreed and Letholdus ran off. He went about 50 feet and touched the soil. He got up and moved about 10 feet to the right of where he stopped. He did the same feeling the soil. He did this several times until he felt wet ground. He moved a little more in increment of a foot or two until he reached the other side of the wet ground. He moved back a few feet then stood up facing Karaan. He used fire magic on the ground tracing back to Karaan leaving a thin trail of scorched ground behind him. He said so this is about the line that we should stick to. Should we split up?" Karaan replied "Sure but lets not move too far from each other just in case." Letholdus agreed saying "Yeah that's a good idea." They walked off, Karaan went in the opposite direction as Letholdus and they both walked a fair distance then Karaan found another plant. It had three leaves, It looked just like the previous so he took a leaf. They continued to look for the rest of the day. Karaan found 3 more plants and took 5 more leaves. Letholdus found 7 plants and took 10 leaves. He also found a common spice that enhances the flavor of certain meats. They went back to the room to the carriage to see Sarah meditating and Zevesda passed out on the ground. Once Sarah noticed them she asked Letholdus "I noticed something weird about my flow. Is that a good thing?" He replied "We'll I don't really know, pretty much anything could affect your flow, a fish, cancer, alcohol. Anything really, so just keep an eye on it and let me know what's happening and I can tell you later." She didn't say much and just started meditating a little. They went to bed and the next morning was about the same as the previous morning. Karaan told everyone that they would be setting out this day and to be ready. He walked to the court and everyone followed him. He walked in and asked the woman if they were back yet. She told him that they weren't so he took the request for 13 copper. The old woman directed them to a small shop at the edge of the town. They walked to the shop, it had strange red windows. Just before Karaan could walk in an elf woman came running. She looked a lot like Zevesta but a little older and about two feet taller. She yelled "Hey!" Karaan turned around and asked her what she wanted she replied "I hear that you wanted to hear about our request!" He asked "Are you with the hunting party?" She replied "Yeah, the sooner the meat is transported the better the quality. So I'm glad that I caught you." Karaan asked her "So how much will I get for the job?" She thought for a minute and said "Well we only do purchase deals. If you're interested that is." He asked "Is it a guaranteed purchase she said "It might as well be, but we really can't give an official order." He asked "How much?" She replied "Two silver pieces and you will get three in return." Karaan replied "I don't like that deal. I know that the meat is fresh but there's still no guarantee, what if someone from another hunting town got there before me? In that case I'll have to sell cheap. Maybe as low as 1 silver, then I'm losing money." She sighed saying "You know I really hate peddlers. Fine I'll charge you one and a half silver. I'm not going lower because I can sell rotting meat for a silver piece." Karaan said "I don't really like purchase deals unless their guaranteed, but I'll take that deal, it's obvious that you won't negotiate." She replied "And you better not even think about asking our man for more than three, if you do then this deal is off. Got it!" Karaan didn't like her attitude but he agreed to the terms. He followed her back to their shop. They walked in and there were three other people setting around. Two were human males and there was strangely a dwarf among them. It was the first time that any of them had ever seen a dwarf before. Even Karaan had never seen one though he heard stories of albaf doing deals with them before. One of the men were setting on the counter waiving he asked the woman elf "J'ose, who are these? Customers perhaps?" She replied "Fucking peddlers trying to rip us off on the meat." He got up and walked up to Karaan. He smiled and stuck out his hand to shake Karaans. Karaan shook his hand, he said "Sorry for my companion's rudeness. You must understand, we have a pretty difficult job and the pay that we receive while it may seem like a lot after we replace or repair broken gear, buy our tools, and everything else we don't really make a very large profit. And on top of that most of the people who seem interested in our requests are peddler... I mean merchants like yourself. And they always try to talk us down, which really hurts us in the end. I understand I use to be a merchant to and I know what it's like, especially if you can't get a guarantee. But I promise that this meat is top quality and will go for a top price, we have a buyer that we've been selling to for years and I know that he will buy. I assume that you two already discussed a price, if I may ask, what was it?" Karaan replied "We agreed on one and a half silver." J'ose sighed again, almost a grunt. The man asked "I know this is terrible of me to ask but would you give us two silver? I assume that was her original asking price." Karaan said "It was..." He thought for a minute and asked "Are you a gambling man?" He asked what he meant and Karaan responded with "Well, I'll give you one silver piece now. Then I'll flip another piece and you can call whatever side you want, if it lands on your side then I'll give you that piece, but if it lands on the opposite side then I keep it. Deal?" The man thought for a second, but the dwarf shouted out "I'll accept! But I have one condition. I want to flip the coin." Karaan said "Sure I guess I can agree to that. So are we all in agreement. The man said "Yeah sure." The J'ose just snouted and looked away and the other man just sat back smiling. Karaan took out two silver pieces of that country's currency. He gave one to the man and tossed the other to the dwarf. The dwarf let it fall to the floor then picked it up. He stared at it for a second and made sure to examine both sides. His thumbs almost covered the entire coin. He got it ready and said "Here we go." He flipped it and yelled out "Heads!" The coin came down tumbling. It hit the floor, bounced off and did the same again, then it started to turn on its side. The dwarf didn't even watch the coin he just stood there with a confident smile until it stopped. Just as he said it landed on heads. The quiet man in the background spoke up saying "Good job flappy!" As he picked up the coin Karaan asked "How'd you do that?" He chuckled and replied "We'll we dwarves are pretty darn good with money, if I couldn't do something so simple then I wouldn't be able to call myself a dwarf." Karaan laughed with him and asked "So how long will it take to load the meat?" The man that shook his hand replied "Thanks man that really helped us out, check us out if you need anything else, we can help you get a discount at the armor shop in town." Karaan chuckled saying "No I don't think you could. He really needs some new material though." The man asked what happened and Karaan replied "Well he tried to rip us off so I took him for a little, not enough to really hurt him, but he'll think before he does that again." J'ose sneered at that comment but the man in front of him laughed a little "Well he probably deserved it. Anyway it'll take a while to get everything ready and loaded. Since you were so generous we'll have it loaded for you by the morning." Karaan thanked him and they all walked out. As they walked out the door J'ose spoke up in a kind of loud angry voice "You didn't have to be so nice to a fucking peddler!" He talked back but by then everyone was too far away to hear. They carried on the conversation as everyone walked off. Sarah asked Karaan what they were going to do. Karaan said "Well all of our gear is in the cart so would you all like to stay another night in the hotel?" Everyone except Letholdus agreed that it sounded like a good idea, but then he changed his mind after everyone else agreed to. They stayed in the hotel it was a nice night. They awoke fairly early and walked to the shop where they left the cart. They arrived as they were finishing up. They had loaded large chunks of brox meat in squares about a foot by a foot wrapped in a special paper cloth, this didn't keep in the blood but it did keep it stable and fresh. They bled it very well before packaging it so it didn't have much blood leakage. As they finished up the dwarf walked up to Letholdus and asked in his deep burley voice "You, you're a mage aren't you?" He answered "Yeah, do you need a mage for something?" He replied "No but I have a question, I doubt you will be able to give me the answer I want but it's worth a shot... How much do you know about dragons?" Hearing that Letholdus, Karaan, and Zevesda all smiled. He replied "Well actually dragons are my expertise. I specialize in dragon studies and I've studied several captive dragons and the various parts from many more. I can tell you anything that you want about them." Zevesda spoke up "You found the right mage, this guy is a walking index on dragons." The dwarf got a large smile he said "Every mage I've asked so far has said the same thing, but perhaps you can at least offer some kind of explanation, that's all I need..." His voice changed, it became somewhat sad. "Can dragons laugh?" Letholdus was surprised to hear that question "Well dragons are quite intelligent. I mean it's true that many people, mages alike, underestimate their intelligence. But no they aren't that intelligent, laughing is a form of mockery, I mean even if they were dragons don't mock others. They challenge them but they never mock. I mean and that's assuming that it's even physically possible. I mean minor dragons don't have the physical ability, their lungs aren't strong enough. Dragons make sounds by forcing air through their raw throats and nose. Unlike humans who have a voice box dragons have to use their bare throats to make noise. This uses a lot more air. I mean minor dragons and major dragons do have a lot of differences. Major dragons can fly and breathe fire, so I mean it could be possible... Maybe... But I've never heard of it and like I said they don't mock others. But why do you ask? I'm really curious." The dwarf was somewhat disheartened at this comment. His voice got much sadder and he sat down and started to tell them a story "Well I suppose that it happened about three years ago. Me and some of my buddies, not these guys some other dwarves. We thought that we could take on a dragon, how stupid. We had our earth magic, which I mean being a mage you know the difference in earth magic. To think we were stupid enough to believe that if we threw a few rocks at a dragon we could kill it." A tear formed in his eye "We were stupid I know. There were four of us. We actually thought that we could each handle a dragon head on.... But... As you can see we couldn't. But on from that. We traveled to the mountains hoping to make a fortune from dragon hide, gold, and possibly expand the dwarven territory. We all four traveled the mountains, it didn't take long to find a dragons nest. We walked up to the nest while it slept and prepared our magic. The dragon came out and we laughed, we were so confident that we laughed at that dragon. It was absolutely huge, amazingly so. But we were still confident enough to laugh. We were laughing in the face of death. It waited for us to attack and the moment we did it wiped out all three of my buddy's at once. It didn't even need to breathe fire. Our attacks hit hard but it didn't seem effected at all. I was stunned and couldn't move. That's when it happened. It got up in my face, just inches from me and laughed. The same way that we did. As if it were mocking us, me... It was saying that we were all pitiful. I panicked and took a step back and fell down the mountain. We dwarves have tough bodies. I rolled down the mountain and passed out at the bottom. I awoke probably three days later with a broken leg and several broken ribs. As you know we can survive for about four days without food and 9 without water. I limped for two days and nights. I thought for sure I would die and I passed out again from exhaustion and starvation. That's when these guys found me. They fed me gave me some water. I should've died. But I didn't. I joined them and eventually asked them if we could move south so that I wouldn't have to see those mountains again. But that memory still haunts my thoughts and dreams. I asked mage after mage and they all said the same thing, that's impossible. But I know it happened. I don't know how but it did." Letholdus replied "Well it could have happened, from that story its possible. Not likely but it is possible." The dwarf looked up with a ray of hope. Letholdus continued "Like I said dragons never mock they only challenge. They are very aggressive but they never mock anyone or anything for any reason. However they are smart and very fast learners, they have to be to survive. It probably saw you and your friends laughing and thought that you were challenging it, not mocking it. And when you stood frozen it would have thought that you were out of the fight. It wanted to provoke you to fight it, dragons don't care how strong or weak you are a challenge is a challenge, so it probably laughed to challenge you. Dragons roar to challenge one another, when they make a kill and roar it's like their way of saying, look at my territory come and get it and take it I challenge you! So it wasn't really laughing at you it was challenging you to a fight. Then when you gave up it let you go, when one dragon flies away from another the other doesn't kill it but lets it live and considers it part of its territory and will actually protect that dragon, however if that dragon initiates a challenge it will take it and kill it the second time. But it's rare for a dragon to fly away. It happens but it's rare." The dwarf looked at him and said "If that's really the case then I should have died in honor, I'm a disgrace for turning down its challenge. But at least I know now and I can set my mind at ease." One of the men that the dwarf was with spoke up "Flappy you aren't seriously thinking about challenging a dragon are you?" He replied with a sad chuckle "No don't worry, that's what I should've done then, not now. The fact that I didn't can't be change by doing it now. I can't take that back, but I can take heart in the fact that I didn't know what I was, or wasn't doing. Besides I have all of you now so who needs a dragon or riches huh? Hey let's all get drunk tonight, on me!" J'ose shouted out "Hell yeah!" then she walked up to Karaan and said "Hey man, sorry about my comments yesterday, and sorry for calling you a peddler. I mean we see a lot of em' but you aren't so bad. Hopefully we can do business again some time." She stuck her hand out to shake. Karaan chuckled a bit saying "You have a deal." And shook her hand. The leader of the pack came up and said "Hey man if you're interested we just got word last night some guy in Kon wants some meat, apparently his usual shipment hasten come in so he's offered double the usual price for the first delivery. I mean I kinda doubt that you'll make it in time but you can try. By the time you get there he might be ready to restock it's the palace city so you'll get a good price either way." Karaan thanked him and they walked off with the cart. They left the town just as the sun was coming up. They walked down the road a ways Sarah practiced her meditation more Zevesda just walked alongside them. Karaan asked Zevesda and Letholdus "So what do you think we should do? I've been thinking about what they said, that may be our best chance to make such a high profit. But at the same time it's a risk that I honestly don't know if we should take." Letholdus replied "Well I agree I don't know what option would be best either." Zevesda said "I don't think we should. I mean it's a good deal but when you think about it we can probably make more by doing other requests." Letholdus agreed "Yeah, when you consider how many towns we'll be going through then I think it would be better to just do the job and move on. That is a pretty good amount but once we move out of the next town we will be stuck with it." Karaan agreed with them and they moved on. They walked for the rest of the day and camped out. They ate some of the brox meat instead of buying more food and spending more money and taking up more space they decided to eat what they already had. They weren't going to get much less for it. Then went to bed and awoke the next morning and continued on. As they walked they began to see more and more Svillik trees, and more and more apples. Sarah had never seen this before and she was surprised at the color and hardness of the fruit. Zevesda and Letholdus found a few ripe apples laying on the ground and handed one to Karaan and Sarah. They each took a bite after whipping them off. Karaan remarked "These are better than I remember." Sarah didn't know what to say. She didn't expect such a soft texture from a hard fruit and it was still crunchy. The skin was chewy, it was unlike anything she'd ever eaten before. It made her think, even though she had been traveling with Karaan she was still experiencing new things every day. Every day that they walk brings them to a new climate, a new region, new weather, something new. She was amazed at how vast the world was. She pondered on this as she meditated. After a while Karaan asked Letholdus "Oh yeah, those leaves that we gathered the other day, what kind of potions are they used in? I was curious but I forgot to ask." He replied "Their used in a love potion." Karaan asked "Love potion? Those don't actually work do they?" He chuckled "Well, yes and no. They can work, or they can back fire, or just do nothing at all. Everyone has a different reaction to them, it's actually quite a cruel potion that should be outlawed, it is in some places, but they're so popular that they're sold anyway and they're quite pricy as well. I would never really make one and sell it as a love potion but I would sell ingredients for it, I mean the money is too good to pass up, and they're in right now. They don't actually cause someone to fall in love with you, but they amplify their emotions. If they like you already even a little then they will like you a lot more. But if they hold negative emotions for you then they will be amplified as well and they may hate you. The effects are only temporary but much of the time if will actually cause the person to fall in love with someone else. I mean it does work most of the time but that's only because that person already likes you, not because of the potion. The potion only gives the person a push in the direction that they are already facing. The problem though is that it's a big push so if they dislike you a little then they may hate you and your relationship will never be salvageable again. But even more than that it can cause a person having a bad day to act rudely toward their customers, even hitting them ruining their business, or cause someone to bet everything that they own on a losing gamble. Those aren't uncommon reactions to the potion. It is usually temporary only lasting a few days at most but in high enough concentrations it can cause a permanent change in personality, and the change doesn't exactly have to be related to the temporary change. So if you give someone that likes you a little too much then it can cause them to fall head over hills in love with you. But after it wears off they will be completely different from the person that you fell for. They may be rude and abusive when before they were the nicest person in the village. It's quite the cruel potion. But me not selling the ingredients isn't going to stop anyone from buying it or selling it or using it so I will. But I refuse to make it and sell it. However many mages will use it for training. High level magic requires a very high level of control over your emotions so it's very useful for that. But I don't practice any magic's that powerful." Karaan replied "That's interesting. But I agree selling a few leaves certainly isn't going to stop anyone from using it so there's no real harm in it." They continued on for the rest of the day. They went to bed and awoke the next morning to a wonderful smell, it was Letholdus, he had cooked a wonderful stew using the apples. Somehow cooking them not only made them soft but enhanced their natural sweetness. The other ingredients added various flavors that matched them perfectly and brought out other flavors. It was wonderful. It was like eating candy, but at the same time not. They ate it and then fixed brox meat with it. It was a very good breakfast. They continued on, that night Zevesda gathered eggs from a birds nest in a tree and they mixed them in with their meal. They continued like that until they reached the next town. The majority of the trip was near a large cliff that fell down to the sea. It was an interesting sight, though Sarah was too afraid to get close and look down. They reached it fairly early so Karaan went straight to the restaurant that usually bought the brox meat. He walked in and asked to talk to the owner. The owner came out, he was the head chef. They didn't talk much, Karaan mentioned that he was there to sell the meat the man asked him to come back after closing about 8, and then they would negotiate a deal. Karaan agreed and went to the pub where Sarah and Zevesda sat gambling and drinking as usual. Karaan tied up his horse in a very visible area and walked up to the bar. He ordered a drink and talked to the bartender. They didn't talk about anything particularly interesting they just went on. Sarah lost two of that countries silver pieces to Zevesda. She swore that she would get them back next time. By the time that they finished everyone in the bar was avoiding them. Karaan chuckled as he walked out behind them. Karaan walked to the restaurant and met with the owner. They discussed a deal. It wasn't anything special the man was running low on brox meat and needed the shipment pretty badly so he offered Karaan a good deal right away, three silver pieces. Karaan accepted this deal, he that what he had agreed to charge in the previous town. The man thanked Karaan and had his staff unload the carriage. It wasn't a large restaurant nor was it a large town, however the population was quite wealthy and there were several waiters working at the restaurant. Even one silver piece is about the average earning for a job like this in the northern horn. Transporters often have two to four carts. Because it's so safe and so easy to make a profit. Large jobs like transporting brox meat will usually take up two or more carts and a much larger profit can be made. They decided to stay in a inn that night. This inn didn't get much business so it was easy to negotiate a deal with them. They stayed this night plus they would stay the next two nights and the innkeeper agreed to charge them one silver piece for all three nights. However they were all required to share a room. They all agreed that that was a good deal, it was about the price of staying in a high quality inn before they crossed the desert, here such a deal was rare. They stayed up talking for quite a while. Sarah meditated more. She felt warm from the alcohol and strangely calm. Even though she lost she had a good time and had a lot of fun. She noticed something weird with her energy. When she hiccupped the flow in her waist seemed to jump. It didn't break it just jumped. But then again this was probably just due to the hiccup so she ignored it. They didn't stay up too late before they went to bed. They awoke the next morning it was a normal day they all went out to eat together then went their separate ways. Saran walked to the bar, Zevesda and Letholdus went out to gather herbs, and Karaan took his cart to a cleaner. He paid the cleaner then went to the court to look for another transportation request. He walked in and asked for a request. This town was near the cliff and there were several paths down that people used as fishing paths. There were several requests to transport everything from fish to shells. Karaan accepted several requests, he didn't like transporting fish because it can go bad too easily, he accepted a request to transport some colorful seashells, seaweed, various goods from a novelty shop, and another to transport a large colorful rug. First he went to each place of a request in order to make sure what he was agreeing to transport wasn't too much. First he went to the novelty store, the owner was a middle aged, mild tempered woman, she just wanted a few lamps and some nick knacks transported. Next he went to the person wanting seashells transported. He wanted Karaan to transport a variety of large shells that he had gathered. He was a fisherman but will often times gather shells while he is fishing. When he gathers enough then he will find a buyer and someone to transport for him. Next Karaan went to the person requesting transportation for seaweed, unlike the guy that gathered seashells this one gathered seaweed as a profession. He had a lot, to much to transport for Karaan. But they negotiated a deal to transport as much has he could for a little less. Finally he went to see the rug. It was larger than he expected but not so large that he had to turn down the request. Next he began placing all of the goods in his cart in a way to maximize efficiency and space. Together they offered him one and a half silver pieces. They didn't pay him right away they gave him sheets of paper called transfer receipts. These are contracts that state that the person, in this case requester, will pay the amount once specific conditions are met, in this case a signature from the buyer and a proofing signature from a town guard or someone of equivalent or greater status. After these conditions are met the contracts can be taken to any bank and once verified the bank will transfer the equivalent amount immediately if possible. After he had finished loading the supplies and everything else that he needed to do he went back to the room to see Sarah and Zevesda both meditating. He remarked "You're back early." Zevesda said "Yeah. Towns full of chickens, they lose a few silver pieces and give up." Sarah let out a slight giggle. Just then she noticed her flow changing ever so slightly. Then she remembered something that Letholdus had said "Magic is controlled by emotion." She tried to focus to control her magic to no avail however when that failed she tried other tricks, she tried coughing, tightening and loosening her muscles, moving slightly. All of these caused slight changes. Though it was hardly noticeable they were changes in her flow nonetheless. Karaan asked her "What are you doing?" Zevesda said somewhat loudly "Hush I think she's getting somewhere." Karaan just sat down and they both watched her for some time until Letholdus walked in. This broke her attention and interrupted her flow. Now she would have to start over. Noticing this he said "Take a break get your composure. You're rushing it. That's pretty normal at this stage but as I've said before this isn't something that can be rushed." She asked "Any hints?" He chuckled a little. "Just this, magic is influenced by emotions, those little twitches, they are lapses in emotion. Those don't influence magic at all it's the changes in your state of mind that influence the flow. There's an ever so slight stall between a change in emotional state and a noticeable change in flow. I'm sure you've noticed that your flow changes at about the same time of each little twitch. Well like I said there's a small stall so it's not the twitches that cause the change but the same change in your emotional state that makes you want to twitch also causes the change in flow so that they happen about the same time making them appear connected but that's not the case." She smiled and sat down. She decided to take his advice and take the rest of the day off to think and rest. It was much more tiresome and arduous than it appears from a simple explanation of the task. Karaan curious aske Letholdus "So what were you doing if you don't mind me asking?" He replied I was cursing some trees." Saran and Karaan both looked at him with the same disturbed curious grin. He chuckled a little and explained "I know a curse that causes the recipient to age about ten times faster than normal. I can place it on a tree and the tree will age much faster until the curse is removed. This allows immature trees to start producing fruit in only a year or two when normally they wouldn't produce fruit for anywhere from ten to twenty years. It's very useful and I can make a nice little profit off of it as well." Sarah was quick to ask "How does that work? I mean don't you have to be there to keep the spell active? Even seal or a curse wears off if you don't keep applying magic to it right?" Letholdus replied "Well I use a combination of a few curses actually. One saps magic from the target and the other uses that magic to stay active, even trees have magic. All I have to do is activate the seals and they take it from there. Obviously I can engrave them into the tree because then it would be dead in only a couple of years. And because of the nature of the spells I can't carve it into any normal token or anything. So I take a branch of the tree and carve the seal into that then tie it to the tree so that it can be removed later on and cast the spell. That way the owner can take off the seal once the tree starts producing fruit." Sarah spoke up saying "That's really cool." Letholdus chuckled a little and went on a short rant about the various uses of curses and other magic. As it turns out curses are actually much more useful outside of battle than they are in battle. But because of all of the negative stigma around them there is hardly any development in that field. Of all of the magic's black magic is by far the least understood. Zevesda even admitted that "I don't really know what all the fuss is about with black magic. The elvae don't use it because the fairys tell them not to. But honestly I don't see why. Though I choose to believe what the fairys say, they're usually pretty smart about this kinda stuff. I mean I don't know about you guys but I don't trust it. But I understand the principles of magic enough to understand that it's not really dangerous the way that most humans use it." They continued talking about the wonders of black magic until they finally changed the subject to red magic and so on until they had covered all of the magics. By the time they had finished the conversation it was much later than they had expected so they all went to bed. They got up the next morning and decided to head out for the next town. This would be a four day journey. As they walked Sarah noticed that the road was surrounded with Svillik trees on both sides. They were becoming quite common as they moved on into the region. After a while Sarah asked "I've noticed a lot of these trees. But I haven't seen any other kinds of trees. Are there any?" Letholdus replied "Well Svillik trees have always been the most dominant tree in the northern horn. But some time ago I believe more than 50 years now the residents of the villages systematically cut down every other tree species in the northern horn. It's quite a shame really because the wood of most of the trees was pretty soft and weak it was assumed to be useless. But some of it has been found to be very good for channeling magic. Hard wood is actually really bad for channeling magic. But now those trees are gone. Zevesda said somewhat sarcastically "Yeah that's humans for ya." Letholdus made a whispering gesture but spoke aloud saying "I heard a rumor some time ago that there use to be a fairy village up here. I would love to see that!" Zevesda said "I wouldn't doubt it. Those little slave drivers have their little villages all over the place, their like an infestation that you can't get rid of." Sarah surprised asked "Wait I thought that all elves liked fairys? I thought they worshipped them or something." Zevesda laughed. "Yeah, just like how every human wants to kill every elf. No we have our own opinions. Elvae don't worship the fairys they just do everything they tell them to do the way they tell them to do it and think the way they tell them to think. Well I guess it depends on your definition of worship. But that's not a requirement to be an elvae, just a requirement to live with them. I personally hate them, though I will admit they are pretty smart at things. But I choose my own path, I don't like taking commands so I left." Sarah surprised asked "Wait you've met the fairys?" Zevesda laughed again "No, no one meets the fairys. I mean every elvae tribe selects a special messenger to communicate with them. But honestly I don't even think that the messenger ever meets them face to face. That's another reason I don't like them. I mean they are very trustworthy they are just shy. So I don't think anyone really knows what they look like other than... well them... and maybe some dragons. They seem to like dragons." Sarah somewhat scared now asked "Dragons?" Zevesda answered "Yeah, it's like they have a dragon fetish or something I don't know. Dragons are allowed to come and go as they please into the fairy villages, or so I hear anyways. Other wild animals do the same but for some reason they seem to give special attention to dragons, who knows probably just because they are so damn powerful, heck even the fairys might be afraid of them. That would be a sight. Haha" Sarah didn't really know what to say to that. Letholdus spoke up "Yeah I would love to meet one of the faira even once in my life, heack any mage would probably die for that opportunity. But alas I have a much better chance of slaying a dragon." Sarah asked "Wait if you can slay a dragon why can't you force your way into a fairy village?" Letholdus laughed "Slaying a dragon is one thing, but going against an army of elves backed up by the earth itself. Fairys may not be as powerful as a dragon but they aren't weak either. Taking on an army by yourself is one thing. But an army of fairys in their natural environment. Not even a dragon could withstand that." Sarah asked "Then why are they so afraid of dragons?" Zevesda said "They don't hurt animals, even if the animal tried to eat them they wouldn't harm it in the least, hell they'd probably heal the damn thing. Dragons are no exception. But humans on the other hand, fairys have a deep hatred of humans. While the fairys would die to protect a single tree, a human would kill just to build a big house out of the same tree." Sarah said "I guess you're right about that."