Aliandra

  Ali paused to smell the beautiful climbing roses that graced the fence of Eliyen Mistwood’s beautiful garden before they all went in. She was certain she would ire of seeing the riotous array of pnts, herbs, and trees all id out in peared to be airely actal natural harmony. It was at once a garden, and simultaneously a work of art.

  Given the bounties pced on her and Malika’s heads, and the presumed i of half the underground criminal world, they had decided to stick together for this venture across town, and in particur had beera vigint with his motes of light and stealth skills. Still, nobody appeared to take a shot at her this time.

  Open. Please e in.

  The same elegantly written sign fasteo the door weled them to enter, so Ali knocked and opehe door. At the sound of the wind chimes, both Eliyen and Basil looked up from their work.

  “Wele back,” Eliyen’s soft, clear voice greeted them as they ehe small shop that seemed to serve double duty as Eliyen’s home. Basil grinned hugely behind her shoulder, obviously delighted to see them again but too shy to speak up.

  Herbalist – Wood Elf – level ?? (Nature)

  Herbalist – Human – level 1 (Nature)

  Eliyen’s eyes flickered between the four of them, curiosity clear on her face, but she remained silent, waiting for them to initiate.

  “Vivian Ross reended your abilities for healing something difficult,” Ali began.

  “Yes, I see. Your friends bear the stench of the undead – and not the lesser ones. You have tangled with something powerful and e to me for help with life drain?”

  “Yes. you cure it?” Ali asked, immediately curious about how Eliyen could tell. From the ck of obvious mana formations flickering and ging, she guessed it assive perception skill of some kind.

  “What you seek is an Elixir of Vitality Rejuvenation. I know the making of it, but unfortunately, I ck the most critical ingredient,” Eliyen said. A slight tightening of the skin around her eyes and firming of her jaw flickering across her face briefly before her features returo their serene calm.

  “Is it too expensive?” Malika asked. “We’re willing to pay.”

  “It’s not a matter of money,” Eliyen said, shifting her gaze to Malika as she spoke. “The required reagent is called mana-purified water. It is the basis for many powerful cures and elixirs, but it is unfortunately rare and difficult to acquire. I do not have a. Nor will you find any in this town or nearby for purchase. I’m sorry.” She picked up a watering and drizzled a little nourishing rain onto the unusually blue fern in a pot on the desk before her, delicately weaving her nature mana into the flow, and the pnt began to gently grow under her attention. She cocked her head to the side curiously and then g Mato with a flicker of a smile.

  “Is there no way we get some for you?” Ali asked, frustrated to be so close to a solution a blocked by an ued and imperable barrier.

  “There is a dungeon deep in the northeastern mountainous area of the kingdom of Toria, he town of Volle,” Eliyen expined. “It is the only nearby sourana-purified water for all the kingdoms in this part of the ti. It’s an area without mu the way of natural resources but the town of Volle has always exploited this dungeon. Keeping an iron grip on the supply of such a valuable reagent has been the only thing that ehem to maintain their wealth.”

  Drawing a deep breath, Eliyen tinued, “Every year I purchase o, allowio send one persoween level thirty and forty into the dungeon, and that entitles me to only ten vials of water. As you imagine, I ’t afford to squander such a scarce resour something that might eventually resolve on its own. I’m sorry I ot be of help,” Eliyen finished.

  “But…” Ali tried. The rules she had just expined seemed ridiculously specific.

  “She ’t help us,” Malika said, uncharacteristically interrupting her. “Let’s go ask the Guildmaster if there are other options.”

  “Ok,” Ali said, gng at her in surprise as they all got up to leave. It was frustrating to e all the way out here only to be turned away by some stupid restris. But Ali couldn’t quite figure out why Malika was being so… pushy. Malika was the most worried about the life drain. Shouldn’t she be the one pushing the hardest to get Eliyen to relent?

  “I do have a request,” Eliyen said, her voice stopping Ali’s hand right before her fiouched the doorknob. Out of the er of her eye, she caught a ghost of a smile flicker aalika’s face – a smile that vanished entirely before she turned back to Eliyen.

  “There is something I would ask of you, young Fae,” Eliyen said, looking directly at Ali. “Basil informed me of the uure of your skills. If you choose to help me with this request, I will help you with the elixirs.”

  How did Malika know? Careful to keep her face from showing anything ued, Ali accepted Eliyen’s unspoken invitation to sit.

  “As you imagine,” Eliyen said, putting the watering down and giving Ali her full attention, “I despise the exploitation of this mana-purified water because it prevents the crafting of many life-saving elixirs, spreading much suffering across all the nearby kingdoms. There are not enough resources to make the potions, especially after the Goblin siege, and those that are created are way too expensive for the on folk.”

  “The biggest secret to mana-purified water is that it is simply regur water, purified by the presence of a water-affinity mushroom that grows within it.”

  Now I see. At least she was beginning to uand why she was involved in whatever Eliyen was about to propose. Her Grimoire and Eliyen’s knowledge that she had learo grow the Brown Stonecap mushrooms had to be part of the equation.

  “The Torians check everyone who enters and leaves the dungeon, searg all their equipment and ste entments to ehat nobody leaves with more than their allotted amount of water. They would quickly notiy mushrooms added to the iory, should ory to take any out.”

  I guessed right.

  “I propose that you use my permit to access the dungeon and search out the mushroom and learn it uhe cover of colleg ten vials of water for me. I do not know precisely where in the duhey grow, so you will have to find it on your own. Once you learn it, I suggest you kill the dungeon, but even if you do not, return with the mushroom and we will grow them here. We agree on how to harvest the water and share profits after you return. We will then be able to produce a stant supply of life-saving elixirs and potions while earning a lot of money in the process. Do this for me and I will pay for the teleportation to Volle and make you the elixirs to cure your friends.”

  “That sounds doable,” Ali said, sidering the proposal. She was excited about the idea of learning a new magical variant of a mushroom, and ohat seemed so useful. And Eliyen’s goal to provide more potions to more people seemed admirable.

  Only… Somethi off about this proposal, and Ali wasn’t sure exactly what it was.

  “I don’t think you’re beiirely ho with us,” Malika said, her blunt response firming Ali’s reservations.

  Eliyen’s expression instantly hardened. “Curse your eyes, daughter of Ahn Khen.”

  “I do not he sight of my Aors to see through your flimsy story. I have been forced to work with enough real en vastly more skilled at lying and ving people. You’re simply not that good at it.” Malika matched her hard expression without bag down even slightly. Ali was a little frightened by the iy fshing in Malika’s eyes.

  “How much are you spending on this vehe permits and teleportation service alone must be very expensive. Yet you are living frugally as an herbalist in a border town. If you cared about the money, you would have a ready proposal for how we split the profits signed and agreed upon before even sharing the major details. Yet you don’t seem to even care about the money or the fact we will be bankrupting a town in a different kingdom.”

  Basil gasped, his wide eyes dartiween Malika and his mentor.

  Suddenly, Ali realized what had bothered her about the deal. It’s a heist. They were being asked to rob some town aroy their monopoly market. Even if it was being abused for profit, they were ly doing somethihical either.

  “Very well,” Eliyen said, clearly unhappy about being put on the spot by Malika’s rapid dismantling of her eory.

  She’s going to kick us out. Ali disliked the idea of Volle’s market exploitation leading to suffering, and she despised the idea of being maniputed into taking over su operation herself. But that still meant they were not going to get the Elixir of Vitality Rejuvenation.

  But the old Wood Elf didn’t demand they leave immediately. Looking down at the pnts around her, she began to tell her tale.

  “A long time ago, I lived with a small of Wood Elves in the forests his dungeon. It was when the kingdom was new. We harvested the water and local herbs and earned our simple living trading with the nearby towns. The local lord coveted the water as a resourd wished to exploit it, so he lured us out of our home with the promise of a signed agreement and while we were away, burned our homes and forest and captured and subjugated the dungeon.”

  Mato sighed, but Malika’s expression remained unreadable. Ali wondered what horrors this simple retelli unsaid.

  Eliyen sighed. “My family and were made homeless and driven out. For many decades I plotted revenge on them, but I was never able t myself to do the necessary violence, and now most of them have since passed due to the passage of time. Ownership of the dungeon and the prosperity of Volle has been handed down within that lord’s family ever since. Even after all this time, I still find myself uo let it go. It sits poorly with my heart to know that they tio exploit something that they earned usiion at the cost of my people’s homes.”

  Judging from the hard look in her eye and the set of her mouth, Eliyen was leaving a lot unsaid. How long has she suffered?

  Eliyen looked at Malika, “Your friend’s ability is the first time I have found hope that I resolve this injustice without violend earn some closure at st. The ugly truth is the revenge in my heart. I do not want ao die, but I want tht the injustice of ill-gotten gains at the expense of my family. I ot steal the dungeon, obviously, but making it worthless to them feels appropriate.”

  “Even knowing my sad tale, I still beg of you to help me with this. You’re right, I care not for the money or wealth. If you succeed, you may do what you wish with the mana-purified water. I ask only that you sell me enough at a reasonable price so that I save people with my arts. I am forced to turn aeople even more ihan you all the time, and it tears at my heart to do so because of the selfish exploitation of Volle’s Dungeon for personal gain.”

  “You should have led with that story,” Malika said. “Thank you for telling the truth.”

  “I’m sorry you’ve had to carry that for so long,” Ali answered. “I’d like to help.”

  “Yoing to help even after hearing my need for selfish revenge?” Eliyen asked, clearly surprised at her response.

  “Yes,” Ali answered. “It seems like a good cause to me. If we succeed, more people will have access to important potions, right? I don’t like that they are profiting at the expense of people’s lives ah.” If there was a way to help everyone while also helping her friends get the elixirs, Ali would jump at the opportunity.

  “If I do get the mushroom type and we make the mana-purified water, I probably make a lot. I don’t have any use for it, so you take as much as you want, and maybe just give me a small fee so ay for potions and stuff.” Ali finished.

  “Sheesh, you guys are both terrible at business,” Malika excimed. “You know that stuff goes for more than a gold per vial?”

  “But it will help people?” Ali answered. She knew what Malika was saying, but she didn’t want to simply repce the Volle lord as the person exploiting people’s suffering for money.

  Malika just rolled her eyes. “You are both the same. You know you save all the people and still make some money on the side? Anyway, why does Volle restritrao the dungeon? Ali is going to have to do this on her own, right?”

  Alohat was a detail that Ali had not picked up on.

  “Yes,” Eliyen firmed. “It’s their way of proteg their asset. Admitting people below thirty runs the risk of feeding the dungeon aing it grow stronger. Oher hand, letting in higher-level people risks them plundering the dungeon and simply telep out to evade the taxes aris. Groups are restricted because it would be too easy to destroy the entire dungeon. I’m hoping Aliandra ma as a summoner.”

  “That’s stupid too,” Malika responded, “I would just harvest the water myself ahe product, keeping the source secret.”

  “Volle’s lord cims that making it harder kept the market small and the prices high,” Eliyen said with a shrug. “I think they’re just zy and this is an opportunity to make other people do the work.”

  “If I were running this scheme, I’d have to destroy it myself because it’s so terrible,” Malika huffed. She seemed to be growing a little irate.

  They sat with Eliyen for another hoing over the details of the pn. It was simply astonishing how much gold Eliyen was iing into this endeavor. She was fronting the cost of potions for the dungeoaining the expeeleportation service to Volle, and not to mention the purchase of the various expeorias allowiry to the dungeon itself.

  Malika had been spot-on with her observation. Eliyen was clearly not motivated by money. If Ali was successful, she would be walking out of the dungeon with all the spoils, and Eliyen couldn’t do anything if she backed out of their informal agreement to share profits somehow.

  However, no matter how Ali used the gains, as long as she didn’t sit on it and do nothing, Eliyen would still have succeeded in her goal of undermining the value of the dungeon. Perhaps she was more savvy than she seemed after all.

  Ohing was certain. Without Malika, Ali would never have guessed any of this.

  ***

  Ali stood beside the rge murky ke in the underground forest cavern, trying to drown a Kobold while Malika looked on, occasionally her opinion. Initially, Ali had beeed about Eliyen’s request and the opportunity to make a difference. She would explore a new dungeon and unlock the secrets of mana-purified water, helping her friends overe the debilitating effects of the Death Wight’s life drain and at the same time make important potions much more widely avaible.

  However, learning that she would have to tackle the dungeon by herself, and then trying – and failing – to answer some of Malika’s very practical questions about how she inteo approach the job had drastically eroded her fidence.

  Volle’s Dungeon – as it was known – arently an aquatigeon. A series of caves, mostly submerged in water, ied with slime and ooze monsters. Eliyen had secured a crude hand-dra of the dungeon itself, which supposedly cost a hefty fifty silver if purchased in Volle. It seemed that the eown’s ey had been structured arourag the most money from the dungeon in every ossible – and gouging visitors on simple amenities and information was obviously fair game.

  It’s like the worst kind of tourist town. Only the ‘attra’ is a dungeon.

  It hadn’t really dawned on Ali that her monsters would o breathe uer until Malika had poi the three Uer Breathing potions Eliyen had provided and asked her how she pnned on fighting. Which brought her ultimately to the shore of her ke and her quest to drown her Kobolds.

  “Six minutes,” said, somehow able to gauge time nearly exactly.

  Ali retrieved the distressed Kobold from the water before it actually died. Six minutes seemed quite impressive for the bedraggled and drenched Kobold, and Ali was quite certain that with her lower vitality, she wouldn’t have sted even half that long. But six minutes was woefully ie for traversing an uer series of caverns with potential monster fights along the way.

  “Thank you,” she told the Kobold. Even though the summoned creature would have clearly followed her request to the death, the disfort and sense of drowning she felt through her e with the monster made her feel terrible about her tests.

  “I’m sorry, A Mistress. This one is not strong enough.” The Kobold turned away, coughing up dirty water before looking down at his feet dejectedly. What made her feel infinitely worse about the drownings was the way the Kobold seemed depressed that she wouldn’t let him actually die to satisfy her request – as if he hadn’t been able to try hard enough and was letting her down.

  “What else you got?” Malika asked.

  “The only other minions I have are slimes,” Ali answered, w if there was some way she could find some uer moo learn on short notice. Of all her potential minions, the sleek and powerful Poison Wyverns had sted the lo, but ten minutes uer was still woefully ie for this mission. And Malika had pointed out that their primary breath attack – poison spray – would probably be signifitly less effective uer too.

  Ali pursed her lips and quickly paged through her Grimoire finding the imprint for her oozes. She had only two options, and she was certaioxic Slime was way too low level for this jardless of whether it could survive uer or not. She gathered her mana and chose the variant for the Luminous Slime and began to summon her victim.

  There was a soft popping noise as the monster appeared, followed by a wet spt as it hit the mossy ground, its roundish body wobbling as it glowed. Slimes were nasty and gross monsters, amorphous blobs of moist or damp jelly-like substahat could self-animate in ways that sometimes made her stomach lurch. But pared to the Toxic Slimes, this Luminous Slime was much more to Ali’s taste. She wouldn’t go as far as calling it beautiful, but the light its semi-transparent body gave off was gentle and soothing. Seen from a distance, maybe with a substantial squint, it looked like a pleasant, happy glowing yellow squishy ball a little rger than herself.

  Ali sent her will to the creature, taking care to keep her instrus clear and simple. Slimes, she had found, were her least intelligent minions, and seemed uo follow anything but the simplest of dires. But they did seem useful in their own way. While she had had to monitor them closely during the twin Wight battle, they had proved to be remarkably resilient, airely immuo being pinned down and trapped by the bone prisons.

  She visualized it entering the water and sitting at the bottom, and the creature responded immediately, stretg various pseudopod ‘legs’ in seemingly random dires to help propel, drag, slither, or pour itself across the ground and along the bottom of the water in the bizarre whole-body lootion uo slime monsters.

  Oozed, she decided. It was the descriptive word for the way the slime was moving that seemed most appropriate. It oozed its way across the ground.

  Ali watched as it simply sat there lighting up the murky ke from within. She felt no distress ing through her e to the creature. Occasionally, she sent minor adjustments just to check if it was still able to respond.

  “I think we have a winner,” Malika observed.

  “I don’t think it o breathe at all,” Ali agreed. Indeed, even the way it had oozed along the ke floor had seemed indistinguishable from its movement above water – as if the monster was entirely indifferent to the enviro in which it found itself. Ali sent it a and, and it released its indest spray of light motes. The entire ke shoh the iy of the attack, but through the depth of murky water, it failed to blind Ali.

  “Slimes are generally blind, aren’t they?” asked, looking up from his seat where he was studying his notes.

  “I think so,” Ali answered. Her slimes had never seemed bothered by the intense spray of lights they could emit, so it usible they were perceiving the world in airely different way.

  “Perhaps don’t rely on that attack, then,” he finished. “It might not work if everything you’re fighting is another slime.”

  “So, I have only one minion, and I ’t use its primary attack.” This entire operation was looking less and less feasible the more she thought about it. “I wish I could bring my Kobolds.” She had certainly gotteo her versatile minions and having an answer for every occasiht there in her Grimoire was something she had begun to take franted. Now, when she couldn’t bring them, she suddenly realized how much of her power was directly reted to having a good sele of minions.

  “Why don’t y some?” asked. For some reason, he seemed to be fidgeting more than usual, as if he were trying to suppress a nervous energy, but she simply chalked it up to him being shy about sharing his ideas.

  “They ’t breathe uer.” She couldn’t figure out what he was getting at. He was exceptionally smart, but the problem was really obvious, and he seemed to be ign it.

  “You ’t breathe uer either,” he said, and suddenly Ali uood what he was getting at. “Let’s go talk to Morwynne Fizzlebang at the potion store. Maybe she has a few more uer breathing potions you buy. They will probably work on Kobolds oblins if you tell them to drink it.”

  “Oh… that’s smart.” Ali hadn’t sidered the obvious solution, but it made sense. Her humanoid monsters were smart enough to use potions. It would be prohibitively expensive for sure, but for the added safety ing an Acolyte of Azryet to heal her, or a Storm Shaman, she was certainly willing to make the sacrifice. It would make an enormous difference. However, I should test firing Lightning Bolts uer.

  “You’re also ign one of ygest advantages,” he tinued, still fidgeting with the pages of his notebook. “Yrimoire. You’ll be fighting in a dungeon with mohat are adapted to the local ditions. As long as you kill some monsters, you learn them, and then you should have access to minions that survive and fight uer.”

  Oh, now there’s a great idea! Strategy is like learning your first ruhen you just link them together in ways that work… she smiled as new ideas began to simmer in her mind.

  Malika patted ’s head. “See hoy you made her? Good boy!”

  He screwed up his fato a hirious grimace. “Really?”

  ***

  Ali sat on a patch of springy moss, paging through her books, looking for any small inspiration she might have missed that could help her with her uping quest. The delicious-smelling aroma of Mato’s cooking, a richly spiced tamarind stew, filled the Grove once more. Idly, she found herself w where he sourced all his ingredients. Never a slou cooking to start with, he was really starting to experiment these days and the results made her ingle and her mouth water. e on, Ali, focus. Spice pods won’t sy monsters.

  She gnced up when she felt approag.

  “Um…” he began, shifting a little awkwardly.

  He’s blushing? There was a flush of red c the normally pale skin of his face.

  “Ali… I… I didn’t really get a ce to say thank you for saving me. When I fell,” he said, stumbling over his words.

  Wow, he’s really nervous, she thought. So cute. She smiled up at him in a way that would hopefully reassure his ay and said, “You’re wele. I know you would have dohe same for me.” She still remembered the horror and dread as she had watched him topple from the inner ring of the ruined city. She couldn’t imagine what life might be like right now if her desperate plummet to save him had failed.

  “I got you something,” he said, the words almost tripping over each other as he blurted them out.

  Oh? She watched curiously as he pulled out an ented leather bag she hadn’t seen before a on the ground a generous distance away from where she sat before pulsing a little of his mana into it the same way she used her ring’s ste entment. Suddenly, there were three enormous objects, covered with soil and dirt, and from her vantage point looking up at them, she couldn’t immediately tell what they were.

  “I hope they’re ok,” he said, none of his awkwardness having eased. In fact, he seemed even more worried, if that ossible.

  Wracked with curiosity now, she summoned her barrier disk aated into the air above the giant structures until she could get a clearer view.

  Cherry trees! Lying sideways on the ground, she had been looking directly at the dirt and roots of the uprooted trees, but from the air, they were clearly cherry trees filled with beautiful pink blossoms.

  She flew over to and hugged him. “I love them! Thank you.” She could feel his blush intensifying, so she let him go and instead destructed the three trees he had brought.

  Variant: Cherry Tree added to Imprint: Tree.

  Immediately, she created one off to the side, o the ke, surreptitiously noting that was now smiling happily. The tree she created was smaller than the oaks or maples she was used to pnting, but it was still tall and filled with beautiful deep pink blossoms.

  “That is stunning,” Malika said admiring the tree.

  It’s beautiful, Ali thought, thhly enjoying the ued and thoughtful gift.

  “Good job!” Mato said, spping on the bad making him stagger. “It only took almost dying to get you to buy a girl flowers.”

  The poor Half-elf turned every color of the su as Mato and Malika hooted in tandem.

  “Hey! It was a very thoughtful gift!” Ali protested, pig up a clump of moss and throwing it at Mato, hitting him on the chest.

  Everyoarted ughing, even joined in as Mato’s joke seemed to finally dissolve his ay and nervousness.

  timewalk