Glade 16th, Year 75, Age of Steel
One thing that Alyssum had, rather belatedly, noticed was that Rúnar tended to hum. Especially while working on something time consuming or difficult. Rúnar himself didn't seem entirely aware of it, but sometimes Alyssum liked to sit and listen to the melodies when he was too absorbed in his creations to actually notice her watching. They were peaceful, relaxing songs. Most of the time. Some of them sounded rather sad, or even bitter, but she wasn't entirely sure why. It made no sense that something as simple as a series of notes at different frequencies could particularly lead to an understanding of emotion. Alyssum had a wider vocal range than most creatures she'd met, but she didn't think she'd be able to replicate the strange melancholy coming from such a quick song. She frowned as she continued to watch him work with the evening bleeders. He'd been tinkering with the commission potion for the last couple days now while giving Alyssum this and that in terms of assignments.
She wasn't upset but she wasn't particularly happy either. Boring was a good word for what he'd had her doing. Necessary, but irrefutably boring. She supposed it was better than spending time with the other kids in town. Half of them annoyed her and the other half liked to laugh at the way she spoke. With words mispronounced and a constantly vexed expression when she tried to conjure up words Isra never had a reason to use. The ones that laughed like to pull on her ears and tail and tell her she was too quiet or scream right in her ears because they realized loud noises made her flinch. Not out of an intrinsic fear, like they seemed to believe, but simply out of pain.
The humming suddenly stopped and Alyssum wondered if something had gone wrong. The thought alone... sent a quick spark of fear lancing through her chest, but Rúnar didn't look like he was in any kind of distress.
"Alys- Oh, you're already here," he cut off his call half way when he took note of the cringing girl just a couple feet away, his expression apologetic at the least. She supposed she'd forgive him since it wasn't intentional. Still, she subconsciously reached up to pull at her poor ears which had been so thoroughly abused ever since leaving Isra's side.
Add one point to the list Alyssum had been creating of returning to the life of a traveling hermit vs. living in society. It was a list she'd only recently started, but returning to the wilderness looked more and more appealing the more Alyssum realized she genuinely hated the vast majority of people living in Dralléad, Rúnar being the singular exception so far. She tilted her head and made a questioning noise, having once answered Rúnar's summons with the word 'what' and having been told that something about it was apparently rude. He'd mentioned something about her tone but it was the exact tone that Isra always used on her! Maybe tone was important to language? Alyssum wasn't sure how to or why, it was stupid, but maybe her tutor would explain it to her later. Right not, apparently, according to Rúnar her tone was and atrocity against basic decency.
Alyssum has quickly realized that in a lot of situations it was better to say nothing at all rather than be wrong. Like when she didn't know a word so she guessed at the meaning, or she wasn't sure of the pronunciations of a word so she threw caution to the wind. Moments like those usually got her funny looks if not outright glares depending on just how much of a faux pas her mistake was. She felt a little bad for Rúnar who unfortunately had to deal with whatever reputation Alyssum ended up with more than Alyssum had to deal with it.
Rúnar took the noise how it was intended and motioned for Alyssum to come closer. "As you know, I've been working on a potion recently that a couple different members of the community commissioned. The intended effects of the potion are something that will numb pain and knock out the patient safely. Another friend asked if he could get a version of it that would specifically slow the flow of blood in the body without causing harm to the patient, as to lower the risk of the patient losing too much blood and dying during surgery." Rúnar slid a sheet of paper closer, chocked full of scrawled writing Alyssum didn't know. She was lucky that most of the book in the Crow household were written in Vithmi, considering they were a Rathor family it made sense. But Vithmi was the only language Alyssum knew.
She looked puzzled as she continued to gaze at the page, tilting her head to side as Rúnar listed off items and said words that, frankly, Alyssum just didn't know. He paused, seemingly taking note of Alyssum's confusion. "Do you really not know Common? At all?"
"Do I have to?" She asked slowly, the answer obvious enough by the manner in which she answered.
Rúnar lowered his head into his hands, releasing a long suffering groan. "Isra," he growled, his voice dropping at least a full octave as he spoke. "Yes. Common is extremely important. Most people will know Common, and you can use it just about anywhere. Vithmi? Only really common here in Tyrclaid and they still prefer their natural tongue. It's biggest use it when speaking with other Rathor. Common not only lets you connect with other people since most are going to be able to speak it, but it's also a good baseline for comparing to other languages. It's Common for a reason, it's easier to learn than a lot of other languages. So knowing it can really help you learn other things, as well as just generally being a good study when it comes to languages."
Alyssum didn't care, she found languages to be as boring as the people around her were annoying. Apparently the sentiment showed on her face and Rúnar just gave another sigh, probably making a mental note to tell her tutor to also touch on Common since she was already learning so many other languages. That would make the third! Which was a to for Alyssum considering the day she arrived at Rúnar's door step she'd only really known how to count up to ten. Isra was bad at math, so by extension, Alyssum had been very bad at math. Which Rúnar had unfortunately also gotten her a tutor for! Frost was his last name and he was arguably the most tolerable out of Alyssum's tutors but it didn't change the fact she still hated having to learn all this boring stuff before she could learn the fun stuff. Like Alchemy!
Apparently almost sensing the flow of her train of thought, Rúnar pulled over the potion he'd been working on. "Let me start over. Right now we have all these things that the people want the potion to be able to do, right? While too much evening bleeders is just going to make a poison, so obviously we can't rely entirely on it. But what we do know is that it's an important ingredient. Now, there are plenty of local herbs that can just sooth pains or put people to sleep, like chamomile. However, that won't be strong enough for the desired effects that our clients are asking for. So what do we do?" Rúnar turned towards Alyssum and waiting quiet.
"Get better ingredients?" Her answer was more of a question but Rúnar was apparently willing to take it since he gave Alyssum a brilliant smile and a pat on the head.
"Absolutely correct! We get ingredients with stronger effects, as well as ingredients with more diverse effects. The less steps you have in a brew, the better. The more steps you have to go through the longer it'll take to finish, the more changes you have to go wrong, and just generally the more difficult the potion is going to be for you to make in the future. Ingredients with multiple effects are usually harder to get, but it greatly decreases the amount of time you're going to spend per potion." Rúnar paused as he pulled over a couple of flowers that were a similar shade of crimson to the mushrooms. "The issue with ingredients that have more effects and stronger effects, is that they're usually much harder to get. Do you know what these are?" Rúnar held up the flower carefully, but Alyssum shook her head. He sighed sadly as he put them down.
"These are called Heartbreak Blooms. They're unique because they only grow on the graves of people who died of heartbreak, be it the actual heartbreak that killed them or they themselves in response to it," he cradled the flowers a little closer as he looked at them mournfully.
"Heartbreak can actually kill?" Alyssum yelped, shock painting her features. Rúnar let out a bitter sweet laugh, shaking his head slightly.
"It's exceedingly rare, but strong emotions put strain on the heart. In some unfortunate cases where the heart is weak it can actually cause the heart to fail, and in those cases the people can be said to have literally died of heartbreak. But more often these flowers grow on the graves of suicide victims. They're very powerful alchemical ingredients. They can cause the flow of blood to slow to a crawl in the body while also causing the person who takes the potion to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep, much like those who the flower grows to represent. Unfortunately, they're a difficult thing to acquire. Some have of course learned how to cultivate faux blooms using things like the hearts of live stock, but often times the quality doesn't come close," Rúnar said as he placed the flower town on the table and pondered it for a moment.
"The good thing about stronger ingredients is that despite how hard they are to get, you don't need nearly as much of it most of the time. One flower will be able to make enough extract for nearly ten potions if you get the ratio correct. The thing is, that's just a rare ingredient, that's not even talking about the dangerous to get ingredients which are usually even more powerful. Dragon scales and the blood of sea monsters. Those are the truly terrifying ingredients with outstanding effects. The thing is, getting these ingredients often costs lives my dear. Those tasked with getting alchemical ingredients very often don't return, forever on the hunt for something rare enough to line their pockets and relieve them of such a dangerous job. Whenever you're testing an unknown ingredient, which often happens when you ask for something rare with less documented study, there will be a risk to you as the alchemist while you're testing. Things like to blow up. A lot. But Alyssum, dear pup, never forget there will always be more risk to the people around you than to you as an alchemist. Your test subjects, those who fetch your ingredients, those who simply live near to you and could be caught up in an experiment turned lethal. Alchemy is a dangerous art, and it's one where you're toying with the lives of others as much as you're risking your own. Always keep that in mind." Rúnar paused for a moment, his voice cutting off as he realized how long he'd been speaking for.
He laughed a bit, carefully dropping the flower into the mortar and pestle to turn it into a fine paste that would be mixed with the water to create the extract for the blooms. That would surely be enough to fulfill the rest of his colleagues, the end goal of which would be making a necromancer own him enough of a favor to teach Alyssum. Or at the very least let her use their tools. "Simply be mindful my dear, simply be mindful," he said as he continued to press down and grind the flowers which, to Alyssum, smelled like soil and the perhaps the sharp prick of tears.
