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Lilith could feel the cold pressing into her bones. She had never had to deal with something like this before. This feeling of cold, somehow radiating from bone to bone, from ligament to ligament. Lilith was sat by a fire, wearing a thick green shawl over her black dress, everything she could to try and abate this. But it just wasn’t working. Her body felt a chill, her muscles ached, her lips stuck together, unable to retain water. It was as if she was sick, with no fever. Not itching throat or aching stomach, just aches and cold.
Eda mentioned something about getting used to it. ‘It comes with time, but you get used to the chills. They’re temporary. The aches, though, THOSE are what’ll get you,’ She remembered Eda telling her, over dinner one night, ‘Half the stuff in that elixir I have to take is just for the muscle aches. You’re gonna regret the tower idea quick, Lily. I’d invest in an elevator.’
Lilith couldn’t always tell when Eda was being sincere or sardonic. She’d never been able to, really. But something about the statement ‘you’ll regret the tower’ was disturbingly genuine. And Lilith was starting to agree with her. As she rose, she could feel it in her bones. She huffed and gripped her staff, using it as a walking stick. It wasn’t usually so bad that she needed support, but with the cold weather they had been having, and the stress of nearly being caught by the empire, the curse was really taking effect.
Lilith didn’t even want to think about what poor Pyewacket felt. She usually had him unscrewed from the staff, but she’d gotten a bit annoyed with him imitating her cough. And she’d gotten worried when she realized it wasn’t imitation.
Lilith brought herself from the fireplace in her living floor down the stairs to her office, using the staff and huffing a little as she got to the door. ‘This isn’t right…’ she thought to herself. ‘This is worse than usual, something’s going wrong.’ The curse was so unpredictable. It was really hard to figure out how it was going to affect someone on any particular day. Why had she had to make the thing so damn impossible to get rid of?
Lilith swore under her breath as she spotted something on the calendar in her office. A pink little dot on today’s date; Amity had a lesson today, didn’t she? It had slipped her mind. Lilith secretly hoped that it had slipped Amity’s as well. But, being honest, Lilith knew Amity would be here. The girl was so eager to learn, and so loathsome toward her family. Lilith just had to think something up...fast.
Lilith blinked, then thought, pressing past the fog in her mind. “Of course…” Lilith smirked, remembering something Amity had mentioned in a previous lesson. As well as a few ingredients she had in her cellar. Maybe this lesson could be salvaged after all, even with Lilith in such a state. She might even get something out of it!
Well, get something more out of it than one-upping Odalia and seeing Amity.
Amity was starting to get annoyed with her general Alchemy class. She wasn’t even doing potions, how come she had to know all of this stuff? Sure, she wanted to be a teacher, but she wanted to teach younger children. And last she checked, little Braxus wasn’t being made to learn the difference between 13 different kinds of potion.
Amity hated to admit it, but they were a weak spot of hers. She especially hated to admit it to Lilith, the former chief of alchemy education of the entire Boiling Isles school system. Lilith would probably make mincemeat of this course, but Amity found herself struggling. Maybe it was the dyslexia, or the different ‘archetypes of potions’. Or maybe professor Lermis just wasn’t a good teacher. But it was a challenge.
Amity pulled her cloak tighter to her, hiding her recent student report in it, hoping her mother would forget about them as she pressed her way through the cold wind to the Raven’s Perch. Adjusting her glasses, she blew into her bare hands before she knocked on the large wooden doors.
The door creeeeeeeeeeeeeaked open, and the foyer was empty. The sconces, though, were lit with gentle blue flames. Amity figured that meant she was allowed to come in. She stepped foot in the tower, and let the door creak closed behind her.
“Amity.” a voice from the staircase. Amity saw as Lilith made her way down. And Lilith didn’t look wonderful. Her eyes were heavy and sullen, and she moved slower than usual. Lilith wiped her brow as she made her way down the steps, shaking a bit as she got closer to the door.
“I hope you forgive my current-” she let out a cough, going for a handkerchief in her pocket to catch whatever flew up from the wet, heaving coughs. Amity could’ve sworn that she saw a bit of jet black liquid on the cloth as Lilith folded it back into her pocket, “I assure you, Amity, it isn’t as bad as it looks.”
Amity gulped as she saw Lilith standing there, “I-Is that the curse, miss Lilith?” She asked, “I could go get Eda, if you-”
“No, no, Amity.” Lilith said, pressing her hand into Amity’s shoulder, “That won’t be necessary. You brought up that potions was a weak spot in your studies last week.” Lilith said. Despite the comment, Amity was greeted with a tender smile.
Amity blushed in embarrassment, “Um, yeah. Potions isn’t easy for too many students, I guess? That’s what people told me. I didn’t know it would be so difficult, though.” She shakily reached into her cloak and handed Lilith her student report.
Everything was normal, save for potions…
Performance: Marginal.
Comment: Student participates in all activities and does all assignments. Student currently struggles with basic potion archetype identification. Extra study is recommended.
Lilith nodded gently, her hands shaking as she held the paper. “It’s Lermis, right? The teacher you have?”
“Yes, Miss Lilith. I-I keep trying to tell him I can’t read that fast, but he doesn’t listen to me.”
“Well, in his defense, he has got about 180 other-” another fit of coughs, once more into the handkerchief. Amity definitely noticed black as Lilith pulled it away, huffing.
“Again, Amity,” Lilith sighed, “it’s not as bad as it seems.”
Amity blinked, then shook her head, “it looks pretty bad, Miss Lilith. What IS that stuff you’re coughing up, anyways?”
“Oh,” Lilith sighed, “the curse.” She mentioned.
Amity blinked, “Just...just the curse?”
Lilith nodded, “This black liquid that one coughs up is the actual cause of the ailments of the curse. The muscle aches, the chills, the foggy memory. The transformation is another thin entirely. But you won’t have to deal with that, I’m more than-” another round of coughs, these louder and more ghastly, “More than fine.”
“Miss Lilith, should I go home?” Amity asked, “W-we can postpone this, I could get Em and Ed to say they took me out somewhere-”
“No, no, Amity.” She shook her head, “let me ask,” Lilith moved to a chair, sitting herself down with a sigh, “Have either Luz or Eda told you about ‘the elixir’?”
Amity may not have been great with potions, and she might not have always picked up social cues. But she was very good at putting 2 and 2 together. And right now was no different.
“Miss Lilith, I literally got a D in that class, you really think I’m going to be able to make curse abatement elixir?”
“No. But I could teach you.” Lilith said, leaning back in the chair. ‘A curse abatement elixir takes a lot of doing, and we’d have to walk through many, many steps to get there. You’d learn a lot from it.”
Amity wasn’t sure she wanted a whole session of lessons to be about potions. But Lilith did know how Amity learned best, and might be able to teach her more about the process than Lermis. Amity decided she would have to do this if she wanted to get better at potions. And it wouldn’t be like Lilith making her create the potion, right?
“...What do I need to get?”
Amity hadn’t expected Lilith’s cellar to be so big. But when you’re an alchemist and a teacher, she figured it had to be. There was so much down here, some of it astronomy based, some of it combat. But a large section of it was devoted to ingredients. Shelves upon shelves of just...all manor of ingredients. How had she managed to get so many?
Amity summoned a ball of light with a little sheet of paper Luz had given her, for just such an occasion. She looked at the list she’d been given.
CURSE ABATEMENT ELIXIR
1 bough Lemon balm
½ jar tallow, avian (5 grams)
½ jar tallow, canid
½ jar suet, beef (5 grams)
1 stick gramine
2 leaves wyrms skin
½ stick wormwood
1 thimble beak dust
1 bottle Elixir mixing fluid
To acquire, shake basket thrice.
Amity figured Lilith wanted this done quick. She took the little basket in her hands and shook the thing. Once, twice, thrice, and zhoop! All the ingredients found their way to the basket. Amity shrugged at the ease of it all before making her way back up to the tower.
“Miss Lilith, I have the-Miss Lilith!”
Lilith was doubled over, coughing into the kerchief and hiding her hands from Amity. She slowly got back to her feet, and Amity saw that Lilith’s hands were slightly darker gray than before. Lilith huffed and sputtered, “I-I’m fine, Amity...get to the third floor, we’ll-”
“Miss Lilith, you’re hurt!”
“Amity,” Lilith placed a hand onto Amity’s shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, “I promise you. The elixir will help.” She said.
Amity huffed and adjusted her glasses as she walked past Lilith up the stairs. She was wiping a tear away from her face as she opened the door to the third floor office, and set down the basket on an alchemy table. Amity moved that, and two chairs to the center of the room, knowing Lilith would try to do that if she didn’t. Amity didn’t want Lilith using any more magic than necessary.
Lilith, eventually, made her way to the room. “Amity,” She placed her staff on a small holder by the door. She shifted and slowly sat herself down at one end of the alchemy table, lighting a fire under it, “What can you tell me about Potion archetypes?”
Amity seemed nervous as she put her hands on the table, observing how tenderly Lilith held each ingredient. She spoke, “It’s Elixir, Salve, Poultice, right? Each one has different uses or applications or something. I missed that part.”
“You’re right, somewhat,” Lilith said, taking a copper cauldron and placing it onto the hole of the table, letting the fire heat up, “Those are the three archetypes of alchemy. All can be considered potions.” Lilith pressed her finger into the cap of the mixing fluid.
“Each potion is a different type . An elixir is smooth, viscous, like water.” She poured the mixing fluid into the cauldron. “Usually meant to be ingested. A salve is like an ointment or sorts,” she took a small spoon and added some of the tallow into the cauldron, letting it melt away. “And a poultice is even thicker than that, usually serving as a bandage. Elixirs cure, salves kill, poultices block.”
“How is that?” Amity asked, “wouldn’t an elixir do the same thing if you poured it into a wound?”
Lilith struggled with the cap on the second jar of tallow, and stopped Amity from reaching over, “Not over the cauldron, Amity,” Lilith reached around and handed her the jar.
“To answer your question,” Lilith began, “they serve different purposes, and need to be applied differently. An Elixir cures a disease, and so should be ingested, like a pill.” She took the jar of tallow that Amity opened, and scooped half the contents into the cauldron.
“A salve kills things. Germs, for example. You don’t want an infection, you put a salve on it. You want to stop itching, you put a salve on it. It wouldn’t work so well, if you drank it.”
Amity nodded, “I think I’m starting to get it. Does that mean poultices close things?” Amity asked, observing as Lilith broke a bar of suet and place it into the cauldron.
“That’s correct, Amity. You don’t usually want a poult-” Lilith huffed and coughed more, almost the entire kerchief stained with the black liquid. She dabbed her mouth and shook her head, “Damned cough…”
Amity looked over, “A-are you sure you don’t-”
“Amity. This isn’t your weight to carry.” She smiled gently, gripping her hand. “...Though, I may need you to add the rest of the ingredients as I go clean this up.”
Black fluid was resting on Lilith’s hand, and a little on her lip.
Amity was slow and methodical, trying to remember what she could from the class. She tried her hardest to think, ‘you have to split the stick and tear the leaves, then mix with the small stick-now, the large one, right? You’re not supposed to tear the leaves, are you? No, that’d-oh, Lilith.’
Lilith coughed some more, grunting and wiping her forehead, “You were right the second time. Tear the others, then you-”
“Miss Lilith, your magic is making the curse worse, ” Amity said, looking up as she did what she was told. “I don’t want you getting hurt!”
Lilith sighed, “I-I know, I’ sorry…”
Amity sighed, “Miss Lilith, I-” She tore the ingredients and set them in the cauldron, “I want to be able to help you.” She took the stick of wormwood, and began to stir the mixture, watching as the fluid roiled and bubbled. “I know that this stuff isn’t going to make you better, no matter how strong I mix it our how much you take.” It’s abatement , not cure .” Amity sighed softly, leaving the stick in the cauldron as she reached for a heat glove, putting it on.
“You’re important to me, whether or not you’re cursed. And I don’t care if you’re cured, I just...it hurts to see you in pain. It really does. And I know, this sounds crazy, because less than six months ago I wouldn’t have been saying any of this, but here we are, and here I am, and…” Amity huffed, “Sorry, I’ve been talking too long.”
Lilith clenched one of her fists as she listened, not able to bring herself to face Amity as she stared out of the window. She blinked away a tear. Lilith sighed, then turned around.
“Thank you, Amity.” She smiled softly, wiping a tear from her face.
“Now let’s see the potion you’ve made.”
The elixir was as it should be, a light marmalade orange with a golden sheen to it. Sure, Lilith had done most of the work in getting the recipe down and adding the ingredients at the right time. But Amity had somehow managed to stir the thing perfectly. And as Lilith drank the now cooled elixir, she could even taste the gentle bitterness of the worm wood. An optional ingredient, added only for taste.
The gray left from Lilith’s hands, and her eyes seemed less heavy. Lilith could feel the chill leaving her body. But her muscles still ached, and her throat still had a light itch. As she finished the elixir, she felt that itch disappear.
“It’s not made everything perfect,” Lilith said, “But it’s done its job. Thank you, Amity. You were a wonderful help. I’ll be sure to take this more oft-”
Lilith was interrupted by a tight hug from the apprentice, “I’m glad, Miss Lilith.” She said.
“I’ll have you back some time tomorrow,” Lilith said, snapping her fingers and letting magic do most of the cleaning, “Give this to your mother, if she gives you any trouble.”
A quickly scrawled, but beautifully written note;
“Amity has expressed interest in further education as to potions/alchemy. I will be tutoring her in the subject tomorrow.
-L.C.”
Amity folded up the note and tucked it into her pocket. “B-but what about the student report-”
Lilith, who still had the report on her, snapped her finger. The grade changed from ‘marginal’ to ‘above average’. “...Eda taught me that one.” Lilith patted Amity’s head, and grabbed her staff, “Let’s get you home.”
Another day of lessons, completed.
For the both of them...