The incautious herbalist

It was an odd evening. I walked into the Library to find a man in rather large cybernetic armor, another man professing to be a Time Lord, and my friend, MaryCat discussing – well, who knows what they were discussing actually? The conversation seemed to center along lines of chain smoking, deals and exoskeletal weapons systems – I gave the usual warnings about arms in the Library. The armored man denied he was powering up any, even though the books in the Library had begun to stir. At my insistence, he finally stood down.

As everyone drifted out into the street, I could hear Rellis puttering around upstairs. Rellis – lycan, herbalist and botanist – possibly the clumsiest scientist I know (with the possible exception of Sorenz). I heard a loud pop, then a sizzling sound. "Crap,” Rellis muttered, “Look out down there . . . a bit of acid coming your way."

“Oh, my God. Rellis!” I quirked my head toward the ceiling with exasperation, watching the hole begin to form.

"What!?" Rellis yelled. I could hear him breaking more glass in an attempt to get the acid under control fast. "I do this all the time. I’ll get it fixed!”

"You'd best move quickly, Rellis." I drew a small ball of flame from my palms, flicking it back and forth, preparing to toss it up to the ceiling if the hole did not close immediately.

Rellis shouted, “Hold your horses. I always fix what I break up here, although I do have to say I am having some bad luck today with the new potions." That, I thought, was the understatement of the year. I headed up the stairs, two at a time.

A woman was sitting near the windows, reading. I ignored her for the moment and headed straight to Rellis, watching the acid still eat away at the floor. "Rellis, we've either got to help you become . . . a bit more coordinated, or invest in unbreakable supplies.”

Rellis scrambled, dropping some liquid over the floor and tracing something in the air above the hole. “That wouldn’t work. I need to see what happens with the potions.” He stood up, and began making another mixture, all the while referring to his notes as he worked. Finally he swirled the phial and knelt over the floor again. “A lot of the breaking I can easily fix." He poured the new potion on the floor at the edge of the hole. It began to fill.

I sighed and began to meditate, floating in the air and flicking the ball of flame back and forth in my hands, waiting to see if this fix would work or create another problem. I could easily envision, Alice-like, the floor beginning to grow. "What are you working on today, Rellis?"

Rellis brightened. "Just random mixes. I’m using this herb as my independent variable." He held up an odd looking bit of plant that looked as if it would lash out at you were it alive. My curiosity was piqued. I continue to wonder whether there exists in the city a plant and animal hybrid. "It's really hard to get these!” He held the plant between his thumb and forefinger. “Although it is starting to look like I would not want them anyway."

I studied the plant carefully. "I am an herbalist, too.” I thought about how I’d used my art mostly to better purposes since becoming Omegan. I’d found less need for poisons here. Mostly. I could imagine the plant curling and lashing. "I'm quite curious about plant and animal hybrids. So far I've seen plants that have animal qualities . . . but no sentience.” I gestured toward the windows. "Who knows what might thrive in the waste?" The little ball of flame still hovered in my hand.

Rellis chuckled and cut a small piece from the end of the plant. "Now. . . .” He laid the plant in a marble mortar and began grinding it with a pestle, smoothing it into a paste. "Well, I found this in the city, that’s the reason I’m working with it. I don’t see much coming out of it though.”

I thought Rellis hasty in his pronouncement. I’ve observed that he sometimes jumps to a conclusion, when a more thorough analysis is warranted. The mutated skunkweed for example – he rushed to find a cure before Lyra’s analysis was complete. While he believes the serum to work, it has not been tested. And nothing has yet accounted for the days-long blindness Mirah experienced after exposure. Not even Lorne’s magicks were immediately effective. Pontifex surmised that perhaps Mirah suffered some sort of allergic reaction. But we still do not know. Nor do we know if the skunkweed can be distilled into a potent weapon.

I continued to watch Rellis calmly crush what little life remained out of the plant. I could see a gray-green aura rise from it and dissipate. "It looks as though that might be useful for poison." I gave my wrist a little flick. With a pop, the ball of flame disappeared. I stood. "Perhaps you and I should begin methodically collecting and cataloging what plants we can find here."

From the corner of the room, I heard the woman’s clothing rustling as she laid down her book and began looking around. “I already have,” replied Rellis. “I’ve found three different plants so far. One of them is in my potion of essence." The famous potion of essence, I thought. Powerful, but difficult to use. Rellis pulled a small sheet of paper containing the recipe for the essence potion from his robe and handed it to me. He then began scraping the paste from the mortar and attempting to get it into a phial.

A murmur came from the seating area by the window. “Oh my, I've done it again.” I glanced over to the woman, then began to read the instructions for Rellis’s potion of essence. The woman rose and walked over. “Sorry, I trust I wasn't interrupting?”

Rellis kept working, ears twitching. "Not at all.”

"It is unusual for anyone other than Omegans to rest up here. But we have no secrets. Your are welcome to stay," I replied. I returned to reading.

The woman appeared a little distracted. "I come up here to read sometimes and I just lose track of time." She peered over the lab table. “What are you working on?”

Rellis virtually ignored the woman; he was absorbed in the phials in front of him. “Now, a little of this and. . . ." He waited a second as the mix settled, then tilted his head. "Well, it seems good right now,” he muttered, taking a close look at the phial. Rellis began smiling. “It seems we have a stable one." I rather doubted that. Personally, I just hoped the concoction would remain in the phials on the table or in his hands and not end up on the floor in shatters of glass.

The woman smiled. "Thanks. I guess I'm an unofficial 'Friend of Omega' since I hang out here so much. I'm a friend with Poncho and Merma."

I looked up from my reading and welcomed her. "You look very familiar to me. Perhaps we've met before. I'm Joah. This is Rellis."

"I'm Penemue. My friends sometimes call me Penny. I answer to both. I usually work at the Haven, when I work." Penny glanced at the different ingredients on the table. "Oh, my. Nasty looking plant."

Rellis did not ease my concerns as he began poking about in the drawers of the lab table, talking to himself. "Now where did I put that?" He snapped his fingers, then started looking in his robe, going through the same pockets over and over.

I folded the paper and handed it back to Rellis. "The problem I see with the potion of essence, Rellis, is that it requires healthy DNA to have been extracted prior to the illness in order for the potion to work. I daresay few would be willing to allow such sampling here." The potion of essence is a healing draught. Rellis says it heals physical injuries to the point at which the injury was inflicted.

I turned back to Penny. “Have you been working at the Haven long, Penny?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Off and on. I was away from Toxia. Just came back a few days ago.” Penny seemed very interested in Rellis’s potion. “Defeats the purpose of a cure if you need prior DNA, no?"

I agreed. “Much mischief can be done with a DNA sample. I would not be willing to allow mine to be stored somewhere.”

Rellis nodded in abstraction, setting the phials he had been working on in a stand on the lab table. He smiled and pulled out a stoppered phial from his robe. The liquid within was white in color with a bit of black swirling inside. "Here it is.” He was clearly proud of his discovery. “It takes a bit of work to make, but it counters a lot of poisons and it helps me test a lot of potions I could not before." He pulled out the stopper, tipped the phial to his lips and downed it one gulp. "Mmm . . . always tastes good, too."

"Lycans," I laughed, thinking it a waste of a perfectly good essence potion.

Rellis waited a few seconds as the potion settled, and then he grabbed the new one from the table and downed it. A scientist who uses himself as his own lab rat may one day wake up to find himself in good company with Mr. Hyde.

Penny grinned. "I'm just impressed he can do such delicate work with such long claws. I'm clumsy enough, and my nails are pretty short."

Well," I glanced at the shards of glass in the waste bin, "Rellis does run through quite a bit of glassware."

Penny’s eyes roved over the remaining glass on the floor and what appeared to be a patched up hole.

Rellis nodded. "It takes a lot of practice. And I am not always the most graceful with my work." He pointed to the spot floor on the floor that was now mended and much cleaner then the rest. “Well, that potion is a dud . . . nothing." He began mixing another batch of the essence potion so that he would have his spare back.

“Have you found a home since returning to the city?” I asked Penny. “You are friends with Pontifex and Merma; you would be most welcome in the Library.”

“I've thought about it, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am joining a group. Although if I were to join any, this one seems a good fit.” Penny leaned over the lab table, poking the plant with the tip of her finger. "That looks like a mutated goldenseal flower."

“One of your fellow bartenders is Praetor here. Have you met Grr yet?” I wondered if I might snag a bit of the goldenseal-like flower for a tincture. “He’s lycan. Red wolf. Aussie.”

“Penny shook her head. “Grr? No, I don't think I've met him yet.”

Rellis chuckled. "He’s a nice guy. He’s the one who got me into the Institute after I left the pack." Rellis opened a drawer, pulled out a piece of rubber tubing and tied it around his arm, just above the elbow. He clenched his fist a few times, and then removed a syringe from a pocket inside his robe. He uncapped the syringe with his teeth and stuck the needle in his wrist, drawing blood from his arm. He spat the cap onto the table. "There we go.” He pulled the needle from his vein and injected the blood into the new phial of essence potion. It immediately began to turn white. “Another potion of essence ready to go." Rellis plugged the phial with a stopper, tucked it into his robe and untied the tourniquet from his arm. He seemed unaware of the blood dripping from his wrist.

“Rellis.”

He turned toward me. “Yes?”

“I think we need to formalize the process of plant collection,” I began, trying to be very clear about what I wanted, given Rellis’s tendency toward abstraction. “Please write a formal report on the three plants you found in the city. I'd like to know where you collected them and at what time of day. I want a thorough description of each with a complete analysis.”

Rellis laughed. "That could be a problem, hon. People can get hurt by these plants."

Hon, I frowned. “Rellis. You will not address me as 'hon'." He looked at me uncertainly, slowly realizing his words were far from appropriate. “As a Praetor, I have assigned you a task. I expect you to complete it and submit the report to me at your earliest convenience.” I paused. “Are we clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Rellis glanced downward. He then pulled a small pad and pen from his pocket and began to write. “I will write it in elemental speak, so that few but shamans can read it.”

“That is acceptable, Rellis. I’d like intact specimens preserved, too. You should work with Lyra. At minimum, I’d like your written report by tomorrow evening.”

Penny interjected, "It might help helpful to collect when the plants aren’t blooming. Like morning glories, they might only bloom at a certain time of day. If you want, I can collect a few of these while I'm about town.” She pointed at the remains of the plant Rellis had been working with. “I think that one bit me once,” she grinned.

“That would be helpful, Penny. Rellis can instruct you on any precautions you need to take.” I smiled at Rellis a bit ruefully. "Though his talent with beakers and phials is somewhat questionable, he is a powerful herbalist and botanist."

“Definitely powerful,” Penny grinned. “I'll keep an eye out. In the meantime, however, I gotta prep for work. It was great meeting you two."

I nodded. "I must walk, myself. My hunger grows. Be safe, Penny.” I turned to wave a goodbye to Rellis, but already he was bent over his pad of paper, lost in thought. I wonder what his report will reveal.