• Solo • Mistral

[Tristan Venora]

Saun 5, Arc 720

“Mistral, you are my oldest friend, and one of my best friends, do you know that?” Tristan asked the black cat that was lounging in the kitchen cupboard (Tristan had accidentally left it open), among plates and bowls, and watching him from out of big sulfur-yellow eyes.

The cat meowed once, and then he – proceeded to lick one of his paws meticulously rather than paying any more attention to his roommate (since Tristan had learned the truth about his cat, he couldn’t call him a pet in good conscience anymore, because he was so much more than that).

What the young duke, who was currently standing at the table, working on a potion that a customer would pick up soon, had said had been true. He knew Mistral longer than Faith. Mistral had already been a part of his life before he had bought her. He had known him longer than Valeria and much longer than Ashling, his beloved fiancée.

Mistral had been called a failed necromantic experiment or something from the deepest depths of the Beneath at different points in time; the young Duke who was currently in exile, loved him dearly though.

Since he had found out that the cat was a resident of the mystical Misty Miasma that had gotten lost in Idalos, he also pitied him. Sometimes, he wondered if Mistral wanted to go home.

Mistral had never said anything about it (Tristan had invented a cat-speech potion and could thus talk to cats). He seemed to be quite happy in Idalos, but surely, he missed his family and his friends sometimes?

How did you enter the Misty Miasma on purpose though? Could you actually voluntarily go there? The first and only time he had gone there, it had happened entirely by accident.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when the liquid in the cauldron in front of him started to sizzle and bubble, and he quickly grabbed a wooden spun and started to stir it vigorously.

A little later, he reduced the heat and started to work on the next step. The liquid in the cauldron, as interesting as it sounded and looked (it didn’t only sizzle and bubble, it was also bright pink) was totally useless on its own. It just contained some juice and a priming liquid.

The important step, the preparation and addition of the alchemical reagent, was only going to happen …

… now!

[Tristan Venora]

Tristan’s newest customer was a Melrathi woman named Hilda Hildasdotter who had been having trouble sleeping since the terrible storm that had taken place in Noatun a few trials before. She had told him that she couldn’t stop worrying about something similar happening in Raelia, especially at night, when she was unable to distract herself, and requested a sleep tonic.

Tristan had thought about which reagent he should use for quite some time. He had considered using Moukou Beans that he had already worked with during the Potion Tournament in Ashan. They were a nice reagent, and they had such a lovely, sweet taste. But then he had looked at the poor little Moukou Tree that Ashling and he had rescued back in Ashan and had been unable to do it.

Most people probably considered it weird, but he loved that tree. It deserved to keep all of its beans!

He had also thought about using Snow Nets as the main reagent of his sleep tonic. The Snow Net that was a carnivorous plant that was native to the tundral plains around Viden had runners that could be processed in order to produce quite a potent sleep agent.

Over the course of the time that he had been working as an alchemist, he had learned that people reacted rather strangely to some reagents, such as parts of carnivorous plants though – or his beloved snail slime that was just such a useful alchemical binder. Sometimes, he was tempted to just use them as secret reagents, but in the end, he behaved.

Besides, he could dump as much snail slime as he wanted into his creations that didn’t need to be drunk or eaten. People didn’t care quite as much if the alchemical paint that they bought contained slime and such!

Since the thought of taking his little tree’s beans had made him sad, and his customer might refuse a potion that had carnivorous plant parts in it, he had ultimately decided on a combination of two herbs, valerian and passionflower.

They were not very interesting, but the nice color of his potion (that was due to a mixture of strawberry juice and raspberry juice) made up for it, in his opinion; and besides, valerian and passionflower were cheaper and easier to procure – which made the potion easier to replicate (He intended to sell a lot more vials of it in the future; it was going to be great!)

With that thought in mind, the young duke who was wearing a light-blue robe, Melrathi style, turned to his cabinet that contained a few jars and bottles with various tinctures, alchemical reagents and dried herbs, all neatly labelled, and took the ones that he needed.

As he did so, Mistral jumped out of the cupboard and followed him. Since Tristan had first made his cat-speech potion, he was pretty interested in the young duke’s trade, even though he would never admit it out loud, being the somewhat arrogant cat that he was.

Sometimes, Mistral did in fact wish that he were able to learn alchemy as well. Unfortunately, his paws weren’t very suitable for that kind of work, and he also didn’t understand Common very well sometimes, being a foreigner of sorts. So, he just contended himself with walking around the human, with his tail raised high and meowing, having decided that he had ignored him and shown him what a superior being he was long enough.

(Actually, he had found Tristan’s words pretty touching; if anybody asked him, he would deny it though. He was not a nice and soft and sensitive lap cat, thank you very much!)

[Tristan Venora]

Since poor Hilda would probably just choke if he dumped the valerian root into his potion as is, Tristan ground it using a mortar and pestle which was pretty hard work and took a certain amount of strength (which was something that he didn’t have a lot of in the first place). Following that, he did the same with the dried passionflowers that had such a lovely purple color, mixed both, boiled them in hot water and put them through a strainer.

While flower powder and root powder and such would likely not be as unpleasant as whole chunks of root in your potion, it still wouldn’t make drinking the potion particularly enjoyable. He didn’t only want the potion to be useful though; he also wanted people to enjoy drinking it, even though some alchemists and herbalists and such would probably insist that taste, texture and appearance of the potion were secondary concerns.

He had two liquids now – the juice and primer mixture and the flower and root water. He didn’t simply mix them though, but added a bit of honey to the flower and root water. It would not only improve the taste of his potion further, it would also act as a binder of sorts and was a good alternative to the snail slime that Hilda would probably refuse to ingest.

Once he had done that, he paused for a moment and glanced at Mistral who was simply sitting on the floor and watching him from out of his big yellow eyes now. “Do you think I should add something to strengthen the potion?” he asked the cat who meowed.

Tristan nodded as if he had understood (even though he hadn’t, since he hadn’t drunk a cat-speech potion, he currently couldn’t communicate with Mistral properly) and remarked, “You are right. I shouldn’t make the potion too strong. I want Hilda to be able to relax and get a good night’s sleep and not pass out a few trills after drinking the potion.”

“Do you want to help me?” he asked. Since Mistral just stared at him blankly, he sighed, put some mittens on because the flower and root water (he really needed a better name for that!) was kind of hot, and poured it into the pot that contained the lovely red juice.

A moment later, he stirred it with his wooden spoon, then he extinguished the fire completely, waited for the potion to cool down and carefully filled it into a vial, using another spoon of sorts (if he just grabbed the pot and tried to pour its contents into a vial, he would probably spill a lot and create a mess in the kitchen, and he didn’t want to wash the floor right now – or have Mistral licking the potion and falling asleep in the process).

~~~

It was just as he was done and cleaned up the kitchen that he heard a knock on the door. When he went to take a look, he saw Hilda Hildasdotter, a blonde, middle-aged human woman standing there. The poor woman had huge dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, but when he presented the potion to her, her eyes lit up, and she even smiled.

A few bits, some instructions (Hilda needed to know how often she should take the potion and what the correct dose was – being engaged to an herbalist and healer had taught him how important such things were), and an exchange of shiny golden nels later, Tristan walked back into the kitchen only in order to stop dead in his tracks and stare.

Mistral was rolling around on the floor like crazy, his yellow eyes wide. When Tristan came closer, he noticed that he had something between his paws. Apparently, he realized, he had forgotten to put a small packet of valerian root back into cabinet. Mistral had discovered it, and he seemed to be quite …

… high!

(Mistral considered himself to be a superior being, but even he couldn’t resist the lure of valerian.)

[Kasoria]

Review Rewards

Name: Trissy

Points awarded: 10

Knowledge:
Alchemy x2
Gardening x2
Medicine x2

Loot: Approved and Graded, so add a link to your next Seasonal Wealth thread!

Renown:

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriate to level

Notes:
Ah, you devilish sod. Knowing my love for all things kitty-related. Couldn't help but enjoy this, mate. Good little story, solid wealth thread, and Mistral stole the show without saying a word. Nice job!

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