Date: 24 Ashan 717
Several breaks had come and gone since Mara had been able to leave work. And still, she waited. The shadows crept longer, their spindly fingers reaching out as if to swallow any last vestiges of light that remained in the workshop. The Gardener's Grace was not, by any means, a graceful place; the place was a jumble of vials and colours, and strange smells seeping from cauldrons and opened bottles. Still, Mara found the place calming; the scents of everything bottled and contained gave her stillness.
Mara sat by the desk in the upper area. She was not usually here, given most people's fear in doing business with a Naerikk, but Mr. Gardener was content to let her stay downstairs in the workshop. There, she toiled, for him and his business, and after dark, if she stayed and worked on her own business... well, Mr. Gardener looked the other way. Indeed, after she had finished her work for the night, she had cleaned scrupulously, wiping down the desks and storing away what she would need for her midnight plans.
They had gotten in a shipment yestertrial, from the Hotlands, a container of dead scorpions that looked innocuous to those who might not know better. Mara hadn't, but Mr. Gardener had told her what they were: scorbon scorpions, from the Hotlands. Their poison was a paralytic. Mara had lit up inside when she'd heard this. Oh, the things she could do with something like that... and she'd made a decision then and there. She'd work on it. Test it. Coax it lovingly out of its shell, transform it into something deadly and beautiful.
But. And she hated saying this. She needed help. There were too many things that could go wrong, too many variables, and Mara needed someone to assist her. Furia, as much as she loved her, was useless - she'd be distracted far too easily, or chat at the wrong moment. Even "accidentally" knock it all over when she was bored. So that left ... Gar'rek. The beast she reviled and was in awe of, simultaneously. She had asked him - or told him - to join her this morning. Maybe she'd even let him have a scorpion to eat.
So Mara sat and waited for the slinking cannibal to find her in the shadows.
Several breaks had come and gone since Mara had been able to leave work. And still, she waited. The shadows crept longer, their spindly fingers reaching out as if to swallow any last vestiges of light that remained in the workshop. The Gardener's Grace was not, by any means, a graceful place; the place was a jumble of vials and colours, and strange smells seeping from cauldrons and opened bottles. Still, Mara found the place calming; the scents of everything bottled and contained gave her stillness.
Mara sat by the desk in the upper area. She was not usually here, given most people's fear in doing business with a Naerikk, but Mr. Gardener was content to let her stay downstairs in the workshop. There, she toiled, for him and his business, and after dark, if she stayed and worked on her own business... well, Mr. Gardener looked the other way. Indeed, after she had finished her work for the night, she had cleaned scrupulously, wiping down the desks and storing away what she would need for her midnight plans.
They had gotten in a shipment yestertrial, from the Hotlands, a container of dead scorpions that looked innocuous to those who might not know better. Mara hadn't, but Mr. Gardener had told her what they were: scorbon scorpions, from the Hotlands. Their poison was a paralytic. Mara had lit up inside when she'd heard this. Oh, the things she could do with something like that... and she'd made a decision then and there. She'd work on it. Test it. Coax it lovingly out of its shell, transform it into something deadly and beautiful.
But. And she hated saying this. She needed help. There were too many things that could go wrong, too many variables, and Mara needed someone to assist her. Furia, as much as she loved her, was useless - she'd be distracted far too easily, or chat at the wrong moment. Even "accidentally" knock it all over when she was bored. So that left ... Gar'rek. The beast she reviled and was in awe of, simultaneously. She had asked him - or told him - to join her this morning. Maybe she'd even let him have a scorpion to eat.
So Mara sat and waited for the slinking cannibal to find her in the shadows.
