Chapter 148: 149: Quiet morning

“You sure you don’t want any help, Basil?” asks Fresh. The day has come to an end and Basil is still downstairs in the basement. A bucket of nails sits beside her. The priestess sits on the stone floor, a piece of wood laid out in front of herself and a hammer in her hand. Wiping her forehead on her rolled up sleeve, she smiles and shakes her head.

“No, thank you. I really want to do this myself,” replies Basil.

Fresh nods, having expected that answer after seeing the determined look in the priestess’ eyes. Smiling, she sets down a bottle of herbal tea and a plate of sandwiches that she had brought downstairs with her. “Alright, but try to get some sleep too, okay?”

Basil nods to her. “Yes, I will. Thank you. Good night.”

“Good night, Basil!” calls Fresh as she turns to head back up the basement stairs, sparing a moment to look at the giant crystal suspended between two fastened, wooden beams that she had seen Shamrock carrying down earlier. Scratching her cheek, she shrugs and heads upstairs to go to sleep.

The rest of the night passes. Fresh wakes up once in the middle of the night and she sees that Basil’s bed is still empty and undisturbed. Rolling over, she falls back asleep however, her mind being too tired to want to do anything else.

Fresh wakes up in the morning, feeling the cool, refreshing draft of the open balcony wash over her bed. Opening her heavy eyes, she turns her head and stares at Shamrock who stands on the balcony, bathing in the morning sunlight. Two small boots walk past her bed, a small hand hitting her leg.

“Hey, it’s time to get up. Come on,” says Jubilee. Fresh yawns and sits upright. The girl rubs her eyes and gets out of bed, getting ready for the day. As part of her morning ritual, she makes four cups ready and sets them onto the table. One with coughee for herself and three with tea for the others, all of whom didn’t like the former so much. Feeling in a particularly good mood today, for no real discernible reason, Fresh cooks up a hearty breakfast and sets the table too.

By the time she is done however, only herself and Shamrock sit at the table. Basil still hasn’t come up from the basement and Jubilee is in town, running some errands apparently. Of course they had only mentioned that after she had already started cooking their portion of the food. Fresh sighs, taking a big sip of her coughee, as she looks over the fully garnished table towards Shamrock who sits there quietly.

“Are you hungry? Dig in,” says Fresh. “I don’t think the others are coming today.”

The man doesn’t need to be told twice, stacking his plate full of eggs, bread and jam-coated slices of thick bread. Fresh watches in a half-dazed, morning awe as he devours everything that lands on his plate. His portion is gone in two minutes and then he moves on to Jubilee’s. Fresh blinks, sipping from her cup as she nibbles on the single piece of toast with an egg on it that she has.

She appreciates that the man is always so honest. He’s not afraid to tell her when he doesn’t like something, but more importantly, he’s not afraid to show when he does. She blinks, watching as the second plate slowly starts to empty itself.

“Ah!” Fresh realizes that she has to save some of the food for Basil and gets her plate ready before that is eaten too. “I’ll bring this down to Basil, okay? Take your time, I’ll clean up once I come back up,” she tells him.

“Unacceptable,” says Shamrock, lifting a hand and stopping her. Fresh blinks, staring at his arm that is barring her from passing and then looks over to his head. A bit of egg clings to the slit of his metal visor. She frowns and grabs a napkin from the table with her free hand, wiping it off. “I will do it,” says Shamrock.

Fresh smiles, nodding to him and setting the napkin down. “Thanks, Shamrock. You’re the best!” she says happily. The man lifts his hand, letting her pass by as his chest lurches with an excited exhalation. “I serve.”

“Alright!” calls Fresh as she walks down the stairs. “But don’t serve too much, okay?” she says, heading down to the basement. Opening the door, she peeks down the stairs. “Basil?”

“Down here,” calls a tired voice. Fresh goes down into the basement.

“Good morning, Basil!” calls the girl. “I brought you breakfast!” She stops, reaching the bottom of the stairs. Her eyes wander to the row of wooden boxes that have been set up, but her vision gets caught on the still full plate and bottle that she had set down for the priestess last night.

“Ah, sorry!” says Basil, seeing her sour look and the fresh plate of food in her hands. “I got caught up in my work.” As if to make a point out of it, Basil grabs one of the old sandwiches and takes a bite.

Fresh sighs, walking over to look at the things that Basil had built. They look like two shelves, each with three long, wooden boxes filled with dirt, set at a slight inward angle so they all face inward towards the giant, suspended crystal in between both of them. Both shelves are just a bit less tall than Basil is.

“Woah, that’s really nice, Basil!” says Fresh, looking at the boxes. In truth, the construction looks a little wobbly and dangerous. Jubilee might say as much and call it an inevitable death-trap, but she isn’t going to.

“Thank you,” says Basil, taking another bite of the sandwich with her dirt covered hands. “I just need to plant the seeds.”

“So what does it do?” asks Fresh.

“It’s a planter-box. Well, it’s six planter boxes,” explains Basil, tapping into the dirt filling one of the long boxes. “In each one of these I want to plant a few different kinds of easy-growing plants. When I harvest them, I want to dry them out near the fire,” she explains, nodding sideways to the fireplace.

“Mm!” nods Fresh, understanding. “So what’s the crystal for? That’s a big one,” she says, looking up at her distorted reflection in the crystal that hangs above the shelves from some heavy chains.

Basil sets her sandwich down and wipes her mouth, covering her mouth for a moment as she swallows. “That’s where they get their light from. Watch.” She turns around, lifting her hands to the crystal.

A wave of soft white-magic flows out of the priestess’ hands, flowing towards the crystal which seems to draw it into itself. It pulsates with a stronger and stronger resonation, increasing in frequency and intensity like a steadily faster racing heartbeat. The chains, holding it aloft, grow slack as it slowly rises into the air, glowing brightly in all directions with a warm, bright, multi-colored aura that shines down around them.

“The magic that the crystals draw out of the mountain is really potent,” explains Basil. “By adding a little white-magic to it, I think it’ll be really great for the plants,” explains the tired priestess.

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“That’s really great, Basil!” says Fresh excitedly, looking at the mostly finished project. “I think your plants are going to love it!”

Basil nods. “I hope so,” she says. Grabbing the bottle of tea and taking a long drink from it. Fresh pats her on the back. “If you want to rest today, I’ll cover for you.”

Basil shakes her head, lowering the bottle. “Thank you, that’s very kind. But I’ll manage.” She closes the lid on the bottle. “After all, there was no rush and if I hadn’t been so eager to finish this tonight, I wouldn’t be tired now. It’s my own fault.”

Fresh scratches her cheek, looking at the priestess. Everyone is being so responsible today.

Happy, she shrugs and lets Basil return to her work. She heads back upstairs, leaving the plate of breakfast down with her. Opening the door, she pops up behind the counter.

“Hey, Jubilee,” she says, seeing Jubilee writing in the ledger, having come back from their errands. “How did it go?”

“All good,” they reply dryly. “Just tweaking the numbers a little.”

“Mm!” nods Fresh. “Are you hungry? Should I get you something to eat?”

“No thanks,” they say, waving her off. Fresh nods and heads further upstairs. Sparing a glance at the table, she sees that it’s already cleared, wiped off and freshly set. Shamrock stands in the kitchenette, taking care of the rest of the work. She beams, glad to have such hard-working friends.

Not sure what else to do, since nobody needs her help today, she heads out onto the balcony, staring out over the bustling town that has also been long since awake and by the looks of things, is now busy at work.

Several stalls and vendors are being built up all along the streets. Craftsmen and workers bustle in all directions, swarming between the many adventurers, as they work to set up what looks suspiciously like a festival of some kind. At least she thinks so, judging by the bright ornaments and banners being hung around the area.

A festival? Fresh can hardly contain her excitement. This is just the kind of thing that she wanted to do together with everyone!

Razmatazz

No bumper-cars though, I'm afraid =(

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