Chapter 49: 50: Friends in high places

Minor soul-potions: 19 Obols each - 221 sold = +4199

Antidotes: 15 Obols each - 36 sold = +540

Bone-daggers: 49 Obols each - 8 sold = +392

Odd and ends: ~40 Obols each - 0 sold = +0

Glass Chickens: 30 Obols each - 0 sold = ~0

Mushroom-caps(Blue): - sold 0, bought 68 (6 each) = -408

Mushroom-caps(Orange): - sold 0, bought 55 (5 each) = -275

Goblin Teeth - sold 0, bought 112 = -112

Iron-Ingots - sold 0, bought 12 = -240

Magical Talisman(Glass) - sold 32 = +1632

Tote Bags - sold 38 = +190

Repairs (Various) - sold 27 = +621

Total (Gross) = +6526

5% Merchant’s guild deduction = -326

12% Taxes = -783

10% Savings and upkeep = -652

Total (Net) = +4796 Obols

Earnings = 2381 Obols each

Fresh falls over the counter, exhaling an exhausted breath which stems so deeply from her chest, that it almost appears as if her soul were attempting to leave her body. “Jubileee~” she complains. “I’m tired.”

Jubilee doesn’t answer, sighing with the same exhaustion in their tone as they slide the coins to the side. “It was a big one today. Told you.”

Fresh doesn’t respond in any coherent words, opting to instead make her displeasure at the ache in her body known through a single pitiful sounding, long and guttural whining groan. “At least I don’t have to make any potions tonight,” she says in relief. “We still have so many in the pantry.” She sighs. “Will their quality ever get better than normal? I’ve made hundreds of them…

Jubilee shrugs. “I told you, crafting abilities stagnate at normal,” they explain. “Most people craft ‘normal’ things. That’s why it’s called ‘normal’, you know?” They rub the part of the mask over their chin, as if thinking. “If you get your act together though and make some real soul-potions and not these ‘minor’ ones and maybe even with a higher quality, then we could raise the price.”

Fresh groans.

*Thwick*

“Ow!” Fresh jumps up, scowling as she looks at the finger that flicked the top of her head. “We have work to do, you can sleep later.”

She relents, drooping her shoulders. “Okaaay~”

“Since you don’t need to make any potions tonight, you can go upstairs and do the repairs, they all need to be done by tomorrow.” Jubilee looks around the ransacked store. “I’ll take care of everything down here.”

“Okaaay~” says Fresh, getting up, her upper body drooping slack. “We should hire someone, Jubilee. It’s becoming too much if I have to craft and repair everything alone.”

Jubilee crosses their arms. “You make a strong argument.” They lift a finger. “Counterpoint. Who can we hire who isn’t going to freak out about your…” Jubilee tosses some coins down into the change bowl. “…way of ‘doing’ things.”

“Uh…”

“Exactly. Only you can make your blend of potions,” they say. “Only you can make the bone-daggers and the necklaces and only you can do all of the repairs without an actual forge, tailor’s workshop or any of that.” They shrug. “At the best, we can consider hiring someone to help run the day by day down here,” they consider. “That would maybe give you more time to do your thing.”Jubilee opts to take their turn to sigh, exhausted. “But it’s risky… if they see you…” Jubilee shakes their head. “Let’s just finish up for tonight, okay? We can talk about it tomorrow.”

“Okaaay~” says Fresh, yawning as she goes up the stairs to begin her repair-work. Thankfully it’s pretty easy. All she has to do is close the curtains to keep the room dark, apart from the somewhat mystical glow of her potions, that she keeps in there for light, and then she dips the equipment into the pot while channeling her energy into it. She still has the same stick as before, floating in there and the wood has become soggy and seems to be unraveling a little. But it still works fine and she’s too exhausted to want to make a new batch. Besides, the recipe only works on a night with no moon, so it has to last until the next one anyways.

The work goes quick enough and the twenty-seven pieces of equipment strewn around her room, ranging from metal-plate armor, to bent chain-mail to some softer fabrics and robes and even the odd dagger and staff, are all repaired within the hour. It’s a highly efficient process, the hardest part for her is just lifting the especially heavy or larger pieces into the pot, especially without tipping it over, to which she comes dangerously close a few times.

Once she’s finished, she lets Jubilee, who is also just finishing, know and the two of them call it a night. Feeling blessed to fall asleep on a mattress two nights in a row, Fresh falls asleep quicker than ever before, a tight pull running through the muscles in her lower back as they finally relax.

[+1 Strength] !

[+1 Dexterity] !

Morning comes soon enough and Fresh wakes up, feeling noticeably more energetic than the day before. Having woken up early again, she gets ready for the day and heads out to town again, towards the adventurer’s guild to pay back some more of her debt. Though only with half of her earnings today, so she has some spending money left over.

Repaid - {1000} Obols] !

-{ 6998 Obols Remain Due}-

Smiling, Fresh waves goodbye to the barkeeper who was slowly becoming a familiar sight to her and who, much to Fresh’s surprise, responds in the same manner back to her. As Fresh leaves, she can’t help but wonder what it must be like to stand inside of there the entire day. She wonders if it’s depressing, or if you just get used to it after a while? The next time the elf comes to their store, she should ask her about herself and about the guild. Fresh nods, making a mental note to do just that as she goes to explore the city in an attempt to find some new breakfast and to kill the morning hours.

Fresh finds a place that sells bread-rolls filled with sausages, the same kind Jubilee had gotten her for their first day of being open. This is pretty far out of the way. Fresh beams, realizing that Jubilee put in the effort to come out here for her. Having some extra money, she buys a couple extra, asking them to be wrapped in paper so she can put them in her bag. She never has any lunch, so it would be nice to have something she can just eat ‘on the go’.

(Fresh) bought: 4x [Buttermilk-biscuit sausage rolls](Normal)

for

[{72}Obols] !

A thick, juicy sausage wrapped inside of a flaky buttermilk biscuit. It is adorned with pickled vegetables and a sweet, thick vegetable paste.

Weight: 0.136 kg

Value: 18

Though, Fresh thinks as she walks, she could always just go upstairs to the pantry. But that’s just all dry bread and dried meat and dried fruit. The thought comes to her that that’s basically the exact same as what she has just bought, but… It’s different. It’s just different.

The road widens up further and she keeps walking. She sees another plaza open up ahead of her. The houses here seem very expensive. Nothing like the rundown shacks that surround the dungeon and not even like the well-kept mason-work of the main shopping-street. These are immaculately crafted, timber-frame and white-stone constructions that reek of money and a lot of it.

The ringing of bells catches her attention and the girl looks up as she enters the plaza, staring at the towering cathedral on the far side of it. The massive stone structure spires high up into the air. Colorful stained glass windows reflect the sunlight back out in all manner of resplendent colors and high up atop the tower, sits a single bell that rings loudly, the sound echoing throughout the entire city. A grand, half-circle staircase leads up towards the elevated cathedral.

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She watches as all manner of people stream into it, they don't look like priests. They look like normal people. Adventurers, shopkeepers, crafters and families. Apparently all of them are worshipers. Fresh fidgets, her curiosity getting to her as she starts walking towards the giant building and her eyes follow the staircase up towards the large, wooden doors that are open welcomingly wide, as the sound of a singing choir rings out from beyond.

Her foot stops, as her toes touch the edge of the lowest step. She shouldn’t.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” mutters Fresh, doing a sharp turn back around, not thinking about it any further. It’s nice to have seen it, but she’s not going to go inside. What if the church has some kind of… magical anti-witch field or something? Obviously, she has no idea if such a thing exists and is just making up things. But at the same time, if there was such a thing, it would be here.

“Hey!” calls out a voice from above and the girl’s shoulders twitch together, as she turns around to look at the priestess coming down the steps towards her. The orc’s companion. It takes her a few very long, awkward moments to get down the staircase as Fresh just fidgets, wondering how she’s going to get away.

“Good morning,” says Fresh, waving with a meek smile.

“Good morning! Nice to see you here!” beams the priestess, taking a moment to catch her breath now that she’s reached the bottom. “Have you come for the sermon?” she asks excitedly, though Fresh notices that her sun-tanned skin is rather pale today.

Fresh takes a step back, waving with her hands. “Ah. Uh… No, I’m just walking around. We’re opening soon, so…”

The priestess looks around them to see if anyone is nearby and then leans in towards her, whispering with one hand at the side of her mouth. “I don’t blame you, just between you and me?”

“Huh?”

“Total snoozefest,” says the priestess, rolling her eyes and Fresh can’t help but laugh, but then thinks for a second.

“What about you? Shouldn’t you be inside?”

The priestess leans back, waving her off with a hand. “Nah, it’s not mandatory and I’d rather enjoy the morning, you know?” She shrugs. “Besides, I’ve got to make some money today. I'm heading to the dungeon soon.”

A loud audible growl makes itself heard between the two of them and the priestess coughs loudly to overtone the noise.

“You hungry?” Fresh reaches into her bag to pull out one of the bread-rolls and holds it out to her. The priestess’ eyes go wide and her fingers twitch, but she coughs again and pulls herself together, standing back upright with a strict and elegant posture.

“Thank you, but it wouldn’t be proper,” she says, with a somewhat pained expression on her lips.

Fresh narrows her eyes and thrusts the roll towards the unsuspecting woman, who grabs it, if only out of surprise. Grabbing her bag to take out a second one, Fresh sits down on the steps, biting into it audibly loud, as she stares up at the confused priestess who looks back down to the roll in her hands and relents, sitting down on the stairs next to her.

“Thank you.”

Fresh swallows her bite. “Mm! It’s hard, trying to earn money when you have no money to start with. And if you’re hungry, it’s double-hard and you might do something dumb down in the dungeon,” says the girl, laughing meekly.

“Speaking from experience?” asks the priestess, somewhat sarcastically.

“Well…”

“Ah!” The priestess straightens up again. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s okay,” says Fresh, waving her off. “It’s true though,” she laughs quietly.

The priestess looks down at the roll in her hands uncomfortably. Fresh has already eaten half of hers. “Why are you always giving me things?” The white-robed woman fidgets. “The potion, the enchantment and now this? You know I’m not… you know…?”

Fresh tilts her head, not sure what she is talking about and thinks, placing a finger to tap against her cheek at the very familiar question. “The only reason I’m starting to become better is because someone went out of their way to help me,” explains Fresh. “Even though they didn’t have to.” She takes another bite of her breakfast. “I actually wanted to become a priestess when I came here, you know?” she explains with a hand in-front of her full-mouth.

“Really?”

“Mm!” Fresh nods. “Because I thought I could make people happy and they would like me then.” Fresh laughs. “I guess that’s really selfish? But you know what?”

“What?”

Fresh looks up towards the bright morning sky above them. “I still want to make people happy, just so that they’ll like me.” She smiles. “It’s really selfish, but it’s true.”

“Huh…” says the priestess and looks back down at the roll. “I’m Basil,” she says, taking a large bite from the roll in her hands.

“Mm,” says Fresh, as she stares up towards the sky and thinks, realizing that she still wants to make something for Jubilee to show her gratitude.

Razmatazz

Wew, chapter 50! I hope you're having as much as I am. Please consider rating/reviewing if you haven't! x)

Trivia - Basil

The Basil herb has many different associations and is used in a variety of rituals and beliefs. Also, it’s delicious on pizza!

In old Europe, centrally around northern Italy and the western Balkan regions, Basil was traditionally placed in the hands of the dead to ensure a safe journey to the afterlife. Funny how that constant theme seems to play out over and over in different regions with different items. Very similarly, in the Indian subcontinent, Basil leaves were placed in the mouth of the dying to ensure that after their passing, the person would reach god. These two ideas seem to stem from our old friends, the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians. Though it is hard to say who had the idea first. They both believed that the Basil leaf was the key to opening the gates of the afterlife. It is possible that this shared idea originates from a cultural ancestor that both empires shared, though we’re moving into nebulous territory here.

Worth noting though, is that for the ancient Greeks at least, Basil also represented hatred and poverty in some contexts. This of course makes their use of it ‘easing the passage to the afterlife’ take a somewhat darker turn. Actually, Basil has acquired quite a few evil connotations in many regions, given its use in so many burial rituals and thereby association with the dead. Which makes it, spiritually at least, a very complicated topic. As the opinions are split on the matter. In some other places it is seen as a very kingly and highly blessed herb, especially in the west, for example in medieval France.

Tulsi is the name of Ocimum tenuiflorum, a plant more commonly referred to as “Holy Basil”, which is an ayurvedic herb with high significance in Hinduism, as it is worshiped as the avatar of the goddess Lakshmi (“She who leads to one’s goal"). Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of fortune, beauty and joy.

On an even more fun note, Basil was held to be a potent, feverish, absolutely sweaty aphrodisiac that was commonly used in love potions and spells and in tests of sexual fealty and loyalty. Is that related to this story? Let’s hope not. I don't want to have to update the tags… =)

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