Herbs and Oils (Part 2)

[L'orlei]

Timestamp: 2nd of Summer, 513 AV Location: L'orlei's House L'orlei awoke with a yawn, stretching lazily in bed. She was in no rush to arise, but she did have work to do that day. Towards the end of Spring she had begun the process of preparing her next batch of herbal remedies, which had ended in her storing some paste which needed to sit on a shelf for many, many days. She had been keeping an eye on the paste as the oils slowly separated, and it was ready for harvest, so to speak. When L'orlei finally did get out of bed she ate first, preparing a simple meal of fruit and bread. After that she set to work. Harvesting the almond oil was actually rather easy. L'orlei opened the lid to the container and simply scooped the oil out with a spoon, taking care not to scoop up any of the paste itself. The paste probably still retained oil, and could be used for other things, but it was the pure oil that had risen to the top that she was after. All in all, from three pounds of almonds, she netted about eight ounces of pure oil. She could probably get more out of it if she waited longer, but L'orlei did not need much of the stuff for what she was going to make. Her next task was also relatively simple, and she probably should have done it sooner rather than later, but it did not really matter. L'orlei gathered up the bag of caplium seeds she had acquired earlier and dumped as many as she could fit into her mortar. Taking her pestle, she lightly ground the seeds together, cracking them open. After a few chimes she dumped the batch into a large pot, before grinding the next batch. Once all the seeds were cracked and in the pot, L'orlei added water and set the pot over her fireplace. The embers were low from the night before, and L'orlei only added a small amount of wood. She needed high heat only long enough for the water to boil, and then she would continue adding small amounts of wood to keep the water hot enough to simmer. The seeds had to be cooked for most of the day to soften them up enough for the next step.

[L'orlei]

The next part of the process required an onion, which L'orlei did not have. That was an easy problem to solve, however. She could have gone out and foraged for some onions, but after adding some wood to the fire to ensure it would continue burning while she was gone, L'orlei made a quick trip to the nearest food store to purchase an onion. It was only five silver mizas for a single onion, and that was all she needed. More would produce more of what she was after, but she was not trying to make a bulk batch at the moment. Really she did not even need the entire onion, but she doubted anyone would sell it to her in fractions. When she returned the Konti began the tearful act of chopping the onion, spending a good deal of time making it as fine as she could get it. It did not take very long to chop up the onion, and after adding small amount of wood to the fire again to keep the water simmering, L'orlei then took the chopped onion and dropped it in her mortar, grinding it up even finer with her pestle. When that was done she dumped the onions onto a straining cloth, which was basically just a thin cloth, and folded the cloth over them before twisting it. She continued to twist until juice began to strain through the cloth, which she drizzled into a small container. The onion only produced perhaps a tablespoon worth of extract, but it was all she needed. Too much onion and it would be too strong, but too little and it wouldn't do enough. L'orlei quickly sealed the small container so that the extract would not evaporate, and then dropped the onions into another jar. She almost went to grab some water, but stopped herself. Glancing over at the simmering pot she took a moment to consider things. It would take all day for the seeds to get to the softness she wanted.. she would need something else to do. L'orlei looked back over at the onions. It would not take a lot of water to store them, and rather than use her own water.. why not practice her reimancy? Ledger : -5sm for Onion

[L'orlei]

L'orlei set the jar of ground onions onto the table, taking a seat herself in front of them. She was a bit nervous. Since her lesson with Clyde, L'orlei had not really used her magic. Her life was busy with other things, and the young konti simply hadn't had time to train. It was something she intended to remedy, and she now had an opportunity to do just that. Granted, the spell she intended to cast would be minor, but it was still training, and would still be challenging for her. The konti closed her eyes, and her breathing grew deep. Clyde had taught her about gestures and incantations, and L'orlei found that gestures helped her quite a lot, more so than incantations did. From simple gestures like waving her hand to direct the djed, to more complex ones. Before she started moving around, however, she needed to draw out her res, and that would require concentration and mediation. L'orlei took a deep breath, sucking in the air deep down into her lungs. Her chest expanded, and then her stomach, before she slowly let all of the air back out. She continued this for some time, trying to push away all other thoughts but res. Res. That was all that mattered. Ignore the sound of the fire, L'orlei. No, it's not too low, you just checked it. Wait.. are you sure? Maybe.. no, I'm pretty sure. But am I? Shut up! Res. Res. She was a novice in the art of meditation, and it took her quite some time to focus, but finally she found what she needed, and she could feel her connection with her own djed. Unlike the first time L'orlei extruded res, this time she directed it only to the palm of her hands, her right hand specifically. She could feel it there, almost bubbling beneath her skin, until finally it broke free, and in the palm of her hand the seafoam green res pooled in it's liquid state. It was hard, it took a lot of focus, but once it was out it was easier to handle.

[L'orlei]

L'orlei took another calm breath, steadying her mind for the rest of the task. She could feel the res in the palm of her hand, an extension of her body that she could control like any other part, though she was far from proficient with it. With her left hand she mimicked the right, turning it over palm up, and then concentrated on lifting the res into the air. She lifted her left hand slowly, focusing the rest of her thoughts on the res in her right hand, and biting her lip in concentration. Slowly the ball began to rise until it was level with the top of the jar. Next she made a pushing motion, this time using both of her hands, and once again the res began to slowly move, this time to hover just over the opening of the jar. The hard part was next. Clyde told her that attraction was more difficult than transmutation, and that was true, but both techniques were challenging for L'orlei, so she could afford to practice the both of them. Continuing with the hand gestures that seemed to help her channel her magic, L'orlei willed the res to become water. It was not so simple, of course, and required a lot of focus. She thought of Laviku, god of the sea. Her hand came down in front of her, tracing out the central shaft of Laviku's trident. It rose back up, she continued to focus on water, then went to the left, out, and up, making the left point of the trident. Back down, to the right, crossing the center, and out, then up, making the right and final part of the trident It was the gesture she used when transmuting water, forming the shape of a trident in the air to focus her mind on the sea, and Laviku, and the water she wanted to turn her djed into. Slowly the res changed form, turning from seafoam green liquid to clear water. A moment later it dropped, splashing down into the jar. Once res was transmuted a reimancer only had a few ticks of control left, which why was it was best to always leave a tiny bit to maintain control. That wasn't her goal, however, and much of it fell around the jar, but enough went inside to suit L'orlei's purposes. Tired from the minor casting, L'orlei added some more wood to the fire and then took a short nap.

[L'orlei]

L'orlei occupied herself with minor things throughout the day. At one point she even laid her blanket outside her house and attempted to sell some wares. She was not located in a busy area, however, and while a few people glanced at her stuff, none offered to buy anything. It was alright though. L'orlei was not really trying to sell that day, she had a fire to tend to. Bells passed, and as Syna began to depart from the sky L'orlei's caplium seeds were finally ready for the next step. The seeds were hard, at the beginning, but the low simmering softened them to the point that she could squish them between her fingers. She dumped the hot seeds into her mortar bowl and began grinding yet again. As she worked she considered the notion that as an herbalist she spent more of her time grinding than she did ever actually putting the herbs together, but this was the last bit of grinding she had to do for a while. Once the seeds were ground to a pasty texture she put them into a straining cloth, just like the one she used with the onions, and squeezed the oils from them. I really need to get a press this fall, she thought as she twisted the cloth, getting a small amount of the caplium extract each time. When all the seeds were drained she simply tossed them out. They were no good to her anymore, though perhaps they could still grow? She doubted it, but she would not be opposed to having caplium nearer to her home. Everything was done.. or at least everything she intended to do that day. The final procedure would not be incredibly difficult, but it could wait until the morning. L'orlei had her caplium extract, almond oil, and onion extract. Those three ingredients would later be combined, and finally she would be done with the concoction. If it turned out well she would have to start doing it in bulk, hopefully after getting a better setup to work with, but that was for another day. L'orlei crawled into bed, and quickly fell asleep.

[Traverse]

L'orlei

Skill	XP Earned
Cooking	2 XP
Herbalism	2 XP
Meditation	1 XP
Planning	1 XP
Reimancy	2 XP

•	Lores Earned
•	Properly Cooking Caplium Seeds
•	Retrieving Onion Extract
•	Focusing on Water with Laviku's Trident
•	Day Long Herb Preperations

Additional Notes :

Straight forward and very job like! I'll say more on the final part of this I swear, haha.

Yes, I Bite.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.