Among the fish and gulls

[Irriari]

Season of Winter, Day 2, 514 AV Perhaps Alena has mentioned it during one of her passionate lectures at the Institute or perhaps Irriari was simply sick of traversing the forest for poison reagents. Whatever the reason, the zith found herself paying a few mizas to a ferryman at the docks for passage to the southern trading post. Her citizenship papers were rolled tightly and stuffed into her quiver in case any of the guards questioned her status on the way back. During the ride across the lake, the zith tried to remember Alena’s lectures on the different types of poison that could be created. Snippets of the discussion faded back into her memory. ‘Poisons can be made from moss, ooze, trees, bees, aquatic plants, and even centipedes’. Irriari chuckled when she remembered the distaste that was written on Alena’s face at the thought of crushing up centipede legs for a poison. Alena was right. Creating poison out of spiders was one thing, but using centipedes was a hard limit. The boat drifted towards the shore lazily, careless of how impatient she was. The humans on the boat gave her a large berth, and the zith occupied her time thinking and breathing deeply. Her fingertips rested against the edge of the ferry and the muscles in her legs relaxed. While a zith could never completely lose awareness of their surroundings, the breathing allowed her to block out the conversations and bickering of the merchants that had claimed the southern half of the ferry. Irriari breathed in deeply, measuring her breaths. 1…2…3…4…5… Exale…1…2…3…4…5…Inhale. After four chimes of contented relaxation, a loud bell signaled that the ferry was nearing its destination. Single passengers jostled each other to get to the entrance and merchants tried to match their pace, but were regulated to the back of the line as they attempted to count and move their wares. The zith ignored them all and waited for the last stragglers to leave before she made her way off the boat and to the edge of the coast. Irriari walked for a mile until the coast curved slightly and she was mostly out of sight of the tower guards. Even if they did decide to shoot at the winged thing in the air, they wouldn’t be able to hit her. She pushed off from the ground firmly and unfurled her wings. The zith’s back muscles strained against her skin for the few moments it took to pump her wings in an effort to remain airborne. Irriari flew up until she ached and spiraled downward, eyes open for any plants or fish that might prove to be poisonous when processed. Unsure of what she was looking for, the zith focused on the shore first, hoping that a few plants would have washed up onto the shore somehow. Her hopes were futile, and she only noticed a few laughing gulls picking at any insects that dared to make their way to the shore. Flying closer to the waters surface, Irriari noticed a few small schools of bloodfish that were about fifteen feet from the shore. The zith wished she had bought a net from one of the fisherman on the boat. Ignoring her grumbling stomach, she pressed onward, searching the water for any reeds or plants that could be dried and crushed. The shore was empty of all but a few tree roots that had managed to escape the confines of the forest. After another chime, the zith spotted a healthy cluster of lilypads and reeds growing ten feet from the shore. The reeds were tall and a light green with more yellow coloring closer to their centers. The top of the plants were crowned with a collection of brown spores that tapered off after eight or nine inches. Knowing that it would be impossible to stay airborne and harvest the plants, the zith flew to the shore and placed her bow and quiver on the shoreline among some of the grass. Irriari stepped timidly into the water, making sure nothing more than her ankles got wet. The water was nothing like the warm summer air she had felt in the Sea of Grass. It wasn’t nearly as cold as she expected and her feet were almost warm after a few seconds. Biting back the fear that she felt, the zith walked into the water until it was at her waist. The water got colder the further into the lake she travelled, but it was nowhere near unbearable. What was it that Sevrai had said about swimming? Did she say it was fun? She couldn’t have, and if she did, it was because the slave didn’t have to worry about fish nipping at her wings. After another chime passed, the zith had made it out to the reeds and lilypads. The first reed snapped in half toward the center as she pulled on it. Harvesting lilypads presented much of the same issue- the root systems that often held valuable reagents were anchored to the bottom of the lake. After a few feeble attempts at kicking free a few plants, she paused for a moment, trying to think of any solution that wouldn’t involve diving into the water. Seeing none, the zith gritted her teeth and sank her body into the water slowly, grimacing as her shoulders were finally covered. The final plunge took a full chime, rife with cursing in zithanese. When underwater, the zith focused her attention downwards and dove, making sure to grab a bunch of reeds in one hand and a clump of lilypad roots in the other. The zith made her way back to shore once she surfaced, not eager to pick any more of the aquatic plants. The lilypads trailed behind her in a bunch, like the bouquet of a scorned siren. When ashore, the zith carefully extracted the bottles from her quiver and realized they were far too small to hold anything but a portion of the leaves. She replaced the bottles and folded the reeds in half, taking care to wrap the long lilypad roots around the reeds in coils to secure them. She stuck the bundle into her quiver and tried not to imagine what the humans on the ferry would think when they saw a reed collecting zith among them.

[Irriari]

Alena Abrezine was almost beside herself when Irriari walked into the lab within the Institute of higher learning with the cattails and lilypads in tow. “You expected to make poison with the things we eat? Cattails, of all things? I thought you knew better. Just tell me you didn’t actually get these yourself- we have farms for both of these in the city.” Irriari clenched her fist and felt her claws digging into the soft flesh of her palm. Of course she had gotten them herself. It had taken hours. Sighing, Alena explained the creation and use of water based poisons. “You’re not going to be able to make an aquatic poison with any old plant you find a few steps from the lake shore. There are plants that are poisonous in the lake, but many of them are very deep and you’ll have to face sharks and worse to get to them. Gathering reagents from fish generally proves easier. I’m sure you saw bloodfish. If you gather enough of them and infuse them for a very long amount of time, the oil becomes potent enough for a weak poison. But of course, you don’t want a weak poison that makes your enemy simply woozy, do you?” Alena walked over to a large cabinet and pulled out two large stoppered vials. The first was a milky white, the second a golden brown. She pointed to each and explained their function. “This first poison was made from a Ravok lake speckled eel. Few people know the process it takes, and the poison is often signature to this area. The second vial, the golden one, contains a poison that’s worth more than everything you own. It requires mature golden bullfrogs which are rare and can be only found in the summertime. You don’t have the technical skill to produce it. If you're curious, it causes severe internal bleeding for a day and makes it nearly impossible for the victim to breathe. I've heard of men taking a knife to their own throat to try to breathe with golden bullfrog running through their system. But nevermind that, I can walk you through the process of creating a poison from speckled eel. For our purposes, a fish bought at the market will work, though live are generally better. I will instruct you on the process and then you will procure a fish for me, and we will create the poison. Understood?” Nodding, Irriari waited for the lecture, knowing she would be quizzed upon her return. “Aquatic poisons rarely deal with the flesh or meat of the fish. We’re looking at their internal organs, for chemical buildups that could be toxic to humans in larger quantities. Thankfully, the intestines of this type of eel will do well enough. You’ll need to use cupellation to refine the eel and remove all the impurities. When it reforms, you’ll need to calcinate it into a powder and then heat the powder with some liquid- I recommend a liquid that already has an injurious component. You then distill it and wait for it to condense. The potency depends on the freshness of the eel as well as the secondary liquid you add. The poison will create will cause a loss of balance and disorientation for four bells. Do you understand?”

[Irriari]

Irriari nodded. The zith’s head swam with the directions as she made her way to the market. She picked out three of the freshest looking eels and paid 2 gold mizas for them before returning to the Institute. Alena was suited up in an apron and goggles when Irriari returned. “I know you’re still quite new to philtering, so I’ll be helping you with this until you get the hang of it. The Institute would be upset with me if I allowed a claw-handed zith to break our equipment.” Irriari grabbed a smaller apron and tied it off before putting on the goggles. On a side table sat a pair of clean dishes and filet knives. “Now, we have to get to the fishes intestines. We want the as much of the intestines as we can get, so don’t hack and slash like it’s a member of the Rising Dawn. The intestines are going to be right above the pelvic fin, extending to the left and right, and up towards about the middle of the fish where the pectoral fin is.” Alena pointed out each fin and showed where the intestines would roughly be located before slicing into the fish from the top half. Alena sliced downward, making sure to press the fish into the plate to keep her cutting motions even. After a chime, she opened the fish up, noting how close she was to the intestines before she continued cutting. When she reached the intestines, Alena stopped and held the fish in her hand, making sure her cutting was delicate enough to avoid cutting through the sections they needed. After a few more chimes, Alena freed the intestines from the fish and placed them on a plate. The fish carcass was disposed of and Alena gestured for Irriari to repeat what she had learned. Alena was mostly silent, only offering guidance if Irriari got too close to damaging the intestines. Her cutting was sloppy and it took many attempts of repositioning her hand to place enough pressure on the fish. The fish slid on the plate as she got to the midway point and the zith snarled. Even though it took the zith nearly double the time to section the fish in half and retrieve the intestines, she managed to complete the maneuver without cutting herself or ruining the cargo they sought. She pulled the slippery intestines out gingerly and placed them on the plate before looking up to Alena for further guidance. Alena moved to the far side that contained the cupels and braziers to heat them. “We won’t worry about cleaning the intestines since the impurities will be removed, but we do need to make sure the heat is high enough to perform the process we want. You’ll need a lab for this process, your philtering kit won’t get hot enough.” Alena demonstrated the process and amount of time needed to get the brazier hot enough and placed the intestines within the cupel. Irriari followed suit under her watchful eye. For some reason, trusting zith with fire was something Alena wasn’t accustomed to doing. After fifteen chimes, we heated the substance that remained on a lower heat for a longer period of time until it calcinated into a crystalized form. Alena made sure to inform the zith that these crystals were poisonous enough in their own right and that ingesting them would cause a litany of side effects. They could be dissolved in a drink, but they would add an earthy taste, so it was best to further refine them. Alena sighed – it had been a long four bells since the zith arrived. “Thankfully the next process is straightforward. We simply add another agent. I’m choosing a weaker version of a botanical poison, and there’s enough here for you to use. Another student failed spectacularly with making his poison, so we have to use it for something.” Alena brought over a vial of light blue liquid that had disconcerting black flecks floating around the mixture. They carefully portioned the liquid into two vials and added the crystalized eel intestines until the crystals dissolved. “Good, nearly done. I trust you to do the distillation yourself.” Alena took up her place on the other side of the lab and Irriari remained at the distilling station closest to her. After the flame was warm enough, she added the liquid and allowed the poison to boil into vapors before they spiraled upwards into the coil. After a half bell, the vapors reformed into liquid, and Irriari carefully bottled her new prize. She thanked Alena and placed the vial into her quiver before returning home to collapse onto her bed. OOCSince this is a job thread, Irr won't be keeping the poison and will be selling it to whoever she is working for.

[Nemesis]

. Thread Grade Pending Greetings! This is just a notification that I cannot grade your thread until you have updated your ledger to reflect active play during Winter 514AV. Once you have corrected this and thrown me a PM to let me know, the thread will be graded. Thank ye, -Nemesis