Private Tales The Smell of Sage

[Tyenhia Ryhia]

"Ah! At last! This one was beginning to think she'd never find any." Tyenhia allowed herself a rare toothy smile as she knelt down and tenderly harvested the purple herbs from the ground before eagerly placing them in her wooden basket. "This is a desert, yes, but to search so long and find but one briar of desert sage is abnormal even for the sands of Kalit!" The Komodo stood as her tail rose to shield her eyes from the oppressive sun. For miles around, there was nothing but cacti sprouting out of the sand and basilisk eggs hidden beneath the dirt and gravel waiting to hatch into the nightmarish creatures they were known for. "Oi oi oi..." Tyenhia's tail wiped the sweat away from her ash-colored brow. "This might be the worst drought I've seen in a stretch. This one believed she might be able to lay up for a while and get some desert spices she'd been sorely needing. It appears that was a mistake."

Tyenhia sighed and began the trek back to Maraan her thoughts lingering on whether her pot of Root Moss and Vorr essence had boiled over. She'd hope not, that Vorr's skin was surprisingly inflexible and hard to cut open. After a half-hour of walking the woman had finally reached the city walls her scaleless skin all too happy to have reached shade apart from her hood. It would have been all the better if she didn't have to deal with the gate warden first...

"Halt. State your name and-" Before the warden could push out his lazily droned sentence stated thousands of times over and again, Tyenhia's tail rose in front of her face with a heap of credentials. It was ridiculous really, she had far more missives than most citizens of the city and yet it didn't matter solely because of the horns sprouting from her scalp and the venom dripping from her lips. Drawing a handkerchief from her long sleeve, Tyenhia cleansed herself of the green fluid streaming down her chin as she moved to explain herself. "Tyenhia...Sorry! I mean I was out in the wilds gathering some special herbs. This one I'm an alchemist you see and-" "I know what you are." The warden interrupted. "It's what you plan to do in MY city that concerns me."

"I don't have any sinister motives that I can assure you of! I'm sure if you just inspect this one's basket..." "Your witchery is nothing to me! I ought to call a holy man over and have you-" The glint of metal caught the warden's eye as Tyenhia's slender hands shook the basket moving its contents. To everyone else, it seemed like nothing more than desert sage but only the warden could see the pouch of gold snuggled between the leaves. "I see..." The warden stuck his greedy hand into the basket and grabbed the 'spice' with a sneer. "Well, I suppose I'll simply commandeer these herbs to ensure you aren't doing anything foul. Now get out of here..." Tyenhia scowled. "Before we all contract sepsis or whatever it is you people carry..." The Komodo brushed past the guard murmuring a foreign insult under her breath.

The trip back to her purple travel wagon went off without a hitch and she was able to step inside just as her pot began to bubble onto the floor. A small caravan with all manner of herbs and spices lining the walls, the essence of countless creatures, vials of medicinal concoctions, and a small chest of personal items of gold all crammed into a single organized space was what Tyenhia was proud to call her home and her livelihood. Pushing open the shutters and allowing the sun to cast light inside the dim wagon Tyenhia sat on her stool close to the countertop bolted to both sides of the window in anticipation of any who might need her services.

"It can only be hoped luck favors me more than yesterday..."

Keldorn

 

[Keldorn]

Keldorn had spent the last three days trying to reach Maraan. A few days before that, he had been trying to excise a demon from a child. Were it an adult, he would have cut them down and moved on. Adults made pacts and deals and were quick to say they didn't. And they normally led full lives.

A child didn't. They didn't know the weight of words, the pact of blood, an imaginary friend with a promise of never leaving them. Demons were fiends, its why they preyed on the young.

His Order was not one that practiced exorcisms, they cleansed. And with the Redeemer beyond reach and no word from Jane, Keldorn would have to seek outside help.

Maraan was known for its remedies and he hoped someone there would know what he needed.. or else he was going to have to break one of his rules.

Tyenhia Ryhia

 

[Tyenhia Ryhia]

Leaning over the windowsill, Tyenhia grinned as her slender finger traced the rim of an empty beaker. "Komodo understands, but may this one might inquire...as to how you got those disturbing injuries?" The armored warrior smiled awkwardly as he pulled up his pant leg to reveal a patch of bleeding sores burning his skin. "Come now! Be sporting and treat me with a hassle! I already told you about the fight with that witch and her vile Entomancy!" Tyenhia only grinned wider as she shook her head, her tail wagging as if it were a finger.

"Now now now, sire! One must identify what one must remedy..!" She rolled almost musically. "Oh nine hells, I should have expected no less from another sorceress-" The woman furrowed her brow, reminding the mercenary that he had commissioned her help on short notice, no less. "The witch had some breed of beetle, nothing unordinary at first glance except that when you were bit by their foul pincers, the little devils exploded!" Tyenhia leaned back in her chair, her head nodding at the warrior's tale. "Now it makes sense! Those are from the beetles! That was easy to say, no?"

Tyenhia smiled smugly as the warrior pouted and folded his armored arms, her tail whipping around the small caravan in pursuit of a single vial. "Would have bet my horns it was somewhere around here..." Relief washed over the Komodo's face as her tail wrapped around a familiar shape and brought it over the man's leg. "Woah, Woah! Tell me what that is before you-" In a single swift motion, Tyenhia opened the small bottle and stuck the cork in the warrior's mouth, severing his sentence. Pouring the clear liquid over the sores made them sizzle and steam as they shrunk and the skin closed around them.

The man was so focused on forming his protest that he almost didn't notice the sores leaving his calf. With a damp towel, Tyenhia wiped the concoction off the warrior's leg. "Refresh this one's memory...how much did you say you would pay for a cure?" Without a word, the warrior plopped a bag of gold in the Komodo's hand before being washed away by the busy streets of Maraan. "Ten thousand thanks, friend! Come again!" She shouted into the wind as she counted the gold weighing down her hand.

"Perfection..." She whispered. "Perhaps lady luck will continue to smile on this battered soul." Standing Tyenhia stuck her torso out the caravan window, making her presence known to those who walked through the market. "Come any and come all to Alchemical Wonders, the one-stop trip for all your chemical needs!"

Keldorn

 

[Keldorn]

Keldorn had seen the wares of no fewer than three such herbalists now. All of them charlatans. He had made that decision the moment they started talking cures for lycanthropy. It was unrelated to his knees, but one who could lie about such, could not be trusted about the rest of their wares.

He had just been passing a caravan when a Komodi leaned out the window to hawk her wares. He would first stop his walk as he caught the acidic spittle drift free from her lips. When her words passed, he would gauge her with a curious eye.

"Tell me, dear Lady. Do you happen to have a cure for lycanthropy? I have traveled far and wide to find such a remedy."

The test. Her answer would decide his mind.

Tyenhia Ryhia

 

[Tyenhia Ryhia]

Tyenhia squinted at the armored fellow who answered her call to action, his request an odd one for sure. "Lycanthropy? You mean the disease that turns man into beast when the night shines true? To be transparent, that always sounded more like a curse rather than an affliction to this one. If you've traveled far in search of treatment, you have a much longer journey ahead of you, one that will have you tread in the halls of temples and the lairs of warlocks, not the streets of a market."

Bringing a handkerchief to her lips, Tyenhia pointed her clawed finger at Keldorn accusingly, her tail standing on end. "Say your not one of the beast's blood, are you? I'd imagine most daytime dwellers would gut you with a silver blade for that." Tyenhia stared into the man's eyes and the skepticism they offered. They were searching for something, surveying every move she made his ears perked up at her words. Scrutinizing them. Testing them.

"I'd fancy you've visited one of those salesmen in their dark corner of the market." Tyenhia's hand went over her chest as her tail slithered like a snake when hissing. "Though this one says the term grifter is more appropriate." The woman motioned for Keldorn to come closer. "If you couldn't tell we have a mutual disdain for each other. Tyenhia hates their pilfering, and they hate the venom dripping from her words. Literally."

Wiping the poison from her chin, Tyenhia sat back in her chair, sunset eyes lazily addressing Keldorn. "Apologies. Went on a bit of a tangent there..." she cleared her throat and sat up straight, "what does the armored lord require?"

 

[Keldorn]

"Aye, but even curses have cures." Keldorn would say. "All... except lycanthropy. Which every other vendor on this street will have you believing they have it." At least she wasn't trying to cheat him, which was a good start.

At her question of whether he had it or not, he would give a quick survey of the land before leaning in to talk to her, his voice lowered. "If I did, I would wager that would put me as the first one of us they would hunt down. But luckily, silvered swords are hard to come by and even harder to forged." He would lean back some.

"I need to excise a demon from the body of a child. My Order.. we normally cleanse them through more.. permanent means. And the Orders that do excise them through herbs, refuse to travel for the boy." He would procure a piece of parchment and set it down before her. "I need Nettlebell, Tarswallow, and Kingsroot. All three are rare and hard to find."

Tyenhia Ryhia

 

[Tyenhia Ryhia]

"Aaaah! A holy man! This alchemist gets a number of you's! Stay there. This'll be only a moment." Nearly knocking over her chair, Tyenhia sprung from her seat and away from the window. With a silver key, she opened an old wooden chest. Diving inside, her legs kicked as she moved deeper inside. "Strike this ass and call me a harlot! There was Kingroot in here, that's a fact! Perhaps a grifter got to it? No, that's ridiculous! Komodo doesn't lose things..."

Tyenhia went on rambling as she tossed up the caravan searching for Kingsroot, her tail whipping around the room to catch the herbs and containers she threw behind her. "There you are!" She exclaimed before yanking a jar full of roots free from the chest her torso was buried inside. "Little bastard!" Tyenhia snapped back to reality, almost forgetting that Keldorn was still there watching and possibly judging.

"Sorry...nearly lost it there..." she chuckled awkwardly. Pushing the ingredients onto the windowsill, Komodo sat back in her chair. "So do tell, just how powerful is this demonic presence? Are things falling off shelves? Do the boy's eyes glow while he speaks in a vile tongue?"