(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 10)

[DracoOmega]

>Keep it together, Nazrin...
>"Yes. Pity." Clear throat. "The charts?"

>You do your best to keep yourself in check...
>Her eyes widen. "Oh! Yes! Still looking. My apologies, yes." She places the case down on a nearby worktable and continues her haphazard search.

[Oldmansour]

>Glance around the office for any kind of 'chart' visible pertaining to flowers.

[DracoOmega]

>Glance around the office for any kind of 'chart' visible pertaining to flowers.

>You take another look around the office. The walls are largely bare of anything that could be termed this, and most of the rest of the space is occupied with plants and pots and other equipment; very little paper is to be seen aside from the desk the professor is currently searching and a small bookshelf above it.
>"Oh, right, of course," she says, reaching for a slim green volume on the shelf and then digging an arm beneath the clutter below it. The pulls out a bundle of papers and spreads them, then flips open the book and starts muttering to herself as her eyes glance back and forth between two or three separate documents. Then she gives a nod and closes it back up again.
>"Three Aprils from now," she announces cheerfully. "Give or take a couple months, of course. Well, mostly give - blooming in winter would be quite unlikely, yes."

[Oldmansour]

>Okay, now we can scowl.
>"So, you're telling me that, if I want fresh flowers, they won't be blooming for three years. If then."
>Well, actually, that means we won't have to traipse out to the Wild lands looking for the damn things, if they're not blooming anyway.
>"Would you happen to know if anyone in town grows them? Or would keep a supply on hand?"

[DracoOmega]

>Okay, now we can scowl.
>"So, you're telling me that, if I want fresh flowers, they won't be blooming for three years. If then."
>Well, actually, that means we won't have to traipse out to the Wild lands looking for the damn things, if they're not blooming anyway.
>"Would you happen to know if anyone in town grows them? Or would keep a supply on hand?"

>You finally allow yourself to scowl. The professor frowns uncertainly.
>She nods. "Near to three years it would be, yes. Very near, most likely. Like clockwork, they are, except with... fewer gears."
>While this is strictly true, it seems a very marginal benefit in exchange for there being no flowers at all to find.
>"They... do not grow well here," she says. "The growing of them is possible, yes - much is possible with care and tending, but there is no call for them. Somewhere, it is possible, yes. But I do not think I know where this somewhere is."

[Oldmansour]

>Sigh, then rub the bridge of our nose with our hand. Of COURSE it wouldn't be that easy.
>"Well, fine. Just I'll have to Seek those myself."
>"What about the other two parts, the vigor and the truth water?"

[DracoOmega]

>Sigh, then rub the bridge of our nose with our hand. Of COURSE it wouldn't be that easy.
>"Well, fine. Just I'll have to Seek those myself."
>"What about the other two parts, the vigor and the truth water?"

>You let out a sigh. Just when things might have been looking up....
>She smiles awkwardly. "A well-suited occupation you have then, it seems."
>"What about them exactly?" she asks.

[Oldmansour]

>"Will either one of them be difficult to find here in town? Or hard to make?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Will either one of them be difficult to find here in town? Or hard to make?"

>"Finding them could be difficult, yes," she says. "Very difficult. No one uses those words anymore. Names are old, techniques old. A seller of them would be old or strange or old and strange or strangely old, perhaps." She chuckles. "Making them... is not so difficult. Not difficult in particular, in fact. The process is... simple. Or simple enough. Most of the ingredients of Athran's Vigor are common - an easy purchase at any supplier who rightly has supplies, yes. Some are... marginally less easy, but not in the manner of these bittercress blossoms - you could find them within the city at this very moment, almost certainly. Aqua Veritatis is... mostly water. Not difficult. No, not particularly difficult at all."

[Oldmansour]

>Let out a breath.
>"Okay. That's something, then. Some good news is better than none."
>"So, whereabouts in town would be a good place to get a good price on those two mixtures?"
>Pause. "And for that matter, what would be their more 'modern' names?"

[DracoOmega]

>Let out a breath.
>"Okay. That's something, then. Some good news is better than none."
>"So, whereabouts in town would be a good place to get a good price on those two mixtures?"
>Pause. "And for that matter, what would be their more 'modern' names?"

>"They do not have modern names," she says. "Athran's Vigor is... as it is, or as it was, I suppose - it's simply not made now. There are other potions whose effects are similar, yes. Better, mainly. If your recipe requires it, or at least claims to - perhaps it was a shorthand, or if its constituents were less understood - and they were, you understand - it might have been a sort of catch-all substitute for the true active ingredient, which might mean it is not that brew at all that you require in particular..." She trails off here and stares absently into space for a few moments, then shakes her head.
>"In any case, if it is Athran's Vigor you require, you will need it brewed specifically. Otherwise, you will not find it, no - not unless you stumble upon a rare place, indeed. This is not difficult, but it will need be done."

[Oldmansour]

>"That what the book said. "One part athran's vigor and four parts aqua veritatis", to be specific. Plus the flowers we discussed before, of course."
>"So, where in town would be a good place to go to get athran's vigor made?"

[DracoOmega]

>"That what the book said. "One part athran's vigor and four parts aqua veritatis", to be specific. Plus the flowers we discussed before, of course."
>"So, where in town would be a good place to go to get athran's vigor made?"

>She nods. "Yes, yes, so you said. Of course, Athran's Vigor itself uses, as its base, that very Aqua Veritatis. Or so they would have written at the time, yes. Diluted it is, in effect."
>"Any competent herbalist or apothecary should have no trouble with it. No, no trouble at all. The procedure is no different than many other things - different in composition, of course, but in procedure?" She shakes her head. "No, not especially different at all. If they knew the recipe, it would be of no difficulty."

[Oldmansour]

>"Very good, then."
>"But, I gotta ask, what did you mean when you said this might not be the brew I was looking for?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Very good, then."
>"But, I gotta ask, what did you mean when you said this might not be the brew I was looking for?"

>She leans her head towards you and gives you a curious look. "When... did I say that?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Just a minute ago."

[DracoOmega]

>"Just a minute ago."

>"I... did?" she asks. "Strange, that. I do not-" Her eyes widen. "Oh! About the Athran's Vigor, yes?"

[Hanzo K.]

>Nod. "Yep, that's the one."

[DracoOmega]

>Nod. "Yep, that's the one."

>"Ah, yes," she says. "I did not mean to imply it would be ineffective, no. No, no, not at all. You say that recipe called for it by name and if you trust to it then you should trust to that, no? I simply though, perhaps, the author may have been mistaken about it being required in sum and total - oddly convenient, that. Especially for a curative, not an augmentative, yes - oddly convenient and unlikely, even. Some item in the Vigor more likely, yes. Or perhaps more than one - several, even, but not all. Perhaps they didn't know. Perhaps drafting it in that fashion was simplest, yes. Perhaps, even, they never thought to ask? But certainly I cannot say it would not suffice. No, no - without examination, I cannot say that at all."

[Hello Purvis]

>Groan.
>"So what you're saying is that it does not resemble medicine, as far as you know?"

[DracoOmega]

>Groan.
>"So what you're saying is that it does not resemble medicine, as far as you know?"

>She gives you a puzzled look. "What would give you that impression? I do not think I said such a thing. Athran's Vigor is not a medicine in the usual sense, no, but in some ways similar, they are. Not the same, but sharing some commonalities, yes. Some of its constituents are used in medicines, also. Some, often so. And when mixed with bitterweed blossoms, who could tell? Without study and experiment, I could not say for absolute certain, no. In fact, it is most certain I could not." She smiles faintly.
>"I expect only that the active ingredients of the Vigor in this particular concoction are not all of the ingredients it might otherwise require. Even in this, I could be wrong, yes. Truth does not pay much mind to opinion, as they say - mine or anyone else's. Perhaps a pity some times, but a saner thing for all, I should think."

[Oldmansour]

>"So, if I may put that in my own words, you suspect that it's not the entire Vigor that the recipe calls for to generate the desired effect, merely some of its components?"

[DracoOmega]

>"So, if I may put that in my own words, you suspect that it's not the entire Vigor that the recipe calls for to generate the desired effect, merely some of its components?"

>She nods. "That would seem a... succinct way of putting it, yes. Yes, that is what I suspect; there was less science to the art in those days, yes - much less, sometimes. One could be right without knowing why one was wrong."

[Oldmansour]

>"However, if parts of it are all that's needed, the whole mix should still work just as well?"

[DracoOmega]

>"However, if parts of it are all that's needed, the whole mix should still work just as well?"

>"Just as well?" she asks. "Likely not, no. Many substances have inhibitive effects on other constitutents. A great many indeed, yes. Some larger and some... smaller, but still existent. And above this, there are many interactions a great deal more complicated. It is not a simple science, no. Ask any student in my classes and see how they answer that." She chuckles lightly. "Years of training and experimentation are for a purpose, you understand. But well enough? Quite possibly. Very possibly - if you think the recipe credible, I do not see why it need not be."

[Oldmansour]

>"So far, it's the only thing I've found that MIGHT work. It's all I've got to work with."
>"Which means, I suppose, I should be off to find me someone..."
>"Actually.... If that flower, bittercress, is truly unobtainable, then do you think it might be possible to use a substitute material to serve the same purpose?"

[DracoOmega]

>"So far, it's the only thing I've found that MIGHT work. It's all I've got to work with."
>"Which means, I suppose, I should be off to find me someone..."
>"Actually.... If that flower, bittercress, is truly unobtainable, then do you think it might be possible to use a substitute material to serve the same purpose?"

>"Might it be possible?" she asks. "Well, certainly it might be possible, yes - a great many things are possible and this is one of those that might be. Whether this potential here is... actual? That, I certainly cannot say, no. In this case, I do not know even what it does. A cure for some kind of blight, you say? There are many kinds of blights, and many kinds of cures, and sometimes many kinds of cures for the same blights. On different principles they operate, often - sometimes similar, but sometimes not. Your question is of the sort that would take... study. Answerable, yes, but not without this. No, no, I'm afraid not. Would be quite convenient if this were not so."

[Oldmansour]

>"Very convenient."
>"So, I suppose I should ask, what's the closest place to here where I can get some things brewed?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Very convenient."
>"So, I suppose I should ask, what's the closest place to here where I can get some things brewed?"

>She lets out a little sigh. "Alas."
>"Hmm... a difficult question for me to answer, that is," she says. "Embarrassingly so, perhaps. A long time has it been since I had need for such outside the Academy, yes. I... believe I do recall a pleasant and competent establishment on Prestor Row - a short walk east of the Academy's gates, you could find it. But any herbalist or apothecary to whom those names could probably apply would be suitable, yes. Nothing you ask is complex. No, not at all of the sort of complexity requiring special care or skill. Aside, perhaps, from acquiring bittercress blossoms out of season." She smiles. "That would be quite the remarkable errand, yes."

[Oldmansour]

>Chuckle a wry chuckle. "Remarkable errands are a Seeker's forte."
>"Just one last thing, and I realize this may be a bit out of your element, but, like I said, I'm a bit new to the city. Would you know of any greenhouses, or arboretums here in town?"