ii. Herbs & Tinctures
Story Beats
Felidae the Apprentice
Nympha’dora is at a loss. There is clearly no convincing her niece that there are better things in life than sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. And so, with the help of Zeki’s connections in the valley, Nympha’dora decides it is safer for Felidae to go and work in Kilima. Zeki transports her via his travelling merchant cart, and introduces her to Chayne, the village monk, and a prominent healer within the valley. Zeki spins a lie that she’s a girl from the next town over, and her mother wants her to spend her summer learning a craft that doesn’t involve the smoke and smog of the city. While reluctant at first, Chayne questions the Felidae herself, wanting to understand her true intentions. Felidae, not all that interested, gives a half-assed response.
Her keen eye and persistent knowledge at such a young age intrigues Chayne, and he agrees to help her. As it would turn out, Felidae’s apprenticeship under Chayne would last far longer than just a summer, and she would travel back to Bahari with Zeki as his trading schedule with the valley became more frequent.
This is where Felidae would learn the basics of botany, herbalism and healing. Chayne is a spiritual man, and Felidae growing up in the cartel has little to no recollection of the tales the Majiri spin and worship of the one they call ‘Phoenix’. It’s her inquisitive little mind that gains her a soft spot in the village, and she is known as ‘Chayne’s apprentice’ to the village folk.
One day, while out harvesting herbs, she comes across a tree with a purple aura around it. It’s incredibly enticing, and nothing like that she’s ever seen before. She recalls reading about similar flora in the books her aunt tried so desperately to hide from her, but alas, Felidae always found a way. A Flow Tree. A tree infused with the highly powerful substance, and emitted an eerie ringing upon it’s emergence, as though signalling it’s arrival.
It was nothing short of incredible and, entranced by it’s mystique, Felidae made a mental note to come back and study it once she had her field guide. However, upon returning the next evening, the tree had vanished. She asks Chayne what “the deal is” with these strange encounters, and Chayne warns her to never engage with the tree as Majiri are forbidden from having any contact with flow. If she’s to see it again, she is to leave the area immediately.
And just like her aunt, she is confused as to why they are so terrified of this substance. She can understand why a man like Chayne, who has lived his life obeying the rules of The Order, would feel so strongly about it, but he looked worried for her. She knew of the dangers, but seeing her aunt use it to heal so often just…made it that much intriguing. Foreboding her from even being in the area they’d grow felt like a pretty intense rule to set. And so of course, being ever the rebel, Felidae would go on to break that rule.
After an evening of sneaking out, she came across something she never thought she’d see. A Flow Grove. Not just one, but 7 trees had appeared out of thin air, a plume of pink circling their branches as though beckoning her in. Something inside her called out to it, as though it were innate, and had always been there. The feeling was overwhelming, being in such close proximity to the very substance she had been prohibited from interacting with was intoxicating, to put it lightly. And no sooner had she found them, she had succumbed to their allure.
Waking up in the apothecary, surrounding by worried voices wasn’t exactly how she’d envisioned it. Had it been a dream? A wonderful, fantastical dream? Supposedly not, as she had barely opened her eyes before a barrage of questions was flung at her:
“What were you doing out there?”
“Didn’t you know the risks?”
“Did you touch them?”
Confused, and dazed, Chayne stepped between her and the worried folk of the village, allowing her to get some more rest. She had been found unconscious by one of the local miners who had brought her to the apothecary, recognising her as Chayne’s apprentice. She would spend the next few hours expelling what little food Chayne would make her eat out of her system, as she tried to recall what exactly had happened that night to him.
After her encounter, she’s under the strict eye of Chayne from there on out, and is on her best behaviour. However, this event leaves her to become enamoured with flow, and she wants to understand just why she had such a visceral reaction to the trees. She hadn’t even touched them, and yet just standing in their very vicinity had left her collapsed.
