† Talis †
Peppermint sprinkled into a colorful mixture of herbs and powders. A small cloud of blue plumed into the air with the addition to the mixture. Talis then tilted forward an ornate bottle filled with sparkling violet liquid, smoothly pouring a measured portion.
A series of clicks of her tongue caused the brew to ripple.
Followed by a brief chant of a wordless metronomic harmony, her body buzzed and hummed in a magical tune as the herbs began to bleed into the liquid in rivulets of color. Greater clouds of rainbow fog lifted from its surface as beautiful small fireworks bloomed in its atmosphere.
And when Talis stopped, it should have as well, but the rainbow cloud kept growing and the sparks began to turn into little balls of fire.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Talis yelped as the cloud burst.
Color flew out cross the room. From the chairs paired at the window, the books and the shelves along the high wall, the old desk and work table, and Talis herself, everything was coated in an iridescent rainbow sheen.
"Hahahaha!" Her sister burst out laughing from the doorway.
Talis jumped again, hand flying to her chest. Then she gave Idoni a timid and guilty smile. "I think it worked this time."
Idoni held out a hand. "Let me see."
Talis sheepishly held out the potion, the little bowl still warm from the vyra loaded into it.
Swirling the mixtures around, Idoni lifted the bowl, breathed in deeply and then took a small sip of the elixir, now emulsified and homogeneous. After a moment she clicked her tongue in approval. "I'd say that's just as good as one of my stamina potions."
Talis' expression immediately fell and her shoulders caved forward. She let out a whiny sigh then complained, tossing her head back. "It's supposed to change the color of your hair."
"Oh, I see." Idoni chuckled as she gently patted the younger woman on the back. She should have known. All of her little sisters' experiments were meant to enhance oneself or make a beauty routine easier. "Well it certainly changed the color of the room!" She playfully joked. It wasn't the first time Talis had overloaded the herbs and powders and caused a mess. In fact she was sure nothing in the study was the color it had originally been. The wooden desk had long been stained in a plethora of colors and the some books where so coated Idoni had to open them to find their titles.
"Why does this always happen?" She threw her head back in defeat and questioned.
Talis was always quick to voice her complaints. Often with flair a bit on the spoiled side; nasally and dramatic.
"Don't get too down. You made an excellent stamina potion. You managed to fall up this time around." She patted her sister on the back. Write the recipe down and add it to your grimoire. Remember, concocting potions and medicines is personal to each healer. You will discover more of your own recipes the more you practice and explore. Perhaps even meditate more. It may allow you to control that vyra a little better."
Talis let out a deep sigh, her pouting face staring at the floor in ruffled defeat.
"How about you take a break. Kohryn and Mikhail invited you to go visit the vendors with them."
Her successful failure briefly forgotten, Talis lifted her head, mouth just slightly ajar. "Really? Kohryn did?"
Kohryn?
Idoni nodded, an odd smile on her face. "Well Mikhail invited Kohryn and Kohryn thought to include you." The shy woman would have never initiated such a gathering on her own. "Have you met Mikhail yet?"
Kohryn had invited her. Talis found this situation even more odd. "I haven't met Mikhail, but I've heard a lot about him. Everyone in the village has been talking about him and his aunt since they moved here." Almost two moons ago the two blondes had taken up temporary residency in the village and it was the most exciting thing to happen in years.
She had heard of their striking beauty and how Mikhail was kind and charismatic. So kind that the villagers had found it odd how he had befriended Kohryn who was infamously creepy and reclusive. "He seems like a nice guy."
"Hmm." Idoni stroked her chin quizzically.
"What? Is there something weird about him?" Talis thought it wouldn't surprise her if there was something off about Mikhail. The first thing the pretty man did was befriend the pariah of the mountain. Nobody has ever done so before. The fleeting thought left behind a speck of guilt in Talis' chest but she cleverly bottled it away like a failed potion. Just as she usually did when she encountered Kohryn.
Idoni's lips contorted for a moment thinking of her earlier greeting with the young man. "At first I thought he didn't have any spirits."
"Like Kohryn?"
The world was a busy place to those who had the eyes to see it. Spirits mixed and mingled and followed the living around as they walked through life. Humans coexisted with luminous and glowing ancestral spirits who floated around in gossipy packs, nature spirits wrought in a plethora of elemental design, protective spirits bearing decorated weapons and armor, or even dark spirits that loomed nightmarish and ugly. The eyes of the Aasai people could see them all.
"It's rare to meet a spiritless individual like Kohryn. So I thought at first I must be damn lucky to have met, not one, but two people without spirits." It was believed that the spiritless were souls whose spirit followers had shed away from them in previous lives. The Aasai believed it was the way eternal souls experienced rebirth. A moment of witnessing immense cyclic change. "But when I shook his hand I got a flash of one. It was hiding inside him, in his soul." Idoni chewed her lip. "Or at least I think it was a spirit. I only sensed it for a split second before it hid away."
This was indeed abnormal. Spirits would sometimes hide inside people, rare possessions and unconscious influence, but they didn't hide inside the soul. Souls were like mazes forged in miles with gates and crossroads chained in divine locks. The thought of a spirit that hid in its walls was horrifying.
"Perhaps it wasn't a spirit you felt."
The two women looked at one another in contemplation before Idoni broke the like minded silence. "Since you have stronger abilities than me, I want you to join them today and see if you can tell if anything is off about him."
Talis rolled her eyes at her sister. She didn't like that at all but she knew it was true. Aasai with strong spiritual abilities often became mediators of ancestors and spirits. It was supposed to be an honorable position of relaying information and messages from the spirit realm to the material one. But Talis knew it was mostly just listening to spirits whine and spit venom about whatever their living liege was doing or not doing. She thought it was a dumb position and she didn't want it. In truth, she didn't really want to be a healer either. But those feelings she was keeping to herself for now. "Do you think he's dangerous?"
"Noooo…. Well, I'm not sure. But I do feel like he is aware of his passenger." Idoni thought of the way he had watched her watch him. In those few moments, as she peered beneath his surface, he watched her do it.
There was a deviously regal and calculating air about the foreigner. His posture had been upright and imposing but languid, easily moving him about in a flowing and graceful fashion. Traveled and cultured more so than the people of this isolated village. It was behavior in which Idoni knew the nobility of other countries possessed. Aristocrats and politicians, businessmen and bankers, people who were meticulously schooled and trained to dance even when standing still. This observation alone put her on edge. "Go scout for me and keep an eye on him for me? He is of the bourgeoisie and by that alone I do not trust him." He could just be some uppity noble on a Ipanish mountain vacation but she doubted it.
Not with the way he lingered around Kohryn.
Talis shifted in her seat, "Do you think it could have been a being from one of the lower realms?" There were old stories of creatures from the lower realms that fed on the trails of souls seared into the world. Demons and creatures from the deepest parts of the cosmos. They typically remained just out of touch, existing in unseen waves of light and shadow. But occasionally one would come forward, a little too powerful and a little too eager to feast on more pure energy than trails of travel.
"Those are just ancient legends." Idoni frowned at her sister but neither did she confirm nor deny Talis' question.