《Divine Arts》Chapter 1 - Potions
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15 years later.
Striding down the streets of Sappon. I watched as an Armored pushed down an old man. They plundered his goods in the distance. The Armored smirked. He'd took all the old man's hard-earned money. Many scampered away from the Armored, trying to avoid contact with him. Some stopped momentarily to stare back at the old man who was still getting robbed, but in the end, everyone ran from the Armored. A spear plunged into the cement wall, scrapping the old man's left shoulder.
The old man pleaded and begged as the Armored retrieved his spear. Scampering across the ground the old man wrapped his arms around the Armored's leg. I winced as the old man got thrown off. The Amour showed no mercy, no empathy and absolutely no kindness. He raised his spear ready to strike once again.
I started to move. I wanted to help the old fella. A hand reached out from behind, grabbing me, pulling me back. I watched in vain as the spear pierced through the old man's chest, striking straight into his heart, killing him instantly. I was angry, who dared to stop me. I could have saved that old man.
I twisted as I prepared myself to punch my assailant. My eyes locked with a pair of pristine brown eyes. It was a middle-aged man with long ruff rugged curly black hair. He stared into my eyes. I knew him. He was my master, my teacher and my savior. I blinked, not believing what my eyes were telling me. He was not supposed to be here. He was supposed to be at the conference. What was he doing here?
"Um... Master Kohl what are you doing here?" I asked, a little jiggly in the throat. He had just stopped me from doing what he had always taught me not to do. Never interfere with the Armored. They are not the sorts that we can trifle with.
"Stopping you from doing something stupid, it would seem." He said pulling me away from the scene.
"Master I..." I tried to say but was unable to finish my sentence. Master Kohl had pushed a piece of bread into my mouth, purposely stopping me from speaking farther.
The Armored from before walked passed us at that very moment. He looked down at me and shook his head. My master apologized for blocking his way. He clicked his tongue and left.
I starred at the Armored, anger and hatred flaring in my eyes. My master knocked me over the head. "Stop thinking about useless things." He said dragging me away. At that moment I really wanted to rip away from my master and launch myself at the Armored. Unfortunately, my master had a very firm grip.
We arrived back at the clinic a few hours later. My master had to buy a few herbs for his potions. He was a healer, one of the best around that is if you did not mind his medicines problems. He had talent, he knew his art, he knew his craft, he even knows herbs better than any one in town. Unfortunately, he never seems to be able to heal people properly. His patients always get cured of their original ailments. His potions and pills all work, but every time people come back complaining about side effects caused by his medicines. These medicines would cause all sorts of problems.
One time a patient complaining about his back pain bothering him came to the clinic. Master Kohl checked his pulse (that's one of the methods of checking a person for what ailes them. Pulses can tell a healer all about the human body). Upon checking his pulse Master Kohl announced that this patient has a very serious back illness that could paralyze him if untreated soon. The patient got so scared that he immediately paid Master Kohl the fees and asked him to treat him immediately. Master Kohl whipped up a pill claiming it to be a high-end pill created with the finest of herbs and administered it to the patient. The patient immediately collapsed and stayed in a comatose state for 3 days. His family blew a gasket when they found out. They almost tore the clinic apart but luckily the patient woke up just as they came with their pitchforks and torches.
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When the patient woke up, his back pain was gone. Unfortunately the side effects of the medicine started to manifest. The patient started to cough bubbles out of his mouth. That lasted for over a month. Then the patient started growing weird flowers out of the top of his head. Then he started to bark like a dog whenever he saw a female dog. Finally, the patients family came with a mob and tried to burn down the clinic. We quickly left the town in the middle of the night leaving behind the clinic. We then traveled to countless other towns, but we never stayed there for more than a year. We have been in Sappon for 2 years now. The master has toned down the weird side effects caused by his potions. But still he has gained a bad reputation in town nevertheless.
As we entered the clinic no one stood waiting to be seen. There was not even a fly that dared to enter the clinic. I sighed, business was not going well. My master smacked me over the head. I turned to see the old man pointing me in the direction of the potions room.
I cried inside. I did not like making potions, it involved to much concentration and the knowledge involved was so intense. The techniques and runes involved was so complicated and complex. If the master hadn't ingrained all the runes in my head since I was young, there would have been no way I could remember all of them. Unfortunately for me I was the masters only pupil and I had to inherit his craft. No matter how much I thought he was purposely making his patients suffer.
"Master I thought you had a conference?" I said trying to vie him away from making me work on potion mastery again.
Master Kohl's faced blackened "Don't even mention that! Those stupid old farts. What do they know about healing anyways. Healing is a fine art between the balances of Yin and Yang. One cannot live without Yang, but Yin is also very important to the balance. To much Yang and a patient would be over flowed with righteous energy and burst from over exhaustion. Too much Yin, the patient would just rot and decay. Yin represents all that is dark, while Yang represents all that is light. Those old farts! How dare they call me a fake healer. They are the real fake healers here. I am the only healer in the world that can claim to be a true healer. Why heal just what's on the surface. One must heal all the ailments or else they would just continue to fester and comeback to haunt them when they least expect." Master Kohl puffed turning red with anger.
I held in my laughter. Master Kohl always talks this way about other healers. One thing was true though, master Kohl did know the art of healing very well. He after all brought me back from the brink of death when I was younger.
When I was younger my master found me by the sea barely alive with gashes and cuts throughout my body. Half of my blood was already gone. Almost every bone in my body was broken. I did not even know how I was still alive at that point, but when my master found me, he immediately started to administer potions to hold my life from expiring. Then he performed what I would never ever FORGET, a type of healing that turned the world upside down. My bones all cracked as a warm freezing sensation ran through my body. My blood boiled as a raging flame burnt at my veins. My head cooled as a cold liquid ran up and down my body washing the debris away from my body. Finally, my body jerked as it lifted from the ground while a warm thin layer of earth wrapped around my wounds sealing them up. I moaned in pain. Afterwards I collapsed but as my consciousness gave I saw a pillar form around me. When I woke a week later my bones had all healed. My cuts and gashes all scabbed up, every wound in my body inside and out was healed. I felt like a new person at that point.
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Unfortunately, master told me that my memories seemed to have been lost because of the horrendous state of my previous injuries. I remembered nothing from before I met my master, but I was fine with it. I followed master Kohl from that day on and have traveled to many places of the world healing the sick. Although most of the time we would be chased out of a place due to my masters healing practices. We still do well, because I knew my master was no croak. He had performed healing no healer could have performed before and he knew so much more than he let on. On the surface he may seem like a croak, but on the inside, he was the greatest healer in the world.
"Logan stop trying to distract me, get into the potions room. You are to perfect all the processes of potions mastery today. I want to see you create a potion for common colds and cast it into a pill by the end of the day. Today!" Master Kohl smacked my head, then pointed toward the potions room.
I rubbed my head, the pain still lingering. I couldn't believe my luck, today was supposed to be my day off. Master Kohl was supposed to be at the Healers conference until tomorrow night. I curse those them old fools for angering the master. Why did they do such a stupid thing? They could have at least held it in until tomorrow morning. That way, I would have had at least one night of peace and quiet. Damn old farts! I curse you!
Begrudgingly, I walked into the potions room which was located all the way in the back of the clinic. Pushing the double iron doors open I entered the room. The moment I entered the room a deep herbal aroma greeted me. The potions room was full of herbs of all types. From Morning flowers that help to heal coughs to deadly Thorax needles that kill with their poison. Every herb had its place. Every herb had a purpose, even poison can be used to heal instead of killing, that is if you knew what you were doing. Thorax needles for example can be used in small amounts to treat the deadly dream spiders bite. Poison against poison becomes antidote. It is one of the many herbs ingrained in my head from a young age. I can name every herb in the room and can name 10,500 more, after all I have memorized the book of herbs that contains 10,500 herbs of the world.
I sighed, just remembering the years spent memorizing all those herbs made my brain hurt. I looked ahead, a large iron cauldron with a crystal lid stood in the middle of the room. This was the cauldron used to create all potions. My master has had this same cauldron since he was an apprentice himself. He had said that this cauldron was his masters and his masters Masters before that. It was a relic from the ancient times. It was strong though. No matter how much failed potions and explosions that has occurred in it. It is still standing to this day. I my self am extremely surprised that this thing hasn't cracked or even chipped through all these years. Such an old thing, how could it survive for such a long period of time.
Picking up some Morning flowers, Porc leaves and a bunch of other herbs I began my process of brewing the cough potion. It wasn't a complicated potion, but to do what the master ask is. That is casting the potion into a pill. That process requires true mastery of the runes. Runes you see are ways to use magic in this world. As a healer, one must also be capable using magic stones to use basic magic. Of course, the magic required can't really compare to the magic a mage uses. it is simply magic used through the help of magic stones.
Pouring a bowl of water into the cauldron I started the process of potions brewing. Etching the runes for fire around the cauldron I placed a magic stone within the beginning rune. The runes ignited. Fire burst up around the cauldron. Using my hands, I drew the runes for wind on a wind stone and placed it in front of me. A slow breeze came out of the stone and circled around the cauldron. Slowly with tight precision the wind and fire mixed, creating slow harmony that made the fire stronger or weaker at times of great need. Each ingredient got added at the exact time with runes for potion making being cast at each step through the use of the different types of magic stones.
Sweat slid down my forehead. My hands moved in harmony with the fire, etching rune after rune with a wind stone as the potion matured. I drew the intricate spell for the nine needles, a spell required in the casting of the potion into a pill. Nine needles formed in the air out of light. With swaying movements, I directed the needles to circle around the potion. The needles flew around the bubbling potion collecting the aroma and smoke produced from the brewing. Slowly the nine needles zoomed around every edge of the potion lifting it into the air.
I breathed in slowly. Quickly I etched the chain of runes on another wind stone. These runes are required for locking the potion into a cast. Tiny air chains connected with the needled and started wrapping around the potion condensing the liquid into a ball shape.
Finally, I etched the final runes called scripture on the final wind stone. It imprinted ancient runes on the outer layer of the potion. Slowly the runes became a chain of words that stuck to the outside of the potion.
"Cast!" I shouted as the layer outside of the potion hardened and formed into a pill.
I breathed rapidly. Holding out my hand I quickly caught the pill in a small vial and sealed the vial up, making sure nothing escapes.
Sighing in relief I checked the time piece. It was nearly midnight. I had done it, finished the casting of the potion before the days end. Quickly, I stepped out of the potions room and went looking for my master.
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