[Theying]

Brightening 4, First Cycle of Imperos
Autumn of Era II of the Celestine Mandate
Era XIV Post Fractum
Paradigm: Selheim

Theying was not pleased. The idea to combine an insect and undead repellent had occurred to him only recently, so he scrounged together what he had on hand for this try. The resulting resources were poor. He produced Dog Rose and Bastit commercially, true but those resources were centered upon Paxia. His garden around Jaedaxia was primarily for personal use so. So he had some but not really a lot of it.

There were only four Bastit plants that were in any condition for experimentation because of the simple expedient of Marguerite borrowing them to cover smells of a spill of something at one of the small theaters. If it hadn't been for that stroke of fortune there wouldn't be any usable, since the key part of this herb was th oils. If the plant had been dried then the oils would be less than worthless for his purposes.

The condition of his Dog Rose supply was little better. He had obtained a three still-blooming flowers and five of the vibrant orange seed pods from his seed-trading partner. The Dog Rose was always a very prickly plant, it always had a strong dislike for everyone but for some reason it hated the undead with a (literally) undying passion. It sheathed itself in razor thorns to protect itself from the living but it always took great pains to develop traits abhorrent or dangerous to the undead. The big question that the lore didn't answer was what specifically drove away the undead and why. He hoped to answer this.

Still, there were only four shots at this. If the plants (or there spirits thereof) didn't get along, which was quite likely consider the prevalent attitude of Dog Rose in general, then it would be possible that none of them would work at all. If Theying misidentified how the Dog Rose's unmitigated rage and loathing towards the tragically soully-challenged they would fail. If the two plants got along in an unexpected way then they would likely do something wholly different, which could very well be fatal in this situation. Still there was simply no way to predict without trying, plants rarely surrendered their secrets to anyone be them clues to how they do things physically or the whims of their spirits.

Staring at the table in front of him, with all the materials present, the master herbalist balked. He found, collected, nurtured, bred, and prepared herbs. He had used herbs to heal, harm, inspire love, protect honor, restore beauty, and provide for his family. He had done and was familiar with all aspects of herbalism, except this. His last major attempt to use two herbs to do something greater than either could manage alone was an abject failure. He failed miserably to cure the Feeble Pox, the best he had managed was to slow the progression of the disease and even then at the cost of a handful of lives. In many ways his development as a herbalist stagnated at that point as he retreated to the tried and true trails blazed by others. In a very real sense Theying was going to explore new territory.

The first thing he would try would be by far the easiest. He would simply crush the oils out of both the flower and herb with a mortar and pestle and mix the resulting juices. This was a particularly blunt approach that bets that both plants repel what they do by using their physical make ups alone.

The second one attempt would something more complex. The Bastit was known to work just with the oils, so that remained unchanged, but the Dog Rose might have a more spiritual approach to dealing with the undead so the flower was left intact and left to soak in the Bastit oils.

Then again, the flower of the Dog Rose might have nothing to do with the plant's legendary stalwart defense against the less-than-living. The same bright orange seedpod that protected desperate mariners against scurvy might also ward them against the advances of the semi-living. Theying planned to cut a seed pod into pieces, grinding the juices out and mixing them with those of the Bastit plant.

The fourth and final attempt would take a slightly more tactful route with a seedpod. Instead of cutting it to pieces, he would merely cut a small hole and remove the seeds. At that point he would add the crushed oils of both the plant's own flower and that of the Bastit herb.

Having gone over the plan, there was nothing else to excuse inaction. He cautiously picked up his tools to begin work. This was to be a time of great uncertainty, as disaster can come quickly during the preparation as the first poor man who turned the normally benign Furuna into one of the most horrific herbal poisons available simply because he made the mistake of having copper tools. Theying was already half expecting a disaster, considering the hostile nature of the plants he was attempting to work with.