Completed Salves and Oils

[Ari'Ellin]

1st Winter, 520AV

It had been an uncomfortable few days since she’d found out about the death of her mother. She’d spent several days writing back and forth with one of her mothers friends, trying to demand that they send her her mothers body so that she could at least take care of her funeral. Those demands had fallen on deaf ears and instead it had been decided that her mother would remain in Mura.

Instead her mothers friends had decided to search through her belongings to try to find something to send to her as some form of inheritance. Now it was getting close to her needing to head out to work, but her mind was otherwise occupied.

Today was the day that they were going to send her whatever it was that they had chosen from her mothers belongings, and she was waiting until the last possible second before she would leave for work, just in hopes that she would receive whatever it was before she had to leave for the day.

She had already dressed herself and laced her shoes, and her backpack was packed with everything she might need for the day, and now she was pacing back and forth across the floor of her small home, impatiently waiting.

It wasn’t long before a knock came at the door and hurriedly she answered it, the man making the delivery holding an envelope out to her.

“Thank.” she said as calmly as she could despite her voice shaking before the man turned to leave and she closed the door, hurriedly sitting down and tearing open the envelope to find a small, neatly written note, a bracelet, and what looked like a charm.

‘Dear Ari’Ellin. After much consideration and reading through your mothers journals, this was what she had intended worthy to pass on to you as a gift. This item is now yours as a memory of your mother and what she did for you.’

Ari’Ellin let her eyes look over the note, reading it carefully as she nodded to herself, before finally picking up the bracelet and the charm.

The bracelet was made from mostly delicate, silver coloured links holding it into circle shape. Every so often, the links appeared to be bigger, and hanging from one of these larger links was a charm. The charm was shaped like a small skull, and it was decorated with a variety of small gems, most of which were white in colour, though a couple around the eye area varied from blue to black.

Overall the bracelet and charm didn’t look like anything she’d seen in her mothers possession before, although to her it was incredibly beautiful, and without thinking she opened the clasp, placing it around her wrist and then struggling to close it. Finally she’d managed to close the clasp around her wrist and she held her arm up to examine the bracelet, smiling softly.

Shaking her head, she went to take it off, though it appeared that the clasp had either disappeared, or that it was so similar to the regular links that it was indistinguishable from them.

Ari furrowed her brows at the revelation, before moving as though to slip the bracelet over her hand, finding that she’d clasped it too tightly.

Frowning more, she noticed the time and shook her head, quickly grabbing her back and heading out of her front door towards her place of work.

[Ari'Ellin]

Hurriedly she made her way through the streets before she finally found herself at the Healing Hands, She entered through the doorway, nodding at the older woman and heading straight for the backroom. First she looked over the various shelves to see what was in stock and what needed more creating.

“We need more Burn Salve if that’s what your looking for?” came a voice and Ari’Ellin turned to see the young man working on cleaning a few glasses in the corner.

“Burn Salve?” she repeated, before nodding her head. “Yes, I make salve, okay?” she confirmed and the man nodded in response before turning back to his own work, leaving Ari’Ellin to get on with making the salve.

Frowning to herself, she grabbed one of the few remaining containers of burn salve and read over the description roughly written on it. It appeared to be some sort of oil infusion that had been combined with wax. Looking over everything, she saw that the infusion was based from a combination of what seemed to be stems of a shrub, and something else that she didn’t recognise. Frowning to herself she walked closer to Remus.

“Sorry, what this?” she asked quietly, pointing at the word and tilting her head, watching Remus reading whilst she waited for a response.

“Earthworms, crushed ones.” he said calmly and Ari’Ellin blinked at the word.

“Earthworms? We have here or outside?” she questioned and the man chuckled, before reaching to a drawer and pulling a jar from the drawer, filled with lazily writhing creatures.

“They arrived earlier today, you’re in luck.” the man said and Ari’Ellin nodded grateful, grimacing slightly as she took the jar and looking over the jar.

First she would have to make an oil based infusion of the ingredients.

She made her way around the room, grabbing the dried stems of the shrubs that had been mentioned in the label. Soon she had everything set next her on a flat surface, with a bowl in front of her as she tried to work out how best to go about things.

Sighing to herself, she shook her head, grabbing a mortar and pestle and choosing to start with the shrubs.

Calmly she grabbed a handful of the dried shrub stems and placed them into the small stone bowl before beginning to crush them with the pestle, She didn’t work particularly quickly, but all of her attention was focused on the stems and making sure they were crushed well enough to infuse with the oil.

Once she was happy with her work, she tipped the crushed stems into the bowl, before rinsing the mortar and pestle with olive oil to ensure that enough of the stems had been transferred to the bowl.

[Ari'Ellin]

Next she looked towards the jar of the writhing earthworms and grimaced again, shaking her head as she picked it up. Ideally she’d find a way to kill the worms without hurting them first, although she had no idea how to go about such a task. Did worms even feel pain? That was something she doubted she’d ever know.

Shaking her head she poured a couple of worms into the mortar and pestle, and she stood for a few moments, just thinking over what she was about to do. Shaking her head again, she decided that it would be best to wash the worms first, to ensure they wouldn’t bring any dirt into the salve. Nodding to herself, she tipped the worms into a separate bowl and submerged the worms in water, before moving the bowl around to try to shift the water over and around the worms as they writhed more energetically until she gently tipped out the water. She repeated the process twice more, before tipping the worms back into the mortar and pestle and sighing softly.

“Please forgive me…” she whispered in Kontinese before she brought down the pestle and began to crush the creatures. She avoided looking down as much as she cold, only really glanced down when there was no other way to check how much she had managed to get down, and soon she found that there was nothing but a pulpy, reddish brown paste left and a frown escaped her.

The smell was overwhelmingly bad, and she turned to the side to cough, doing everything she could to avoid gagging and retching at the smell. Quickly she added the remnants of the worms to the bowl, once again using the olive oil to rinse the mortar and pestle to try to avoid wasting any of her work. After all she needed oil in the bowl so that she could turn the two ingredients into an infused oil, rather than just a paste of green stems and reddish brown worm pulp. She wanted to ensure that her work would be easier going forwards.

Sighing to herself, she added more olice oil to the bowl, adding a quarter of a cup before stopping to stir the mixture, then adding another quarter of a cup of olive oil, up until the oil fully submerged the pastes, and once stirred through the paste, a small area of pure oil sat on top of the paste.

She preferred to start with too little oil and added more later than to start with too much oil and have to try to work out how to dilute the infused oil later. Adding more was always easuer than trying to take some of it away.

Nodding to herself, she left the bowl where it was, going to check the hearth and putting a pot of water onto it to boil. She would use the steam from the water to heat the bowl of the paste and oil in order to encourage the infusion.

[Ari'Ellin]

She waited a few moments, watching as the pot of water began to slowly come to a boil, then as in turned to a rolling boil, Ari’Ellin returned to the mix of oils, dead worms, and crushed stems and picked it up, carrying it to the hearth, setting the bowl on top of the pot of boiling water, watching as the bottom of the clear bowl immediately began to collect condensation as the steam hit it, gradually heating the mixture.

She hummed softly, watching the mixture before deciding that she wasn’t much else that she could do until some time had passed, and slowly she stood up, walking to the shelves and storage and sorting through things until she managed to find a cheesecloth to strain the oil with, and a jar of beeswax that she could use to turn the liquid oil into a harder, more solid salves.

It was at that point that an odd sensation took over her, something in the back of her mind telling her that somebody was in danger and the pit of her stomach ached with the sense that that person was in enough danger that they’re life and everyone around them would have their lives change drastically. That they could die.

For a moment she tried to shake away the feeling, though it only got stronger. Something was telling her that this was someone younger and smaller than here, and trying to find a way to ease the sensation.

As she walked back to where Kita was, the older woman raised an eyebrow at her. “What’s wrong?” the woman asked. “You look pale.”

Ari’Ellin shook her head slightly, looking down. “I think someone danger.” she said, aware of how it would sound from the outside. She was certain that anyone would think that she was still in mourning from the loss of her mother, but it felt too real to her to just brush it off.

Then another whisper came into the back of her mind, rapidly pushing it’s way to the front of her thoughts as though something was forcibly inserted the thought into her.

“Poison.” she said. “I feel someone poison go die.” she started before realising how stupid it sounded, before a worried looking couple entered the shop, a child in the mans arms that was crying and complaining, clearly in pain.

Almost instantly she felt her face pale and she looked towards Kita, seeing the woman looking slightly bewildered as she spoke to the couple in common that was too rapid and emotional for Ari’Ellin to follow along with.

“Ari, Narnvayt Oil.” was the only words from Kita that she fully understood and hurriedly she began looking through the shelves until her hands landed on the vial of oil. She hurried back, handing it to Kita, watching her talking to the couple. Handing over the vial in exchange for money.

“This will make him throw up and get it out. Please take him to Catholicon though. I know that you were closer to here, but please take him there for a doctor to make sure he’s better?” the woman said and the parents hurried out, taking their child with him.

[Ari'Ellin]

Anxiously Ari’Ellin looked at Kita before she started to speak. “Poison?” was all she said and the woman nodded.

“They were out and he ate some sort of plant he shouldn’t. Poor thing was instantly in pain from the sounds of it.” the woman said before she shook her head. “Did Avalis bless you with a vision there? Is that what your feeling was?” the woman said and Ari’Ellin raised a hand to touch the mark of the seer’s lily on her chest.

“It feel not same.” she shook her head slightly, looking down and sighing slightly. “Maybe dumb luck. I go back make salve.” she said, nodding resolutely in her decision as Kita nodded at her as she made her way back to the hearth and the pot, the stench of the mix suddenly entering her nose and hitting the back of her throat, instantly making her gag.

She used one hand to cover her nose and mouth and grabbed a cloth to hold the edge of the glass bowl, shaking it to see how the mixtures infusion into the oil appeared to going.

The oil was definitely darker in colour, and if the stench was anything to go by, she was certain that it was ready. Hurriedly she grabbed the bowl and carried it to the work surface she’d been using, before going to grab herself a jar and some twine, using the twine to secure the cheesecloth around the top of the jar, with just enough slack that it could hold the remnants of the shrub stems and the dead worms.

Then she returned to the oil mixture, grimacing as the smell hit her again, although this time she’d been prepared and refused to allow herself to retch and gag.

Instead, she carefully raised the bowl and tipped it, allowing the oil to flow through the cheesecloth and into the jar, slowly but surely beginning to fill the jar up. It wasn’t before all the top layer of oil was in the jar and the rancid paste would begin to fall into the cheesecloth, thankfully being too thick to fall into the infused oil.

Every section of paste that fell into the cheesecloth released more of it’s foul odor, and although Ari knew that there was no way that it was going to smell, good, she hadn’t quite expected something this bad. She couldn’t imagine how Remus was able to stand the stench, unless the odor was thankfully not spreading through the air as quickly as she’d have imagined.

Desperate to be done with the paste, Ari’Ellin tipped the last of the bowl into the cheesecloth and set the bowl down as she checked over everything, nodding softly to herself before choosing to leave the paste on the cheesecloth to give it time to release all of the oil while she cleaned the bowl that she had been using, seeing no point in dirtying two bowls.

[Ari'Ellin]

She wasn’t the best at cleaning, instead opting to rinse the bowl a couple of times with water, using a cloth to wipe the edges until it at least looked clean. Then she was ready. She knew that she’d need to heat the oil and some wax, although how much wax would be needed was difficult for her.

She sighed, frowning and returning back to her infused oil, scrunching her nose in preparation for the foul smell as she removed the remainders of the paste and the cheesecloth, pouring the oil into the bowl again, moving it next to the fire to heat it gently.

As the oil heated, she rummaged through a few doors before she managed to find a metal spoon, one that hopefully wouldn’t be damaged by wax. Then she looked around more before she found a jar of beeswax that had been broken into small pieces.

Nodding to herself, she gently tipped a few of the small pieces into the heated oil and let them sit in the oil for a few moments, before gently stirring the mix with the spoon, making an effort to poke the wax chips to see how they were melting.

At first they seemed to be too solid and so she left them for a full chime this time, letting the oil heat up a little bit more before stirring the mix and smiling as she saw the wax beginning to melt into it. Grinning to herself, she tipped a handful more wax chips into the mix, and waited a little longer this time, tapping her fingers on the floor as she waited for roughly two chimes to pass before stirring the mixture again, watching as the wax melted and mixed with the oil.

She began mixing it more aggressively, trying to make sure it was thoroughly mixed before using the spoon to scoop out a small amount of the mixture. She wasn’t sure what it’s cooled texture would be like, and so she wanted to check to see whether it was still too liquidy or whether it would be too hard.

She had to wait of course, and she was counting every tick, growing in impatience as she waited to see what would happen. After around five chimes, the mixture still seemed much too liquidy.

Humming she tipped more into the mix, until she’d added roughly an eighth of what she’d used in oil, and she left it to melt and heat. This time she left it for ten chimes before returning to it and vigorously mixing the molten wax and the oil.

“Looks good.” a voice said from over her shoulder and she turned to see Remus with an arm extended to her, his hand holding a few small jars. “Pour it into these. I’ll make the labels for it.” the man said and Ari nodded silently, taking the jars and setting them down on the hearth, next to her bowl.

Not wanting to spill any of her work, she picked one jar up and held it over the bowl and started to spoon the mixture into the jar, being careful to avoid spilling anything. It would have been quicker to pick up the metal bowl and pour it but she didn’t trust how steady her hands were, so instead she focused on trying to use the spoon as fast as she could, and once one jar was filled she placed it on a shelf for Remus to deal with. Soon, roughly half a bell later, the bowl was almost emptied, and now she picked it up, pouring the last little remnants into the last small jar, nodding to herself as she placed the final jar back onto the shelf.

Word Count621

[Cleon]

Grade Award!

Ari'Ellin:

Skills:

Herbalism: 4
Observation: 5
Organization: 1
Planning: 2
Socialization: 3

Lores:

Charm Bracelet: Physical Appearance
Charm Bracelet: Can’t be removed
Charm Bracelet: Inheritance from mother
Herbalism: Recipe for burn salve
Herbalism: Mashing with mortar & Pestle
Herbalism: Infusing with oil
Planning: Cleaning earthworms before using them
Planning: Using olive oil to clean mortar
Herbalism: Adding heat to help along the infusion
Herbalism: Straining with a cheese cloth
Herbalism: Thickening oil with beeswax
Narnvayt oil: Used to induce emesis
Herbalism: How to process burn salve into jars

Notes: I really enjoyed reading this thread. Thank you for the submission.

Feel free to pm me with questions or concerns about your grade, and don’t forget to edit your grade request!