A time to learn (Dusk)

[John Vicari]

5th Spring 510 Av The young male was at a lost in the forest on the outer parts of the city,Syliras, with a book that he was using from his boss Dominac dealing with Plant Identification which he was to use for local plants in the area to pick and choose items for Phitering which he was to learn when he was back at the shop. If John was going to learn it then he would learn other things to help him at the skill so he would not be lost. That speech made Dominac throw a book at him and tell him to get to work which was how he was out in the forest looking at the pages trying to look around the forest ground. The third page of the book listed flowers found in the most common areas which were of light shades of colors from white, pinks, yellows and oranges. However it was best to use plant identification by the leaf shape and style. Venation was used for it was the arrangement of a system of veins like a leaf blade but it could also be used for bug identification for venation could also be used on wings of an insect. Then you had the leaf structure then leaf margin. The book got into detail of a lot more detail yet John did not need that information as of now as he flipped looking towards shapes of the leafs, venation and the margin of them which would be used to form a class of any plant. With a slow nod he started looking as he had to get roots, flowers and maybe seeds for the work however he also thought of trying to deal with some poisons due to the information was close to both in his view but that would be another time. He soon had gathered a small pouch with different flower petals, mosses, roots from flowers and some of small trees. All in all enough to work with and maybe even a bit more as he made his way back towards the shop. He did not yell as he closed the shop's door with locking it before making his way towards the back area. He saw in one of the rooms a set up of glass wares was already set up as John put the small pouch down with the book. He slowly placed the items on the table for use as he waited for more details from Dominac...

[Dusk]

John only had a few minutes to wait before he heard the front door of the shop open and the familiar shuffle of Dominiac's steps - and another set as well. "And don't start nagging at me to clean this place up when you know good and well I never will," Dominac said, his crotchety voice echoing through the shop. "If you clean it, I will not have to nag you," came the soft reply, a musical feminine voice that shook with good-natured laughter. There was a strange accent to it that John had likely never heard before, smooth and cool as glass. "And I would probably visit you more often," she chuckled. The old man gave a single bark of laughter. "Like I want more company. Please. If I want to listen to you prattle on, I'll come looking for you. Ah, here we are," he said, appearing through the door and nodding to John. "Yes. Here, boy, this is Sahfri, the apothecary," he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. He was followed by a small woman, barely more than five feet tall with a narrow waist and thin shoulders. Black hair hung freely down to her waist, framing a heart-shaped face of dark olive-toned skin. Her eyes were two distinct colors - the right iris the color of melted chocolate, the left as green as fresh mint. That was not the only anomaly, however. As she stepped forward, two hands fanned out her skirt as she curtsied her hello... and two more hands swept her hair over her shoulders. "A pleasure to meet you, John," she murmured, straightening up and folding all four hands in front of her. "Dominac has asked me to instruct you in the making of philters."

[John Vicari]

John smiled as he saw his boss and bowed his head when he saw the guest. He was taken back by the arms yet he thought it added to her looks then take them away. She was a Eypharian if he was not mistaken for they were common with more then two arms. He found her eyes rather pretty but did not say anything for she was to be his teacher it would seem.

"Hello Dominac and hello Sahfri. As you know I am John yet it is nice to meet you. Dominac is pushing me more or less to learn philters and I was wondering how he was going to get that set up...He does not seem to be skilled in that area. I only really know the history of philtering and have a book of basics of it."

He was somewhat just going off and talking yet he was opening up. It made him laugh inside when he heard them talk of how the shop was. He learned soon that it was a topic he did not go on about as it seemed the shop keeper enjoyed the dust.

"Shall we start?"

[Dusk]

Dominac frowned at the boy's speech, and in the flash of an eye he whacked John across the back with his cane - hard enough to damn well know he'd been hit. "Oh, and you know what areas I'm skilled in, boy?" he growled, waving his cane about again. "Has it never occurred to you that maybe I don't have time to sit around and teach you every little thing? You'd do well to watch your tongue! Now shut up and listen to what the woman tells you. I'm paying good money to train you, the least you could do is shut your trap and be grateful," he huffed. With a final glare, he turned and hustled out of the room. Sahfri just offered a mild smile and shrugged. "He's a fine sense of honor when it comes to his intellect," she chuckled, pulling up a stool and settling beside John. "It's best not to insinuate that he's less than knowledgeable on a subject. Now. Have you chosen a recipe to start learning with?"

[John Vicari]

Let me tell you a tale...

John did not pay much mind to his teacher or was it just his boss? Yet he knew he would reject the words later as it was more then just a whip of the cane to his legs but his heart was in the right place. "I will do best to remember that...as for a recipe to start with...umm well I read the history of the subject but not much more. I would not mind learning how to craft Alchemist’s Fire yet I get the feeling that is something to learn at a later stage. What do you think would be the best thing to learn and build upon? I hate the idea of going too deep and not being able to swim." He just took a seat leaving the other one open for her yet giving more then enough space for her arms. "So may I ask why you are helping? I thought your race did not like humans that much and sorry if I am jumping to things again...I tend to do that a lot."

Do come again for another tale...

[Dusk]

Sahfri gave a breathy laugh and began reaching across the table to compile the components for what they'd be making that day, all four of her hands gathering up little glass jars they would need, as well as a mortar and pestle. "Alchemists' Fire? I don't think there's more than three people in this city who know that formula, and you'll never get them to teach it to you. Having that recipe is like having a hand in the Mint. Not to mention that to attempt it when you have no idea even how to grind an herb would surely end in your death," she said, her voice soft but somehow still conveying her consternation that he would be so foolish as to think he could learn it. "You're not the first person I've heard asking about it recently," she said with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. "I spent nearly two decades traveling the world and working to improve my skills, traveled over half the world! And then children who've never made so much as a tea-tincture expect me to simply teach them one of the greatest formulas known in our craft," she chuckled, making a tsk-tsk! noise as she shot him a friendly wink. "You'll be learning how to make a balm to protect one's lips from drying out. It's popular enough among the women of Syliras, and good practice for you." She reached into the pocket of her skirts and drew out several linen packets and a couple of small jars. "Now, let's start with the basics. You've been studying plant identification, yes?" she asked as she unwrapped each of the little packets to reveal their contents. "Can you tell me what each of these is?" she asked, pointing to various rose petals, beeswax and honey, almond oil, and a bit of what looked like butter. "And name each of the tools you have to work with?"

[John Vicari]

Let me tell you a tale...

"We will be using a Mortar and Pestle. It's a tool to crush, grind and mix substances that are of the solid type. The pestle is a bat-shaped object which the end is used for the crushing and grinding and the mortar is a bowl which is made of hard wood, clay, stone or in rare cases marble." "Your basic glass jars which is used to hold the final item that you make. Along with different smaller vials and such. You could use a greater alembic to help you keep track of boiling items and such but that is not needed as you can just keep a closer eye on things." "Now to the items in question...Beeswax is the most easy of the items to see for the comb like nature it has. You can eat it like it is yet I would just suck along the holes along the substance." He said as he flipped open one of the books near him. "The Almond oil is a bit harder but you can tell of it's darker color. It says here it can be a sweet or bitter type as two forms of the plant are around. The sweet oil comes from the white petal plant and the bitter comes from the pink flowers. Working with the more bitter type can be harder due to they hold a poison which can be bad for you in small doses and larger doses can be deadly. You need to remove the oil in it somehow but I am not sure how yet it is good to know it could be used as a poison if you had to use it like that." "The rose petals comes in many forms and styles yet you can tell of the light colors along with the petals on the edges..." He said not going in large detail of the rose petals even if the book did talk more of them due to the types of areas they came from meant a lot due to the uses. Yet he was not sure what the last item was on the table...In his cooking watching time he would say it was a butter of some type but that just did not seem right to him as he moved from page to page in the small book yet not coming upon it maybe for the fact it was not a flower or plant but something else. "Umm...I am not sure what the last item in question is...Butter of some kind?" He said not feeling that bad of asking and not knowing due to he was so new in the trade yet he did have a open mind to learn new things of it.

Do come again for another tale...

[Dusk]

"Very good," Sahfri chuckled, nodding her approval. "The butter is from the shea nut, which doesn't grow this far north. I have it imported up Riverfall on the trade route. "Now," she said, smiling serenely as she handed him a slip of paper. On it was written the recipe for the lip balm. "Make it," she chuckled, settling back in her chair and folding her arms over her chest. She was clearly just planning to watch what he did to see what he was capable of.

[John Vicari]

Let me tell you a tale...

"All right I can start to make it. I will be a bit slow but I will get it done in a timely fashion." He did not sound too worried about making it not with with her near him to oversee any mistakes he made. However he was hoping he would not make many mistakes with this simple substance that sold during the fall and winter seasons. He placed the petals within the mortar before picking up the Pestle in his right hand. He worked the tool slowly grinding the petals into finer petals in a clockwise motion. As the petals broke down he added two teaspoon of the almond oil in the mix with the pestle working along the mortar. The raw beeswax had dark brown grittiness within the blocks that were impurities. If he was making a candle he would just let them stay however as the book talked of the lip balm he had to melt the wax down before use. He placed a small bowl along the flame letting the water inside boil before placing a jar within the bowl that had the bulk of the beeswax. The text said it would take awhile however he had other things on his mind as he let that sit on the flames. He kept turning the crushed petals in the mortal as the honey slowly boiled down to more of a usable substance for this moderately easy recipe. He did not say much as he waited the time span for the honey to become more pure but as it did he took a small teaspoon of it mixing it with the mortar then added one more teaspoon of the butter from the Shea nut moving in a counter clockwise motion now. After he kept moving it around he took a small glass jar from the table slowly pouring it in before sealing the lid on tight placing it in front of her. "It just needs to cool but I think I followed all the notes right in the book...How did I do?"

Do come again for another tale...

[Dusk]

Sahfri watched him in silence, mismatched eyes bright and cheerful. Despite his assumption, though, she didn't bother to correct his mistakes. This was his very first lesson, after all, and he needed to get used to the feel of working with the tools more than he needed to get it right. When he finally poured it into the jar, it wasn't quite the consistency it should have been - sort of lumpy, in fact. "Well. Not the worst I've seen on a first try, but then there isn't much to set on fire here," she chuckled, finally breaking her still watch over him to rise to her feet. She leaned closer, one hand on his shoulder as the other three went to work. First she pointed to the honey-beeswax mixture that was still boiling over the fire, waving him to remove it from the heat. "First you must wash the honey from the beeswax rather than melting them both together. You were smart not to simply put the bowl directly into the flame, but it still caused the honey to burn. When you get it hot enough, the honey begins to break down and will caramelize, which is why it turned out lumpy. If you ever use honey in any recipes, you must use it cold, or add it at the end of your heating process to ensure that it doesn't burn." "Now, the rose petals," she murmured, picking up the mortar in one hand and the jar of balm in another. "You see the flecks of red in the balm? You won't ever really get the rose petals to disintegrate the way you need them to - the best you'll get is a choppy sort of paste. But it's not the actual petals you need, but the oils from them. This is what you'll use the alembic for," she said, pointing with a third hand. "You'll add a bit of water and boil the mashed petals in the still, and then the oil will collect in the cucurbit," she said, indicating the smaller vessel at the bottom of the tube that connected the alembic. "That oil is what you'll mix into the balm." "You used much too much almond oil; be aware of proportions. Think of how much product you'll have at the end - do you really want it to be that oily? You were supposed to use a half teaspoon, not two. When you combine that with the few drops of rose oil you'll get, it's a much more reasonable proportion. See, in yours you used a teaspoon of honeyed wax, a teaspoon of butter, and two of oil plus the petals. I'm afraid it won't ever firm up," she chuckled. Her laughter wasn't at his expense; it was too friendly, conveying that she'd been in his same spot before and it was nothing to worry about. Even so, she laid all of his tools and ingredients back on the desk again. "Now, dispose of your first attempts, wash out the jar and all your tools, and start again from the beginning. When you pour it into the jar, it should be a transparent, somewhat golden liquid. It will solidify as it cools."