After that, Heron went a bit crazy on the potion making. He devoted quite a bit of time to it, from gathering the proper materials to mixing them together with Kur. It turned into another bonding experience for the two of them.
Elswyth helped him go gathering on a near daily basis. Even though she didn't know all of the useful plants for animals, she did have a good grasp on where to find them, once he told her their names. She was really useful for that.
Honestly, gathering with Elswyth was actually rather fun. She taught him folklore surrounding several of the plants as they worked. Stuff he couldn't find in a book.
And, he got the impression she enjoyed these forages as much as he did.
Potion making itself wasn't as fun. It took a lot of concentration and making sure nothing went wrong. On the plus side, you couldn't mess up a potion so that it had some weird unknown effect. They just blew up if done incorrectly.
He had almost blew up three, but Kur had managed to save two of them. The other one had not made a huge explosion though. It was confined to the area they were working in. Some papers had been destroyed, but they had been copies anyway so it wasn't some terrible lost.
According to Kur he had picked it up fairly quickly.
In one month, they had made about twenty potions, of various effects. And on the next full moon, they finally made that sleeping potion as well. It had a strange silvery sheen to it.
Sleeping potions were not the most useful potion in battle, but they were very useful for medicinal purposes. They could put someone out long enough for a procedure to be done. Though, clerics didn't need to put someone out to heal them, but for a doctor this would be very useful to give patients.
Anyway, Heron really enjoyed the process of making potions. And if he hadn't been a prince, he might have turned it into a career. As a prince, it could only be a hobby though.
It would have been nice to be able to make potions that could heal, but that was something only a cleric could do. Well, some druids might be able to. But that seemed to be more a rumor than having any real basis to it.
After the first month of making these potions Heron did slow down. He still went gathering once a week, and making potions with Kur, or more on his own now, on a different day, but he was no longer going every single day.
One of the reasons for this was that as autumn grew later in its season, there was less to find. Oh, there were materials that were only available in this season, but they were fewer and farther between.
This made foraging better to do less often, rather than every day. As that gave time for the materials to grow enough to be harvested, rather than trying to find things that may or may not be there.
Mushrooms were the most common material right now. Unfortunately, most mushrooms were not useable in any potions. They were one or two species which were, and Heron and Kur made good use of them.
They used their other days for different activities now. Kur had started trying to actively teach Heron spells, instead of sneakily leaving them in his spellbook for him. Kur seemed to thrive happily in the role of teacher, though Heron was sure that was only because he already felt comfortable with him. The spells ranged in use greatly. Heron personally liked protection and combat magic, but Kur taught him some more practical magic as well.
Between what he had learnt from both his friends, Heron felt like he could actually be some good in combat. Though he tried not to get too ahead of himself. Afterall, he was sure being cocky was a very good way to get killed in battle.
Not that he exactly expected to be in battle, but he never again wanted to have others die protecting him. He would rather be the one doing the protecting.
Besides, if he grew powerful enough he could just browbeat his people into accepting magic.
…Preferably, it would be best to make them accept it peaceably, but if it came down to it…yeah, he would be willing to become a minor villain. For his sister and Asrar. It would be worth it.
He was a still a long ways from that though… as of right now though, he could hold his own in a fight. That was a lot better than he had been when he met Elswyth. Then he could only maybe be able to do something, and it would have been luck more than anything else.