"...Jay…"
"...Jay!"
Upon hearing what seemed to be Lisa's voice call out his name multiple times, Jay slowly sat up and began rubbing his eyes. Once he peeled his eyes open, he noticed Lisa standing by the door across the bedroom as the yellow evening light shined from the room's windows unto her face.
"Jay, are you alright? You've been out for a couple hours since that incident. Did you get a good rest?" Lisa said as she walked up closer to the bed and held an elixir up to Jay.
"...Yea, I'm fine. That training wore me out a lot, but it helped me out significantly. Now I'm able to defend myself, hopefully." He said as he took the elixir in his hands and drank it.
"Well, that's good and all, but it really hurt to see you all bruised up on the ground like that. Well, at least you're okay. I just hope you two don't go too far next time." Lisa said as Jay started to get up from the bed and brush himself off.
"Thanks for worrying, but it was entirely my choice, I could have stopped it at any time, but I decided to keep going." Jay answered.
After having spoken, the painting of a woman on one of the walls had finally caught his attention. The purple-eyed woman was pale and slender and had long, curly violet hair. She sat on a chair in a patterned sky-blue background, wearing a sophisticated white dress with an intricately designed purple jewel that hung on her thin chain necklace.
"Who's the one in the painting? Is that your mother? She looks a lot like you." Jay questioned as Lisa's eyes began to sink.
"Yea, that's her. Her name was Violet Smith. She had a reputation for making one of the best elixirs, and I eventually picked up after her in the past. She was a really good mother, always being so generous to me; She would always go out of her way to get what I wanted as a child.
I've always looked up to her, since she was so kind and hard-working. Me and my dad really miss her. I just hope that one day I could find her and see her again."
"What happened to her, if you don't mind me asking?" Jay asked.
"I was with her and my father one time, and we had stayed at an inn called "Coyote's Den" for a vacation. After a few short days, It was late in the evening, and we were now leaving after packing up. As we walked out, Harry was far ahead, and me and my mother talked about our time there as we walked past streets not too far from it.
I was looking straight ahead, and then I felt something sharp on my left shoulder. I was obviously confused, so I turned my head to face my mother, and she wasn't there.
Then, I looked back ... and I saw her getting dragged away by some man hidden under a cloak with some red symbol on his back; I don't exactly remember what it looked like. He had her mouth covered with his gloved hands, then they soon moved into the darkness of some alleyway. I was barely able to hear her muffled voice as she tried to scream..." Lisa said as she began to shed tears.
With stern eyes, Jay stood in silence.
"I was paralyzed — I couldn't move, so I just stood there, watching her getting dragged away. My vision started to get hazy, and before I was able to shout after her, I collapsed to the ground, and the last thing I was able to hear and see was my father's face — just full of anguish — and my mother's muffled voice trying desperately to call after my name.
I couldn't do anything; I wasn't able to do anything. My father probably tried so desperately to look after her, but couldn't. Now, every time I see this picture, all I'm forced to remember was that awful day."
"I probably shouldn't have asked about the portrait." Jay thought to himself.
"Maybe ... just maybe she's still out there somewhere." Said Lisa.
"I'm sorry for making you have to remember all of this." He said.
"If there's a chance that she's still out there somewhere, and since you're my friend, I promise I'll do my best to search for her.
"No." Lisa insisted.
"There's no need to put yourself at risk for my sake. Besides, the town is filled with many people, it'll be impossible to find her. Who knows if she's even alive still; It's already been a couple of weeks since then..."
"Nothing is impossible. As long as you keep putting your mind to it, anything could be done. If there's a chance that she's still out there somewhere, why not try and look for her?" Jay said.
"Thank you, Jay." She replied, wiping her tears.
"As reassuring as that is, I think It's probably best that I move on and cherish the memories I have with my mother."
"I'm just doing whatever I can to make you happy. That's what you said a friend was for, after all." Jay thought.
Afterwards, Lisa had let out a sigh of relief and lightly smacked her face.
"Anyways, we should move on. Would you like to learn about alchemy?"
"No reason to say no." Jay answered.
"Then come with me!"
As Jay followed her outside of the bedroom directly into the living room, they both then headed to a rather inconspicuous door located to their right. Lisa opened the door, and behind the it revealed a staircase heading down into pitch darkness.
Lisa pulled on a hanging thread which flickered on a light as it illuminated the stairs. As they climbed down the stairs, they entered a rather large, dim room that consisted of bookshelves, small tables loaded with empty glass vases and jars, and a couple of barrels.
"So, here's my room I use for alchemy, also called an apothecary. Whad'ya think about it?" Lisa asked as she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"There's a lot of stuff to look at in here." Jay said as he scanned the room.
"Well, that's true, but explaining everything here should be pretty easy. First off, alchemy is the production of elixirs, which are drinks imbued with magic that can give off certain effects, depending on the ingredients.
There's ones that heal you, which I only make. Other elixirs can also give temporary boosts of strength, speed, and all other sorts of things. Unfortunately, there are also some out there that can harm you; That's called poison, you should stay away from those."
"Well … thank you for warning me." Jay responded.
"So, how do you make said elixirs?"
"All you need are herbs and alcohol, and then you sprinkle in a little bit of magic. First, you need to gather the ingredients, which is pretty quick and easy. Next, you grind the herbs using a mortar and pestle and place them in a jar. Then, you fill the jar with alcohol, close it, and let it sit in the sun for a few weeks.
Afterwards, when times up, you pour the contents in a vase, and channel your mana into it through the glass. Making healing elixirs is pretty easy, but their effects can vary depending on the type of materials and the strength of your elemental energy. Thankfully, my elixirs are sold for pretty good prices." Lisa stated.
"Pretty nice that you're able to make a living off of it." Jay said.
"So, wanna make one with me? We can go and gather the ingredients first!"
"Sure, I would like to try out alchemy."
"Alright, Let's go!" Lisa declared, quickly jumping off her seat and heading out the room.
"First things first, we need to find some herbs. The forest has a lot of rare ones." She said as she hastiy climbed up the stairs.
However, as if she had almost forgotten something, she quickly ran back to grab an empty bucket and continued on out of her apothecary. And after exiting the cabin, they both began heading deep into the forest.
"Where might Harry be? Didn't see him in the cabin anywhere. " Jay asked.
"He's working in town; He gets pretty busy during the evenings." Lisa responded.
"What does he do?"
"He works as a blacksmith and sells tools and weapons."
"Thats interesting, maybe I'll visit him on his job someday." Jay said, noticing flowers in a variety of colors and sizes as he scanned the ground. He then raised an eyebrow.
"So, what exactly are the herbs we're looking for? There's so many different flowers here." Jay asked, gazing at the ground confusingly.
"Just look for ones with thin white petals, they should be pretty easy to spot; They're called Chamomiles." Lisa answered, rather focused as she thoroughly searched the ground.
A few moments later, and they had eventually discovered a group of herbs with white petals that all surrounded little yellow stars.
"Jay, look!" Lisa shouted to him, making him look back in slight confusion.
"I found some Chamomiles. Come grab some with me!"
After a while, they both eventually filled the bucket with herbs and began to exit the forest. As they arrived near the cabin, Lisa walked up to a shelf by the cabin entrance, where multiple jars filled with green liquid lay stashed. She picked one up and headed inside as Jay followed behind.
After having entered the apothecary once again, Lisa placed the bucket on the ground and put a handful of the herbs into a mortar. Jay watched her as she sat down, crushed the herbs, then placed them in an empty jar. She then made a request.
"Can you take this and fill it up with alcohol?" It's in one of the barrels across the room. There should be a lever with a nozzle on it. Just pull on that."
After a short moment of doing so, Jay then handed the jar back to her.
"Perfect." She said.
"Now I'll just close it and bring it outside. Here's another one that I had finished already."
She opened another, identical jar and poured it into a glass vase through a thick cloth that began filtering out the solids.
"We have to concentrate our mana into it, which will tremendously increase the elixir's effectiveness. I'll give you a try while I head outside and stock up the shelf."
After Lisa headed back out the room carrying the jar she finished making, Jay picked up the vase off the table and rested it on top both of his hands. He then squinted his eyes to look closely at the dark green liquids that flowed about inside it.
"I have to channel mana into this vase, but how exactly do I do that..?" He thought.
Jay took a while thinking about how to imbue the elixir with energy. He made multiple attempts as he closed his eyes, but nothing appeared to have happened. Doing it was a lot harder than he thought. He didn't even know whether or not what he was doing was making a difference. But, before he had continued to fail, Lisa had entered the room.
"Hmm? You didn't do it yet?" She asked as she walked towards Jay.
"I don't actually know how. I've never tried this channeling stuff before." Jay replied as he rubbed the back of his head.
"That's fine, I'll do it. Just watch." Lisa said, taking the vase off of Jay and placing it on both her hands.
"Channeling your mana into it is simple." She stated. "All you have to do is think of it. Just think of the energy inside of you, and imagine releasing it out through the palms of your hands."
As Lisa spoke, the contents inside the vase began to light up, emitting a soft, green glow.
"When you channel your energy into it, the mana will be released from your body and mix with the liquid."
"Cool...!" Jay said with slightly raised eyebrows.
"And that's it. We made an elixir! I'm glad you found this interesting!"
Right after Lisa had spoken, the sound of a door opening was heard in the background.
"That must be Harry." Lisa whispered, sternly facing the room's exit.
"Let's go back upstairs."
They both headed upstairs and spotted Harry coming inside the house. He looked rather exhausted.
"Hi, papa." Lisa said while walking up to Harry and greeting him.
"Hey, my little sweetheart! How was your day?" Harry asked, placing his coat on a hanger by the door.
"Are you seriously gonna call me that...?" She replied with her hands on her hips.
"What? Would you rather your pops call you his li'l sugarplum?"
"Blegh!" Said Lisa, pretending to gag.
"Anyways ... I had a lot of fun today. I got to spend some more time with my friend. You seem more tired than usual, though."
"Yea, I had to work overtime. I'm so tired I might pass out the moment I touch the bed! By the way, Jay." Harry said, calling out to him while resting his arm on the table.
"What is it?" He answered, standing by the basement entrance.
"I gotta say, I know I said the spar wouldn't be light, but I went a little too hard on you. So I'll apologize. I got a little too excited with it, I haven't had such fun like that in years!"
"It's fine, I got what I needed. I remember how to fight now." Jay replied.
"I'm glad I knocked some senses into you, then." Harry responded, laughing as Jay looked unimpressed.
"Anyways, I'm off to bed you two, see you both tomorrow." Harry said, yawning and walking to a door which may have led to his room.
As Jay, Harry and Lisa exchanged their farewells, they all headed into their rooms and rested until the next day arrived.