The Devil's Adieu

“Goodness, I’m just an ordinary little potion-brewer. What are you doing, trying to impress someone like me~?” She didn’t stop him, of course. She never was one to say no to physical contact, particularly from a handsome boy like Orion.

“Honestly, we’re trying to get rid of your thrall, and you just keep trying to aggravate it…” She paused at his sudden outburst. Oh? So this was the game he was trying to play?

She smiled right back at him, unwilling to admit she was slightly miffed he’d moved away. “Oooh. Of course there are dangerous magical plants – there’s a dangerous magical version of everything. If you want to find them, the Forbidden Forest is sweeter than this old place… The whole place is full of monsters, flora and fauna alike. You’re just as likely to be attacked by a vine as a bear. We should be relatively safe up here… watch your step, though. Never know what might bite – or just release some sort of poisonous spore, hmm?”

For all his supposed curiosity, Orion didn’t seem to be willing to risk much. She knew he was being reasonable, but she still couldn’t’ help but laugh. “It is pretty dangerous, yeah. When you deal with things that’re alive, you have to keep in mind their own wills…”

“Well, sure you can. You can also accidentally blow someone up and have not a clue what went wrong.” Bell was of the opinion that any science was fraught with danger, really. “There’re plenty of dangerous chemicals in the world, right? Think of this the same way, but with plants and such.”

“Mm… we should be there… soonish.” Bell shrugged. “You think I was keeping track? I just know we’re going in the right direction. Though I brought us on a little detour, too…” She bent over for a moment and plucked some of the leaves of the white sage to the right of her. “So I could get some of our ingredients, yeah? Keep a better eye out, tsk tsk.”

“You’re so impatient. Maybe next time I’ll keep you at home, hmm?” She looked to him with a mischievous smile. “So I can have some quiet time.”

Bell jolted as she was slapped on the bum – but managed not to yelp, instead letting out a loud and inelegant snort at Orion’s outburst. “Y’know if you keep seeing her you’ll have to keep coming back for more – and if I decide you’re being too naughty you’re getting none of it, let me tell you!”

But her laugh was bright and cheery, not a trace of actual annoyance in it. “Come on. We’ll likely find the second ingredient just growing around the spring – and we were almost there anyways, before you got distracted.”

“Too naughty is whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it. I’m the one who gets to judge after all, aren’t I? No potion, no kisses, no nothing! Maybe I’ll move away to a foreign country just to stay away from you.”

He wrapped an arm around his shoulder as he put one around her waist. “You and that succubus make an interesting pair, but so do we, huh. And I’m always ready to do science with you, you hear? Of all sorts.”

Before she could clarify what she meant by that they had arrived. The soft sounds of water punctuated their arrival, and she slipped away from him, a gentle and pleased look on her face. “It’s been a while since I’ve been here…” She plucked the purple flowers by the edge of the spring, and kept them carefully separate from the sage she had picked before. “You’ll have to be bear with me, this will take a while. Could you get me part of a tree or something? Something I can make a bowl with. Maybe even a particularly thick branch.”

“Give me a good excuse and I’ll come running.”

She had other things to think about than succubae at the moment, though, and her eyes flickered only briefly to the things he brought. “Wasteful,” she murmured, clearly distracted. “Take only what you need.” But she still took the best one, and after taking her knife from its sheath she began to carve a small mortar out of the base. She took her time with it, working carefully and with little concern to how impatient Orion might be – then she made a matching pestle with which to grind her potion ingredients.

The sage first, set carefully aside from her working area, and then the long, vine-like leaves of the devil’s shoestring, but only after her tools had been washed.

She had often questioned that plant as a child. It was meant to trip up the devil, her mother had explained, and she’d piped up, “But then why don’t we just use string?” She hadn’t understood that it was her mother’s way of explaining the complicated holy properties of the plant. It was little things like that that had made them bicker at times.

She took from her bag a bowl of pure silver, which she dipped into the pure spring water and filled completely, forming a thin meniscus at its rim – this she placed by the edge of the spring as she collected her dishes of ground herbs, one in each hand.

She poured them into the bowl, and picked it up as the water began to mist like dry ice. Then she began to whisper under her breath, in a lilting language Orion had likely never heard before.

“Mother, I give thanks for your years of guidance...”

As she spoke a breeze came through the area, causing her poncho to flutter and her hair to lift just slightly. She took the twine from her ponytail to let it flow in the wind, and then closed her eyes in something resembling prayer.

As she spoke and mist settled by her feet Orion would feel, unmistakeably, a presence, though of what he might not know – it was as if he was being watched, maybe judged.

If he was careful he might hear his name in her mutterings, but they were quiet, and it could be a trick of the ears. In any case, her whispers stopped just as the mist ended and the winds came to a standstill.

Bell crouched by the side of the river, took the mortar bowl she had used to grind the herbs, and procured a cup of water. Then she dripped in a few drops of her potion, which was clear now, almost indistinguishable from the original spring water.

She stood up and held the cup out to Orion, her hitherto serious and almost reverent expression breaking into a cheery smile. “Here you go, give that a try, could you?”