Deciding to take a different tack with her this time, Imelda instead asked a question, "Kori, just how much do you know about potions?"

The subject dragged up the memory of her previous attempt to learn more about them, Kori grimaced before grumbling out, "Not much… no thanks to that nasty potion lady. I know healing potions exist, and that there are other kinds, but not what any of them actually do…"

Her suspicions confirmed, Imelda ignored the source of the kobold's frustration and moved straight on to a brief explanation. "There are indeed many types of potions, some that restore health, mana, or stamina and others that provide effects, such as curing poisons or increasing your Ability Scores for a period of time, like your newest creation."

Nodding along, Kori replied with a quick "That makes sense" as the woman paused.

"The counterpart to your suspension would be a Basic Potion of Fortitude, which is something that Renava sells in her store." Even she couldn't say the woman's name without a frown, clearly it was not just Kori that disliked the abrasive potion seller. "Such a potion provides a higher bonus than what you've made, I believe the basic tier one 'buff' potions, that is what they are commonly referred to rather than their somewhat wordy 'Ability Score Enhancement Potions' official title, give ten to each effected Ability Score."

Interrupting her before she could finish her explanation, "See, I knew they'd be better, who'd want that," Pointing to the flask of her suspension, "when they could get double the bonus." Her tone one of vindication that her assumption of its value had been seemingly confirmed.

"Wait until I finish, I was getting to why it's not that simple." The herbalist replied as a gentle rebuttal before continuing on with her lecture. "Now, where was I… oh, yes. While the same tier of potion increases the scores by ten rather than five, it only does so for thirty minutes per potion compared to your rather impressive two hours. Though they also lack the limit of a sole use per twelve hours." Imelda paused her explanation briefly, expecting another interruption that never came.

Instead, the youngling sat in thought trying to weigh which would be better, a longer but weaker effect or a shorter but stronger one. In the end she wasn't sure. She knew that if it were Attunement she would want the longer bonus, since she assumed that the increase in her mana would still require her to recover the extra, but with the more physical side of things, a stronger benefit may be the better way to go.

After a few moments with no questions or comments from Kori, Imelda continued her explanation, adding a bit of a caveat to the upside of potion use. "Now potions do have limits, taking too many of them too quickly can be bad for you too, but that is shared over all potions of the same category and is actually based on the tier of the potion and your own Vitality score rather than a specific amount of time." After a few moments she recalled about a Skill that she'd never really bothered with to add, "There's also a Skill that can lessen the effect, but I don't know much about it. It's something the Adventurer's Guild usually pushes its members to learn. I only know about it because there's a herbal tea they get me to prepare that helps alleviate the symptoms of pushing your limits to earn the skill, it's apparently quite the unpleasant experience."

With the knowledge that there were limits to potions just as with her new suspension, it didn't take Kori very long to think through the ups and downs of the two a bit further. "So, then if a mage, who doesn't really need the extra Vitality and Endurance so much, was going to take a bunch of potions, they might be want to use the suspension as well? And maybe even be able to take another potion because of it?" She asked, starting to see the value her creation could provide alongside a potion rather than in replacement of.

"There's definitely that, but there's one important thing, probably much more important." Imelda replied, a little teasingly as she drew out the reveal to her young audience. "How much do you think the moss that you used for this suspension cost?" She asked, grinning slightly as she made Kori work her way to the point rather than just stating it.

"I don't know, maybe a few silver?" She guessed, "I'm not really good with coin still…"

"Somewhere around that, yes." She confirmed, "The luminous moss was, well, basically free. I'm sure that would change if I started ordering it in volume to make these suspensions though. I think the price he quoted me for it before we came to our current arrangement was twenty silver-five per one hundred grams. I imagine that will go up if you keep making new things though, but we'll assume for now that is the price." She chuckled a little thinking of the deal that she had come to with Har; since few others ever bought the stuff, it ended up that she was basically paying him to store the moss for the off chance that the kobolds would need to buy it back and he was refunding her, on the next deal, no way he'd actually give up coin, if any went bad to keep her stocking it. "You used fifteen grams of it dried, but that was basically half of the two hundred grams that we'd dried, and that made a liter of the tincture, which you used a quarter on that."

Kori nodded along, knowing full well how much weight was lost by taking the moisture out of the moss.

"Then there's the sphagnum, that stuffs pretty cheap, I'd sell what you used for another two or three silver, I pay about half of that." She paused again to make sure Kori was keeping up with the math.

When the other woman paused, Kori began to work through the math aloud, her Skill making it quite easy, "So, if there were no failures then four batches this size could be made with about twenty-five silver worth of luminous moss and another four to six silver worth of sphagnum moss." Kori replied, pausing intermittently to go through the numbers as she spoke. With a nod of confirmation from Imelda, she continued on, "So that's at the high end, thirty-one silver for four batches, and we just made seven doses in that batch… that's about a single silver each?"

With a bright smile, Imelda excitedly confirmed the youngling's quick math, "Exactly!" She exclaimed. "And do you know how much Renava sells her basic potion of fortitude for?" She asked with a knowing smile.

"Uhhh… maybe five silver?" Kori guessed, figuring it had to be more if she was getting excited over it but couldn't be that much more.

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"Nope!" Imelda replied laughing, "She sells the things for thirty-five silver! Even if we sold them for five silver each, we'd still be charging only a fraction of her price!" Her laughter continued into the territory of gleeful cackle as Kori gave her an odd look.

Not really understanding why they would sell it for more than it cost, Kori asked her just that. "But why would we charge so much? If it only cost a silver, wouldn't we sell it for a silver?"

For some reason this was the wrong thing to say, Imelda paused in her mirth for just a few moments before it began anew, for some reason even intensifying.

Between bouts she got a few words in, though Kori wasn't exactly sure what she meant when she said, "Oh poor Har, he's got his work cut out for him with you."

It took nearly a full minute for the woman to calm down and suggest that they split the batch into smaller vials before they tried again to see if their results were repeatable. She began chuckling once again after making a comment that the vials themselves were actually more expensive than what they were filling them with, at a silver and a half each, as they did so.

They had kept the second batch of tincture simmering on the runic plate that had been used earlier for reheating the tea, though they had scaled it down by half so there was only enough to produce another batch of the suspension left. It proceeded exactly as before, though at a much quicker pace without the need to second guess every choice or addition of tincture after they were past the stage where an ointment would be completed. The rapid draw on her mana was worse the second time around, there not having been much time to recover more than a point or two that she had expended earlier. When it was all said and done, she was left with just fifty two mana remaining and wouldn't have been able to make another batch for several more hours if they'd wanted to.

They would need to tweak the recipe slightly before they tried to make any more; according to Imelda and her measurement Skill it required forty-two milliliters each before the warning that the vial contained insufficient volume disappeared from the appraisal. Most of the remainder was made up of residue they couldn't extract from the mortar, flask, or other implements, but there was a still a little that would go to waste.

With so little mana remaining, Kori didn't see much point in experimenting or wasting what moss they had left on making ointments so they decided that they were done with their work for the day and returned to the shopfront to brew another pot of tea and chat, with only the occasional customer interrupting them, about what else they might try, both in the original pursuit of a replacement for the luminous moss and what else they might try to make other suspensions.

"I kind of want to try with that mushroom now…" Kori said at one point.

"I'm not sure if that'd be a good idea, it's hard to work with without accidentally burning your skin if you get it on yourself, not sure what it'd do to your scales." She shivered at the thought of handling the stuff. "And never risk getting it in your eyes, that's a good way to go blind."

"And people eat the stuff?!" Kori asked, still astounded by what she could only assume was utter stupidity of some people.

Imelda just shrugged in response, "Plus I sell each of those ten-gram vials for five full golden trunks. Not that many people buy the stuff, mostly just traveling merchants."

Kori sputtered, nearly choking on her tea, at the price. "Five gold, for something to torture yourself with…"

"Yup." Imelda confirmed, "It's grown on the other side of the continent and barely ever makes its way this far north. Mostly because there's next to no demand for it, but still makes it rare."

They continued to debate various possible ingredients back and forth, with suggestions of stinging nettle, yarrow, lavender, and even chamomile, which was in the tea they were drinking, being brought up and considered. A few others were considered, but either disregarded or placed much lower on the list to try, either because they weren't very common, like bloodflower, a cousin of the more common milkweed, or were much too expensive, like saffron.

The pair were well into their second pot of tea when Zln arrived to escort Kori back to the enclave. As she packed up her things to leave, she was surprised when Imelda handed her a parcel of the vials they had filled.

"Don't forget these now, I'm certain Har will be excited to see them." She said as she passed the packaged vials to her, each was set into its own little slot in a stand that was purpose-built for them. Though it only held a dozen and the last she passed over individually to go in Kori's satchel. "You can bring back the rack tomorrow when you come back, Har should be able to find something else to pack them in. I kept one and the ointment you had made, since that was the deal we'd agreed upon."

Kori expressed her surprised that she was leaving with, most of, her creations, "Oh. I thought you'd keep them all. We did use your ingredients to make them"

"Oh, he'll get a bill for those too." She snickered.

As soon as the pair had said their goodbyes for the day, Zln gave a curt nod to the herbalist, said "Let's go." and was already halfway turned back to the door before she had finished speaking.

Kori gave her newest friend a quick wave as she hurried after the brusque animist who kept a hasty pace as they made their way back through the town. The trip was much less eventful than the morning's journey, with the only words spoken similarly brief instructions to hurry up, wait while a carriage passed, or stop getting distracted by random stores or the like. It wasn't until the open gates into the enclave were in sight before there was anything approaching conversation.

Without even slowing or turning to face her, Zln abruptly stated, "Har confirmed your claim." Her voice remaining in her typical indifferent monotone.

She said nothing else and if it was meant as a simple statement or some form of apology, was completely unclear to Kori. Still somewhat angry with the woman, Kori said nothing at all in response.

The remaining meters remained in silence, the same as the majority of the trek had been, and when Zln angled herself towards the entrance to the underground, Kori silently diverged her path towards the warehouse and Har's office; where she was certain she would still find him. If her departure was even noticed, nothing was said.

Finding that she had been correct, Har sat behind his paper strewn desk right where she'd assumed he'd be, she cleared her throat after entering the room since she knew he wouldn't notice her for a while otherwise.

With a startled shake, looking up and spotting her presence, "Oh, you're back already?"

"It's dinnertime, Har…"

"It is? Oh… I guess it is…" As he replied she began removing the rack of vials from where she'd secured it in her satchel and his eyes fixated on it. "Were you successful then?" He asked excitedly.

"Not exactly, but Imelda said you'd be very happy with what we were able to make." She said with a smile.

She handed him the loose vial that didn't fit in the rack and watched as his excited grin grew, nearly seeing the coins he was counting in his eyes.

"Oh yes. She was right about that." As he turned the vial in his hands.

Giving him only a few moments to soak in the potential of what she'd made, she dropped the bombshell she still didn't quite comprehend the magnitude of. "It cost about a silver per vial in ingredients to make."

In his shock the vial clattered to his desk, thankfully, for both it and his paperwork, not breaking as his head snapped up to stare back at his apprentice so fast that one of his hands shot up to the back of his neck equally fast as pain flashed across his expression. He snatched the suspension back up with his other hand just as quickly, his gaze rapidly flickering between it and Kori as his jaw opened and closed, only strangled sounds that didn't even approach words coming out for nearly a minute.

By the time he'd managed to get a few words out, all he managed was a few expletives and a nearly shouted "Seriously?!"

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