Heart of Fey and Fire - Chapter 2 - Potion Making

Brittany

“Do you ever wonder what sorta crazy god put us here?” I asked, muttering under my breath to ensure nobody outside the body heard me. Not that there was anyone around to hear me. My guards and maids were looking for me all over, but they’d already given up on the garden, and hadn’t even though to do a proper search of the wall.

I mean, yeah, they’d at least taken a look, but they needed more than a visual scan to crack my invisibility spell.

‘...Sometimes,’ Brianna admitted. ‘I mean, there’s no way this happened on accident, right? Getting reincarnated as an elven princess is far fetched enough without even getting into how weird our powers are. You with your pixie magic, and me with my dragon flames…’

“So you’re coming around on that theory, huh?” I teased, not even trying to keep the humor out of my voice. “After all that talk about how we couldn’t be sure that our magic had anything to do with how we self-identify.”

‘I still say we can’t be sure… but… yeah. It’s possible, at the very least.’

I let out a noncommittal, “hmm,” before finally jumping off the garden wall and into the broader world outside of it, using a levitation spell to slow my fall. “Come on, let’s get to the city.”

Brianna’s only response was a mental nod. Not exactly verbose, but that was probably just because she’d gotten lost in her own head again. Thinking about our magic, and where our talents might have come from, no doubt.

Personally? I didn’t care. I mean, sure, I was the one who brought up the whole thing, but that was more because I liked to idly imagine punching whatever god put us here in the face. Couldn’t they have at least dumped us in a world where gay marriage was commonly accepted? Then we could at least have gotten married off to a girl, or something…

Well, whatever. It was time to head to the marketplace!

***

‘And you’re sure you’ll know what you’re looking for when we see it?’ Brianna asked.

“I told you I would,” I muttered back, pulling my borrowed cloak tightly around me. I’d stolen it off a clothesline, but had left a few pieces of gold in its place, slipped into the pocket of another article of cloth - more than enough to pay for the ratty thing we’d taken.

Not that it stopped Brianna from harping on the fact that we’d stolen something.

‘I just think we should have taken a maid uniform from home, or something. Then we could pretend we were shopping for our mistress, instead of being hidden by a suspicious, stolen cloak.’

“And I just think you’re a worrywart who’s too concerned with the laws of a kingdom we’re actively trying to escape.”

‘I mean, I think ‘no stealing’ is a pretty universal law…’

“Maybe. But following the law isn’t going to get us out of this mess. So why don’t you just shut up and help me look a bit?”

‘You say that like I actually know what we’re looking for! And it’s not like I can move our eyes about or see anything you can’t.’

“...Fair, I guess…” I barely knew what we were looking for, after all. Just what it looked like. “Ooh, fruit!”

‘Are you seriously getting distracted by food at a time like this?’

“No, I’m getting distracted by potion ingredients. The juice of that fruit is a totally necessary ingredient! Not the flesh, though, so we can probably eat some of it, too.”

‘Are you seriously thinking of eating right now? We’re basically on the run!’

“We still gotta eat, don’t we?” I countered. “Also, what’s with all the whiny bitching? I know we like to banter, but this feels more like bickering.”

‘...I’m scared, alright? We’re making an unknown potion you learned about via dreams in order to escape a fate worse than death, and all the while the guards are doing who knows what to try and find us. For all we know, they’ve already divined our location, and we’re just… I don’t know. Messing around?’

“Yeah, well… I’m scared too,” I confessed. “Terrified even. I mean we’re relying on my magic here! My whimsical, unpredictable magic!”

‘Unpredictable? You can cast literally whatever you want!’

“Yeah, but it’s… I don’t know… it’s hard to describe. I don’t usually follow the rules, like you do. I do shit by feel. So, sure, I can cast just about anything, but like… only when it feels right? And my potions are even worse. You know I’ve never been able to follow instructions with them. I just… do whatever feels right, and it usually works out? But, like, I can never seem to make the same recipe twice. And now I have to follow instructions from a dream? I’m freaking terrified! But you’re right. Going through with this marriage would be… yeah, no. We’re getting out of here. One way or another.”

‘...Alright. Fine. I’ll stop complaining, and let you do things your way.’

“Great! First step? Buying that fruit. Then we need… uh…. Some sorta incense I think? And… I think fur? From, like, a dog. And a feather! And a pot.”

‘...This is going to be a long-ass shopping trip, isn’t it?

“Yup! So let’s get to it!”

***

“Alright,” I muttered, settling down inside an abandoned house. We were in the slums - not exactly the safest place to be, but we weren’t exactly the safest people to mug, either, so it was probably fine.

‘And hopefully Maria won’t think to look for us here…’

Right. Maria. Our personal guard/babysitter. She was maybe five years our senior? And theoretically in charge of keeping us alive and safe. We were a lot more powerful than her, though, so really her job was to keep an eye on us and report shit back to our parents. Not fun.

“I’m pretty sure I got the anti-divination charm right,” I murmured. “She won’t even know where to start looking for us, with any luck.”

‘Yeah, because luck’s a thing we have plenty of…’ Brianna groused.

“Shush. Unless you wanna take over the potion making? You’d have a way easier time managing the flames.”

‘Yeah, but I’ve got absolutely no clue how to brew the potion.’

“You’ve always been the better at us at following instructions! Bet we could figure it out together?”

“If you’re sure,” Brianna muttered, before blinking. “Right. Always catches me off guard how quickly you can shove me to the front.”

Maybe if you were better at taking the front for yourself, I wouldn’t have to. Not that she couldn’t take the front. She just always wanted to triple check that I was fine with it before taking it, and… well, who had time for that nonsense? Honestly…

“At least we can swap at will, now,” she pointed out. “It was a lot harder back on Earth, from what I can remember.”

Yeah, yeah. Less reminiscing, more potion mixing! Unless you want Maria to catch up with us?

She shook her head, but didn’t otherwise reply, instead focusing on the pot in front of us. I’d piled a few broken bits of broken wood under it, but there was no way in hell I could ever get it to light up, let alone take the form of a proper cooking flame. For Brianna, though? It was as simple as pulling out her wand willing the flame into existence. She probably didn’t even need the wood!

“What do I do first?” she asked.

I considered teasing her for a moment - pointing out that she was talking aloud to me, despite always criticizing me for doing the exact same thing - but she’d probably just point out that there wasn’t anyone else around to hear her do it… and we didn’t really have time for a full banter session, anyway. 

Squeeze the fruit until juice comes out. You might need to use body enhancement to make it work.

She nodded, reaching into our bag and pulling out a small, red fruit that looked sorta like a plum. It was way harder to the touch than any plum back on Earth, though - and yet it still splattered when Brianna squeezed it.

“Shit… think some pulp got in there, too.”

It’s fine! I promised, deciding not to bring up the fact that it wasn’t just the pot that had caught the splatter, but us as well. Now scrape the incense off the stick, and into the pot, and start to stir, while saturating the inside of the magic with your power.

“Just raw power?” she asked. “Because you know I can’t make it take any other form unless it’s fire.”

Just raw power, I confirmed, waiting for Brianna to follow my instructions before continuing. Okay, now you’re gonna want to add the acorn flower, and one white rose petal. Size of it doesn’t matter.

“Right…” She murmured, carefully drawing the rose out next and plucking a single petal from it. She threw it in alongside the flower, and then went back to stirring.

Great! Now the chicken feather.

“Also known as the hardest ingredient on our shopping list…” Not because it had been hard to find a chicken, but because it had been nearly impossible to get through the seller’s head that we were only after a singular feather and not the whole damn bird. We probably would have been better just buying the thing and unleashing it after, but… well, Brianna thought it would be too wasteful or whatever.

Raise the temperature a bit as you stir, and boost up the concentration of magic by, like… five percent? And then you’ll wanna toss in the the powdered walnuts.

Brianna didn’t respond this time, too focused on her brewing. She followed the instructions I gave her, though, as well as the ones that followed, until at last we were left with a small puddle of green goop in the middle of the cauldron. It didn’t look like any sorta potion I’d ever made before - way too doughy, for one thing, with chunks of stuff visible here and there. But the potion wasn’t quite done.

Last ingredient… I think I’m gonna need to be in front for this one.

“You sure? You won’t be able to control the flames.”

I’m sure… and it’ll be fine! Just keep the fire going for a bit.

‘Well… alright.’

The blazing heat of the fire slammed into me, as if I’d just stepped into a sauna. Brianna had gotten way too close to the fire, taking advantage of the fact that she was basically fireproof. I for one desperately wanted to back up before I was burnt, but… there wasn’t any time. I needed to add the last ingredient in a hurry.

“Just a drop of blood,” I murmured to myself, pulling out a small pouch and withdrawing a sewing needle from within. It took a bit of courage on my part - we hated needles - but I managed to prick myself, allowing a drop of blood to well up before dropping into the pot.

Suddenly, an explosion of pink smoke shot out, filling the house and spilling out into the streets.

“Shit!” It was a bright red flag as to our presence, and I was pretty sure even my anti-divination spell wouldn’t keep them from locking onto the coordinates. If they were willing to use their fancy teleportation tools to reach said coordinates, they could be here any second.

‘How’s the potion looking?’ Brianna asked.

I looked into the pot. Instead of green goo, there was now a sparkling pink puddle of liquid laying at the bottom of it.

“Arianna!?” called a familiar voice. “Princess? Are you in there?”

‘Oh no… Maria…’

“Take the front?” I asked. “We’re going to need your fire proof nature just to pick up this damn pot and drink what’s inside it.”

“Right,” Brianna muttered. Then she blinked. “Oh. Right. Front. Uh…” She grabbed the pot. “You have any idea where this teleportation potion’s going to take us?”

Nope! For all I know, the coordinates are completely random. But wherever we end up, it’s gotta be better than just standing around here, right?

“Princess!” came the voice, again.

“...Right…” Brianna muttered, grabbing hold of the pot. She didn’t seem to even care that it was scalding hot. Not exactly surprising, though - we’d figured out a long time ago that she was basically fireproof, with or without her wand at hand. “Bottoms up…”

She tilted the drink back. It tasted… it tasted pink. Pink, and sparkly, and oh-so-sugary. I probably would have loved it if I was in front, but Brianna? It was all she could do not to gag.

“Princess!” Called the voice, closer this time. We could see the shape of a figure in the doorway, even as we poured the last drop of liquid down our throat, and - in a puff of sparkles - disappeared.

When we opened our eyes again - when I opened our eyes, again, actually - it was to the sight of a thick forest. Trees, in every direction, with foliage so thick we could barely see the sky above.

Directly in front of us, meanwhile, was a white stag, pawing at the ground and lowering its antlers as if preparing to charge at us.

“...Right…” I muttered. “Maybe I should have cared a bit more about where the potion would take us?”

~~~

Author's Notes

I told myself that I just wanted to get the next chapter started... that I didn't really need to write today, with how productive I'd been lately... but no, once I started, it was difficult to stop. Though I did take a break in the middle, I couldn't resist coming back to it in the end....

Next up is... probably some Double Trouble? We'll see. Part of me wants to write a couple more chapters of this, so that I can maybe start doing weekly releases for public chapters... but, again, we'll see.