The Fragrance - Part 2

Octavia could only stare at this woman after she whispered into her ear.

"She can't just be a shopkeeper? Who is she? Who was she referring to if not Sylvia? Are they there to help or not?" Octavia's thoughts ran at a mile a minute, as she tried to figure out what had happened. She needed to know who this woman was.

The woman pulled back, a smile on her face and continued talking about the fragrance she had chosen for her. "So, because of all that I believe this potion is the one for you. There are several ingredients, but the main one, I think you will appreciate. It is a common fruit which many people eat and enjoy. It is used in many recipes and even has healing properties if you use it right. While I can't pick out a fruit or flower and deem it as 'kind' to match you, I think that this useful and healing fruit suits you perfectly. Even more so since it is an…oppafle."

That ended up cracking Sylvia up, "Of course. Of course, it's a oppafle. What goes around comes around I guess."

"Like I said it's not the only ingredient present. All of the others add to its smell, giving it benefits without drawbacks of each. But, rather than tell you what they are called, I think I shall leave them as a…mystery."

She held her hand out to Octavia waiting for her to take the potion. As you can imagine, she was not too enthusiastic to be taking this thing now. Who knew what could be in this thing?

But the more she thought about it, if this woman wanted to hurt her, why would she go through such a long-winded way to do so? There was also the fact that she hadn't threatened her or anything. It was more a warning than anything.

Sylvia sat to the side eagerly waiting for Octavia to open it and give it a whiff, and so putting caution to the wind she did just that.

Opening the cork, she gave it a quick sniff.

"…"

"Ok, I'm not dead, that's a good sign."

As she put that thought away, she ended up smelling what was clearly the smell of an oppafle. As the shopkeeper said, it was main thing you could smell in the potion. She gave it another sniff again to see if she could smell something else, and as she focused, there were various hints of other notes in the smell. The next dominant one after the oppafle was odd, where the only way she could describe it was as bitter, even though that's how things taste rather than smell. It was almost like she could taste it in the air.

She tried to pinpoint some of the other scents present, and while she could smell them, she couldn't really relate them to anything. She wondered if the mystery smells was a message from this woman, or if it was just something that somehow worked with the oppafle.

Now she had more questions she needed to be solved.

Sylvia was still sitting there waiting for her to provide her feedback. While these thoughts plagued her she made sure to respond in case she started to worry about her sitting in silence.

"It's-its very nice. I think it will work well."

Sylvia asked for a whiff herself and Octavia obliged handing it over, allowing Octavia to go back to her thoughts, where she realised something startling.

"I don't know this woman's name."

She thought back on the time she had spent in this shop, where she could not recall asking, or hearing what her name was. Not from now or from the time she had first visited.

"How is that possible."

"Now these should be perfect for you. If you are happy with them, would you like to come up to the counter so we can finish your purchase?"

Before they headed over to the counter, Octavia quickly moved over to Sylvia.

"Do you know who she is? What's her name?"

Sylvia looked up in contemplation and she tried to remember. "Err… I don't think she ever told me. That's odd."

While Sylvia found it a bit odd that she didn't know, she wasn't too concerned. Octavia however was very confused.

With the fragrances now in hand, and in order to not look too suspicious, they headed up to pay and once that was done, there wasn't anything else to do in this store. Because of this, she decided to ask the question and figure out who this person was and what her comment meant.

"Here you go. Enjoy the ball. I am sure it will be a blast."

Polite as she could, she went for it.

"Thank you for your help on this…I'm sorry I don't believe I caught your name," She replied trailing off allowing her to provide it.

The shopkeeper only looked back at her and smiled, before she opened her mouth.

…

"Thank you. I hope you come again soon." The shopkeeper's words were followed by the door to her shop closing.

"Huh."

"What's wrong?" Sylvia asked concerned. "Are you ok, you look confused about something."

Octavia looked around, trying to figure out what had happened…if something happened.

"It's… I'm not sure. I think I was trying to figure something out but…I can't remember."

"Well, if it was important, I'm sure you will remember. Now come on, we need to get back and get started on your dance lessons."

Octavia sighed at that. She was both excited and worried about these dance lessons. Only time would tell which emotion would come out on top.

As she headed off after Sylvia, she couldn't help but turn around and look back at the shop. Her thoughts turned back to what happened when they brought the potions, but nothing strange came to mind. She could remember hearing about Sylvia's potion and how it complimented her personality. Then there was hers, funnily enough using oppafle's, as well as some other ingredients that the shopkeeper thought would be fun to keep a mystery.

The only thing after that was paying for them and then they left.

A strange thought did however enter her mind where someone else is looking into the Lamia, yet she could not recall who or when she was told this.

With a quick shrug of her shoulders, Octavia slithered off and caught up to Sylvia heading back to the castle.

"Like she said, if it was important, I'm sure I'll remember."

…

Travelling through the town, they eventually made their way back to the castle. The guards that were out front were in the middle of a changeover as they returned, likely to head off for their lunch, which Octavia and Sylvia did as well.

Entering the dining hall, they were greeted by the lord and his family who were currently finishing their meal. With them having schedules to abide by, there would be times that they couldn't all be around the table for a meal.

Greeting each other with pleasantries, the Lord and his family headed off for whatever activities they have for the rest of the day, while Octavia and Sylvia sit down for their meal. Thankfully, the chefs in the castle remained at their posts throughout most of the day, so these two turning up late was no problem.

Them being there most of the day meant that if any of the nobles currently residing at the castle were hungry, they could easily ask a maid to bring them some food and it would be done in no time at all. Things like these were necessary to keep important guests happy if they were staying there.

Sitting down for the meal, plates of food were placed in front of them each housing a rather fancy salad with some form of meat poking through the greenery. A few bites later and it pretty much reminded her of a chicken salad, aside from the odd bitter and purple circular vegetables that she could not compare to anything from Earth.

During the meal they engaged in some small talk, talking about the dresses they got as well as the fragrance they would wear to the ball, which eventually ended up on the topic of dancing.

"So, are you ready for dance practice?"

"Err…yes and no. It will be fun to learn, but needing to learn it in just a couple of days is just daunting."

Given Sylvia's facial expression, it was clear to see she was hoping for a different answer, but after a little thought she ended up empathising and coming to the same conclusion.

"Well, since you only woke up several days ago and are a commoner, I think it will be fine if you are not perfect at dancing. You just need to be able to do most of the moves and not fall over. That should be enough."

…

Not much longer after this, they both finished their lunch, and after the plates were taken away, headed out of the dining hall.

As they moved through the hallways, Octavia ended up getting a little confused, as while it was all still a maze to her, she was sure they missed the stairs that took them to their rooms.

"Errr, where are we heading? I'm pretty sure we needed to go that way."

"What do you mean? We're going to practise dancing. Our rooms are not big enough to do that. We are going to one of the ballrooms to practice."

"Ah, that makes sense. Ok, lead on."

Taking a new direction in the maze, they headed off into the bowels of the castle, taking many twists and turns. They passed several guards and maids along the way, greeting each of them as they did.

"It should be just around here."

Continuing down the hall, they then turned the corner to head towards the room.

"Ahh,"

As they turned, Sylvia let out a slight yelp as she bumped into someone, and with Octavia very close behind, she ended up bumping right into Sylvia. She also had enough momentum that she ended up knocking her down, with herself following the same trajectory.

With a yelp of her own, they were both tangled on the floor, rubbing sore spots, when the person they had bumped into finally spoke.

"Well, well, well. I've been looking for you all day, and here you are, practically on the ground begging for forgiveness after how our spar ended."