Chapter 4: Apothecaries Test (Part 2/9)

Pressing upon the unadorned entryway door, Victoria led the way into the shop. "Gertrude's way of displaying a part of her powers, incentivizes wealthy clients and dissuades time wasting and casual shopping. In short, she is a sour old turtle who doesn't like to be bothered with trivial things." "I heard that, Victoria!" A raspy, ancient sounding voice echoed within the shop. Despite the brightened entryway and gem riddled store front, which should have let in a decent amount of light; instead, a palpable gloom filled with shadows and mystery obscured the deeper interior. My mind conjured up an image of an aged shrunken figure, wearing thick robes and standing amidst a plethora of aged manuscripts and powerful charms. "I meant for you to hear it!" Victoria called out in a bantering tone. "I'm always worried that your hearing might have already died, along with your mental faculties each time I see you." "Bahh! My mind is still sharp as your wit when you deal with all those romantic pursuers of yours." A dry chuckle sounded out. "Speaking of pursuers, I heard you had dealt with Mr. Sanders recently. From the word on the street, he went to 5 other apothecaries and 2 alchemists trying to deal with that rash you gave him. Quite the nasty bite you have for a little leering and feeling up, eh?" As the mysterious stranger Gertrude and Victoria had their banter, either my eyes had adjusted to the dark, or some change was made to the shop, as I was finally able to see who we were speaking with. Oh, my, goodness! When Victoria called Gertrude an old turtle, she wasn't kidding! Sitting in a padded recliner of sorts, hunched over a low work table with several magnifying glasses and small tools, was an honest to goodness turtle; or tortoise woman to be precise. A pair of half rimmed glasses donned her face, as she looked over the various small and large gems spread across her table. I had seen images of what is called a kappa in mythology, and that would be the closest to what she looked like. However, even that wasn't accurate, as she looked somewhat like a Galapagos tortoise with a slightly humanoid face. I never thought that my love for turtles would ever get me into trouble. But here and now, I desperately wanted to rush over to her to pat her head, rub her neck, and offer her a fresh watermelon or something to munch on. As if hearing my thoughts, Gertrude glanced towards me with a sharp look. "Dear boy, what are you thinking of right now with that expression?" I swallowed the knot I had in my throat at the thought of being caught out in my juvenile desire, to sort of achieve my childhood dream of petting a Galapagos tortoise. Her eyes narrowed as she looked more deeply at me. "You aren't one of those people with a weird fetish for certain demis are you?" Sitting up higher in her chair, she stretched her neck out. "I mean, admittedly I was considered quite the catch in my youth, but you are far too young for my taste; although I do appreciate the interest." I felt tongue tied, not knowing what to say. Should I go along with what she said and just let it go, or should I clarify what I meant, explaining that I just loved turtles in general, but not as a fetish. Bowing my head in embarrassment, and under my breath I muttered, "I just like turtles, and think that they are cute." The words just came out of my mouth unprompted, and I looked up in horror. Gertrude seemed to have frozen, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught Victoria turning red in her face. I was done for. I just looked at my feet and waited for the inevitable wrath to descend. *Snicker*. . . ."Phbbbt! . . . Hahahahaha!" Victoria began howling in laughter while Gertrude turned her disapproving gaze upon her instead of me. "It is perfectly fine to like turtles. You Victoria should know that I, too, like turtles." Gertrude spoke in a dignified tone, as she then pointedly ignored the apothecary to look down at the assorted gems on her work bench. "I know!" Victoria was able to force out the words in the midst of her laughter. "I've just never seen you so poleaxed before. You know most people are terrified of referring to you as a turtle, despite the fact that you use it as your maker's mark." "Ahem!" Gertrude cleared her throat, which did interesting things to her long neck. "Let's get back to the purpose of your visit. I assume it has something to do with this young man?" Having finally calmed down from her moment of mirth, Victoria responded. "Yes, Andrew here is actually a Traveler. The Seer stone as it promised, was able to gift him the ability to speak and understand our language." Looking a little perturbed, she continued. "It however, does not teach literacy or translate written words as we discovered. I cannot have an apprentice that is unable to read and understand my apothecary books, among other things. I was hoping that you might have or be able to create a tool or artifact that would resolve this issue." "Hmmm. I might have something that could work. Are you literate in your own world boy?" "Yes." I replied with confidence. "In fact, I do a lot of reading for pleasure and relaxation. I also read a lot about botany and pharmacology." Eyeing me more closely, Gertrude appeared to size me up for a bit, and then asked, "Have you stimulated your magic potential yet?" Somewhat confused and unsure I asked. "Are you talking about getting my elemental affinity test or consuming a magic stone?" "Both, actually." She replied. "Then no, I haven't done either." I looked back and forth at Gertrude and Victoria who both looked somewhat deep in thought. "You know." Victoria broke the silence first. "I feel that he would be an excellent test subject since he can't die, at least not permanently." Gertrude gave a beaked smile with an affirming sound. "I agree. And this does set my mind more at ease. I have something in storage that I feel may work just fine for this young man. I made it about a decade ago, out of curiosity to see if it could be done." I felt a little manipulated as both of them were sizing me up. With a roll of my eyes, I went with it. "Sure." I replied. "Let's try out what you are thinking, whatever it is." Victoria looked excited while Gertrude looked curious with some expectation as she dug through a low shelf hidden below the display table in front of her. After a few moments, she appeared to find what she was looking for. "Here is it." Holding up a necklace with an oblong gold emblem about 1 inch in diameter and a silver chain, she brought it closer to me. Up close, I could see runic carvings across the surface of the emblem and I felt, . . .odd. Something inside of me felt drawn to this necklace. It was like a . . . hunger. It was quite different from that of starvation or a wanting for food. It was like a strong desire to make that necklace part of me or to even rip something from it to take for myself. "Now That, is Interesting!" Gertrude interrupted my growing focus on the necklace. "Usually, it is a feeling of repulsion or a weakening of will when someone is exposed to Mental Mage stones of this level." Victoria shot Gertrude a sharp look of worry. "What level are you talking about?" With a somewhat guilty look, she responded. "They are both terrace level mage stones. Admittedly, it is at the limit of my abilities in that territory." Becoming somewhat defensive she continued. "However, it was incredibly difficult to find a match-up of a compatible source that would be almost guaranteed to aid in literacy, with a positive effective mental stone as a filter and disperser." Giving Victoria a side glance as if in askance. "I'm sure you don't want to end up giving your apprentice nightmares or turn him into a raving lunatic, in case the integrity of the runes is compromised. That could happen with the use of a negative affected mental stone for the unprepared." *Sigh* "You are right of course." Victoria conceded. Nodding her head at the necklace, she continued. "We should at least see if it works for him." She looked askance at Gertrude. "This has been tested, right?" Gertrude awkwardly paused a moment and what looked like a hint of color flashed across her rugged cheeks. Seeing a turtle look embarrassed was so worth the possible temporary death that may result from this, in my opinion. "Not officially." She muttered. Victoria's eyes narrowed and her tone changed in light accusation. "Not officially . . . or not at all?" "The Theory works out!" Gertrude exclaimed, while sidestepping answering the initial question. "Whatever. . ." Victoria waved her hands as if absolving herself of any guilt. Then she turned toward me. "It is your choice to take the risk or not. Be aware though, that I will have little use for an illiterate apprentice. So, think this carefully through." What did I have to think about? Hah! My body, or something about me, was craving this like an ache that I hadn't realized I had till now. "I'm game for trying it." Holding out my hand to receive it from Gertrude, she carefully handed it over. As I donned the necklace and felt the cold metal emblem pressing against my chest, a connection of sorts was felt. It was as if a reservoir of knowledge was waiting to be discovered, yet holding back until an opportunity came in the form of a question, or certain stimulus in order to release its knowledge. I felt a thrill rush through me at this development. As such, it still felt odd as if a part of me was trying to desperately claw at the emblem, to pry something loose from it. I shook my head to clear it from the vestiges of that odd sensation. "Well, does anything feel different?" Gertrude seemed the most excited now as if she wanted to confirm the efficacy of her 'Theoretical' work. I didn't know how to test it out as her shop appeared devoid of normal writing. It was filled with runes and a language that I had a slight impression of, but not more than that. No real knowledge came rushing into my head. It was Victoria who saved the day. Pulling out the slightly worn and thick apothecary book from who knows where, she set it on an open space of a display table. "Go ahead and try it out." She urged me. With hope for success and some trepidation of failure, I opened the leather cover to the first page that I had seen before, with the flower. For a moment, the words as a whole on the page appeared to swim a little as if still unreadable, but I focused on the first word and continued scanning. As I read, the characters that were grouped together began to make sense in the form of an alphabet. The letters came together to form words, whose definition was made apparent with knowledge drawn from my own mind as a comparison. Once a word became more firmly established in my mind, the dismantling and reforming of the next word began. This was incredible, if a bit slow. However, as I continued, the letter characters that I had seen before took far less time to be re-impressed upon my mind, and it was only new letters and words that took so much time. I continued to read the page, and as I reached the end of it, only two words side by side were unknown to me still. The verbalization of the words, based on the rules of the language was clear, but the definition was lacking. If I had to guess at what the words were, I'd say it was the official name of the plant I was looking at.