Chapter 29 - Huge Price
"That was…" Tried to say Peter, but admiration clouded his large repertoire of elegant and eloquent words.
"A little help," Pan called, completely oblivious to the shock his actions caused. "Hi? Help with the lid here," insisted Pan.
One of the guards then ran towards him and helped him close the lid. The mandrake had already become lethargic before the lid was even put on.
'It was worth every penny.' Thought, holding the pot close to his face to observe the mandrake. 'It is exactly as illustrated in the book, impressive.'
"That ends my hunt, I'm leaving," said Pan.
"Fine," Peter replied.
Pan then turned around, straightened his backpack and started back towards the Order. By the time Peter finally snapped out of his shock, Pan had already walked several miles, denying the man the opportunity to pass his contact on to the young apprentice who had earned his admiration.
'Isn't he just an apprentice?' Thought Peter looking in the direction Pan had left still with a bit of disbelief.
Pan, who was already several kilometers from the meadow when night fell, decided to lean against a tree. He ate and drank some groceries and then fell asleep. The dark still tormented him, but his body demanded rest.
Soon the night was gone and the morning arrived. Pan wakes up sweating at the first ray of sunlight.
'It was just a dream.' He thought.
A dream full of blood-soaked roots squeezing him and choking him to death, but still only a dream.
Drinking some water, Pan soon returned to his path. He decided it would be better to run, as he didn't want to be out in the open any longer.
Then using the essence, Pan strengthened his legs, balanced his body and began to run faster than any human should be able to. Could tell he was as fast as a galloping hurried horse.
But unlike the horse, all of Pan's speed came at a price and when the afternoon sky turned red in preparation for the night's arrival, he was so sweaty that one would think he had bathed in some nearby river.
'Tomorrow, tomorrow I will arrive.' He thought before leaning against a tree and sleeping without even feeding or hydrating.
Pan knew putting himself in an exhausted state was foolish. But he needed peace of mind now, he wanted to be within the walls and his safety.
The next day Pan repeated the same routine and as night was about to fall he finally arrived at the gates that opened onto the bridge of the Order.
Upon entering the city, Pan wanted nothing more than a hot bath and his bed. But there was business to attend to, profitable business.
He then headed toward the academic district's credit center.
As the name implies, the six-story structure that Pan now stood in was a credit center made for apprentices and crusaders.
In case you take some valuable material, be it refining or otherwise, the Order will pay you for it, you can also use what you find in your research and experiments. But Pan was still too uneducated to use a grass mandrake, the processes for turning the living root into something useful were too complicated and detailed, apart from the price of the rest of the materials needed.
'Two mandrakes will give me twenty pieces of silver.' Pan thought, still undecided whether to sell the offspring or not. He could win some easy gold.
But as he was tired, he decided to leave that decision until tomorrow, when he was sober from the exhaustion that now clouds his mind.
"Name and purpose," communicated a man with monotony behind the reception desk.
'Does everyone hate administrative work so much?' Thought Pan.
"Pan Lewis, green apprentice, I wish to sell mandrakes," said Pan in a tired voice.
The man's apathetic eyes widened slightly at the knowledge of Pan's color and motive, then widened a little wider at the loss of an arm.
"Show me the specimens," asked the old man in a voice full of disbelief.
Pan then placed the two jars on the table, causing the old man eyes to nearly open wide. For years he'd seen the miracle star come and go, but he'd never seen a green cripple catch not one but two still-living mandrakes either.
In theory, grass mandrakes were an easy task, a little sleep powder, a little care and that's it. But the task of finding them in the tall grass was a challenge, apart from the fact that some can be irritable and not sleepy, it was rare in theory, but it happened more often than expected.
"One is in perfect condition, but I see that the other one is very injured, the roots of chaos are one of the most important parts of grass mandrakes so the price will go down", informed the man while trying to hide his astonishment to save some face as a veteran. "Seventy silver for the two, what do you think?"
'Seventy!!?' Thought Pan in surprise.
"hmm," he replied.
"If seventy isn't enough I can give you ninety, any more would be a detriment to Order," offered the man, mistaking the brief mental paralysis for surprise for dissatisfaction.