(I want to be able to produce medicine through the vines. If I can do that, I think I could… do a lot more with it.)
Up until now I’ve only been able to produce medicine through the root section, which has been inconvenient. But if I can do it through the highly versatile vines, the applications should open up considerably.
I’ve wished for it, so the change should already be taking hold. As a test, I try storing some medicine I’ve produced inside a berry I grow on a vine.
(… Yes, it worked! And the look isn’t bad either, right?)
It’s a plant that grows berries shaped like physalis — those paper-lantern pods — with slightly translucent skin. Its name is ghostfire-weed, and monsters of the spirit variety tend to appear near places where this plant grows. …Or maybe it’s the other way around. This plant naturally thrives in graveyards and places like that, so perhaps it’s the plant that attracts the spirits.
The inside of these berries has plenty of hollow space, which is why I tried storing medicine in one. Just as I hoped, a medicine-filled berry took shape. It looks like a ghostfire-weed berry, but instead of the usual purple it glows yellow.
“Goddess… what is that?”
“She’s a Witch, not a goddess. …But it looks like ghostfire-weed, except much more beautiful. What are you going to do with it, ma’am Witch?”
The girl, recovered enough to stand on her own, is staring at the medicine berry with puzzlement. Even Noel has no way to explain something he’s never seen before. …The question is how to explain that this is for the sick to drink.
(It might be faster to just go find a patient and demonstrate… is anyone in this house?)
The door to the house just beside where the girl had collapsed was unlocked, and swung open easily when pushed. The air inside is warm — almost hot.
Before I can enter, the girl darts inside ahead of me. …This must be her home. I follow her in, and in the back room I find a woman lying collapsed on the floor.
“Mom, I couldn’t bring any water, but I found someone incredible…! Ma’am Witch, can you help my mom too… like you helped me…?”
(If she’s not dead yet, I think so… let’s try.)
The woman is in a similar dehydrated state as the girl. I raise her body up, pluck a medicine berry, open a small hole in the tip, and hold it to the woman’s lips. Medicine flows slowly into her mouth, and her throat moves faintly afterward — she managed to swallow.
I lean the woman against the nearby bed and step back. Getting too close risks my face accidentally touching her, which would be disastrous. The girl takes my place and sits beside the woman, watching over her.
“…Oh my… what’s… happened to me…”
“Mom…!”
“Ellie…? Oh, Ellie, have you come to heaven too?”
“No, Mom, this witch saved us!”
The woman follows the girl’s pointing and looks at me. For the child, I’m someone who helped her — but how might an adult see me? I watch her reaction nervously.
She stares at me blankly for a few seconds, then gives a small startled bow of her head.
“Thank you very much, ma’am Witch… I don’t know how to begin to thank you… only, I’m afraid any repayment would be… well…”
The woman is murmuring something. But I can’t speak and have no time to sit here while she works through an explanation. She was badly weakened too, and the villagers must be in a quite dangerous state.
(Conversation can wait until after I’ve made the rounds. I need to help as many as I can… and the last thing I need is to be blamed for a witch’s curse…)
I turn my back on the mother and daughter and step outside. Only Noel follows.
“We’re going to help the other villagers too, aren’t we, ma’am Witch.”
(Oh — good, Noel gets it.)
“Ma’am Witch is kind, after all. I thought that’s what you’d have in mind from the start. …Please, save everyone.”
For some reason Noel’s eyes are faintly wet with tears, which I find a little puzzling, but I pat his head for now. He lost his family, I remember — perhaps seeing the mother and daughter stirred something in him.
(Once everyone’s treated, I wonder if there’s a family here that might take Noel in…)
He misses his family. A new family should ease some of that loneliness. And more practically — if I can build a connection through Noel with a family that welcomes him, I can naturally work my way into the village through that. It’s beginning to sound like a perfect plan.
“Ma’am Witch! I want to help too! Mom said I should!”
I was thinking through how to make my rounds through the village when Ellie burst out of the house. She’d changed out of her dirty clothes and is clearly back to full health.
“…Ma’am Witch, I’ll be more useful than her!”
(Oh? They just want to help, I suppose.)
Then let them help. I grow medicine berries from the vines at my glove-hands and hand one each to the two of them first. They watched what I did earlier, so they should understand how to use them.
“We just have to make people drink it, like you did for Mom, right?”
“Obviously. Alright, ma’am Witch! Leave it to us!”
“Hey, wait! Some of the houses are hard to find — let me show you around, so wait for me!”
The two children dashed off, and with no way to call after them I was left standing there. …I’ve only given them one berry each, so they’ll have to come back soon enough.
Nothing to be done — I’ll stay close to this area. I knock on the door of the next house over and try the door, but no answer.
(Hmm — what if someone’s dead inside… I need to check.)
I extend a vine, thinned to thread-width, through a gap in the door and unlock it from the inside. Inside, a lamp burns and the occupant lies in bed. …It may be that the lights I saw last night were left burning unattended — this village might have already been nearly completely incapacitated even then.
“…Hgh… who… how’d you… get… in…”
(Oh — they’re conscious. Some people still have that much fight in them.)
As I approach, the man in the bed manages a weak growl of words, glaring at me. But his voice has no strength behind it — he’s clearly weakened all the same.
(I can administer to unconscious people freely, but giving something to an awake person without warning seems too suspicious… should I just knock them out?)
If I compounded a sedative, thinned a vine past visibility, and just barely touched it to the area near his nose — he might not notice. Maybe —
The man glares at me as if he’s read my thoughts.
(The level of murderous intent I’m getting from his eyes is absolutely terrifying…!)
Lying there half-dead and still managing eye contact that sharp enough to skewer me. I abandon the idea of sedating him and go back outside to think of another way. …Which is also just to say I was too scared and ran away.
“Oh, ma’am Witch is here!”
“Ma’am Witch, sorry — some houses have their doors locked and we can’t get in, so we came back to ask what to do…”
(Perfect timing, both of you! Please explain that I’m not suspicious…!)
Ellie and Noel had come looking for me, so I smile and take them both by the hand, leading them back into the house. With children holding both my hands, I should seem much less alarming — and these two will explain things for me.
And as expected, when I come back with the two of them, the man only looks mildly surprised and stops glaring at me.
“Uncle Daon! If you drink this, you’ll feel better!”
“Ellie…?”
“Ma’am Witch came to help!”
The man — Daon — was still eyeing me with suspicion, but something like desperate hope seemed to win out, and he put the medicine berry Ellie held out to his mouth. The effect comes with the first sip, and he stares in wide-eyed disbelief.
“What… what a miracle…”
“Uncle, we’re going to go help everyone else now!”
“…Right. Go on then.”
Daon gave me a single nod. It seems he’s accepted me.
And so, going around the village with the two children in tow, I was able to administer the medicine quite naturally even to the conscious patients. Some houses needed locks picked, but fortunately no one had died — I believe I was able to help everyone.
“Ma’am Witch is amazing… everyone’s back on their feet.”
“Obviously — she’s a witch, isn’t she.”
When the work was done, the two children flanked me on either side. Anyone looking at this scene would see a perfectly kind witch who gets along well with children. There’s no way she looks like a suspicious kidnapper.
It was surely the day I took a proper first step — as a good witch.