Eldritch Guidance

The drawer John opened contained what looked to be an unlabeled plastic bag of dried tea leaves.

“I was expecting some pills, not tea leaves.” John confusingly thought to himself.

John was still getting used to the strange power of this place at this time. He wasn't always sure if the store would manifest the exact things he wanted. Afterall, he tried to manifest his dead dog, but got Lunar instead.

“But, this place has always at least tried to manifest something that is close to what I'm thinking. Maybe, these are actually medical herbs that might help with her condition.” John thought to himself.

John: “Um, miss Scarlett. Please take this with you,” he said, as he handed the bag to her.

Scarlett was rubbing her eyes and was starting to reign in her tears and recover her composure. Looking up, she saw John handing her a clear unlabeled bag with some sort of dried plant matter.

Scarlett: “What is this?” she said, while still sniffling a little.

John: “Something I believe that will help with your condition.”

Scarlett: “Are you sure?” she said, sounding skeptical of John's claims that these dried leaves would help her.

Scarlett’s condition was magical in nature. Her research suggested it was something akin to a curse, but much more powerful than any conventional curse. She believed anything that would be able to break and undo this curse would have to be extremely powerful and magical in nature to do so. In her mind, she was skeptical that something as simple as some tea leaves would help in her case.

John could sense Scarlett's skepticism.

John: “Well, I don't know for sure, but it might be worth trying. It can’t hurt.” he said, trying to reassure her.

It didn’t sound like a glowing endorsement to Scarlett, but she wasn't surprised. Reversing ancient magic was not a simple task. It was likely that even another red eyed mage, which she believed that John was, didn't have any better answer than she did. Is what she believed.

Not wanting to snuff his kindness. She graciously took the bag from John.

Scarlett: “I guess it can’t hurt. What kind of leaves are these again?”

John, nervously, began to rapidly think. Not wanting to tell her where he actually got it, he needed to quickly come with some sort of fake story about the herbs he gave her.

“Shit. What should I tell her? Could I just give her the name of some obscure plant, but I don't know anything about plants. Wait, I know. I’ll just draw upon mythology from my original world and make something up.” John thought to himself.

John: “Have you heard of a tree called Yggdrasil.”

Scarlett: “Yggdrasil? What kind of tree is that? I’ve never heard about it.”

“Good, she doesn't know. I’ll just bullshit from here.” John thought to himself.

John: “It’s a big old sacred tree, from a faraway land. Said to have healing properties. At least, that’s what the stories say.” He said, trying to make it sound more like an old wives tale, so that he could cover for himself in case it didn’t work.

Scarlett: “Oh, I see. Well, thank you,” was all she said, not needing any further explanation from John.

Scarlett believed the distant land he was talking about was the eastern continent. She had heard that the people in the east were really big into herbal remedies. She suspected that this was a simple import John had gotten from the east.

Scarlett's skepticism had turned into full doubt that these herbs would do her any good, but she still appreciated John trying to help her.

While Scarlett was looking at the bag of dried leaves she was holding, she noticed that some of her glamor had come off and clumped onto her hand, from when she was crying and rubbing her eyes. The tears she shed had damaged the glamor and it was slowly coming undone. Scarlett took this que to leave.

Scarlett: “Anyways, I gotta go,” she said, as she put the tea set and leaves into her bag.

John was a little disappointed that she didn’t ask for any more information. He was preparing to construct a crazy story about those leaves, but it seemed that Scarlett was to leave soon.

John: “Ok, then. Feel free to come back anytime if you need, or just want to talk.”

Scarlett: “Until next time then,” she said and took her leave.

Once she exited out of the store she walked over to a nearby alley and pulled out a small mirror from her bag. Looking at her reflection she could tell that the glamor was still holding for now. The glamor she applied around her eyes was particularly iffy, but as long as someone didn't look too intensely at Scarlett's eyes, no one would be able to tell she had a glamor on.

Scarlett: “I should be OK until I get to my safe house.”

She quickly pocketed the mirror and made her way through the alley into another street, from there she made her way south until she got off Eld street.

From where she was, the quality of the surrounding quickly deteriorated. She was now entering the center of the east end. This was the poorest part of the east end, and it was a complete slum. The few buildings she could see from here looked dilapidated and would crumble from a strong gust of wind. Everything else was hobbled together shacks, made from spare wood and metal from collapsed buildings.

From here, she squeezed herself between two nearby shacks and pulled out a bottle of water. She poured out some water onto her hand and rubbed her face with it. The glamor smeared and smudged before eventually climbing to her hand. She then pulled out her mirror again and looked at her reflection. Her appearance now was that of a ragged white haired elderly lady with sallow skin and very deep and pronounced wrinkles.

Scarlett was taking precautions. She would change her appearance once she was halfway to her safe house, making it even harder for anybody to follow her. Her appearance as a well kept middle aged woman would attract more attention than the appearance of an old decrepit woman, which was not an uncommon sight in this part of town. It would be impossible to find her in the middle of Graheel’s slum now that she blended in so well.

“I'm going to need to get more glamor.” She thought to herself while sighing.

She hated this appearance. It reminded her of what happened to her. The glamor was to help her hide, but it was mostly to reaffirm herself that this was not what she really looked like.

She quickly left the small space she was in and continued to her safehouse.

She weaved her way through alleyways and small streets until she came to a cluster of ruined buildings. The buildings were abandoned and there was trash spread out around them. One of the doors to the building was removed from its frame and you could see some of the condition on the inside. Just beyond the front door were mattresses and couches splayed out on the floor with some makeshift tables sitting in the corner, all signs that this place was regularly used by squatters

Scarlett made her way to the back of the buildings, while ensuring that no one was watching her. At the back of one of the buildings was a cellar door that was barred with thick metal chains and a lock. Reaching into her bag, Scarlett pulled out a small key. She pushed the key into the lock holding the chains in place and with a simple twist, the sound of a click could be heard and the locked mechanism was released.

She untangled the chains from the door then opened it, revealing stairs leading down into complete darkness. Once opened, a musky smell filled her nostrils. There was a thick layer of undisturbed dust on the stairs, which gave Scarlett confidence. The undisturbed dust was an indicator to her that no one had entered here for a while.

She took a few steps down and closed the door behind her and flipped a latch on the inside of the door, ensuring that no one could open it from the outside. There was only a little bit of light shining through the cracks. If she was to go any further down she would be unable to see anything.

With a simple gesture of her hand, she reached out and produced a small ball of fire floating just above the palm of her hand. The flame was not much bigger than the kind you could produce with a lighter, but it illuminated the space and she was able to maintain it.

She then proceeded to descend.

At the bottom of the step she entered into a dusty old basement. There were a bunch of old shelves and a few boxes laying about, but nothing of particular interest. The place looked as though it was abandoned and had been ransacked for anything useful years ago.

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On the other side of the room from the stairs was a cobblestone wall. Except, a portion of it had collapsed revealing a tunnel. That tunnel was Scarlett's destination.

She made her way across the room and into the tunnel that broke into another hallway. The underground hallway looked old and had rows of metal doors on both sides leading down the hall. From what research that Scarlett had done about the area, she knew that these were the remains of a long forgotten insane asylum.

The asylum closed due to egregious malpractice and was condemned decades ago. It was torn down and replaced by the housing above, but the tunnels of that building remained. Covered up and forgotten.

Back then, one of the treatments the asylum employed for the mentally unwell was to lock them up, in complete darkness for long periods of time. It was an attempt to “scare the madness away”. It was a practice that was considered barbaric and unhelpful even when the asylum was still open and active. If the walls of this place could speak, they would tell of the torment that the unwell and deranged experienced here.

History had left its mark on these halls. The place carried an energy that was most unwelcoming.

Scarlett continued down the hallway.

Eventually she made it to room 1313 with a big steel door with a turn wheel on it. She examined the small runes carved into the edges of the door for a few seconds.

“Good, the enchantment I set up is still intact. Which means no one has entered this room.” Scarlett thought to herself.

Everything between here and the cellar door was laid with countless arcane traps. If anybody but her tried to make their way to this room, it would be a literal death trap for them.

She slowly turned the wheel and with a loud click the door opened.

Inside was a modest dwelling.The room had cathedral ceilings and looked to have once been a prayer room for its former patients. The room contained a bed, couple chairs, a table, crates, and shelves loaded up with books and tools used for enchanting.

Scarlett had found this place years ago. Turning it into a storage house that she would use to store some of the illegal items she had acquired during her time as a teacher at the university. It now doubled as a safe house for the few times she was displaced and needed to hide away.

Scarlett entered the room and locked the door behind her. Once she did that, she let out a sigh of relief. She felt safe. This place had yet to be discovered by anybody and she had set so many traps in this place, it would be impossible for just anybody to enter here even if she was followed.

She put down her bag and headed toward the next room over and collapsed on her bed. The stress of everything that had happened to today had left her exhausted. She just wanted to sleep, but she forced herself out of the bed after a few minutes.

She was thankful that electricity seemed to still run in the place for some reason, even though it’s been long since abandoned.

Scarlett: “I need to do some preliminary tests on that teapot before I can call it a day,” she said to herself.

Dragging herself out of bed, she walked over to the nearby table and took out the set, placing it neatly in front of her. It contained one teapot and four small cups. There was no noticeable design, it was all just plain white.

Scarlett: “OK. Let's try channeling aether into it and see if it responds at all.”

She focused her aether like she always did. A warm feeling was created in her chest that slowly moved into her arms then right hand and into the teapot.

There was no reaction.

Scarlett: “Sigh. It couldn’t be that simple. Well it is a teapot, so let's try putting some liquid into it and see if anything happens.”

Scarlett walked over to one of the storage crates near her and pulled out some bottles of water, then proceeded to pour the liquid into the pot. She then waited for any reaction, but there was none.

She sighed again and then decided to pour the liquid out of the into one of the tea cups. She put the lid of the pot back on and poured the water into the cup, except when she did, nothing came out.

Scarlett: “Huh?” she said as she took the teapot lid off to look inside.

Peering inside the pot, it was completely empty. She then pulled out a notebook and proceeded to take notes of what just occurred.

Scarlett: “Fascinating. I didn’t think that I would discover a phenomenon at this stage so soon. I clearly put water in it, but where did it go?” she wondered to herself.

She then took some more water and poured it into the pot again while carefully examining the water in the pot. She stared at the water for two minutes, waiting to see how the water was disappearing, but nothing happened.

Scarlett: “Interesting” she said, while looking away to quickly write down her observations in her notebook.

After she finished writing down what she saw, she then shifted her attention back to the pot, but was left surprised. The water had disappeared again.

Scarlett: “What? But, I didn't put the lid back on?”

Scarlett had thought that once the lid was placed on the pot, it would trigger its effects. Believing that whatever effect was making the water disappear, required her to put the lid on the pot. However, it didn’t seem to be the case.

The theory she was crafting in her mind was that the pot was sending the water somewhere else, somehow. She thought it was maybe some sort of spatial magic of some kind that didn’t use aether. Such kinds of magic used an enormous amount of aether to accomplish such a task, but she didn’t feel any aether fluctuations when the water disappeared. The times she had used such magic, she could feel the massive amount of aether used in its casting. It was so intense that she imagined that even people without the power to control the aether could feel it. So, it was quite interesting for Scarlett that a simple looking teapot was accomplishing spatial magic without aether.

“How does this work? What is the trigger to make the pot send the water somewhere else?” Scarlett wondered for herself.

She repeated the experiment again, but this time, without taking her eyes off the inside of the teapot, she attempted to pour the water into one of the tea cups. As she did, she could see the water drain into the spout of the pot, but there was no water being poured into the cup.

“OK. I think I get it. It’s triggered by sight. If I can't see the water, then it disappears.” She thought to herself.

It was the only common factor she could think of between the three instances the liquid disappeared. As soon as she couldn’t see the water, even in the instance when the water entered the spout, it seemed to disappear.

Scarlett: “How troublesome. That means I can't examine it properly to see what the pot is exactly doing to the water,” she said as she let out a deep troubled sigh and leaned back into her chair.

Scarlett sat there, looking intensely at the teapot. She wondered what the purpose of this item was. Was it a tool to transport things somewhere, was it used to brew ancient potions, some sort of divination device, or a powerful weapon. Countless hypotheses and questions ran through her mind. Then an epiphany hit her.

“Wait a minute. It’s a teapot! Why not try brewing tea!” She thought to herself.

Scarlett didn’t know if it would do anything, but she thought it was worth a try.

She then walked over to a crate and pulled out an electric kettle that she sometimes used to boil water for her alchemy experiments. She then poured some water into the kettle and turned it on. She then searched around and realized she didn’t have any tea leaves.

Scarlett: “Shit,” she mumbled to herself.

She didn’t want to leave her compound for at least a week or two. It was to make sure her pursuers couldn’t find her. So, she couldn’t just go out and get some tea leaves.

Scarlett then remembered the bag of dried tea that John had given her. Quickly she went over to her bag and rummaged through it until she found the bag of tea that John had given to her.

Scarlett: “Guess the tea leaves he gave me won’t be as useless as I thought.”

Once the water was boiled, she poured the water into the teapot with the tea leaves from John. There was nothing notable to the leaves, they looked like any dried herb. She didn’t have anything to properly strain the tea, so she opted to just put it right into the pot.

She put the lid back on and waited a few seconds. Scarlett was feeling more hopeful this time. There was a little bit of steam coming out of the spout of the teapot this time, which meant the water didn’t just disappear like before. With bated breath, she lifted the pot up and began to pour the contents of the pot into a cup. Unlike before, the liquid actually poured out.

She stared at the cup of tea for a minute before she painfully laughed.

Scarlett: “Ha ha ha. Of course, it’s a teapot after all. I thought it would be something more impressive, but of course it’s just a simple enchantment that prevents anything other than tea from being placed in it,” she summarized with a little bit of disappointment.

Based on the few tests she did, it was clear that the teapot only allowed certain liquids in it like tea. She had thought that the teapot would be a powerful artifact like the eye of Argon that was said to allow one to clearly see the future, but it seemed to not be the case.

She could still see the utility of such an item that only allowed tea in it. For example, If someone tried to put poison in the pot, it would probably be whisked away. So, in her mind, it was probably just a tool for the rich and powerful of the ancient civilization to prevent assassination by poison.

While she was disappointed, it wasn't a complete loss. She still had in her possession an item enchanted with ancient magic. It could still be further analyzed to maybe find a solution to her curse.

She let out another deep sigh before she picked up the cup with the tea in it.

Scarlett: “Guess I couldn't be that lucky and find an ancient artifact to undo my curse,” she said while staring into her cup. “Then again, it is still an ancient enchanted artifact, so I guess I should still be thankful I could even find one. Well, I guess I'll be analyzing this for next week while I'm stuck down here. Cheers,” she said to no one in particular, before tilting her head back and drinking all the tea in her cup in one big gulp.

She gagged and almost spit up the tea she drank.

Scarlett: “Yuck! It's so bitter! What kinda crap is this. Oh course I don't have any cream or sugar down here to make it palatable either. Ugh, the world couldn't even give some decent tasting tea while I'm stuck down here.”

The bitter tea was the final thing testing her motivation today. She was now exhausted and just wanted to sleep. She picked herself up and proceeded to make her way to her bed, before she stopped half way. Immense pain emanates slowly from her stomach outward to the rest of her body.

“What is going on? I-is this poison, but how?” She thought to herself while holding her gut.

The pain was intense. She couldn't move a muscle without feeling pain pulsing through her entire body, leaving her unable to move. She tried to push through it. Trying to move towards one of her storage crates that had some generic antitoxin stored in it, hoping that it might be able to help her.

Scarlett took a single step and pain shot up her leg into her entire being. It was too much to take and she collapsed. Laying there, she tried to crawl her way to the crate, but it was just too painful to move.

She painfully shifted her head slightly towards the table where the teapot was sitting. She was wondering if the cause of all this was the pot or the tea itself. Regardless, the pain was followed by a coldness. It was a similar feeling she felt during that ritual.

It was the feeling of the approach of death.

“Why? Just when I found the strength to keep living.” Where her last thoughts before her vision blurred and then turned to black.

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