No one was home in her three-room house. The back door was open, a screen covering the doorway. Beyond, most of her backyard was covered in healthy green plants, reaching up to the stark, white-yellow sun. To the side, a large cauldron hung over ashes. Over it, a little roof held up by four posts was embedded in the ground.
“Maryanne, is it?” I asked from her back door.
She startled and stood, a woman a little older than me with large brown eyes and a small nose. Beads of sweat shone on her rich bronze skin, and a large hole in her tatty pants gave me a glimpse of her knee.
“I already paid rent,” she said with a lovely cadence to her voice. She could sing, I bet. Probably when she was dancing naked in the moonlight.
I looked down at my outfit. “Man, this is great. I wonder if the people in the expensive part of town would hand over rent if I just wandered into their houses. When’s rent time?”
Her eyebrows sank.
“Yeah, I’m not from here. Listen, you have a lot of sick people in these parts.” I pointed to the cauldron. “Do you use that for brews or draughts or anything more useful than dancing?”
Her expression soured further, and she turned more to face me. “Look, I’m not trying to summon the demon king or practice black magic or anything. I don’t even dance around it! I just make a few natural remedies to try to help with the sickness. It doesn’t even work! I’m not doing anything wrong.”
“Clearly you are doing something wrong if your remedies don’t work.” I walked out into her extensive garden, identifying the various plants. Dabnye pushed up next to the screen door, watching.
“Who…who are you?” Maryanne asked me.
“Someone who could use your help.” I pointed down at the everlass. “Where did you get that?”
Guilt crossed her expression before it cleared and she lifted her chin. “It grows everywhere around here. I replanted them from the edge of the village. They were wild. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Crap on a cracker, this place has done a number on you. Look, lady, I’m not here to get you in trouble. Don’t let these fine clothes fool you.” I bent to the everlass and plucked off the dying leaves. She made a sound and stepped forward, but ultimately held her tongue. It wasn’t because she realized I was pruning.
That done, I stood and glanced back at the dead fire. Then at the house.
“Have you harvested any of this everlass?” I asked. “Have you dried it?”
Her face closed down. “No,” she said.
I smirked. “You’re a terrible liar.” I crooked a finger at her. “Come with me.”
With a straight back, she did as I said. I had to hand it to Nyfain, these fancy clothes he’d insisted on had set me up great.
In her kitchen, by the small, round table, I waited for her to enter. Dabnye filed out of the way.
“I need parchment—or something to write on—and something to write with,” I said.
Maryanne frowned at me, moving slowly to make it clear that she didn’t want to do any of this but realized she had no choice. I could not wait to barge in on the fine people who’d made the rules in this establishment so I could give them a taste of chaos. My anger was rising with each passing moment.
She slapped some homemade paper down on the table, parchment clearly way too expensive and labor-intensive for her resources. The paper was oddly brown and misshapen, but it would work. She followed it with a quill and a small container of ink.
“First, I like your pushback. Good on you. Second, I hate these things.” I picked up the quill and sighed. “Don’t you have a fountain pen?”
“Some of us don’t have the money for an actual fountain pen.”
“I don’t have fuck all, and we have a fountain pen. Fine.” I sat down at the table and scratched out the recipe for the nulling elixir, including when to harvest the leaves and dry them. I gave her a few options there, just in case. That done, I wrote out the demon-sex-magic-be-gone draught.
“Now, here’s the thing,” I said when I pushed it away. “You need to baby those everlass.”
Confusion bled through her scowl as she looked down at what I’d written.
“She’s the one,” Dabnye said quietly. “I went to the castle and brought her back to see Momma. She’s the one that makes the potion. She made the prince come and everything.”
Maryanne’s eyes jerked up, taking in Dabnye. Then me. “What?”
I pointed down at the paper. “I’ve written out the recipe for the nulling elixir. It’s an elixir, not a potion. I’m not magical in that way. This was given to your village already, but clearly it wasn’t passed down to you for some reason. My whole village has that recipe, though some aren’t good at making it. Some are just too sick. If you follow those instructions to the letter, you should be able to re-create it. Now, here’s the thing. You need to baby that everlass plant. You’re treating it like all the others, and that just won’t do.”