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Eloquent Conversationalist
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 Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:08 pm
Ophiuchus sat down on a plush cushion with a length of parchment and a quill. "I travel," he said simply, but he was smiling with pride. "And I like to work 'old-school', if you don't mind the expression - or the ancient tools around here."
"Also," he said as he dipped the quill into a bottle of sepia ink, "Time flows differently here. Or, not at all. Whatever I want it to do. It's handy for medicines that need time to ferment." He couldn't help but to rave about this place. It was his pride and joy. "If there's anything you need, just let me know. Common ingredients are on the shelves closest to the scales, and the lesser-used ones are farther away. Other than that, there's no particular order, although it is common sense to keep wet away from dry, and heavy thing close to the floor."
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:15 pm
If Lin was the type to scream in excitement, she would have right now. This was her dream come true. No time, long potions could be brewed instantly, and all these ingredients to use with older equipment!
"And no one would disturb you here! They couldn't! Professor, if you do not mind me asking this, do you think it would be alright to conduct our independent course study here from now on?"
She started getting the equipment she'd need for the potions, including a pestle and mortar, tweezers to handle the herbs, and beakers and a cauldron.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:25 pm
That question honestly kinda floored Ophi for a minute. "Well - I... I suppose so, if that's what you'd prefer." He had never shared this space with anyone for prolonged periods, only a few patients who were in grave condition, and they were too delirious to comprehend what was going on. Not precisely what one would call good company.
And as far as not being disturbed.. well, no. Ophiuchus could still sense what was going on at the school. Even in a secluded dimension, he had that power. He could still tell when he would be needed.
"You do realize though, that you can't come in or leave without my assistance? And while I may return us to only an hour after we've left, depending on what you choose to study, one hour there could be even a week for us here. That's too intense for most students - they'd get sick of the incense by then!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:31 pm
Lin gasped and turned to Ophiuchus with bright, excited eyes. "Oh Professor, that would be wonderful! And of course I would never dream of even attempting to enter here without you nearby. A week of brewing potions? Professor, I want to make a life of being a healer. A week of being here and brewing and learning about potions and herbs from you is like a dream come true!"
She couldn't help it. She had never done this with a male professor before.... well, one of her own professors, but she was so excited and grateful that she couldn't contain it anymore. She ran over to her professor and knelt down beside him on his cushion. Then, she threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. "Oh thank you, Professor! Thank you so much!"
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:38 pm
"Oof!" Well, he certainly hadn't expected THAT from someone as reserved as Lin.
"I could deflect your gratitude with an explanation of your potential, but.." Ophiuchus hugged Lin back, briefly. "I think 'You're welcome' will suffice."
"Now," he said jokingly as he shrugged to let Lin know the professor needed his arms back. "You go to your potion, and let this cranky old bachelor figure out how to make his lab suitable for a young female guest!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:44 pm
Lin laughed softly, surprised that even in this dimension, it still sounded like bells ringing gently, and then pulled herself back from her professor. She quickly ran back to her work area and began brewing the power boost potion.
"As I am brewing this, Professor, I am writing down the ingredients and processes I am using. This way, you can brew it whenever you need it for you or your students. It is a thank you for bringing me here. I ask, though, Professor that you do not give the recipe to anyone else. It is a well-guarded prize among my people."
With her tweezers, she reached into the small glass tube to grab the delicate moon herbs that had to be picked 2 months after they were grown under a full moon. Moonlight was very powerful.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:53 pm
Ophiuchus made a small cross over his heart. "I won't tell a soul," he said solemnly. He watch Lin create the potion - even without her writing it down, he would have remember what exactly she was doing. Lin moved so gracefully, and had hands as fine as a surgeon's. If he said that out loud though, the girl was so modest she'd blush and drop something!
He looked back down at the parchment, and made a few notes - some about Lin, some about what would be needed in the lab. Ophiuchus was immortal, and didn't need food or water or even air to be alive, although he enjoyed all three very much. Especially a simple meal of wine and bread. Lin was not immortal, so Ophiuchus definitely would have to bring in supplies. That wasn't hard at all, just figuring out where to store them.
"It doesn't matter anyways," he muttered to himself. "It's my space, so it'll do as I want."
"Lin," he suddenly asked aloud. "When did you start wanting to be a healer?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:11 pm
Lin smiled down at her half-done potion. It was coming along very nicely and she didn't feel the need to rush at all.
"Well, it is not that interesting of a story, but I wanted to be a healer when I was about 7 years old, in human years. About 3 in Elven years. My mother is the head healer in my village. It was a natural role for her to fill since her mother and grandmother had both been head healers and my father is one of the council elders. Besides that, though, it fits her personality and essence like a glove. She loves caring for people and making them feel better. I knew that she wanted one of her daughters to be a healer, but she would not force any of us."
She reached forward and took a hold of the Venus vines. She needed two of them, and she loved how when you picked one up with your fingers, the course, strong stem would curl around the finger loosely. It was fun. And it made the potion strong and quickly reactive. It made the potion work faster after it was ingested.
"But when I was 7, I saw my mother nursing one of my sisters back to health. I was so worried about my sister because she was so sick, and elves hardly ever get sick. Young elves are more susceptible to illnesses than older elves, but it is still a rare occurrence. Well, I saw how comfortable she made my sister and how dedicated she was. And then, the relaxed look in my sister's eyes that I saw when I normally saw them filled with pain was all the proof I needed. I knew right then that I wanted to be a healer for my people. I want to make them feel better and make their loved ones feel better by seeing their loved one's relief."
As she started stirring the potion in the big cauldron, she decided that she could ask her professor the same question. If he did not want to answer, that was totally in his right.
"What about you, Professor? If you do not mind me asking, how did you know when you wanted to be a healer? And a healer at a school at that?"
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:16 pm
Ophiuchus listened to Lin's story with his head down, and when she asked him the same question, he slowly opened his eyes and looked are her. He was judging her, not in a bad way, but judging to see if she could handle it. "I'll tell you Lin, but you won't think the same of me. I'm not a good person."
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:25 pm
Lin stirred the pot for a few more moments before she muttered an incantation Ophiuchus had taught her in one of their independent study courses. It caused the spoon in the cauldron to move itself, stirring the potion on its own.
Lin turned around to face her professor and clasped her hands in front of her, letting her arms hang loose in a relaxed stance.
"Professor, I... have learned much while I have been here. More than just class subjects. I do not believe I judge as harshly as I used to, and I am more open minded. I still have a lot of problems with dark magic, and I believe that I always will, but I doubt that will affect your story. And besides, everyone makes mistakes. It is how we learn. I cannot force you to share your past with me, Professor, but know that you can trust me and I will not judge you. I know who you are now, and that is all that matters. Your past helped to make you who you are now. It would be foolish for me to judge you on your past."
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:38 pm
That made Ophiuchus smile. "Lin, the world would be a better place if people could learn that within a single lifetime!" He set his parchment and quill aside.
"First of all, my name was not always Ophiuchus Akakios. I'm not even Greek. I was born in western Turkey a bit over 2,500 years ago. My name then was Mehmet, and if I had a family name, I honestly don't remember what it was. I'm the youngest of seven children, each and every one of them besides me now long deceased - no, well, Mehmet is dead too - and I never intended to be a healer. I wanted to be a soldier."
He raised an eyebrow. How was Lin taking this? It was only the beginning of his story.
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:50 pm
Lin smiled at her professor in encouragement. What happened to his family? Family was very important and everyone needed a good family. She hoped they weren't taken from him violently.
And he had wanted to be a soldier. That was very noble and in her opinion, a soldier was the same as a warrior in her village, and she trained to be a warrior/archer.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:23 pm
"Well, war isn't pretty," Ophiuchus continued. "And in my opinion, I got to see the worst of it. The injuries weren't that bad, honestly. Things you and I could have healed in little time. But I was human, and even if I did know I could have healed with spells then, I was only the son of a poor farmer. There was no way I could have known any magic then. Because I wasn't that old, or big or strong, I wasn't a good soldier. And because I came from a farming family, I could tell one plant from another in a blink of an eye. And that became my job, whether it scrounging for food, or finding herbs to at least make my peers a little more comfortable while they died of infections and fevers. It's not getting wounded part that ever bugged me, so much as the awful healing process then. I didn't know a thing then."
"So I ran, Lin. I did the worst thing a soldier or a medic could ever do, and I ran. I don't remember when, or where I went. But I remember that I was miserable, and I was alone and scared and no amount of medicine can ever get rid of that sick feeling when you know you're in so much trouble and you're probably not going to live much longer."
"And do you know that other feeling, when you feel like you're in a dream? Where everything seems so real at that moment, and then you can't remember what happened two seconds before? There was a snake in the middle of a field. I don't know what I was thinking, but I must have been suicidal, because it was a pair of big poisonous snakes and I walked right up to them and asked them to bite my wrist and put me out of my misery. Those snakes talked backed to me, Lin."
There was such a faraway look in Ophiuchus's eyes, there was no doubt he was truly reliving this memory.
"The brown snake, he rolled over and showed me a gash on his belly, and told me he was just about to ask me the same thing. To this day, I don't know what inspired me to do it, but I took out the little bags of herbs I had stolen or picked while walking, and I tore strips out of my tunic and made an antiseptic bandage as best as a runaway boy soldier could make in ancient Turkey 2,500 years ago. The brown snake liked it, because he told me how much better he felt after I tied it around him. The other snake, she was pale and had scales all colors of the rainbow. She asked me if I still wanted to be put out of my misery, or did I want to stick around a while longer and help some others."
"I looked at that rainbow snake, and I said 'Both'. Lin, do you know who she is?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:28 pm
Lin was staring at her professor in fascination. He had experienced so much, and true to her word, she didn't judge him for running. He was young and he was scared. It was a mistake and everyone made them.
"Was... was that the snake that transformed you into a dragon? I always thought you had been a dragon, but you started out as completely human, sir?"
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:40 pm
"Completely human," Ophiuchus admitted. "But not quite like the dragons most people think of. A serpent, which is a type of dragon, but has a different body shape - enough technicalities, the story! Yes, she turned me into what I am now, with a few conditions."
"One of them regarding her name. She's much, much more powerful and older than me. To even invoke her name would call on so much power that it would cause me great pain. Lin, I am a speck compared to her."
"The others conditions were that I must leave my old life and begin a new one as her apprentice, which is how Mehmet died. And that's why I, Ophiuchus, am not only a god of healing, but a servant to a Goddess - with a capital G - who, I suppose if she wanted, could bring every human who had ever lived on this Earth back to life, eons after their bodies have disintegrated and their souls have reincarnated over and over. It's a good day when I can save one person before rigor mortise sets in."
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