NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 318 – Something Forgotten
As the group settles down, Courtney coughs to get everyone’s attention. “So there is one other thing that needs to be done. Or rather, I guess I just want to confirm if it has happened or not yet. I noticed that Gregor doesn’t have his fifth tail yet. Does that mean Jason hasn’t gotten his potion yet? After all, while I don’t know what Jason has done so far, but me and Rosha have already taken an oath not to share the fact he has taken the potion. Be a bit of a waste to have made those oaths if he doesn’t actually drink the potion in the first place.”
Jason frowns, “That did sort of slip my mind. I know that one of the conditions was to stick around a week but that is a bit unreasonable at this point.”
Gregor freezes. “Oh, right, that was a thing. The good news is we got permission and after that I put it aside and forgot about it because there wasn’t anything I could do until the potions came in. I might be a top tier enchanter, but I don’t know much of anything about alchemy. And well, it hasn’t come in yet?”
Peter laughs, “There is a reason I got you that schedule calendar thing. Nothing escapes your mind, but sometimes you just let things go after taking a look. The good news is I just heard about a delivery that was coming in today so chances are it might be in. While not the easiest potion to make, much of the difficulty comes from gathering the ingredients. The actual brewing is relatively quick. Not like some of the fancier potions that might be on the boil for years.”
Gregor coughs, “Ah yes, that’s a good thing. Jason, if you don’t mind heading over to the adventurers guild with me after breakfast we can check.”
Jason frowns, “Why would it be at the guild?”
Gregor shrugs, “The guild has the best public delivery service. Sure, organizations of a larger size will have gates and other nonsense in their back pockets. But those are stupid expensive to set up. Our kingdom has a few gates, but we can’t justify using them to travel between our kingdom’s cities. We can’t even afford to use them to travel to any kingdom touching a kingdom that borders our kingdom.
“No, if we want to crack open a gate, it will be to some far away destination with something of critical worth to us. And when we do open a portal, the event will be a kingdom shaking affair. You could even say it is bigger. Large merchants from all the nearby kingdoms will line up for what might be a once in a decade event. See, opening a gate is the most expensive part and while keeping it open definitely isn’t cheap, it is comparatively.
“The last time we opened one of the gates it stayed open for a full month as people poured into it and out of it non-stop. This would be a lot harder to manage if it wasn’t for gates working from both sides so we can have one side be an entrance and the other an exit. Anyway, I got a bit side tracked but suffice to say, the guild is the better choice and ranks quite high when it comes to security.”
“That would make sense”, then Jason stops for a moment to consider his plans. “So, while I do have something to do, it doesn’t need to be done first thing in the morning. I can definitely make a quick trip over to the guild with you so we can check. Though I haven’t actually had to make any oaths yet so we should probably get that out of the way.”
Peter rolls his eyes, “Of course we managed to get oaths from everyone involved except for the person who plans to actually take the potion.”
Jason shrugs, “I will admit I spent a lot of time off doing things on my own. Both Rosha and Courtney spent time with the two of you to learn. Anyway, back to the subject of how long I need to stick around. If I promise to stick around for a couple more days past when I originally planned to leave, will that be enough? Four days from now I have a hard cut off for when I need to be free to go.”
Gregor waves his hand as if to sweep Jason’s worries away. “We know about how you travellers as a group tend to mostly vanish every four weeks or so. While a little rushed, that should be fine. In fact, while side effects of a potion can appear days later, the things directly related to the potion will generally appear the day of or at the latest the next day.”
Jason nods, “But it is better to be safe than sorry. I’m already going to swear to inform you about the non-personal matters that come up from the potion. If some side effect does pop up down the road, I’ll send you a letter.”
“Sigh”, Gregor shakes his head, “I can’t really ask for more at this point. Didn’t really expect the potion to take this long to get here.”
Peter nods, “The only reason I didn’t completely shut down the whole potion thing was because I expected it to be done in a day or two. It has now been over a week and the potion still isn’t in. There must be some kind of problem either with the rest of the ingredients or the alchemists that would usually be tapped to brew it.
“The kingdom usually has a better turn around time if only because it keeps us higher level types happy. I wish I could say I’ve learned patience with my years but all time did was allow me to gather more power so I don’t have to wait.”
Gregor shrugs, “I personally have developed my fair share of patience. But yeah, a bit odd that it took this long for the potion to get here. Though that is why I’m willing to believe the potion is arriving today.”
