Chapter 50 - Nature Magic (Patreon)

Fate smiles upon you. Nature shall be yours.

The mindscape for her Nature challenge was in a large meadow with an apple tree in the center.  Wildflowers dotted the short grass in arranged clumps.  She would not be surprised if they made a pattern when viewed from the air.  The apple tree at the center was the focal point of this mindscape, so she slowly made her way to the center and approached the tree.

The tree’s trunk looked to be carved in the shape of a willowy woman.  Moss grew on the bark to give the illusion of hair, and leaves were woven into a short dress that covered her from under her arms to a few inches above the knees.  As Violet moved to get a closer look at the figure, it blinked and then smiled at her.

“Hello Violet”

Not expecting the tree to move, she jumped back and barely held in a scream.

The dryad began laughing at Violet’s reaction and said, “Oh, how I do enjoy playing pranks on people.”

“I thought the mindscape was made up from my subconscious.  How would you have played tricks on others?”

“The setting is a product of your subconscious, but the guardians are their own people.  We are here to test you and make sure you are worthy of our magic.”

“All I had for Illusion and Water magic was a prompt.”

“You are a special case, Violet.  The limitless trait is very rare, but others have received it in the past.  Guardians are placed as gatekeepers to ensure that the correct people receive power.  We can look into both of your pasts to make an educated guess on how your future will be.”

“Am I the correct type of person to receive Nature magic?”

“That is what I am here to find out. Don't worry. I won't make you jump through logic hoops to see if you are smart or not.  You have already proven that.  My test will involve the aspect that you will receive.”

“I am about to go on a journey.  Do you have any aspects that would help me on my trip?”

“There are three aspects that you are currently eligible to receive.  All would be useful, but I believe the ability to create your own food would be a boon for your travels.”

To gain Create Food, you must use this aspect to summon the following food items:

• A fruit
• A vegetable
• A meat
• A meal with multiple ingredients

The dryad melded back into her tree and would not respond to any of Violet’s questions after the task popped up.  Whenever she had received an aspect in the past, a tiny amount of knowledge was planted in her brain to teach her how to use the ability.  This time was no different.

Violet decided it would be best to tackle the list in order.  She had an apple tree before her, and she missed apples.  Visualizing a red apple like the ones in the tree, she thought of how it felt in her hands, how it tasted, and what the texture was like.  Slowly allowing her mana to flow into her mental image, she continued until something solid dropped into her hand.

Looking down at what she had created, she was pretty upset.  She had made a plastic replica of an apple instead of the actual fruit.  The replica quickly crumbled into dust shortly after she inspected it.  After several attempts, she got better at making the apple look correct, but it was always an inedible object instead of the actual fruit.  Starting to get frustrated, she asked the tree, “What am I doing wrong?”

“Would you like to spend three percent synchronization for a hint?”

Grumbling, she responded with an affirmative.

“You were doing two things wrong.  First, you were not visualizing that it was alive and would also help provide you with life through its nutrition.  The second thing you were doing wrong I’ll give you for free.  There are no apples on Zogara. You cannot create that which does not exist.”

A large table filled with fruits, vegetables, meats, and various meals she had eaten before appeared in the clearing.  Being able to pick up, feel, and taste the different types of food helped Violet immensely.  She was able to conjure Zogara’s equivalent of raspberries, carrots, and beef after a few more hours of attempts.

Inside this trial, when she conjured something, her mana dropped to represent how much it would have cost.  Her regen was insanely high inside the challenge, so it didn't take longer than a few minutes to be at full mana again.  Conjuring fruit cost her one-third of her mana, vegetables cost a little under half, and meat cost two-thirds.  The amount she could summon at that cost was enough for an average meal.  She would not be surprised if the cost of mana were tied to the calorie count.

Conjuring the meal was quite a bit more complicated.  Violet decided to attempt a recreation of meat and carrot stew because she had cooked it many times.  To recreate it correctly, she needed to conjure the seasonings and the broth.  She then decided that if she was going to recreate the stew, she would add all of the ingredients.  It meant she needed to visualize potatoes, broccoli, onion, and a few other vegetables as well.  Being able to practice this during a time freeze was a huge boon.

There was a slight stumbling block when she tried to summon salt.  It was technically a mineral and not something living.  The other issue she came across was broth was mainly made from water.  While she could create water with her Water magic, she felt there had to be some way to create these things using Create Food.  It had taken her much longer than she would like to admit, but she was finally able to get around this roadblock.  The answer to these issues was a little complicated, but she just needed to picture the finished product rather than piece by piece.  Because it was combined in something she considered food, she could conjure it.

When she had finally learned each of the larger ingredients, it took her several attempts to get the stew to taste correct.  She was thankful for the empty bowls that spawned on the table with the other food examples. Surprisingly, a finished meal only cost her around three-quarters of her mana bar.  It was still more expensive than the individual ingredients alone, but it was a considerable discount when you added up the ingredients in the finished product.

When she perfected the flavor, she announced to the dryad that she was done.  The dryad smiled at her and nodded. The next thing Violet knew, she was kicked out of the mindscape.

Congratulations, you have received the aspect for Create Food with synchronization starting at 8%.

To return for more aspects, you must have a total of 8% synchronization for Nature.

----------------

After a promise to talk more at a later time with Alexandra, Violet was walking as fast as she could toward the palace exit.  She would have been running if it had been allowed.  The guards all knew her and let her pass unhindered.

Her mother met her at the door to the estate.  Violet would be having a conversation with her about keeping secrets after she had seen her father.  He was her priority right now.

“How is he?”

“He is doing as well as can be expected.  The healer gave him a sleeping potion so he could get some rest.”

“The queen allowed me to use the crystal at the palace so I could pick up Regrow - Skin.”

“Violet!  That was dangerous.  What happens when she tries to use you now?”

“Mom, I’ll be alright.  She's known about me the whole time we’ve been here. No, I didn't tell her.  Can we talk about this later?  I want to heal dad.”

Her father was peacefully sleeping on the bed when she entered the room.  She was thankful for potions in this world.  They could heal minor wounds, cure some poisons, put people to sleep, and a few other things.  Her father’s burns were too severe for a potion to help with anything more than pain and the speed of healing.

Stepping up to the bed, she pulled the covers back and began to remove the bandage from his burns carefully.  The burns were covered with a clear gel-like substance to help the dressing not stick and promote healing.  She had not used her ability to regrow his skin yet, so she wanted to watch what she was doing.

Healing had always come naturally for her.  She was not sure how much of that was the knowledge she received with an aspect or just her advanced knowledge of the human body in general.  Whichever it was, she was thankful that regrowing skin came easily for her.  She started on his leg and slowly worked her way up to the more severe burns on his torso.

They needed to give him another sleeping potion before she could finish healing her dad.  While the ability came easily for her, it also consumed a large amount of mana.  She now understood why Samuel didn't just heal her dad for her.

Between healing sessions with her dad, Violet confronted her mother.  Her mother said the note she received said that “Zarek was injured in an explosion and is currently with a healer.”  It made sense for her mother not to share that information because it would have immediately had Violet out of bed and trying to tend to her father.  Her mother did not know the severity of his injuries from the note and assumed being with a healer meant that he would be fine.

----------------

Crown City was hit pretty badly with the warehouse explosions.  Dominion operatives destroyed the grain and corn storage and areas where smoked meat was kept.  Thankfully, it was early in the harvest season, and very little of this year’s crops had been stored in those locations yet.  They did not hit every food stockpile, but it would be a lean winter if they didn't have a good harvest.

They also hit some crafting locations and workplaces.  Violet’s father was caught in the attack on the sawmill.  She was thankful the attacks happened later in the day because her father would have died if he had not already been on his way home.  He had a crafting space that doubled as his office next to the sawmill.  Many people were not so lucky.

It was odd for her not to see Regina showing up at her door at random times.  Regina ended up being on “house arrest,” as she called it, for a little over a week.  When she did show up, Lyra had to point Regina in the right direction to find Violet.

------------------------

Violet spent most of that time with the healers helping to save lives.  There were several burn cases she was able to help with.  The patients were all given sleeping potions before she attended them.  After they had woken up, she would tell the patients that Samuel had come by to heal them.  She didn't need praise for doing what was right, and this way, it kept her secret for a little longer. A typical dual mage would not have access to the aspect to regrow skin.

Using the method of knocking patients out with a sleep potion, Violet raised the synchronization of her healing aspects quickly.  There were several fingers and toes that needed to be amputated that Violet was able to grow back using her new Regrow - Limb aspect.  She also helped to heal a few wounds that had started to get infected, which raised her Cure Disease aspect.

Most doctors never realized that Violet was not using modern magic to heal people.  She was careful to always heal in private and had two trusted healers to watch her back for her.  While Violet already knew the two people helping her, it was the Queen who had ordered them to secrecy.

When Violet had first shown up at the healing tents, Henry handed her a note from the Queen.  The note was short and to the point.  Violet was to trust Henry and Megan to help her whenever she needed to use her newest aspects.  They would shield her from others seeing what she was doing and keep her secret.

Modern magic had healing spells, but most of those spells were the equivalent of her Lesser Heal aspect.  There was no option to include some of the caster’s vitality to help the patient when using this type of magic.  There weren’t any known modern spells to regrow things that had been lost.

Being able to regrow skin, limbs, and eventually, organs was only something an ancient purist healing mage could do.  The other aspect Violet had left to receive was Greater Heal.  When she received that aspect, she could start healing as Samuel did.  The difference between Lesser Heal and Greater Heal was one used the patient’s resources to speed up healing, while the other used mana to heal even fatal injuries.  The catch for healing fatal injuries was that the healer needed to attend to the person before they had died for the spell to work.

When Regina finally located her in the healing tents, Violet had a lot on her mind.  It was heartwrenching what had happened to so many innocents.  That, coupled with her father getting caught in the attacks, caused a fire in her to start burning.  Queen Alexandra had mentioned something about touring the ancient sites to help find answers, and it was something Violet felt she was well suited to do.