Chapter 18: Gilly Gets Gud
After spending a day practicing the Reclamation spell, Troy decided to give a little love to his Healing Magic, which he wasn't anywhere near proficient in. Nazad had laid out the instructions for several more types of healing spells and all of them required for him to reach a new level in Chaos Sensing, in order to cast them effectively.
This is what Troy was practicing, whenever Geralt knocked on the door to his room. He had been wondering how much longer it would take Geralt to return, since he hadn't expected it to take him more than a day.
Of course, having all of their senses magnified well beyond an ordinary Human's capabilities, all three witchers were intimately familiar with each other's scent and could determine the other's whereabouts without ever laying eyes on them. Thus, Troy knew it was Geralt approaching before he had even finished climbing the stairs to the second floor of the inn.
"Come on in, Geralt, and tell me how things went."
Geralt entered the room and sat down in a chair opposite the bed Troy was sitting on.
"Well, I found the boy and the flowers. The flowers were fine. He wasn't. As you might imagine, Gilly is pretty shook up so I told her she has until tomorrow to decide whether she wants to draw up another contract for me to kill the beast.
"As best I can tell, there's a natural born Therianthrope walking around this place somewhere and I don't know if it's killing for fun, food, or feelings but it certainly didn't seem to be interested in eating his latest victim.
"If Gilly can somehow manage to scrape together the payment, it shouldn't take more than a day or two to deal with the beast and then we can get out of here and move on down the line. After we secure that research, of course.
"Speaking of which, do you really think there's anything to this whole non poisonous potions business?"
"Hmmmm…a Therianthrope, huh? That's interesting. It certainly sounds like maybe a mad or vengeful Therianthrope but I suppose we'll see.
"Good call, by the way, giving her time to get a grip on the situation. It's not like we're in any hurry and we're already taking quite a bit from her.
"As for the research, I'm not too sure. It certainly sounds outlandish but...if it turns out to be true...well, the implications there are quite far reaching. This could very well be the advent of an entirely new branch of Alchemy.
"Not to mention that I intend to get Gilly to work for us. Maybe not right now but I suspect that our dealings with her have only just begun. Assuming, of course, that the finished product actually does what she claims.
"If it doesn't, I'll be sure to repay you for your troubles and perhaps her husband's research will be useful in some other capacity."
"No. It's fine. You don't have to do that. This is my contract and honestly, I'm fine with what I've been paid so far."
"Really? Alright, well, how about this? Tonight, you can have a whore on me and, if it turns out that those potions do work, then you can pay me back?"
"Ha, now that I won't turn down. Do you want to come with me to meet Gilly tomorrow?"
"Yes, actually. I'm keen to see what this potion and the accompanying research looks like. I'll meet you in the dining room before breakfast. Bye the way, Jorgen should be close to the forest just southeast of here, if you want to go train with him."
"Sounds good, I'll go catch up with Jorgen and then meet you in the morning." Geralt said, as he walked out of the room leaving Troy to continue his training.
[===== The Next Day =====]
Taking the distilled essence of the Lolima flower from the ambelic, Gilly carefully poured several drops from the receiver into five distinct phials.
The Harpsud fruit paste and the White Paisley solution were both sorted into their own beakers, for a total of ten beakers in total.
After ensuring that the phials were all sitting at the appropriate distance from the flames below them to maintain their temperature, she quickly but carefully took each phial and poured a couple of drops of Lolima Essence into both the Harpsud fruit paste and the White Paisley solution before returning them to their stand near the flames.
Once this was done, Gilly took a beaker of Harpsud paste and brought it over to a strange sort of disk that had some runic markings on it.
This was the key to her husband's research and, even though he hadn't created the thing, through much trial and error he had managed to work out how to use the thing.
Her late husband, Ergon, had found this artifact on a rare and lucky trip to Ofir. He had found it alongside a multitude of papers outlining its uses and the methods for creating these non-toxic potions.
Many of the papers, however, were irreparably damaged and much of the text, being not only in a different language, was completely illegible. Thus, it had taken him many years of fighting through an incurable illness that he'd contracted during the trip, before he finally began to see some promising results.
Alas, Ergon had succumbed to his illness just as he was on the cusp of a breakthrough. When Ergon died, the many coins that he had borrowed to complete his research had fallen on Gilly's head to repay.
Gilly had been a dutiful wife, while her husband was alive, and, while assisting him with his research, had become quite learned in the field herself. If the task had been left to her alone, she probably would never have come close to a breakthrough but most of the work had already been done.
With no possible means with which to repay her husband's debts and no other methods of obtaining an income, she had sold almost everything that they owned in order to continue and finish the work that her husband had started.
To her credit she had come ever so close to finishing it but had been prevented from being able to put the final product to the test, given she lacked the required materials for the concoction.
Now, however, she had everything she needed and was very nearly finished completing the concoction.
Tracing her finger along the runic markings in the manner her husband had instructed her, a mild vibration could be felt coming from the contraption before the runic symbols began glowing softly and emitting a white light.
With the central runes now activated, Gilly placed the beaker in the center of the disk directly over those runes. Quickly taking out a stir rod, she began stirring the Harpsud paste clockwise and at a moderate and steady speed.
As she continued stirring, a slight shimmer could be seen accumulating within the paste. Once the shimmer had completely saturated the paste, Gilly traced her finger across one of the runes near the disk's edge.
That rune then began to light up in the same manner as the central rune, at which point, she immediately began stirring at the same consistency but in a counterclockwise direction.
After about thirty seconds of stirring, the paste had changed from a light orange colored to a light red almost pink color. At this time, she removed the beaker, retraced the runes to deactivate them, and then brought the White Paisley solution over for the same process.
With both the paste and solution now primed with the Lolima Essence, Gilly positioned the runic disk near a contraption that had three glass containers on top of it. These three glass containers had elongated tube-like sections that bent downwards and the ends almost came together above the area where she had placed the runic disk.
She only needed two of them for this process, since the Harpsud paste would be the foundation. After filling one of the glass containers with White Paisley solution, she reactivated runes, lit a small candle underneath the central container, and placed the paste beaker back on the disk.
Gilly quickly retrieved a phial of Liloma Essence and poured it into the central container. She then traced and thus activated a different external rune on the disk and then began stirring it counterclockwise, after removing the stoppers from the ends of the tube-like extensions.
The contraption she was using was designed with an extremely slow drip rate and so she knew this last bit would take the longest. Nearly thirty minutes later, the last of both the solution and the essence had been infused into the pasty concoction in the beaker.
Once this much longer and tiring process was completed, Gilly activated yet another rune on the disk's edge and shifted once more to clockwise stirring. After nearly two more minutes of continuous stirring, she was finally able to deactivate the runes, put aside the stir rod, and remove the beaker with the finished potion.
Although the completion of this first potion was a welcome release for her old and feeble arms, Gilly couldn't help but hold the beaker up to her face as she stared at it as if it were a missing loved one who had returned after many years.
The now pale yellow syrupy liquid, giving off the faintest light, as it rested serenely inside its beaker and cast a soft illumination upon Gilly's face. The overall aesthetics and aura of the completed potion making hope well up within her heart.
Tears slowly began brimming in her eyes as she continued to admire the potion that represented the culmination of all of her late husband's work.
'This...this has to be it! It has to work! I have nothing left! Nothing but revenge! My family, my possessions, even this house can hardly be said to belong to me! This world has nothing more to offer me but retribution! And this...this little beauty...will be my promissory note to those with arms strong enough to enact that retribution!'
Gilly smiled madly through the tears that were now streaming down her face as she set aside her fatigue, steeled her mind and body, and began the potion making process once again.
-----
Troy, Geralt, and Jorgen had all arrived at Gilly's house the morning after Geralt's return, to see whether or not it was time for them to leave or not.
Whenever they arrived and knocked on the door, they received no response. After knocking several more times and still not receiving a response, they then focused their enhanced witcher senses on the house in front of them, while drowning out noises from the streets behind them.
Troy could tell that she was inside and that she was clearly in the middle of some task, based solely on the sounds. The smells were very similar to the scents they were familiar with from their alchemy lessons at Kaer Morhen, specifically the scent of plants being processed.
Although, the most interesting thing Troy could sense inside the house was a slight trace of magic that intrigued him to no end. 'What on Earth could she be doing in there? First she claims she can make non-poisonous potions and now she's playing with magic? Hmmm...yeah, it's definitely time to get to the bottom of this.'
Troy quickly and easily utilized his Chaos to unlock the door and let him and his friends inside. Troy didn't want to frighten Gilly, so he asked the others to stay near the door while he made his way towards the sound and smell of Gilly working.
Once he arrived at the room Gilly was using for her experiments, he immediately noticed that she was completely absorbed in her work and didn't even notice his presence.
Troy, being immensely interested in the process for creating these potions, decided to take advantage of her distracted state. He leaned against the door frame and began monitoring her every move while attempting to identify the materials and tools she was utilizing.
Almost immediately, he noticed a strange disk that seemed to be the source of the disturbance in the surrounding Chaos that he had detected earlier.
'What the hell is that thing! I've never seen anything like it before, even in Nazad's office/laboratory. More importantly, how on Earth did Gilly get a hold of such a thing!? It doesn't appear to be any type of standard magic tool. In fact I'm pretty sure I can see runes inscribed upon it! Is it something like what the Runewright offered Geralt in the game?
'This is too bizarre! You're going to have quite a bit of explaining to do, when you're done, Gilly!' Troy thought, as he continued monitoring her work and committing every detail to memory.
Over half an hour later, the potion had finally been completed and Troy had been thoroughly impressed with Gilly's performance. Despite her age she was determined and extremely focused.
After finishing the potion, however, it seemed that she planned to go right back to making more potions, after staring at the completed product and crying for a while.
Since she seemed to be completely oblivious to anything aside from the task in front of her, Troy decided to speak up.
"Gilly, it's me Troy. You remember, right?"
Gilly jumped at the sound of his unexpected presence and her eyes were filled with fear, until she finally recognized his face and processed his words.
Recognizing this man as one of the people she had just been thinking about, she quickly composed herself and addressed the witcher.
"Ahhh, Master Witcher, a pleasure to see you again. You were the one interested in my Ergon's potion research, correct? Well, you're just in time!" She exclaimed, as she reached for the recently finished potion.
"This, I'm sure, is exactly what my husband had been trying to create. Go ahead! Give it a try if you wish! I have enough to make four more, so this one can be used as proof."
Troy took the beaker from Gilly and inspected it closely for several seconds. However, what truly interested him wasn't the potion itself but that strange disk that was clearly the secret behind the potion.
Of course, Troy knew that discovering the secrets held by that disk would take quite a bit of time and right now that wasn't his priority.
"Alright, it doesn't seem to be dangerous upon my initial inspection, so give me a minute to test the thing."
"Of course, Master Witcher! I'll be right here. Please, take your time!"
Troy walked back to the kitchen where his buddies were waiting and sat down in a chair.
Seeing Troy come in with that shiny beaker in his hands, Geralt couldn't help but ask, "Is that it? Did she really manage to make it?"
"This is what she gave me but whether or not it works is what I'm about to find out. I'm going to have to enter a pretty deep meditative state, in order to make sure I can retaliate against any detrimental effects this potion might have. I'll need you guys to keep watch over me, as I'm analyzing its effects."
Geralt and Jorgen both nodded, as Troy knelt on the floor. He then handed the potion to Jorgen and said, "Here, whenever I hold my hand out give this back to me."
Jorgen then took the potion and watched, as Troy silently and motionlessly for almost an hour.
During this time, Troy was gathering and preparing his Chaos for the eventual intrusion of foreign magic into his body. Once he felt he was sufficiently prepared, he held out his hand, took the beaker, and downed it one go.
Immediately, Troy tossed the beaker aside and entered his calm.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone