Amongst the regular students of the Ascending Mountain Institute, there are of course those favoured by Teachers and selected as their personal students in order to depart their worldly experiences to, beyond the usual (or unusual) curriculum, but there are also students that the school felt should be nurtured for the greater good of the school; core students. Potential core students might reside in the inner or outer school, they might be aware or unaware that they are being watched carefully by the mysterious Head Master and Vice Head Master, they might not even be aware of why they have been selected as potential core students. But eventually, they would be offered a place amongst these unknown elite students, offered a great deal of resources and access to secret levels of the library, in exchange for their loyalty to the school and their silence.
One such child under the careful eye of the Head Master was Delphi. When her twin roots became active, they turned out to be a light and water mutant combination that was so rare that it was almost unheard of. She had been offered a place at the school at the age of eight, although she was fourteen when she finally enrolled. She began as a mage, but her gifts truly lie in her healing abilities. These were in thanks to her special, complimenting roots. She was also gentle in nature, did not favour the combat arts, and when she was nineteen, she transferred to the Healers Hall in order to focus solely upon this path as a Healer Apprentice.
She'd not yet been approached about being a core student, but it was merely a matter of time.
At this moment, Delphi was checking the Hall's inventory. The Healers were good at saving lives, determining illnesses and injuries and prescribing pills and potions, but not so good as to ensure those pills and potions were in stock. Delphi happened to like to keep busy, therefore regularly took upon herself this task.
Still, although she had made herself responsible for inventory, did not mean that there was not a rota amongst the Healers for this sort of thing, just that they often forgot or convinced themselves it was someone else's turn to deal with it. Pharmacist Clawse' Healer Uncle had been reminded that he was meant to have checked the inventory this month, but he'd been delaying it almost the entire Moon and only happened to get around to it now as it was his superior's turn next month and he didn't want to face that woman's criticism. Not that she was say anything harsh, just that she would give him that look... one that indicated far more than a scolding lecture could, one that could cause a chill to run down even Teacher Corne shudder in discomfort.
Thus he felt nothing but sincere gratitude from the bottom of his heart to discover that Delphi had already taken stock for him and written a few requests of the alchemist schools.
Delphi simply smiled, waving away his thanks with a gentle gesture and continued to replace all of the jade bottles back in their wooden containers, ready to be placed away until one of the Healer's personal stocks of common pills needed restocking or until a rarer pill happened to be required. The Healer noticed that a pile of bamboo lengths had been placed upon the centre table, which also was covered with jade bottles.
"What are these for?" The Healer enquired.
"Oh," the girl replied with a shy smile. "I was labelling the jade bottles. Some of the jade bottles are quite dusty, becoming opaque with age. It's inconvenient to keep opening the bottles up to see what they contain, the pills will eventually spoil if this continues. It was be such a waste to lose some of the rarer and expensive pills due to continuous checking."
He noticed a bottle that she had already placed one of her bamboo tags upon, the calligraphy upon it in fresh ink. "I feel like I have seen something like this done before," he said aloud, before recalling that it was the delicate tag upon that jade bottle of excellent pills Corvus had in his collection and a rising excitement swelled within him.
The girl blushed and nodded; "Hmm, I did obtain the idea from elsewhere. But his labels were so much better crafted and the words carved upon them, meaning they were less prone to fading or smudges. Must have been created by a delicate hand." Her nose wrinkled as she cast a critical eye over her own bamboo tags and sighed. "Mine are so ungainly in comparison!"
He chuckled and offered words of encouragement; "That you would take the time to do all of this is already worthy of note. Don't be so hard upon yourself." He patted her shoulder. "Other Healers and Teachers, though, might remind you not to rely on labels to identify the pills in the end. Must also use one's knowledge to access the contents, thus not to select the wrong pill because the label told you otherwise." Delphi nodded, understanding the Healer's teachings.
Picking up the nearest pill bottle, he bitterly noticed that the label claimed that inside the bottle were One Heart Pills, before asking; "Do you happen to recall just where you saw the other labelled bottles?"
Delphi nodded and put the rest of the One Heart Pills into the wooden container. The Healer passed her the one in his hand so she could close the container. "There was a boy trading them at the Five School Market Festival. He was with others from the outer alchemist school. To be honest, all of his pills were of the common sort and quite average in quality. I assumed that he labelled them so to attract attention." She smiled as she recalled the groups of female students cooing over the cuteness of the labelled bottles. "It certainly worked."
The Healer grinned, excitedly; "the outer alchemist school, you say?"
The lid of the keg sealed together with a soft thump and Leon rocked back onto his feet and stood almost gracefully, satisfied with how the Serene Milk salts were forming. He was planning on using the salts, once they were complete, to make his Bath Salts, instead of using the salty spring water from the distant cave he originally found Jin Li in. He hoped that the Serene Milk Salts would be a viable substitute seeing as they were one of the ingredients in the much used Light Chi Elixir (What Cultivators often placed in their bath waters at present).
Dusting off his plain hemp robes, he began to consider what else he could make today, when a familiar voice broke into his contemplation. "Leon!" She rushed inside, through the open door without qualms. Fortunately, because the inside of Leon's hut was not large, she refrained from pouncing upon him in her usual, affectionate way.
"Hey, M-Maimai," he gave her a light smile before reaching for a spare cup from the shelf to make her a cup of tea. It was a bit dusty, so he decided to give it a quick rinse first. This cup wasn't used too often, meant for guests as Jin Li had one that he considered his own, a rounded, black and grey China cup and Leon favoured a simple, brown one.
Steaming tea placed before her, she flopped upon the floor beside the table, ignoring all lady-like proprieties that she had been taught until wanting to scream, and took a sip. The flavour was much how she liked it, strong and sweet. Usually, the majority of the servants in the woman's quarters of her father's mansion served delicately flavoured teas as that was how the Madam and Merylin liked to drink it. Only her personal servants would serve her strong teas and then only while she did not have company. Therefore, she appreciated the freedom the school gave her more. Smacking her lips together happily, she waited until Leon sat opposite her before confessing something that had been weighing on her mind.
"I'm really, really sorry!" She apologised ahead of time.
"F-for What?" Leon asked, a bit confused.
"My sister, she has a bit of interest in Jin Li," Maimai admitted. Leon already knew this and thought this statement was understated. "I've warned her away, I mean, it is so clear that Jin Li has never had any time nor interest in her, but she..."
Leon smiled, wryly. "Th-thinks otherwise?" Whether in this world or in Leon's previous world, people who were in love could be very blinkered. He recalled how he had blindly accepted all of his old crush's whims and received nothing in return for his troubles, but heartache. However, he did not believe Miss Merylin was the sort of girl to trail after her love like a lost puppy and watch him walk away in the end. He didn't think her pride would allow it. Actually, as their paths had not crossed for a while, he rather thought she had stepped back and decided Jin Li was not worth her time. If Maimai was mentioning her now, clearly he had thought wrongly.
"En," Maimai agreed. "But she's gone too far! She's been trying to convince daddy to recruit Jin Li into the Sect and make him his succeeding disciple. As the eldest di-daughter, she would then marry him after a time." The cup in Leon's hand trembled and he placed it upon the table carefully, less he spill the hot beverage upon himself.
"Wh-What d-did your father say t-to that?" Leon stuttered, heavily as he asked this. Jin Li was strong, well worth a good position in a good Sect, should he choose. Although, when they first met, Jin Li's aspiration was to return home, to the Higher Realm, he hadn't mentioned going back for sometime now. So could he be tempted by something like this?
Maimai's brows raised and she shook her head with an inward sigh. Leon clearly had not been loved enough by his gong if he still thought another could turn Jin Li's head. "Silly," she teased him. "As if Jin Li would chose my sister over you." She placed her empty tea cup down. "But that's neither here nor there. As much as daddy likes to indulge us, he won't allow us to affect his decisions when it comes to the Sect. There are already a few potential youths in the Sect he might pick to eventually succeed him, not to mention a few brothers. Granted they are shu-born, so the Madam might protest, but daddy will choose whom he chooses, not who Merylin chooses for him. He also would never force anyone to join the Sect. That does not make for loyal disciples."
Leon's lips curved into a reassured smile, but it did not quite reach his eyes. Maimai wondered if she should have kept her mouth shut and not warned him at all, but she had wanted to arm him, in case Merylin tried something else to gain Jin Li's attentions. However, before his best friend could form anymore words to make him feel better, an clicking noise of irritation interrupted them.
Speak of the devil...
Jin Li stood, arms crossed about his chest in the doorway of the small hut. Were it not for the light already becoming dim due to the thickening clouds in the sky, they would have noticed his shadow cast over the table and welcomed him sooner. The man glared at Maimai, coldly, only for the glare to be returned with a sly grin, before he was completely ignored. Narrowing his eyes, he stormed the three steps necessary to reach his small lover and gathered him into his arms in a way that was somehow possessive, but tender, causing Leon to blush profusely. Jin Li then indicated with a dismissive wave that Maimai's presence was no longer appreciated.
The girl just rolled her eyes in a very obvious way, before rising to her feet and leaving. She glanced once over her shoulder to see the intense, fiery way the man gazed at her best friend, who met the stare with adoration. If her sister could see this, could see that there was no space for her to squeeze herself in between them, would she finally give up?
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