Getting Ingredients: Chicago Potions Master

[notharry]

It wasn't often that Haley had to buy ingredients for potions. It was even less often that she had the spare money to manage it. But since the two situations managed to converge today-- that she needed ingredients that were specific enough that she didn't have them, and expensive enough that she couldn't get them at Walmart, plus she'd just gotten a stipend from the Wardens-- here she was, dropping in on the local apothacary that she happened to know was on the level when it came to practitioners.

They probably didn't get a lot of Wardens, or White Council Wizards in general, but that didn't stop Haley. The fact that the single other customer recognized her and hurriedly scuttled out of the shop made her sigh, but she was used to that by now.

"Hello?" she called in, listening for a proprietor while she scanned the shelves. Not all of what she needed was likely to be out in the open, but a couple bits might have been. They were common enough, for a place like this.

Comments

[potionsprodigy]

The store was pretty evenly split between high-quality herbal products and New Age trinkets of questionable validity. There was a wall behind the counter covered in tiny drawers and bottles of more potent herbs, but the more exotic wares weren't on display anywhere Haley could see. The more reasonable branch of the Leech family had taken great pains to ensure that their apothecary business hadn't been too closely connected with their name. They'd been moderately successful, if only by mostly passing the Rare Spice Apothecary down to Leeches who didn't have enough talent to get themselves into trouble.

Mona was an exception.

She stepped from the back room, average height, too thin, and wearing dark, old-fashioned clothing that fit in well with the general atmosphere. For someone not long out of apprenticeship, she wasn't much younger than Haley. She recognized her visitor immediately and stopped short, expression calculating as she pushed her messy hair behind one ear. No, she didn't see Wardens often. And with her family history, their visits were almost always unpleasant. "Warden Dresden. This is a surprise."

[notharry]

"Yeah, I bet. Amazing that somebody like me has enough money to come buy premium potions ingredients, right?" Haley knew what the "surprise" was probably actually about, but in the face of anything serious, her method of coping was snarky humor. So there it was, a stupid quip about her broke situation, rather than addressing the whole "everyone's afraid of me" thing.

She was working on the "everyone's afraid of me" thing, anyway. It was just slow going.

[potionsprodigy]

Mona might not have any issues with Haley outside of the Warden thing, but she did react more or less the same way most people did. "Right. So you're a customer, are you?" She arched an eyebrow, her tone dry but still civil. "Tell me another one." She casually stepped to the front door and flipped the sign to 'Closed'. Still assuming this was Council business.

[notharry]

"Hey, I'm serious!" Haley protested, and even reached into her pocket to pull out the cash she'd turned her latest check into, along with the scrap of paper wrapped around it like a rubber band. It wasn't doing a great job at holding it all together, really. "Look, cash on hand and shopping list and everything! If this was Warden business, I'd have the cloak. Probably, anyway." She did still kind of hate that thing, after all.

[potionsprodigy]

"No fooling?" Mona stepped forward, reaching out a hand and gesturing for the slip of paper. "I'd worry this was a ploy for the Council to inspect my stock, except subtlety isn't exactly their style." She still looked suspicious. She assumed, after all, that Haley knew very well who she was and what bloodline she belonged to.

[notharry]

"Hell's bells, I'm not that subtle," Haley pointed out with a snort. "If you were in trouble, probably the place would be burning by now, knowing my rep, right?" She handed over the "shopping list", which did indeed have a series of hard to find and/or expensive ingredients: the more traditional things like two dangerous herbs, a tablespoon of ground diamond, and a fist-sized piece of rose quartz; plus a bit of the more esoteric, like the bottled crow of a rooster and a Red Court vampire tear.

[potionsprodigy]

"If I took reputation for gospel, I'd be turning myself over to the White Council. It's best to take these things with a grain of salt, don't you think?" She looked over the list with a low whistle. "You are doing some shopping, aren't you? Just restocking?" Mona stepped back towards the door to the back room, pulled something small out of her pocket, and made a quick gesture. There was a subtle thrum of power as a ward went down, and she pulled the door open, waving Haley inside.

[notharry]

"Good for you. Though, uh, that one does at least have some truth to it." She looks even more embarrassed, but grins, too. "I do have a kind of annoying tendency to burn things down. Totally on accident, of course, but it still happens."

She fell into Mona's wake. "It's stuff I need for a bigger working. Mostly I'm not so great at the really complicated stuff, but this time, it's kind of important."

[potionsprodigy]

"Right." Mona gave Haley a sidelong glance. "Don't touch anything, okay?"

The back room had more rows of drawers on the walls. Banks of them. Each labelled with small, neat letters on paper that was varying degrees of yellowed. Some were dated. There were some larger bottles and boxes on top of the cabinets, and a safe tucked underneath the staircase at the far end of the room.

Mona grabbed a basket and a stepladder and started pulling open drawers, collecting an assortment of vials and baggies. A couple drawers she had to unlock with a key from around her neck. "You know, in the future, I do accept trades if you can offer ingredients I can't get on my own."

[notharry]

"Not sure how often I'll have ingredients for trade, most of what I use is cheap and comes from Walmart," Haley admitted, tucking her hands behind her back and clasping them there in an exaggerated show of not touching anything. "Or trash I picked up somewhere that just happened to work for a potion or spell. What kinds of things are you looking for?"

[potionsprodigy]

"Great thing about potions - almost anything works as ingredients. You just have to know how to use them. If even half of the gossip about you is true, I'm sure you have ample opportunity to pick up some unusual detritus." Mona stepped off the ladder, shaking a little sealed vial with a tiny amount of some sort of liquid in it - must be the tear. "I'm not exactly a battle wizard, after all, or I'd have been drafted into the Wardens by now." She smiled, just a little. "I hear they take anybody, these days."

[notharry]

"Ha ha ha." It wasn't a laugh; it was a somewhat sarcastic recognition of her little joke. But then she answered with a bit more seriousness. "We're pretty thin on the ground right now, yeah. War'll do that to you. They wouldn't have hired on me without that, and I know it. So do they. At least you're safe."

[potionsprodigy]

"Fine by me." Mona shuddered delicately. "Grey Wardens make me nervous, and I'm not even going to apologize for that. Even if I know better than most that you're necessary. Now, I think I've got everything on your list here. Let's head to the till and I'll ring you up, shall I?"

[notharry]

"Hey, I know how it is. You're not going to hurt my feelings, saying that." Haley figured in at least a couple ways, she was in the same boat as Mona. She motioned for the shopowner to lead the way back out. "I spent enough of my life trying to avoid Warden attention to get it. Poorly, of course, but hey. It's the thought that counts."

[potionsprodigy]

"I'm surprised no one argued to put me under the Doom of Damocles just for being a Leech. But I guess there isn't the manpower for that kind of nonsense anymore." Mona held the door for her, before pulling it shut and locking it. The register was one of the old-fashioned kinds - a veritable antique - that made a cacophony of satisfying thunks as her fingers worked the keys. "Anyway. Anything else I can help with? I always enjoy a good challenge with potion-making."

[notharry]

It would have to be, or her customers would probably short it out-- or Mona, herself. "Oughta introduce you to Bob, you two would probably get along," Haley snorts. "He's the one who told me what to get, here, some of it. Good resource. Big asshole, though. I think this is it for now, but I'll be keeping in mind that trade thing of yours. Don't suppose you've got a use for the remains of a mold demon, do you?"

[potionsprodigy]

"He sounds... charming?" The rumors didn't say anything about a Bob, so Mona could only assume he was a flesh-and-blood wizard. And she wasn't entirely sure if Haley meant it as a jab to say that she'd get along with an apparent 'asshole', or if she just hadn't thought the comment through. So she didn't rise to the bait with more than a raised eyebrow.

"I may. Depends on if there's still metaphysical significance to the remains you have. Bring it by and I'll take a look." She hoped there was. Haley's total wasn't cheap.

[notharry]

Said total made Haley wince. While she had spare cash right now, she didn't have that much spare cash. She might need to find some cheaper substitutes, even if it meant the spell wasn't going to be as powerful. "Yeah... knock off whatever's most expensive from that list? And I'll bring in that stuff, if you think it'll help. It kind of destroyed the inside of my car, but there might be something useful left to it for you."

[potionsprodigy]

Bottling sound was tricky, but not difficult with the right rituals and a knack for subtler arts. Mona had both. Which meant the rooster crow could stay. She set the vampire tear aside and knocked down the total a substantial amount. Unfortunately, that would also be the hardest thing to substitute, but nothing was ever easy when it came to magic. "I'll take a look at it, anyway. Can't say I've come across any mold demons before, let alone their remains."

[notharry]

"Yeah, it was pretty weird, but I've seen weirder. Giant purple chimp demons with wings." She gives an exaggerated shudder, though some of it is still for the total. Oh, well. She starts counting out what cash she has, in the hopes that it will cover it. "Which I bet can give you all kinds of gross ideas about how they chased me out of the building they were hiding in."

[potionsprodigy]

"...I honestly can't tell if you're pulling my leg with that one or not." Mona kind of hoped she was. It was the kind of mental image she didn't want to make a reality. "Remind me to stay on the retail side of professional wizarding."

[notharry]

"It's the smarter way to go," Haley agrees, passing over the money with a wince. "I've almost died more times than I'd like to think about. You're a lot safer, like this." Especially with the family reputation, which Haley was going to actually be polite enough not to bring up, for once in her life.

[potionsprodigy]

Mona took a moment to count the cash, as careful and quick as anyone who'd spent years working a register could be. She just nodded as she counted back the change and wrote out his receipt, longhand. "I'll take that advice to heart. You got everything, now?" She wrapped the more delicate items before she packed them into a bag for him.

[notharry]

"Everything I can afford. I'll be back soon as I can with what I've got, see if I can't trade it for that last thing." She gave the little bottle of vampire tear a begrudging look. "How late are you open?"

And how long could she put off casting this spell... time wasn't as pressed as it could be, but it was still ticking.

[potionsprodigy]

"I live upstairs, Warden." Mona jerked her thumb up towards the ceiling. "Not long 'til close now, but if you need me, and it's important enough, throw pebbles at my window or something. Might be a little cranky if you wake me up, is all."

[notharry]

"I'm not about to show up at one in the morning, or anything," Haley promised with a snort, taking her collection of goods. "At least, I hope not. If I do, then there's probably something more important going on than just needing an ingredient for something." And she honestly didn't mean that as any sort of threat, more like an emergency situation, but she was a Warden, and sometimes people took things wrong.

[potionsprodigy]

Haley was so damn hard to read. Mona didn't think she was trying to threaten her, but the fact was, it was threatening, no matter how she meant it. Mona's smile grew a little tense. "How about I see you out, Warden." It wasn't really a question.

[notharry]

That earns a long-suffering sigh. "Yeah, fine. Got to make sure I don't trash anything on my way out, right? Or set anything on fire. Or lop anybody's head off." Haley turned to head for the door, not exactly waiting for Mona, but not exactly walking as fast or as long-strided as she could, either.

[potionsprodigy]

"Well, that and I lock the door when I'm working in the back room." Mona followed, stepping around Haley to undo the lock. It wasn't that her visitor would need a key... but she had precautions for people messing with the lock who weren't on her payroll. No need to set them off on a paying customer.

[notharry]

"Should've guessed," Haley allows with a snort, looking perhaps a little embarrassed for her assumption. She's used to her own reception, what can she say. "I've got something like that on my place, too, just... my place isn't quite so public. And might get attacked by zombies a little more often."

[potionsprodigy]

"The ones down here are mostly alarms. Got nastier wards for upstairs." Mona held the door open for Haley, giving her a cheery smile that was a little too wide for her thin face. "See you 'round again, Warden."