Downtown Druid

Dantes smiled at the woman and patted one of his pockets filled with coin.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to buy. He spread his awareness through all of the plants nearby, finding that all of them were well cared for. He also detected at least one other person watering some plants in the back.

“I’m looking for… I suppose you could call it a sampler? A mixture of seeds, specimens, maybe some of these potions and powders. Anything local.”

“That’s an interesting request. You going to try to compete with me?”

Dantes smiled. “No, I have a… colleague who's visiting from far away and wanted to know a bit more about what was local.”

She shrugged. “Well, as long as you’re paying.”

He found himself drifting to a small patch of bright mushrooms as they spoke. He reached out to touch one of them. “What’re these?”

Hema glanced over, she was preparing a small canvas bag, and carefully assembling what he’d requested. “Those? They’re violette prosa. They grow in caves and mines around here. You dry them, and powder them, then mix a small amount into your food or drink to strengthen the heart and help soothe sore muscles. I don’t usually recommend it though, too much of it can make your heartrate increase and cause paranoia.”

Dantes smiled widely. “Oh really?” He looked at the five or six mushrooms that were there. “You wouldn’t happen to have some already prepared?”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but seemed to stop short of questioning him aloud.

“I work on the docks. Sore muscles, you know?”

She gave an unconvinced nod. “Sure. I’ll throw some in with everything else.”

“I’ll take a fresh one too.”

She shrugged. “It’s your gold.”

She grabbed a labeled jar, and packed it into a quickly filling canvas bag.

Dantes leaned on the counter while she continued her collecting and picked at his teeth a bit.

“So, do you mind if I go into your greenhouse and say hi to Clay?”

Her attention snapped to him, and he noticed her gripping one of the glass jars hard as if she planned to throw it.

It seemed his intuition had been right. He’d been looking for Clay’s sister’s shop specifically, more out of a sense that he should do a friend a good turn than anything, but the fact that Clay himself was there, that was just providence.

He held up a hand. “It’s okay. I’m an escapee too. I’m not here to get anyone in any trouble.”

She loosened her grip on the jar, but only slightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Dantes sighed. “It’s a little late to lie about it. I truly mean him no harm. He sold me weed a few times, I wouldn’t call us friends exactly, but I just want to talk to him. May have a job if he’s interested.”

She gripped the jar harder again, and actually raised it a bit. “I won’t let him get mixed up in that kind of thing again.”

“It’s okay Hema,” said Clay, pushing open the door at the back of the shop.

He nodded. “Hello, Dantes.”

“This is Dantes!?” she asked incredulously. “The Deceiver?”

“Fitting,” sent Jacopo.

“True, but not exactly good for my reputation.” responded Dantes.

“I told you that’s what other prisoners had begun calling him, not that it’s what I call him,” said Clay.

Dantes nodded back at Clay. “Hello, Clay.”

Clay beckoned him with dirt covered hands. “Come on back.”

Dantes did so, giving a polite nod to Hema as he did. He hesitated and pointed at the bag. “I’ll still be paying for all that.”

She sighed. “I’ll hold it.”

The room in the back of the store was a greenhouse with glass that was somehow warped in such a way that it let in light, but one couldn’t see through it. There were plants he recognized, having just seen them hanging dried in the window, as well as a healthy row of weed that he sensed hidden behind some of the taller plants in the front.

Clay sat in the center of it on a stone bench, and Dantes sat next to him.

“I’m glad to see that you made it out.”

He smiled. “Have you to thank for that I suppose… though I may not have needed to leave in such a way if not for you.”

Dantes grimaced. “I heard.” He removed some of the hair from his face. “I didn’t know that was going to happen, but that doesn’t matter. What's done is done. I am glad that you made it out though.”

He nodded. “I was lucky. When we made the breakout as a group I was square in the middle of things. I just kind of…crawled once I was off the tree.” He scratched his beard, knocking loose a mushroom, which he popped into his mouth. “Before I knew it, I’d made it out.”

“Do you think you’ll leave the city?”

“No. Hema’s the only family I’ve got. I miss the woods, but our old town got hit by some kind of plague a while back. There’s nothing left there. I’ll just have to hide out here…”

“You’re not collared, the only people who may know that you were a prisoner are the guard that arrested you and the judge that sentenced you. There’s a good chance they wouldn’t even recognize you if they saw you.”

He stroked his beard. “I suppose that’s true. I still worry though.”

Dantes looked around the greenhouse and made a sweeping gesture across it. “You and your sister did all this?”

Clay nodded. “Yes, though she expanded quite a bit on what I started with her. I mostly just wanted to grow weed to sell in town. Something about the dirt here makes it especially hard to grow. Oddly enough, the soil in the Underprison grew it without any problem though. Also unfortunately, the Gatemen don’t like local producers since they import everything. Got into a scrap and accidentally broke a man’s neck… it’s easy to forget how frail halflings can be sometimes.”

Dantes looked at Clay’s powerful hands. “It can be, yes.”

“So, I heard you tell Hema you have a job for me?”

“I do, but it’s nothing illegal actually.”

Clay laughed, then looked to see that Dantes wasn’t smiling. “Oh, you’re serious?”

“I mean, I’ll be paying you with money I got illegally, but what you’ll be doing isn’t something the Guard will fuss about.”

Clay chuckled. “Good, I wouldn’t have believed you if there wasn’t at least a little grime on the offer.”

Dantes smiled. “All that I would want from you is to help me garden.”

Clay stroked his beard. “And you won’t make me grow weed?”

He shrugged. “Not unless you want me to.”

“And these aren’t like the blood garden that was in the Pit?”

Dantes shook his head. “No. That was a mistake. Had I known… well, I still may have done it, but it’s not necessary here. I’ve just been expanding beyond what I think I can maintain myself, and I know that you’re a rare talent when it comes to growing things.”

“I’m guessing these gardens have something to do with you being a druid?”

Dantes considered misdirection, but decided against it. How could he lie when Clay had seen so much overwhelming evidence. “That’s right.” He raised his hand and sent his will out through the garden making the plants shift back and forth as if they were being blown by the wind.

“I don’t see what a druid would need me for. Can’t you just -” he made a series of strange hand motions.

“I can, to an extent, do things like that, but it takes energy and I have the impression that some of what I do needs to be done the hard way.”

“But you don’t want to do them the hard way.”

Dantes shrugged. “I’ll do some of it, but I need help. Simple as that.”

“What’s the pay?”

“A gold a week.”

His eyes widened.

“Which will likely increase as the garden’s grow.”

Clay rubbed his beard a bit more. “I don’t know. Where are the gardens?”

“Scattered around the southwestern part of the inner city, in old areas that had been sealed by the guard and forgotten.”

“One gold, five silver.”

“One gold, two.”

“Deal.” Clay stood and spat in his hand, offering it to Dantes.

Dantes mimicked the gesture and clasped Clay’s hand, giving it a firm shake. “Deal”

“Do you need me to start today er?”

Dantes shook his head. “No, I’ll come get you tomorrow morning, and show you what you’re working with. We can discuss what materials you need to buy after that. They’ll be on me, obviously.”

Clay nodded, and Dantes and him walked back out into the main area of the shop where Hema was crushing something with a mortar and pestle.

“Two gold,” she said, offhandedly pointing at the sack she’d prepared for him.

“Gold?” asked Dantes incredulously.

“Don’t think I’m so foolish to think that you’re buying those mushrooms just for sore muscles.”

Dantes smiled. “I’ll pay you the gold, if you take the time to teach me what everything in this bag you’ve prepared for me does. Deal?”

She looked at Dantes then Clay, who gave her a subtle thumbs up.

She spat in her palm and held out her hand. “Deal.”