Second Opinion

After almost two straight weeks of training Misery every day, Dorien had decided to give her the day off for both of their sakes. They both needed a break. Besides, it was Third-day, which was usually when Aubrienne came by to pick up her stash for the week, and Dorien wanted to see if she could be of any help with the fungus and trees that Misery had found. Despite not being useful alchemically, he still found it a fascinating puzzle, and as an actual sorcerer Aubrienne might be able to find something he'd missed in regards to its origin and nature.

When the doorbell rang he was actually awake and dressed for once, and he opened it with a smile.

"Hey there. How's my favorite customer?" he asked the magician.

"What do you want?" Aubrienne asked with an exaggeratedly suspicious face. She broke into a smile after a beat, however, and breezed past Dorien. She threw herself down onto Dorien's couch, as usual, sprawling out. "Your favorite customer is tired. Been a long couple of days, and I need something to take my mind...I was going to say 'off of things,' but I'll settle for something that will just take my mind for a bit."

Dorien laughed and closed the door behind her.

"Well, I have your usual ready, but before your mind gets too unmoored from the shores of reality, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking a look at something for me quickly. I need your magical expertise."

Aubrienne gave an (completely overwrought) exasperated sigh, pushing herself back to vertical.

"I suppose," she said, drawing out the latter word before smiling. "What do you have? Some kind of item you got in trade or something?"

"Sort of, in that I traded my apprentice lunch for helping me obtain a sample."

He walked over to a nearby table and grabbed a small petri dish containing a sample of an oily black mold.

"It's a fungus that she found growing on some trees in an abandoned lot in the Shade. She claims the trees it was growing on didn't exist a few weeks before. I analyzed it the best I could, thinking maybe it might have some kind of alchemical use, but all I can tell is that it's poisonous and highly magical, possibly unstable. The strange thing is that I haven't found any evidence of a growth acceleration capability, so I have no real explanation for the sudden tree growth. The trees themselves also seem to radiate some kind of magic. In fact, I believe the whole area might be... off... in some way. It's almost like something is bleeding into the area and contaminating it, but I have no idea what."

He sighed and put up his hands in mock frustration.

"Loathe as I am to admit defeat, I thought maybe your magic might be able to reveal something my chemistry had missed."