Maikana
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Chapter 18 – Context matters
🕑 Added 2025-02-13 17:11:20 +0000 UTCAs the pages pass Kori learns many things, mostly about how to use plants to treat various illnesses or what plants are best to counteract the effects of other plants should you mistakenly ingest, handle, or in some cases just breathe too deeply in their presence. One of the other things she learns is that writing for hours on end has a distinct effect on your hands, namely that it causes cramping.
There was one unexpected benefit from her work on the tome however, on her third day after copying nearly twenty pages, which placed her behind on her progress and to the decision to stay up later in the evenings, she received a notification that led to a bump in her speed from that point onwards. Not the one she expected, as her writing skill did not increase, but one that helped none the less.
<<Skill Acquired, Basic Drawing, Common, Level 1>>
Copying the sketches was one of her largest hurdles on keeping to the schedule set by Ortik, her first images were rough at best, though she noticed that those she was copying from were not much better at the beginning either.
As the days pass learning about cave mosses, there are a surprisingly vast number of varieties of the stuff, from nutritious to deadly in their properties, fungus, lichen, and even algae that blooms, though she wasn’t sure why that word was used, it didn’t have flowers, in the deep lakes. The wealth of knowledge present in the tome surprising in its breadth. There are even large sections filled with plants and herbs found upon the surface. That her predecessors had painstakingly preserved the knowledge of such plants, even though few amongst the shaman would ever venture from their subterranean homes, puzzled her.
Seeking clarification from Ortik, and needing a break to rest her tired hands, she approaches him in the workshop on the evening of the fourth day.
“Spiritcaller Ortik, I have a question if I may?” Unsure if this is one of those tasks that he believed she should complete without further guidance or not, Ortik having been quiet during meals aside from basic enquiries as to her progress.
“What is it you desire to know, apprentice?” Arching a brow, “You are not giving up on your deadline already, are you?”
“No, Spiritcaller Ortik, I will not be giving up.” A bit of fire in her voice, she might feel the task is daunting, but there is no way she’d admit failure until she was dragged away screaming. Not again. “I noticed that there are a number of plants listed from the surface, generally these are things that have alternatives listed in the tome, so why bother? It’s unlikely that we’ll ever encounter them.”
“Ah. I assure you there is a purpose. Think upon the purpose of this task and you’ll find it.” A somewhat smug tone in his voice, the one that always means there is a lesson to be learned, if only she could find it.
“The task? To create my own tome so that I know how to use the resources around us” Mostly speaking to herself at this point as she puzzles out what he’s trying to teach her. “And to teach me how to record that knowledge in a way that others can comprehend so that the knowledge can be passed on?” Knowing that to only be part of the answer, she continues her musings. “No, it’s not just that.” Thinking more on the content and the act of her copying it, rather than just the end result of possessing her book. “It’s to push my Skills. That’s why you set a tight deadline too, isn’t it, Spiritcaller Ortik?”
“Ah, there you are apprentice, once you step back from the goal you eventually see the purpose of things.” That smug tone heavy in his voice. “If the goal is to push your Skills, then what purpose do those surface plants serve?”
“You’ve told me several times; herbalism is a knowledge Skill. The more we know, the more we prove we know, the higher our skill rises. But if copying the tome can raise my Skill, why not start with that instead of expending resources processing herbs?”
“Are you asking me a question, apprentice? Or simply musing aloud again?”
“Sorry Spiritcaller Ortik, I was musing aloud. This is something every apprentice does, and you’ve said that it is a rite of passage that we are tasked with once an apprentice has both skills, so there must be a reason as to why it is better to wait…” Beginning to pace as she speaks, “The [Basic Calligraphy] skill makes sense, the book is to last a lifetime so it must be written well enough that even an apprentice can comprehend and copy it. I’ve even seen in your own how your penmanship improves the further into the tome you read… But Herbalism… I am unsure as to the answer.” Her pacing stopped as she stands before him again.” So, I guess I will have to ask. Why spend weeks working with herbs rather than go straight to writing, Spiritcaller Ortik?”
“The answer is a very simple one apprentice. Context.” Pointing to a seat to nearby and waiting for her to sit. “Setting my tome before you on your first day in my care would be like setting it in front of a hatchling, you would have no basis for any of the meaning.”
Reaching out to thin air as though plucking something from a shelf, Kori sees a shimmer coalesce before a tome she’s become all too familiar with appears within his grasp. Her eyes wide and mouth agape as he sets the tome down before them and opens the pages, “What?”
“Hmm? Oh, you didn’t think I’ve kept this book all this time without protecting it in some fashion, did you?” The smugness reaching new heights, with a bit of mirth working its way in. “I had the tome worked upon by enchanters from the surface decades ago, it’s how I met Har, he brokered the deal for me after I delved the depths and retrieved materials from some of the beasts that the humans prize.”
“It’s magical?! You let me handle a magical item? But what if I damaged it?!” Horror and disbelief in her tone.
“That would be quite the feat if you did apprentice. I even need to use special inks to even make a mark upon the page at this point.” A shake of his head and a brief chuckle.
“But you warned me of consequences if I ‘dare mar a single page’?” Incredulity at his casual handling of an enchanted object warring with anger of his deceit and how she had been treating the tome like it would fall apart at the slightest twitch of her claw when turning the page.
“Of course, I had to impress the import upon you somehow, this is a serious task after all.”
“Of course…”
“Of course, what?”
“Apologies, Spiritcaller Ortik.”
“Good. Now, back to your question. Context. The tome is dense with knowledge hard won over hundreds of years.” Pointing to an entry on an early page, “Having you copy this upon your first day would garner you levels in calligraphy for certain, but you would be lacking the basis to understand the information held within. “Directing her attention to a warning against mixing preparations of the plant that restored Stamina but caused jitteriness and impaired sleep with other herbs that caused drowsiness or sedation, “Without handling ingredients like the drift shroom, the warning here would be a simple fact on a page, but afterwards, it has meaning to you for you to retain it and comprehend.”
“So having the skill makes it easier to progress the skill when copying it, Spiritcaller Ortik?”
“Just so. Now, if your curiosity is satisfied,” Looking down to her hands resting upon the workbench, that she had been flexing and squeezing throughout their discussion, “And the cramps in your hands are alleviated, I suggest you return to your task.”
“Yes, Spiritcaller Ortik.” Looking down to her own hands. “Any advice about the cramps? The ache in my fingers is barely gone from the night before by the time I start again in the mornings…”
A nostalgic chuckle, remembering his own days of stiff knuckles well all these years later, “Soak them in warm water before bed. It isn’t much, but it feels quite nice and helps a little.”
“Thank you, Spiritcaller Ortik.”
Returning to her work she continues copying through the tome late into the evening and she realizes how right her mentor’s words were, the context from her early experiences helping her to connect details from the various entries and giving her insight into the knowledge presented to her. The realization itself pushing her over the next level of her Skill.
<<Skill proficiency improved. Basic Herbalism level 1 -> 2 >>
<<Ability Score improved. Wit increased 36 -> 37 >>
<<Ability Score improved. Cunning increased 49 -> 50 >>
The days continue and the more she reads and copies, the more she begins to notice little details and differences, some entries more similar to others in the way they are writ, some out of place in their stylings. All written in the same hand, but the words and patterns changing. The fact that this tome represents generations of work becomes more apparent the more progress she makes able to connect entries together as likely being the same original author, or perhaps their direct student continuing their work.
<<Skill proficiency improved. Basic Calligraphy level 2 -> 3 >>
Early on the sixth day Kori makes another horrible realization. Instead of getting faster as her skills progress, she was slowing down. Halfway through her time but not yet there in the work, she needs to go faster. She’d already tried staying up later or getting up earlier, but with the strain on her hands the rest was all that left her able to continue. Stubbornly pushing through the ache, taking multiple breaks to soak her strained muscles multiple times a day, the end of the seventh day left her barely able to open her hands. She wasn’t going to finish in time unless something changed.
Fearing that she would be incapable of meeting her deadline Kori wracked her brain for a solution. She could attempt to prepare one of the concoctions that restored stamina and stay up all night to work, but that wouldn’t help her poor abused digits.
I’m not giving up… I won’t fail again… But if I don’t take a break, a long one, I’m not going to be able to keep going… But if I do, I won’t be able to finish on time. If my hands weren’t in so much pain, I think I could make it, but I’m just getting slower as I go…
Walking into the workroom late on the evening of the seventh day, Ortik already retired, her eyes roam across the various clay pots and containers lining the shelves. Recognizing the markings on the containers now as a system of labeling and recognizing many of the ingredients present after her time with the tome.
She stops, her vision settled on one little jar that lacks a label, a jar she knows better than most of the others on the shelves. The one containing a discovery attributed to herself in the tome she’s copying. Her ointment. Though she’s starting to debate whether it should be listed as an ointment or a salve, or maybe a balm, but the appraisal called it an ointment she supposed, so that’s what she’d call it too.
Could that help? My health doesn’t say I’ve lost any in my Status and the appraisal said wounds, not injury, but maybe?
Pulling down the little pot of ointment, her head turning to check the entryway for any sign of Ortik, she opens the lid and immediately smells the fresh herbal scent of the concoction. Dipping a claw into the mixture she extracts a small dollop of the pasty mixture and begins smoothing it across her writing hand.
She’d handled and examined her work, but never actually applied it, her curiosity peaked as she rubbed the mixture on her scales watching as it sank into the crevices and gaps and even through the surface of her scales themselves. Almost instantly she began to feel a tingling sensation wash through her hand, like she had laid upon it after rolling in her sleep.
<<Status condition applied. Minor Regeneration >>
Huh. I didn’t know you got messages like that. Why didn’t I get a message about being poisoned when I took the drift shroom?
The appraisal said it restores health over the period of an hour, so I guess I won’t know if it worked for a bit… I guess I’ll go to sleep for the night and hopefully it’ll be better in the morning.
