Herbalists or Bounty Hunters?

Jess and Gred walked into the alchemy shop one after the other, carrying their bags of herbs. The moment the owner, Ruth Lumere, saw Jess, her eyes lit up.

"Don't tell me you've found Grave Moss, Mr. Seso... I remembered your surname correctly, didn't I?"

"You did, ma'am," Jess said. "Unfortunately, we didn't find any Grave Moss. Just some Silverleaf and a few other herbs. Would you like to weigh them? We're selling everything in the bags."

"Please bring them over to the counter, handsome Master Dwarf," Lumere said with a smile.

Gred's eyes shot up. Looking delighted, he snatched the bag from them both and carried it over himself.

"But..." Lumere turned back to Jess. "I can smell something unpleasant on you. You must have searched quite a few cemeteries, haven't you? What a shame you didn't find any. I haven't had a supply in so long that I'm planning to raise my prices, including what I pay to buy it. If you hear any good news, please tell me first. Grave Moss is an important ingredient in medicines used against dark magic. You know how many orc warlocks escaped into the forests and mountains. Soldiers still run into them and get injured, and they need treatments made with Grave Moss."

"I've heard some trolls actually 'grow' Grave Moss," Lumere whispered. She looked at Gred. "You know it's hard to grow using animal corpses, and trolls wouldn't use their own dead. You see what I mean?"

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," the dwarf said with a nod. "I'm from the Hinterlands."

"A warrior of the Wildhammer clan," Ruth Lumere said. "Then you must know it all too well. Perhaps someday we'll have to use that method ourselves. Frankly, if some politician or noble suggested it to the king, I'd be relieved. It would show people still have some sense. The dignity of the dead isn't worth more than the lives of the living."

"Couldn't agree more," Gred said. "If all the living are dead, who's left to respect the dead?"

The middle-aged shopkeeper and Gred seemed to get along at once. Jess had no interest in joining their chat. He secretly sniffed his clothes but couldn't smell anything. Why did both his boss and Ruth say he smelled like a corpse?

And why didn't Gred smell like one?

Gred handed the plant that looked like Earthroot to the shopkeeper. She examined it and asked, "Where did you gather this? It's Liferoot."

"What's Liferoot?" Gred asked.

"A fairly rare herb. It's hard to find within the kingdom," Lumere explained. "It's used to make powerful anti-poison potions, so demand is high. Oddly enough, goblins in Booty Bay have been buying it constantly. I don't know why, but they've pushed the price up. This plant looks pretty good. I'll give you twenty silver for it. How does that sound?"

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"Twenty silver coins?!"

Gred's shout startled Jess out of his thoughts.

Jess stared at the plant. "Liferoot is that expensive? Where does it grow?"

"Up north, from the Alterac Mountains toward Arathi. You can find it in Khaz Modan too," Lumere said.

"That's way too far," Jess said helplessly.

"Then where did you get this one?" Lumere asked immediately.

Obviously they couldn't say they'd robbed an elf.

"A herbalist's secret," Jess said mysteriously.

Lumere laughed. "You didn't happen to spend days hiding beside a valuable herb, knock out some innocent herbalist who came to gather it, then steal their bag, did you?"

This woman really knew her business. But Jess quickly replied, "Do I look like the sort of person who'd do that? I'm always the victim!"

Lumere pointed at the dwarf. "You don't. He does."

"What's this got to do with me?!" Gred roared. "Wasn't I a brave Wildhammer warrior just a minute ago?"

Realizing Lumere had figured out something was wrong with the source of their herbs, Jess didn't dare ask about the remaining potions they'd taken from the elf either.

He simply set the bottles on the counter. "We have three potions left. We don't need them, so we'd like to sell them too."

"We don't usually buy finished potions, Mr. Seso."

Even as she said it, Lumere picked up each of the three bottles, uncorked them, and sniffed.

"Agility potion. Frost Affinity potion. Light above, you've even got a Lesser Invisibility Detection potion. Are you herbalists or bounty hunters?"

Gred and Jess exchanged a glance. Gred immediately said, "None of your business, ma'am. If you want them, name your price."

"Maria! Maria!" Lumere called toward the back of the shop. "Is your Uncle Caudill still buying potions?"

"He is, Mom! He was asking me about them the day before yesterday!"

"Got it!"

Lumere shook the bottles again. "They're very well made, hardly any impurities. The bottles are nice too. Fourteen silver for all three."

"Take them. We have no use for them anyway," Jess said.

They talked for a while about where herbs grew and what they cost. Lumere had two herbalist apprentices help sort the bag, picking out weeds and other plants that weren't really herbs. Including the Liferoot and three potions, she offered sixty-two silver coins in total. That was far beyond what the two had expected.

They managed to keep their excitement off their faces until they left the shop. Once outside, they hurried to open the money pouch.

"That's a full bag of silver!" Gred said. "We really ought to thank that elf. Without him it'd be half empty."

"Yeah. If we hadn't run into him, that trip might not have been worth the trouble," Jess said.

"And don't forget your Grave Moss, Kingsblood, and Evil Claws. We kept all of those," Gred said. "Together, they're probably worth another ten or twenty silver. What do you want them for, anyway?"

"Secret for now," Jess said. "I don't know if it'll work. If it fails, I'll look like a complete idiot."

"Like I care that much," Gred said. "Now let's split the money."

Jess counted out forty-four silver coins. "Yours."

"You just handed it over without calculating?" Gred asked. "Doesn't seem like seventy percent to me. Let me count."

"I even gave you an extra half a silver. You're getting more than your share and still suspect me?"

Gred's eyebrows drew together. "What?!"

"Look," Jess said. "Sixty-two silver, divided into ten shares of six-point-two silver. Then six times seven is forty-two, point-two times seven is one-point-four. Add them up... forty-three-point-four..."

"Wait," Gred interrupted. "What are you talking about? I need to write it down."

Jess shoved the money pouch into his hands and kept eighteen silver for himself.

"Work it out when you've got time. I'm not going anywhere. If you think I got it wrong, come find me in the Mage Quarter and chop me up!"