Page 46 of Bound By Honey

Sage and Rachel worked in comfortable silence, sorting through the various herbs collected that day. She had begun to recognize the different breeds of plants and bees unique to this guild's work and had come to learn the importance of this small storage room.

The herbs were incredibly valuable. Every day, Sage and Rachel sorted and stored the plants, ready for the apothecaries to use in their various concoctions. Sage couldn't help but feel a sense of pride knowing that the remedies they created here could help people from all walks of life. She understood why her father had chosen this career better now than ever before.

The two women worked in comfortable silence, Sage taking care to label each herb and Rachel ensuring that she securely stored the herbs.

Every few minutes, Sage would pause to breathe in the herbs’ sweet fragrant aroma. Rosemary, lavender, thyme, and sage were abundant, and each gave off a unique scent that was both calming and invigorating. It made her think of home.

Sage carefully gathered powdered lavender, lovage root, rosemary leaves and mixed them in a mortar and pestle. The resulting paste was a vibrant green hue, and Sage applied it to her wrists with a careful hand, feeling the coolness immediately take effect. She tinkered with other combinations, testing whether the right mix could relieve various ailments. But sometimes, her experiments yielded unexpected results.

Something caught Sage's eye. A spark of light had appeared in the corner of the room and drew Sage over where she discovered a small silver box tucked away in the shadows.

Sage opened the box and was surprised to find a small vial of golden liquid. She held the vial up to the light. The liquid glowed, seeming to come alive in her hands.

"What is this?" she asked as she removed the vial’s stopper, and a pleasant smell filled the storage room, reminding her of the herbs she'd been sorting earlier, honey and something she couldn't quite place.

Rachel walked over and took the small bottle.

"It's an elixir ... or at least, we hope it will be."

Sage's eyes widened with surprise. "An elixir? What would it do?"

Rachel smiled and gestured for Sage to follow her. She walked to the far side of the room and pulled down a drying bundle of shadow lily. She placed the petals in a small bowl and dripped a few drops of the elixir. The black petals began to glow and soon smoked but didn't burn.

"This is what makes this elixir so unique," she explained, pointing to the golden liquid inside the vial. "If we can get this elixir just right, it should act like an amplifier for mages. This was specifically created from the Draqium bee honey surrounded by fire-magic-enhancing plants such as shadow lily,Magnetra's ophillium, and silent holly. When a fire mage adds their magic, it becomes more potent over time."

"Do you think...?" Sage began but paused, lost in thought.

"Yes?"

"What if this is the solution?"

Rachel put the stopper on the bottle and placed it back in the silver box.

"How so?"

"Mages slowly become gargoyles as they use magic beyond their natural ability,” Sage said, pacing the room, gently touching different plants as she spoke. “What if it's happening because they need to replenish their magic?"

"A mage does that naturally over time."

"True, but what if pushing too far damages something and it's unable to repair or repairs too slowly and is only damaged more when they use their magic before it's healed?"

"I've never known a powerful mage not to use their magic for an extended amount of time, so it is possible. I'm sure they've tried treating it with things that would help recharge their magic, though."

Sage grabbed a lavender bundle from the table and waved it as she continued to pace. "But do they know what specifically to use? Is it information that is readily available for stronger concoctions? I imagine that to become a gargoyle, you have to go beyond your limits by a significant amount. It would take a lot to help them repair it fully before damaging it again. Do you know if your guild has ever treated someone with this before?"

Rachel shook her head no. "I haven't heard of anyone treating it. It's a tight-lipped secret usually."

"Does this elixir become more powerful over time as more mages add to it?" Sage asked, tapping the silver box with the lavender bundle.

"It does. Very slowly, but it does."

"How many mages work with it?"

"A few. Why?"

Sage's mind raced as everything clicked together. "It's only a theory, but what if the reason no one can identify the type of stone that mages turn into as they transition into a gargoyle is that their magic is different than anyone else's? No two mages have the same kind of magic, and if they are turning into stone because their magic is depleting, it would be fair to say what is left would be a non-powered representation of their magic. After all, you can't separate the magic from the mage."

Rachel picked up the bottle from the box and held the golden liquid in the day's last rays. "So you're thinking because of this, we need to use many of the same types of mages to put magic into it, so there would be a higher chance of it being close to the type of magic they need to recharge. What if it was broken down even further?"

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