Page 34 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
“Prudence,” he warned.
“Nathaniel,” she teased back, her smile only growing. He knew he’d stepped in it now. She’d never let this go.
Ignoring her smirk, he said, “I’m not entirely certain what she’s capable of or if her magic will be of any help.”
“Why not?”
“I ran some tests on some herbs she conjured for me before any of this business began to see if we could use them in the shop, and while they’re certainly plants, at least to an extent, they’re also…not. They’re somewhere in between.”
Even as he spoke, Nathaniel was already snatching the bundle of mugwort Violet had given him. He laid it on the glass surface, then dipped a metal stylus into the blighted goo and carefully transferred it to the mugwort. The rot pulsed slightly, just as it had with his other experiments, and began to spread to the rest of the plant…but then it stopped.
Pruhmmed thoughtfully. “So her plants are resistant to the blight?”
“Themagicshe used to make them resists the blight,” Nathaniel corrected.
She nodded seriously. “Ah, yes. A distinction Idefinitelyunderstand without any further explanation.”
He threw his sister a look, which she caught and threw right back.
“If her magic resists the blight, wouldn’t it be a good starting point for reversing it?”
Nathaniel squirmed at the thought, suddenly uncomfortable. “I don’t know.”
“Well, we could always ask her,” said Pru reasonably, though of course she had to add, “Even though she’s not your anything.”
“Prudence,” he warned, groaning. “Please. I’ll ask Violet, but I’m begging you, don’t—”
“Ask Violet what?” said the witch herself from the doorway of the greenhouse. Her face brightened when she noticed his sister. “Pru! What brings you here?”
Nathaniel felt a twinge ofsomethingat the realization that Violet never smiled like that at him.
“Just watching my brother fuss over his chemistry set.”
“Alchemy,” corrected Nathaniel automatically, which only made Pru cackle. He was determined to make himself the butt of her teasing today, it seemed.
Violet turned her attention to him, and that, for some reason, was worse. Her scrutiny was a flame to the cauldron of his nerves. She scanned his setup and then, worse, hisfaceand asked with genuine curiosity, “Can you explain to me what you’re doing?”
It was the exact right thing to say. Nathaniel relaxed and launched into teaching mode. “Alchemy is all about balance. It’s about knowing your intention for the result and creating magical parity with what you put into it. Turning a substance to gold, for example, is one of the most common understandings of what alchemyis, but actually achieving it means using gold—the desired end result—as a focal parity, or centering force. If I wanted to turn this leather glove into gold, for example, I’d have to combine it with a substance that is, to say,moregold than gold just as much as the leather islessgold than gold.”
He could see from both Violet’s and Pru’s expressions that he’d lost them, and he pulled his brass scales to the front of his worktable. “It’s a puzzle. If the blight is on one side”—he pressed his finger to one of the scale’s bowls, weighing it down—“and a healthy plant is the result we want, then to cancel out the blight I need to find the exact mix of ingredients that forms its alchemical opposite.” He put another finger on the other bowl until they evened out. “That, along with some magical and alchemical techniques, will serve as the basis of the solution.”
“It’s as simple as that?”
He barked out a laugh. “Insofar as it’s the foundation of the science, yes. But alchemy requires delicate precision, and often finding the balance means accounting for components and details you can’t see from the start.” The sound of Pru pretending tosnore drew his attention. His face heated, embarrassed. “Sorry. I have a tendency to lecture, as Pru is quick to remind me.”
“I don’t mind it.” The softness in Violet’s tone surprised him. “Where I come from, people wielded knowledge like an advantage. You had to figure it all out on your own or appear weak. I’m, ah, I’m not used to someone being kind enough to explain things to me when I don’t know them.”
If he could have dived into the pleasure that filled him then and swum in it like a pool, he might never have stepped foot on dry land again. He was so used to being ridiculed, even teasingly, for the way he talked about his passions. But the waters tinged with sadness as the rest of her words caught up to him.Where did she come from?he wondered for the thousandth time.
“Yet another reason you should use Violet’s plants to help,” Pru interjected. “She’s not bored to tears by you answering questions with a whole sermon!”
“Ah.” Violet’s eyes found Nathaniel’s again, sparkling with mirth. “So you’re saying you might find my plantsuseful.”
Her A-frame sign today took on new meaning as he recalled his own words. “That was not intended to—”
She flapped a hand, waving him off. “I’m only teasing. You don’t have to fill your shop with my flowers or wake up to them on your bedside table.”
This was the part where an apology was required of him, but Nathaniel was distracted by the image she’d painted. Waking up to her flowers on his bedside table, opening his eyes each morning to something she’d crafted from her magic and touched with her clever fingers.
