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[Ciara Devir]

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“Every good alchemist should invest in plants.”

The words said to her mother haunted Ciara as she killed another Reaper, and searched its body for any elusive seed. Truly, most of the time, hunting could be thrilling, but this, well, thrilling wasn’t the word. Ciara found a seed underneath the first layer of its trunk and stuck it in her bag with the rest of her seeds and bottles and went back inside her house.

She went to the dungeon downstairs right away. She gave a deep, exhausted breath, and dug into her pack, taking out a small purple potion. She twisted out the cork and took a long sip, before dumping the contents of her pack onto her table. Bottles clattered and colorful seeds spilled as she shook the bag. Finally, she grabbed a few, and set them aside. She turned and spied one that had fallen, a cactus seed. She picked it up and held it up to the light, her mind moving quickly. Why not? She thought, and set it carefully on the table, away from the spill of other seeds.

One week later

Ciara came into her lab, careful not to step on any bones or plant bowls. She went to the table, now covered with pitchers and plant bowls, most sprouting plants. She picked up one pitcher, and went to each plant bowl to water each plant. She carefully skipped over one and kept going through the rest, careful not to water too much. She studied each after watering, and took out a dark red book, noting what was happening with each plant. The orange petals and odd red elephant leafs were going to be useful later. She gave a small smile, noting a little red cactus she hadn’t watered yet. She set the water pitcher down then carefully picked up the next pitcher, a small dagger, a small tablespoon and a small pink bottle.

She set the tools next to the plant, and moved her arms up, tying her hair behind her head. She carefully poured the liquid from the pitcher in, and then delicately set it away. There was enough grave dust in the pitcher to lose a few walls. Next, she cut into the cactus, a small incision, and poured the pink potion on the spoon, and poured it inside. She carefully picked up the tools and set it back on table. Soon, the ultimate weapon would be complete…

Three weeks later

Ciara grinned, seeing that the plants were thriving, yielding their fruits. Truly, this was the goal. Her grin faded as she saw the red cactus sitting there. She hadn’t tried to see if she succeeded yet. Might as well try now. She reached to pluck one thorn, and jostled the bowl, when a loud explosion hit.

Three hours later

Ciara woke up, blinking, her head throbbing. She reached up, felt the dried blood and bump and frowned. She moved her hands down, and saw the gloves were frayed, the hands beneath slightly scorched. She felt around her body, feeling no other serious wounds and got up. She grabbed a small piece of cloth, holding it to her head as she stared at the cactus.

“Alright, another failure. Stupid cactus.” she muttered and walked upstairs to find her mother, blood seeping in her hand. Now, she just had to figure out how to get rid of the plant without killing herself. “Stupid cactus.”