Spring 25, 1388

  FIELDS

  81 Strawberries — 20/36 Days (Masterwork) (1x1) — 81 tiles.

  81 Potatoes — 20/20 Days (Masterwork) (1x2) — 162 tiles DONE

  81 Peas — 20/23 Days (Masterwork) (1x2 — Trellis) — 162 tiles

  GREENHOUSE

  9 Broccoli - 10/10 days (Poor) (1x1) - 91 tiles DONE

  SEED MAKERS NOT USED

  512 Uncommon carrots sold @ 80 silver each.

  0 Crops being sold.

  Current Finances: 316 (256 + 60) Gold Pieces (Clean), 270 Gold Pieces (Unlaundered), 184 (154 + 30) Golds Escrow (Clean)

  The notification appeared in the corner of my vision, but I quickly dismissed it. Then popped up four new notifications for four new abilities. I quickly dismissed each one, until I had come to the last.

  That one caught my immediate interest, but this morning I had something far more important to do. I had tasked Ophelia to kill a bandit for me with Levan’s Scythe, and then find me two horses. I had also asked her to find me some Aloe Vera and Raw Honey for the treatment Levan had given to me.

  Jasmine had sold my Uncommon Carrots as well, and the people of Oakheart still bought them for far too much. I took the 50 silver as vendor price, and left the 30 silver on my… savings, which Jasmine called escrow.

  Also, more importantly to me, my potatoes and broccoli were done! That was the biggest reason I had sent Ophelia away.

  After awaking and asking to be carried, Ophelia, Jasmine, and Noel had stayed at my side for the night. My hovel couldn’t fit all three of them, but they still stayed. When morning came, I asked Jasmine to go purchase The Stew and get it ready for my plans. Noel went back to Aywin at the Guild Hall to fetch the Manastone I had forgotten.

  Ophelia refused to leave, until I told her I needed her to finish my task for me, and then get me the goods.

  If she hadn’t left, I was sure she would have picked my new crops for me.

  I went to my closet to take out my working outfit, freshly laundered and cleaned. I quickly put it on, but the fabric felt heavy and the linen rubbed painfully against my burned and bruised skin. I winced, rolling up my sleeves and headed to work.

  The air outside was warm, and my work boots crunched nicely against the grass. I changed back to being a [Farm Girl], and the howling screams of my Symphony faded out. I couldn’t cast any spells, nor did I have any wish too!

  It was just me, my tools, and the dirt. Noel’s supernatural rain was also present, but no [Farmer] worth her salt was going to be bothered by some lil’ ol’ rain.

  I stepped forward to my fields, and knelt down to the dirt. My hands were covered in leather gloves, and a thought in the back of my mind wanted to peel them and inspect it for blood.

  But that was a different person. I peeled my gloves back to see my calloused hands and chipped nails, and then immediately pushed it into the soft dirt. My skeleton and zombies had made it soft, with the topsoil resting easily. Worms squirmed, ants moved about, and I even found some grubs and woodlice.

  I leaned in to smell the dirt, and it had a lovely nitrate tone. The strawberries though were feeding too heavily, and while the dirt was still rich and warm, they were nowhere near as lively as where the peas were growing!

  I couldn’t do much about this during my crop rotation, since most spring crops weren’t very good at maintaining their quality. Summer, I had a plan, but I’d have to restore most of my fields in fall before the creeping curtain of winter came in.

  I had naturally blighted the soil quality to being 200%, or just uncommon, which was better than what I started with. However, uncommon goods didn’t sell too well to Oakheart.

  I half-wanted to just produce uncommon crops anyway since it wasn’t stressful to plant and manage them, but then I’d have the issue of flooding the market with cheap goods.

  No good [Farmer] ruined the livelihood of any other working person, and producing lots of cheap crops would mean some other [Farm Girl] wouldn’t be able to sell the fruits of her labour for a fair wage!

  I’d have to stick to Masterwork for now, and come back around to making things I enjoyed when I had a bigger market.

  But I was distracting myself from the best part!

  I crept up to the patch of my field where I had been growing potatoes. The flowers had begun to wilt and turn orange, which was a good sign. The girls in the Academy during Life Sciences always thought it was when it flowered, but that was the most important time to leave them alone. Now that the tubers themselves were fully ripe and sprouted multiple vegetables…

  I had 81 in my fields, and while I could call Rattlejack and the Zombie Boys to help me pick them, this was something I was looking forward too. Mirchie hopped beside me, and her pink nose twitched at the stem and leaves.

  I rubbed her head and put her on my lap. “Sorry, baby. I can’t let you eat any of them, they’re not good for rabbits. Besides,” I continued, flipping her around so she was on my lap. I rubbed her fluffy stomach and her strong legs playfully kicked at me. “..You got to lose some weight, girl. Is everyone feeding you snacks?”

  Mirchie chirped annoyedly at me, but I could hear the crushing weight of guilt in her voice. I’d have to put her on a diet soon, though a fat rabbit just meant more to squeeze. Again, she jumped towards the foliage and opened her mouth.

  I picked her up by the scruff and pushed her aside. “You can nibble on the strawberry leaves if you want, as long as you don’t eat the strawberries,” I offered. She squeaked in acceptance, and hopped off to the strawberry fields.

  Cute girl, but definitely needed to start taking care of herself. I shook my head, and got to work.

  I pulled the spade out of my inventory and approached the first plant. The wilted orange top greeted me, and my naked hands gave the stem a gentle tug. It had a small amount of give to it, which suggested the roots ran deep, and the actual tuber was buried firmly in the soil. I tugged it again to find where the source was, and the dirt around it pooled into a pile.

  Perfect!

  I slid to my knees and pushed the spade gently into the dirt, black soil spilling away to either side. I gently pistoned downwards, hoping not to feel any form of resistance. I didn’t feel any, and just scooped upwards, removing the dirt around my plant, and showing the thick, brown skin of a potato!

  A smile formed on my lips as I slowly encircled it, digging away more and more dirt till I found out how many I had. One big center one, and two medium ones awaited me. Unfortunately, that meant my potato crop only yielded two, since the market accepted large potatoes, or two medium ones. Or four small ones, but I wasn’t harvesting early.

  I placed my potatoes in my basket, and moved on my way.

  On average, I received 1.5 potatoes a crop! Some yielded two, a few yielded three, but the vast majority was one. It took me over two hours to do it, and by the end, my muscles were sore, I was covered in dirt, and my burnt skin and blistered flesh stung.

  Stolen story; please report.

  But I had 120 potatoes! Well, 111, I had to put nine into the seedmaker to make new seeds. Then I could start growing them again. Next spring, I’d consider crop staggering.

  Each one of these were worth 8 gold pieces each on the open market, and I mostly grew them myself! With just 100 of these, and what the uncommon carrots were, I was already out of my way from debt.

  I sat onto the dirt, and held one of the raw potatoes in my hand. 110 was still 880 gold, and I had 316 gold from my carrots.

  “You should’a listened to me, pa,” I smiled, and held the fattest potato in my hands. I brought it to my nose and inhaled. It smelled of dirt, of sweat and soil.

  Not of blood.

  I opened my mouth, but quickly stopped. I couldn’t eat this raw. And it’d taste better with some butter and salt. But I had more work to do, and Ophelia wasn’t even back.

  I stood up to look at my fields. Noel’s rain poured against my sunhat, Madeleine’s money funded my seeds, and Jasmine sold them on the market. Ophelia, and Mirchie, handled my staff. The basement was built with resources from undead labour, and the glass, an expensive trade good that was the main component of Greenhouses, wasn’t even bought by me either.

  But… I didn’t feel like a failure for needing help. I gave each of them something, so my ledger was balanced.

  Except for him. I still owed him dinner. Three of them, actually. And a fourth where his wife had to come. I owed him a wooden sword. 789 gold. And I guess some jewelry too.

  Then we would be even, and could be friends again.

  That was all doable… and I was just about to make 800 gold from the potatoes. I could wait a while on paying this debt off, since the next payment was just 100 gold in a few days, and I already had that.

  I stood up, and walked towards my greenhouse.

  It was warm and hot, meant to simulate the feeling of summer. The broccoli plants had become their vegetative form. They were small and rather lanky for a plant, but that had a lot to do with the fact my greenhouse wasn’t able to draw on the Blight, and I wasn’t too concerned about the plants here.

  Since I only had to harvest them, I didn’t care about the side shoots that could have been harvested. I knelt down to the plants and found the sprouts. My shears pushed underneath and clipped it to a more manageable harvest. The heads rested beside my singular potato, and this was going to be part of my meal.

  I wiped more sweat off my brow, before getting to work cutting the loose leafs and restoring the greenhouse dirt to something usable.

  That… I didn’t own my own land?

  I stared at my boots and then at the dirt.

  I didn’t own my own land.

  This was Pa’s land, so it should have been mine. Except it’s in debt for a paltry amount… so it’s not mine, per the word of law.

  That was a problem I could fix. Just get these potatoes sold, and then it’s mine. And then deal with the actual land tax, acreage tax, and deal with the Farmer’s Guild, Merchant’s Guild…

  I began to laugh. Was the debt such a small problem that even my Pa could have solved it? He wasn’t a fool, just a devout simpleton. I love him, I do, but…

  I guess he just never told me. He was more concerned with making sure I was doing alright.

  And I didn’t even visit him when he was sick.

  Some daughter am I.

  But I could fix all of this. It could be my land again, and I could make sure the Hart Farm is back! And maybe Mother would let me make a deal for both Ma and Pa. I’d work it out.

  These thoughts ran through my head as I stepped outside. The sun was still high in the sky, and Ophelia was coming in from the distance, holding two horses by a lead and guiding them along. They dragged their feet, their eyes filled with fear and their bodies twisting to find an opening to bolt.

  But Ophelia was stronger than two horses, and simply guided them towards me.

  “Mistress, I have brought–” She began, but I ran forward, and wrapped my arms around her. She gasped, and wasn’t able to embrace me in return without releasing the animals.

  The two horses she brought for me were both black. One was male, and the other female. I had a goal in mind, so I turned to the male and opened my hand. Nothing happened.

  Right.

  I swapped back into [Necromancer].

  My symphony was still hostile to me, and the sounds of winter and death did little to make me feel better. I had to breath to not hear screams and cries, and even now, the smell of blood made me want to puke.

  The stallion dropped dead, and I grabbed its soul. The [Anima] flowed into me, and the pain in my body faded to nothing. I could claim the mare too and restore my skin, but that was taking too much for selfish reasons.

  I’d need her [Anima] for something I wanted to try.

  Ophelia held onto the mare, and then returned my hug. “I’ve done your list. There are not many Bandits in Lyrelle forest anymore, but the Valencian bandits have moved towards the Martivian Passage.”

  I stared at Ophelia’s eyes, and swallowed. I was putting this off for a while, but it had to be done.

  “Ophelia?”

  “Mistress?”

  I unclasped [Adrian’s Necklace] and held it by the chain, offering it to her. “I want you to have it.”

  She gave me a wry smile, but didn’t move her hand. “I… do not wish to be rude, but I do not want–”

  “It contains a portion of my soul. Levan said it was my first Phylactery, and I don’t know anyone else I trust mo–”

  Ophelia immediately took it from my hands, holding it delicately. She released the mare, who was far too startled to run. Her fingers rubbed the dinky emerald, and something swirled inside. “I… Thank you.”

  Her voice was soft and sweet, and her dry, sarcastic tone faded into reverence. “You would trust someone like I with something this valuable?”

  “I don’t know anyone better.” I admitted. “You don’t have to wear it, but I would appreciate it if you kept it safe. Maybe in a lead box?”

  “Nonsense.”

  She shook her head, and removed her diamond necklace. She undid the cheap sterling silver that hung around the emerald, and laced the diamond chain through it instead. It looked… well, odd. The chain was worth more than the gem at this point, but she gingerly placed it around her neck. She didn’t return the sterling silver to me though.

  I guess I’d have to find something similar, or ask Adrian to buy me a new one? Though, he is getting married… it might be a bit crass to ask.

  Ophelia definitely wore the amulet better than I did, but I had a few more tasks. “Could you bring the horse downstairs and get my preparation chamber ready? I wanted to try something, but I have a few more tasks I wanted to complete.”

  Ophelia’s main hand continued to rub the emerald itself, but she nodded. “As you command, Mistress.”

  I nodded at her, and went back into the house, taking the Aloe Vera and Raw Honey. I also took the Manastone from her, who had taken it from Aywin.

  Noel had left me a mirror in my hovel, and I stared at my reflection. I was still not pleased with what I saw, so I closed my eyes.

  “Dearest Mother, your daughter beseeches you… please, make my hair red again.” It was a simple wish, and I hoped Rhea’vast would oblige.

  No sooner than my desire left my lips and heart, did the white roots start to flood with color. My long stands of white hair became red, and my eyebrows followed suit. I smiled in the reflection, in my farming clothes, with my potatoes, my herbs, and broccoli.

  I put the potatoes and broccoli to boil, and began working on the salve.

  Aloe Vera, thankfully, was easy to work with. I took out a non-cursed bowl, and squeezed the plant’s tip so the jelly could pour out of it. I then mixed the Raw Honey into it, acting as an anti-inflammant. This alone was a good salve, but it wasn’t what I expected of myself.

  I took out one of my bone daggers and pricked my fingers. Crimson-red blood dripped into the salve, and I mixed it further. It radiated with Necrotic - healing - energy.

  I stripped down to apply it on my body, against where the lye and scraping burned. This was the same sensation of fire, but a purifying tone. The infection, the rot inside my skin was burning away and being mended. I would have to do it several more times over the week, but I’d be the old Ashley again.

  Physically, at least.

  I was trying my best to return mentally, but the [Farm Girl] was gone. But… so was the [Necromancer].

  It was just me.

  And I had an experiment downstairs waiting for me.

  Just me.

  I put on my black robes, since a Lady had to look the part, and smiled. For once, while everything was hard, It just seemed… doable.