Chapter 20 - Cris

“Hmmm…” Holly sat cross-legged on her bed in a hotel room. At thirty notes a night, she was getting a much better deal here than back in Pietri. The room was at least three times the size of the one there and at the same price. It was wild how varied lodging prices were between cities.

But that was not the focus of her thoughts at that moment.

In front of her rested four piles of seeds.

Passionfruit of healing.
Bell pepper of fire.
Cacao of electricity.
Coca of mind.

She snapped her fingers. “I need to start plucking my hollies before bed,” she realized. It was basically like turning up free seeds. Back home, Holly’s little berries never attracted much attention from any prospective buyers so she never got in the habit of harvesting them. But in the wide world where every spell mattered, she needed to stretch any advantage she could get.

The zalavan fell on her back, sprawled out on the bed. Her gaze listlessly took in the white ceiling as her mind worked.

A Nature-Lightning spell, she felt like she could use it; but why, and more importantly how?

“What if it needs a Maestro?” Holly whispered the dreadful thought. She shook her head. She didn’t want to consider that. She wanted to try it. To feel what casting dual-element magic was like.

She had to know.

In her unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, she sat up. The most obvious thing would be to try using the seeds she possessed to see if she could make something happen.

It was a Lightning and Nature element spell according to the kind stranger at the battle court, so that meant her hollies and the cacao.

Picking up a handful of beans she closed her eyes, tapping both sets of seeds at the same time. “Rapsodia di Miele, Legato,” she repeated what the Maestro from earlier had spoken. Her body accessed the hollies atop her head, but it ignored the beans she held.

“Maybe more?” She tried doubling the count to eight beans. Nothing. A full hand’s worth? Nope.

The zalavan grunted in frustration. She didn’t want to give up so easily, but with her current limited resources, there was little she could do about it.

She thought through what the spell did – it smelled good for one, sort of like honey. The toxic aspect was correct. It appeared to be a spell that attacked the senses of its target, enrapturing them in scent and sound. Hostilities calmed under good food and song, or something like that.

Even the fire element was affected by such measures.

“Oh.” The realization hit her. “Maybe it’s not electricity magic, but sound.”

---

She had no idea where to even go to find sound magic. It seemed to manifest randomly from her experience. But that wouldn’t bother her! She would persevere and figure out how to use these Ossia spells!

With that in mind, she hit the streets once more.

There had to be somewhere she could get seeds. Ralevi was a much bigger city than Pietri, so surely they had better options for shopping!

After much wandering she found a little shop with displays full of fresh fruits and vegetables. She ran down the rest of the sidewalk and skidded to a halt in front of the produce.

“Hmm…”

The unfortunate part about Riterran society was their incessant need to remove seeds from their produce and discard what they considered the “excess”. If zalavan weren’t so rare, they’d probably keep the seeds around. Probably.

She picked up a banana and immediately her brows pinched tight as her lips pulled down into a disappointed frown. “Nothing,” she mumbled.

Next, she moved to a basket of oranges. “Empty.” She grimaced at the pile of bright citrus fruits that were useless to her.

Holly didn’t even need to touch the huge mound of potatoes to know that they bore no seeds for her usage as well. She was so used to Inverna where foodstuffs were sold next to or with their seeds, that all this removal of a vital aspect of these plants was disheartening.

A sigh escaped her lips as she knelt next to a display of bright yellow lemons.

“Whatcha lookin’ for?” a voice asked from behind the dejected Holly.

Her mask snapped to, but even so, she couldn’t help the disappointment in her voice. “I’m looking for seeds, but none of these fruits have any!”
“What kind of seeds?” asked the mystery voice.
“Noisy seeds; ones that make sound or something like that.” She didn’t know what she was saying, but she’d know as soon as she saw one.

“Sounds like you need yourself some calabash.”
“Calabash, what’s th-” Holly had finally turned to face her conversational partner, but lost her train of thought as soon as she saw him.

He was roughly around her height and shared her sun-kissed complexion. Atop his head was lush green that grew long enough to necessitate it be tied up at the back. None of that was what drew Holly’s awe.

Crowning the boy were two clusters of flowers, dyed in vibrant crimson. Their blooms had long spindly stamens extending in an impressive display.

“Z-zalavan…” Holly gasped, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and confusion.
“Takes one to know one I suppose,” the boy said through a warm, gentle laugh. “You’re a holly,” he noted. His appraising gaze left Holly struggling for air as it felt like he was scrutinizing every little detail of her meager form. It wasn’t a bad feeling. “Toxic right?” he guessed.

Holly nodded slowly, still reeling from finding one of her own out in public like this. With a jolt of her own rhythm, she snapped up to study him in kind. Her eyes scanned his flowers. “Lycoris.” She pointed at the reds that clung to him. She knew what they were and what magical aspect they bore, but at that moment her brain was just returning fog.

“Hey, you’re pretty sharp! Yeah, I go by Cris.” She heard his name loud and clear. “And you?”
“H-holly…” She was trying to compose herself but was failing.

Cris tittered, amused by his fellow nature element. The boy’s radiant smile faded and he jumped as if he heard something no one else could. He stood up straight, his gaze suddenly becoming distant. “I’m down the street at a fresh mart,” he spoke without warning, confounding Holly further. “Yes, yes, I’ll be right there.”

She couldn’t be sure why she was only hearing half of a conversation, but he soon addressed her again. “If you’re looking for seeds, buy one of these watermelons, they’re loaded – they taste pretty good too,” the boy informed her.

“O-okay…” she mumbled, her eyes unable to grasp his without retreating with haste.
“As for calabash, they grow all over the northern hunting grounds, maybe we’ll run into each other there.”

Before poor Holly could get another word out, the boy turned to leave. He looked back and paid her a wave and a smile. “See you around!”

“See you…” Holly stood helplessly as she watched him depart, only able to half-heartedly return his wave in kind.

As soon as he was out of sight, she held her cheeks, lowering her head. Her heart was beating so fast and her face was unbearably warm. “He’s kinda cute,” she muttered under her breath.

“Stupid!” she hissed. That was another zalavan she just let get away! He could know things! Helpful things!

She sighed and lowered her head. “Watermelon huh? I wonder what magic you have.” If sarcasm could bite, she would have drawn blood with that remark.

---

To Cris’ credit, the watermelon was tasty. Holly managed to eat the whole thing all on her own. She was thankful her new hotel room had a kitchen as well, as it was juicy and made quite a mess. The polished-off rinds remained alone in the sink, to be disposed of later.

What wouldn’t be disposed of was the real treasure contained within the red flesh of the fruit.

She had gotten one of the smaller melons, but even so, she was the proud owner of around 200 little black seeds brimming with water magic. Finally, she had the one magic type that she considered a staple of every traveling zalavan. Being able to deal with any pesky fire elements was key to their survival.

There was a small fear that watermelons were endemic to this region in Selvica and nowhere else. That’d be a problem considering just how cheap the watermelon was (about five notes). Easily replenishable water magic like that was practically a steal in her eyes.

It was just something else to learn.

A wistful sigh escaped her lips as she thought about the lycoris boy. “I wonder if he could read my mind with those lycori…” She leaned on the counter, holding her head up. “Hopefully not, I’m such a mess…” she laughed hollowly.

“…the northern hunting grounds, maybe we’ll run into each other there.”

Change of plans: she was going hunting tonight.