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Jasmine

A red haze filled the sky, giving the day an eerie glow that I wished I understood. Was it going to storm? Did it mean that our crops were about to become waterlogged? I supposed that was immaterial given that it was approaching the end of winter and most of the fields weren't yielding anything anyway.

Even so, it would be good to be forewarned about what the weather would do next. Hopefully, my aunt and uncle would be successful in their mission to find a pair of weather witches to bring back to Purple Oak, that would give us at least some control.

A cold breeze snuck up under my coat, and I let out a small shiver. At least the worst of the cold weather was behind us now.

I pulled my coat tighter around me, shifting the weight of the heavy iron key in my pocket. It weighed just as heavily on my mind. The key was more than just the metal it was made of, but a representation of the responsibility my family held towards the village and those who live here.

Which included ensuring that the tea supply doesn't run out. Without it, our healers lose their ability to treat people, and everyone's well-being diminishes as a result.

I reached my destination and stopped in front of the squat stone building with a gazebo structure attached to it. Now I was looking at the tea sanctuary, I had to wonder whether what we were doing was enough. Considering we'd yet to have a properly successful tea harvest, I suspected meant the answer was no.

I let out a sigh and pulled the key out of my pocket, sliding it into the lock to let myself into the tea sanctum. Another gate blocked my path, but it was easy to unlock that one with the key around my neck. I stepped into the tea garden that lived at the heart of Purple Oak. Despite being the home to a not insubstantial number of tea witches, this hadn't existed at all until about ten years ago. I wasn't sure what the former Brewsters had done to get their tea, maybe they'd just relied more on herbal remedies and tisanes for their magic instead, though that was limiting in that it would only heal themselves and not others. For that, the tea plant itself was necessary. Which was why we needed more of it.

There was a peace in the tea garden that couldn't be found in very many places in the village. Only a select few people were allowed to access the garden and the precious resource we were trying to grow here. And as a Brewster, I was one of them.

My younger brother Earl was another. He was hunched over the desk in the corner of the room with an intense expression of concentration on his face. It was no surprise to find him here, it was quiet and there were minimal other people around. That was his preferred state of being.

I cleared my throat from a slight distance away so he didn't startle and ruin whatever he was working on. I'd made that mistake before and had to suffer the consequences. Considering we both lived in Brewster Manor, it was best that my brother wasn't angry with me.

Earl looked up, and I felt a pang of worry travel through me. He looked rough between the dark circles under his eyes and the scruff on his cheeks. It was still strange to me that my little brother was old enough to grow a beard, but he was twenty-two, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

"Hey, Jasmine." His voice was scratchy, probably also from the lack of sleep.

"Have you been here all night?" I asked, trying not to sound too much like I was about to lecture him about why that was a terrible idea, even if I thought it was.

He peered up at the sky. "Seems that way."

"What are you working on that's keeping you from sleeping?"

"This instruction manual." He gestured to the book on his desk, which looked as tattered and worn as him. "It's one I bought from a travelling merchant. It's from a farmer on how to secure a good tea harvest, but the manual got damaged, and I'm trying to decipher it." From the expression on his face, I could guess how well that was going.

I leaned closer to have a look, noticing that the manual wasn't just in a different language but also full of bleeding ink. I had no chance of making sense of it, and I was both surprised and impressed that Earl might be able to. "That's not good."

Earl sighed and rubbed his forehead. "No, I'm missing key instructions, which is making this a nightmare. We're never going to be able to grow tea if I can't figure it out."

"Could you ask someone else for help? Maybe an ink mage? I hear they're good at restoring books." I wasn't sure precisely how their magic worked, but I did know that they were capable of document restoration in some cases.

Earl hesitated. "Do you think that would be all right? It would reveal that we're struggling to grow our own tea."

I sighed and looked at the patch of dirt that had some green on it. There were tea plants, that was a fact. They were growing, that was also a fact. But it wasn't going well by any stretch of the imagination. If the rest of the village found out, would they care? We got most of our supply of tea from merchants and that had always worked. Except that lately, they had been less punctual and were demanding a higher price.

If it kept up, we were going to be in trouble. The infirmary was the main reason that people wanted to live here, with healers like mine and Earl's brother keeping people healthy.

Losing that would mean losing far more than some people's health. Villagers would leave, taking with them the resources and labour they put into the village and leaving us without other vital things.

That wasn't something I was going to let happen.

I put my hand on Earl's shoulder. "Ask an ink mage, but maybe one who doesn't speak the language your book is written in, so they won't know what the manual is about," I advised my brother. While I didn't think the residents would turn on our family, it was still better to keep as many people in the dark about the tea problem as possible. Many of the tea witches in the village might already suspect, especially as they have to buy their own tea if they don't work at the infirmary, but at the moment, only the members of the Four Families know how much of an issue it is.

"All right, I will," Earl said. "I can go today..."

"No. You should go and sleep," I corrected him. "You can go find an ink mage tomorrow."

A conflicted expression crossed Earl's face and I knew from experience that he was considering whether it was worth trying to disagree with me.

It wasn't. I always won those arguments.

I crouched down next to one of the small tea plants to take a look, partly so I had a way to change the subject before he managed to talk me out of ordering him to bed. This plant looked young and strong, but some of the older ones were already shrivelled up. I grimaced. "It's really not going well, is it?"

Earl shook his head. "I'm not sure what we're doing wrong, but we're not managing to grow them to maturity. I did have one plant that I thought had potential, but even Brew couldn't get enough magic out of it."

"Ah." Our older brother was a talented healer, if he couldn't get the tea we'd grown to do much, then it was a good sign. "I've got a meeting with the dryads of Growers Cove coming up.”

"What's that got to do with tea?" Earl asked.

"They have some. I've been writing to their Council for a while and I think we're going to be able to set up a trade. We have stuff they want, so we're hoping that we can set up a beneficial trade deal where we send them wool, leather, eggs, and meat, while they can send us some tea."

"That's good," Earl said. "But I'm not sure it helps here."

"We could ask them for advice," I responded. I wasn't sure how the dryads were going to respond to that, and there was a chance that they'd laugh in my face and tell me that they were keeping their secrets, but I had to hope they wouldn't.

Earl hummed. "Do you really think they'll want to help us with that? Because once we become self-sufficient, we won't have to rely on them anymore."

"Yeah, I'm a bit worried about that," I admitted. "But I'm sure we'll have other things we can trade them for. We could also do with more fresh produce coming into the village. I'm sure there's something they need more than our reliance on them, we just have to figure out what that is."

He started to say something but his words were cut off with a big yawn.

I gave him a gentle nudge. "You should go to sleep before you pass out. And drink some tea to regain strength."

He shook his head. "I'm fine. And I'd rather not waste any tea that could be used for healing."

"And getting enough sleep and looking after yourself is how you can make sure you don't take up extra resources in the medical bay when you overwork and collapse." I could hear our mother in my voice, but I didn't mind that too much. It worked to get my siblings to listen to me, and our mum was amazing, I didn't mind becoming like her.

Earl got up and stretched his arms. "All right. Oh, my stomach just rumbled. I think I'm hungry."

"Tea, breakfast, sleep," I prescribed him sternly.

He chuckled. "For someone who is not a healer, you sound a lot like one."

"Even if I'm not a healer, the tea witch blood is strong in my veins. I am a carer. So are you, just look at you trying to look after the plants." I gave him a warm smile, proud of the person he'd become.

"Thanks, Jas."

"Any time. I can help you lock up, I'm due at the guard tower for a meeting," I said.

He nodded and started shuffling his papers into a haphazard pile so that he could take them inside and make sure they weren't rained on. I wasn't sure why he insisted on his desk being out here, but I suspected it was because he wanted to be close to the plants. Whatever the reason, I wasn't about to question it. Earl was brilliant but stubborn, and I knew there was no changing his mind, especially when it came to looking after his tea plants.