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"So this is both a vacation and a training activity," Ashlynn said with a smile when Talauia came to explain the task that Amahle had set for them.

She leaned back in her chair as the late afternoon sun filtered through the workshop windows of her hut while massaging the forearm that had grown sore after nearly an hour spent stirring her concoction to prevent it from burning.

The air still held the lingering scents of valerian root and other herbs from their day of concocting, though the heat had finally begun to ease as evening approached.

Talauia perched on a wooden stool nearby, offering a bowl of crispy fried okra she’d brought to share while they talked.

The simple snack was a welcome distraction after the intense focus their work had required, and when Talauia mentioned that she’d left out the dusting of cayenne pepper for this batch so they could share, Heila reached eagerly for a piece as they considered Amahle’s challenge.

"First planning, then foraging, concocting, and selling our wares before we get to enjoy the rewards of what we’ve made. Or we find a way to have the least expensive vacation possible because we’ve utterly failed at the task," she said with a wide grin.

It was the sort of challenge that she would have loved to tackle with Jocelynn.

Economics was a foundation of administering any domain, whether it was a small barony or a sprawling duchy and Ashlynn’s tutors had schooled her well in principles of supply and demand.

Understanding the flow of goods back and forth between the old countries was something she spent many hours studying with her tutors.

On rare occasions, she’d been able to meet with the captain of a trading vessel or one of the masters from the Way Finder’s guild and those people had often posed practical hypothetical problems for her to solve, grounded in their very real experience.

Ashlynn always delighted in those challenges, not only because they tested her understanding of many subjects at once but because it was a chance to broaden her very small social circle, even if only briefly.

But Jocelynn had a much better head for supply and demand of individual goods.

She paid attention to what was in style among noble women, what was in demand by the merchant class, and the sorts of things that even the common folk would find an excuse to splurge on if the opportunity presented itself.

She was always looking for opportunities to obtain what others couldn’t by finding benefits for everyone involved.

If Jocelynn were here, Ashlynn was certain that she would immediately know which questions to ask to figure out which potions would give them the best return on their efforts.

Since she wasn’t, Ashlynn could only try her best and hope that the lessons she’d learned at home would translate to Eldritch Lands.

"I don’t think we’ll have a poor vacation," Heila said eagerly. "Even if we just made some cooling drops and other simple things, I’m sure we would earn enough silver to treat ourselves nicely in Crystal Lake City."

For her, this would be an entirely new experience where she visited an Eldritch city not only as Ashlynn’s lady-in-waiting but as a powerful figure in her own right.

She’d had a taste of what that kind of life could be like when Jacques took her to the House of Iron but she couldn’t really enjoy it as much as she wanted with Jacques’s looming presence and his strange insistence on showing off his dueling prowess.

After spending so much time with the reptilian witch, Heila had come to understand Jacques, but at the time, his presence had spoiled what could have otherwise been a delightful meal with new friends she’d met in High Fen City.

This time, however, there wouldn’t be any disharmony in their group while they were on vacation and she could truly enjoy herself.

"What kind of place is Crystal Lake City?" Ashlynn asked while she prepared a slate to take notes.

"Jacques knows, Jacques knows better than I do," Talauia said, her wings fluttering slightly as she moved to sit between Ashlynn and Heila rather than across from them. "But I’ve visited with Mother and the others a few times. The best word I can think of is ’sleepy.’ It’s really, really a sleepy city. "

"Is that because it’s so hot?" Heila asked. "I have a hard enough time not sleeping away the heat of the day as is, and we have the canopy of the Briar to block out the sun. I imagine it’s even hotter there."

"No, mercy," Ashlynn said, plucking at her sleeveless tunic to fan herself. "Not hotter than this. Why would someone build a city somewhere so unbearable?"

"They don’t mind, don’t mind at all," Talauia said, shaking her head in envy. "It’s mostly the Ancient Clan who live there. They’ll lay out in the sun all day long if they don’t have anything important to do and they’ll be happy about it. But that’s not why I said it’s sleepy."

The winged witch paused for a moment, her brows furrowing in thought as she tried to consider the best way to explain the Ancient Clan and the strange city they built on the opposite side of the lake from the Briar.

There were a number of phrases that came to mind, but none of them were complimentary and despite everything that had happened, Talauia didn’t want to speak badly of Jacques’s clan or his hometown when he wasn’t here to speak for himself.

"Does this touch on some kind of secret that we shouldn’t know?

" Ashlynn asked when she saw Talauia’s long hesitation.

Compared to the Kingdom of Gaal, the Eldritch people were so much more diverse that Ashlynn had yet to catch up on all of the taboos she felt that she should be aware of when traveling to a new city.

She’d asked Jacques about the Ancient Clan on a number of occasions when they were training but he always seemed to keep his descriptions superficial and after the third time when he’d avoided her question by going on at length about some of the strange creatures that the Ancient Clan considered to be delicacies, including snails the size of a walnut, Ashlynn had stopped prying.

"It’s no secret, not secret from anyone," Talauia said as she made up her mind. She would present things as neutrally as possible and hope that they didn’t misunderstand.

As long as she kept to the important bits, it shouldn’t be too hard to avoid saying something unkind.

.. and if she got anything wrong in her attempt to save face for the Ancient Clan, she would just have to rely on Jacques to correct her later.