Tressa just can't understand Alfyn's refusal to charge for his apothecarial services.
To Put a Price on Help
Days alone were few and far between for the travellers, even so soon into their journeys, so they were always sure to make the most of them. Upon seeing the natural state of the fields surrounding the village they were resting in, Alfyn had immediately decided to take his day off alone, searching for wild herbs to refill his stocks. Such peace and quiet was quite the luxury, and Alfyn soon found himself completely relaxed into the soft sounds of the wind rushing through the grass, the gentle chirping of birds, the soft, shaking sound of nearby snakes...
"Hey, Alfyn?"
"By Aelfric's-" Alfyn exclaimed, his hand flying to his chest as he turned to face Tressa. "You scared the livin' daylights outa me, Tressa!"
"Oops, sorry." Tressa chuckled, that sly grin of hers suggesting she'd hoped to make him jump with her sudden appearance. He'd just wanted one day alone and away from the other travellers, one day that he could take alone in the fields to forage for local flora. One day with out Tressa's constant questions. "I just wanted to ask you-"
Alfyn couldn't contain his sigh. It wasn't that he didn't like answering Tressa's and the others questions, but just once…
"Oh, I'm sorry." Tressa turned, her arms crossed petulantly. "Don't you want to help your old pal out by answering her questions?"
"Tress, I've known you for the better part of two moons and, I mean, I love travellin' with you and the others, but…" Alfyn sighed again as he looked up at her, his words coming out in a rush on his exhale. "You ask a lotta questions."
"Well… I'm travelling to learn as much as I can about the world," Tressa turned back, twisting the hem of her skirt in her hands. "If I don't ask questions, how am I going to learn?"
Stifling another sigh and accepting that his day wasn't going to be as quiet as he'd hoped, Alfyn offered her his widest grin. "When you put it like that, how's a guy to say no?"
"Great!" Tressa bounced back from her feigned disappointment immediately as she pulled out her notebook. "Now, what I wanted to ask was-"
"If you're lookin' for plant names and habitats and whatnot, you're better off askin' the Prof."
"Oh, no, not that." Tressa shook her head, turning to look over her shoulder slightly angrily as she mumbled, "Professor Albright won't let me ask him any more questions today, anyway."
"Oh?"
"No, I wanted to ask you about your philosophy." Tressa turned back to him with a grin, thankfully unable to read Alfyn's thoughts as he wondered what the Professor had said to her to get the girl to leave him alone for the day.
"My philosophy?" He couldn't help but ask in response, Tressa's question leaving him confused as always.
"Yeah!" Tressa gestured out into the field before pointing at the buds Alfyn had been foraging at his feet. "You collect all the ingredients for your potions-"
"Concoctions."
"-out here in the wild for free," Tressa continued over his correction. "You refuse to let me and Therion haggle you a bargain for any herbs that you buy from travelling merchants, but you almost always refuse payment for your medicine. And any payment that you do get you spend almost all of it immediately on food and drink, saving just enough to get you a room at the next village inn, what gives?"
"What gives?"
"Yeah!" Tressa nodded, watching as Alfyn turned back to picking buds at his feet. "You'd probably be a millionaire by now if you charged for your potions!"
"Concoctions." Alfyn absently corrected again as he held a bud up for Tressa to see. "Do you know what this is, Tress?"
"It's an olive bloom." Tressa nodded to herself. "I could sell it for a couple hundred leaves."
"Yep. But do you know what it does?"
"It can be used to revive someone when they collapse, right?"
"Yep." Alfyn nodded again, opening Zeph's satchel and pulling out his box of olive blooms. "Do you know how?"
Tressa paused for a moment, clearly deep in thought, before she finally shook her head. "Nope, how'd you use it?"
"Well, if you were to use it alone, nothin' would happen." Alfyn chuckled lightly to himself. "Actually, you might make the person who collapsed even sicker if you gave it to them as it was."
"So you grind it up then?"
"In part, yes." Alfyn pulled another box from his satchel, showing Tressa the ground seeds inside it. "But you have to mix it with some of these in boilin' water to bring out their healin' properties."
"See, see! That's what I mean!" Tressa shouted, pointing at the items in the satchel as Alfyn started to grind up the new olive blooms for his box. "If you were to make up your healing potions and have me sell them, we'd be rich!"
"Concoctions, and I still don't think you're gettin' it, Tress." Alfyn shook his head before thinking to himself. "How 'bout this, say your parents were sick, how much would you pay to make them better?"
"All the leaves I had." Tressa answered, not missing a beat.
"Exactly." Alfyn nodded in agreement. "But now that you know that everythin' we apothecaries use to heal most illnesses we forage for free or buy for a couple hundred leaves, how would you feel if I charged like 5000 leaves to heal your family?"
"Well… I would understand that you'd have to make a living..." There was a doubtful tone to Tressa's voice. "Are all your tonics made with simple ingredients and boiled water?"
"Pretty much." Alfyn nodded. "They all cost me next to nothin' to make, most people could make cures to common illnesses themselves if they know how."
"Do you teach them? When you heal your patients, I mean?"
"Yep." Alfyn nodded, returning his pestle, mortar and boxes back to their rightful spots in the satchel. "Do you get it now?"
"I guess?" Tressa shook her head, still not quite understanding his logic it seemed, not that he could blame her. She was a merchant, someone who had been raised to believe in the power of leaves. Ever since he'd met that apothecary all those years ago, Alfyn hadn't felt the need to accumulate wealth, just enough to get him from town to town as all he needed, and that was easily done by selling off his excess ingredients to shops in those towns.
"Makin' a profit at the expense of someone's health just don't sit right with me, Tress." Alfyn said simply, stretching as he looked out into the field, making a mental assessment of the layout and what other herbs he might find hidden in the grass. "If someone's really insistent that they pay me, I'm hardly goin' to turn them down. But I'm certainly not goin' to ask, seein' the happy faces of my healed patients is all the payment I need!"
For a moment, Tressa was completely silent, clearly lost to thought. Finally, she shook her head. "We're very different people, Alfyn."
"Are you sayin' you'd charge folks if you were an apothecary, then?"
"No..." Tressa shook her head once more before letting out a groan. "Thanks for answering my question, Alfyn. I guess..."
"We're all different and have different ways we go about our business, Tressa. Just because I'd do it one way and you'd do it another doesn't mean one's right or wrong." Alfyn flashed her a grin before she turned and started heading back towards town and the others. "Consider that a lesson from your old pal, Alfyn!"
Tressa couldn't hide her laughing smile as she turned away, her question answered and her mind somewhat at ease, but Alfyn did have to wonder how challenging the girl would find this adventure of hers if such a simple question gave her such pause for thought. Not that he thought any more on it that day as he headed deeper into the field in search of more herbs and hopefully no snakes.
