Cater was in a rather cheerful mood. After the mess last week, he had offered to watch Azalea to give everyone a break. After all, the Pop Music Club was mostly just him, Lilia and Kalim hanging out for a few hours and messing around with instruments.
Azalea had some crayons and paper, and was doodling something while Cater braided her hair.
Kalim came first to the club room.
"Who's this?" he asked with a cheerful, but soft voice. He could tell she was a bit shy so he tempered his usual boisterous voice.
"This is Azalea. The headmage told two of our firsties to watch her, but they're busy so I offered to watch her for a bit."
Kalim bent down to eye level with her, and noticed how pretty her green eyes were.
"Hello Azalea...my name is Kalim," he said quietly. She smiled at him and waved happily. He looked to Cater in question.
"We're not sure if it's the effect of the potion she's under or what, but she hasn't spoken a word yet," said Cater with a shrug. "We only figured out her name because of a flower bush in the rose maze."
Kalim looked at the paper and squinted. Some of those squiggles looked familiar.
"Are those potion ingredients?" he asked. Azalea paused long enough to look him in the eye and nod. "You're super smart to be able to draw those!"
"Wait, what?" said Cater. He looked closer at her drawing. "Az-chan, do you remember the potion you were dosed with?"
Azalea blinked, before raising her hand and wiggling it, indicating she did know some of the potion ingredients.
Cater was pulling out his phone.
"Do you know how to type?" he asked, handing her the phone with a search engine loaded.
She squinted at it, before shaking her head. She didn't recognize the letters and it was a miracle she understood their language.
Cater toggled the settings for a bit, until he found a language she recognized. She brightened up and was slowly tapping at the search engine to look up potion ingredients.
Lilia walked in to Cater scribbling the ingredients down every time she found one that she recognized.
"What's going on?" he asked Kalim.
"Azalea-chan remembers the potion she was hit with, or the ingredients at least," said Kalim.
Lilia looked at the child trying to type on the small keyboard, and the list of ingredients.
"That looks like a de-aging potion...and something else, I can't tell what though," he commented, peering at the list.
Azalea frowned, and was having trouble remembering the other ingredients. She had mostly agreed to watch the potion while George was off on a quick business trip since he didn't want to leave it unchecked, so she didn't know if he had added anything else. She mostly added the ones she remembered from the list he had written down, though not the proportions.
Since it was after classes, Cater scooped up Azalea who wrapped her arms around his neck. Kalim held the notes he had taken.
In the alchemy lab...
"You pups had better have a good reason for bringing her in here," scowled Crewel.
Kalim handed him the list. He looked at it puzzled.
"What is this?"
"She remembered the potion she was hit with," said Cater simply. "I had to adjust the language settings, but she was able to use a search engine to find most of the ingredients she could remember."
Crewel's attitude softened a bit.
"This will narrow things down immensely. Does she recall the type of potion she was hit with, or the dosage?" he asked.
Cater was glad the lab had ink and paper, because Azalea went to drawing.
Lilia looked over her shoulder.
"How big a cauldron was that?" he asked.
Azalea had a serious look on her face, before walking over to the supply closet. It took her a moment (and some help from Cater) before she was able to find one about the right size. She couldn't remember exactly how much of the potion she was hit with, but she did vaguely recall how high the liquid was on the cauldron.
A simple water spell (courtesy of Kalim) and they were able to gauge how high the potion had been.
"How much of this were you hit with?" asked Crewel seriously.
Azalea shrugged, before grabbing the paper again and drawing something. It was a firework flying towards the cauldron, and a big explosion happening everywhere.
"So the potion was hit with the firework, causing it to blow?" asked Cater.
She shook her head, before bending down and motioning under the full cauldron.
"The firework hit the fire under the cauldron," said Lilia. She nodded.
"So you were tending to a potion and some careless pup set off fireworks, causing you to be doused with the majority. Is that it?" asked Crewel. She looked him dead in the eye and nodded. "Do you remember what the potion was to be used for?"
She nodded, before grimacing.
The males all watched as she drew a big person, then a smaller one.
Crewel nodded, having already guessed it contained agents for a de-ageing potion.
The second one was more baffling.
She drew a small person, rather crudely, sleeping in a bed. Inside it were crude childish drawings of a child.
"A sleeping potion?" said Cater.
She shook her head. And pointed at the bubble.
"Dream potion?" said Crewel. She wiggled her hand as if to say 'sort-of'.
She drew a second drawing similar to the first, but without anything in the dream bubble. She pointed at that, before making an "X" with her arms, before pointing to a potion bottle.
It took a few tries, before Crewel asked "Dreamless sleep?"
She nodded.
"Is it a dreamless sleep variant?" he asked.
She shook her head. She drew several bottles, pointing to the one she used to mimic dreamless sleep, before making an X with her arms. Now everyone was confused, before Cater had an idea.
"Is there a spell to do translations?" he asked.
"There is one, but it's not used often," said Crewel.
"Think you can write it down?" he asked Azalea, before handing her a pen.
She began scribbling in her native language. When finished, Crewel cast the spell. It was childish, but that seemed to be the effect of the potion.
" Therapy potion. Combination de-age/dream potion. Too many need no dream sleep," read Crewel.
"I think I understand now. Too many people were relying on dreamless sleep for something, and she... (he paused when she shook her head)...someone... (she nodded) was attempting to make a new potion for therapy use. She was tending to said potion when the accident happened."
"This is giving me a headache," said Cater.
"I think I might know someone who could help translate this mess a bit better," said Lilia. Azalea fit the basic description and even had the same name as the girl Silver kept meeting in dreams.
Crewel had one last question.
"What sort of dreams was this potion supposed to encourage?" he asked.
She blinked, before she beamed at him.
She tugged at Cater's hand, before pointing at his spell pen.
"You want to borrow my pen?" he asked. She nodded.
Well, he had heard about what she did at the mine and saw no harm in letting her hold it at least. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw the weird, silvery vapors she pulled after tapping the pen to her head.
"What the heck is that?!" he said in shock.
"That, young pup, is pure unfiltered memory," said Crewel after a moment.
Azalea nodded, before pointing at herself, then at the memory.
"So the potion was meant to encourage childhood memories?" said Lilia. She nodded again, before carefully undoing the spell and handing Cater his pen back.
Crewel had a pensive look on his face.
"I think I understand what the potion was meant to do, though it's clearly in the experimental stages," he said. "It seems someone was attempting to create a therapy potion using a combination of de-ageing the drinker, and encouraging them to remember the better times of when they were that actual age."
He then frowned at her.
"And considering this young pup knows how to cast a patronus, and can siphon her own memories off using a focus, I have a pretty good idea why dreamless sleep would be in such short supply that they would need to create an alternative. She's a survivor of that mess in Lost Avalon."
Either way, he now had an idea of what other ingredients might have been used, and could work on a counterpotion.
As they left the lab, with Azalea looking incredibly drowsy as she had used a bit of magic today, Kalim grinned and scooped her up. After a brief moment, she settled against him and looked ready for a nap.
"So what now?" asked Cater. Club activities were pretty much over for today, with this new information.
"How about you come over to Scarabia! We could throw a feast!"
"Free food? I'm in, but she's a little picky," said Cater.
Lilia looked confused by that.
"She's entirely too thin, especially for a child using magic like she did earlier."
"We've been doing our best, but she doesn't really take to the foods we serve in the dorm. And she won't eat anything without being given permission first, and even then she only takes small amounts," said Cater.
Lilia had a thoughtful look on his face.
"Maybe it's the type of foods being served. Your dorm tends to produce a lot of sweets, correct?" asked Lilia.
"Yeah," said Cater with a grimace, before he thought of something. "Wait...a lot of the times she ate more than a few bites, it was usually around foods that Trey made for me because he knows I can't stand processed sugar."
Cater hated overly sweet things, but he didn't mind natural sugars like honey and the like.
Kalim would have texted Jamil...if he hadn't come around the corner looking somewhat cross.
"There you are Kalim! Why weren't you in the club room?"
"Something came up, and we needed to talk to Professor Crewel," said Cater.
Jamil's eyes landed on the small child curled into Kalim.
"Does it have something to do with her?" he asked.
"Turns out she remembered the potion she got hit with, and was able to help identify the ingredients," said Cater.
"We should throw a feast!" said Kalim with a grin.
"It's too late for one, besides she clearly needs a nap," said Lilia. Jamil shot him a grateful look.
"A feast is out of the question," said Jamil. "Most of the dorm is heading towards dinner right now anyway. But a large dinner is doable."
Azalea was sleeping against Kalim while Jamil was in the kitchen, but she perked up when the food was almost ready. Jamil made a point to avoid overly spicy foods, and anything too sweet.
Seeing her light up at the dishes, Cater grinned.
After sharing a look with Lilia and Kalim, they silently agreed to keep her plate as full as possible until she was stuffed to the gills. He had noticed she would eat until the plate was clean, but would never openly refill it herself.
Azalea avoided the candied dates, but cheerfully dove into the hummus and naan bread. After some consideration, she also ate some of the spicier dishes, though she was quick to drink the coconut milk that Kalim handed her with a grin.
Cater watched all of this before he noted her eating habits. She wasn't overly picky, but now he had a pretty good idea why she had been eating so lightly in the dorm.
Most of the food in Heartsabyl was overly sweet, or happened to be junk food. Now that he thought about it, the fruit in the communal bowl had been rather low of late. He had thought Grim was the culprit behind that.
Cater noticed she was getting extra sleepy, and went to scoop her up.
"Where has she been staying in your dorm?" asked Lilia.
"She's been cuddling with Riddle, mostly," admitted Cater. They were both so tiny that the bed could easily support them, and for some reason having her around kept their housewarden a bit calmer. Even if he did complain about Grim waking him up a few times.
"Why not let one of us take her for the night, and give your housewarden a break? We have a few empty rooms for her and her familiar to sleep in," said Lilia.
"I think we have a few spare rooms too," said Kalim.
"You sure?" asked Cater.
"Yeah, it could be fun!" said Kalim. "I can handle her tonight, and Lilia can let her stay in his dorm tomorrow once he asks his housewarden."
Riddle almost looked disappointed, but at the same time relieved he wouldn't have to fight for bed space with Grim once he heard the news. Azalea was out like a light either way, and was using Grim as a teddy bear while sleeping in the spare room in the Scarabia dorm.