As we waited for Cheerful to come back, I wanted to make tea. I found an old iron tea kettle, and used a rotating iron crane set into the corner of the fireplace to swing the tea kettle over the crackling fire. The hinges squealed as I moved the blackened metal over the flames.

After instructing Aleister to keep his cat eye on the kettle while it warmed , I explored more of the old house.

From the hallway, I only had a few doors left to open. The EXP costs were lowered for today so it was best to get as many open as I could.

SE Door 11 EXP (15 EXP-25%)

N Door: 39 Exp (52 EXP-25%)

Choosing the cheaper door, I unlocked it and swung it open.

You’ve unlocked a new area of the world! Storage Room, 1F.

The Southeast door led to a small room, one bare bulb swinging above my head as I turned it on. There were only shelves, and they crowded the room and made it difficult to walk the perimeter. The shelves had dishes, glassware, pots, pans, but no food. Drat.

A mop and bucket sat in the corner, and there were a couple of bottles of what looked like soap. At least that might come in useful.

Not seeing much I could scrounge in the storage room, I left and went to the last door. I unlocked it and walked in.

You’ve unlocked a new area of the world! Solarium, 1F.

The door led to the most spacious and brightest of the rooms so far. It looked like a greenhouse, with glass panels instead of walls.. There was a little table, a few chairs, as well as a gramophone in the middle of the solarium.

And there was dirt. Dirt everywhere.

Actually, this time, I think ‘soil’ was more appropriate. The dirt (or soil) was confined In clay pots, in wooden tubs, in barrels, even in a couple of glass jars. I appreciated that at least in this room, the dirt was confined neatly to appropriate containers. However, nothing grew out of any of it, except tucked away in a corner, I found one unassuming glazed clay pot that had a healthy little herb flowering out of it. It looked a little spindly, and a couple of leaves were brown and curled, but otherwise the little plant was green and healthy.

Looking around, I thought that if we had time, we might as well grow our food instead of getting groceries. We had enough dirt to grow every kind of vegetable twice over.

I grabbed the little herb, living and vibrant despite obvious neglect, and hefted the pot back to the kitchen. I wanted the little thing to join us at base camp!

“I think you’ll like it,” I said under my breath to the plant.

---

I sat the plant on the table, happy to add decoration to our little camp.

“You found that?”

“Yep! What do you think?”

“Smells minty.” Aleister commented. I put my nose to the bright green leaves and inhaled deeply. It did have a lemony-mint scent.

“What do you think we should name it?” I asked Aleister. The cat rolled his eyes. When I turned back to the pot, I now noticed that there was something sticking out of the dirt. Had it been there a second before?

I reached under the delicate leaves and pulled out a rolled up page.

At this point, I shouldn’t have been surprised to find another riddle. This house was brimming with them!

I read it.

 

An Herb By Any Other Name

 

My name is common you shall see

and if you place my leaves on thee

I heal your wounds, and conjure calm

And thus my name is simply - - - -

 

This was a different kind of riddle to the ones I’ve already encountered. It was looking for a word to complete the little rhyme.

I read over it again. The rhyme scheme suggested that whatever the last word was, it would rhyme with ‘calm.’

“Dalm, falm, malm…” I muttered under my breath. None of those seemed like a good fit.

“I heal your wounds,” I said aloud, “and conjure calm…” something that heals, and pacifies; what could it be?

It took me a second longer.

“Oh I got it! It’s Balm!” I said.

I read the poem with my answer.

“I heal your wounds, and conjure calm

And thus my name is simply Balm!”

Riddle: A Herb By Any Other Name (Novice Difficulty)

Complete!

  +7 EXP

1 Skill Unlocked!

  7 Skill Points to Linguistics (Speech)

As I tucked the riddle page into my pocket, I saw another message.

New Entry for Old Toad’s Almanac!

Melissa officinalis, Common Balm

After the message went away, I tried exploring my menu options to see if I could find this almanac. No dice.

I put the little plant on the sunlit window sill, got a half cup of water, and poured it over the roots of the herb.

“There you go…” I said under my breath, “Just in case you were thirsty.”

---

My kettle had started to boil, so I got a pinch of the dark leaves from the tin, and made some tea in a pot. I was going to just get a cup for myself, but Aleister insisted that I pour him some into a saucer. I obliged the cat, and he started gingerly licking up the tea. I didn’t think cats drank tea, but then again, cats generally don’t talk, or help one make a fire.

When I finished making the tea, I got a message.

+2 EXP

2 Skills Unlocked!

  1 Skill Point to Water (Cooking)

  1 Skill Point to Fire (Cooking)

It wasn’t much EXP, but I was glad to unlock cooking! I was intrigued that the skill branches for cooking I could see so far were Fire and Water. I wasn’t sure what that was about.

While I sipped my tea and Aleister licked his, I asked him about my curse. He deigned to explain it to me.

“So, you see, it’s not like a traditional curse at all. Quite fitting, since its origin is celestial in nature.” The cat lectured, but I was already lost.

“What is a traditional curse?” I asked.

“Say you go and irritate the little old man that lives all alone in a crooked tower. Turns out, he’s a Sorcerer, and he curses you into the form of a toad, or a scarecrow, or something else wholly inappropriate .”

“Ok?” I was following.

“In that case, the curse is simply a matter of occlusion; your toad form is hiding your original form, whatever that might be. You lift the curse, and like a curtain rising, your original form is revealed.”

“Right. So I can’t do that with this curse?”

“No, because your original form hasn’t been obscured. It’s been erased.”

I blinked at the cat.

“You can’t lift the curse because there’s nothing to lift. Think of yourself as a blank piece of paper. You can start all over! Exciting, isn’t it?”

“I don’t understand-” I said, my voice shaking.

I didn’t want to be a blank piece of paper. I wanted to lift my curse, and find out I was somebody once, somebody that was missed somewhere out there in the wide world.

“What’s not to understand?” Aleister plowed on, oblivious to my discomfort, “Your name, your memories, your physical form, they’re all gone. It’s an easy concept, I should think. You can’t restore something that’s been erased, so you’ll have to write over it. Create something new!”

I blinked tears out of my eyes.

“I can’t get my memories back?” The sound of me choking the words alerted Aleister.

“It’s nothing to be upset about. You can make new memories, can’t you? And, who wouldn’t want to create a brand new physical appearance from scratch? You can be anyone you want to be, look like you want to look. Who wouldn’t want that?”

I certainly didn’t want that. But it sounded like I had little say in the matter.

---

Not knowing exactly when Cheerful would be back, and not wanting to sit and wallow in my terrible blank fate, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the old house.

In the front room, I unlocked the stairs and went up to the second floor.

You’ve unlocked a new area of the world! Hallway, 2F.

There were more doors on the second floor, but they all had much higher EXP costs.

N door: 113 (150-25%)

E door: 263 (350-25%)

W door: 52 (70-25%)

Even with the help of the Sorceress card, I didn’t have enough experience to unlock any of these!

However, I was lucky, and found something else besides the doors: a small linen closet, with no door and no lock screen to stop me from pillaging the contents.

There were two thick winter quilts and some pillows that I happily grabbed, and lugged downstairs. My sleep would be much more comfortable tonight!

When I got back to the kitchen base, I found Aleister napping by the hearth, the glowing coals bathing his fur in a soft orange glow.

I sat down and sipped the dregs of cold tea left in the pot. I couldn’t think of anything else to do while I waited for Cheerful to return. Without anything to occupy myself, my thoughts turned inwards.

I was always going, going, going. Solving or cleaning or exploring. Whenever I took a second to myself, I felt like a leaden weight dropped on my chest. Who had I been before? Did I have any loved ones, a mother or father or sister who would miss me? Surely I had a life before I woke up in this house? Was someone missing me? I dearly wished that someone, somewhere, was sitting through the night longing for me to return. But even as I thought about that darling stranger, my heart answered me: there’s no one. I couldn’t remember anything, but sometimes our hearts know better than our brains, and mine just knew.

I felt loneliness like a cold stone in my throat. How long had I lived alone before I ended up in this magical house? What I really wanted was someone to love and hold me through the night. Someone to share a private, bright and comfortable world with. I sighed. I couldn’t even leave the house, much less find a date. I didn’t have any memories, any past, or even a face that’s recognizable. Who would want someone like me?

I did have Aleister and Cheerful. Maybe two talking and helpful pets would be enough? My heart answered again. It wanted something more.