Herbalists' Cache Bound by Symmetry

"Expectorant!" he repeated a second time. Repetition was a useful way to learn, and Reek wholly expected Scarlett to repeat it until she had gotten it memorized. Plants were a difficult thing; one slip up, and then— Bam, you're dead. If it took mindless repetition to spare Scarlett of that horrible fate, then that is what he would do. But even if she couldn't remember what an expectorant was, she seemed to grasp the plant's uses in full. He nodded and smiled in silent congratulations.

"This would have been very useful when I had the flu," he continued. "I didn't have the energy to come harvest any... but now that I have you, we won't ever have that problem!" It would be a foolproof system. Who would heal the healer but another healer? A pack could not function with only one.

He motioned down to the root. "We'll take it with us," he said. "But now, let's find something else!"