Taking the ce, Aya heads to the Artisan District to ask Risel if there was something that would allow her to see the grades of items she made.
Walking through the apothecary, Aya finds the elven girl in the middle anizing some shelves.
"Oh, Yvlena! You came in at a lucky time I was just s through these potions and...I wouldn't mind some help." Risel says. She csps her hands together, pleading with puppy eyes for Aya to help. "As the Harvest Guardian I officially request your aid."
[Quest
Risel the Alchemist Mert wants you to help dust the apothecary.
***
Rewards
Explosive Potion recipe (on)
***
Moon Point x500
EXP x200]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes/No]
Aya hits yes making the elven girl jump and excitement.
"I really didn't want to do this on my own." She says.
"I uand Risel, let's get to work." Aya says.
[Yvlena Acquired Dust Mop x1]
The two waste no time dusting the shelves of the apothecary, Aya s and s until the numerous vials, beakers, and bottles shine in the sun.
Beside her Risel does much the same, humming a soothing tune. Aya takes a moment to listen to it, curious about the Alchemist. She pauses, letting the tune float through the speakers. It isn't long before her eyes widen.
Aya gasp, sug in air so loudly she nearly chokes.
"What's that tune you're humming?" Aya says immediately struck by a memory. Her mother used to hum that song.
That exact same melody.
"Do you like it? My mother taught it to me, I used to hum this song while my brother and I ed my mother's apothecary together." Risel says smiling sadly. She pauses her ing with sad eyes.
"I've fotten the lyrics though, if only Wren were here." Risel says with a longing sigh.
Aya chews her lips nervously pting. It couldn't be the same song, could it? But the melody was unmistakable.
"I know the song Risel." Aya says. Risel turns to her with a pyful gre.
"Don't py around Yvlena, how could you know that song? It's a very old one, from the time before the war of the gods?"
"Let me sing to you." Aya says.
"Okay, but I'm gonna be a little upset if you trick me Yvlena."
Aya sits up in her seat ready to sing the song her mother and grandmother used to sing. She clears her throat, letting the words wash over her.
An old lulby.
"e little bird it's cold outside
The raindrops fall and the winds doth rise
e little bird it's cold outside
Take shelter uhese branches."
"e little bird it's cold outside,
the snow falls through and you'll go blue
e little bird it's cold outside
Take shelter uhese branches."
"Spring, Summer, Autumn, and wioo
I see you through and through,
for a there's no pce quite like home baby mine.
A bird you are and a tree I'll be."
Aya looks to the s to see Risel wiping tiny tears out of the er of her eyes. Aya ughs sadly, wiping her own teary eyes.
How long had it been since she had sung that song? Even to herself.
"Oh, Yvlena you do know it. It was just like being in the room with My brother all ain." The elven girl says bawling. Risel leaps into Yvlena's arms g.
"I miss him so much." She says sniffling. "How did you know that lulby?"
"Well, my mother taught it to me too Risel." Aya replies.
"She must be a wonderful person." Risel says. Aya smiles, overe with the painful memories of her mother.
"Yeah."
[Quest plete
Risel the Alchemist Mert wants you to help dust the apothecary.
***
Rewards
Explosive Potion recipe (on)
***
Moon Point x500
EXP x200]
[Yvlena is now level 7]
[Risel siders you a friend]
It's too much for Aya, she logs off allowing the first of her tears to fall as she tries to wipe them off with the sleeve of her shirt.
The tears don't stop, soaking through the sleeves of her shirt as she tio weed silently in her apartment.
Soon Aya bawls much like Risel did, the pain in her heart swallowing her whole.
"I miss you so much, mom!" She cries, Aya didn't want to be here right now, holding her chest doesn't help with the pangs in her heart, and every breath she takes aches.
Aya colpses on her bed, curling into a ball and sobbing so hard her chest rattles.
Why did her parents have to be taken from her? Why her grandmother?
Only to be left with a cruel hag.
"It's not fair!" Aya cries, pounding her fist against her pillow! "It's not fair." She says agaied.
Through her window the evening sky rises and she sings to herself once more.
"Spring, Summer, Autumn, and wioo
I see you through and through,
for a there's no pce quite like home, baby mine.
A bird you are and a tree I'll be."
"I hope I have the strength to be a tree too, mom." Aya says.
----------
Deep within the bowels of the Lumos inc archives, Fred Barkley works through the weekend.
The business with the Yvlena protocol proved to be so important the ade it his main priority.
Even though he was free to go home, Fred stays, typing away on his puter and trying to decrypt the mysteries of the a PC.
The mae spurs to life again, blinking and transmitting.
"It's sending something to Moon Valley, isn't it? The pyer must have activated something again. Just who are you Yvlena? What is your story?"
The puter s fshes, printing words across the s.
[The bird and the tree]
Fred reads the message, knowing it to be an old nursery rhyme albeit an obscure one. Not many parents still sang it to their kids.
The practice of lulbies dying out in favor of shutting kids up with ss.
"The song might mean something to the CEO, I'd report this but he never picks up on the weekends." Fred says throwing his head bad kig his feet up unto the table.
"So I'm looking firl obviously, around my age. That would put her in her 20's early 30's Max. Among the older demographic pying Moon Valley, not much to go off of but it's a start." Fred says sipping a mug of coffee.
"Whoever you are Yvlena, I'll find you." He says.
----------
Aya wakes with a terrible headache and puffy eyes. She yawns, swallowing dryly and rubbing the dust from her eyes.
She rolls over, walking to the kit to get a gss of water and some aspirin.
After gulping down a few gsses, Aya runs her hand through her dark hair, so much like her mother's own, and stops to think.
Something was weird about Moon Valley. It couldn't just be a ce, right?
The setting, the Rose Manor, even the Harvest Guardian, and now the song.
Her mother had ties to the game somehow and the only way to find out was to keep pying.
There was no one else she could ask now, all she had was the game.
"What's that saying again, when a door closes, a window opens?" Aya chuckles, "It feels a lot like that right now."
Her voice is still shaky as she speaks, sniffling at the memories of her mother.
"I'll find out what happeo you and Dad, even if I have to turn every ro Moon Valley to do it."
----------
Aya logs bato the game to be greeted by Risel, before she speak however a message pops up.
[Secret ditio
***
Reward
Rose Manor Secret Room Key x1]
"A hidden room within the Rose Manor? Could it be for me?" Aya wonders.
The girl decides to py as she usually would, after all, there was no pass when it came to finding out her mother's e to the game.
"Risel is there something that let me see the grades of items?" Aya asks.
The elven girl nods, pulling out a pair of intricate gold framed spectacles.
"This accessory es with the added bonus of being able to see item grades, it also boosts [WIS] and [INT] these are the Adiri specs." Risel says.
Aya looks the price up and realizes they cost about 4000 Moon Points.
" I e back for those?" Aya asks.
"Sure, I only really sell them to others with any crafting skills." Risel says, "And you're one of the only few to walk through."
Aya ughs.
"Thank you Risel."
[Affinity with Risel increased +2]
Aya walks out of the Apothecary and into the streets of the Artisan District still thinking about her mother.
"I'll head back to the Manor, maybe I cut a few more of those weeds down." She says running towards the Floral District.
----------
"The seeds!" Aya says in surprise. On the nd she had tilled, little green pnts sprout from the soil. She didn't expect progress to e that quickly but it was a wele surprise.
[Your crops are thirsty]
The menu tells her, she retrieves the watering but it's all out of water.
Aya curses, w where she would get water now.
Just out of the er of her eye, she spots something.
On one of the almost clear paths, Aya notices a well with a stone roof, hurriedly clearing the weeds, she ighe notification about fiber and stops to marvel at it.
An old stone well sits before her. Celestial carvings adorn the roof, but the k is rusty just like all the tools in her possession.
Aya winds the k, lifting a bucket of fresh water to fill her watering , and hurry back to the crops.
She waters each of the 6 patches with care, putting away the watering when she's done.
[Subcss: Leveled Up
Herbalist(Harvest Guardian) 3/10]
[New Skill Unlocked: Crafting LV. 1]
"Nice! But I thought all produ csses were crafters."
Aya reads the skill description.
[Crafting
***
Create useful items using recipes and raw materials]
"Not too helpful but I recall something about a fing skill tree too, maybe I'll unlock that ter." Aya says.
With a swipe of her scythe, Aya finds once again that the effort taken to weed the area decreases again.
"At this rate, I could be doh the front wn of the manor in a bit." She says. "The sooner I'm dohe sooner I find out what's within the Manor's secret Room.
As Aya works she doesn't notice a pile of weeds begin to rustle.
An enormous pile of weeds slithers along the ground, gathering a substantial amount of pnts and vines from the ground.
"Eh? What going-" Before Aya could plete her sentehe enormous pile of dead and rotten pnts and weeds roars.
T over Yvlena much like the Horned Rabbit Queen, she faces it.
[You have entered Lawn Boss: Giant Weed Mimic]
Sunghost