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"Thank you. I'm sure Jon wouldn't mind having a look, too. We've been sharing tea from time to time, as of late. Oh, and have you told Max about these herbs? These blue ones sound like they would add a lovely touch to his pastries!"

"Nice," says Leon, nodding, glad to hear Drelasa's been making friends. "And Max - that's the baker, right? Somehow I haven't run into him yet, but that's a good idea. Not a lot of better ways to make a good first impression than with a gift, right?"

He'd been so focused on the medical applications of his new herb garden that he kinda hadn't thought about bringing any to the more culinarily inclined until just now.

"I'll see about swinging by once I bring some of these to the doctors and apothecaries. But for now, here's another for you."

This time, a waxy, ivy-like vine sprouting red heart-shaped leaves. They're waxy to the touch and leave no residue even when rubbed, and have very little odor. "This is red herb. It's a weird one - doesn't do much of anything on its own, but combine it with any of the others and it amplifies the effects - especially green. If you need to cover up a cut or a burn quickly, without a proper first aid kit, a mixture of green and red herb paste is your best bet."

“Interesting. Do you have any advice on how to best compound this one? The coating seems to make that a little difficult.”

Leon thinks about the question for a moment. In his case he usually winds up having to chew it into a paste, but that's not great and a pretty emergency use only situation. Far from the only option, fortunately.

"Depends on what you have on hand. Drying 'em on low heat in an oven then crushing them into powder is best if you're in a hurry and have one handy, but they'll also lose the coating if you hang them out in the sun for a few days. Then it's just a matter of adding some pulverized green herbs and their juice in."

“How well do they keep once they’re dried? Most herbs I’ve worked with run the risk of losing their potency once processed.”

"Ah yeah, good question. Yeah, these ones you want to use within a week or two of drying, otherwise they start to lose their effects steadily. Actually, let me write that down - I've been putting together a guide to these things for people and I keep running into stuff I forgot to put in it."

Leon produces a pen and a notebook from his bag, which he starts jotting notes down in based on their conversation. Once the scratching of pen on paper stops, he puts them away and continues.

"Where was I? Oh, right. You'll wanna mix red and green herbs in a ratio of one to one by weight for best results, but in a pinch you can estimate and it'll turn out fine as long as you're about right. You got that? There's just one of these left, after this."

“Before you continue, you mentioned mixing red and green, but what about red and blue?”

"Oh, that's right."

Leon taps his fingertips against the table thoughtfully at the reminder.

"Sorry, got ahead of myself a bit there. Red and blue herbs mixed in a one to one ratio are good for combating all sorts of digestive issues when eaten - nausea, heartburn, acid reflux - and can neutralize even stronger poisons. Be careful with them, though, they can have a bit of a numbing effect when taken together. Mixing a tiny bit of blue herb into a red-green paste actually can be good for tending wounds because of that, but it's easy to overdo it and numb the whole area on accident."

“Interesting.”

She files that away for later. It can be incredibly useful to know how to use herbs to heal, but the Hippocratic Oath isn’t really a thing with Dunmer healers, so… knowing about the numbing effect can be equally useful.

“So, in short, you can mix all three at once, but it’s perhaps better to underdose the blue herbs in less pressing situations due to their high reaction chance?”

"Exactly. Better to work up to a higher dose if it's needed than overdo it," Leon confirms. It's possible, as a police officer, that he should be more leery of the potential misuse of these herbs for their more undesirable effects, but Drelasa's a friend. He trusts her.

"Anyway. I think that's it for these three, which leaves us with what's probably the weirdest one. Here, take it." He holds out the last one - yellow, similarly fernlike to the first, but tacky to the touch and with a more bitter, almost acidic scent.

"Yellow herb doesn't do much of anything on its own. People kinda ignored it for a long while after the others were discovered, actually - but turns out if you mix it in a one to one to one ratio with red and green herb and eat or drink it, it has a powerful stimulating and painkilling effect. Kind of like drinking five cups of coffee or strong tea in a row, but it doesn't make your heart race. I've used it plenty of times to push through tough situations that I wouldn't normally have been able to, and a lot of athletes swear by it in small doses for marathons and stuff."

"The biggest downside is you will absolutely sleep like the dead for about twelve hours after it wears off. Also, it tastes pretty terrible."

“I see. Has anyone tried mixing it with blue?” The absence of blue in that mixture has her curious.

"Oh yeah," says Leon, sounding suddenly exhausted at the reminder. "It's kind of a big argument right now. Yellow and blue alone don't seem to do much, but red, yellow, and blue? Make you incredibly sick. Like, for days, if not a week or two. Some people claim it's because it's because you're flushing all the built up toxins out of your system and that you'll be healthier after doing it, but most real doctors say that's a load of bullshit. I'd try to avoid it, personally."

“I see. The warning is appreciated.” And now she knows a good blend of ‘tea’ in case she needs to outmaneuver an unwelcome guest against whom she is physically outmatched.”

“Now, you said these can be found locally?”

And if any oddly karmic cases of food poisoning pop up anywhere, Leon will have absolutely no idea where to start looking.

"Yep. Got some packets of seeds from the goddesses a while back, and I've been planting them around the entrance to Paradesium since that seems to be where they grow best. We might be able to get some going in a greenhouse too eventually, but for now I haven't been able to get any going above ground."

Which is weird, because back home usually the green ones will pop up like weeds wherever possible, but he'll take what he can get.

"I can show you to the spot if you're up for heading out that way whenever, or I can just bring some back for you whenever I make a trip down there. I get the feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time going back and forth anyway, so it's no problem."

"I'd appreciate being shown, if and when you have the time. I find it rather soothing, to venture out in search of herbs. I've liked to gather flowers ever since I was a young womer; even as different as life is now, it still takes me back."

"You've got it. I'll let you know next time I head out there - should be in a couple of days."

They grow fast, after all, and he doesn't want them to get too out of hand without him there to cull the patch where he's been planting them.

"Maybe you can teach me a thing or two when we're down there. I don't really know my plants too well, beyond what I just told you."

"I can teach you a few foraging tricks, I suppose. Eyes are not always all-reliable in avoiding misidentification."

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