to eat a whole cake!

Stepping away meant she had a great view of Su's work though and found herself casually delighted. After all, fan work was pretty rare in a lot of Western culture. Which was a shame. It was beautiful and elegant, and she could have almost been jealous.

But within moments, the gold icicle reagent had collapsed on the counter and the necklace glinted dully.

Mim shoved it off to the side without another thought.

"Perfect! Let's combine it with the other ingredients and then test it out on the plants so we can hopefully contain the magic." Reaching out, she carefully picked up the reagent between her fingernails and carried it over to the other ingredients.

Su gave a thumbs up, and gathered her jacket from the chair to shrug it back on. She tucked her wand back into its designated pocket, exchanging it for her phone, checking to see if there was any notifications she needed to be aware of– only to find a text message from Dr. Yoder sitting in wait. Thankfully it was just asking her how it was going.

She unlocked her phone, read his message three times to make sure she was understanding it correctly, and then went to her notes app to type out a reply. After reading that five times and then once for good measure, she copied it, pasted it, checked it another two times, and finally hit send.

Which she knew was ridiculous, but she worried all the time about fat fingering things to just her friends– this was her boss. She would never be able to survive if she did something insane, like just hit paste and send only to realize too late that she still had a link to some fanfic she'd been reading at night saved instead of whatever she had really meant to send.

After a few minutes he replied.

All her stuff was back in San Francisco. Last time they’d visited, Tanya had pestered Ting-Ting to clear out some of her stuff. She did so, dutifully. She barely recognized her childhood bedroom anymore. It hadn’t felt like home in a very long time.

She had a feeling that her dad and stepmother might be trying to downsize one of these days. There was no need for a five bedroom when it was just the two of them. Ting felt oddly at peace about the possibility of losing her childhood home. 

Swynlake felt more like home at this point. She’d carved something out here all her own. 

“Who knows? Maybe this will be the place we all come for the holidays one day,” she laughed. “All of us with our kids and maybe their kids.” She glanced around the crowded attic. “Definitely incentive to tidy this place up more. I should get rid of some of my old clothes, actually.” She wrinkled her nose. “I just don’t want to go through the mortifying ordeal of trying on my pre-pregnancy shorts to see if they still fit. Even though I know it’s been two years.” 

It was weird. It was super weird how much things had changed, and yet Su felt like she was still the same kid she had always been. Even though she knew that wasn't true, but she didn't feel the weight of the years on her. Just like she didn't feel prepared to be an adult. Whatever the fuck that meant anymore.

She used to think she had an idea– but now that she was dipping her toes in, she realized she had absolutely no mcfreaking clue what it was.

Or how Ting had managed to do it, starting at such a young age. Su wouldn't have been able to cope.

Which, on top of being her sister, made a sudden protectiveness come out of her upon hearing Ting-Ting say that about herself.

After a moment of thinking, she straightened up. "The fuckass necklace! Hold on."

Bustling up the stairs, she came down a few minutes later. In her hands was a gaudy gold necklace that had been passed down to her when she'd turned 13. It was supposed to be an honor. Too bad it was heavy, old fashioned, and a little bit hideous.

"I know it's pure gold, can you collect the reagent off this?"

Su remained very still for a few seconds post Mim's departure, just staring in the direction she had disappeared through. Then she had promptly disolved into a fit of laughter, pressing a palm to her mouth to try to hide it, but that set of words had just killed her. God, Mim was so effortlessly funny. Su admired her so much.

She had managed to recover her sanity before Mim returned, letting out one last long breath to dispel the sillies and lock back in on the situation at hand.

"Uhhh–" she said as a placeholder for actual words while she squinted at the fuckass necklace and then nodded, holding up a thumbs up. "Yes! Perfect. Let me just–"

Now it was Su's turn to move away, going to her coat that had been draped over the back of a chair, and patted the pockets to see where her wand was...ah ha! She pulled the fan free, flicking it open with a curt movement of her wrist.

It took a second to gather the gold from the fuckass necklace, and since it was the physical element they were using, the corporeal form it took shifted as it came into the world. At first it looked like a white stalk of a long blade of grass blowing against the shifting air the fan created, and as it bent its colors shifted into the changing leaves of Autumn. Su bit her lip, closing her fan and used it to hit the stalk. Like an icicle being knocked from the edge of the roof, it fell and plink-ed against the counter.

But Ting kept looking at all the little onesies and nappies and her heart panged.

Matilda was already walking and talking. She had likes and dislikes and a whole personality.

Once upon a time, though, she’d just been a little bundle and all she could do was sleep and cry.

Ting-Ting didn’t necessarily miss those days. Having a toddler was both harder and easier than having a newborn.

Still, she looked at the shoes that Su held out to her and smiled.

“I think that’s a good idea,” she said. “Maybe a new rule of thumb — if there’s a cluster of something, we keep one nostalgic item and the rest goes. And these are perfect.” Ting sighed and reached to take one of the shoes. “Wow, she’s grown so much. Look how tiny this is!” 

"I like that," Su nodded her agreement. It was a good rule, a bit of a compromise between the two wolves inside of her that wrestled with not wanting to let things just rot away in the corners of the house doing nothing but taking up spaces versus not wanting to wind up letting the house looking like it was just a model home that no one lived in with the lack of personal items.

She smiled as she watched Ting take one of the wittle slippers, her thumbs brushing delicately over the other one left in her hand. It was seriously crazy to think about how small Matilda had once been. Heck, Su could remember back when she had just been an image on a screen, so small that only a special machine could have picked up the presence in Ting's body. Now she was a person.

Seriously– Su thought that was some crazy shit, and yet it was brushed off as toooootally normal. Which, sure, people had been doing it for a long time now, but it was still crazy.

"I think you're right, I think we need Metal. I don't have any of that on hand though." It wasn't a reagent they used as much in Western magic so she'd only ever collected it as needed.

"Do you have some of it around? Or what would be the best thing to collect it from in order to get a clean sample?"

Su blew out a breath, cheeks ballooning and brows arching on her forehead as she tilted her head briefly, showcasing just what a doozy of a question that was. A hand reached up, thumb running idly at her hairline.

"I....do," she said, brain still trying to think about all the logistics of everything going on at present. "At my house. But...if we don't want to wait on that, I would say if you have anything that's gold or silver? Or copper. I think copper would still work."

"Hm....I definitely have Lazy Morning." She had enough of those herself, she could keep that thoroughly stocked. "Do you think there's something that might work better with the plants? Brick Wall might be a little aggressive. Aren't there trellises or ents that stop plants from moving as well?"

She patted her lip, thinking through the possibilities. "Or since those things are usually made of natural ingredients, is Brick Wall better because its so unnatural?"

Su blinked, brows lifting a little as she considered the question because...well...it was sort of the opposite of what plants were all about. They grew. That's what they did. And her specialty was usually based in how to expand on that, help them along or get them to help you in return.

But there was also a lot of talk about balance, and the varying cycles on how the different elements kept one another in check.

It also just sort of caught her off guard to be asked in general. She didn't see herself as a knowledgeable person, usually she was the one seeking help from others– hence Mim.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t take it that way — well…” She pursed her lips together in consideration. “Actually, no she probably would. Or at least pretend to.”

Mei could be a drama queen. On purpose, usually these days. (Boy had she put Ting-Ting through the ringer when she was in high school.) She’d matured a lot since the first days they were in Swynlake, but Ting knew that Mei would pretend to throw a fit at Su’s exclusion. She might not even do it till Su pointed it out. 

“But seriously, I won’t ever kick you out. You can leave if you want to, but you’re always welcome back, okay?” She touched Su’s cheek fondly. “Especially since you’re clearly better at getting rid of clutter than I am.”

She gazed back to the pile of stuff still surrounding them.

“So… Matilda’s newborn clothes…? I could probably donate them. I’m sure some new mother out there needs them.” 

Su winced dramatically upon hearing this, picturing the same scenario as Ting, but smiled a moment later to show that she also knew that Mei had grown up a lot. It was hard not to notice it in comparison to how she used to be– and a little bit painful to admit, since it meant that her time away, growing into her own person, away from Swynlake and them had been good for her. But she couldn't think of that in a selfish way! If it was good for Mei then it was good for Mei. The end.

She did breathe a little sigh of relief hearing that she was always welcome in this house, even if she did decide to venture out one day. It was what Su pictured when the word home came to mind. That had more to do with Ting-Ting, Mu Hou, Matilda, Key, and the fish than the actual structure, but still.

"Yeah!" she chimed in, thinking that was a great idea for the clothes that would never get used again. At least....not anytime soon....

Then she paused, gazing at the little clothes that had only been worn for so long since, man, babies grew so fast! "Well...maybe we can keep these? Just as keepsakes?"

She tried to remind herself that she had come here knowing it probably would not be an easy solution. That she had been sent here because the doctors who were far more experienced than her didn't know what to do.

But not knowing what to do felt unacceptable to her. She wanted an answer and she wanted it now. And she wanted it to be sure.

Of course, it wasn't this girl's fault. She had been surprisingly useful...helpful, some might say. And she seemed very knowledgeable about plants. Especially magical ones. Which could only ever be a boon in Gretchen's eyes. The patient was partially in the position she was in because people did not value magical plants the way they did perceived nonmagical plants. (There was an argument to be made that any plant was magical, but Gretchen didn't have time to get into that.)

Instead, she listened to the girl's spiel about the various options. They were like a soothing mantra. That this wasn't a dead end. It may not be the answer, but it also wasn't, totally a defeat.

Somewhat mollified, but still annoyed, Gretchen sighed harshly.

"Yes, please make a copy. And here." She pulled out her phone and handed it over. "Put your number in. It will be easier to coordinate than through hospital channels or me stopping by."

She nodded, starting to stand so she could get the binder and get the page free– only to look up and suddenly have her hand occupied with a phone. Su listened to the reasoning behind needing to give her number and it made sense. Why else would this person want Su's number other than to see this thing through and help the patient who was in danger?

Still. She paused, staring at the screen.

It was probably harmless. Her past experiences had made her paranoid. And she could always just block the number if things took a turn.

There was also the thought of should she? Like, on a professional level? Or should she be giving this person the office phone?

Su quickly typed in her cellphone number and put in her name with the addition of (Environmental Specialist Assistant) just in case and handed the phone back over to get on with her original task. Thankfully the copier in Dr. Yoder's office cooperated today so Su was back in a flash, handing three copies of the page over to her.

"I'm sorry again for not being more help," she said. "Thank you for coming in, I wish there was more we could do for you."

She had a feeling Su was probably softening, thinking about someone young getting into trouble and needing help. Mim was much less sympathetic. After all, she and Amity had been in Secondary school when they'd unleashed Asmodeus on the town. It had taken the combined efforts of some of the most powerful people in Swynlake to lock it up again, and neither of them had been able to hide from the consequences. And that was only one of Mim's magical fuck ups. She knew exactly how dangerous a teenager on a mission could be.

"Okay, so for the short term I think we can mix some Lazy Morning and Brick Wall to try and slow down the progress of the potion, as well as boosting it with whatever natural green energy we can get to remind the plants what they should be doing. That should stop it spreading. Then if we can maybe build some kind of attractor, that should start to pull the potion out of the ground wherever we can."

That second part would be trickier, but maybe if they did a one to one trade like water in place of the potion, it could work...

Su frowned, mostly out of concentration as she thought over that plan. It was a shame it was winter, when the plants were more dormant than they were actively going through their day-to-day processes of survival. It made her worry, wondering if they would be messing with their natural process by trying to help them and just make the whole thing worse. Theoretically she might have been able to tap into the trees' circadian rhythm and get them back on track but, psh, when was Su ever confident in her ability to do anything?

She did appreciate having a plan at all. It was much more comforting to have a sense of what was going on and taking steps toward mending everything rather than the confused panic of hours previous.

It very well could be. There was a reason it was going down a rabbit hole and chasing a white rabbit. Not because it wasn't useful, but because it was seen as divergent. After all, Alice wasn't supposed to follow the white rabbit, but that didn't mean it wasn't also correct.

Gretchen felt that way about a lot of things.

Including magic in the sciences, because she agreed with everything that the girl had said. She'd seen it in her own education and budding career. People left magic to the Magicks, even when it affected everyone. Or even when the study would benefit everyone.

"If there is no documentation that details what happens when it is ingested, there is every possibility we've found our match." Gretchen took out her phone and snapped a picture of the page. "Can I take this with me?" She wasn't sure. She knew the archives were rather strict, but she had no idea if this counted. It did seem hand made, not properly published.

"Is there any other plant you think might have caused the problem?"

Su hesitated at the question, not really sure that was smart to let someone who wasn’t a part of the department walk out with one of their resources. Not that she didn’t trust the woman to be responsible (She was going to be a doctor!) but just that she had priorities that were different to their own. The paper could get lost or stained if left in the wrong place, someone else setting a coffee cup on it and leaving a ring mark. Which would suck. She also didn’t know if Dr. Yoder had another copy of that page– oh! 

“If you don’t mind waiting for just another second, I can make you a copy of it real quick?” she proposed. And she was going to be sooooooo calm and collected about it so that the printer wouldn’t smell her fear and make a scene. 

“And none that come to mind,” she said. “You’re welcome to take the list of plants I made for you. Maybe if your patient could see a picture, it might be helpful in identifying it? If not…maybe when Dr. Yoder gets back, we could make a trip out to the river and look around for you guys. See if anything might fit. It’s possible that something might have popped up, or someone planted something without out knowledge. I don’t know the last time he made a trip around that area or spoke with any of the Enchantra reps about that sort of thing…”

"I don't think it's that, then. Unless there is something we're not seeing. Has anyone ever ingested it before?"

If they hadn't...maybe the symptoms were a new observation, which was deliciously interesting...but it did mean that there was less of a chance of being able to help the patient.

Though, as long as Gretchen brought back the correct diagnosis, that was all that mattered. (Which sounded cruel, perhaps, but it was also true. A mechanism of injury was one of the most important pieces of helping someone...or knowing if you couldn't help them.)

Su dimmed significantly and was left to shrug, shaking her head. "No, not that any of our records are aware of anyway. It's a shame, but not a lot of the native species of Enchantra have really gotten looked at properly. It's really only those at the university who have been studying them since magical plants aren't everyone's favorite species in the botany community."

Why, Su would never know. Well, actually she did know– anti-magic sentiments, and any Magick scientists in the field were few and far between, let alone around to give Enchantra their time of day and be cutting a bigger check elsewhere

Sigh.

"Sorry– I didn't mean to lead us down a rabbit hole. Just trying to think of what other plants around Kohaku that they could have come across," she said, squinting as she peered off into the middle distance to wrack her brain.

It was easier with runes than it was with potions. While there were some basic runes that everyone learned, nearly every sorcerer ended up adding their own flare which could be as distinct as a fingerprint. As soon as she saw a rune drawn by someone, she could keep an eye out for whoever else might be using that signature and track a charm or a spell back to that individual. No matter how well you hid, the signature lasted.

But potions were trickier. They consumed and blended their reagents, and the process tended to obscure who had provided those in the first place. Sometimes the sorcerer had a strong enough 'voice' that it could be identified anyway, but it was chancier.

"They can't be that experienced. I mean, there are some pretty basic mistakes in this potion construction which is why it went so badly awry in the first place. Its probably why they tried to dump it instead of properly neutralizing it - I bet they couldn't even figure out where they'd gone wrong."

Which, to her point, made them dangerous. Who said they wouldn't try and do this again?

"Do you think they might be at PrideU?"

Su's fire calmed a little at that thought– inexperienced probably meant they were young, huh? Which wasn't an excuse to be throwing their trash around willy-nilly, but a kid doing it was a lot different than some lame adult who should know better. It was sad, but in a completely different way.

She had been wanting to tear this person a new one. Now she was probably going to just feel bad for them and their lack of magical network to have been able to taught them proper waste etiquette.

"Maybe. Or maybe even the Secondary if it's that rudimentary," she said with a frown. Ough. Awful, she had been thinking about bullying a child!

A child. Because she was an adult. Man, that was weird to think about, eh?

Gretchen was very familiar with the hum of a hundred cicada. On summer nights, she used to like to keep her windows open--the sound a gentle white noise to send her off to sleep. She'd never understood people who said they hated the sound.

"And what is the function of the noise? Does it have a magical property too? Can it disorient you? Or is it like a rattlesnake?"

More very good questions! Questions that Su was more equipped to answer than the more medically inclined things that they had been trying to sus out in the beginning of the conversation.

"A little of both, actually! It just depends on close to it you are and how long you've been exposed. Initially it acts like the warning signal to back off! but if you get closer, then the the noise will start affecting you physically. It's not been recorded as anything more harmful than a slight headache or dizziness, though," she explained. And, wow, what a fun thing to be able to share this with someone!

Only then she remembered– the reason for this visit wasn't fun. Far from. She swallowed, schooling her expression into something more serious as the conversation called for.

She couldn’t help herself. She scooted over and immediately wrapped her arms around Su. Her little sister. Her littlest sister. Her baby sister. 

“Oh sweetie, it was your house first,” she said. “You can live here as long as you want to.”

Ting wasn’t sure what the future held. Of course she hoped that she and Wolf would stay together. And of course, she sometimes thought about him moving in… But for now, they weren’t close to that stage. They were slowly figuring things out, at their own steady pace. 

Regardless — there wasn’t a universe out there where Ting would kick Su out for anyone. 

She ruffled Su’s hair.

“If anything, I’m anxiously anticipating the day that you decide you’re too cool to live with your older sister and get an apartment or something. And still, you’ll always be crash here no matter what.” 

Su had looked away, assessing what the next thing they needed to go through in the pile should be, and didn't realize what Ting was doing until her sister's arms were around her. She stiffened for a moment, about to ask what was going on, when Ting spoke. It made Su soften instantly, squirming so she could get her arms free to return the hug in kind because, honestly?, she needed it.

Just like she needed that reassurance spoken aloud– mostly to hear that her big sister hadn't gotten tired of her hanging around despite being as old as she was now. That she was still a priority on her list even though she had a lot more people on it these days.

She tightened her arms a little, bringing herself that much closer to the warmth and comfort and steadiness that Ting-Ting had always been for Su. She laughed lightly at the feeling of the hand against her hair and loosened her hold, sitting back.

Okay......Gretchen supposed that was on her for not being more specific by what she meant.

She was just so used to talking to her family and her Magick friends that she forgot when people didn't know her own background. That she had been seeped in magic her whole life, without having any herself. And she didn't really want magic.

If she had magic, she wouldn't be able to practice medicine.

And she wouldn't be able to help people the way she wanted to help them. The way she knew she could help them.

"Noises?" Gretchen said, not acknowledging the other piece. "What kind of noises? Something disorienting? I am not sure our patient mentioned hearing anything..."

Su, not noticing that anything was amiss, nodded at the initial question and then hesitated at the next two.

Gosh, how did she describe it?

She had heard it only once before, but not in real life. It had been in a class at uni, the teacher had played it for the class to listen to from a video she had taken in Enchantra. Her memory of it was a distant thing, not something her brain had decided to pick up and set down a million times over. (Noooo, that was reserved for embarrassing and lame shit she did.)

"It's...uh...somewhere between a Katydids's chirp and a Cicada's buzzing?" she ventured. "Maybe they didn't even notice it was the plant making the noise."

After listing out the three spells, the samples continued to break down and give her some more specific reagents. Practice meant that she was able to write all of her notes down as she continued to watch the potion, taking notes of each individual element and the colors that it reflected. After all, the smallest detail could become something useful later.

"Sure, it can be stopped. It'll take a bit of work, but anything that can be done can be undone in transmutation. The potion stabilized it, but that just means we can come up with a stable cure. It's just - why would someone do alter self and fabricate together? I don't get it."

Su released a breath of relief slowly through her nose, shoulder relaxing an inch. It could be fixed. Good.

She knew, in theory, that if it was transmutation magic that it would eventually go back to the way it was before. But it was winter, and those trees were currently supposed to be dormant, relying on the resources they had been hoarding away during the warmer months. She didn't know what this magic was doing them and that process, if it was making them use the water and nutrients that were supposed to last them until spring. And if they were, she didn't want to have to wait for the potions to wear off. She would rather get them back to their usual forms as soon as possible to prevent any potential damage.

...but Mim did bring up a good point.

Su had been preoccupied to ensuring the lives of the trees and plants. While the perpetrator had been on her mind, they hadn't been her first priority.

Now that she knew the trees could be spared, though...

It was that irritating.

Digging through the rushed sound though he did pick up on a pattern. A sound on repeat going over and over - then played backwards to create the static sound. Bram just couldn't make out what the sound on repeat was - it just sounded like....sounds. Tones.

What the fuck was that.

It even took him a second to notice that Su took off - holy shit after the lady. Bram didn't exactly mean that when he asked if she could get the reagent vibes. Then again he didn't really know how all of that worked - he just assumed it was vibes.

Picking up the pace he chased after her only haulting on his heels when she stopped. Bones bounding beside him - hair on his back sticking to the sky as they chased the spirit. "Did you get anything?" Bram said quickly expecting her to say something only to see the shroud she had in her hands.

"Oh shit what the hell is that -" he held his hand out to see it.

Su's body felt like she had just played a full rugby match and her brain was fuzzy in a similar way after writing an essay or having taken a long exam. She was tired across the board, needing everything all at once. Food, water, to sleep. She hadn't felt like this after using magic since she'd been a child, new to the concept and not sure where her limits were.

And all she had done was pull a freaking reagent! It hadn't even been that big of one, either. That was how much effort that sort of thing took, she guessed, pulling from something she was so unfamiliar with that it took more magic than it usually would for something she had prepped and studied.

When Bram caught up Su straightened up and regretted it when her vision swam with black dots, head rushing with blood. Oof, she'd moved too fast. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the sensation to pass before opening them again.