By the time the door opened again the soup was ready.  Maxine swept in with a serene expression across her smooth features and Allan followed her looking positively dour.

Ildri dished out the soup and sat down with the other two.  The table was uncomfortably silent until Ildri thought she could bear it no longer.  She was still feeling a bit annoyed at Maxine so she turned to Allan.

"So, Allan.  What have you done today?" she asked.

"Little enough.  Everything is secure," he stated gruffly.

"The horses..?"

"Are fine."

"Well, that's good," Ildri said, feeling a bit uncertain and a tiny bit annoyed.

Maxine seemed quite amused by the exchange and Ildri could only barely stifle her irritation with them both.  Lord Wildwood should have sent a young and entertaining soldier to watch over her instead of this lump of wood, Ildri thought crossly.  And Maxine should act her age if she was going to lecture Ildri.

Allan finished quickly.  He cleaned up his plate, muttered some excuse and was quickly out the door with only the briefest look towards Maxine before he left.

"It's a wonder he hasn't started wearing garlic or something to ward me away," Maxine commented dryly, then laughed.

Garlic?  Ildri smiled in spite of her pique.

After they had cleaned up, Maxine spoke again.  "So, Ildri.  Are you ready to learn?"

Ildri swallowed hard past the lump which had suddenly formed in her throat.  "Yes," she agreed more unsteadily than she would have liked.  She needed to stay positive.  She would do it, and everything would be perfect!

"Then come with me," Maxine said.  Ildri made herself follow.

* * * * *

The shed behind Maxine's house was more spacious than it had appeared from the outside.  It seemed that there would be plenty of space for the two of them to work.  There were dried plants hanging from the rafters and potted plants crammed into every space in front of the windows.  A long workbench lined one wall and a couple of chairs were strewn haphazardly around the room.  Empty and full vials, jars and bottles and other such things were kept on shelves on the walls next to a dozen books.  There was also a small fireplace in one corner, Ildri supposed it was for days when the weather turned cold.  Or perhaps some potions needed to be heated.  She shrugged.  She supposed that she would find out when Maxine started to teach her.

Maxine picked several bottles off the shelves and set them on a counter.  Ildri moved closer to look at them.  One was labeled green oak sap and another was full of crushed dried leaves that looked like mint. Another had an unrecognizable purple liquid.

"I'm going to start off by teaching you a very simple potion.  Mint, green oak sap and wendelroot juice are the ingredients for a particularly good hair treatment solution."

Ildri nodded blankly.  "What am I supposed to..?"

"Making a potion is simple, really.  One only needs to mix the ingredients.  For every potion one or several base materials are needed.  That material can be anything from water to complex mixture of many different things, although some base materials work better than others.  With experience you'll come to understand the properties of various materials and what they do."

"I see," Ildri muttered, but she really did not.  She wondered what she had been thinking, imagining that she might be able to learn magic if she simply tried a different method.  This seemed even more difficult than wizard magic.  There was no way that she would succeed.

She suddenly realized that Maxine was still talking.  "The hair treatment solution was named Dredil's Tonic by the warlock who created it, if you need to look it up later.  With this one, all you need to do physically is stew the mint and then mix the ingredients together.  Once you have done that, what you need to do is pull the magic from each of the ingredients out and twist it together."

Ildri had no idea what Maxine was talking about.  Pull and twist?  "I have no idea how to do that!  Is that something I'm just supposed to know?  If I can't do it--"

"Don't panic, Ildri," Maxine said with a little smile.  "I know that you don't know this.  It's the hardest thing, figuring out how to do it.  That's why I chose this potion.  You simply need to mix the ingredients and bring the magic together.  It's the easiest potion I know as far as the magic is concerned, although there are potions that are simpler to mix physically."

"All right," Ildri said hesitantly.

Maxine pulled one of the books off the shelf.  "Perhaps this is easier," she said, thumbing through to the correct page.  She set it down beside the ingredients.  "I'm certain you can handle the physical part of potion making.  Just follow the directions, just like a cooking recipe." 

Ildri nodded reluctantly and turned to the book.

Dredil's Tonic

A tonic for dry and damaged hair.  Contains restorative properties.

Mint leaves, stewed        1 part

Green oak sap                   3 parts

Wendelroot juice              3 parts

Optional:  Several hairs of intended beneficiary can be added to fine tune the potion.

Stew the mint leaves for several minutes.  While waiting, thoroughly mix three parts green oak sap and three parts wendelroot juice in another bowl.  Gather resulting stewed liquid and add one part to the waiting solution.  Add hair if desired.  Allow to cool to room temperature.

Once cool, draw magic from the green oak sap and wendelroot juice and twist together firmly.  Mint and hair (if desired) should next be drawn and twisted until desired effect is achieved.  Potion will retain magical affects for up to 24 months if stored at room temperature and away from light.  Do not allow to freeze.

Preparation time: 1½ hour

Ildri glanced towards Maxine.  She was busy doing something on the other side of the workroom.  Ildri wondered if she was supposed to start.  She guessed that she could stew the leaves, easy enough.  Ildri set to work and soon enough she was done with the physical preparations.

She had no idea how to do what she was supposed to do.  Pull and twist?

Maxine walked back over and took a look at what Ildri had done.  "That is right," she commented.  "Can you feel the magic in the ingredients?"

"No," Ildri said with a sinking feeling.  What if she really had none?

"No matter.  Just look at them while you try to feel your magic.  Can you do that?"

Ildri had been so discouraged she had not tried to even touch her own magic since the disastrous lessons with chef.  She remembered trying to make a simple shield.  It had worked for a minute until it became so heavy that she landed on her face before it dissipated.  A couple of tries with light spells had caused fires.  There had been so many unfortunate attempts it had left her feeling that she was hopeless. 

Yet, in some deep recess of her mind she could remember how it felt to use magic.  The few successful attempts she had managed had been satisfying, like cooking a delicious meal for someone she cared for.  "I think so."

"Good.  That's where we'll start then."

Ildri thought that she needed to warn Maxine a bit more clearly.  "I, um, really don't have any control over my magic."

"That's normal, it will grow with practice."

"No, I think I might be uncommonly bad at it."

"I'll be the judge of that.  Now, I want you to reach out with your magic and feel for the magic of your ingredients."

Ildri tried and nothing happened.  Had she even used her magic?

Maxine seemed blissfully unconcerned.  "Keep trying," she told Ildri.

* * * * *

Ildri kept trying over and over until she was so frustrated that she could not imagine anything more horribly torturous than what she was trying to do.  Nothing was happening.  Nothing at all.  It almost would have been better if she had spectacularly failed as she had with wizardry.  Had all Ildri's magic faded from disuse since her lessons with chef?  Was that a thing that could happen?

Maxine bustled around and came and went seeming completely unperturbed by Ildri's repeated failures.  It was all right for her, it was not Maxine who was proving herself incapable of the simplest task.  Ildri glanced resentfully at Maxine's back before glaring down at the obnoxious potion again.  Dredil should not have made his potion so ridiculously difficult.

Ildri tried again.  It would work!  It had to!  Concentrate, concentrate.  Feel for the magic.  There was a small clatter behind Ildri.  Maxine was being so insensitive!  Ildri gritted her teeth and quite suddenly there was the sound of glass being broken a thousand ways.

"Ildri, are you all right?" Maxine asked quickly, as she moved beside her.

Ildri looked at the mess in front of her.  The glass bowl she had used was laying shattered in the remnants of her spilled potion.  Blood was starting to drip down her hand from where a shard had imbedded itself.  It hurt.

"Come sit down," Maxine said, dragging Ildri over to a chair.  She grabbed some linens and carefully pulled the piece of glass from Ildri's hand.  Maxine applied a funny smelling cream and wrapped it in a scrap of the linen.

"Sorry," Ildri said belatedly, looking over at the mess she had made.  It was so pointless.  This was what happened when one tried to do something that they knew they could not do.

"Don't be sorry.  At least now we've seen a demonstration of your magic," Maxine said lightly.

The door to the workshop was sitting open and Abigail poked her head in cautiously, nose twitching furiously.

Maxine glanced at the rabbit.  "Come to see what happened, no doubt.  Everything is fine, Abigail.  Quite a surge of magic that you had there, Ildri.  What do you think happened to make your magic explode like that?"

Ildri was certainly not going to tell Maxine she had been thinking resentful thoughts.  "I don't know."  Maxine's smile seemed to indicate she knew the lie for what it was.  Abigail looked up at Ildri with the same knowing expression in her red eyes and Ildri felt a flush across her cheeks.

"Well, do you feel up to continuing?" Maxine asked.

Ildri could, but she was frustrated by the whole process.  "I'm feeling tired.  Maybe I should go and start supper," she told Maxine.

Maxine smiled kindly.  "You can do that if you want.  Unless you want to come for another walk with me?  I'm going to collect some more plants."

"No thanks," Ildri said.  She did not want to even think about magic any longer.  The sound of her glass shattering failure was still ringing in her ears.

On her way out the door she nearly tripped over the other two rabbits.  "Ooh!  Sorry," Ildri said quickly, not sure whether she was really apologizing to the rabbits or to Maxine.

Ildri made her way back to the house dejectedly.