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Whether she wanted or not, her time in the oasis quickly ran out. There wasn’t much she could do, and even if there was, a day was not enough. The rest of her time was spent on trying different concentrations with the Grace’s Exaltation nectar, barely managing to make something she was pleased with. In the marketable sense of the word. Not the bodily sense.

In the end, she tried more than simple dilution. Boiling, mixing, smashing, and maybe adding a bit of salt were a few of the things she tried. For her, the aphrodisiac was not that different from a recipe. That said more about Aloe’s cooking than anything else.

She didn’t have much time to test many aphrodisiac results, her body needed a lot of time to clear the effects, but she ended up going with a simple recipe.

Mix water and Grace’s Exaltation nectar in a ratio of 1-to-50, or one glass of water for every teaspoon of nectar. Stir the contents for fifteen minutes until the nectar has dissolved with the water and has lost its glowing properties. A finished mixture will have the color of pineapple juice, though lesser ratios will have a color more resemblant to urine. Pour the mixture into a kettle and leave it hitting just before boiling. The heat will mix closer the nectar and the water, whilst removing the innate spiciness of the nectar, only leaving behind its sweetness. Consumption shouldn’t surpass two spoons per head.

Whilst Aloe wasn’t an apothecary – her knowledge of plants pathetic compared to the average housewife – she couldn’t help but feel proud of the recipe. Regardless of whether she commercialized it or not, it was something easily replicable and useful. Like a recipe, a mother would pass down to their children.

She readied everything she could so the greenhouse and the oasis could survive the longest possible time without her intervention. That meant reinforcing the leaf pipes so they didn’t tumble again – luckily no plant had died from lack of water in her absence – among many other things. Most of the time was used in doing that and developing the recipe. Boiling water also took a bit of her time. She didn’t even have time to bathe, but she wasn’t pressed to do so. The way back would already make her sweat like crazy, so the first thing she would do upon arriving at the palace was take a calm and long bath.

That thought was what carried through her last task.

Shoveling waste.

“Ugh, if there’s one thing I haven’t missed, is this.” Even if she had only spent barely three days on the oasis, waste quickly gathered. She couldn’t hold her bladder for that long, and Fikali would do her business regardless of what she wanted, so she went freely to the latrine. That meant shoveling her and Fikali’s waste before leaving.

“Wro?” The dweller approached her with her saddle already equipped.

“You know, for three days you poop a lot, Fikali.”

“Hroo!” Fikali grunted back.

“I don’t know if that's an affirmation or a complaint, girl.” Aloe spread the fertilizer along the newly planted crops. Even if there wasn’t much, now fewer plants needed it as the medicinal plants were already grown.

Once she was done, Aloe whipped her sweat and left her straw hat back on the shack. She downed a full glass recently filled from the amphora and made her way out not before locking the house, where Fikali waited for her with the saddle and the few luggage they carried. Wordlessly, Aloe mounted her and nudged the monster with her feet.

“Whenever you want, girl.” As soon as she said that, Fikali shot free like the wind.

Ah, I should have made her walk a bit further. Aloe partially regretted doing that, because even though the shack was surrounded by sand instead of hard ground, now the whole façade was covered with sand. Oh well, I guess I can clean it... Whenever I come back.

She had only ridden Fikali twice with her augmented speed, but she grew accustomed fast. It’s not that different from my own ‘speed’ internal infusion, so I can kinda keep track of the surroundings. I would be better off if I had practiced more with it though. The movements of the imperial scribe came back to her. A memory hard to forget. If I trained, could I be as graceful as Naila? The sultanzade was normally coarse and crude when it was related to other people, but her own body was so refined that Aloe couldn’t help herself but long for it.

This time around, Aloe didn’t push Fikali hard, being careful to take rests every half hour. That foresight paid well as only five minutes were needed every rest as Fikali was in a better state than their first ‘speed’ travel. A breather and a gulp of water was enough for them to keep going.

“Wroo!” And, of course, Aloe indulged the dweller with pistachios at every stop.

Considering how she has spent this many weeks without tasting one, I think she deserves it. In the end, the travel ended up being slightly faster than their first one, only because they stopped less time than before and were in a healthier state overall.

However, they stopped before arriving at Sadina.

“Alright Fikali, I need to undo your internal infusion,” Aloe said in clutches.

“Wro?” The dweller tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Don’t worry, just like a few days, I need you to remain calm and let me do all the work.”

Truth was, Aloe didn’t know how to undo the infusion. But she knew that if the stable master saw that Fikali was suddenly faster in her every moment, it would raise a lot of questions. It wasn’t as simple as switching back the flow of vitality as she did with her internal infusions, this was different. It was a mixture of normal infusions like the ones she did with plants and internal ones. Fikali still had her own unperturbed vitality, plus the one she had received from Aloe.

What can I do? Through her hands, Aloe could feel both flows of vitality. One normal and another fast. There’s extra vitality present in her body now, a second infusion so to speak. What I have given her is a ‘normal’ infusion and she still has her internal infusion which is at default. Hmm... I don’t know what will happen if I leave both at default... That means she will have two ‘accelerated growths’ active. Will she age twice as fast? Considering her advanced age, that may be lethal...

The scribe exhaled, her hands moving up and down the dweller’s side, her eyes still closed deep in thought.

I could try to remove the excess vitality... but where would I put it? I’m full, and even if I weren’t there’s thrice more inside her than my maximum deposit... I think the best trail of action is to shift the external infusion’s stream into another less obvious infusion. Aloe considered her options, but in the end, she only knew three infusion options that could be applied to a sapient being. Toughness, speed, and strength.

Yeah, the decision is simple. Speed is suspicious, but strength is catastrophic. I doubt Fikali may be able to control her strength and will surely end up breaking some bones, and that’s in the best-case scenario. Aloe groaned and got to work.

Her ability to infuse things was slowly growing but using ‘sapient’ infusions – if she even ended up calling them that – on sapient beings was a difficult task that she had near to no experience with. And this wasn’t like switching an internal infusion back to default, there was no near-instant turn, it was as complex if not more than doing her first external sapient infusion.

These names are getting out of hand. Aloe joked in the confines of her mind, mainly to keep her dwindling sanity afloat from the challenge. It was easier before when I poured my vitality into Fikali. There was no external vitality stream, meaning the resistance was smaller. Now I have to fight the internal resistance and the external, plus changing the flow.

Aloe groaned one more time and infused Fikali with ‘toughness’.

When she opened her eyes once she switched the infusion successfully, the sun had displaced slightly.

“Dunes, that has taken a lot of time.” Aloe stood up, partially panting, and took a sip out of her waterskin. It was mostly empty. “Fikali, how are you feeling?”

“Wrooo!” The dweller grunted enthusiastically.

“That’s good, that’s good.” The woman placed her free hand on her hips as she finished the waterskin. “I can see Sadina from her, come on girl, one last push and we are in!”

“Wrooo!” Fikali bellyflopped on the sand, splashing it as if it were water.

“That’s how I like it!” Aloe smiled; a simple gesture that became scarce as of late. Especially for what was about to come in the near future. “Days remaining...” She whispered to herself before mounting the monster and going back to her native city.