Toxicodendron dicterium
(Common Name: Poison Joke)T. dicterium is an herbacious perennial plant that is easily identified by its blue colouration, which is present on the stem, leaves, and flower of the plant. On contact with fur, T. dicterium causes a magically-induced allergic reaction[a] specific to each individual… All parts of the plant can, if properly handled, be used safely in potions; the stem, in particular, is a fairly common ingredient. A popular hangover cure requires the ashes of a burnt T. dicterium flower, though this potion has come under a great deal of scrutiny and is widely considered ineffective.
—from The Wild Plants of the Everfree Forest and Their Uses
There were very few other students sitting in the dark, damp classroom that afternoon, but Maria had hardly expected otherwise when she had chosen to study the art of potion-making. It wasn’t exactly an art that was respected by the magical elite, after all, and with so many students looking down on it as “mud magic” it was one of the least-taught classes at the Arcana. The teacher, a zebra by the name Zama, was not often seen outside her classroom—and the less she was spoken about in polite company, the better.
Sometimes Maria had wondered why the subject was even taught, if it was so frowned upon outside of the classroom.
“You are all here because you have made a choice.” Zama’s voice startled Maria out of her thoughts, and she had to spend a moment composing herself. “You have chosen, in the face of great criticism, to ignore the slights of your fellow students in pursuit of knowledge. That alone is bravery enough, and I thank you all for signing up to study with me this year. I am grateful, and I do not think lightly of this choice of yours.
“I am afraid that I must ask you all to be braver still, though.”
Something about the way Zama spoke, and the way her voice echoed in the dark room, had shocked Maria (and, it seemed, her fellow students) into silence. Despite the quiet, Maria could sense the unease in the air, and she shared a few frightened glances with her classmates. Zama took a moment to let the glances settle, before she continued.
“Most of you will have spent your whole lives dependent upon your hornglow for even the most basic of tasks. You use it to light your way in the dark, and to defend yourselves from dangers. Most importantly, you have likely always used it for any precise movement, not trusting the clumsy grasp of your hooves and teeth.
“Today, I will demand that you unlearn a habit that is so ingrained in your way of life that to do otherwise is considered impolite.”
Despite the shocked and troubled faces around her, Maria found herself on the verge of smiling at this statement. If the first lessons of potion-making were going to be in using her hooves, she was going to pass with flying colours.
The reason for these lessons, Zama explained, was that many of the ingredients they were using in their potions were magically volatile and, though hornglow was completely inert, it tended to have subtle effects on the objects and space around it. She talked for a while about tiny fluctuations in magical potential, a speech that was lost on Maria (who had spent so much of her time learning how to use magic that she’d never had the chance to learn how it worked)—but the images of what had happened to a number of unicorn potion-makers who had not learned this lesson, which Zama passed around the classroom for the five students to study, were not.
Zama went on to introduce the students to a few key tools in potion-making, and had them practice using them—first with their hornglow, well away from any actual ingredients, so that they could get the hang of how they were meant to move, and then with their hooves and teeth. Maria couldn’t quite conceal the grin on her face when Zama praised her for her stirring, though the looks of disgust on two of her classmates’ faces were enough to scale it back to a meek smile.
While the other students worked on their technique, Zama sent Maria to the small library at the back of the room to start researching the ingredients in the potion of calm, which they would be learning to brew over the course of the next week. It wasn’t a big library—in fact, it was smaller than her own private library—but it was filled with the kinds of books that Maria had always wanted to see: covered in arcane symbols, and riddled with detailed diagrams and complicated instructions. These were the kinds of books she had expected when she first visited the Everfree Library!
By the time the bell rang, Maria was curled up on the cushions in Zama’s tiny library, with her muzzle in The Wild Plants of the Everfree Forest and Their Uses, almost lost to the world—and if it wasn’t for the fact that the other students needed to get past her to reach the door, she would have happily stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. It would have been an improvement over going to the temple, that much she was certain of.
“I see you have taken quite a liking to my books?” Zama smiled, glancing at the floor where the book was still lying wide open. Maria blushed, quickly closing the book and carefully—very carefully, given she was using her hooves for it—returned it to its shelf. “You are welcome to come and read them any time you wish, my student, so long as I am not teaching at the time—and it is not after curfew. I might not object, but I suspect my colleagues would not agree to it.”
“Th-thank you, Ms. Zama,” Maria mumbled, avoiding her teacher’s gaze. Despite her friendly attitude, Zama seemed quite intimidating, and Maria wasn’t quite sure why.
“Please, just Zama.” She sighed at that, and nodded towards the door. “You’d best get going. I know they are not all that fond of unicorns who show up late to worship.”
[a] though the effects of T. dicterium are well documented, the process by which these reactions occur remain a mystery. Though this author has applied many times to various regulatory bodies for the grants necessary to study this, and other, phenomena which suggest that the natural magic of the forests is far more intricate than often believed, these requests have been regularly denied.