The heavy fingers make it hard to write. And it's hard also to visualize the words as they form connections in the metaphysical realm of idea. This place Jaele Nistra found herself in was not terribly different from some of the small villages near her home In the less densely populated parts near red haven. Of course this place was no where near there she was sure. It has been so long since she had left her home. The town was scant more than 15 buildings, it seemed a small community of mostly children. She had been drifting in The mists and was recently separated from Sheeana. She expected that both Sheeana and her had arrived into the same world but she couldn't be sure of that. The mists seem to have a mind of their own. Their own purposes. Or perhaps there was no purpose? "The lord works in mysterious ways" she had over heard a priest of the predominant religion in these parts say, And the memory came unbidden to her mind thinking about it. There was no "Lord" no 'Elion'. She had been around long enough, and to enough worlds to dismiss it as absurd. Still. Part of her wanted there to be some meaning to her struggle. She certainly enjoyed seeing new worlds, exploring Learning about them. But she had begun to accept that there was little she could do to effect these worlds. This town for example seemed to be structured around the production of some kind of potion. But she could not Learn what it was. The people must speak a language that was different from her own, but the magic that brought Her into this world, translated enough that it was impossible for her to learn the real language they used, but also Didn't translate everything. The effect was, she could move around the world, talk with various people of various Races, without much problem. She could acquire housing, earn money, etc. But she couldn't ask "What is this" and Get any answer. She had tried so many times. As the town was mostly children it was perhaps obvious that the potions were produced mostly using child labor. It made some amount of sense. These lands were in recovery stages from full scale war. There were few men, except at military outposts, many died. The women tended to farms and fields And these children without parents either due to negligence, or death in war Had left and created their own community. Rather than allowing the children to join the bands of imps, goblins, and other creatures of "Lesser" intelligence, Or cause mischief on their own Knowledgeable alchemists used them to gather herbs, dry, grind them, and process them into Reagents and eventually into potions. Doing so taught the children some basic alchemist skills and gave them a sense of purpose. There were in addition to the children a few demibeasts who acted as teachers, and overseers, and several giants Who handled the majority of the heavy lifting. The operation was seemingly quite successful. Jaele suspected that the potion was some kind of narcotic. Using certain potions the children had modified their bodies Sufficiently that they convinced the largest power in the region that they were a previously unknown race of fairy Folk. Interestingly they named themselves after a servant orphan child who had been killed in drunken rage by Her master (adoptive parent). They were the Shai. People seemed willing to accept this as the truth rather than Confront the atrocity honestly. At least they had place to sleep and food to eat, and relatively safe from the front Lines of the conflicts in the surrounding regions. .