EndEro: Herbalism

At first, Nemo had been convinced that the Vaqui woman was trying to get her revenge on him by way of poison, but the results of Ylla’s ministrations could not be denied. His vitality was greater than ever before, staving off the usual seasonal maladies he had become accustomed to in childhood, his muscles expanding to give his lanky form what was becoming a very masculine fullness; unfortunately, she credited that particular success with her most vile potion, a thick slurry of ground roots and raw eggs which she mandated to be consumed every day at high sun. She herself consumed a variety of foods and drinks containing the leaves and flowers of the same plant which was the main ingredient in his once-a-day panacea, claiming that it made a woman more fertile and pleasing to the eye. Whether it was her tea and salad, or the more traditional Ironborn fair Nemo demanded for the bulk of their shared meals, she was certainly maintaining a highly curvaceous figure. Given how pleasing she was to see and touch, and the effects that were far more likely to be her responsibility on his own physical behalf, he had determined to offer no more complaints as to the taste or texture of anything she fed him.

	Not that he was the only one who received such treatment; any man who visited Nemo's home, be it his brother, a friend from the mines, or one of his fellow Smelters, was regaled with the benefits of Ylla’s concoctions. She was also making herself known to Irontown’s female community, nearing the status of a medicine woman with her sweet smelling teas and burn-soothing unguents, the latter of which were passed on to menfolk who might not trust a foreigner to treat their work related injuries. Nemo had considered putting a stop to the whole business early on, lest his home become nothing more than an herbalist’s shop. Further consideration had led him to the conclusion that it was certainly better for the woman to be happy with him than back to sullen and inimical. And so he laid some plans for a root cellar to be dug and a small roundhouse erected, not far from their shared home at the edge of town, a place for her to bubble cauldrons or whatever it was she did to produce what soon became a staggering variety of palliatives and cures derived from plants that were more often pulled up as weeds in Ironborn fields. Aphrodisiacs and prophylactics, poultices and conceptives, analgesics and stimulants, all were within Ylla's capability to concoct, and in great quantity.

	Despite mistrust in the beginning, very similar to Nemo’s own, the venture had proven a resounding success. Ylla had a few other Vaqui women working with or for her, though none shared her depth and breadth of knowledge in local plantlife, and she counted many of Irontown’s most prominent families as her regular customers. Of course, some already established midwives and herb peddlers bore her no good will, even those who tended to nonchalantly hang around the shop in hopes of picking up a few trade secrets for themselves.