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he'd overheard the one Healer so traumatized for having done something with
the lid.

The final step in the summoning, it turned out, was a loose lid on the
cucurbit such that some of the some of the steam escaped sideways. It was...a
shifting shimmer of black, white, yellow then red, and the Vapor surrounded
him again, took him in her arms, and made him feel rested, whole and
confident.

He poured the contents into a smaller travel receptacle: an oil lamp with
a small hole where the wick would go. He whittled a small cork to fit the wick's
hole, tucked the lamp under his arm, and flung open the door. Two Healers
who’d been lurking at his door galloped away like rats in the light.

Ernozio's neighbor to the south had an awful goiter, which on a centaur
is a gruesome sight. For the benefit of the Healers who were trailing him,
Ernozio asked in a loud voice to be let in, on the excuse that he had purchased
a new aromatic oil lamp and he was eager to know what his neighbor thought
of it. Ernozio set the lamp on his neighbor's table and unstopped the cork. To
his astonishment, no flint was needed, for the lamp lit itself, and emitted a
warm, comforting glow of yellow and red waftment, with a most pleasant white
and black vapor. There was also a faint sound of music. The music was not
immediate; it sounded as though it were coming from the next house over,
perhaps, or above the trees or on the roof somewhere.

“What do you think of the aroma?” asked Ernozio But he needn't have
asked. The neighbor had put a hand to his throat and said, “It's, it's so
soothing. It's wonderful! What is it?”

“The Vapor of Knowledge, my friend. The Healers have been hoarding it
for centuries.”

“It's the most wonderful aroma I've ever smelled.”

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