Hello everyone,

  As you might know, the Old Woman is a drink that Niala came up with on the spot early in the story. It has several properties that make it an enjoyable drink, such as giving a long-lasting warm buzz of energy, dulling aches, and pushing back the mind's morning fog.

  On the other hand, it is very bitter.

  Many people commented on it, and the way I've portrayed it in the story, saying that, to them, it looks like an addictive substance, like a drug, and that David has been setting up a drug lab and a distribution network for it.

  I wanted to address that.

  It, in very non-ambiguous terms, is not an addictive drug. It is, at worst, like tea. I modelled its creation and ensuing popularization along the lines of what tea did in England when it was first introduced. People clamour for it, and crave it, not because it is highly addictive, but because they like it (see above for its healthy benefits), and because it becomes a habit and a social ritual both.

  With that said, I agree, the way I wrote some scenes is ambiguous. I have two in mind: one with the fairies, and one with Leandro. I will re-write them to be less so. If you think other scenes could be misunderstood and make the drink seem addictive, please tell me. EDIT NOTE 02-09-26: These have been re-written

  I did not set out to write about the Old Woman to make it appear like a drug with negative consequences. I wanted, and want, it to be a tongue-in-cheek part of the story, not something people will view with negative connotations. I was having fun playing it out like some sort of semi-cult (like, you know, how coffee and tea enjoyers can be?), but the last thing I want to do is to bring the heavy topic of addictive drugs to the mind of my readers. It needs to be interesting, funny, and maybe relatable. Nothing else.

  Please believe me; I really just want to write a fun story. I do not want to somehow glorify substance abuse.

  Now, if the above is enough of an explanation for you, then, good!

  If it is not, and you still doubt me... well, I have two spoilers below, one within the other. The first one is a mild spoiler. The second one is a heavy spoiler. Read on if you need further proof of my intent.

  LEVEL 1 SPOILER ALERT!!!!

  There is a story reason why people like the drink so much, and why they react the way they do if they go a few days without drinking it.

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  It is doing something beneficial to them.

  Someone suggested Niala might want to "detox" the drink's enjoyers by brewing a sort of antidote, and the irony punched me in the guts; if it were an actual addiction, it would be a very good suggestion. In this case, she would be taking something good away.

  They don't realize it. Niala has no idea her drink does it, because it is not knowledge anyone remembers.

  So that's the level 1 spoiler: think of it like cough syrup for when you're sick. Is it addictive? No. Do you want to keep taking it every day you are sick? Yes. Will you get annoyed if you are sick and want to take a dose but the store is out? Yes. Not an addictive drug, but something that makes you feel better, even if you don't really understand how.

  LEVEL 2 SPOILER ALERT !!!!

  I salute you, brave reader who wishes to ascertain that the well-being of the people in my world is not under threat of succumbing to an evil plot on my part.

  So, you might have seen a few references in my story to a dead god. You might have pieced together that mana corruption and the Fel are linked to that.

  The "Mundaneworld", as the fairies call it, has had its mana plane "infected" when the body of a god fell within it and dissolved. Small particles of its essence still float in the mana sea, and sometimes get sucked up into people's mana pathways, where they can clog them up. Over time, they can accumulate, and like a disease, when a large enough mass of them forms, mana corruption occurs.

  Now, Niala's drink? It acts like a very gentle mana pathway scrubber. It directly counteracts the impurities clogging them up. The extra energy people feel is partly due to their mana pathways being cleaned, the mana flowing through them more easily.

  There is nothing addictive about it. There is everything beneficial about it.

  You might ask. "But, wouldn't Niala know that's what she did? She practices compound alchemy! She knows everything about alchemy!"

  I will answer: She does not. Compound alchemy is a relatively recent re-discovery. Most, but not all, compounds are known. It just so happens that, in the haphazard mix that Niala used to brew the Old Woman, there is a combination of one of those unknown elements which does the above-mentioned scrubbing.

  These are things that my characters will discover later.

  You might also realize that it directly counteracts the sword above David's head.

  I did say this was a huge spoiler :)

  I hope the above is enough explanation about why the Old Woman is not something bad. David has not been creating a drug distribution network. It's herbal tea, that just so happens to fix one of the world's enduring "disease", completely by accident.

  Just like many great discoveries were made.

  Edit: I forgot to mention why fairies do not succumb to mana corruption: Firstly, their mana sea is separate from the Mundaneworld. They do not get "clogged up". They do, however, suffer from mana pathway fraying: theirs being a much more mana-active world, and because they use mana a lot more (they donate their mana on a regular basis as a form of income), overtime their mana pathways get damaged. Not enough to kill them, but enough to cause drag and eddies in the flow of mana. The Old Woman alleviates this, and leaves them with an excess of energy.

  As a side-note, if a fairy stops using her mana for a long enough time, their pathways would naturally heal. The "Mundanelifers" (like Kevin's parents) will not strongly react to the Old Woman drink, for example.