Cadfael is no coward, but he is rather content that he wasn't part of the group that ventured into the cursed village. The stories they told... bone-chilling. He's just glad that everyone make it out alive, and not empty handed. A small blessing for the horrors they encountered.

He sits on a high stool like a hawk perched on a stone ledge, watching Nadine work. Careful not to distract her while she's cutting the fruit. Speaking only when she's already lifted her enchanted knife. For all the people coming and going, all the experiments going on around them, their little corner of alchemy lab feels surprisingly quiet.

"I wish someone brought a soil sample with them."

It's been on his mind from the moment he heard of, but now that he said it, realization comes how utterly ridiculous such request sounds. And impossible now that the village is sealed off again. Yet, he can't stop thinking about those poor souls trapped there.

"Naturally, I'm not surprised no one did. Given the circumstances, I'm happy we got what we did. Alas, the mystery what was so special about Aetherie that the Anoix plant grew only there remains unsolved."

And unsolved mysteries tend to gnaw at him like some especially persistent vermin.