Kirke had first noticed the plant in it's infancy. It had started off small, green, and completely innocous. But then it had grown fast. The leaves were an odd color--a muddled blue as though the sun had leached out all of the green while leaving the dull, grayish blue behind. If that was strange then that was nothing compared to what came next. Rain or shine, heat or deluge, it prospered and the veins of the plant darkened until they were the blues and reds of arteries. It was oddly beautiful in a disastrous way. She had never seen anything like it and there appeared to be only one. The seed was likely foreign, dropped here by someone or something that had unwittingly been carrying it. Whatever it was it seemed to be flourishing in the soil. Mostly Kirke left it to its own keeping, just putting up a sign asking for the plant to be left as it was part of an experiment.
Over the two months of observation, the plant grew to the height of a tall man. There was a thick stem (almost a branch) every 6 to 8 inches. Each stem was as thick and viscous as celery - it seemed to retain water well. There were 5 leaves, just smaller than banana leaves, on each stem - no more or less. Small black bells flowered by each leaf. When Kirke broke off a leaf by accident it had started regrowing the very next day. By the time it had grown fully back - only a week had passed. It was as though the break had never occurred. The plant was disconcerting and fascinating.
Kirke was anxious to know if the plant had any uses, but she was unsure about how to find out. Most creatures left the plant alone. One day Kirke returned to the plant to find a leaf and bundle of black bell flowers had been torn off. Cautiously she approached the bushes, where she saw something protruding from underneath. Something about it raised the hairs on the back of her neck and made her feel uneasy. When she got closer, she pushed the bushes away to find what could only be described as the dessicated husk of a body. For a moment her heart beat fast, wondering if she should flee the area from possible danger. She took a soothing breath and looked closer. The body appeared to be a coyote, but it seemed to be completely without blood, not just bled out but as though the blood had dried up and dried in the body. Kirke realized that the coyote's open mouth held a small crushed black bell flower that emanted a sweet smell. Suddenly this plant seemed dangerous. Something that she had watched all this time could kill a creature of that size with a leaf and a few petals. It was then that she decided to tell Bastianna about the plant.
Bastianna listened intently to Kirke's ramblings about a plant that she had found, saying that it was deadly. Some inkling tickled the back of Bastianna's mind as she thought back to her grandmother. There was a plant that her grandmother and grandfather had used back in the old cemetary. It was very rare, but its description could not be mistaken for anything else. Her grandmother had called it vampiria secluda. It was a plant that was used in a myriad of ways, one of them being to dry up the blood in a body, leaving the body lookign like a dried up husk.
Excitment filled her as Kirke led her to the plant. Could it be after all this time in this land that she would find a plant from her home cemetary? When she laid eyes on the plant she knew for a fact that this was it. Her grandparents had used this to help clean up bloody situations, dispose of living victims, and prepare the dead. There were other uses, too. The bells could be dried and one given to a mare to help her body stop bleeding after labour. A crumpled leaf or half of a dried leaf could be put directly on a serious wound to help stop the bleeding. It some ways the plant was a miracle, but in others...
"This plant is from my childhood," Bastianna explained in detail what the plant could do with Kirke. Over the course of a week, they prepared a place in glassed in gardens that had been made for Kirke's plants. They created a sealed off room to relocate the plant in and lined one wall with shelves, filling them with various jars. They left a drying rack in the corner and a press to make and experiment with the drying. The plant was transplanted safely, looking even more happy in it's new environment.
Bastianna was excited to use the dried powder they made on the very next body they received for disposal-quiet disposal. The powder did it's job and in moments, the body was unrecognizable. There was no blood left.