Excerpt from Beginner’s Guide to Making Essence Primers by Dawn Markov

The most common way for any person to obtain attunement to another element is through a primer. Most primers are made via potions, but there are other methods that can be used to achieve this - we will discuss this in later chapters.

This section will discuss what a primer does to achieve its effect. The most common way to do this is to flood the recipient with the pure essence of the element they are seeking to attune with.

From this process, many potential outcomes are possible. One of the most common outcomes is that the consumer of the primer will suffer a moderate amount of pain, followed by an awareness of the essence. This is the weakest and often least effective of the outcomes. It shows that the person had little to no talent with this essence, to begin with.

The much less likely outcome is that the consumer of the primer will be granted a vision of some type. These vary by person but generally have one thing in common - they tell the consumer an aspect of the essence. Generally, this means they have a significant affinity with the element.

The rarest outcome is the most desired but not often seen is that the participant will see a vision but also experience a physical change. This might be a change to their eye colour, hair colour or other physical changes, shifting them closer to the desired element.

Finally, there is the most unlikely outcome, where the body completely rejects the primer. This can lead to significant essence scaring or crippling but only usually happens when a consumer takes a primer that is anathema to an already highly developed essence within their body.

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Jake and Ell decided that taking the Loop was the best option. Ell knew where the nearest station was to their current spot and Jake knew which stop was closest to Roy’s compound. Plus, they were both still pretty exhausted and the path of least walking seemed the most attractive.

Drak walked to the Loop station with them while Silt gave a wave and headed off in the other direction. A few stops later, Jake and Ell left Drak to continue back to the store, although Jake was a little worried his friend may fall asleep and still be circling on the train when they came back from seeing Roy.

Jake remembered the route to the compound easily enough, but as they approached it, he realised something was a little off. No one was at the main entrance, unlike the previous times they’d visited.

“That’s odd,” Jake remarked as they arrived at the door. “There’s usually one of the guys here.”

Ell shrugged. “Maybe they are feeling a bit more relaxed now they have their friend back?”

Jake gave a nod, but Roy and her group didn’t strike him as the types to really relax. He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

To find almost nothing.

All signs of habitation had gone: there were no tents, no storage boxes, no cooking fires. No people or animals. Nothing apart from a single empty crate.

“What the hell?” Jake said, spinning around to view all corners of the compound.

“Was this the right place?” Ell asked.

Jake spun back, glaring at him. “Yes, it was! I’ve been here twice in a few days. And I’m damn good at directions. This was a busy compound with people living here. Where the hell did they go?”

Jake sat down hard on the crate, which gave a slightly alarmed creak but didn’t break. He felt he might laugh like a lunatic or cry at any moment.

“Jake?” Ell said, concerned and clearly sensing the other man’s frustration.

“You know, I came here for a few simple reasons,” Jake said, rubbing his eyes with one hand. “Nothing too ambitious. I just wanted to improve my alchemy skills. Learn more about my essence and maybe get to the stage of improving what I could make. The kind of thing that anyone wants to do with their life.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Ell agreed, a little hesitantly.

“It was!” Jake shouted. “But then I forgot that my business partner is a bloody idiot and didn’t realise he knows almost nothing about alchemy. So that led him to take a commission for something I couldn’t make at my current level. And the worst part? The client is some lunatic professional killer who won’t take no for an answer!”

Ell didn’t seem to have anything he could think to add to that.

“So we end up in this stupid series of tasks so we can make something that will almost do what this lunatic killer wants. But everything keeps going wrong! I’ve only been in the city almost a week, I’ve been chased by all kinds of people and creatures, nearly killed multiple times and now I am no nearer getting all of this shit together because Roy and her crew have vanished!”

Ell sat down on the other side of the create, which gave another alarming creak but held up well. “You’ve had a rough time,” he sympathised.

“And I’m probably going to be dead by the end of the week,” Jake added, his anger subsiding into a dull acceptance a little. “There’s just nothing I can do about it.”

“What was the next part that you needed to complete?” Ell asked.

“We needed to get a crate from a local gangster but to do that, we needed to make sure Roy and her crew were no longer taking territory from him,” Jake replied, staring despondently at the floor.

“You mean, like if they left?” Ell asked carefully.

“I guess so,” Jake agreed, deep in self-pity.

“Like leaving the compound and taking everything with them?” Ell continued.

“That might work,” Jake agreed.

Ell coughed. “Jake, they left and took everything with them,” he repeated, gesturing to the empty space around them.

Jake looked up and stared around the compound for a moment. Then he jumped up and turned to Ell, who also stood for fear the crate would decide the rapid movement was too much for it.

“You’re right! They left and we can tell Gage they are no longer in his territory!” he said and grabbed Ell, giving him a big hug. “We can get the crate back and finally get those ingredients!”

Ell laughed. “See, it wasn’t as bad as you thought.”

Jake grinned. “I guess Roy decided it was best to get a move on in case anyone came looking for them. Which also means they made it out okay. And they fulfilled their side of the bargain.”

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“Then what’s next?” Ell asked.

A little of Jake’s enthusiasm waned. “We need to go and see the Gage and tell him that we cleared out the people that were bugging him without letting on that we freed prisoners from his basement.”

“One problem there,” Ell said awkwardly.

“What’s that?”

I’m one of the prisoners you freed,” he replied. “I can’t walk in there with you.”

Jake stopped for a moment. “Shit, that’s right..”

“Probably no one would know me because I was taken by mistake. But it’s best not to take a chance,” Ell admitted.

“By mistake?” Jake questioned.

Ell sighed. “Yeah, apparently, I look just like the son of one of the local aristocrats. Gage’s guys took me, sent a ransom to the family and got told to get lost because, obviously, I wasn’t their son. So I was just stuck there.”

“That sucks,” Jake said.

“For sure,” Ell replied.

“So this is where we part ways?” Jake asked. He was surprised to feel a little sad as he had strangely gotten used to having the other man around for all they had only known him a short time.

“Or I could head out to your store and check on Drak? Make sure he got home okay?” Ell suggested. “I don’t have anything else I need to do.”

“No one is missing you?” Jake asked.

“No, I don’t have any family. That’s why there was no one to put up a ransom for me,” he admitted with a shrug. “So I’m happy to help out you guys. I owe you my freedom.”

“Okay,” Jake said, nodding. “That would be great. I’ll go and see Gage and you can head back to the store. I’ll give you directions.”

“You sure you are okay doing this by yourself?” Ell asked.

Jake sighed. “I could really use some backup, but I don’t really have a lot of choices.”

He walked across to the crate and noticed it wasn’t as empty as he had thought. He reached in and pulled out a small box of ingredients.

“What’s that?” Ell asked, peering over to take a look.

“Looks like a box of alchemy ingredients. Nothing too specialist or unusual but some good general stuff. They are almost past their best or even out of date, but they are still usable. Maybe Roy left it for us?” he replied, lifting up one of the vials to study the contents. “And you know what? There’s the stuff here to make a simple face-obscuring potion.”

Ell frowned. “How does it work?”

“It wouldn’t be too complex. It's only a tier 1 option, but it would make a few subtle changes to someone’s appearance so that people who only know them causally wouldn’t recognise them probably,” Jake told him, checking a small brown packet.

“So I could come with you to see Gage and no one would recognise me?” Ell asked brightly.

“I think so,” Jake replied. “If you are up for it?”

“Definitely,” Ell replied firmly. “You need backup and if you can make that potion, it can be me.”

Jake turned the crate over to create a small workspace and laid out the needed ingredients. He pulled a few essentials from his pouch and began making the potion.

Just a short while later, he held up a vial of thick liquid to Ell. “Done.”

“How does it work?” Ell asked.

“Rub it sparingly onto your face and it will cause temporary changes in your appearance. It should last about 3-4 hours if you don’t get water on your face,” Jake replied.

Ell took the potion from him, studied it for a moment, and then took off the cork. He tipped a small amount into the palm of one hand and used the other to rub it into his face. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then his face seemed to become hazy for a moment and when it cleared, the features were subtly different. His nose seemed a little thinner, his cheeks were more delicate and his skin was generally paler. The changes were slight, but he didn’t look like the same person, maybe a distant relative of himself.

“How do I look?” Ell asked.

“Different enough that no one should recognise you,” Jake said confidently.

“Then let’s go and get this crate from Gage,” Ell replied.

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Gage’s warehouse was quieter than the last time Jake had visited, but a stockily built guard was still on the door. He gave a typical glare as they approached.

“We’re here to see Gage,” Jake said flatly.

The man studied them one at a time for a moment, then nodded and turned to open the door. He walked inside, so Jake and Ell followed him.

Inside the warehouse was also quieter than their last visit. The man led them along the same route through the racks of crates until they reached the office area. But the man behind the desk wasn’t Gage.

Jake gave a quick glance around and was shocked to see Gage - in a heap on the floor, having received a thorough beating. He was still alive and opened his one good eye as they arrived but otherwise didn’t react.

Behind the desk was what Jake took to be a man, but there was no way to really tell. He wore a wide-brimmed black hat and a bandana obscured his face. He was also dressed in black clothes and his hands were covered with black leather gloves.

“What do you want?” he asked in a cultured tone.

“We had a deal with Gage and we’ve come to complete it and get the item he agreed to give to us,” Jake said with confidence he didn’t really feel.

The man’s head raised slightly from the desk, but his eyes were still in shadow. Abruptly above his head, a pair of metal javelins appeared and Jake realised that this was the man who had almost caught them after breaking into the basement to save Gneico. A bolt of fear passed through him as he wondered if the man had seen him down there. However, this was quickly followed by the realisation that if he had recognised Jake, he would probably have been dead the moment he walked into the room.

The man clasped his hands in front of his face. “Did you now?”

“We agreed to help him with some territorial issues and we would get a crate that belongs to our employer,” Jake replied.

“Is this true?” the javelin man asked Gage.

“That’s right,” the injured man grunted, making a wet sound.

“And have these territorial issues been solved?” the man queried Gage.

The ganger coughed, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. “Yes, the troublemakers have moved on. Two of my men confirmed it this morning.”

The man nodded. “So you have completed your deal with Gage, but what makes you think I should honour it?” he asked. “Gage is not in my good graces for a series of shockingly bad mistakes. He had sorely disappointed me and I’m not inclined to give a damn about anything he has to say.”

Jake studied the faceless man for a moment. “Look, we did as we were asked and we just want to get the crate back to The Goldleaf Inn for our employer.”

Javelin man brushed a fleck of dust from the sleeve of his immaculate black jacket. “The Goldleaf, you say? Interesting.”

Jake decided to say nothing else for a moment and simply waited to see what the man said.

“Do I know you?” the man asked Jake, leaning forward a little as if to better see him.

“No, I don’t think we’ve met before,” Jake replied as a bit of sweat ran down his back.

There was a pause where the only real noise was the laboured breathing from Gage on the floor at the side of the room. Then the javelin man seemed to make a decision and his javelins vanished from above his head.

“Very well, you can have the crate,” he said, gesturing to one of the other men in the room to fetch it. “But you may find yourself owing me a favour at some point.”

Jake glanced at Ell but decided there was nothing else to do. He simply nodded.

The man handed the crate to Ell, who glared at the other man in a rough imitation of the look the door guard had given them.

“You are somewhat familiar, too,” the javelin man remarked.

“He’s just my assistant. Neither of us has been in the city very long,” Jake said quickly, drawing attention back to himself.

The man gave him another long look. “Well, best you don’t come to my attention again unless it is when I call in my favour,” he said, gesturing towards the door. “Now get out of here. I have pressing business to sort out to deal with the mess this idiot made.” He flicked his hand in the direction of Gage and a small metal ball flew across the room, hitting the gangster and making him grunt with pain.

Jake didn’t wait to hear any more but turned and headed back between the storage racks, Ell falling into step behind him carrying the crate. He wondered briefly if Gage would make it out of the warehouse alive but also decided that it wasn’t his problem.

He had the crate, they were all alive and they were nearly finished with this insane quest. He counted that as a win.

As they left the warehouse, another guy was at the door. He half-barred their way for a moment. “Don’t I know you?” he said to Ell. “You look like that guy, Ell something.”

“I get that a lot,” Ell said quickly. “That’s my cousin. We don’t have much to do with that side of the family. I’m Al.”

The guard gave him another of those long stares, then nodded and stood to one side.

Jake and Ell didn’t run away from the warehouse, but they definitely walked as quickly as possible.