The glossy white metal walls brightened the basement as always. Echoes of Orange blasting through the cardboard maze and Frost freezing the wall then cracking the ice rolled in the empty hall. Toast slept inside Ewan’s wheel tattoo while Iris, his new Astylind, remained in the blood rune.
Ewan put the beaker with the black sludge on the table and fanned the stenchy fumes away with the hand fan. Once the air around him was clear, he slumped on the chair, his legs spread, and let out a defeated grumble. This was his ninth attempt, and his ninth failure. He spent three Novas on ten sets of ingredients, only one set remained now.
After resting, he stretched his stiff body, his joints popped, and rinsed the beaker and the test tubes in the bucket by the side. He also sterilized them with alcohol and wiped them dry with a clean cloth before starting again.
The base of the potion was an ice based Aennon solution. Ms. Ridgell praised it as revolutionary and extoled the man who invented it—Aennon Cokon. A vital ingredient that shaped modern Potioneering, she often stressed.
If only there were practical classes…. Ewan shook his head.
After heating the solution on the burner up to the mentioned temperature, he took the beaker off and left it aside to cool down. One Level-0 Astylind Core of ice element and pure blood from an ice-type Astylind, these two were the main components for this potion, while some other accompaniment herbs served as catalysts and stabilizers. He measured them all in different test tubes and processed them.
His surgical knife glided on the tiny milky Astylind Core as he engraved a part of a spell circuit on it. The powdered core fell on the table which he wiped away with a rag before dropping the carved core into the cooling solution. After giving it a stir, he poured in the blood and let it rest, as the swirls of red blended into white.
His leg bobbed up and down as he sat back and watched the solution change color. The moment the red overwhelmed the contents then allowed a bloom of white, he snatched the beaker, the liquid sloshed on its wall, and sent in his spirit. And the solution bubbled. The core melted, the red faded away, and it all turned snowy white. Its temperature nose-dived and the glass beaker frosted.
Ewan waited for the solution and his spirit to stabilize before adding in the rest of the ingredients, one by one. Different ingredients caused different effects on the solution. One agitated it, the other caused the temperature to rise before plunging again. One formed a frozen crust on top, while the other cancelled all effects and neutralized the solution.
It was a smooth ride up till this point. Yet, the next moment, the solution seethed and blackened. It emanated a vomit inducing fume and heated up the beaker.
He failed again…
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“AHHH!!”
Ewan clutched his hair and banged his head against the table, again and again, rattling the glass tools. No talent, he was worthless, he repeated in his head. Ten sets of ingredients, ten failures, he didn’t even see a glint of success.
Positive! Positive!!
He rubbed his face and took a deep breath. They said a tower of failures always gave birth to the peak of success. He wanted to believe that; he needed to believe that. At least it wasn’t all a waste, he gained precious experience. Where he made mistakes, which parts he could improve on, the ten trials told him all that.
…….
[Vin]
Residential Area, Zone-D.
Vin followed the cheap ‘How To’ book he bought at a stall and applied some basic makeup to hide his pale face and cracked lips. The Frosthelm sky darkened in the early hours; Teal would come home soon. He stuffed all the tools back into the bag with shaky hands and threw it under his bed. A bout of dizziness assaulted him when he got up, his vision blurred, and he collapsed on the bed. His breath was rough and rapid, cold sweat drenched his back, and his heart raced. The feeling of emptiness from the core was a new experience for him. And it wasn’t a pleasant one.
The main gate opened with its distinct creak—Teal was home. Vin couldn’t let her see him like this, so he dragged his body up, unfolded his shirt’s sleeves to hide the needle marks, and went out of the room.
“You were home?” Teal asked, throwing her bag onto the tattered and patched sofa, and unzipping her skirt.
“Yeah, I’m leaving for work now. How was school? Anything new?”
“Mr. Wells caught Rynn today. She was fucking some guy on the roof. Her boyfriend was so pissed.” She chuckled.
“Teal,” Vin said in a low voice.
“Sorry, she was ‘fornicating’ with some guy,” she said.
“Teal!” He raised his voice, and that alone took everything. He wobbled and the world spun before his eyes.
“Okay, okay. I won't say it again.” Luckily, she faced the other way and was taking off her uniform. Vin leaned on the door handle and stabilized himself.
“By the way, did you wear makeup today?” she turned and said after stripping down to her white undies with a cute puppy face on it.
Vin’s heart skipped a beat. “Y-Yeah, my job changed. I-It’s about meeting customers now, so I have to dress up.”
“You left your old one?”
“N-No, same job. But different work now.” The web of lies he spun deepened with each answer.
“Hmm, see you then. I’ll go take a nap.” She headed to her room.
“Teal.” He eyed her.
She heaved a sigh and picked up her uniform from the floor.
“Shoes too,” he said.
She put the shoes in their place with another sigh and trudged to her room. Vin smiled and went out once she closed her door.
Today too, he would earn Sols to sustain her current peaceful life. The job market ran desolate under the current circumstances, no one hired him even after several tries. So, he had to take extreme measures. Even so, the legitimate places rejected his form when they checked his needles marks. He could only sell his blood on the black market now. Good thing he had a colleague—ex colleague, really—who introduced him to a place.
This solution wasn’t feasible in the long term, especially with the skyrocketing costs, but it had to do for the time being. Once Teal got her Astylind from the school, it would ease their financial crisis. At that time, he could rely on its sale to continue their lives and keep looking for another job that could afford her costs—quick work on a daily income basis couldn’t support her after all. The law might’ve banned the Astylinds’ trades among the public but selling it to the War Dogs was still legal.
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