Ten minutes later, the carriage had Arthur where he needed to go. It was the same plaza where he and Mizu had seen the tea shop the first time. He got out, accepted the driver’s explanation that he had no idea where Arthur was supposed to go from there with a resigned air, and found a nice, inconspicuous wall to wait by until someone came to tell him what he was supposed to be doing.

“Oh, there you are,” a very tall ferret woman said, as she poked her head out of the alley and set eyes on Arthur. “Ulan and that nice water elemental both said you looked like a boiled orangutan but I don’t think so at all. You’d expect them to be all wrinkled under that fur, right? You aren’t wrinkled at all.”

“Even if I was, I wouldn’t anymore,” Arthur said. “I had an acid bath and they buffed me out pretty good after. I’m Arthur, by the way.”

“Oh, of course you are. And I’m Ceti,” the woman said. “You probably know me better as Ulan’s wife though. It’s wonderful to meet you. I really mean that.”

Of course it’s her. Who else? Arthur mentally thanked Mizu for remembering this little commitment for him. I would have just laid around the hotel otherwise. Now I get to spend the whole night talking about tea.

“It’s good to meet you, too. Did you know I’ve never had a long conversation with another brewer? I mean ever. Suppliers, sure. Teamasters? Not one.”

“How does that even happen?” Ceti asked. “I know some of us are lone wolves in that way but not a single conversation with your peers?”

“It’s my fault. I was so busy my first year here and then I got tied up building a town. I hardly left space for it,” Arthur said.

Ceti slapped her forehead. “Of course. I know you’re an offworlder, but I forgot what that means. Yes, I’d imagine it’s been a crazy few years for you.”

“They were good years too, luckily.”

“Oh, I’d imagine. That little water demon is a fun one. Quiet, but fun.” The ferret turned and waved for him to follow. “Come on. I’ll take you to your other fan.”

“I’ve got two fans now?” Arthur followed as the ferret woman laughed. After she took her first ten or so steps away, Arthur realized exactly where they were going.

“Oh, there you are, Ceti.” The shaggy dog-demon teamaster looked down at his only customer and grimaced. “You finish your tea, then get out. I’m closing up early tonight.”

“When don’t you do that, you lazy leaf-monger?” The customer looked up and smiled. “I haven’t seen you work a full day in decades.”

“Well, I’m not starting tonight,” the teamaster said. “I’ve got a celebrity in the shop.”

“Really?” The customer glanced around. “Where?”

“Over there. Nobody you’d recognize. He’s a tea celebrity. For refined fans.”

“I didn’t take you for being the kind to be a fan,” Arthur said.

“I’m not. Not even of you, I’m afraid. Although, you got pretty close when you sent your girl by to work on my water.” The teamster pointed over at his water spout, which was gleaming and freshly etched with runes. “She’s something.”

“Whatever she did was all her. I don’t know anything about this.”

“Either way, keep her. The girl’s a genius. She solved a water balance problem for me that ten other wellers couldn’t make a dent in.” The teamaster shook his head. “And it looks like she did it just so I’d tell you more about tea. You must have a hell of a personality, kid. It can’t be your looks.”

“Maybe she really likes tea,” the ferret said. “Or maybe he’s nice. Do you get her a lot of gifts, Arthur?”

“I bought her shoes once.”

“Oooh.” Ceti raised her eyebrows in what looked like actual admiration. “That’s a professional move.”

The last customer cleared out surprisingly quickly and then the doors of the shop were closed and locked. Whatever Mizu had done, the teamaster was treating things very seriously. They settled in behind the counter, each of the teamaster trio boiling their pots of water on every spare heating element the dog-demon shop keep had.

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“Arthur first. No offense, Lup, but I’ve seen what you can do,” Ceti said. “I want to see Arthur’s process. As much of it as I can. From scratch, if I can get it.”

“From scratch might be hard. I’d need some ingredients I’m not sure I can get here,” Arthur said.

“Like root flour?”

“That’s right. I brought pearls, but not much in the way of raw ingredients.”

“Good news.” Ceti tossed Arthur a tightly tied bag. “I came prepared for the occasion.”

“She’s crazy,” Lup said. “When it comes to tea, that is. Although I’ve been wanting to see this too. She tells me it’s like making gelatin but…”

“But it doesn’t quite make sense. Right. Well, keep your eyes open.” Arthur poured out some water into a bowl. “It’s really about halfway between a gelatin and a dough. You’ll see. Now, the trick here is timing a couple of the steps just right. Look…”

Arthur measured in the flour, waited for it to take on water, then let it rest for just the right amount of time before he kneaded, folded, and worked it to the exact right consistency.

“This is boba now. It needs to be rolled, but that’s the basics,” Arthur said.

“Oh, I’m glad. Then I haven’t been doing it too very wrong. I missed a few points, but the end result isn’t that different,” Ceti exclaimed.

“I wasn’t trained in boba-making before I came here. I’m sure that I’m doing it wrong in a dozen ways too. But no way to check now.”

“I’d guess not.” Lup laughed. “That can’t be all you do with it, though. It’s a component of your class, right?”

“Yes. Although probably my biggest class buffs are granting the boba medicinal effects or just letting me make more of it, which doesn’t affect how it tastes at all,” Arthur said.

“Medicinal teamaking. Whoo boy. I heard about it, but I wondered how it would work in your case. Can you show me?”

“Sure. What ails you?” Arthur asked. “We might as well treat something if there’s something that can benefit from it.”

“I get headaches, this time of day,” Lup said. “Something about how the light comes through the windows. I’ve been meaning to get them shaded.”

“Got it. That’s easy.” Arthur started rolling boba, feeling a small amount of majicka leak out with every freshly made pearl. “Get me some tea. Just whatever you’d like to drink. Do you take it with cream?”

“Not normally, but I will if that’s what you recommend.” Lup handed over some tea, a blend Arthur hadn’t smelled before. “Try that. Should go well with the boba, I think.”

Arthur brewed the tea, poured it into a bowl suspended in an ice water bath to cool, and got to work assembling the drink. The results were pretty boring as medicinal effects went, but had a few little modifiers Arthur had never seen before.

Headache Soothing Tea (Collaborative Effort)

This tea has responded to the call of your majicka and now grants a mild relief against headache pain, particularly headaches that have to do with vision and eyesight.

The boba and labor in this tea come from you, but the blend was provided by another teamaster of superior skill and carries traces of their own majicka. As such, the drink gains a bonus to its efficacy, as if a slightly higher amount of majicka was used to brew it.

“Oh, that’s something,” Arthur asked. “Was that tea medicinal in some way? The system recognized that it was majicka-infused.”

“Naw. That’s probably just from my blender skill. Not every teamaster makes their own blends, but I always have. It’s a critical part of my class skills. Has been for decades.”

“Ah. Too bad for me.” If Lup’s blending skill was free-hand, just using conventional senses or majicka in ways unguided by a skill, Arthur could have duplicated it. If it was a skill, he could get bits and pieces of what Lup did, but he’d never be as good. “I mix a lot of my own tea. I was sort of hoping you weren’t packing a skill. Should have figured though.”

“Oh, don’t worry too much.” Ceti patted Arthur’s shoulder. “Lup is a special case. I’d say his skill is responsible for about a quarter of what he can do. At most.”

“Really?” Arthur looked at the unassuming dog demon with surprise. “How’s that work?”

“It works because it’s work. The blender skill makes my blends better by pouring majicka into them. But that’s just on top of what anyone could do if they did enough experiments and took enough notes. You see that closet over there? That big cabinet looking door on the wall? Go open that up. Tell me what you see,” Lup explained.

Arthur gave Lup his tea and walked over, pulling the heavy door open off the wall. Inside, there were notebooks. Not one or two, but dozens and dozens of notebooks on every shelf, floor to ceiling, each labeled with a range of dates in the demon-world style.

“Are these all notes on tea?” Arthur’s eyes widened. “There must be thousands of pages.”

“Thousands and thousands. Every combination of every ingredient I’ve ever used, with different prep methods, different aging times, mix quantities. You name it,” Lup said proudly.

“The ingredient costs alone must have been crazy,” Arthur whispered.

“Before my son was born, that’s where the money went.” Lup looked a bit embarrassed. “The wife had her own place, handled most of the bills. Said I was in charge of tea. I might have taken that a little too seriously.”

“She’s a saint,” Ceti said. “A living, actual saint. I love that woman. If she wasn’t the way she was, those books wouldn’t exist. I’ve spent weeks reading those.”

“I’m not going to have that luxury, sadly.” Arthur pulled out a notebook from ten years ago that appeared to be entirely about the use of molasses as a herb-soak. “I’m pretty busy until we leave town. I’ll be lucky to get hours with them.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Lup said. “I’ve been doing this so long that I’ve managed to figure out some patterns. Not absolute rules but things that work in most blends, ingredients that tend to go together even when they don’t seem like they should. I can run you through some of that.”

“And I’ll give what pointers I can too,” Ceti said. “How about you come over here and watch me brew some pots, and see what you can pick up?”