“You have to tell me,” Amethyst placed the bottle on the table between them, “Why cats?”
Skymara laughed and brushed her hair up into a long white ponytail, “You don’t like them?”
The orc scrunched her nose and looked at the catastrophic number of felines littering the lab floor. At least a dozen in sight thoroughly licked themselves clean.
“I thought you liked snakes.”
“I do, I do,” The elf scratched under one persistently affectionate cat’s chin, “If I was in Agrowl, I would still have snakes. Cats tolerate the cold here better. Plus, their friends always want to help.”
“Because you keep feeding them,” Amethyst drank from the bottle, “And you can’t tell me that they aren’t making your experiments difficult.”
“I’ll admit they occasionally upset some of the more delicate balances,” She made kissy noises to the closest white fluffy feline, “But they’ve been nice companions while I settled here. Plus, they take care of themselves.
“It smells like shit in here, Opal.”
“Oh! I forgot to have someone change that box again,” She pushed glasses up her nose, “Give me a minute.”
The orc shook her head as Skymara fluttered about the room. She shooed cats away when she needed something from around them. When the elf found a wooden box beneath a pile of felines, she put it on the table and flipped it open.
“Let’s see if it’ll work this time.”
“This time?”
Skymara dropped a glass vile. The liquid inside plumed out in a delicate cloud as it collided to the ground. The aroma of pine needles and smoke filled the room. Multiple cats yowled in complaints before they jumped out of the windows or rushed to other rooms in the tower. The flower beneath the broken glass sparkled as if it was freshly cleaned.
“What’s that?”
“I hate not having a proper bath when I’m travelling. I thought we would be doing much more of it soon with Miradash found, so I tried to bottle the essence of cleanliness to use.”
“And the essence of cleanliness smells like that? Flowers and pine trees?”
“To me, you old hag. I like that smell,” The elf laughed, “What would you prefer?”
“Laundry soap?” She raised an eyebrow.
“You make a good point!” Skymara held up a finger as she walked to a notepad, “I’ll write that down.”
Amethyst finished the light antidote and placed the bottle back on the table. The elf flittered about the room adjusting liquids in tinctures and various levels of flame in her haphazardly labeled chemistry lab. The orc has to stop herself from sticking her foot out to trip the woman as she spun about.
“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
“It’s only been thirty years since your wedding. How much could I have changed?”
“Enough to sit and talk with an old friend.”
“Ah, yes,” She tsked, “I’m getting distracted again, aren’t I? My mind isn’t what it used to be.”
Skymara adjusted the buckles of her overalls and sat on the chair next to Amethyst. The orc grinned and slapped her hand on her back.
“You’ve always had your head in the clouds, Sky.”
“You know I lose ideas as fast as I have them,” She grinned, “My shower concoction might not be a huge hit, but some of my spells have been very useful.”
“Tell that to the pink cat.”
“That little shit knocked over so many bottles I was working on. It was a miracle all the cats lived with minimal side effects. Took me months to reverse engineer antidotes,” She laughed loudly, “Now that one roams around more because she’s scared of the lab.”
“The eyes must be handy,” Amethyst tapped her forehead to motion to the woman’s glasses, “How many do you have?”
“Dozens of glasses like these,” She pulled them from her face and cleaned them off, “This pair in particular has Emmy’s pocket watch attached so I can figure out where they are.”
“Brag, Sky. I know you want to.”
“Alright. If you insist,” She smiled proudly and pointed at a large mirror above the door, “Another slide shows me what’s in my room and lab through mirrors like that.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The orc got up and walked to the mirror. She placed her hand against it and traced along the surface.
“I can’t even see your enchantments. They’re incredibly small.”
“Oh! You haven’t heard about the mimicking acid that I—”
“That was you?” She gawked, “I had no idea!”
“I know it became popular when Gideon started—” Skymara paused, “Yes. I’ve nearly perfected it to be repeatable as well. Most of my work should be able to be done again with any bit of magic pushed into the sigils. In fact, if you try this—”
The lanky white elf pulled a small bead from her bib pocket. She tossed it to Amethyst with a grin. She examined the small blue orb before she raised an eyebrow at her.
“Go on, tell me what to do.”
“So, you just have to add a touch of blood to it,” The elf pinched her fingers together, “I think it will be a beautiful addition to –”
Amethyst, completely ignoring her explanation, bit her thumb enough to draw blood. She placed it against the orb. It rapidly expanded in her hand. She cursed and jumped out of the way as a giant jug of water plopped to the floor. Skymara knelt next to it and examined it closely as Amethyst laughed. It came up to her hip height and water constantly stirred inside.
“How the bloody void—”
“Perfect! No blood in the water this time,” The elf grinned, “They haven’t been working as well as I—”
“Explain this, you crazy woman!”
“Oh!” Skymara grinned and giddily clapped, “Okay, give me a moment so I know where to begin.”
“Start with the idea.”
“Traveling water bottles,” She took a deep breath, “When our troops travel, they have to carry many heavy jugs of water. What better way to compact that to make it easier to carry? Plus, we could carry so many more for—”
Throughout her explanation she pointed to various etched symbols over the glass jar. Each glowed slightly in the same white as the elf’s eyes.
“This one expands the original bottle to this size. Oh! And this one purifies whatever goes in so it’s drinkable,” She tapped the glass, “This one is to keep the water moving so it doesn’t get stagnant –because stagnant water is dull.”
“What—”
“I already know what you’re going to ask,” She laughed as if it was silly, “The colors, right? Blue enchants the water with an icy after effect so it’s colder. Red will make it slightly warmer for tea. I thought it would be better when travelling in Vanora for—”
“Sky, how will they get the water out?”
“Hmm? I don’t know why you’d—” She looked over it until she realized, “Dammit. I guess the cork enchantment I used to double shrink it must have fused the mouth closed.”
“So, still a work on progress?” Amethyst laughed.
“It’d make a brilliant bomb, if nothing else,” She sighed and double checked her runes, “I thought for sure I had figured that out. There just might not be enough space when it shrinks. I’ll have to space them out more for—”
“Alright, Professor. Calm down. Aren’t you supposed to be making antidotes?”
“That? I’m sure I have some I can duplicate.”
Skymara walked across the room to a cabinet. She pushed the yellow cat out of the way to grab another bottle. She walked over and placed it on top of the table with swirling tubes and beakers. The elf uncorked the bottle and poured it into a beaker before she added a few drops of a pipet laying on the table. The solution fizzled and the bubbles expanded into two different beakers. It broiled more in the beakers before she added yet another pipette of material to stop the expansion.
“There!” She clapped and poured the beakers into separate vials, “Now that that’s done, I can go back to my—”
“We should talk about Mira.”
She pouted, “I suppose you’re right.”
A muffled scream caught their attention. Val swung the door open as the pair of bandits-turned-vigilantes dragged a woman inside with a bag over her head. She tried to squirm away before she was flung to the floor.
“Took us long enough to find her and drag her here,” Yetta groaned as she stepped over the woman, “I heard you had beer?”
“Amethyst already drank it.”
The elf grumbled, “I guess I’ll pick some up when I grab Mira, then.”
“Lady Mira,” The other three corrected her.
“Yeah yeah, she doesn’t care,” She threw a hand over her shoulder as she walked back down the stairs, “Later!”
The three of them turned to the woman on the floor. Skymara pointed to a door on the other side of the room.
“It’ll be quiet in there. She won’t be able to hear us.”
Amethyst and Val lifted her from the floor and sat her in the room with her arms behind her back. The orc returned to her own chair and plopped down. The bound woman fought against the ropes around her wrists and kicked at anyone that came close.
Amethyst eyed Val for a moment. The woman refused to meet her gaze and studied the intricacies around the room.
“What happened?”
“She’s spiraling,” Val nodded, “At least, it looks like she’s about to. She’s acting frantic.”
“Is Mira normally like this?” Skymara looked between them.
“When I first met her, she was little better than a puppet.”
“Her personality is too similar to the dragon’s,” Amethyst nodded to agree, “He also became more aggressive when his people were injured.”
“How do you plan to keep her sane?” Val laughed nervously, “Because I don’t think I can stop her from killing someone if they bother her.”
“Oh! Bo thought of that,” The elf pushed her glasses up her nose, “I made a trinket for her. It’s supposed to help enhancers and the like control their emotions to stop from cycling too much when they first obtain their power.”
“Genius,” Amethyst grinned, “Em and I had… a different plan.”
“Different?” The two looked at her.
“It would be easier to control her emotions if the…” Amethyst stopped at Skymara’s enraged expression, “You can’t disagree with me on this!”
“That’s my Guardian! Why on earth did neither of you speak with me about this!?” She stomped her foot, “Amethyst, you hag! How dare you?!”
“You would have tried something formal!” She snorted, “Mira would never stand for it. We had to trick her!”
“Wait—” Val shook her head, “What happened?”
“The meeting with the prophetess is an excuse to put Zrud in Mira’s possession,” The orc shrugged, “Encante doesn’t understand emotions any better than she does. Zrud is a calm, level-headed rock. He’ll do them well.”
“You’re just going to give her another source of power?” She threw her hands up, “Sure, let’s keep the woman pumped up on never ending responsibilities. I’m sure that she’s not stressed enough as it is. It isn’t like she’s never had a moments rest. Give her a vacation!”
The elf sneered, “I agree with that. There are proper ways to go about this, Amethyst. Em hasn’t even dealt with a Guardian since—”
“Sky, it’s different with Encante. They were already so bonded when I met her that she’s basically his reincarnation with her mother’s face,” The orc frowned, “This… None of us know how to do this. The Guardians will. It’s in the goddess’s hands after we bring them together.”
“What if it doesn’t work?!” The elf stomped her foot, “What if—”
She stopped as her glasses flashed in a parade of brilliant colors.
“Oh, great!” She laughed sarcastically, “She’s here.”