Miya waited for Owin in the lobby. She held two health potions that looked almost identical. Almost.

“Owin!” She ran at him as he stepped off the last stair and thrust both potions in his face. “Can you tell the difference between these?”

“One is dark red, the other is light red.” Owin tapped the lighter red potion. “This looks like a normal health potion.”

“You aren’t colorblind? Damn.”

“Miya,” Myrsvai said. “What did you do?”

She held both potions in front of her goggles. “Are we sure there is a difference?”

“They aren’t the same color,” Owin said.

“But are you certain you aren’t colorblind?” Miya shook both potions. “Which is the real health potion?”

Owin tapped the lighter one again.

“Dammit!” Miya sat on the ground, pulled off her glove, and drew a knife from a sheath on her belt.

“Miya,” Myrsvai said.

“Ooh.” Suta squatted beside her. “Let Suta.”

Miya handed the knife to the familiar and held out her open palm.

“This is idiotic,” Myrsvai said.

“What are you doing?” Owin asked.

“If I’m going to send you with health potions, I need to know mine will work just as well.” Miya shook her hand. “Get it over with, demon.”

Suta stabbed the knife right through her palm, eliciting a cry from Miya. Owin immediately popped the cork of the darker potion and helped Miya bring it to her mouth. Suta carefully pulled the knife out and cleaned the blood on the bandages wrapped around his hand.

The wound closed, leaving a scar right through Miya’s palm.

“It works,” she said quietly.

Myrsvai sighed. “Are you okay, Miya?”

She nodded and fit her glove back over her hand. “I did just want a little cut, Suta.”

The familiar looked at the knife, then back at Miya’s hand. “Apology.”

She took the knife and sheathed it. “It’s fine. We’re good now. Are you happy to take some of my creations?”

“It looks like it worked. Is your health full?” Owin asked.

Miya nodded. “Back to normal. Just a little lingering memory of getting a knife all the way through my damn hand.”

Suta shrank back a little.

“We’d be happy to take whatever you can provide,” Myrsvai said. “Suta, let’s go back to our work for now. I’ll see you in the morning, Owin.”

“Okay.” Owin waited a moment as Myrsvai went into the room beside the stairs. Suta gave Miya one more look before following the magus inside. As soon as the door closed, Owin took a step closer to Miya. “Everyone told me to avoid you in the morning.”

Miya smiled. “Nah. You’re fine. It’s the others, the ones who don’t understand fun who should avoid me. They think I’m cranky when they’re just boring.”

“Did you get any buff potions?”

She scowled. “I will admit, I tried. I was able to make two, but I wasted the rest of the ingredients I had. They are incredibly complicated. Not something an alchemist can easily create. I’m sorry.”

“Two is great.”

“They are only apprentice level.” Miya sighed. “I’ve been considering becoming a hero, you know. I would be a lot more helpful if I could gather my own ingredients, and I would level up a lot faster.”

“It’s dangerous,” Owin said.

“Other alchemists have done it.”

“Althowin’s apprentices are only allowed to enter with another hero to escort them.”

Miya scratched her hand where she had just been stabbed. “Maybe Sanem or Raif will help me. We could go through the first floors of the Tundra Dungeon, I think.”

“Just be careful,” Owin said.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Miya lifted her goggles. Owin didn’t realize how much soot had been on her face until he saw the clean skin around her eyes. “Want to take those buffs and burn some things? Got anything else to do tonight?”

Owin scratched his head. “Uh, no. Nothing at the moment.”

The newly constructed front door swung open, creaking loudly. A woman in a golden suit and brown boots stood in the opening. Her shining hair was pulled into a ponytail, and her face was hidden behind a golden mask that matched her suit. Her ice blue eyes flicked down to Owin. “Where is Chorsay?”

Miya’s eyes widened. Potilia fell off her stool behind the counter.

Chorsay’s heavy steps thumped on the floor above. He leaned on the railing. “Veph.”

She looked up. Her hands hung at her side. Her left hand was covered in a fingerless leather glove, and the right was entirely metal, reminding Owin of Myrsvai’s leg. Veph had no weapons on her, yet Owin felt entirely intimidated. He had heard the name so many times.

Hero

Vepthru Veriss

Wizard

Leader of the Void Nexus Hero Company

Level: 81

Strength: 301

Constitution: 418

Dexterity: 431

Intelligence: 535

Wisdom: 286

Charisma: 254

Owin took an involuntary step back. Her attributes were beyond anything he had seen before. Every single stat dwarfed Owin’s. There was a reason he kept hearing about Veph, the leader of Void Nexus.

“I have been informed some of my heroes have been slain by your stock.” Her voice was calm and even. Owin couldn’t sense any hostility, though if she wanted to attack, Owin doubted he could even react before he was dead.

“In defense.” Chorsay slowly crept along the balcony and down the stairs. He stood beside Owin with his arms crossed. “You already know this.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I could sway the councils. The militaries are eager to claim the mob. Plenty of tests to be done.”

“Leave him alone, Veph.”

Her metal hand brushed her jacket aside, revealing a wand tucked into an inner pocket. Chorsay clearly saw the weapon and shifted to stand in front of Owin.

“Leave the Nimble Hogs out of our quarrel,” Chorsay said.

One of her eyebrows twitched. “Quarrel? You think this is some petty argument? You killed him.”

“I did no such thing, Veph. You know this.”

“He loved you.”

Chorsay let out a heavy sigh. “Veph, we’ve had this talk. I’m sorry for your loss, I really am.”

A shard lifted from Veph’s shoulder, but dropped back down and vanished before fully forming. Her metal hand touched the wand as she looked between Chorsay, Owin, and Miya.

“Let’s grab a coffee, or some whiskey if you prefer. We can even have it in the mess.”

Veph’s eyebrows lowered. “You think I want to spend time in this shack?” Her index flashed before her eyes. “You stalled.”

Chorsay nodded once. “I haven’t stepped into a dungeon since his death.”

Veph stared at Owin for a moment, then turned and left, closing the door gently behind her.

Chorsay let out a sigh of relief.

“Is everyone alive?” Potilia asked, peeking from behind her counter.

“I swore we were going to die,” Miya said.

“She’s fine,” Chorsay said. “We’re fine.” He turned and patted Miya’ shoulder. “You’re up here early today. Is everything okay?”

“I made health potions for Owin and needed to test their effectiveness.” She glanced around the huge man at the front door. “What if she comes back?”

“She won’t.”

“Who was she talking about?” Owin asked.

“A story for another time. Why don’t the two of you go downstairs? Relax, find some fun. Po, are you okay?”

She was back on her stool with her book open. “Good as always.”

“Figured.” Chorsay gestured to the basement door. “I have some things to attend to, and I believe Myr is currently preparing for your departure in the morning.”

Owin nodded.

Miya grabbed his shoulder and guided him away. “Got him, Chief. We’ll see you later.”

Owin took one more look at Chorsay, who stared at the door, deep in thought, as Miya dragged Owin behind the counter and down the basement stairs.

Her workshop was a mess. Not that it had been all that clean in the past. Things were placed on every surface. Papers were stacked and weighted down by bones. Scrolls were tossed carelessly aside. A chair was tipped over in front of the doorway.

Miya picked up the chair and set it to the side. “Sorry, tripped over that on my way to show you the health potions.” She stepped through and gestured to a cluster of bottles in the corner. Some were in a box, most were on the floor. There were five real health potions, ten dark red ones, a handful of mana potions, a few shield, a few invisibility, and two buffs.

“Did you make everything?”

“Except the normal health, yes. Mana, shield, and invisibility are easy. Easy enough if you have the materials.” Miya cleared her throat. “I could really use some compensation.”

“I’ll give you whatever dungeon gold I have,” Owin said. “I don’t know what else I would spend it on.”

“If you do that, I’ll keep an eye out for equipment and give you anything I manage to make, unless another Hog needs it, of course.”

“That’s fine.”

“Here.” Miya picked up the two buffs. “You said you needed these, right?”

One potion was rose pink and the other was a dull green.

Apprentice Dexterity Buff

+10 Dexterity

Duration: ???

Apprentice Wisdom Buff

+10 Wisdom

Duration: ???

“Yes,” Owin said, taking both potions. “Thank you.”

Miya grinned. “Hurry up and drink those. I have a new crop of blaze vine. Have you seen it before?”

“Artivan used a torch made of some.”

Miya’s grin faded a little, but she seemed to flip it back on after a second. “It’s fantastic for experiments. It can boil water all day. Do you know what else it can do?”

“Burn things?”

Miya pointed to an oven by her counter that was still raging with flames.

“Is it safe to leave that going?”

She shrugged. “Do you want to try it out?”

“Yes,” Owin said quietly. He popped the corks from both bottles and drank one after the other.

Dexterity +10

Dexterity: 60

Wisdom +10

Wisdom: 34

Hero

Owin

Deficient Wizard

Nimble Hog Hero Company

Level: 1

Strength: 216

Constitution: 140

Dexterity: 65*

Intelligence: 155

Wisdom: 34

Charisma: 60

He carefully set the empty bottles with Miya’s other ones on the stone table. She was already at the oven, flicking in pieces of tinder ore. Each one made the flames pulse, nearly causing the fire to shoot out the front.

Owin joined her, sitting at a chair Miya pulled up beside her own. She handed him a few sticks from some tree.

“These aren’t just wood. I wouldn’t be that boring.”

“I know,” Owin said.

She gestured to the oven. “Go ahead.”

“Are you okay?”

Miya looked at her hand for a long moment. “It hurt terribly.”

“I know. Suta thought he was helping.”

She closed her gloved hand into a fist and smiled widely. “I’m okay.”

“It’s okay if it still hurts. Health potions aren’t perfect.”

She patted Owin’s shoulder. “I’m good. Go ahead.”

Owin slowly put the stick in through the front. As soon as the flames touched the stick, it glowed and turned the fire touching it to a bright blue green. Owin dropped the stick inside, turning all the fire to the same blue green color.

“What does it do?” Owin asked.

“Nothing special, I found out. It was just something I wanted to test. Found out it could do this.” Miya grabbed a basket full of items. “I used all the more exciting things in your potions, so this is all I have left.”

“We don’t have to burn stuff. I can sit around while you work.”

She set the basket in his lap. “We have this stuff to burn. We can see what time it is after that.”

“Okay.”

Miya smiled and grabbed a full bundle of similar sticks. “Once that one is done, we should toss all of them inside.”

“What will it do?”

She shrugged. “One way to find out.”

Owin nodded.

“Are you scared?” she asked, eyes on the fire.

“Of what?”

“Getting a shard. I’ve heard they change people.”

“Maybe. Artivan told me he didn’t want one because of the effect they have. But Chorsay has two and he’s not a bad person.”

“Chorsay has a long, complicated past.” Miya shifted the sticks in her hand. “How much do you know about Veph?”

Owin thought about the woman he had just met. At first she seemed timid and calm, but she quickly became angry. Owin had no doubt she could be dangerous, but the calm person who had opened the door was not what he had imagined before. He had expected her to be some monster.

“Only that she is the leader of Void Nexus.”

“Her grandfather was the one who founded Void Nexus. The Three Headed Hero Company and Magna Regum have been around for, uh, forever, I think. Void Nexus started small, but it only took a few years for it to become the third biggest hero company. Now it might even be the biggest.” Miya shrugged. “Chorsay was a member at one point. I don’t know the details. I’m sure Sanem does. Veph seemed calm today but I’ve heard horror stories. A tyrant. Everyone is scared of her. Everyone except maybe Chorsay.”

“He seemed sad.”

Miya nodded and shoved the bundle of sticks into Owin’s arms. “Burn this, then you can help me with something stupid.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I want to try to make a grenade like Ernie and Katalin.”

Owin quickly shook his head.

“We can do it.”

“This is a bad idea.”

“I don’t have many good ones.” Miya smiled and grabbed a pair of goggles from the counter. “You will want to wear these.”

Owin tossed the sticks in the fire, causing it to turn a rainbow of colors. The flames built and soon poured out of the opening, causing Miya to cackle and pull Owin back before he was burned.

He fit the goggles over his head and was surprised to find how well they fit. They appeared to be custom to fit his face.

“Are they good?”

Owin nodded.

“Great.” She tossed a pair of gloves at him.

He managed to catch one while the other smacked him in the face. “I caught one!” He held it up triumphantly.

“Look at that dexterity fighting for its life,” she said with a grin. “Ready to build a grenade?”

“No.”

“Great. We’re doing it anyway.” She tossed the entire basket and its contents into the oven and closed the door. Something popped inside, causing the whole oven to shake. She paused, watched it for a moment, then confidently strode away to another workstation.

Owin sighed and followed. What else did he have to do?