Cooper and Moon led Harmoni and Fleck back to a small, familiar building. It was stone, one of the few buildings in the city that was only two stories tall, and had a yard with more plants than most people in the city. And of course, there was the sign hanging over the door, a wooden symbol swaying slightly in the wind, that marked it as an alchemy shop.
The four walked in. The dwarf and the dragon that Harmoni had met, asking for an apprenticeship, were inside. They were by the table, making tea at the moment.
“Cooper, you’re back. Who’s your friend?” the dwarf asked.
Cooper gave a sideways smile. It was . . . endearing. “This is Harmoni, and Fleck. I met them a few days ago. We went to the gardens.” He didn’t mention the fights out in the courtyard. “Harmoni, this is Cembra and Evergreen. They run the alchemist shop. I’ve been learning from them.”
He bounced slightly in enthusiasm.
“I’ve seen you before,” Cembra said, thick brow furrowed until they placed it. “Ah. No hard feelings, right?”
Harmoni shook her head. “I’m good where I am.”
‘But learning alchemy still would’ve been your first choice,’ Fleck called her out.
‘Maybe so. But Cooper’s happy here, and Cembra always gives me a funny look.’
‘You just don’t want to be a bother.’
‘. . .Maybe so.’
Cembra (finally) turned away, attention back on the table. “Well, you’re all soaking wet. You ought to dry off.”
Cembra gestured to an arch pressed against the wall. They gestured with a double-bladed axe.
Cooper and Moon didn’t seem to think anything was odd about that. They headed towards the arch. Cooper was smiling. Moon jerked her head, gesturing for them to follow.
There was only room for one person at a time in the arch. Maybe one person and their dragon, if they arranged themselves properly. But that wasn’t a problem. The arch worked really fast. Hot air blasted in from the arch, drying the water or knocking it off, and Cooper and Moon stepped out good as new.
“Come on,” Cooper urged once Harmoni got her turn. He was standing at the base of a small staircase going up. “I can show you the inventions I’m working on. While we wait.”
That did sound good.
Harmoni and Fleck followed the other two upstairs. It was a small upstairs area. If Cooper was any taller he’d probably be bumping the ceiling, and there was only one room.
“Cembra doesn’t like coming upstairs,” Cooper explained. “We’ve got a basement as well. But this is where I live.”
He stepped into the middle of the room and spread his arms out.
Harmoni glanced around. There was a bed in the corner, with drawers in the bottom that presumably kept Cooper’s stuff. But most of the room was a workshop. Workbenches lined two of the walls. Several items were laying on the tables or leaning against them. There were tools and safety goggles, and there were materials. But Harmoni didn’t see many completed projects.
Cooper grabbed a box of what looked like metal boots from under a table. He started putting them on. “These are my rocket boots. They’ll let you fly through the sky, can even join your dragons.”
Moon puffed up proudly, despite Fleck’s teasing that she didn’t have wings yet.
“It’ll be so cool.”
A whirring noise came from under Cooper’s boots, and he began to hover a couple centimeters off the ground. Nothing appeared under him, strictly speaking, but the air did seem a little hazy.
Harmoni’s eyes went wide. Then the boots made a sputtering noise. They dropped, only to shoot Cooper abruptly up towards the ceiling. This time blue flames did shoot out the bottom.
Cooper must’ve done something to turn them off.
Or they just broke.
Either way, he fell back to the ground. “Or, it’ll be cool when they actually work,” Cooper groaned, sitting up.
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“Are you OK?” Harmoni asked.
She instantly scampered over, even though she wasn’t sure what she’d do if something was wrong.
Fleck shrugged. He could smell a first aid kit around somewhere. One of them would grab that, while the other would let Cembra and Evergreen know.
“I’m fine,” Cooper assured them both, holding up a hand. “Partially metal anyway.”
That was true, but he’d slammed against the ceiling, and his skull didn’t seem to have any metal showing. But he was already back up and putting the box back like it was nothing, so apparently he was fine.
‘Don’t worry so much,’ Fleck thought. ‘People take a tumble all the time.’
'You were worried too.'
Cooper slapped the table. “And! I’m working with those plants I told you about.”
Yes, Harmoni could see the plant’s skin on the table, along with one potted plant at the end, and some scissors that he’d probably used to get the skin into shapes.
“Making a bag?” Harmoni asked.
Cooper shrugged. “I’ll probably start with that. I’d like something a bit . . . bigger. But any other ideas are kind of ambitious, and I should really finish up on something. . .”
He stared at his project with a frown, and Harmoni wasn’t sure if she was supposed to say anything.
She didn’t have to figure it out. Cembra chose that moment to call them, and the four went back downstairs.
Cembra had prepared tea, as well as little fungus sandwiches, and sausages Cembra and Cooper could have.
And the dragons.
That part might be mainly for the dragons.
They ate in silence at first. The cups were thick ceramic mugs rather than tea cups. And the tea was sort of, spicy? Like it was made with turmeric or something. But it tasted good. Cembra did eventually ask a few cursory questions, like where Harmoni worked and what planet she was from.
Harmoni answered as best she could, though given she had amnesia, it wasn’t going so well. Ferren had already taken the fact she had amnesia really badly. She probably shouldn't go advertising that to everyone immediately.
Luckily, the dwarf was willing to talk about themselves as well. Cembra was fifty. (Dwarfs lived about 350 years or so, so like Harmoni, Cembra was aging slowly.) They’d owned the alchemist shop on Xentron for about fifteen years, and had a good thing going. Not many skilled alchemists sold out their products so freely.
The braiding in Cembra’s hair was an intentional pattern. Dwarfs could style their hair or beard to mark their family or clan, showing where they belonged even planets away.
The reason Harmoni couldn’t tell if Cembra was a man or a woman was because dwarfs had more physical differences than she’d realized. Dwarfs had three variations in sex chromosomes that were all fairly common, instead of two.
Harmoni leaned forward slightly, with eyes wide, all while Cembra talked. She found it all fascinating.
Then Cembra took a sip from her mug, and there was the odd slurping sound that meant it was empty.
Harmoni looked at the bottom of her own mug with a frown. There was still some hot liquid sloshing at the bottom.
“Well, I have some orders to complete,” Cembra said.
“And it stopped raining,” Evergreen chimed in.
“Why don’t you two go home?” Cembra told Harmoni and Fleck. Then they turned to Cooper. “And can you grab me some of the snazk wood from upstairs?”
Cooper had jumped to his feet, basically before they finished. “You got it!” he called from the stairs, Moon hot on his heels.
Fleck slurped up another sausage, one for the road, and headed for the door.
Harmoni quickly drank the last of her tea and followed him. But Cembra stopped them from leaving.
Specifically, Cembra held out an axe near her neck as she was leaving, blocking the doorway and putting a sharp blade near her skin.
Harmoni gasped, freezing up.
Fleck spun around with a growl, but Evergreen was making it very clear what would happen if he tried to jump in.
"Leave her alone!" Fleck snarled, stomping his front feet again.
Compared to Evergreen, Fleck was like an angry poodle. And Evergreen just had to stand there, to achieve it.
“Listen closely,” Cembra started.
And Harmoni tried. But she was also trying to think of a way out. She could move backwards, but this was the only obvious way in or out. She could run upstairs to Cooper and Moon, but Evergreen could probably stop her. . .
“Cooper might not know the aura you give off. But I do. Evergreen doesn’t even need to tell me. It would be foolish to be surrounded by so much magic without at least dabbling in it. I can feel the dark arts steeped in you.”
“I don’t know what that means!” Harmoni exclaimed. “I haven’t done anything!”
“Do you think I’m a fool? This isn’t Star Wars.”
“I don’t know what that means either,” Harmoni objected, voice higher than usual.
“You know full well what I mean. But in case you don’t know the consequences of your own deeds, fine. I’ll humor you. You don’t get that kind of dark magic aura with thoughts or feelings. It’s not a special subset of magic spells. The only way to get dark magic is through actions. And your actions must be pretty deplorable for me to sense them.”
“Wh-why are you telling me this?” Harmoni asked.
She was still stressed, still wanting a way out, but it was odd Cembra would just tell her this if they were planning to kill her. No need to. And if they weren't planning to kill her, why tell her so much?
That was more than Fleck had considered. He never thought he’d see the day where he was more stressed than Harmoni.
“I’m not going to get into a fight unprompted.”
Hah. Only reason Cembra wasn’t fighting was because they were afraid to lose. Fleck snarled.
“But I want it clear I know what you are. If I see any dark magic being used, or if Cooper or Moon come to harm, there will be consequences. Do you understand? You will wish for a quick death.”
Cembra managed to shove the axe even closer to Harmoni, who nodded like a deranged bobblehead.
Luckily, she could hear footsteps upstairs. And for the first time in this conversation, the sound was close to the staircase.
Cooper appeared at the top, Moon carefully weaving in front of him. As they came into sight, Cembra pulled the axe away like that hadn’t just happened.
“I got-!” Cooper started. “Harmoni, you’re still here.”
Harmoni gave a faint smile, then turned and walked out the door as fast as she dared.