Aldritch stood alone in the small quarters the guild provided for him: A tiny bathroom he could barely turn around in, a bedroom with a short wooden bed that creaked and moaned if he so much as thought about sitting on it, and a kitchen area fit for a single person. It was worse than most of the inns he’d stayed in, but a hundred times better than camping outdoors.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours. Luckily for him, he didn’t need sleep to survive. Whether because Oakairo was living inside his body, or because of some genetic factors of being a half giant, Aldritch required less sleep as he got older. And by the time he turned a thousand years old, the need for sleep became a thing of the past… Unfortunately, it wasn’t as convenient as it sounded. If he didn’t sleep, he had to fill the extra time with something or he’d go mad from boredom.

Back home, that usually meant he spent his time wandering from place to place. Oakairo invented a game he called ‘I spy with my Dragon eye’ to save the both of them from boredom, but that stopped being fun after the first ten years or so – there was only so many times the answer could be ruins, purple sky, or yellow water before the game became too predictable to be fun.

Now that he was out of that hellhole, Aldritch was filled with wanderlust. He wanted to leave his room and explore every corner of Auris with a fine-toothed comb. But he also wanted to tuck his massive body away somewhere and not come out until he knew everything there was to know about this exciting new world.

“Why not do both?” Oakairo asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. He was pleased to see his champion filled with vitality again, even if he didn’t exactly agree with the reason. Oakairo would’ve taken more pleasure in the touch of a pile of glittering gold – the softness of it against his scales, the smell of it as it melted from a solid bar to a cauldron of liquid delight, the sensual pleasure of rubbing it on his face-

“My lord?”

Oakairo coughed despite not needing to breathe… Or even use his throat to speak. “I was just suggesting you could do both. Why not go exploring tonight and try to find a library or a temple?”

“I’d already thought of that. I was asking if you wanted to pick which direction I’d start with?” Aldritch replied. Had he been speaking with anyone else, they might’ve taken his words as condescension. But Oakairo knew that couldn’t be further from the truth. Aldritch and Oakairo both disliked platitudes and meaningless niceties. If you had something to convey to either of them, a direct word would get you much farther than a roundabout conversation.

“I always enjoyed watched the sun rise over the western mountains.” Oakairo said. He was also getting excited over the prospect of seeing a new world, even if he could only do so through the muddled senses of Aldritch’s body.

“West it is… But hang on, would the cardinal directions be the same here as back home?”

“Mmm. Good point. Then let’s try this another way: I used to have this wonderfully soft glove on one of my right hands. So, just start walking to the right as we leave the guild and see what we can find.”

Aldritch said nothing, but he agreed with Oakairo’s suggestion. He backtracked down the narrow hallways of the dormitory and headed for the door.

The guild dormitory wasn’t attached to the main building. Instead, you had to exit the main lobby through a side door and pass through a narrow alley to enter the dorm area. So when Aldritch reached the ground floor and stepped outside, he stood in the dead end alley connecting the two buildings. A twelve-foot tall wooden fence blocked off both ends of the alley, presumably to keep civilians out of the guild areas.

Aldritch paid the fences no mind. He walked towards them at a leisurely pace and in between steps, he pressed off the ground with slightly more strength than it took to walk. The result was him leaping over the fence and landing in the middle of the empty street that ran parallel to the guild.

He walked to the end of the street, which placed him near the front entrance of the guild, and followed Oakairo’s suggestion to head to the right.

The guild was near the exact center of the city. Just a few streets over was a mile wide shopping square, which served as the actual heart of the city – according to Sulika. Aldritch figured that’d be as good a place to start as anywhere else, so that’s where he ended up after walking for a few minutes.

Aldritch stood in the center of the square and rotated slowly on the spot to take in as much of the area as he could. As he looked at the many buildings and stalls, both inside the square and outside it, he noticed something strange about their design. All of them were constructed out of a very solid, almost stone-like, type of wood.

The wood was pale, almost as if it’d been bleached by exposure to the sun. But it carried none of the usual markers of sun damage. Aldritch could see no warping or cracking of the fibers. If anything, the wood seemed stronger than it should be.

He found it fascinating: how was the wood treated to get it to such a state? Was oil involved? Was it magic? Or, perhaps, some combination of the two? Did the unique biome of the island cause it to grow that way naturally?

While he was pondering the mysteries of the wood’s internal structure, Aldritch noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A relatively small building on the outskirts of the square was dimly lit from the inside. A soothing yellow light stood like a beacon in the night for any wayward soul who needed somewhere to go at the asscrack of dawn.

Aldritch headed towards the building without a second thought. He didn’t know what kind of place it was, and frankly, he didn’t care. It was a momentary distraction while he searched for a place to gather information about his new surroundings.

He approached the building at a relaxed pace and took a moment to observe it before climbing the three stairs leading to the door: It was a narrow three-story building crammed between several others just like it. Above the front door was a large painted sign with the words “The Fancy Dryad” written in a beautiful script.

Aldritch wondered at the choice of name. Was the owner a dryad? Dryads were usually keen to avoid cities, preferring to live in tight-knit communities out in the untamed wild areas as both means of protecting the trees they spawned from, and to safeguard the wildlife living there. Aldritch knew many dryads… Or, he had known many dryads who were vocal wildlife conservationists. They protected the homes of endangered species with their lives if necessary. And the idea of such a person winding up in the middle of a city this size was a tantalizing thought. What stories could they tell?

Before Aldritch truly realized what he’d done, he’d already climbed the stairs and was standing in front of the door. He grabbed the handle gently, but his excitement still made him put a bit too much pressure on the wooden handle and he felt it crack in his palm.

“Mend.” He muttered while pulling on the handle. Eager to answer his command, the mana of the world leapt inside the handle and rekindled the bonds of the wood grains. By the time Aldritch released the handle and stepped inside, all damage to the wooden handle had disappeared as if it’d never happened. And if you looked close enough, you could almost swear the handle looked alive…

Aldritch found himself in a potions shop. The walls on both sides were lined with floor to ceiling shelves holding hundreds of bottles a piece. Aldritch immediately recognized a few of the potions on display; the deep reds of a healing tincture, the refreshing blues of a mana potion, and he was really excited to see the puke-ish green color found only in the rare potion of troll’s strength. But to his delighted surprise, many of the potions on the shelves were unknown to him.

Six large, square tables sat in two rows of three, near the center of the shop. Each table held eight wooden crates, which were also absolutely filled with what Aldritch considered ‘common’ potions. The aforementioned healing and mana replenishment potions were, of course, the most popular, with three boxes each. The second most popular potion had two boxes, and it was an odd purple mixture that looked like the alchemist had somehow captured stars in a bottle. Aldritch did not know what it was, but it was a gorgeous mixture that almost seemed too beautiful to drink. The rest of the crates were filled with different potions, none of which Aldritch recognized, but that didn’t stop him from looking at each one and marveling at the craftsmanship on display.

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He picked up several bottles, each a different size, shape, and holding a different potion. Yet they all had one thing in common looking at the underside of the cork through the glass bottle, Aldritch could see a small black diamond stamped into it, the shop’s acronym ‘TFD’ clear for the world to see.

“Told you it wasn’t a dwarf thing.” Aldritch said to Oakairo.

“Never said it was.”

“I know. I just felt like gloating.”

“I’ll be with you in a minute!” Someone, a woman by the sound of the voice, yelled from another room.

Aldritch returned the bottle to its place inside the crate and turned to the only thing left in the room he’d yet to look at: There was a wall-to-wall counter at the back of the shop with a metal device sitting on the leftmost end. Behind the table were two doors, one of the far left-just behind the metal device, the other door was on the far right. Both doors led through the back wall, into what Aldritch assumed was most likely the workshop and storage room.

“It’s likely one of those doors leads to a living area. This building is large enough for multiple families to live in relative comfort. Even considering the shop on the ground floor.” Oakairo said quietly.

“That’s true. I hadn’t considered that possibility.”

A stunning redhead emerged from the left door with a crate full of potions tucked under one arm and a professional smile on her face. A silky green dress accentuated her womanly form like someone made it exclusively for her. Her wild auburn hair, though streaked through with bone white strands, did nothing to take away her charm. Instead, it gave her an air of maturity Aldritch was certain would drive those interested in her looks absolutely wild… Aldritch was not one of those people.

He certainly appreciated her appearance for what it was. And if he had been about eight-hundred years younger, maybe even he would’ve been interested. But if ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ could change the world, then he knew many people who would’ve been hailed as the savior of the planet many times over.

The woman sat the crate on the counter with a huff of exhaustion and shot Aldritch a playful wink. “I've barely gotten started and I'm already exhausted. Don’t you want to lend a hand and help me move some stuff?” She asked in what Aldritch thought was meant to be a joking manner.

Aldritch placed his hand on the side of the crate and lifted it off the counter. “Where do you want it?” He asked while turning towards the tables in the center of the room.

“Oh-um… On the second table in this row.” She said while pointing towards the row on Aldritch’s left.

He spotted a nearly empty crate with the same color potions and nodded. “Alright.” He said and walked over to the table. He grabbed the old crate with his free hand and swapped it for the new one. With the new crate in place, he made space near the front of the crate and quickly transferred each of the old potions from the old crate to their new home- save for one bottle, which he held on to.

He returned to the counter with the old crate and bottle in hand and set them both in front of the woman. “Did you need my hand to carry anything else?” He asked while inspecting the bottle he’d set on the counter. There was a small crack near the base. No potion had spilled out, but all it would take was a light bump to shatter the thin glass, ruining the mixture and costing the woman a replacement fee.

“I- Okay, to be perfectly honest, I only meant it as a joke. But if you’re offering, I have about twelve more boxes in the back that need moving. I promised my roommate I’d get it done a while back, but-”

“I’ll help.” Aldritch said, cutting her off before she could explain. He didn’t need to know the reason, and frankly, it wasn’t any of his business. He was helping out of boredom and because her stock interested him. That was it.

“Really?” She exclaimed. Her smile would have made a corpse’s heart do backflips, but it had a different effect on Aldritch: Her smile reminded him of an alchemist he knew in his youth: A close friend who used to make him try out all of her potions before she released them to the public.

Before Aldritch could say anything else, the woman’s smile faltered, and she seemed to zone out for a second. “I don’t have the money to pay you right now. Do you mind taking a rain check?” She said in an airy tone of voice.

“You don’t have to pay me. Rather, I’d be happier if you’d allow me to ask you a few questions about the potions in your shop. I’ve never seen many of them, and I must admit, I’m quite curious about their identity.”

Her eyes regained focus, and she seemed to snap back to reality. “It’s my job to answer all questions pertaining to my work- provided you’re not asking for the recipe.” She laughed while staring into Aldritch’s eyes in a way that said she was quite serious about it.

“I’m not.” Aldritch said quickly.

“Perfect. Then we’re back at the matter of payment. I can’t let you help without properly compensating you. And you don’t want either my money or my body, so that puts me into a bit of a bind here.” She said while sounding genuinely distressed.

“What makes you say I don’t want your body?” Aldritch asked. “You’re a beautiful woman. Even a blind man could see that.”

“Because I know how this dress makes my tits look, and you haven’t so much as glanced at them since you first saw me.” She replied, grabbing her chest and shoving them together to emphasize the size and shape of her breasts. The sight brought a genuine smile to Aldritch’s face, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her reasoning. She was right, but the way she’d so bluntly brought it up was a welcome surprise.

“You’re quite insightful for one so young.” Aldritch placed his palms on top of the counter and leaned over, as if he was trying to get a better look- The woman rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Nuh-uh. You had your chance. It’s too late now. You’ll just have to live with the regret of never knowing what could’ve been.” She said, grinning up at him.

“Aldritch of clan Blackshield. A pleasure to meet an alchemist of your skill.” He said while holding out his hand for her to shake.

“Faeyra Silverowl," She replied while accepting his greeting. "And I don’t remember telling you I was the alchemist. How do you know I don’t just work here as the clerk/eye candy?”

“While I’m sure you would excel at both roles, especially the eye candy one. Your hands are stained with charcoal dust, and you smell of honeysuckle. Charcoal is a purifying agent and, if I remember correctly, distilled honeysuckle dew makes for a great stabilizer and can help cover up the taste of some potions. I seriously doubt the alchemist would allow the store’s eye candy to handle such ingredients, and the clerk would interact with so many potions the smell would become muddled by a dozen other similarly strong-smelling ingredients. So, if you’re not the eye candy or the clerk, what else could you be?”

Faeyra stared at Aldritch for a second before an amused grin spread across her face. She held up a finger and gave him the ‘come here’ signal. Aldritch was simultaneously amused and confused by the gesture, but he leaned in all the same.

“I’m all three.” She whispered into his ear.

“Then consider me even more impressed.” Aldritch said seriously.

“Yeah… I am pretty impressive, aren’t I?” Faeyra said with just as much seriousness. She reached under the counter and unhooked a latch Aldritch hadn’t noticed and pushed a portion of the counter outwards.

Aldritch stepped behind the counter and pulled it shut behind him.

“Well, if you’re going to be helping me out, the least I could do is get you something to drink. Any preferences?” Faeyra said while leading him through the same door she’d exited earlier.

Aldritch followed her through the door and looked around at the workshop: The room was a fraction of the size of the previous room. On one side of the workshop was a large desk with a comfortable-looking leather chair sitting in front of it. On top of the desk sat several books. Each one was so thick Aldritch wouldn’t be surprised to learn Faeyra had used one book as a bludgeon to knock someone unconscious. Seven bookshelves lined the rear wall, each one filled to the point of collapse with books of every shape, size, and color. And against the left wall was the most important part of any alchemist’s workshop: a large black cauldron, a desk with four mortars, each of a different size. A large alembic took center stage at the front of the desk. Six calcinators stood in a line at the back of the desk. And a pair of retorts sat on either side of the Alembic.

“I wouldn’t know what to pick even if you ask, so I’ll leave it up to your judgment.”

“Don’t regret saying that later.” She muttered. “Well, I recently perfected a certain recipe that involves chocolate. Would you like to try it?”

Aldritch stopped looking around the room for a moment and met Faeyra’s eyes.

“What’s chocolate?”