“I just don’t understand why you are so happy to be locked up in here all day,” Gabby said after a long and exaggerated sigh.
I ground my teeth, trying not to bark back despite the fact she’d asked the same thing at least three times by now. The girl turned around, stretching her wings for the umpteenth time. The tip of a feather knocked a green tall bottle placed high on a shelf. My body tightened as I watched it wobble and fall. Before I could Blink myself across the room to save the precious brew Boopzy reached up with a tentacle and snatched the bottle. Carefully and with an intense amount of eye contact the small creature slid the bottle back into place before firing off a string of chitters at the woman. He even added in a few aggressive tentacle shakes in her direction just in case she missed what he was screaming out.
Watching the little Tentarat have his tantrum brought a smile to my face, and not just because he had declared himself the protector of my concoctions. He just had a big personality for something so small.
“Even Boopzy thinks you should go. Why are you here anyway? You never actually told me,” I asked, before carefully adding another Ring Bug to the potion I was making. A puff of purple smoke bloomed from the flask.
Gabby took a step back from the brew, eyeing it with more suspicion than it deserved before she answered, “I’m bored. Nora seems happy to train all day up in the yard or drink at the inn, but that’s not what I want to do. I want to get outside the gates and explore the town. I want to take down a few monsters and maybe complete another quest or two. I can’t stand this sitting still and waiting.”
I lifted a brow at her. “We are safe and comfortable for the first time in years and you want to throw that away?”
She plonked down on a stall over by the wall knocking off three more bottles for Boopzy to catch. “Yes!’
“There is something very wrong with you,” I said.
“Hey, that’s not fair. You have this hobby. Nora’s hobby seems to be killing canvas men stuffed with hay. I need something to do.”
I sighed and gently eased my feet out from under Stella’s bulk before standing and walking away from my desk. The room was a wonder, long and thin with plants of every kind growing down the walls. Pipes running around the ceiling sprayed water to help everything grow. Orbs bobbed near the ceiling offering light equivalent to the sun, or so the happily growing plants led me to believe. Shelves lined the walls in between the plants storing my potions and around the floor was a scattering of tables, alchemy equipment, and barrels of water. Everything was laid out neatly, giving me plenty of room to walk around without knocking into things. The same wasn’t true of Gabby but she wasn’t supposed to be here anyway.
“Sounds to me like you need a hobby. One that doesn’t require you to go out alone and risk your life for a thrill,” I said. “You’re a Daughter of Umbra, surely there is something along that line that could keep you busy.”
Gabby stared at me for a long time. Long enough that I found my boots shifting awkwardly across the stone floor, then she said, “Do you even know what a Daughter of Umbra is?”
I glared at her, “I know as much as you’ve told me. It’s not like I’m one of you.”
Gabby pointed at my crossbow. “You’re an honorary member. Surely you know more than, well, nothing.”
I held up my wrist and said, “It’s not like it came with an instruction manual. I just slapped it on and started using it. I’m not even good with it.”
“There’s an archery range in the yard, maybe I can give you a few pointers.”
“You’re just trying to get me out of this room,” I snapped.
Gabby shrugged, “You caught me.”
“You know she has a point. It’s pretty boring in here.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten, trying not to let my hands curl into fists before glaring up into the rafters where Kendrick lay. The man was stretched out over a beam like a cat, idly kicking one leg back and forth. Gabby beamed at the support, her wings fluttering just enough to bring Boopzy skittering across the floor.
The fact Gabby had so easily accepted Kendrick’s presence made me uncomfortable. Since the man had given up his odd invisibility things had gotten a little awkward. Nora had gotten it out of me that Kendrick was the man talking inside my head. How she had, I had no idea. The woman was scarily good at weaseling information from me when she wanted it. She didn’t even have to threaten me with brute force though she very well could have. Gabby didn’t mind, Frank loved him, Stella was indifferent so long as the man gave her head pets, Boopzy wouldn’t let the man touch him, and Nora watched him like a hawk, her hand always close to her axe. All in all, I would have preferred it if he had stayed in his own little shadow realm.
“See, Kendrick agrees with me,” Gabby teased.
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“Great, then you two can go off and play together. I’m busy.”
Kendrick rolled over staring down at the girl beneath him, “I’m up for it if you are darling. Can you keep up with a man as good as me?”
“You’re on pretty boy,” Gabby cried jumping to her feet and rushing from the room.
Boopzy screeched and flung out every tentacle he had, catching as many bottles as he could. I Blinked, snatching the few he missed before they shattered on the cold stone. Kendrick laughed as he swung down from the rafters and waltzed out the door, tipping over a bottle with a finger before he disappeared. Boopzy screeched even louder, slamming the door behind the Forerunner with enough force to shake the room.
I just shook my head and started replacing bottles. Stella snored under the desk, thankfully the only sound in the room. Boopzy was doing what I was, sliding the bottles back where they belonged. I booped him on the head gently as I walked past, smiling at the happy noise he responded with.
This was my heaven. This is what I wanted. Peace. Quiet. A little alone time with the pets that liked me, and plenty of interesting work to keep me busy.
I returned to my desk, eyeing the bubbling potion. The color was looking right now; a kind of pinkish purple. If I let it brew any more it would turn a darker shade of the same and be less effective. I yanked a streamer of Cave Moss from the wall, plucking off the fluffy bits and discarding the rest before adding them to the flask and removing it from the flame with a pair of tongs. I sat there, swirling the liquid until it turned lilac. At least, that’s the color Gabby said it was, to me it was just another kind of pinkish purple.
New Item Received: Advanced Potion of Party-Stopping Paralysis
Description: Three drops added to food or drink will render the target unconscious for three hours. Four drops, if ingested, may have ill effects.
Effects: Paralysis on ingestion.
I beamed, the smile only growing wider when familiar golden words floated in front of me.
Skill Upgraded: Alchemy (XII)
85% potion crafting success rate.
Not long now and I’d have that elusive one hundred percent success rate. Then maybe I could consider myself almost as good as the Witch of Evermore. I pulled a face at my own thought, dismissing it almost immediately. No matter how I tried I would never be that good. A shame but oh well, second best was still good.
I took the potion and placed it on a shelf with others just like it. There was a fine collection there now. Almost fifty. Paralysis was one of the easier potions for me to make. I still struggled with basic things like health and fatigue replenishment. I could make them of course but they were never strong and took so much time it wasn’t worth it. Magicka was worse still; no matter how I tried I just couldn’t get that one to work without some kind of recipe.
I walked the room, trying to decide what to make next. There were many ingredients I hadn’t even begun to work with, including the tiny fish swimming around in the fountain tucked in amongst the plants. I assumed the tiny red creatures were ingredients otherwise I couldn’t figure out why they were here at all. Maybe they were just to be grilled if the alchemist grew hungry. My stomach rumbled, informing me that I was in fact that hungry alchemist.
“Stella, should we go to the inn?” I asked.
Stella stretched and let out a strangled yawn before climbing to her feet and shaking out her coat. Her tail wagged sedately as she trundled toward me. She might be an active dog but not immediately after a nap. We made it to the door before Stella perked up, her body rigid and her ears raised as she stared into the shadows of the basement.
“Easy girl,” I said, placing a hand on her head.
Stella seemed to think otherwise. With a speed fueled by her extensive Fatigue skill, she bolted across the room and up the stairs. I followed, a weight settling in my gut. She’d done this once before since we’d been back and I’d no doubt she was doing the same right now. The closer we got to the darkened building across the courtyard the surer I became until she'd pushed open the door and disappeared inside. My feet slowed as I neared the door, the noise of happy players loitering about the wide open space turned into little more than a buzz in my ears. I hated this darkened building with a passion I couldn’t articulate.
I walked inside to see the two warriors manning the desk inside. They were leaning back in their chairs with their feet on the desk, their weapons dumped uselessly by their feet. My teeth slammed together watching their indifference. They’d been warned what lay upstairs and still, they didn’t seem to care.
“G’day Joe,” one of them called out as he stroked his oiled mustache. “Your girl took off upstairs.”
“I figured. The pair of you look bloody comfortable. No dramas, I take it?” I asked.
The second let out a loud yawn and scratched his armpit through his leather armor. “It’s so damn quiet I don’t even know why we’re here. I’d rather be at the inn with a cold one.”
“Inn. The word still sounds stupid. Can’t we just call it a damn pub? It’s what it is,” the first complained.
“Righto,” I interrupted not wanting to hear the rest of it. “Guess I’ll go collect Stella.”
“Have at it then.”
Some guards they were. I marched past them and up the stairs, feeling the potent magic shields that had been placed throughout the hallway. I couldn’t do much more than feel them. Thankfully there were some proper mages in the group, ones that spent most of their time in this new world learning how to build barriers between themselves and the monsters.
Finding Stella behind the cluster of doors springing off the hallway wasn’t a challenge, she was behind the same one she had been before. I pushed it open, grateful that the hinges had been oiled. Inside every wall had been coated with barrier wards and the only window had been expertly boarded up. Stella lay on the ground beside the cage filling the center of the room, her head dropped atop her paws.
“Stella, time to go,” I said, putting as much force into my voice as I could without outright bellowing at her.
The figure in the cage turned and gripped the bars, the flames of her dress flaring with pink amongst the black. “Leaving so soon, Joe?” Miranda drawled. “But we’ve barely had a chance to talk.”
I glared at her. “We have nothing to talk about.”
“Oh yes, yes we do. So many things.”