"I'm here to see Apothecary Tenebrook," Rick’s voice echoed, dodging a nurse who was rushing into the back of the large medical building.

"With all of the competition, Mister Tenebrook is extremely busy," the woman at the front desk stressed.

"I understand," Rick assured her. She gave him a look that seemed to doubt he did.

"Tell him that Rick is here and he might have a way for him to help more patients. And give him this." Rick passed her three vials. One was a stamina potion, another a healing potion, and the third a mana recovery potion. She took them with a confused expression before glancing between Rick and his sister.

Lydia was wearing a covering to hide her hair and simple clothes, making her look no different than anyone else in Goran.

She'd even wiped some dirt and soot on her face to take away her cleaner-looking appearance. The woman hesitated for a minute before sighing, drawing the three vials into her hand closer. "Wait here a moment," she said, leaving the desk and hurrying back into the medical building.

"Help, please!" Someone yelled, pushing the door into the building open.

One man was holding another up, a bloody gash on his forehead streaming down. Attendants rushed forward, asking a series of rapid-fire questions before getting the man into a chair.

"Competition week," Lydia said.

Rick grunted in agreement. It was always around this time that the hotheaded fools got into the worst of the worst.

The building took in the worst patients, those with simple ailments waiting in the reception.

Rick yawned as time stretched on.

The door into the medical building burst open with Tenebrook holding the three vials. He looked wild, wearing a butcher's apron and clean but rumpled clothing, showing that he had been working longer than he had been sleeping.

His brown hair was scattered upon his head with a hooked nose and owlish eyes. His eyes latched onto Rick as he stalked forward.

"Where did you get these from?" He demanded, holding up the three potions.

"Mister Tenebrook, this might be a better question for your office," Rick suggested.

The man seemed to come back to himself, looking around the waiting area. He turned and stalked away, pushing open the door back into the medical building's depths. "Come along then," he yelled back, moving at a brisk pace.

Rick followed him, with Lydia trailing behind.

They met the lady at the front desk halfway, trying to catch up to Tenebrook, who'd left her well behind in his rush.

Seeing them all, she opened her mouth, then closed it and straightened her dress, continuing on back to the front reception.

Tenebrook moved past a series of warning signs, telling anyone that was willing to read not to enter and the dangers that lay beyond. He threw open a door, dashing off inside to the sounds of steam whistling out of some instrument.

Rick stepped inside, looking at an alchemist's dream. There was glass of all shapes and forms, diluting, tincturing, condensing, mixing, and completing all kinds of alchemical processes happening in seemingly chaos.

Tenebrook moved around the lab, adjusting flames, opening and closing valves, reading temperature gauges and more.

"Where did you get these potions from?" Tenebrook yelled, holding up the potions still in his hand as he moved amongst his contraptions.

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"I found those ones," Rick said, "but I can teach you how to make them as well."

The man snapped his head back around, fixing Rick with a look that tried to pierce through him and the world beyond. "You're Rick Isendia, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yep," Rick shrugged.

Tenebrook frowned. Rick had come to Tenebrook several times.

"You keep coming to me because you don't want your family knowing all of the scrapes and fights you've gotten into. You don't want anyone to know all of the fights you've been in or the injuries you gained through them," Tenebrook said. "Same as your sister." His eyes snapped to Lydia next to him.

"Rick let it slip once or twice that if I needed any medical help it would be best to come see you," Lydia said.

Tenebrook snorted. "Wish the rest of your family understood that. Or understood the value of medical science and advancing the realm of pharmacology and alchemical interactions. Which is also why I am hesitant to listen to what you have to say about these three potions." He wiggled the vials back and forth, crossing the room towards them. "These three potions are stronger than anything I've had the pleasure of testing, making or seeing. I don't think I've heard of anything with these effects." He looked at them, at the vials, as if to try and peer through their secrets.

"What you're holding there is a healing potion, a stamina potion and a mana recovery potion," Rick pointed to them individually.

Tenebrook paused. "I tasted the stamina potion and it felt like I had a full night's rest. The healing potion..." Tenebrook paused again, "I kept looking, really looking at the vials. I didn't realize that my eyes were as bad as they were until I took it. And then everything came back in stunning clarity."

Rick looked around, spotting a pad of paper and a pen off to the side. "Do you mind if I..." he gestured at it.

Tenebrook gestured to it in permission.

Rick quickly wrote down an alchemical formula, tearing off the piece of paper and handing it over to Tenebrook.

"What are these ingredients?" Tenebrook asked.

Rick took off the pack he'd carried from Grandma's house and opened the top, taking out ingredients.

"I've never heard of these names before in my life." Tenebrook was wholly focused on the formula.

Len coughed, drawing his attention over.

Tenebrook blinked up from the formula, looking at Rik, and then down into the bag. He picked up several and held them up to the windows, squinting at the items inside.

"Each of them are labeled," Rick said, continuing to lay them out on an unused section of tabletop.

Tenebrook inspected them as they were drawn out, comparing them against the formula in his other hand from time to time.

"And these ingredients will have the effect of that healing potion?" Tenebrook asked.

"That and more. As you know, if you use different materials and different methods, you will have different outcomes. So while we know that you can create the healing potion following the formula and the ingredients, you might be able to create other potions and concoctions."

Rick looked over to Tenebrook, who had gone very still, his eyes unfocused in the direction of the ingredients. A smile crept upon Rick's face, seeing the gears turning, the ideas firing in the other man's head.

Rick picked up the pen again, writing down where to find him as well as tomorrow's date, time, and a question. “Once you've tested out the formula and been able to create the minor healing potions, you can find me at Grandma Lydia's Manor. Come and meet me tomorrow if you've had any success or have questions, and I'd be happy to chat more."

The words seemed to snap Tenebrook out of his stupor slightly. "Yes, yes, very well. Thank you. Tomorrow, Grandma Lydia's," he said, moving towards the ingredients.

Rick knew he was just repeating it without taking it in. The note would help.

"Tomorrow it is," Rick walked towards the door, indicating for Lydia to follow.

He quickly left Tenebrook, who was already opening the different ingredients, taking them deeper into the lab to begin his tests.

Lydia had an expression of one with many questions and no way to ask them all. They left the medical building behind, with Rick glancing about the place. "All right, now next stop is the industrial district. Need to see how that's looking nowadays," Rick said. "Which direction is it in again?"

"This way," Lydia said, leading him. Her face was still closed in thought. It took her another ten minutes before she found the words she'd been looking for.

"Rick, since you've come back, you healed Grandma, used magic, tempered my body apparently learned how to be a really good fighter and pushed my bladed skill from Apprentice to Journeyman. Now you've got potions and Len’s meeting with a whole bunch of crippled veterans saying that they could fight again. What is going on?" she asked.

"There's a dozen ways to answer that question, many of which aren't helpful, a few that are terrifying, but I know you appreciate the truth," Rick paused, considering his words. "The timer that’s going down? On that day mana storms will reshape the world, beasts and creatures spread throughout the world, other races will arrive to take our resources. Essentially the apocalypse starts and we have very little time to prepare."

She let out a heavy breath. “Well shit, was hoping it was just some kind of prank. Figures it would take the end of civilization as we know it for you to learn how to use a sword properly.”

“Damn that was a good burn.”

“Tell me where I lied?”

“And now it just hurts!” Rick grabbed his chest in pain.

Lydia laughed, bringing back some lightness to the world.