Mirielle Dulani sighs as the kernstone powder burns away into smoke. She strikes off another alchemic recipe in her list. After the Calamities, it seems like all the alchemic laws have changed. It’s frustrating to waste dwindling ingredients on duds, but that’s the price of experimentation. At least she’s discovered some of the new rules.

Cleaning her workspace, Mirielle mentally drafts her next letter to Fort Kernstone. She needs other ores besides kernstone and any plants they harvested from the Outlands. Mirielle feels a headache incoming at the thought of price negotiations. She needs to balance the Alchemist’s Guilds budget, but the changes to the alchemic processes are significantly hampering their work. Despite the Alchemist’s Guild’s close connection to the hospital, Annacus Flint still insists on putting economic pressure on them.

She sets the clean test tubes back onto their rack, feeling a wave of weariness overcome her. Fort Kernstone can’t act too friendly to her because of her business dealings with the Temple of Eurimas. On the other hand, the Temple of Eurimas will hike up the prices of their preservation services if she shows favour to the other guilds in Vinayre. Damned if she does help Tiami, and damned if she doesn’t.

Grr, why did they have to end up with this particular sect of the Temple?! Mirielle has met perfectly nice worshippers of Eurimas who aren’t antagonistic to members of other religions. She hopes the sect in Hilescent survived the Calamities somewhere.

A wave of melancholy seeps into her skin. She remembers a conversation she had with Van Nguyen weeks before High Priestess Biront showed her true colours. They chatted over tea, and the topic grew increasingly philosophical. Van asked Mirielle whether or not it was a good idea to make a deal with a fiend if it would save innocent lives.

At the time, she said no, because the fiend must have ulterior motives. It’s unlikely that an evil being would save innocent lives without soliciting a favour that would benefit themselves. Helping the fiend would bite her in the ass later.

However, she discovered it was much harder to say no when she knew her patients’ stories. Before the Calamities, the limiting factor for aid was the money needed to acquire ingredients. As the guild master, she could leave most of the patient interactions to her subordinates and stick to her research. Then the Calamities decimated the supply-chain, and her helplessness consumed her.

She didn’t blame Van for seeing it as a personal betrayal. Mirielle expected to hear his disappointed words, but he left the city without saying anything. Perhaps it was easier that way.

Pulling herself out of those memories, she sits down at her desk and glances through the papers. There’s a proposal written by Healer Zilkor regarding joint training between healers and alchemists, an invitation to afternoon tea from Archivist Ferrum, and a request for fireworks delivered to city hall by the morning of the festival.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Mirielle smiles at the last one. Even without food, the city council is still trying to make the festival enjoyable for the citizens. It’ll be better if the greenhouses show greater success in their experiments, but she can be patient. In the meantime, she’ll pass the fireworks order over to the other alchemists.

Her mood restored, she starts humming as she starts organising her desk. Mirielle is excited about celebrating the festival with friends she hasn’t seen for some time due to them moving away from Vinayre. She’s thankful that she managed to save a few of her dresses from the Calamity, so she has something fun to wear. Not that lab coats aren’t fun, but at least her dresses don’t smell like medicine.

Mirielle misses the parties they had before the Calamities. She misses the birthday parties, the end-of-year work functions, the all-nighters after graduation --- the Calamities left them all hollow. What do they celebrate when so many people that they celebrated with are gone?

Her hands tremble. She still doesn’t know if her parents are alive.

Swamped with potion orders and her research, Mirielle hasn’t left Vinayre except for rare trips to the Outlands and the forests near Mt. Aspirash. She suspects this continent is far larger than they know, extending past the towering mountain range west of the Outlands and north of Basinoon Harbour. It gives her hope that her family is out there.

With the invitations sent to Danglawan and Basinoon, she’s also excited for the ‘dinner’ party after the festival too. Caexil told her about radio towers which existed in his world before the Calamities. If they can get the other two city states interested, they might be able to collaborate on getting resources and people on building them. A long range form of communication is sorely needed.

Mirielle is also interested in the port project east of Vinayre, hoping to organically make connections with people involved with it at the party. Although the thought of a rocking ship makes her queasy, she wants to gather more knowledge on different forms of magic. Ballaturne the city of bards must have seen changes to their magic after the Calamities like everyone else. It’ll be a great addition to her current pool of data.

Considering all the investment possibilities, Mirielle can’t fully empathise with Caexil’s worries about the Danglawan diplomats. Very few people will accept Seraquinn and Plux’s rule over Vinayre even if they somehow managed to assassinate the entire council.

A knock at the door interrupts her thoughts. Her wife’s voice comes muffled through the door, “Miri! There’s an emergency.”

Mirielle goes to open the door and finds Dana breathing heavily on the other side. Although her torso covered in blood, her wife looks no less beautiful with her firm muscles and tall stature. Dana explains, “There’s a young woman having a severe allergic reaction in room 303 right now. She was also severely wounded by a monster and has no aura right now. Healer Zilkor needs steroids and tests done.”

“On it.” Mirielle goes to retrieve her supplies. It seems like this will not be a relaxing day after all.