I took a slow breath in, holding my concentration. I’d been challenging myself recently to do this with only my newer golden hand instead of my flesh one. The process was a bit clumsier with the muted sense of both physical touch and Aetherial sense, but I could do it. It was just a bit harder, but the practice was good for me.

Focusing, I felt the last piece of the puzzle slot into place, and I committed.

The swirling cloud of astralized potion ingredients recombined into the directed vial, forming a butter-yellow mild stamina potion.

I picked up the finished product and brought it to eye level. Swirling it around a few times, I eyed it critically before nodding.

Yup, this one was fine. Not great, considering the quality of the ingredients.

But good enough.

Now I only had to do about…fifteen more.

I sighed, looking around the small workroom that I was in. I was standing in front of a tiny desk, surrounded on all sides by shelves containing sub-par potion materials and crates holding my finished products. The space was basically a glorified broom closet with a small vent to the outside, something that I’m sure normal potioneers were grateful for with their brewing. Since I did all my potion-making with Aetherial Melding, I didn’t have to worry about potentially toxic fumes melting my lungs.

This…wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting, for a super-important infiltration and sabotage mission.

I hadn’t predicted being told to get a damned job.

But that’s what Hook had outright ordered me to do, after he had finally woken up in the Nocturne safehouse that Dusk led us to inside Elderwyck proper. Tlazo had turned out to be good on his word, and the regeneration potion that he’d fed Hook had been damned powerful. The allied Healer Dusk had contacted to look him over had been outright baffled at his quick recovery, considering Hook's injuries.

As soon as the dwarf was up and walking again, Sylvia and I had received our standing orders. Both of us were to blend into the populace, keep our heads down, and work to acquire information that could lead to furthering the efforts of the dozens of Nocturne Agents inside the city walls. Furthermore, we were to regularly check in with him at the safehouse to receive missions. In order to do that, however, we needed a stable cover.

Which meant gainful employment.

And thus, here I was, churning out middling potions from nearly garbage-quality ingredients. The inherent filtering and refining capabilities of Aetherial Melding meant that I was able to get a better product out of poorer materials than anything but a master potioneer could manage. I wasn’t used to working with such trash, however. It almost felt like my pride as a craftsman was being insulted having to make do with what I’d been given. But that was silly.

And it was probably the only reason I’d managed to get the job I’d found, anyway.

I’d had some ideas about what to look for when it came to employment, and had thus started hitting up the local alchemy shops and asking if they were looking for brewers. Most actually wanted to hire me when I’d asked, but had needed to turn me away. With the closing of the city gates and the increasing volatility of the war, their margins were getting thinner and thinner. They couldn't afford to take me on, even when I presented examples of my work. I’d nearly given up on the potions idea before I stumbled on this little hole in the wall.

Jason’s Magical Brews.

The shop had looked to have fallen on…hard times, lately. The paint had been peeling, the sign was crooked, and one of the windows had been boarded up. But it had been open, I’d seen movement through one of the remaining windows, and most importantly?

There had been a ‘Help Wanted’ sign out front.

I’d decided what the hell, and given it a shot.

That had been a week ago, now. I’d been churning out potions as quickly as my new employer could procure the basic herbs and grasses required ever since.

Speaking of…

I was interrupted by the noise of almost neurotically timid knocks on the door of my brewing closet. I held my breath for a moment, counting backwards from five in an effort to keep my temper. I knew that my new boss was only checking up on me so he could restock the shelves, but…

Did he have to do this every five damned minutes?

I let the breath out and turned to open the door. When I did so, I beheld the sight of my new employer.

Jason Aldridge, the ‘Jason’ of ‘Jason’s Magical Brews’.

A man that couldn’t brew a potion to save his damned life.

He was a slight man, at least four inches shorter than my five-eleven frame. Jason was the type of man that was unfortunate enough to have started balding in his early twenties, and also the type to be too stubborn to just shave it all off. It left him trying to cover up the nearly friar-esque bald spot on top of his head with a few transparent wisps of dirty blonde hair. The man was wearing round spectacles over his pale blue eyes, which only enlarged his already large eyes to look nearly bulbous. Said eyes were staring at me in a pleading manner as the young shop owner wrung his hands and smiled at me in a sickly way.

“A-ah, Hans,” He stuttered, using the fake name that I had given him. “Are y-you done with the stamina potions?”

I did my best to return his smile. Considering how high my Acting Talent had been getting, I had no problem faking it in front of his civilian. “I have some crates for you,” I confirmed, to his obvious relief. Turning back around, I picked up the stack crate full of potions that I’d been working on all morning and handed it off to Jason. He staggered under their weight, turning around to lay it on the counter of the shop. On the other side of it was one of our main customers for the stamina potions I’d introduced to Jason’s product line.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The crew manager at one of the dockside warehouses in Elderwyck.

I briefly met his eyes, causing him to flash me a smile in greeting.

Time to get some actual work done.

Shuffling past Jason, I leaned against the counter and returned his smile. “Simon, how’s it going?”

“Oh, you know how it is, Hans,” He answered back, his own smile taking on a weary edge. “Things are rough right now, with the way the bean pushers are driving us. I don’t know how my boys could make it through these extra shifts, if we didn’t have your new potions,” Simon said, picking up one of the mild stamina potions from its crate that I had finished not moments ago. He shook his head in wonder. “Ain’t ever seen something like this before. It’s a right wonder it is, especially with how cheap they are.”

When I’d first started working in this shop, I had gone over the catalog that Jason had launched with. I think I was spoiled as far as my mystical education was going, considering I’d thought what he offered was very limited. Apparently, things like stamina potions were only seen in much more expensive potion shops, and were typically unavailable to the common man. Jason had been shocked when I’d offered to include them in the line-up

See, Jason used to have a business partner that did all the brewing, only he had been poached with a better offer by a rival shop only a few months after opening. That had left Jason high and dry, and needing to rely on the weak swill that he could brew himself. His shop was conveniently located not far from the docks, so he used to get brisk business from the dockworkers. That changed when he had to do all the brewing himself. His shop had been failing before I came along.

Not anymore.

The dockworkers had returned with a vengeance, especially when it became known we were offering new stamina potions to help them get through shifts.

And dockworkers talked.

“Oh yeah?” I asked with plenty of real interest. “Why don’t you tell me more?”

……………………………..

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jason,” I said to the neurotic shopkeep, shrugging on a thin coat I’d bought for myself. I’d finished the brewing needed for the day, and I was taking off at my usual time around midday. Since I was so much quicker at the process than other alchemists, it was only about an hour after lunchtime.

“A-ah…” Jason stuttered, looking up from his ledger with a timid smile. “Have a good day, H-Hans.”

Jason didn’t dare order me around more than he needed to. He knew very well how lucky he was to have found such an apparently skilled potion maker, when he’d been on the verge of selling his failing business.

I knew I was taking advantage of his desperation just a little, but it’s not like the man wasn’t benefiting from the arrangement. Still, I felt a little bad when I wondered what he was going to do when I was gone.

Not like that was going to happen anytime soon, though.

This was promising to be a long campaign.

I was stopped at the door by Jason speaking again, though. “Keep an e-eye out, though,” He said, causing me to look over my shoulder. The weaselly-looking man had a worried expression on his face. “You n-never know when one of those a-attacks will hit.”

I smiled thinly at him, amused on the inside. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, Jason,” I told him. “See you later.” With that, I turned around and walked out of the shop.

I didn’t have to worry about the ‘attacks’.

After all, I was one of the people doing them.

………………………………

The outside air of Elderwyck was downright chilly this late in the year. Winter was in full swing. The sea of the harbor was starting to frost over some, which had certainly been one of the things that old Simon had complained to me about. The smell of frozen brine had settled over the entire city by now, and I didn’t mind it at all.

It reminded me of my days on the Thorny Reef.

However, that wasn’t the only thing in the air.

Elderwyck was under an almost constant state of alert these days. Fear, uncertainty, and outrage were common on the lips of the people, and not all of that was the fault of the Nocturne Division. But…we were helping to stoke that fire.

The Duke and his provincial government had been coming down hard on the populace of Elderwyck. Guards and Soldiers were far more common in the streets, and prone to harass anyone that even looked at them funny. Heavier taxes were being levied against businesses and workers, while food and supplies were becoming more scarce with the overland trade routes so hazardous. They weren’t quite blocked off, but it was much harder to get an entry permit into Elderwyck these days than it had been.

This city was a slow-burning powder keg of resentment and anxiety, with most of it being directed at the Duke. Apparently, it had been like this even before the Nocturne division had committed to bringing it down from the inside.

Seems like Duke Olsen had been getting a tad paranoid, even before we’d come along.

We’d only intensified that.

Eventually, something was going to have to give in this city. And we were going to make sure it wasn’t us.

But that was for later.

Right now, I was on my way to meet up with another essential part of my cover. A certain silvery fellow Agent that I was quite fond of.

After a brief walk through the murmuring streets of Elderwyck, I arrived at her own cover. When I opened the door, a small bell rang above me from the motion, although the woman at the desk didn’t look up from her book. I think her name was Glynda or something.

We hadn’t really talked.

I took a look around briefly. This was another little shop, although it wasn’t doing quite as badly as Jason’s had been. Instead of potion-making, though, this was a stationary, bookbinding, and ink shop. The walls were lined with sheaves of parchment, glues, inks, and even a few finished books.

Honestly, I thought my partner had lucked out with a better job than I had.

“Welcome to Elderwyck Stationary. How can I help-,” The woman started to say, finally looking up. She paused, though, when she saw that it was just me. I did my best to smile at her, although it didn’t appear to do much. She just looked annoyed to see me. “Ugh. Cynthia!” She shouted into the back of the shop. “Your boy toy is here!”

After that, the woman deliberately looked back down at her book and started to ignore me. A few moments later, I heard the sound of sandaled feet navigating the back rows of the shop, before ‘Cynthia’ appeared.

Or rather, the disguised form of Sylvia under her human-seeming illusion.

Since she’d started working here, the hidden Sculpted woman had started to wear simple woolen dresses to blend in. Todays was grey with a green shawl thrown over her shoulders, while a plain white bandana kept her illusioned black hair out of her face. Smudges of ink dotted her face and hands from the hours of scribe work that I knew she must have been doing in the back.

Still, she smiled at the sight of me.

Glynda and ‘Cynthia’ ignored each other as she passed the front desk and linked arms with me. She didn’t look back as we walked out the front door.

“She seems like a handful,” I said mildly, as we walked down the streets of Elderwyck, vaguely in the direction of the docks.

Sylvia hummed, eventually shrugging. “It’s not an issue,” She said dismissively, before cutting her eyes my way and smiling, almost impishly. “So, where are you taking me today, Mr. Alchemist?”

I smiled back down at her. This was, in my mind, one of the most integral parts of my cover. After all, a bachelor could be looked at suspiciously, but a man with a girl he was courting?

Well.

People were inclined to think he had too much to risk by getting into any kind of sabotage. It didn’t tend to cross their minds that the girl could be doing it as well. Not respectable craftspeople like us, anyway.

That it let Sylvia and I get in some actual dates was only a side benefit.

Totally.

However, I was startled when Sylvia’s grip on my arm suddenly tightened, as we drew closer to the docks.

“N-Hans,” She hissed at me, her eyes fixed on the water. “Is that what I think it is?”

Furrowing my brow at her tone, I followed her gaze and felt a bolt of lightning rush down my spine. I don’t think I would ever forget the sight of that particular ship. It looked a little different, maybe cleaned up a bit. There looked to be a fresh coat of paint on its hull, as well.

But I had only just been thinking of it earlier today.

Floating in the harbor of Elderwyck was the Thorny Reef.

Bella was here.