The overhead bell jingled as Maria stepped through the door of Moffavan’s shop. The lobby was empty, which Maria found to be quite odd. With the reputation of being one of the greatest potion masters around, and being stationed in a town with the Adventurers Guild, she expected a lot more business. Maybe she just got lucky that they were visiting when it was slow.

Chariot and Tanalia followed Maria in. Like her, they were looking to restock on healing potions. If anything, Maria figured that would be a recipe worth learning to brew herself. That, or pray to strike it rich so she could buy an endless supply of Greater Healing Potions. After selling all the excess loot from the dungeon, they had a decent haul of gold to spend though, even after they had to give up most of it to Irra and her party.

“Coming!” Lycia’s voice traveled from the back room. The demi-human hurried out into the lobby, frantically wiping down her leather apron. Flakes of ash and blue powder were brushed onto the floor. The moment she spotted the trio, her eyes went wide with an even wider smile. Her ears perked up, and her bushy tail whipped furiously from side to side. “Oh! Hello again!” She took one look at Chariot, saw the shiny new armor, and lit up like Christmas lights. “Ooooh! I love the new armor!” She said, practically hopping in place.

“Thank you,” Chariot said.

Maria raised her hand in greeting and opened her mouth to say hello, but not a word came out. She paused and stared at Lycia’s face. The left side of it was swollen, and purple, not quite like a plum, but more of a light coloring. “Are you okay?” Maria asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Lycia asked, tilting her head.

“You have a little something right about here,” Tanalia said, gesturing to the left side of her face.

“O-oh… that. It’s nothing you have to worry about. I just… tripped and fell.” Lycia kept a straight face and cheery tone. “It was a potion’s accident, the reaction didn’t go quite right.”

Maria looked back at Chariot and Tanalia. They shared the same concerned glance.

“So, what can I do for you?” Lycia asked

Maria sighed and looked back at the demi-human. “Are you sure you’re okay? That doesn’t exactly look like the kind of bruise you get from falling.”

“I’m just clumsy, what can I say,” Lycia chuckled softly. “Are you here for the rage potions?”

“I am,” Chariot said slowly. “We’re here to restock on some more potions as well. That’s not what’s important right now, however. Don’t lie to me, I don’t like liars. What happened to you?”

Lycia’s ears dropped, and her tail came to a standstill. She glanced down and tapped her nails against the glass counter. “Master Moffavan got mad at me before he left this morning. I brewed a batch of swiftness potions as he asked me to, but he said I didn’t do it fast enough.”

Tanalia snorted. “Isn’t that ironic?”

Both Maria and Chariot stared disapprovingly back at the elf.

“I tried explaining to him that the batch was alright though, and he got mad at me for talking back to him. I think it’s just better to not open my mouth so much when he’s around.”

“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Maria said.

“Of course it is, I’m the problem. I’m not good enough. Not yet. But I will be!” Lycia winced and touched her swollen face.

“How come you haven’t drank a healing potion?” Chariot asked. “Can’t you brew yourself one?”

Maria nodded. “Yeah, it would help get rid of the bruise.”

“Master Moffavan doesn’t want me using the product or the ingredients. They’re to be used for customers.”

Maria sighed and pulled out a coin. “Give me a healing potion.”

“Which kind?”

“Any.”

Lycia happily grabbed a Lesser Healing Potion from the back and took the coin. Maria, however, did not take the bottle and instead slid it back over to Lycia.

“There you go.”

It took the demi-human a moment to realize, looking back and forth between the bottle and the coin. “O-Oh, no you didn’t have—”

“Just drink it.”

Lycia stared at the bottle hesitantly and gave the witch a small nod. Her sharp nails scraped against the glass as she gulped it down. The bruise on her face slowly faded away. “T-Thank you,” she said quietly. “So… your… your order. The rage potions are still brewing, but they should be almost done! Just another day or so. The cauldrons still need to boil with the Inferno Pepper Essence.”

Awkward silence quickly filled the room. Maria’s gaze was still fixated on the spot where Lycia had the bruise. She wasn’t completely sure what to make of it. Sitting in silence wasn’t going to do anything but just bring the weight of an unbearable blanket further onto them.

Maria leaned against the counter. “Is it hard to brew potions?” she asked Lycia.

The demi-human’s ears perked up again, and her face beamed with excitement. She started speaking so fast that it was almost hard to keep up. “Oh, yeah it can be really difficult sometimes! It’s a lot of fun though! You have to keep an eye on the temperature of your brew, check the coloring, add the right amount of ingredients, keep track of the time, and oh it becomes a real challenge when you have to manage several batches of different potions at once. I’m not perfect at it, I still mess up a lot of the more advanced recipes, but I think I’m getting better at them. Oh! You also have to know the difference between conical flasks, volumetric, straus, florence, and round-bottom flasks, make sure you’re brewing in the right ones, and keep them separate so you—”

“O-Okay,” Maria chuckled, cutting her off. “Yeah, it does sound like a lot. I wasn’t big on science when I was younger, but it sure does sound interesting.”

“Do you three want to see?” Lycia asked excitedly.

Maria looked back at her party members, smiled, then nodded at Lycia. “Sure, why not.”

Chariot shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind.”

Tanalia waved her hand, uninterested, though still followed everyone into the back room. It was a massive, dimly lit space. Shelves ran the length of each wall, displaying a vast array of glass vials, jars, and antique containers, all filled with colorful liquids and powders. Most of them seemed to admit a soft aura, coloring the stone walls behind them a rainbow of colors. The air carried a faint, intoxicating scent of herbs and exotic ingredients. In the center of the room was a long, sturdy wooden table, cluttered with a variety of tools, vials, and small cauldrons. Cabinets and drawers lined the walls beneath the shelves, storing various dried plants, animal parts, and rare substances. Everything had been labeled to such a meticulous degree that it would be impossible to mix anything up.

"Woah," Maria mumbled. "This is what a potions lab looks like?"

"Yes, isn't it wonderful!" Lycia said excitedly. Along one of the walls, a long fireplace was built, with several suspended cauldrons over low-burning flames. The liquids inside were bubbling, hissing, and crackling as lights flashed and illuminated the room with even more color.

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Chariot and Tanalia followed the two in, and passed a chalkboard covered in meticulously handwritten notes and formulas. At the far end of the room, was a wide stairway, with a small closet door under it.

“Is Moffavan not here right now?” Maria asked.

“He left for the weekend. He does that sometimes. I don’t know where he goes, and he never wants to tell me.”

Maria approached the table in the center and looked over the various tools Lycia was using. It was impossible to tell what all of them were or what they all did. some looked like medieval torture devices, others like jumbled art pieces. The only thing she could recognize was a mortar and pestle resting alongside a collection of freshly picked herbs, waiting to be ground into fine powders. “You’re really passionate about all this, huh,” Maria said.

“Always have been!” Lycia said with a big smile. Her tail whipped back and forth as she leaned against the table. “Ever since I was young I’ve always wanted to be in a lab like this, brewing potions. Oh! Look at this over here!” Lycia brought Maria over to one of the cauldrons in the fireplace. The reddish liquid inside was crackling, like electricity was emanating from it. “This is a brew for thorns potions. It’s not ready yet, when it is, it’s supposed to be green, and it should make it so that any monster that attacks you will receive roughly half the amount of damage they would deal to you. Right now though it’s just sludge, but if I throw in one ingredient, it’ll turn green, and if I throw in another ingredient it’ll turn into something else. It’s like a puzzle putting all the pieces together to make something new! And there are so many kinds of potions—!”

Maria chuckled. The girl, while short and still looking closer to her age, carried with her the kind of childlike wonder Maria wished she still had for things. “Yeah, you’re really passionate.”

“Mhm. All of the cauldrons here need to boil for a couple of days still. It can be a slow process, but it’s worth it. Oh! Uh… what was your name again?” Lycia looked over to Chariot.

“Hm?” the knight said, looking over from the wall of formulas. “Oh, Chariot.”

“Yes! Your rage potions should almost be done. They just need another hour or so to brew. I think. Maybe it’s less?” She spun around and glanced at one of the cauldrons.

“Great, thank you,” she said and turned back to the chalkboard.

“I’m curious, you’re not from around here, are you?” Maria asked.

“Nope!” Lycia smiled.

“I’m not from around here either.”

“Did you travel far?” Lycia asked. “Did you walk for months? Sneak by camps, and towns, and hiding in the back of wagons and—”

“No, no, no,” Maria chuckled nervously. “I just… came here.”

“Oh. Well I had to walk for months, sneak by camps, and towns, and hide in the back of wagons because I didn’t have any money, and no one would hire me because they didn’t want a girl with wolf ears getting hair in food or—”

“S-Sounds like a lot.”

“Oh, it was! It took me almost as long to convince Master Blunog to take me on as his apprentice.”

Maria fell quiet.

“It wasn’t easy. I kept coming to the shop each day after day, asking him to take me on as his apprentice, but he’d always tell me to go away. I wasn’t going to give up that easily! Not after walking for months, sneaking by camps, and towns, and hiding in the back of wagons! My persistence paid off though! After months of begging him, he finally took me under his wing, and now I live here!”

“Months?” Tanalia spun around to look at the demi-human. “I haven’t seen harlots that desperate for something.”

“I’ve always looked up to him. I heard stories about his feats when he was younger, his skill, and his accuracy with brewing. Like the tale when he battled a mudhorn dragon! His sword had broken, and in the heat of battle, he had to make potions mid-fight. Using the flames from the dragon he could boil up flasks really quickly, and rapidly stir in the ingredients. Then, he would hurl the potions at the dragon. They were mostly acidic potions, which are pretty quick to brew. He even rewrote the modern lexicon for potions! He’s the greatest Potions Master out there, and I’m finally getting the opportunity to learn from him. I get the feeling sometimes that he doesn’t like me though.”

“Where do you get that from?” Tanalia asked sarcastically.

“I don’t know, it's just a feeling. I mean he calls me names a lot, says I’m worthless, he always has this dead-pan stare… But I have a plan to change all that!” Lycia hurried to the closet under the stairs and opened the door. She had to crawl over a pile of dusty wooden boxes and glass containers. All her belongings had been pushed to the narrow edge of the space, with a sleeping bag laid out, and her backpack leaned against the wall.

“Is this your room?” Maria asked, peeking in.

“It is! He told me I could sleep under the stairs because that’s where I belong, and he’s right, I’m short enough to fit in there, so I’m not taking up any extra space!”

Maria glanced awkwardly back at Chariot, who looked to the closet under the stairs. Looking at the width of the stairs, there was certainly space under them, but not a whole lot. With all the extra junk cluttering it as well, it didn’t look like the most comfortable place.

Lycia returned a moment later with a rolled-up slip of parchment which she proudly slammed onto the table, and unrolled for everyone to see. It was a list of ingredients for a Gravity Potion. “This potion is incredibly hard to brew. It only takes a little under a day to make, but because of that small window, all the ingredients and the timing of it have to be very precise. Master Blunog said I’d never be able to brew something like this, but I’m going to prove him wrong! If I can prove to him that I can do it, I’m sure he’ll see more value in me as his apprentice! He’ll see I can learn to be just as good as him.”

Again, the trio shared a concerned stare.

“He doesn’t pay me much, so it has taken a while, but I finally bought all the ingredients… well all except for one. I’m missing a white feather from a razorfoot griffin. They have special fibers in them that help stabilize the potion— otherwise, it explodes. So… it’s kind of an important ingredient.”

“Sounds like it would be fun to see,” Tanalia commented.

“I’ve seen enough explosions for a while, thank you,” Chariot added.

“It can be fun,” Lycia giggled. “Sometimes though you can get some negative side effects from a potion blowing up in your face. One time I tried brewing a shine potion, and it… well, it didn’t go well. Let’s just say my arm was glowing like the sun for about a week.”

Maria chuckled a bit. “Sounds handy.”

“Not when you’re trying to sleep,” Lycia sighed. “Anyways, I’ve been stopping by the market every day, but none of the stands ever seem to have any of the feathers, so I’ve been paying attention to local sightings of razorfoot griffins. I check the news board by the church a lot. There have been some sightings of a razorfoot griffin a day's walk from here, so I’m going to go get that feather!”

“You’re going to die,” Tanlia said bluntly.

“Are you sure this will win your master over?” Maria asked.

“I know if I told him he would just tell me I’m a stupid mutt and that I shouldn’t do it. I know I can do it though!”

“I don’t know, the plan is pretty stupid,” Tanalia said.

“How do you even plan on getting a feather from a griffin?” Chariot asked. “They aren’t the most approachable beasts.”

“That’s where that cauldron comes in!” Lycia pointed to one of the cauldrons boiling in the fireplace. “That’s an invisibility potion. I scrounged up the ingredients for that, so all I have to do is drink it and sneak up on it while it’s asleep, and pluck a feather.”

“It still sounds dangerous,” Maria said.

“It does, yes. I don’t have any money to hire anyone from the guild to come with me as protection, but I’m willing to take the risk if it means Master Blunog will see worth in me!”

“I mean… we could help you,” Maria said after a brief pause.

“We could what?” Tanalia glanced at her.

“You can?” Lycia asked excitedly. “But I don’t have anything I can pay you with.”

“It… doesn’t have to be gold. It can be something like a favor in the future.”

“Oh! Or free potions!”

The trio quickly exchanged glances. There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in any of their eyes.

“That sounds great,” Maria said.

“I think that’s a fine deal,” Chariot added.

“... Sure,” Tanalia said.

“Great! Thank you all so much! I can get my things ready, and we can leave in an hour or so when the potions are done brewing!”

“Gives us a bit of time to restock on potions,” Maria said. “We need a lot more healing potions. I’m going to be getting a couple of Greater Healing Potions this time.”

Lycia scoffed. “Duh. I was going to say something about you three getting too few, but Master Blunog came in. Lucky for you though, we have an entire shelf of them.”

One of the cauldrons over the fire started to rattle.

“Oh, that would be the rage potions,” Lycia said.

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'Chapter 30.5 Part 1 - Moonlit Night', and 'Chapter 30.5 Part 2 - Woman's Best Friend', are Exclusive to Patreon

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