Ray

Ray was antsy as he sat down in the library. The truth was that he would rather not rise too high in station now. As High Fae, the higher he got on the societal ladder, the more likely it would get that he would get discovered. The doctor might have gotten fooled, but would the Xnarthan? Ray doubted they would be fooled for long.

But at the same time, could he gain the knowledge he wanted to without getting too involved

Ray did not have some organization supporting him, no network of friends, nor did he have any power to stop them. The best idea for now would be to act like they didn’t exist and go on with his life.

After all, he did just reach the first Tier. Was that not cause for celebration? Hmm, how should he celebrate? Well, he could give himself some time off, if he had anything to do in said time off. Anita was still grounded, and he didn’t have any friends aside from her.

But he could use his newfound mana to get himself a new subject. What should he study? The Alchemic materials sounded good. A mandatory reading for Art of Alchemy, apparently.

Ray levitated the book down from its perch ten feet up the pillar and sat down to read.

The first chapter was on common herbs, something Ray already knew, the second one on the different types of instruments. An encyclopedic textbook. Ray had chosen wrong, but at least this way he could cross another thing off his list. The benefit of having taken so many extra classes in the Academy program.

Ray watched the clock as he continued reading, it was already half past one, another half an hour before it was time for him to leave. The text book was, as expected, boring, Ray just flipped through the textbook, glancing at its contents till he reached the last chapters.

A collection of rare and prohibited materials. Ray had never heard of any prohibited materials, Alchemy was too important to the Empire for it to do more than restrict materials. Now curious, Ray read the first headline, his heart dropping as he did so.

The Fae: Fae are a rare and prohibited Alchemic material that can prove extremely valuable to an Alchemist.

To read what may be his own species there, written as if instead of sapient creatures they were some form of plant, disgusted Ray. At the moment, he was glad that he may not be Human. Slamming the book shut, Ray looked at the clock, it was five minutes before two, close enough that he could justify leaving.

Ray knew what the book said anyways. Fae were good materials, Fae blood, High Fae blood to be specific, was poisonous to Humans, but it was also an excellent reagent. Had Ray used Fae blood to prepare Cough’s cure, he would have made something that could help against a large amount of respiratory illnesses.

The potion would just kill whoever drank it unless it was counteracted by another substance: Human blood. Human blood reacted with Fae blood unfavorably, destroying them both.

Ray at least would hesitate to drink the blood of two sentients when there were other options that could even cure those illnesses. But even he had to concede that Fae blood would be useful in treating rarer, more dangerous diseases.

Ray would just be disgusted, ingesting it. But that was enough of that, he had reached the College gate, and it was time to leave.

The gate was, unlike last time, filled with people getting on buses as soon as they could manage. The classes had presumably just ended, and Ray could see that he would either have to push through or wait for the crowd to lessen. Or he could just look for Marcus.

Ray began looking for him, but there were too many people going in and out for him to check. Just how many gray robes did the College take on? A blue robe was a rare site now, let alone a white one.

IN the end, he found Marcus exiting a building with his head down, walking towards the gate.

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Ray headed straight for him, hoping he wasn’t being too clingy.

“Hello,” Ray said, approaching him.

Marcus jumped, clearly startled before quickly turning towards Ray.

“Ray,” Marcus said, his face expressing his shock, “I did not expect you here.”

“I can see that.” Ray said, “I just had nothing to do and decided to leave early. What a coincidence that I ran into you! I was just trying to find another way to pierce this crowd.”

“Yes, it’s a bit hard to get a bus at this time unless you are with a big group or someone important.” Marcus replied.

“Should we wait a while for it to calm down?” Ray asked.

“No, it's calm enough now that we can wade into the sea. The big wave of buses will be arriving now, it’s best if we get on them.” Marcus said, pointing towards what appeared to be half a dozen buses flying to the gate.

The two of them wordlessly rushed in, both knowing that they had to hurry. A lot of shoving and pushing later they had boarded a bus and on their way down.

“Is it like this everyday?” Ray asked.

“Yes, it's been suggested that the College put up some kind of ticketing here, but since most of the disciples and students have their own transports, the College isn’t very interested in doing this. A lot of students leave each year due to how the College treats us, but there are always more to take their place.” Marcus said.

Ray nodded, it made sense. The College and the Dean seemed to just care about its ranking and not about the students at all. The rest of the trip was, once again, spent chatting as they got off together.

“Umm, my classes don’t usually end at a specific time. Perhaps I could just meet you at the library and we can leave together?” Marcus blurted out. Ray’s face brightened as he said, “Yes, we can do that.” barely able to contain his excitement at the thought.

Marcus smiled slightly as he went his way, Ray once again going towards the Noble’s district, smiling giddily as he did so.

“Meow.” A cat said from its perch on a nearby tree, bringing Ray’s attention to it. Ray looked at it for a second, wondering if he should rescue it, only to see it jump onto another branch and then into a nearby building. Was a cat supposed to behave like that? Well, it could just be the pet of someone in the building and used to the tree.

Putting the strange cat out of his mind, Ray turned back towards the Commoner’s district, he had come far enough that Marcus wouldn’t spot him now. The house wasn’t locked this time, the door was just closed.

Ray opened it with his keys, deciding not to disturb Ma. The second he stepped in he could smell something cooking.

“Ray, is that you?” Ma hollered from somewhere inside the house.

“Yes!” Ray replied as he walked in the direction of the voice. Ma was standing in what was the house’s previous kitchen, clearly baking something.

“I thought I would try to bake something up, so we have something to show when we open. Here, have some.” MA said, offering some cookies to Ray. Ray took them, Ma was very, very good at baking cookies.

“The second floor kitchen won’t be completed for a while, though I am seeing if I can have it built phase by phase. The workers have called in with a delay, but if the shop isn’t open within the week, or we will start having money problems.” Ma said, alarming, Ray.

“Well I did just make my first potion today, so maybe we could sell some potions too? I would be happy to do it, it would be extra practice for me and extra money for us.” Ray asked.

Ma raised her head to look at him, saying, “Hmm, what potion was it, and how much do the materials cost? I expect your new friends among the rebels will be happy to have a potion shop closer to them, and it would help that we would be the only one here.”

“Not having a certificate from the Mage Academy will hurt our business, but if we can prove our product is good and sell it cheaper, we could gain a lot of money.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with doing this?” Ma asked, “I expect that it will take a lot of work to do this.”

“Yes, Ma, and besides, it's good practice for me. The potion was Cough’s cure and the materials were Herbgreen and Sawroot.” Ray replied. The main reason he wanted to do Alchemy was to help Ma, after all.

“I can get those two easily enough at the main market. The distilled water will be harder, but I know how to manufacture it, so I think I will manage to fix together a distillation machine. And the attic can be turned into a lab for you, it's isolated enough.” Ma went on with her planning as Ray went up to drop off his bag in his room.

The room was, as usual, dark, and damp. Ray never did figure out how to increase the lighting. Putting his bag down on the table, he turned to eat more cookies, but found all of them missing.

“Oh, these are delicious.” The voice of the girl he had met in the shadows sounded out on his bed as she munched on the cookies that were in his hand just minutes ago.