Ray
Ray immediately turned to her, ready to fight, before remembering that he had left his wand in the backpack. Ugh, not having any combat power was hard.
“I was curious about who it was that was able to detect me while I was in shadow walk, so I did a little research. As it turns out, red haired and blue-eyed boys aren’t very common in this city.”
“In fact, you are the only one I could find. Eritrae Rosenmund, the foster son of Marchioness Ariana Salazar and baker Matilda Rosenmund. A surprising combination of parents, I must say.”
“And imagine my surprise when I learned that you were, in fact, not even a proper Mage. At least, that’s what my friends at the Academy program tell me. But that’s not true, is it? I distinctly remember you throwing fire at me.”
“What are you, Ray Rosenmund? I asked my mother about you, and she said to leave you alone. The Rebel Queen told me to stay away from a commoner, another surprise. But I don’t want to. So expect me to be visiting often. And do keep a few cookies around, they are very delicious.” the shadow princess said as she disappeared, a shimmer leaving the room with the box of cookies. At least, she left ten mana coins on his bed.
Ray rushed down, ready to tell Ma all about it, but found her staring at a pile of mana coins, and missing cookies.
“Ray, do you mind telling me why the Shadow princess just bought all of my cookies?” Ma asked.
“I think she liked the ones she stole from me. Though she did pay later.” Ray answered, sheepishly.
“Yes, she does seem to have a habit of doing that.”Ma said, looking at the stack before her. “But what exactly was she doing in your room?”
“Well, she came here to tell me that she had found out who I am.” Ray answered.
Ma merely gave him a ‘I told you so’ look and went back to cooking. ‘I need to remake all of these cookies, but take these mana coins and get yourself some ingredients and a proper distillation machine. I don't have time to make you one anymore if the Shadow Princess is going to be bringing people around. But at least we’ll have a lot of business.”
Ray nodded and left to buy things, deciding that he was never going to take a box of cookies anywhere again.
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Ray
The buying of materials thankfully went well, Ray gave money, and they gave him materials. But now he had to test out his new lab.
The attic was a small place, just three tables Ray had moved up and a lot of dust. At least Ray, he could do something about the dust now that he had mana and the wand. And he would get a chance to use the wand for the first time.
But first he had to figure out what color Air was. White still did nothing. And transparent was neutral mana. So what else. Violet? Ray had seen it depicted as such in some places, though never understood the representation.
But figuring that it wouldn’t hurt, Ray conjured violet glitter and watched as nothing happened. Did Air cause any difference when a little more of it appeared? Facepalming at his stupidity, Ray did it near a desk and watched the dust fly away to another corner of the desk. Well he had the color, now it was the wand’s turn.
Ray removed it from his bag, holding it awkwardly in his hand as he pointed it at the desk. Sending mana into the wand, he watched as the tip lit up and violet glitter emerged from it, as he had intended.
The feeling was strange, as if some thread was binding the glitter to the tip of the wand, and through it to him. But he could control it this time. Ray sent the violet glitter towards the table, letting it leak a little air each time, creating a gentle gust of wind that did not end in seconds.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The wind proceeded calmly as Ray directed it towards the wall. But it also consumed nineteen points of mana, too much cost for Ray to bear to clear the entire lab. Not in a day at least. The Alchemy would have to wait for now, he supposed, he had cleaning to do.
Ray spent the next few hours making gusts of wind to blow tracks of air through the tables, chairs and other places and out the window, but it was obvious that it wouldn’t work. A lab needed a certain amount of cleanliness that a dusty old attic would never achieve, not without significant changes.
The window would have to be sealed shut for one, more dust could not be allowed to enter in. And there was the question of beakers and cauldrons. Ray would need them too. Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea he’d had.
But he could think about it tomorrow, it was already late. Ma would be calling him to dinner any minute now. Ray decided to preempt it by going down the stairs, but he needn’t have bothered. Ma was fast asleep, having swept the day cooking. Two dishes of what was likely their dinner beside her. Ray smiled as he shook her up, hopefully the bakery panned out.
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Ray
Learning level 4 reached: 72 mana +1 to intelligence
Tier 1: (195/200)
Ray sighed as he headed down the stairs, his progress had slowed massively in the coming days. The lack of a lab made it so that he could not practice much, and the System seemed to give doing new things a lot of importance.
The next five days had passed quickly, Ray spent the mornings in the College, the evenings at home cleaning up the place in readiness to become what was to be his lab. In the end, he decided to still go through with it, but weld things himself. The color for metal was, as he suspected, metallic silver, and after that sealing things shut had been relatively simple.
But he had found out an unpleasant thing, the glitter could only add, it could not do any other thing. Ray could add a strip of metal around the window borders, sealing it shut, but he couldn’t will the already existing metal at all. The glitter, in a way, was just the source of elements he used. The color caused them to manifest as such.
But that was enough of that, he had more important things to do. To be specific, it was the shop's opening day. Ray walked down the steps to the first floor. The floor had changed massively in the last few days.
The showcase windows occupied three sides of the bakery, with seating in the middle. Though only the right one was occupied right now.
“Are we sure we will get enough customers to justify these things? Or that we will be able to manage it all?” Ray asked.
“No. I am quite sure that I will not be able to manage it all if it becomes full, I have no interest in working nights again. I will hire if it comes to it, but for now we don’t have the money.” Ma said.
“Well, it won’t be long now,” Ray said, looking at the clock. The College ran from Monday to Saturday, with Sunday off usually. Though some professors still kept classes on the day. Ray was thankfully not a part of any of those classes. But he did have the class reselection tomorrow.
“Yes, actually, I am going to go in and open it early. I doubt there is anyone waiting, and who knows, we might catch the morning crowd.” Ma said, heading towards the door.
“Ma, we already open at seven.” Ray noted.
“Yes, but there could be joggers, and some of the people commute and might want some bread or something for the day.” Ma replied, her anxiousness clear.
“Ok.” Ray replied as Ma opened the door. Though there was no line waiting for them outside, there was a single girl. The Shadow Princess.
“I thought I’d buy them properly this time. Can you give me, ugh, a hundred cookie boxes?” the Shadow Princess said, ordering a third of their stock. Ray was mostly sure that she wasn’t the only one eating them, for all he knew, Ma’s cookies were now a favorite among the rebellion.
“Yes, though you could also order something for tomorrow too! And for the days after. A hundred cookie boxes every day for a month?” Ma asked. Ray had to try very hard to hold in his laugh, Ma was drawing business again. The next step was to ask for the Shadow Princess to pay half in advance, and this way she would secure revenue for a month.
“Yes, though expect me to increase it from time to time. I suppose I have to pay up front?” the Shadow Princess replied as she removed a pile of mana coins from her pouch and handed it to Ma. “A third of the cost. I will pay a third every ten days.”
Ray stared at her in shock. What was in Ma’s cookies that she was so mad about them? Ma had been selling them for a long while, granted it was in the Merchant’s district and her skills had likely increased since then, but why was she so mad about them? Was Ma adding something special in them? And how was she going to be able to make them all in time?