After running out of mana for the second time after the potion wore off, Lyda sat and watched the three flames on the candles for several minutes, before remembering something Cyrus had mentioned during his explanations.

"Cyrus," she looked at him. "What are mana veins? You mentioned that using too many potions too quickly could permanently weaken them, but I've never heard of them before in any explanation about magic."

"Most mortals don't know they exist," Cyrus shrugged. "So it's only natural someone of your status wouldn't have heard of them."

"My status?"

"Someone who," he looked away from his book to meet her annoyed gaze. "Is not very knowledge about the most advanced parts of magic. I would estimate the number of mortals who know about mana veins, including yourself, number twenty. And that's including the seven Blessed Ones, the Silver Oracle, and a certain man."

"Oh," she said. "So what are they?"

"The source of mana," Cyrus answered. "Everything that has mana has them, even nonliving things. Their size determines how much mana you can store and their strength determines how quickly you regenerate mana. How attuned to the element they are determines how powerful your magic is.

"There are seven types of them," he continued. "Which ones you have determines which elemental affinities you have. There is one type for each element, and another for high magics. Which high magics one's high magic mana veins are attuned to determines which high magics they can use and how well their ability with it is. As a god, I have strong, large mana veins, and my mana veins for high magics are attuned to every single type of high magic.

"Mana veins," he continued his explanation, not pausing to let Lyda speak, not caring if she had a question. "Are intangible. They're purely magical, but they still affect you and your abilities. You have fire mana veins, and that's it. There also aren't many of them, they are small, and they are weak. With training, you can increase their size, strength, and how many of them you have. That last one is especially important, as it also affects how much mana you can store and how quickly you can regenerate it, but it also affects how easily you can wield it.

"That's the best explanation I can give," he told her. "If you keep at a three-times-a-day training program for the next two months, using a potion during each session and using up any mana you regenerate during the sessions, you can likely double how long and large your mana veins are, and possibly increase how many of them you have by half to how much you have now. As for how strong they are, you could potentially triple that. The only reason you'd have so much progress is because of how weak you currently are and the potions."

"And I take it," Lyda said. "Doing that kind of training would be the only reason I manage to meet the standard the Blessed Ones require for their challenge to be completed in two months?"

"Yes," Cyrus nodded.

"That's between a hundred and a hundred and eighty or so potions," Lyda sighed. "Which would be three hundred thousand to… almost six hundred thousand notes. I don't think I'd ever be able to pay you back, and I don't think it's good for me to abuse your generosity like that, Cyrus."

Cyrus turned his attention back to his book, and Lyda turned her attention back to the candles, watching as they continued to burn. Though he knew Lyda thought he was reading, Cyrus was thinking about her words. He hadn't considered that she wouldn't feel right simply accepting the potions from him.

The expense didn't matter to him. For the young god, the experience of helping someone on the quest made up for the cost. The potions were easy for him to make, since he could delve into the Dungeons where the ingredients were and harvest them himself. He also made them in batches of ten at a time, and it took less than an hour of his own time. If he really tried, he could make two batches in an hour and a half.

Because of that, there was almost no real cost to the potions in his eyes, and the three thousand notes was simply the market value of them.

But he knew how mortals were, and that decent ones would have an issue accepting such expensive gifts. So he tried to come up with something that she could do to pay him back that he would at least feel right about.

A different man might have thought to abuse her status as a prostitute and make her sleep with him whenever he wanted as payment, but the thought of sex didn't even cross Cyrus's mind as he contemplated what to propose for payment, and not just because of his aversion to being touched. He was simply not the type of person to think of that when coming up with payments.

Eventually, he came to a decision, and turned his attention back to Lyda.

"There are several things," Cyrus told her. "Which you could do to pay me back, if you wish to do so."

"What are they?" Lyda looked at him, and Cyrus realized that it had been long enough her mana was back to full, as she was playing with the flames again.

"First," he said. "You can help me make the potions. They have a two-week shelf life, and I had put the latest batches up for sale. You'll probably screw up at first, but once you can make them, you'll be fine.

"Second," he continued. "You can help me harvest the ingredients for them. That can come once you have a little more talent with magic, and a little more mana. So in a month or so. I'll have my brothers collect the ingredients until then."

And hope that they didn't try to prank him with them. He made a mental note to warn them against that. Then made a mental note to consider simply purchasing the ingredients from the markets to avoid said pranks entirely.

"Third," Cyrus continued. "You can help me try to overcome my aversion to touch."

Cyrus felt that one was important enough to count as a payment. If she could help him overcome his aversion to touch, then it would be a major help in his immortal life, as he knew there was a chance he would eventually want a relationship with someone. If he waited until then to try to overcome his aversion to touch, it could potentially hinder his chances.

Preparation for the future was his desire there, as he had no interest in having a relationship in the present and wasn't certain how long it would take for his life to relax enough and his brothers to behave mature enough for him to want to enter into one.

"Overcome it how?" Lyda asked. "I get the feeling you don't mean by having sex."

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

"No," he answered. "Just… touching. With me trying not to pull away or blast you into nothing."

"Do you actually do that?" She asked in shock.

"I was in a foul mood," he muttered. "And she hugged me from behind. I didn't even know her."

Lyda chose to not think about that as she thought over his offer.

"I don't have any experience with making potions," she told him. "So if we did that, it would probably be best to have me in a role that wouldn't, ah, hinder you."

"We can start you off with simpler potions," he told her. "Easier ones to make. As long as you pay attention and follow the directions, you should be fine after a couple of weeks of practice. But you're right, you won't be handling the finer points of the creation, those take a lot more skill than you'd gain in two weeks. It took me three years to be able to make these potions without screwing up nine times out of ten."

"Okay," Lyda said. "That sounds fair. All three of them do, though I'm not sure how good I'd be at helping you harvest ingredients for such an expensive potion."

"Don't worry about that," Cyrus told her. "You'll manage."

"Okay," she said. "Thank you for the help, Cyrus."

"You're welcome," he turned his gaze back to the book. "Also, I know you were really only 'on the job' at Madam Mara's Restaurant, but if you decide to try to earn some money here by servicing men and women, please don't bring them back here. The only reason I didn't book you a room of your own was because I didn't expect the Blessed Ones to not take you for the challenge immediately. Otherwise, I would have booked you your own room."

"I can respect that," Lyda told him. "Does this place have a pool?"

"Yes," he answered. "You didn't pack swim gear with your things, probably because you didn't expect to go swimming. There's a shop on the first floor that sells swim gear."

"Alright," she put out the candles, then moved the tray onto the coffee table. "I'm going to go for a swim, Cyrus. I'll probably eat while I'm done there."

"Okay," he said.

Lyda left, then Cyrus finished reading the chapter he was on. Upon finishing, he replaced his bookmark, then sent it and the tray of candles back to the warehouse before entering the kitchen. There, he pulled out a variety of supplies, including beakers, a scale, vials, mortars and pestles, knives, and other items used in alchemy.

After staring at them for a bit, Cyrus frowned as he thought about what he was doing. A few minutes passed in silence, before he set a stuffed teddy bear on the other side of the counter, setting it so that it was sitting and facing him.

"There we go," he said.

The bear in place, Cyrus removed his hoodie, leaving his chest bare, then pulled on a green apron with black trim, a silver "MASTER CYRUS" embroidered on at his chest. The apron had been something his brothers gave him as a joke, but it was a high-quality apron that helped to protect his clothes from any splashes he didn't want to deflect with magic. He wore it mostly to protect his pants, as while he didn't mind going shirtless while making potions, he did have an issue with being naked while making potions.

His apron on, Cyrus then summoned several reagents from his warehouse, including several crystals, roots, berries, herbs, mushrooms, mosses, and jars containing various beast parts. The god looked at the ingredients with a slight frown, then sent several back.

"Those aren't part of this potion," he shook his head. "Why do I keep trying to make that one?"

Cyrus pulled on a pair of disposable gloves, then looked at the stuffed animal.

"I'm going to be making a potion which temporarily enhances the sight of the imbiber," he told it, then sighed and shook his head. "This is weird."

He pulled out a camera, turned it on, and set it on the bear's lap.

"There we go," he nodded, then looked at the bear once more. "I'm going to be making a potion which temporarily enhances the sight of the imbiber. The imbiber is the person who drinks it. It is a more basic potion, and the simpler version, which I'm going to teach you how to make, lasts for around ten minutes.

"First," he pulled out some herbs. "You want to take some rumikk leaves. Fresh ones work better, but dried ones will do as well. Put two or three in the mortar, then start grinding it with the pestle, like so."

Cyrus began grinding the herbs.

"You want to turn them into a fine paste," he informed the bear. "Or if they're dried, a fine powder. Since we're using dried ones, we're going for a fine powder. A lot of recipes and potion makers recommend measuring everything by weight. I dislike that because it's not actually as accurate when it comes to potions, strangely. We'll want to repeat grinding the rumikk leaves until we have two even teaspoons of it, plus a pinch. The pinch isn't a big one, just a gentle one."

Cyrus continued grinding herbs, scooping them out and setting them on a small paper so that he could grind more. He continued explaining to the bear and camera how to make the potion, doing his best to state every step.

When he finished thirty minutes later, he examined the light yellow liquid that he had poured into the bottle and nodded, satisfied with his work. He capped it, then sent it to the warehouse to cool and wait for sale.

"Now," Cyrus told the bear. "We have to clean all instruments we used thoroughly. I didn't before I began using them, which could have affected the outcome of the creation."

Cyrus then used water magic to quickly clean everything, sending the dirty water into the sink as he sanitized the tools with fire magics. He stopped the camera and set up a small TV on one side of the counter, before hooking the camera up to it.

After pulling out more ingredients for the sight-enhancement potion, Cyrus turned on the recording of him making it, and began following the directions he had given the bear. The resulting potion was opaque and thick, and the god shook his head, looking at the bear.

"This is why I wanted to practice," he told the bear. "She'll probably ask some questions, but there might be something I missed. For instance, I forgot to tell you to add a small bit of water to the rumikk powder to turn it into a paste before adding it to the pot. What if she missed me doing that when I was teaching her? Her potion would fail."

He was glad he'd decided to record himself teaching someone how to make a potion, as it let him see where his flaws in it lay. Once he finished the second teaching session, Cyrus pulled out his cell phone, checking the text he had received from Max.

Seamus went missing and my scry spell can't locate him! Help!

Cyrus closed the text and pocketed the phone, then looked at the bear.

"You're in safer hands," he told it, then set everything up for his session following his second teaching session's instructions.

He continued to practice, and was on his third 'learning' session when Lyda returned, carrying two boxes of pizza, a reusable store bag hanging from one hand, and a fluffy white towel across her shoulders, which was the only thing she wore other than the red bikini she had bought in the shop.

"They had a surprising amount of people at the pool," she told Cyrus without registering what he was doing. "For a ski resort on a mountain."

"It's indoors and heated, and children love swimming," he said as she approached. "That makes it rather noisy and crowded, even in the dead of winter."

"Yeah, I realized that," she stopped walking and stared. "Is that a teddy bear?"

"His name is Seamus," Cyrus nodded. "I'm teaching him how to make potions."

"Is he living?" She asked.

"No, I bought him at some cheap store for Max when we were three."

"Why are you teaching him how to make a potion?" She set the boxes down on the dining room table, then hunt the bag on the back of one of them.

"So that I can better teach you."

"Ah," she said. "How's it going?"

"I think I'm good with this one," he told her. "But we can eat after this. How was the swim session?"

"It was good, thanks," she answered. "I ordered some pizza because I figured you'd probably forget to eat, with what I know about you."

"I did," he nodded as he poured the last ingredient into the pot. "There's no fruit on the pizza, is there?"

"There isn't," she answered. "Why?"

"I don't like fruit on my pizza," he said, then shook his head. "Unless it's a fruit pizza, but that's different. And a dessert."

"Yeah," she said. "After dinner, are you going to teach me how to make a potion? Or are you going to wait until you're more comfortable with your, ah, teaching abilities?"