Sunday came and Micah made his way to Nistar for his third lesson with Lisa. Instead of knocking on the front door though, he spotted her sitting in the yard and made his way over. She sat there, meditating in the middle of her training grounds, with her legs crossed and her eyes closed like she’d shown him. At first, Micah wasn’t entirely sure if she was breathing or not. But when he stepped closer she took in a sharp breath. It was a long while before she exhaled and drew the next.

She was breathing. Just very, very slowly.

For some reason, the whole thing made Micah frown. He knew that meditating was supposed to be “necessary” during the first decade or so of getting your Path, but he hadn’t expected to see Lisa doing it. The whole process seemed … beneath her. Somehow.

He threw his sack of loot in front of her and dropped down after it, mirroring her in everything but his smile.

He’d wanted to surprise her when she woke up, but she immediately opened one eye to peek at him.

“Hey, Micah,” she said.

So she wasn’t meditating after all? Or maybe she was just that good.

Either way, no fun, Micah thought.

“Hey, Lisa,” he said back.

She glanced at his bag. “Did you bring something?”

“Loot,” he said with a little pride. “I thought you could tell me what it’s worth?”

He’d brought all of his Tower belongings with him—even the enchanted flask that Ryan had given him back—with the intent on selling some of them. Just some. He needed money for things, like more glass jars for experiments, maybe some bought ingredients, maybe even some equipment like a distillation set or a recipe book? Even if he had to translate those, they might give him some ideas.

And Micah definitely also needed money for fixing up his mother’s knife. He had a vague plan on how he could give it back to her now. She was employed on the district council, after all, so she often had to deal with the representatives of the various Guilds. Maybe if she’d heard about the rumors going on in the Tower, Micah could say that Ryan had found the knife and brought it back for him?

It was worth a shot. And it might put Ryan in his parents’ good books, which he apparently wasn’t, he insisted, for no reason that Micah could understand. Ryan had saved his life. If a classmate had done that for one his sisters, his parents would probably have wanted her to date him or something. Well, maybe not that … His parents weren’t that weird. But his Nana probably would have insisted on it. She’d been ridiculous like that.

Before Micah could do any of that though, he had to know how much his stuff was worth. He didn’t want to get taken advantage of.

Unfortunately, he already was.

Lisa had begun rummaging around in his bag after he spoke and pulled out one of the flesh crystals. Even while she continued to rummage around with her other hand, she put the crystal in her mouth and ate it. She looked so casual while she did it. One crystal gone, just like that. It made it all the more horrifying.

Micah immediately snatched his bag back and shouted, “Lisa!”

“Huh?” She looked at him and chewed. “What?”

“You can’t just eat my stuff!”

“Oh? Oh.” She smiled. “Sorry. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

Didn’t think I’d mind?

“I killed a rat for that. Of course, I mind,” Micah said and she frowned at him with a single raised eyebrow. Micah realized to her, killing a rat must not have been such a big deal. It wasn’t to him, either— it had been rather easy— but the meaning behind it. It had sentimental value.

And anyway—

“Can you even eat crystals?” he asked dubiously, with equal parts curiosity, worry, and maybe a little less disgust.

“Oh, sure,” Lisa said easily. She gestured for his bag, and Micah slowly relinquished his death grip on it to let her drag it between them. She wasn’t going to eat any again, right? Micah thought he’d made that clear.

She pulled another out for him to see. “It’s full of meat essence, isn’t it?”

She said “meat” and not “flesh”, as if it were something inherently meant to be eaten.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Well, meat isn’t bad for you, is it?”

“Uncooked meat is,” Micah tried.

His instructor rolled her eyes.

“That’s because of bacteria and diseases. Flesh on its own in its purest form; you can eat that. Why should its essence be any different?”

“Because … because it’s essence,” Micah tried.

“And?”

“It isn’t nourishing? What would it even do in your body? It’d just float around and probably cause problems.”

Micah tried to imagine it, but he was having a hard time figuring out what foreign essence would do in your body.

“Does the essence of the food you eat cause you any problems?” Lisa asked.

“Of course not, it can’t affect anything without help,” Micah said. “But crystals’ essence can.”

He broke off, having a sudden thought. If crystals’ essence could already affect the world without the need for a Skill, didn’t that mean anyone with access to them could become an alchemist? Of course. It was like how anyone who could be a “cook” by preparing a meal. But only to a limited degree, since they wouldn’t have access to patterns, and because normal people wouldn’t have access to [Cook] Skills. Unless … were there crystals in the Tower that had patterns? Or maybe even magical plants and monsters? Was that how the first [Alchemists] got their Class?

It seemed obvious to Micah, but was it important? He stored the question away for later.

Meanwhile, Lisa was looking at him. She still wasn’t very expressive, but she seemed somehow frustrated all the sudden. She shook her head a little, and said, “I’m going about this all wrong. Why don’t we make this your lesson for today?”

“Uhm, okay?”

“Great. First things first, do you know of the [Condense Water] spell?”

Micah frowned. “I know of [Summon Water]?” he offered.

Lisa seemed to think about it, but after a moment, she waved her hand in obvious derision.

“A crappy spell. It takes at least ten times the effort to summon water from another place, and the water disappears after a moment unless you bond it. It’s not nearly worth the effort.”

“Bond it?” Micah asked.

“With mana. Or maybe a physical bond like a chemical reaction. But that only lasts as long as the bond lasts. You might as well just use essence, then.”

“Uhm?” At least that answered Micah’s question about baking bread … probably.

“Anyway,” Lisa went on. “[Condense Water] does just as its name implies and draws water from the air around you. Depending on the strength of the spell, it might even create it out of spare parts. How do you think it does that?”

“Mana?” Micah asked. It seemed like the answer to everything with [Mages], even though he didn’t even know what the stuff was.

“If you’re an incompetent Class-[Mage], yeah,” Lisa said.

Class-[Mage]? Oh, she probably meant someone who only had the Class but not the Path. Micah remembered Lisa saying, They just use mana for everything. Did she believe in efficiency, then?

What other ways were there to power a spell?

A sudden memory of the Kobold came to him, how it had ripped large stripes of fire and heat essence from the room around them towards himself, bundling them in an ever tighter ball of growing flames.

Micah gulped in true disgust at the rest of the memories—its charred and blackened hand, the knife in its side, the look on its face. He had killed it, hadn’t he? With that explosion. And yet, it was still one of the things he hadn’t been able to face yet. Not conquered, just faced.

He wanted to do both, someday.

For now, he frowned in understanding. Of what Lisa was claiming, at least.

“Essence,” he said, and immediately rejected the idea. “Are you saying flesh essence creates flesh? Because that makes no sense. Fire essence to fire, that I get. Essence is energy, too, after all … basically ... more or less. But flesh?”

“What? Well, yeah, but— Argh. No,” Lisa seemed to have troubles reasoning with him.

“I’m not saying those tiny flesh crystals create flesh on their own, Micah,” Lisa said slowly. “Just … [Condense Water], remember?”

Micah did, but he didn’t—Oh. His frown lifted.

“You’re saying enough essence bundled together draws its physical counterpart towards it. Like a magnet?”

Lisa blinked.

“Sort of. That’s an oversimplification, but yeah. Essence can manipulate its counterparts to a degree. Flesh crystals help condense food into their likeness inside of your stomach. Humans may be omnivores, but you can’t digest everything. Eating the crystals helps improve the nutritional value of what’s in your stomach by a teeny tiny bit.”

She held up the flesh crystal again for him to see—and Micah suspected she wanted him to see, to actually look at the icy water within. It was behaving towards a pattern, but it didn’t have it itself. Was that because it was meant to create?

“You can think of this as … yeah, as half of one of those mini salami slices they put on appetizers,” Lisa said.

“That doesn’t seem very satisfying.”

He snatched the crystal out of her hand before she could eat it.

She squinted at him.

“That’s because that’s only half the picture,” Lisa said. She just got another one out of the bag and gave him a smile that dared him to try that again.

“Can you tell me what the other half is?” Micah asked.

“Can’t you?” Lisa asked back but changed tunes before he could think about it. “Oh, I read up on this. When in doubt, students are supposed to form cohesive questions so they can seek a clear answer. Try doing that.”

Micah frowned at her advice—she read up on teaching?—but he thought it over.

Why would be eating flesh essence be satisfying?

“Because essence … ” Micah said slowly, “is a force of thought? And if humans can affect it with their thoughts … maybe it can affects humans’ as well?”

Lisa grinned at him.

“Exactly. It satisfies your feeling of hunger for a while. Apparently, the church used to cook and bake all sorts of things with the crystals, to make food for the restoration workers and the poor.”

Micah frowned.

“That seems unusually nice of them.”

Lisa shrugged.

“They weren’t horrible at first,” she said and started looking through his bags again. “They helped a lot with rebuilding the cities after everything. But they kept on baking cookies even after that. They even got a special name for them, nowadays. Church Cookies or something. And trust me, they didn’t make those out of the good of their hearts.”

Micah nodded. He could see that. Getting rid of people’s hunger without actually feeding them … it seemed like something the church would have done. Considering they basically took advantage of a whole nation when it was on its knees.

Faith was supposed to be about giving people hope and strength, not abusing their insecurities.

“Nowadays, people still make ration cookies with them,” Lisa went on. “But they also put a whole bunch of good stuff into those. I think if you drink water they bloat up in your stomach. Other people also crush and use meat crystals and similar ones instead of sugar when they’re on a diet.”

“Seems dangerous,” Micah commented. “Tricking your body into thinking it isn’t hungry.”

Lisa shrugged. “To each their own. It’s their decision.”

It’s their decision. Micah smiled. He liked that.

“So, what are they worth?”

“Hm?” Lisa glanced up at him. “Oh, nothing. They go for two pennies at the Guild.”

What?

“What?” Micah asked out loud, shocked. But— “But I fought a monster for that.”

Lisa shrugged.

“The Guild has thousands of students going into the Tower every day,” she explained. “And they have had that for the better part of the century now. They have more crystals from the first few floors stocked up than they could ever use or need. They only reason they still buy them is because they have an agreement with the city. You’d have better chances of selling them in the Bazaar. But that just means an extra penny or two. ‘Might as well eat them, or use them yourself. You can make healing potions with them, right?”

Micah nodded slowly, still catching up to the fact that something he’d worked for was worthless. Gone were his plans of earning some extra change by going into the Tower. Two pennies … he’d have to kill twenty rats each trip just to pay for the day pass. How was he going to make money now? Sure, he’d brought his other things along, but he didn’t really want to sell most of them. It wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run …

He stared at the crystal in his hand.

“Go on, try it,” Lisa interrupted his thoughts.

Huh? Oh, Micah hadn’t even been thinking about that. But now it was in his head. How would it taste?

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Hm.

Carefully, Micah put it into his mouth and bit down. He flinched at the crunch when it broke. It was like a harder chunk of rock sugar, but it tasted like … It tasted almost like that link of sausages he’d eaten at Prisha’s after he’d gotten home. Not quite. It was fainter somehow. More watery.

When he swallowed, it had more substance than it had any right to have. He could see the appeal, even though he’d never eat them himself as a snack.

When he looked back at Lisa, she was chewing something, too. He scowled. This had all just been a trick so she could eat another one.

She grinned at him and held up a fire crystal.

“These, on the other hand,” she said while she still ate, “might sell for two iron coins in the Bazaar nowadays. They’ve been getting scarce ever since you broke the Tower. How—”

Micah frowned and interrupted her. “I thought you said the Guild has those stocked up?” His frown deepened as he thought of other things.

Wait, didn’t that mean somewhere in this city, there were storage houses full of a “better part of the century” worth of crystals? What could someone do with all of that? What kind of potions could you make? Micah briefly considered becoming a [Thief]. Just very briefly.

“Yeah, but the Guild isn’t just going to open its stores just because some fire potions have been getting pricier,” Lisa explained. “I’m pretty sure they even profit from that, cause people have to buy the larger crystals, you know? And opening up their stores would send a wrong message. It’d be like declaring the world is about to end … “

So they’re like emergency rations, then?

“Where’d you find this?” Lisa asked him, still meaning the fire crystal.

“Oh. I, uhm, sort of found a way into the Salamander’s Den … ” Micah said honestly.

After a moment, her eyebrows shot up.

“Really?”

He expected questions, about how, where, maybe why. Maybe she would be worried about him like every other person older than him was? Maybe she would berate him? Instead, Lisa just dropped the crystal back into the bag and said, “Cool. Good for you.”

Micah breathed in relief. Then he grinned. Lisa was awesome. For some reason, he really wanted to go climbing with her and Ryan just then. He couldn’t wait to tell the other guy. Maybe they could make plans, then?

Meanwhile, Lisa was straining to pull his bundle of black velvet out of the sack without spilling anything else. A final tug, it came free and she had to lean back to balance herself.

“What’s this?” she asked, holding up the cloth.

“I found it in a Salamander chest,” Micah explained. “I thought it might be magical?”

She shook her head while looking it over. “Nope, no magic here. But it’s great quality. Perfect for a fancy pillowcase.”

“Ha, that’s just what I thought…” Micah said and watched her roll it back up. “Can I sell it?”

“Probably. But it’d have to be second-hand at a tailor, or a rummage shop or flea market. Not at the Guild. No idea what it’s worth.”

“Do you want it?” Micah tried.

She looked at him. “For free?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Then no.”

Drat.

She pulled out his enchanted flask next and looked at him. “Do you really want to sell this?”

Micah bit his lip and shrugged. “It depends on how much it’s worth. I might be able to do better things with the money.”

“I don’t know an exact price,” Lisa said, “but it wouldn’t be a fortune. A simple durability enchantment wouldn’t even qualify it for an official auction. Maybe two silver coins at most? Probably a little less. It’s got a pretty niche demand.”

Micah’s eyebrows shot up. That was a lot of money. Especially to a kid like him. And Ryan— No, Gardener had just handed this back to him? It eased his opinion on the man a little. Just a little. He still didn’t like him, even though he did have a special place in Micah’s mind that was labeled, “People whom I owe a life debt.”

He had no idea how to repay that, but forcing himself to like someone he didn’t definitely wasn’t it. Nor was giving away fancy pillowcases for free. Maybe Micah could just try to be better?

“Honestly, you should probably keep it,” Lisa told him, still inspecting the flask. “You’re an [Alchemist] Micah. This is exactly the type of thing you’d want to buy someday. Especially if you’re heading into the Tower.”

Micah pushed his lips around a bit, considering. But eventually, he relented.

“Alright. What about the monster parts?”

“They’d both probably double their crystal’s worth, but that’s still not much.”

That actually eased Micah’s worries. If they had been worth a lot, like the flask, he would have had to consider selling them. This way, he didn’t. But there was something else he wanted to know.

“I got the rat tail two weeks ago,” he told Lisa. “How long is it going to last?”

“Oh, uhm good question. Probably another two weeks,” she told him. “Longer if you cool it and don’t move the thread around too much. You can also crush some of the other flesh crystals you have into a powder and put that into a jar. Then you can store any more rat parts you find in there. Still with their crystal, of course. It’d be a basic preservation system for the various monster parts before you can prepare anything else.”

That was good to know.

“Thank you,” Micah said, making a mental note to remember that. He wasn’t sure if he was going to do it, especially for the salamander scale, but maybe after a few more visits?

“And the wolf crystals?”

He didn’t really want to sell those either because he needed them, and they came in limited supply, unlike the flesh crystals. Fighting wolves definitely wasn’t on Micah’s weekly checklist. One wrong move in there and he’d be dead.

Although … based on his past experience it was probably something closer to two wrong moves. He was pretty lucky.

“I think it’s a copper coin at the Guild,” Lisa told him. “But you could probably get a little more out of it in the Bazaar. Vendors like to buy loot from Climbers at a little higher price and then sell them to gullible idiots browsing the Bazaar for at least double their worth, telling them all sorts of things about them. Like that all crystals have different kinds of healing properties and you should bathe with them and stuff. Or put them in your tea. Some of them do, of course. But most of the sellers there don’t care about that. They’ll say anything for profit.”

Micah was trying very, very hard not to blush at that. Or sweat. Or to let Lisa see the embarrassment in his rigid expression. Good thing he hadn’t bought anything from that vendor way back when, or this would be an entirely different conversation.

“Oh,” he croaked and added, “That’s mean.”

Lisa smiled at him. “Cute.”

“I’m not cute,” Micah said immediately. “I’m manly.”

“Sure you are.”

Finally, Lisa pulled out another crystal. The large red one Micah had found in the Salamander chest.

“Oh,” he said. “I'd almost forgotten about that.”

More like, he’d been avoiding thinking about it for some time now.

“It’s bigger. Why’s that? And can you tell me what that’s worth?”

Lisa looked up at him.

“You don’t know what this is?” she asked, but immediately shook her head. “Of course not. You live under a rock.”

“Westhill isn’t a rock,” Mich said, but his heart wasn’t in it. He was more interested in another shiny rock that Lisa was holding. “Is it something valuable?”

“Didn’t you see the engravings inside?” Lisa asked him.

“Which engravings?” Micah didn’t remember seeing anything like that. He leaned forward to check, but all he saw was red.

“Right there in the middle.” Lisa pointed.

Micah squinted his eyes a bit. He thought maybe he saw something white? A few lines? Or a shape? He shook his head.

“Nope.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Why? Just tell me what it is.” He tried to grab it, but Lisa pulled back, seemingly cradling the gem against her side.

“Hold on,” she said. “Micah, I want to, uhm … Maybe summon a flame?”

“What? Why?" Micah almost got up right then to get away, but he forced himself to remain seated.

“I want you to tell me what it looks like.”

“I can tell you that without summoning one,” Micah spat. “It’s a hideous storm of red.”

“Storm?” Lisa asked. “Like in, storm clouds?”

“Yeah,” Micah said.

“Kind of hazy?” she went on.

“Yeah?”

“Dude,” Lisa said. “You need glasses.”

“What?”

“I think your [Essence Sight] is helping you see,” Lisa said. “Fire isn’t hazy, Micah. It’s sharp and flickering, kind of like swaying teeth.”

Micah frowned a little because that was literally the way he saw it under [Essence Sight]. That actually … it made sense. The world had seemed to become sharper when he got the Skill. And weren’t people with glasses supposed to view everything as kind of blurry?

Just … him? He needed glasses?

“But aren’t those expensive?” he asked, not quite sure how he felt about this. On the one hand, his natural eyesight apparently sucked. On the other hand, [Essence Sight] was definitely ridiculously powerful.

“I’m not buying glasses just so I can see fire,” he decided. That much was obvious.

“Oh, right. No. You don’t have to. It was just something I noticed,” Lisa quickly said. “But, uhm, anyway. This is a patterned crystal.”

She said it casually, almost awkwardly.

It took Micah a moment to find the meaning behind the words.

Wait … weren’t those—?

“For summoning?” he asked with wide eyes. “For, like, a Salamander familiar?”

“Yeah.”

Lisa looked at him and Micah looked back. He noticed the way she almost cradled the crystal under her arm, the way she held that side of her body a little back, away from him. He glanced at the crystal, then back to her.

He smiled.

The moment she started to smile, too, Micah lunged and tried to snatch it.

“No!” Lisa immediately cried out and threw herself back. Micah leaned forward to follow.

“Give me back my crystal,” he said, trying to pry it free from under her arm. She added a second for protection, but she needn’t have. No matter how hard he tugged, the rock wouldn’t even budge. Then Lisa used her legs to shove him away. One push and Micah couldn’t keep up. He leaned his upper body forward to stay close and tried to reach, but she had all the advantages on him.

“Why? Why do you want with it?” she asked him.

“For Micah reasons,” he explained.

“That means alchemy, right? Right?”

“Duh!”

“What, so you want to make some lame single-use potion with it?” Lisa asked, getting up. “You don’t even have a recipe! Do you have any idea how rare these are, Micah?”

Micah didn’t answer as he chased her on the training grounds. He tried throwing his weight into it as he lunged to grab the rock, but Lisa just wrenched it out of his hands and held it over her head, way up high. She took a few steps back and trapped it against her side again, holding it fast with only one arm, then bent into a hunch, as if she might charge at any moment. She held her other arm out in front of herself to ward him off.

Micah squinted, tested left, tested right. Then he ran around the side and tackled her legs. They went sprawling to the floor.

“It’s not about the potion,” he said as they did. “It’s about the levels. The levels, Lisa!”

“I’ll buy it!” she insisted.

“No, give it back! It’s mine.”

“Just share it with me?”

“How does that make any sense?”

“Cheapskate!”

“Thief!”

“Charity case!”

“Bully!”

“Level-whore!”

Micah sat back all the sudden and pointed at her with wide eyes.

“Lisa,” he said in mock horror. “You can’t say words like that around me. I’m thirteen. My mom would wash my ears out. Try to be a little more considerate.”

She seemed to show remorse.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she said and bowed a little. “I meant to say level-gigolo, of course.”

Micah frowned in honest confusion. “What’s that?”

“Usually a hot young guy paid to … uh … hang out with people.”

Hot young guy? Micah thought and blushed.

“Oh, well then.”

“It doesn’t take much to compliment you, does it?”

“No, it does not.”

She nodded wisely.

Micah nodded along for a moment, then screamed and tried to get his crystal back.

Above them, the sound of a door slamming open rang all the sudden, and Garen stormed out onto the walkway, shouting, “What the hell is going on down there?”

“Lisa stole my level up!” Micah immediately ratted her out, pointing.

“He wouldn’t let me buy it from him!” she called back.

Garen looked at them like they were both insane. Or six-year-olds. Probably both. At least, they were playing the part. He sighed and rubbed his temple.

“Lisa, I told you before, you can’t solve all your problems with money. If you can’t level up, don’t make that Micah’s problem.”

Huh, Micah thought, grinning a little. Garen was actually playing along with their nonsense.

… or could you actually buy level ups?

“Can you buy level ups?” he asked the man, who looked so sincere above them. Just to be sure.

Garen broke out into a grin, “Of course not. Now, what’s really going on?”

“What were you doing in Auntie’s office?” Lisa asked.

“None of your business,” Garen said. “Spit it out, either of you.”

“I found a patterned crystal in the Tower—” Micah started.

“And he wants to make a potion out of it,” Lisa’s voice has its normal tone again as she interrupted. It sounded like this was actually important to her. Why? It was just a stupid instruction manual on how to make your own Salamander.

Were they really that rare?

“And?” Garen asked her simply. “It belongs to him. He can do with it whatever he wants. You have to accept that.”

By the look on Lisa’s face, Micah knew she thought otherwise.

“That being said,” Garen turned to him now. “I would honestly advise against making a potion out of a patterned crystal, Micah. At least, for now. At your skill level. If you do want to level up quickly, you could sell it and buy more advanced ingredients with the money. That would give you a little more leeway for mistakes, too.”

“I … “ Micah started but didn’t know what to say. He looked at both of them. “I don’t know? Can I think about it?”

“Sure—” Garen started, but Lisa interrupted him.

“Listen, Micah,” she said. “If you really want to become a Climber and an alchemist, you’re going to need money for equipment and Guides. At least, something better than that worn-out shirt you borrowed from Ryan. Or you’ll never make it past the first floor.”

Micah frowned down at his shirt. He hadn’t borrowed this from Ryan— Wait. Charity case? Did Lisa still think he was poor? Hadn’t anyone told her that he’d lied?

Oh. Well, this was awkward.

But still, part of what she’d said was true. Micah did need money for equipment. He was planning on giving his mother her knife back, and then he’d need a new one for himself. And he wouldn’t mind some leg-guards like the ones he’d worn into the Sewers, and maybe even some arm-guards for blocking? Some gloves might be nice for climbing, and of course a recipe book …

“If I sell it to you,” Micah said slowly. “Will you help me get all that stuff? Equipment and recipes?”

Lisa had already nodded before he even finished.

“And could I keep it here?” he added.

Micah knew he couldn’t buy climbing gear and keep it at home. The Guild was maybe ten minutes away from Garen’s house. If he could store it here, he could just make the slight detour to say “Hi” and get his things every time he went into the Tower.

Lisa frowned. “Why do you want to keep it here?”

Micah tried not to look at Garen when he whispered, “My parents still don’t know …”

Lisa glanced at Garen, who nodded.

“Sure,” she said.

“But that just leaves one problem,” Garen said. “How do you plan on buying that crystal from him, Lisa? Last I checked, you spent all your savings on another mana ring.”

Micah frowned and looked at Lisa’s hands. She wasn’t wearing the mana ring he’d given her. Or any rings at all. Come to think of it, he’d never seen her wearing any either. Why was that?

“Actually, I was kind of hoping you could buy it for me,” Lisa told Garen, but the man just shook his head.

“I told you when you came here, you will have to earn all your accomplishments yourself, Lisa. I’m not going to buy them for you. I won’t raise some noble."

When you came here?

Micah had almost forgotten that her parents lived somewhere else.

“But this is what I want,” Lisa insisted, holding the crystal close. “What I want to do.”

She stressed that last word, and suddenly, Garen changed tunes. He leaned forward against the railing and frowned down at her.

“Being a [Summoner], you mean?” he asked with sudden interest. “Really?”

Lisa nodded. “Yes.”

“Why?”

Somehow, Micah had the feeling there was something they weren’t telling him.

“Because … “ She glanced at Micah. Yep, definitely something they didn’t want to talk about around him. “Because I’m still my mother’s daughter,” she said. “And this is what she would want.”

“And you’re sure?” Garen asked. “Because if you aren’t, your mom is going to kill me.”

Micah frowned. That had to be an expression ... right?

“I’m sure," Lisa said.

He sighed heavily. “Alright, then. I guess I’ll buy it for you. How much does a Salamander familiar go for these days?”

Lisa told him.

There was a pause.

“WHAT?” Micah asked, turning on her. If she had said that from the beginning, he would have begged her to buy it from him.

But wait … if it was that valuable, didn’t that mean it had to be valuable in a potion, too?

No, no, no. Micah told himself. Think about the money.

Three gold coins, he dreamed and almost started drooling.

“Uhm, I’m not sure…” Garen was saying above them.

Micah immediately snapped up. “Nope!” he called and pointed at him. “You said you would buy it. No backsies!”

Lisa joined in with an amused look, “Yeah. No backsies!”

“Oh, very funny,” Garen said but relented. “Ugh, just let me get my wallet. I guess we’re going shopping.”

Next to him, Lisa was grinning.

Micah couldn’t help but do the same. But there was something else that needed to be said before he could commit to it.

“Hey, Lisa?” he asked without looking. He didn’t want her to see his face. This didn’t have to be something important.

“Huh?”

“Just don’t summon that thing around me, okay?” he asked casually. “Not right now.”

Her gaze felt like a boulder on his chest. After a moment, he heard her say, “Of course. Not right now.”

Micah let out a tiny breath in relief. That had been easy. All he'd had to do was ask.

“Alright,” Garen called a moment later as he walked down the stairs at the end of the balcony. “Who wants to go shopping for sharp and pointy things?”

Micah never knew he'd wanted something so bad.