"As much as I would like to meet an elf who can teach people [Alchemy, Level 100], for the time being I'm more curious about how you, Volex, ended up as who you are today," I said. "How did you meet this elf, and why did she teach you to become a master alchemist?"
"And are you actually a master alchemist?" Kara added, skeptically.
"I am!" Volex said. "I was born twenty nine years ago, to a solitary wizard, Fire Mage Volara Ex'Sarandel."
"Shouldn't it be Red Mage?" I asked.
"The nomenclature varies regionally," Rachel said.
"I've heard the elves associate earth with brown instead of green," Kara added.
"Whatever, doesn't matter," I said. "So, your mom was primary void, secondary fire?"
"Yep! And I was primary fire, secondary void!" Volex said. "You see, my mother's fascination with experimental alchemy had a cost: she needed to gather herbs for the experiments, and that was time-consuming, tedious, menial work. So, she had me, and once I was old enough, made me go out and gather them myself.
"About two years ago, I was on one such gathering trip when I met an elf. We sat down and talked, and she said that she had a ton of skills that she liked to share with people, and asked if I'd like to learn anything. So I told her that I wished I had [Alchemy, Level 100] so I could help Mom with her experiments some more, and I also wished I had the skills to make an herb garden for alchemy, so I wouldn't have to walk all over the place looking for herbs.
"The elf nodded and said that sounded reasonable, and pulled out a scroll, and asked me to read it. It was real short, only like two feet, but once I read it... I understood. The principles laid out on that page unfolded in my mind into a master's understanding of alchemical technique and formulation, and then I came to understand all the environmental factors that make the magical herbs grow, and how to control and replicate them.
"I thanked the elf and ran home, and I excitedly told Mom all about what had happened, and then I showed her. Her latest research goal, a potion for multiplying the drinker's mana pool by one point zero two, I made in five minutes with a few common herbs, and mine would double the drinker's mana pool. And Mom..." Volex tensed up, and swallowed hard. "Mom wasn't as excited about this as I was. Mom was prideful and stubborn; she didn't want results, she wanted to be the one who got those results." Tears prickled at the corner of her eyes. "When her dutiful little forager came traipsing back home, having accidentally stumbled across an ancient trove of tremendous knowledge... She freaked out. She attacked me. But... but I'd been out in the wilderness on my own, fending off wildlife for two decades, and she hadn't, and... and I killed her, before I realized what I was doing.
"I tried to save her, but I'd... I'd put a lance of fire through her brain. There was no coming back from that. So I panicked. I tried to preserve everything that was left of her- her research, her notes, her potions, everything went into my void space. And then... I ran. I ran away from the tower I'd called home all my life, into the wilderness that had really been my home, and I met the elf again. I told her what happened, and she held me while I cried. She said she was sorry that had happened, that I didn't deserve any of that mess. And she said that she was going somewhere dangerous, and couldn't take me with her... but that she was going to do her best to make things right before she left.
"She gave me two things. One was a scroll, teaching me the spell for taking on the form of a dragon. It's been a great help for me; nothing thinks I'm easy prey anymore. And the other thing, the last thing my best teacher gave me before she left, was a little metal token on a string, charmed so that, if I went out looking for her, I'd always find her.
"After that... I was alone again. I read the scroll, and became a dragon. I took to the air, looking for somewhere to call home. Mom had talked about the evils of the big city, so I looked for the big city... and I found it. But living in the big city costs money, and the only way I knew how to make it was the way Mom had made it- selling potions. And... I wasn't very good at that. So I lived on a mountain near the city, where nobody else lived. I made my little herb garden and laboratory. And I started making better potions, potions nobody had ever seen before. And those potions... didn't sell. Nobody wanted them. I kept pushing my craft farther and farther, and still, nobody was buying.
"And then, one day... I met you."
She was crying, now, the tears flowing freely.
"...I know I'm not the elf, but... do you want a hug from me?" I offered.
Volex nodded, standing up, and I moved around the table to wrap her in a tight, warm hug, one hand on her back and one hand on her head. She clung to me like a drowning cat, her claws kept from breaking skin and drawing blood only by the grace of my very well-enchanted clothing. Her wings came forward and wrapped around my back as well, leaving me feeling like I wore a leathery cape. She even wrapped her legs around my hips, which was... a bit odd for a hug, but honestly, considering she grew up wild, with her mom, I'm not exactly surprised that she's not too clear on what hugs are like. The tail wrapped around my back made me think this was probably innocent.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Since I was already carrying her, I walked us over to the sofa, and then found myself considering a very difficult challenge:
Volex is a dragon. She is made of sharp edges. If I put her on the sofa, her sharp edges will tear it, and it will stop being comfortable. So...
"Volex," I said quietly. "The spell turned you into a dragon, right? Do you know how to turn back into a human, without any claws?"
She nodded against my chest.
"Can you do that for me, so I can sit us down on the couch?" I asked.
She hesitated, then nodded. Slowly, her draconic features receded. The horn whose side had been rubbing against my neck shrank and disappeared. Her wings and tails shriveled up to nothingness. And her talons crawled back into the short-bitten nails of a girl who worked with her hands but didn't have clippers or a file.
Without the draconic features, she was... an ordinary woman, of this general part of the world. Her bronze skin held a bit more of a reddish tinge to it than Rachel's, and her hair still the most vibrant I'd seen, beating out even Eris Nukem's own flamboyant 'do, but she was... just a woman. A twenty nine year old woman who'd spent precisely two years in anything remotely resembling society, and that as a horrible potion vendor who couldn't afford to pay rent, and so lived in the wilderness, on land nobody else even wanted.
I sat us down on the couch, and gently stroked her hair as she clung to me.
"Alright, well," I said, gently. "What happens from here depends entirely on what you want, Volex. Tell me what you want, and I'll help you make it happen."
"I want... I want to live inside, again, with people," Volex said, sniffling. "I've put together a little hut near my garden, on top of the mountain, but... it's always cold, and damp, and drafty, and I'm alone."
"I can make that happen in all sorts of ways," I said. "Do you want to keep doing alchemy?"
"I like it," Volex said, nodding. "It's fun, and rewarding. And... I'd feel bad, if I didn't use the gift the elf gave me."
"Alright," I said, patting the back of her head. "Do you want me to talk to someone about you joining the Grand Temple as an alchemist?"
"I should move my herb garden closer to here," Volex said. "Is there space?"
"The Grand Temple already has rather a lot of herb gardens," Kara said. "Not all of which are in use."
"Sounds like there is to me," I said. "So... how about it? Do you want to become a Temple alchemist?"
"...Yeah. Yeah, I do," Volex said, nodding.
----------------------------------------
"So, the first step is the potion that actually doubles your mana pool," Volex explained, setting down the first test tube in the rack, with a 1 written on it in grease pencil. "This creates some turbulence in your spirit that would last for three months; the turbulence is harmless on its own, but during that time, your mana pool can't grow at all, and any potions you take to do that won't work, and you'll just get a stomach ache."
"Alright," our volunteer, one very bold middle-aged Black Water nun said. Likely she'd volunteered on the basis that, with her primary affinity of water, her biosculpting and healing skills were good enough to survive whatever she was about to put herself through. She might also be an alchemist herself, who used the aforementioned abilities to survive experimental potions.
"The second step is the potion that settles that turbulence down," Volex explained, putting the next test tube into the rack, this one marked 2. "Instead of three months, it'll resolve in three minutes, and leave you ready for your next dose... except for its own side effect, which is lingering in your body and mixing with whatever you drink in the next six hours, causing unpredictable results."
"What is a minute?" High Priestess Amelia asked.
"A sixtieth of an hour," I said. "Three of them is a twentieth of an hour. If all else fails, then Volex can likely tell us when three minutes have passed since the second potion was taken."
"I can," Volex said, nodding.
"So, six hours between mana pool doublings?" the nun asked.
"That brings us to the third step, a potion to clean out your body and wipe the slate clean," Volex said, putting the third test tube in the holder, marked 3. "If you're currently taking any alchemical medications, now is when you should say so. This will flush those out as well."
"No, I'm not on any potions," the nun said, shaking her head. "So, you can use potions to double someone's mana pool every three minutes?"
"I can, yes," Volex said, setting another test tube rack, this one already full, on the table behind the first one. "Ready whenever you are."
The nun set her jaw, before nodding resolutely, grabbing the first vial labeled 1, and tossing it back like a shot of whiskey. Clearly she didn't want to have the time to regret her decision.
"...Oh, oh my," the nun murmured, putting the empty test tube back. "It- it worked, how did it- what on earth..."
"It doubled your mana pool?" Amelia asked.
"It doubled my mana pool!" the nun said. "My mana pool, which has been a little above fifty thousand since I turned forty five, is now over one hundred thousand! I don't believe it!"
"I do," I said, patting the head of a preening dragongirl alchemist.
"My mana does feel strange, though," the nun admitted.
"That'll be the turbulence, most likely," Volex said. "Potion two, please?"
The rest of the experiment continued quickly, and at the end of it, what had once been a very skeptical nun who felt she knew all there was to know about alchemy was now begging Volex to teach her more, and doing so with a mana pool of two hundred thousand- which I was told was a number normally associated with legendary wizards of times since past.
Volex was offered a spot as a Master Alchemist, which she accepted readily, and her own room... which she did not.
"I'm tired of living alone," Volex said. "I want to live with other people, and get hugs, and eat food that tastes good. I want to live... with Lucy."