“Sorcerer’s Compendium Volume Three: Introduction to the Healing Arts…” Nanri said, “Are you sure I can have these?”

Cira just laughed, pushing them back towards the witch, “Of course. These are just transcriptions. Though, I’ll want them back one day, so you’ll have to make your own.”

Sitting on the table were volumes one and two as well. The first was mostly philosophical ramblings in the form of unsubstantiated anecdotes from Gazen, but it was good for a skim every now and again. Cira used to joke making it through that tome was a difficult enough barrier of entry to sorcery.

The second was all about finding out a starting point and how to build from it. Nanri had her titanium ‘witchcraft’ as a solid foundation, but she could do so much more with geomancy. Of course, once one got started, any responsible sorcerer needed to learn how to heal. Any later would be reckless. Hence volume three.

The fourth was when the compendium delved into alchemy for similar reasons, but it contained a lot of formulas Gazen himself came up with—including some dangerous compounds that she really didn’t want to see for sale one day. She wasn’t sure about letting those loose on a whim, whether her trust in Nanri turned out to be well-founded or not. If she met the witch again one day, perhaps they’d look at it together.

“Just make sure nobody steals them.” Cira gave her a stern look.

Nanri held the books close, “I would never! I’ll keep them locked away…” A shell of titanium formed around them.

This made Cira laugh, “Well I’m going to take a bath. I can still feel the salt. Sit up here if you’d like, or the garden’s a good place to read if you wanted to give them a look.”

The witch nervously glanced at the shoreside painting on the wall and stood up with a fragile smile, “The garden sounds quite nice.”

“Alright, I’ll see you in a few,” Cira headed over to the stairs, “Help yourself to the garden for a snack while you’re at it.” And she was gone.

Outside, a red apple caught Nanri’s eye, and she plucked it before sitting down at the table in the grass, opening the first of three volumes.

“Chapter one: How I Defeated the Sky… Hm.” A bird chirped from inside the tree as she began trudging through the dense literature. They hadn’t arrived at the surface with much time in the day and the first traces of sunset could be seen staining the clouds.

Down the stone steps leading to the salt flat, there were again people waiting at Cira’s gate. Thankfully, not a large or rowdy group. They were a duo of incredibly exhausted guards. Not that they were sweaty like Lomp gets, but they looked like they hadn’t slept in days. They were sluggish and stood there with vacant eyes.

One had his hands pressed against the barrier and lazily leaned in, “What do you think this is made of?”

“It’s magic, stupid.” The other replied.

While Cira was making tea, they were a lot louder, but since had resigned to waiting. It was a rare break in their new schedule. They worked their way up to being one of the overseer’s personal guards, but somehow ended up a nurse for a witch or something. Absurd.

“I didn’t see Lomp. Do you think he’s okay?”

The second guard waved him off, “He’s Lomp. He’ll be alright.”

Back down in the lower chambers of Breeze Haven, Cira finished her bath and thought a change in outfit was appropriate. Aquon could hide in a ring, so she didn’t need to leave him behind, but it was time to recalibrate her attire to suit the surface.

The day had arrived to get into the nitty gritty alchemy work. She grimaced. There were only two sets of robes she had to help with this—her favorite burned away in a week-long bloat worm extracting session. One option would be the Bog Witch Swamp Rags. The nature of it being a set of rags made the enchantments difficult to replicate on a solid garment, so Cira hadn’t gotten around to it.

Next would be the Toad Druid Garb. While wearing it, she looked like a toad, with the hat being the head. Its effects were incredible, and Cira would never admit that she puts it on occasionally when working with particularly unstable substances. Alone.

“This is no good.” She shook her head, “Maybe my dad had something.”

She walked down the hall and removed an unnecessarily thorough seal on his bedroom door. Inside was exactly as she remembered. Somehow nothing in here ever got jostled around. Is the room itself enchanted for that…? There were rare treasures on shelves or bookcases that he’d received as gifts—goblets and ancient daggers, old scrolls.

She paused, noticing there wasn’t any dust built up. Cira hadn’t entered the room in a couple years—only once or twice since his passing. It still held his scent, a faint air of herbs and smoke. Every time she walked in it was like he had just left the room.

She let out a deep sigh, walking over to his closet. It was a door, and once opened it stretched back considerably. Cira was almost sure Breeze Haven didn’t have enough space for this room, as it was built up against the edge, but she decided long ago not to question it.

Many of his robes were old and worn, their colors lost to time. Some were forged rather than sewn, so she couldn’t refit them to her size on the fly. More still looked like unique treasures, like a wrapped pegasus wing or man-sized flower bud. A lot of his attire needed its own stand like the Everfrost Cape, or a crystal prison to keep them from dispersing into the air or otherwise escaping.

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None of these helped Cira, but she knew what she was looking for. She’d seen it many times, and it would go great with the current aesthetic she had at the clinic. There it was, haphazardly thrown into a chest among other outfits he used frequently. A habit Cira refused to pick up.

“Perfect. I can have this fixed up in a flash!” She skipped back to her room.

Back up in the garden, Nanri sat in her chair with a single tear flowing down her cheek, “My goodness, how moving… alright, Chapter two. How the sky defeated me.” She paused to steady her breath.

High above in the silo that overlooked the entire city, there was a wrinkly man standing in his office. In front of his window was a telescope, and he peered into it, “How long are those two jackasses goin’ to stand there?!”

Pappy’s one remaining guard stood next to him looking through another telescope, “Uh, I’m not sure, sir!”

“And you said you saw two go in?”

“That’s right, sir!”

Pappy broke away to look at the man directly, “And neither of ‘em was Lomp?!”

He winced, “N-no sir! The sorcerer priest was with another woman.”

The overseer grumbled and spat, going back to his desk. He slammed his fist down, “Dammit! Go down there and figure out what’s goin’ on!”

“Yes sir!”

Cira emerged from the front door twirling. Her robes, white as the clouds and just as light, fanned out as she spun. They were longer in the back but didn’t drag. Her shoulders were covered by a large collar that hid most of her face from the sides, tipped with silver accents as the whole set was trimmed in the same way. Her hat was stark white with a single fold and didn’t require any hemming.

“Tah dah!” She struck a pose.

“Cira!” Nanri jumped, “I don’t get it, but you sure look refreshed.”

She wore a smug grin, “Indeed. How’s the reading coming along?”

But her temporary companion wore a distant look, “It’s quite thorough. I feel like I’ve been reading for a thousand years.”

“I know what you mean.” The sorcerer’s smile reached her eyes, which slowly grew distant as well. She then grabbed an apple for herself and took a bite, “Ready to do some alchemy?”

The book slammed shut, rejoining the others in their titanium box, “I am!” Nanri’s training had increased by way of adding a second levitating metal object to her orbit. Now potential thieves had to choose between sphere or cube.

Cira vaporized the leftover apple core with light magic and led the witch back toward the gate. They descended the stone steps until Cira locked eyes with one man with his face pressed against the barrier. She froze. But so did he. The second man wasn’t paying attention at all.

Then the third pushed his glasses up and held his gaze on Cira, “Excuse me, madam sorcerer priest, I work for the overseer.”

She looked at them for a brief moment before opening her mouth, “Well I’m a busy sorcerer, so you’ll have to follow me if you have something to say.”

The other man removed himself from the barrier and Cira opened the gate, stepping onto the salt and leaving with the witch in tow.

“Oh, yes, well, the overseer wanted to know who your new companion is,” he straightened his glasses again, “And the whereabouts of Lomp.”

She stopped for a moment and met his eyes, “Lomp is carrying out an objective critical to the eradication of the plague. Tell Pappy he’s been with me the whole time.” Then she turned towards the clinic and continued.

“Oh… um, alright then… and what of your companion?” He looked at Nanri and she waved back.

“Ahh. The Titan Witch.”

They all fell to their knees, allowing the girls to gain a little headway. Cira realized that there was a large number of people outside the clinic now. Some on blankets or scraps of steel laid down. They were clearly ill, the ones she’d ordered the guards to gather up.

“Excuse me!” Another guard she vaguely recognized approached running, “We’ve gathered all carriers of the plague in Uren. Did you, um… happen to discover the cure while you were down there?” He looked weary and expectant. Cira found the combination suspicious.

“I’m… still working on it. Why do you ask?” Everybody was clear that there was no cure yet. I made sure of that.

“Well, um… there’s just a lot of patients, that’s all.”

That much Cira could tell. At this point they were at the door to the workshop she set up a few days prior. She raised her hand and drew a circle in the salt about three of her height wide, “Can you group everybody up in spaces about this size?”

He studied the circle, committing it to memory, “Yes, we can do that. Do you think afterwards… We could take a break?”

“Hmm?” She looked at him, “Do whatever you want.”

Pulling the witch inside, she closed the door on the man with glasses. Luckily the last guard had thrown her an opportunity to get another ball rolling, so it was alchemy time.

“I didn’t realize how busy you were up here…” Nanri said, “I feel stupid for thinking you were here to help me with Zero Stratum.”

Cira waved her off, approaching the extra tall table she crafted the other day, “No use worrying about that. We’ll get to it. Here, you’ll want an Air Shield.” With the flick of a wrist, an invisible air pocket formed around Nanri.

The staff of the day was called Conduit. About as tall as her arm was long, it was a flat ring of pale blue mithril that hovered behind Cira’s head at a short distance. It did not look like a staff, nor was it to be used as a staff. It allowed Cira to manipulate mana better with her hands—not tuned to any one element. Alchemy was not usually element-based, so a focus like this was best.

She closed the hole in the ceiling, careful not to create any wind currents, and gingerly lowered the table down to her height. It was a feat that took a couple minutes to complete. Cira laid her eyes on the project she let sit for… How long was it, three days? Is today the fourth?

“What are—” Nanri tried but was quickly shushed with a look from Cira’s eyes.

The mushrooms had turned from dark brown to the color of pale skin. Cira held her breath as she brought a hand towards the tray. Carefully, as one does, she reached a single finger out to touch one of the caps.

Poof.

The mushroom slowly broke apart and dispersed into the air as if it had never been solid at all. Cira’s eyes went wide, but if she pulled her hand away it could create a draft. Creating the specific poison she needed took a couple steps. Currently, it could kill most things quite easily, not just viruses and the like.

With her hand frozen in place, Sever! The legs of the table started sliding off their base, the tray with it. Cira had created a sealed space in the shape of a sphere, so everything fell over and was contained within.

“Phew…” She breathed.

Nanri asked, “What was that?”

“An incredibly deadly poison.” She shook her head, “Guess I dried them out too long. I’ll have to get back to that. Have you ever made a mana elixir with the autumn bark of a thunderbrook tree?”

Nanri pursed her lips, “Er, no… I can’t say that I have.”

“No matter. It’s the orange stuff that feels like leather in those baskets. I need you to grind it into a fine paste.” Nanri nodded resolutely and Cira lined six sample jars out on the table before her, two full of dirt and one made of titanium. Lomp had the ones she thought probably wouldn’t need. “Now it’s time to get to the bottom of this damn plague.”