The woman is very confident, judging from the fact that she’s walking in front of me with her back completely unguarded. Then again the men with the polearms—halberds, Caine explained to me earlier—seem competent in their use. And who knows what kind of weird alchemical stuff she might have up her sleeve?

I make up my mind to stay polite, just in case there’s a local equivalent of napalm. I mean, she does have some scars.

“My name’s Ellie Dancer, by the way. So what’s the concern here?” I ask.

The woman turns and reads my words. “The Alchemy Guild has jurisdiction over most matters concerning magical potions, elixirs, oils and the like. You supplied that guard—“

“Rudy,” I say helpfully.

“—with a potion never seen before. What’s more, the report the Guild received says you have more of them.”

She stops and looks at my chest. Oh yeah, I suppose I do have more. I stocked my bandolier with potent healing potions, as well as handing a few out to my friends. “These? Oh, yep. I make ‘em myself.”

That pulls her up short, and I bump into her. The guards poke me with the halberds and I do my best to ignore it. “You make them? Hmm. And Jinx blessed you, you claim.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not all a blessing.” I wave my hands down my body. “It’s like, a total package deal.”

We continue walking and the woman doesn’t speak anymore. Our destination seems to be a low building made of dark stone, with way too many chimneys. Some of the chimneys are puffing out smoke of various colours. I grimace. It smells like a chemical plant exploded in a dentist’s office and they put out the fires with cheap beer.

“This is one of the production facilities of the Alchemist’s Guild. We will analyze your potion here. Also, we have equipment for you to demonstrate how you make them, assuming you have the ingredients. If you can make them.”

Her tone tells me she doesn’t believe me about that. Lady, I literally can’t lie to you and get away with it! But I suppose she doesn’t know.

“Okay, here.“ I hand her a potion. “But I don’t need any equipment to make them.”

Her eyes narrow. “You should have quit while your story was at least half believable. How could you produce a potion without a full laboratory? At least you would need an alembic to distill away the unwanted liquid. That’s assuming you already had it all prepared. Hmph! You likely don’t know the difference between a decoction and a concoction.”

I shrug. What can I say? She’s right about that last part.

Inside, the place reeks. It’s part garbage dump, part chemical spill, and part grease trap. People in the building are working behind various screens and protective shields. Each workstation has its own fire source, which explains all the chimneys. While I walk behind the lady, one workstation explodes in a dramatic fashion. The woman working in it seems okay, though. Her hair is a mess. A woman dressed as a maid starts cleaning up after her, while the woman herself begins setting up another experiment.

“Here,” says the woman who brought me here. “This man will analyze your potion.”

I hand the man, who is tiny and wearing oversized leather gloves, one of my potent healing potions. He performs a whole bunch of tests, most of which involve him dripping a little bit of my potion on a piece of glass, mixing it with some powder or liquid, then peering at it. None of the tests have any reaction I can see.

“Well, it’s not harmful,” says the man after some time. “It’s not a healing potion, either. Or at least none we’ve got the formula for, and we have all the formulas. No glory powder in it at all, nor any other, less savoury ingredients.”

“Oh, it’s definitely a healing potion. Here.” I pluck another one out of my bandolier and hand it to the woman. “Drink it. I bet it clears up that scar on your face.”

Everyone in earshot freezes. The man looks and smells suddenly extremely anxious. What did I say? The woman has a dangerous look on her face. Her face… oh. She’s probably sensitive about the scars. I wince internally. Troll feet are big, but not too big to put in my mouth, I guess.

“Not harmful, Lars? Then yes, I will drink it. And when it does nothing, or worse, poisons me, you will have this troll brought before the Interguild Judiciary for fraudulent potion sales and malpractice of an alchemical nature.”

Oh dear. I hope I didn’t oversell myself. Lars, the guy who tested my potion, is looking at me like I just got bit by a snake. The guards who are still keeping me in line are avoiding my gaze like they feel bad for me. I can smell sympathy and embarrassment all over them, and cold anger from the woman. I try to make myself as small as possible. It doesn’t work.

With a bit of effort the woman pops the cork. She sniffs the potion and them fixes her eyes on mine. “Last chance. If this harms me, you will pay. We have ways of killing trolls in the Alchemy Guild.”

“I believe you. I promise it won’t harm you.” I sure hope it heals her, though.

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

The woman doesn’t wait any longer. She upends the vial and drinks the entire potion down, and then drops it on the floor. No wonder; her face is changing and it looks very strange. I imagine it feels even stranger. The scarring is pulling away into nowhere and in its place new, fresh skin appears. Even her eyebrows, which were partly missing, are growing back. It’s fascinating to watch.

The woman gasps and falls to the floor. There’s a bit of a ruckus and the guards all pull something out of their belts: a flask of some kind. Uh oh! Probably anti-troll juice or something. But before I get sprayed with whatever it is, or stabbed, or anything else, the woman stands up.

“Put that away. I’m fine.” She reaches up and touched her face. Her fingers poke and prod and then she turns to me. Her expression hasn’t changed but I can smell the excitement on her. “It seems I misjudged you, Ellie Troll. Or is it Dancer?”

“Whatever. I mostly go by Ellie. So you believe me now?”

She touches her face again. “The proof is plain as the nose on my face,” she says, and then she actually smiles. “My name is Rose. I’m a third-degree alchemist and I specialize in fire.”

“I guess that explains the scar,” I say before I can think, but Rose doesn’t seem offended.

“It does. It’s also why I was sent to collect you.” Her smile gets a little sharper. I realize that all the time I’ve been around Rose, I didn’t smell fear on her even once. A fire specialist would be the best choice to detain a troll, if said troll was dangerous.

“So what happens now?”

“Hmm. Were you telling the truth about making these potions?”

“Yep! Wanna see?”

“Not just yet,” says Rose. “Let me summon an examiner. We can bypass the entire process, the knowledge portion, the testing, all of it. A god’s blessing that makes potions! I can’t imagine how that will change things.”

Ten minutes later I’m standing awkwardly in one of the booths, which has had much of its seating removed to accommodate me. Rose is still with me, and another woman has joined us. She doesn’t give me her name and she smells bored.

“All right, Rose. What’s this then? You’ve started wearing makeup, have you?”

Rose shakes her head. “The scarring is gone, healed by the potion Ellie is going to demonstrate the making of.”

At that, the examiner licks a finger and drags it down Rose’s face. Rose squirms in disgust, and the woman looks at her finger. It came away clean, of course. No coverup or concealer here!

“Well, how about that. All right, Ellie, was it? My name’s Sharr, and I will be examining your work. What ingredients do you need?”

“I have them here,” I say with a tap on my Alchemist’s Pouch. “It’s actually just my blood.”

Both women recoil slightly. “Troll blood? As an alchemical ingredient?”

“It could work,” says Sharr. “Trolls are known for the regenerative ability, and assuming you could find the right reagent to isolate that… Well, enough about that. Show me.”

They’re both looking at the glass and brass equipment on the table, but I tap my fingers together to get their attention. “Create a potion of potent healing.” The vial falls into my hand as usual and I set it down in the rack provided.

Both women look like their eyes are about to fall out of their head. Rose speaks first. “What… was that?”

“That’s how I make potions,” I say.

“But where are your ingredients? Where’s your equipment?”

“Don’t need it.” The stares are painful, so I add a little more information. “Jinx gave me this ability.”

The moment I say the name of the trickster god, Sharr pulls away. Her face is expressionless but her scent tells me she is two parts angry, one part terrified. She wasn’t scared of me before, but mentioning Jinx flipped a switch in her. She raises her hand and makes a weird gesture with her fingers. “Get out. I won’t ratify you.”

“Sharr, please. She is cursed.”

“Yes, she is. Get out! Jinx worshipper. Bale worshipper, I’m sure. Taking Jinx’s so-called gifts and using them! If this city was civilized, you’d be burned in the town square!”

“You can’t bring your beliefs into this, Sharr.” Rose is trying to calm her, but her scent tells me she’s desperate. What’s the big deal?

Sharr’s face twists into a cruel smile. “I can’t. But I don’t need to. Ellie Dancer, I declare you inadmissible to the Alchemist’s Guild on the basis of fraud and chicanery. Trying to pass off a dungeon potion as your own. Lying to an examiner. Tricking a Guild enforcer. On these bases I ban you from the Guild and its properties.”

“I wasn’t tricked, Sharr!” Rose touches her face. “This is real!”

Sharr shakes her head. “You’re a fool, Rose. This cursed thing has you under its spell. Get to the temple of Verity and pray for your deliverance from its evil.” Sharr turns away and leaves us.

Rose stares after her, then looks at me, stricken with guilt.

“I’m sorry. This is my fault. I should have asked you more questions. If I’d known this was how you made your potions then I wouldn’t have done things this way. If I’d known Sharr was so fanatical about Jinx…” Rose sounds, and smells, genuinely remorseful. She keeps touching her face, where the scar was, and pulling her hand away when she realizes she’s doing it.

“You believe me?”

“Of course. But that doesn’t matter, sadly. The examiners have final say in admittance. There are ways to reapply, but Sharr has cut you off from them.” Rose smells like regret and guilt.

“So I’m not joining the guild, then.” I feel like I should be more worked up than I am. “Oh well.”

“Be careful, Ellie. Without Guild backing you can’t sell your potions in town. Technically even giving them away could be problematic.”

I shrug. “Nothing I can do about it then. I’m sure there’s other guilds that would have me, right?” I look at Rose but her expression is grim.

“Maybe. I’d advise you to move quickly though. If Sharr gets word out that you’re blacklisted from the Alchemy Guild, other guilds might not accept you either.”

Well, that sucks. I shake Rose’s hand and accept her offer of an escort back to my inn. She sends one guard along with me and wishes me luck.

On the way the guard’s scent changes. He’s still nervous and afraid, but I’m no longer the main source. He’s also curious about something. I turn and face him, coming to a dead stop. “What is it?”

He is looking at my bandolier. “Them potions. They heal old wounds?”

“As long as it’s not too serious.”

The guard dips a hand into his jacket and comes out with two silver coins. “Can I buy one from you?”

“Won’t you get in trouble?”

“Who’s to know? I won’t tell anyone. It’d cost me my job. I expect you won’t neither.”

“Let’s just keep things safe between us. Here.” I push his money away and hand him one of my potent healing potions. “Call it a gift. That way if we’re ever asked, I didn’t sell it to you, right?” I wink. His mood improves considerably; he smells hopeful now. I wonder if he’s missing a toe or something.

I have plenty of time on the walk back to think about things. Apparently being associated with Jinx really is bad, at least to some people. That’s something I should try to keep under my hat, so to speak. I really need a hat! Oh well. There’s always other guilds. The worst is behind me!