Kya had hardly placed her foot on the top of the white marble step when the large wooden double doors swung open in unison. A man in simple clothes of gold and an unadorned white sash stretching from shoulder to hip stepped out. His bushy black walrus mustache must have been boosted by the hair that had begun to thin from the top of his head.
“May I ask the young mistresses purpose in visiting us today?” he asked, while inclining his head to what Kya felt was an exact and measured degree, while at the same time his bronze eyes flashed for just a moment.
Inclining her head in return, though her eyes narrowed slightly at the flash in his own eyes, Kya answered “I’ve heard this is the best place in the city for potions, is that true?”
The man smiled, or at least Kya guessed that he did as his lips were entirely covered by the mustache that twitched up to either end. “Of course. The doors to the Wadrin Apothecary are always open to our worthy customers.” He said, before stepping to one side and beckoning her in with one arm held wide, and the other reaching to his shoulder as he bent at the waist.
Inclining her head once more, Kya walked inside the apothecary, followed closely behind by the man in gold. She was just thinking that she ought to turn around and surreptitiously try to identify the man when her attention was dragged elsewhere by the sheer virtue of the entrance hall into which she had walked.
From the outside, the building had seemed large by all accounts, but not sprawling. They were still in the heart of the city afterall, and space came at a premium. Kya would have guessed that the structure was around three stories tall, and about thirty meters in width. The large windows and wrap-around porch with graceful marble pillars at regular intervals put her in mind of an old manor house from England. Definitely nice, but again, smaller than she would have thought for a major business front in the center of a city.
The inside, however, told a different story altogether.
The windows which had seemed large on the outside were now enormous, at least twice the size they should have been. The ceiling, which should have been some eight to ten feet above, seemed instead to stretch up and up and up. Elegant white and golden curves transitioned the walls to the ceiling, wherein there were expertly painted depictions of nature in all forms. The scenes all varied, but different rooms were set to entire themes as Kya walked in daze through the main entry hall. Off to one side was an entirely blue room. The thick carpet was a deep navy, while the walls and furniture were all more opalescent cobalts and ceruleans. The ceiling was a soft baby blue sky with puffy white clouds. Just across the hall was an equally themed room of bold greens, subtle olives and light airy mints. Each piece of furniture, from the plush couches to the marble tables to the tea sets and silverware all went with the theme of whatever room they were in.
Finally rousing herself from her awed stupor, she noticed that the mustached man had stopped a few feet behind and was gesturing into a small private room, with the most wood she’d seen in a building since arriving in this world.
As a general rule, Kya had found that stones of any and all varieties were the most common resource. She supposed that in a nation literally built on magic and the abilities to mold stone to your will, knocking out a building or two would be fairly straightforward. On the other hand, growing, harvesting, cutting, carving, treating, and transporting the wood itself was a much different prospect and likely far more expensive than stone. This small room then, only about a seven by ten foot rectangle, was probably more lavish than most of the others put together by sheer virtue of the various woods all put together to create it.
And different woods there were: dark wood floors, cherry red wood cabinets, light and tanned woods criss-crossed in a trellised pattern along the two windows, even the cushioned chairs seemed to be softened only with a light and flexible wooden film and stuffed with sawdust. She had to hand it to them, when they went for a theme, they really went all the way with it.
Sitting on the odd chair, Kya finally took a moment to identify the man in front of her as he poured her a cup of steaming tea from a kettle that somehow looked to have been grown into the shape.
- - - - -
Rickard Teymore
Class - Knowledge - 2-Star
- - - - -
Proffering the delicate wooden teacup to her on an equally intricate saucer, Rickard said “For the young mistress.” Then after she’d taken it and placed it on the table next to her to cool, continued on by asking “What specifically can the Wadrin Apothecary do for you on this fine spring day, if I may be so bold as to ask?”
Trying to pick her words with care, Kya thought for a moment before saying “I have, until now, been working with what I consider to be substandard potions, from less… professional crafters than yourselves.” She could consider the monsters she looted potions from to be worse potion makers, right? “What I would like to see are your selection of health potions for a user who often finds herself in combative situations.”
Inclining his head, and mustache twitching with every word, Rickard said “Very good miss, here is a list of our selections on hand, as well as a smaller collection of 2-Star potions in case you should have any desire for something more potent. I’ll give you a minute to look it over; please let me know if you’d like to sample anything you see.”
As he spoke, he removed two small bronze crystals from the inside of his sleeve, and placed them down on the low table in front of Kya. Then turned and quietly walked out of the room.
Now this was all well and good, in fact Kya felt being left alone to browse for yourself was an absolutely ideal shopping experience, able to quash the idea that he’d be sitting there “helping” her the entire time.
However, she was now faced with the looming prospect of… how to actually use these crystals.
- - - - -
- Item: Information Crystal
- Rarity: 1-Star - Common
- Description: A small knowledge crystal that has been attuned by a user to convey information when imbued with mana.
- Enchantments: Knowledge Imprint
- Requirements: N/A
- - - - -
Catching on quickly, a smile crossed Kya’s face as she focused on the crystal and with a thought, opened a menu interface similar to her usual ones, but blue instead of the normal green that characterized her own. It was somewhat off putting to see a window like this, and not have it be accompanied by her overly jovial narrator.
Looking almost like a menu at a fine dining restaurant, the window was divided into several categories.
- - - - -
~ Wadrin Apothecary ~
Health
~
Mana
~
Stamina
~
Elixir
~
Poison
~
- - - - -
Kya was almost blown away by the myriad implications this simple menu contained. Not sure why, she’d more or less assumed that the only potions in this world were health potions, certainly there would be better ones and worse ones, but health potions nonetheless. Here now, she was given entire categories she hadn’t even considered before.
Mentally selecting one of the categories out of curiosity, she was delighted and a bit shocked to see how many varieties there were.
- - - - -
~ 1-Star Poisons ~
~ Available in all rarities from Common to Legendary ~
- Myotoxin - Directly affects the muscles and their abilities to move. 2 Ag
- Neurotoxin - Affects the senses. Differing effects based on method of delivery. 3 Ag
- Necrotoxin - Rots and kills affected parts of living flesh. 5 Ag
- Hemotoxin - Directly affects the blood. 5 Ag
- Manatoxin - Disrupts the ability to use and control mana. 7 Ag
- - - - -
Kya went slack jawed for a moment. There were more poisons here than she would have anticipated, and with far more varied effects than she would have thought. But that wasn’t what gave her pause, oh no. The first was those prices. She couldn’t be sure, but she anticipated that would be the price for a common rarity poison of each type.
After buying her room for the next several months, and paying for an equipment upgrade at the forge, she only had about twenty agrens and some change left. If she wanted even just a few of these, she’d be broke almost instantly.
But more than the simple exorbitance of the price, was the last poison on the list. There was a poison someone could give that would limit or even nullify her abilities to use mana? That… was scary to think about, even just conceptually.
Backing out of the poisons, Kya went into the health potions and got once again a rather interesting list of selections.
- - - - -
~ Health Potions ~
~ Available in all rarities from Common to Legendary ~
- Basic Health Potion - Provides instant revitalizing energy to injured areas. 1 Ag
- Advanced Health Potion - Provides a burst of instant revitalization, followed by a sustained period of weaker energy to all areas of the body. 4 Ag.
- Class-specific Health Potion - A health potion with mana aligned to a primary class, increasing potency. 6 Ag.
- Dormant Health Potion - Taken prior to anticipated injury, potion will linger and only be consumed when significant injuries are sustained. 8.5 Ag
- Mind Mending Potion - Rare Rarity and Above Only - Works directly on the mind to reduce or reverse mental injury. 7.5 Au
- Soul Mending Potion - Legendary Rarity Only - Can help a damaged soul find a path to recovery. Cannot heal permanent soul scarring. 30 Au
- - - - -
Again caught of guard by the implications of the list, Kya simply stared for a moment reading them over and taking them in, her mind racing. Soul scarring? Scarring? What the hell kind of an attack would leave you not just physically scarred but her soul as well? Moreover, this was her first time ever seeing Au, or what she took to be the golden Aurens. That meant those were astronomically expensive, and confirmed that she was simply seeing the base cost at common rarity for the rest.
Sighing deeply, she backed out and looked at the other categories as well. Mana and stamina potions were much simpler, doing exactly what she’d assumed they would. Mana potions restored your Mana pathways, allowing you to use more of your abilities than you otherwise could. Meanwhile, stamina potions went directly into the muscles and organs of the body, and acted to return energy that had been spent. Again, Kya thought these were pretty standard, if not more rare and niche than the always useful health potions.
The Elixirs, though, were again intensely interesting in what they could potentially promise her.
- - - - -
~ Elixirs ~
~ Available in all rarities from Rare to Legendary ~
~ Please Note: All elixirs will grant diminishing returns when used in quick succession. Excessive use has been known to cause harm. ~
- Body Tempering Elixir - Grants a small increase to the power and endurance of the body. 3 Ag.
- Mind Tempering Elixir - Grants a small increase to the resiliency of the mind. 5 Ag.
- Soul Tempering Elixir - Grants a small increase to the strength of the soul. 1 Au.
- Class Elixir - Provides experience to a primary class. Price varies depending on Class.
- - - - -
Kya was about to spend all of her money right then and there. Warnings be damned, if she could increase her base abilities, her mental defenses specifically, she was willing to go all in. She still remembered with loathing the experience when signing up for the game with the emotion user who had treated her like a training dummy.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Looking up as Rickard walked back in the small room, Kya said “Hello again, I have several questions for you before I…” Towards the end though, she trailed off and stopped talking as the man, who’d been averting his gaze and keeping his eyes on the floor, turned to the side and made a deep bow. Then in a much deeper and almost reverential tone than he had used with Kya, said “Her eminence, Master of Potions and Poisons, Mistress Wadrin.”
The room seemed to grow much smaller all of the sudden. Kya felt, just mildly, like her arms had gotten heavier. Like she wasn’t able to move, to breath as easily as she could before. Then she heard the distinctive clacking of heels on the wooden floor, and lethargically looked up from the bowing Rickard to who could only have been the potions master herself. Even without being announced by her servant, Kya still would have guessed her to be someone noble, wealthy or in the aristocracy or both.
She was an imposing woman, tall with angular features like a bird. She wore a deep sapphire gown, richly accented with gold and emerald. Not just fabric either, but actual bracelets, necklaces, earrings, of the metal and jewels. Her scarlet hair was tied up in elaborate knots behind not quite a crown, but certainly an ornate hair piece. Her skin was pale, dotted with freckles all across her sharp nose and high cheekbones. As she slowly glided into the room, she had the air of someone who was nobly volunteering for a particularly distasteful task.
Kya, still feeling like her body wasn’t responding quite how she’d like it to, tracked the woman's progress and identified her just before she sat down gracefully in the chair opposite Kya’s with the low table between them.
The return of her boisterous narrator actually seemed to jar her a little, making Kya blink several times as she listened to the brief description.
- - - - -
Julliard Wade
- Class - 3-Star - Waters of Life
- - - - -
Kya’s brain made a connection almost instantly, but before she could complete the half-formed thought in her mind, the woman spoke out in a high, cold voice. “I was told of you not even one day past by the high priest. He said to me I should be wary of the devil that has entered our city, and cast it out if they come to me.” She paused and gave Kya a searching, accusatory look, pausing briefly as they made eye contact. Then continued, her voice dripping with disdain “I hardly needed the warning at all, but I’ll gladly thank the rains above he prepared me for seeing you face to face. Else I may have… lost my composure. Nevertheless, the moment I sensed you enter my home, I nearly did. Quite nearly. I had thought to give you a sample of one of my poisons, perhaps forget to tell you the health potions you bought had been… corrupted. But that would have harmed my image, and therefore my honor and business. As would carrying out a corpse from my grounds. As that degenerate guild master even allowed you to register, I might face legal repercussions as well.” She paused, then a wicked, snakes grin pulled at her lips, and she laughed a small, girlish, unnerving laugh while covering her mouth with her hand. “Oh dear, look at me. Despite what I said, I seem to be rambling on. Not quite as composed as would otherwise be proper I suppose.” Then, her cerulean eyes showing an utter lack of mirth despite her small laugh, she dropped her hands, face becoming the picture of apathy.
With one final look, and a hardly contained sneer, she rose from her chair and walked slowly out of the room. Pausing next to Rickard who had remained bowing low since she’d entered the room, the potions master said “Throw her out, Mr. Teymore. As soon as you can feasibly manage it. Then burn the chair on which she sat.”
And without another word or even so much as a look back, she was gone.
Kya sat in stunned silence, having not spoken a single word the entire time the woman was in the room. Almost startled out of her revelry as Rickard began to move again, he gave her a now completely apathetic look. Not the relatively welcoming one she’d gotten earlier, nor the one of cold fury the master had given, just… nothing. Utter indifference. In a tone so slow and monotonous that would have been more at home at the bottom of the ocean, he said “Stand. Walk. Ahead of me.”
“Now wait, let me just-” She tried to say, wanting to go back and speak with the woman, to convince Rickard that she wasn’t some monster. She knew it was because of her class, and assumed the priest she spoke of was the one from the Water temple she’d met briefly by the train station. But still, Kya had held on to some hope that if she could just explain herself, then the situation could be resolved peacefully.
However, before she was more than a few words in, Rickard cut her off. “No. Stand. Go. Now.”
Mouth working without any sound escaping, Kya stayed where she was a moment longer, before rising from her chair and walking back out of the building. Past the brilliantly colored rooms, past the well manicured gardens, and finally back through the white archway that marked the end of the apothecary and back onto the streets of Lyra.
The whole time she’d been walking, Rickard had been right behind her, just to her left. He hadn’t touched her once, hadn’t even reached out but instead kept his hands clasped behind his back. She knew it as an ironclad fact as she could see him through her aura… yet the whole time, the entire walk out of the building, it felt to her like she was being ever so subtly pushed out and away.
Now back amid the throngs of people, she stopped and looked back at the building still visible over its square of hedges surrounding the perimeter of the property. So much information was clawing her brain for attention, and she was actively trying to stamp down and get hold of multiple strands of though at the same time, leading to nothing more than a jumbled mess. But one thing stood at the front of it all, one thing above all else.
“Fuck that place.” she thought with a sigh.
She knew of other potion makers in the city, this place didn’t have a monopoly on them. But it was the best, and boasted the greatest variety with the best effects, she knew that much. And she hadn’t even gotten to look at the 2-Star list. Kya knew she’d have to go somewhere else for her supply, and settle for somewhere a bit less than the best. That didn’t really bother her too much, but seeing the elixirs and health potions she’d missed out on slip through her fingers annoyed her more than anything else. Especially for so stupid a fucking reason as that.
She knew her class was disliked, she’d known that from literally the first moment she’d picked it when Rory and Wade had looked at her like a ghost the moment she opened her rose colored eyes. But to this point she hadn’t really bothered to look into exactly why there was so much antagonism against her class. Again, from the same moment she vaguely recalled that there had been some war a century ago, but it really hadn’t seemed important in her mind. With a magical awakening, a city and by extension, an entire world to explore, a culture and race to understand, and from all of that a focus on how to get stronger in her class and advance as quickly as possible, it all but slipped her mind.
Thinking back as she continued on her way through the city, Kya remembered each occasion where her class had become, if not an issue, at least a focal point. From Wade’s captain, to Maggie hesitating to even let her join the guild. The game guy, whatever his name was, giving her a hard time when she registered, and of course the priest from the temple that had hosed her down with water.
As she passed over one of the many bridges, Kya looked out over the clear blue stream and saw in the distance the guild hall barely visible over the tops of the other buildings. She would make one more stop, her one track mind not letting her move on until she’d checked off this box. But after that, after that perhaps the academy could stand to wait for another day. She felt like it might be time for another library reading session to come to terms with her role in this world more thoroughly.
~ ~ ~
Compared to the Wadrin Apothecary, this place was a lot less… well, it was a lot less. Instead of the more than an acre of land with the gardens and pathways, this crumbling tower was at most about ten meters at its widest point. It did, on the one hand, look truly like an old fashioned mages tower. It had a foundation and first floor made of stone bricks, most of which were cracked or moldy or both. Then a second floor of white stained wood and finally a miniscule third… not quite floor but area with a tall dark pointed roof. Off to one side was a tiny little garden, with a handful of colorful herbs and vines growing on a freestanding trellis wall. Some of the plants, even though the suns were still bright in the sky, gave off faint pulses of light she was able to see from just a glance. All in all, Kya knew walking in this wouldn’t be anywhere close to what she’d seen before, but with a sort of determined optimism, walked up the two stone steps and pulled open the simple door.
Inside, a thick blue haze hung around the ceiling, and the scent of lemon and honey hit her like a wall. Behind a knotted and chipped wooden counter, a wizened old elf looked up from a bubbling beaker he had on a low flame and said in a wheezing voice “Welcome young miss, welcome to-”
“The greatest shop in the city.” Kya said, notes of reverence and astonishment in her voice.
Confused, the elder said “I uh… well thank you miss, but what makes you say that?”
Fighting to hold back a tear, Kya said “Your door… it… it opened on the first try.”
Now even more confused, and slightly distressed at the tone of the conversation, the old man said with a slight stammer “Uh, well, uh yes, yes it did. Won’t you have a seat miss, please. If you tell me what it is you're looking for, I’d be happy to either get it from my stock or I can even craft it for you right here. Does that sound… uh, acceptable to you? Oh and you can call me Archie. Archie the alchemist.”
Walking over and sitting down on a padded stool in front of the counter, Kya just nodded her head, and took a deep breath. After a moment more, she said “Nice to meet you Archie, I’m Kya. I was hoping, if you could, for some higher tier health potions than this one. A couple mana and stamina too if you have them. And possibly some elixirs?” As she spoke, Kya took out and placed one of her looted potions on the table for the man to inspect.
The man's face, which had lit up when she started with health potions, began to fall at the mention of elixirs. “I can almost certainly help with the health potions and I should have a few mana and stamina potions in the cellar. But I don’t think there's much I can do for the elixirs, especially at the 1-Star rarity. Those ingredients are too rare, and making it for such a low rank is quite difficult even if I had the supplies. But let's see about this health potion here.”
While he had been speaking, the man was searching behind the counter for something. Finally taking it out just as he finished, it looked to be a jeweler's glass. A sort of specialized miniature telescope that he planted firmly into his eye before holding up the potion over his head and squinting at it through the lens.
While the man studied the potion, Kya studied the man.
- - - - -
Archera Meadows
- Class - 2-Star - Scholar of Vita
- - - - -
The elderly elf had a completely bald head, looking shiny despite the liver spots she could see, making her wonder if the man took time to wax it. Though he looked to be in his seventies or eighties, Kya had also remembered that users were supposed to have extended lifespans. If this guy was a 2-Star and still looked this old, what did that make him? Two hundred? Three hundred?
Breaking off her line of thought as the Archie lowered the potion back to the counter and removed the eyeglass, he said “Yes yes, quite a standard looting potion. Not bad by any means, but I can see why you’d like something a bit more potent. Just a minute if you don’t mind, miss.”
Then turning, he shuffled over to a trap door, and opening it, descended a creaking ladder down into his cellar. About a minute later, the creaking ladder once again announced his return with a small container tucked securely under one arm.
Placing it on the counter, he took out a dozen vials in all. Six red, four blue, and two green. She naturally identified each one as they were placed down.
- - - - -
- Item: Health Potion
- Rarity: 1-Star - Rare
- Description: An enhanced version of the basic health potion. This will provide a greater heal-over-time effect when consumed.
- Enchantments: Greater Healing
- Requirements: N/A
- - - - -
- Item: Mana Potion
- Rarity: 1-Star - Uncommon
- Description: A slightly enhanced version of the basic mana potion. This will provide an improved restore-over-time effect to the mana pool when consumed.
- Enchantments: Improved Mana Restoration
- Requirements: N/A
- - - - -
- Item: Stamina Potion
- Rarity: 1-Star - Common
- Description: A mildly more difficult brew to perfect, the stamina potion will cause a weak restore-over-time effect to one's energy reserves when consumed.
- Enchantments: Lesser Stamina Restoration
- Requirements: N/A
- - - - -
“Those are the best I got.” The old alchemist said proudly. “If you give me a week or so, some of my plants outside should ripen and I can get you another batch of the rare health potions.”
Controlling her expression so as to not show the slight disappointment at the supplies on offer, Kya picked up each one and considered each one. “These are great!” She said “How much for the lot of them?”
“Well” he said scratching his chin in thought, “I’d have to say right around thirty four silvers should do it.”
Wincing slightly, Kya felt an mild flush come over her face. That was nearly twice what she had on hand. “I need to sell some stuff, and do more quests.” she thought dully, trying to outwardly show that this wasn’t a big deal. But either her poker face wasn’t that great, or the old elf was simply too good at reading people, because he said in sympathy with a knowing smile “I could around nineteen instead for half of them, and I’ll throw in an Uncommon health potion on the house.”
Sighing deeply, Kya was about to just accept the probably more than generous offer, when she had a thought. “Would you be open to trading for them? I have quite a few things you might find interesting.”
Again scratching his face in contemplation, Archie slowly began to nod, and said “Perhaps I could at that. Depending on what you’re offering, that is.”
What followed were several minutes of basically show and tell, where Kya pulled out various oddities from her storage space that she thought might interest the old man. Most of it he found intriguing, but ultimately rejected for one reason or another. Finally taking out the small stove she’d looted from the farmhouse ritual chamber, she knew instantly she had the alchemist hooked.
After several rounds of surprisingly intense negotiations from Archie, they came to an agreement.
“Alright, alright alright. I’ll give you the stove, five agrens, five life-attuned mana crystals, and this wiggler meat, and you’ll give me the dozen potions here, plus two uncommon rarities, and the recipes for both a basic health potion and a 1-Star mind tempering elixir.” Kya said with an exhausted, but highly amused smile, hand stretched out to shake on the deal.
Reaching out his hand as though fighting against a weight, Archie took her hand and shook it. “You’ve got yourself a deal. Though what you’re going to do with the recipe for an elixir, I’m not sure. Even if you know, and have the ingredients, they’re fiendishly complex to get right.”
Scooping up the small stove, silver coins, crystals, and wiggler meat, the old alchemist piled them all into the box and carried them over to a back section of the little shop, before bringing back two more red health potions and adding them to the pile that Kya was sucking up into her storage space.
Smiling, she said “Hey, I have to start somewhere. Any tips for a prospective alchemist?”
Grimacing, he said “Don’t drink it unless you’re sure it's one hundred percent correct, or you're in for the longest trip to the latrines of your life.”
Laughing, the old elf letting out a chuckle as well, Kya caught her breath, and then said in a more somber tone “Can I ask you a question?”
Still smiling slightly, Archie answered “You just did miss, but you can certainly ask another if you like.”
“I guess two questions really. If you don’t mind telling me, how old are you?”
Again chuckling softly, he said “Seem awfully spry for my age, eh? I’ve still got some years in me, I’m not even three hundred yet.”
Face paling at the words, Kya felt an unreal sense of vertigo just imagining that, trying to come to terms with the fact that this smiling old man was born before the United States existed. Nevertheless, she asked her next question with a faltering voice “So… then, do you… care about my class? Why don’t you care about my class?”
Green and bronze eyes growing sad, and the smile fading from his wrinkled face, Archie said “I haven’t live nearly as long as some, but age is more about perspective than it is about the number attached to it. Some kids a tenth my age have lived through much more than me, for example. But nevertheless, I’ve seen a lot. I remember a lot.” He tapped a finger to the side of his temple and said “When you're a knowledge user, it's often harder to forget than it is to remember.”
Taking a deep breath, and letting it out in a puff, he continued on, saying “I saw what they did to you space and even to some extent the time users. Your people were far from blameless, don’t get me wrong, but still it never sat right to me the lengths people were willing to go.” He go lost in his own world for a moment, remembering times long past. Shaking himself slightly, he finally just shrugged and said “I’ll never forget those days, but Perdix and Ferona both help me if I can’t move past them. Move on from them.”
Seeing the literal font of wisdom that was right across from her, Kya asked in a reverent tone “Can… if you’re able, and willing… can you tell me about it? The war? The spatial users? I feel like I don’t know anything of my own class, or the history around it, and I just-”
Holding up a wrinkled hand, Archie shook his head. “You don’t need to explain, girl. The pursuit of knowledge isn’t something that needs to be justified. But if I’m going to tell you a story, we’d best retire upstairs and get comfortable.”
Nodding her head, Kya waited as Archie went over and locked the door, then followed him up the tiny spiral staircase to the second floor.