Dark yellow blood oozed between my fingers as I pressed my hand against the seeping wound. For a moment, I considered dropping my potion and drawing my sword, but if it broke, I might not have time to craft another before succumbing to my injury. Judging from the pain and the deep tone of my blood, he must have hit something vital.

  Avian lunged forward, grabbing Dante’s bony arm. She yanked him away from me. As she pulled him, the creepy smile didn’t leave his face.

  Sani emerged from the garbage maze, holding his spear, a steak impaled on its tip. His gaze switched from peering at me, to staring at Dante and Avian.

  A jolt of pain radiated through my body like a stone creating a ripple on a still pond. My hand holding the potion trembled. Still not wanting to drink it, I looked at Sani, my final hope. “Heal me.”

  Sani’s eyes widened. “What happened?” He glared at the dagger in Dante’s hand, which was stained with my blood. He adjusted his footing, preparing to attack.

  If not for the immense pain, I might have chuckled, thinking about him stabbing the starving man with the steak still attached to the weapon. Instead, I asked again, “Can you heal me?”

  Sani shook his head, his expression conveying uncertainty, as if he couldn’t decide if he should attack. “My holdzilei hasn’t had time to regenerate.” He pointed his spear at Dante’s head. “Why did you do this?”

  Dante laughed. “The drux needed motivation. All he must do is heal himself with the potion.”

  I brought the vial closer to my face. The outside of the glass had smears of brown and specks of black. Sniffing it, I couldn’t tell if it stank. The room overwhelmed anything that could be on the vial. My head felt light, giving me a sudden urge to lie down.

  “Drink it,” Avian said.

  I cringed as the cold glass touched my lips. Holding my breath, I tilted it back, trying not to allow the liquid to touch my tongue as it slid down my throat. My head jerked violently forward as I took my hand from the wound and moved it over my mouth. I suppressed the urge to cough it back up. My wound tingled as it healed from the inside first. After a moment, only the bloodstain on my shirt remained to prove my injury.

  “See. Good as new,” Dante said. “Don’t you feel a surge of confidence realizing you mixed your first spell correctly?”

  “Be forgotten!” My teeth clenched hard enough to hurt my jaw.

  Avian dropped Dante’s arm, but the angry expression remained on her face.

  Sani scanned the room, still holding up his spear, ready to attack Dante at a moment’s notice.

  Dante glanced at his spear, then rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to me. “You can’t be afraid to test what you made.” He grinned. “How else will you learn?”

  “It isn’t the mixture I feared, but the ingredients you keep in this horror show of a cottage.”

  “Hunting lodge.” He corrected me, as if the distinction changed my argument.

  “When was the last time you washed those damn vials?” I threw it at him. It missed him by a mark, almost winging his ear before it shattered on the wall behind him.

  “Careful.” He shook his head. “Think before you act. Someone could get hurt.”

  My hand went to my hilt, but I paused as Avian shook her head. As good as it would feel to watch him wriggle on the end of my sword, I knew I had much more to learn. Their lives could depend on it.”

  Dante pointed around the room. “All of this stuff. These simple-looking items. They all contain hints of magic. That’s why I keep them.”

  I extended my arm, as if presenting the urine-filled urns by his bed. “And what special qualities does your stale piss have?”

  “It works great at cleaning the vials.” He chuckled.

  I couldn’t hold my lunch in any longer. My vomit was blue, just like the potion I had downed.

  “Don’t!” Dante threw his arms up. “Not on my floor! Now this place will smell for days.” He shook his head as he stepped toward Sani. “I didn’t really clean them with my urine. Can’t a guy lighten the mood without you getting sick?” He pulled the steak from Sani’s spear and ate it.

  Sani kept his position.

  “Well, lad.” Dante shooed him away with a flick of his hand. “Fetch me another.”

  Sani glanced at me, waiting for my nod before relaxing from attack mode and heading back through the garbage maze.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Dante burped. “Now, shall we get back to work?”

  “Will you clean the vomit first?” Avian asked.

  Danty waved his hand dismissively. “The rats will eat it.”

  Avian put her hand to her mouth, suppressing the urge to add to the rat’s lunch.

  “I’ll continue.” I tapped my hilt. “But if you stab me again, I’ll cut you in half.”

  “Do as I say without hesitation, and I won’t have to resort to extreme measures.” He shook his head. “Are you afraid of a few germs?”

  “I don’t want to catch whatever parasite is starving you.”

  His eyes widened. “Lad, if I had a parasite or a sickness, I’d wipe it out with a spell.” He shrugged. “My condition results from a miscalculation in a concoction I had been attempting to perfect.”

  “The weapon you were creating for Mallma?” I asked.

  “Tye,” Avian said. “That’s not our concern.”

  “Isn’t it?” I shook my head. “They want us dead. Is this how they’ll do it, feeding us a potion that makes us waste away?”

  Dante sucked in a long breath. “I wasn’t working on a weapon.” He pointed a spindly finger at me. “I was on the verge of discovering a secret that has plagued yaksha since the day the gods dropped us here. Allowing a man to not only survive off minimal food, but to thrive despite eating almost nothing.”

  The royals had plenty of food to eat. I couldn’t believe they would waste one of their spell masters making sure the peasants were well fed. “I thought you were working on a discovery worthy of improving Mallma’s military advantage?”

  He grinned. “What would be more devastating than an army that needed only eat a minuscule amount of food, while still maintaining their mass and strength?”

  “They would eat less. I get it. But Mallma never struggled to feed its soldiers.”

  Avian’s eyes widened. “You’re not considering the implications, Tye. No weapon would make more difference than what he was researching.” She rubbed her chin. “Armies have their movements restricted by the stores they can carry. A small group can shoot a couple of rabbits, but an army requires much more food. They would wipe out all wildlife if they hunted as they moved.”

  “Not to mention Mallma’s ability to hold out to a siege or to keep pressure on another kingdom’s castle during a siege.” Dante shook his head and glanced away. “I thought I had it right. I was so confident that I drank the potion myself instead of having my apprentice try it.”

  Avian looked him up and down. “Instead of needing almost no food, you can’t eat food fast enough.”

  “And now I’m running out of time. If I don’t figure this out, I will expire soon.”

  “Couldn’t you just reverse the spell?” I asked. “You said earlier that knowing the recipe is the easiest way to reverse the effects of a potion.”

  He nodded. “I’ve been mixing potions before your pa had enough money to pay your ma for a quickie behind the stables.” He grinned. “You really don’t think I thought of reversing the spell?”

  “My father didn’t have to pay my mother.” My face felt warm as I again had the urge to drive my sword through the man.

  “He bargained for a freebie, good for him.” He chuckled.

  I drew my sword and pointed it at him. “Do you mean to imply my mother was a harlot?”

  “He jokes.” Avian stepped between us and guided my sword down. “Ending his miserable existence will only prove to end his suffering.”

  I huffed, considering my options. Killing him now would allow me to leave this horrible place and put distance between me and this awful man. By utilizing what he already taught, I could figure out the other spells in his apprentice’s book. But it sounded like his apprentice hadn’t been training long. I doubted he had a binding spell stronger than the one Lar used. I sheathed my sword. “Let us finish the training, so I can leave this place.”

  Dante nodded. “Using what you learned of his style, work the next potion in his book.”

  I went back to the table, standing in the center position, with the mortar and pestle in front of me. After reading off the list of ingredients, I waited for Dante to bring them to me. He paused for a moment, eating the next steak that Sani prepared.

  The first ingredient was a chalky mineral, which broke up easily under the pressure of my pestle. As I mixed, I chanted. “Siege of Absame. The Great Giant Barrage. Battle of Shinno Valley. The Forgotten Slaughter.”

  Like in the healing spell, I added the next ingredient at the mention of the Forgotten Slaughter. This one was seeds, which took longer to break down. “The Yaksha-Tysaura War. The Battle of Shinno Valley. Skirmish of the Three Kingdoms.” I changed stirring directions. “The Great Giant Barrage. The Forgotten Slaughter.”

  The mixing continued until I said the last word on the page. Glancing down at the powder, I asked, “How do I know what effect this has?” In the grimoire, the title of the potion just said darkness to light.

  “Most wigon will use codewords for the potion name, making it even harder for someone to reverse. Those with ill intentions would need to first unbind the book, then figure out which spell they are seeking. He wasn’t clever, so he just used vague descriptions.” He handed me a vial. “Mix this together. It should turn green.”

  After spitting on the vial, I wiped it with my shirt, poking a cloth-covered finger inside to get it as clean as possible.

  Avian grimaced. “Did you wear that shirt when you met Layla at the tannery?”

  “Just don’t...” I threw my hands up. “Why? Why even say it?”

  She shrugged.

  I put the powder in the vial and shook. Sure enough, it turned bright green. “What does it do?”

  “This will allow you to see in the dark,” Dante said. “Drink it.”

  Before the crazy old man had a chance to do something irrational, like stab my eyes, I brought the potion to my lips and tilted it back.

  At first, the room took on a slight green tint. But as the effects increased, so did the brightness. My eyes burned from the light produced by the fireplace, almost bringing me to my knees. “Shit.” I threw my arm up, blocking the light from my eyes.”

  “This is one you don’t want to use indoors,” Dante said.

  “Now you tell me.” I stumbled forward, making my way through the maze.

  Dante followed me as I walked. “You needed to learn a valuable lesson. Potions, even when mixed properly, can have an effect that in certain situations becomes negative. When crafting new potions, you want to consider plausible scenarios when deciding how long to make the effects last.”

  Out of desperation, I had to run my hand against the heaps of garbage to find my way out of the lodge.

  Dante stayed inside the doorway. “Go for a walk. Clear your mind. I’m going to eat.”

  Once outside, I removed my arm. The tint of green remained. The light from the stars was now enough to see deep into the forest. Not wanting to venture too far, I circled the building.

  As I rounded the back corner, I froze. A figure sat on a tree stump ahead of me. I could only make out the silhouette. The person stood when they spotted me.