“How could you do this to us?” Alaric asked Rickie with a hurt expression on his face. “I thought you were one of us, and wouldn’t let these women take us to another male whore house.”

  “Well I think he did a fantastic job.” Meira said as she gave him a friendly pat on his arm.

  “Are you okay with this?” He turned towards Bjorn. “I mean your girlfriend is blatantly ogling these men as they walk past us.”

  Bjorn just shrugged. “Honestly, yeah I am. I don’t care where she gets her hunger from. As long as she eats at home.”

  Alaric got an equally hurt and betrayed look on his face and he just deflated into his seat.

  It was twenty minutes later when Tayla made her way into the room and sat down. Her eyes were drawn to the defeated looking dwarf sitting at their table. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “He doesn’t like our choice of housing while we are here.” Meira said matter of factly.

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” Tayla replied. “I was surprised to find out that you guys did pick this place though.”

  “Bjorn and I didn’t have a choice. It was Meira and Rickie who picked this place out. While Bjorn and I went and watched some woman accidently dye her skin orange.”

  Tayla looked from Alaric over to where Rickie was sitting and she then leaned in and planted a very suggestive kiss on his neck. “I am proud of you.”

  The rest of the night was rather uneventful as they had a few drinks and then slowly made their way up to bed for the night. Alaric being the first one to retire for the night.

  In the morning they all gathered in the common room as the three separate groups in their party made their way into the common room one at a time. The mood which had been more jovial the night before was more somber. The weight of what they were going to have to do today weighed heavily on all of their minds.

  Once everyone had gathered they started walking through the streets of Vanta with Rickie leading the way. It almost felt as if the city itself felt the weight of their task, as it was rather quiet and subdued. In actuality it was just early in the morning and the city wasn’t fully awake yet. But to the friend group it felt as if the city itself understood.

  “Was she close to Chase?” Bjorn asked as they walked, breaking the silence.

  “At one point yes. When we were younger they were inseparable. As they grew older that bond remained but they grew distant. Still every time we came here and saw her it was as if no time had passed, and they picked up right where they left off.” Rickie hung his head and sighed. “I always hate to see her in pain. And today I will be the one to bring that pain.”

  “We are here for you.” Meira said. “We all are.”

  “I know, it doesn’t make what is about to happen any easier though.”

  They walked on through the streets, at one point Rickie had ducked down a side street and they started to follow the narrower road. Along the main road they were traveling down the houses that surrounded them were large, tall, and almost immaculate. Down this new street it was similar at first, but as they traveled the buildings around them began to grow smaller, become tighter packed, and start to grow a little less well kept.

  After a few minutes Rickie stopped before a door and stood there looking at it. It was rather unremarkable. There was nothing to indicate that it was any different to the ones around it, but there was no doubt in everyone’s mind that this was Chase’s sister’s door.

  He stared at the door for at first a minute, then two, then three. Instead of trying to prompt their friend to get it over with, they just stood there and let him handle his own emotions, all they did was give their silent support. Once the 5th minute hit Rickie sighed and reached up to his eye, wiping away tears he raised his hand and knocked twice loudly on the door.

  They stood there for over a minute waiting for something to happen. Rickie raised his hand to knock on the door again, which he did. Two more sharp knocks. A few seconds later the door opened slightly and an eye peered out from behind the door. When she got a good look at Rickie’s rather unmistakable frame on the other side of the door she swung the door wide open.

  The face that greeted them was a familiar face, but yet alien. She had the same nose, eye color, and jawline as Chase had. She was short and had the same brown curly hair that Chase had. At first she had a look of excitement on her face, her eyes were sparkling with joy at seeing Rickie, and a wide joyous smile was plastered on her face.

  That changed when she saw Rickie’s expression. She saw the sad look on his face, the depression in his eyes, and the tears rolling down his cheeks and her expression fell. She quickly tore her eyes away from Rickie’s face and looked past him, her eyes darting to the figures behind Rickie searching for someone.

  Not finding what she was looking for, her eyes shot back to Rickie. “Chase?” Simple question was filled with more sorrow and fear than Bjorn had ever heard before in his life.

  Instead of answering, Rickie just gave a small shake of his head. That simple head movement shattered this woman’s world. A cry of sorrow and grief escaped her lips and she collapsed to the ground in front of Rickie. The cry echoed down the alleyway, amplified by the constricted corridor.

  Several hours later they found themselves inside the woman’s house sitting together in a cramped kitchen area. Well two of them were sitting, the other 4 stood around in different spots in the house. It was Rickie on one side of a small table and Chase’s sister on the other. They learned her name was Betsy.

  Betsy had calmed down enough to where she could ask questions. “How did it happen?”

  “Well you know we were on our way to Blackrock Bay. When there they got attacked by an infestation of a monster called a snatcher spider. We got press ganged into joining their local militia and he didn’t make it out of one of th-”

  “No!” she yelled. Her sorrow gave way to anger. “You will not sugar coat this Rickie. You will tell me exactly how you failed my brother. You will give me details.”

  Honoring her wishes he began to explain in excruciating detail what exactly happened to he and Chase since the two of them left Vanta heading to Blackrock Bay. From there he moved on to telling her about their time in Blackrock bay before they got drafted into the militia. He then explained the other 4 participants' involvement in their fights right up to where Chase died. Nothing was left out. For the most part they let Rickie tell the story, only butting in every once and a while to fill in important details that Rickie either forgot or skipped over.

  When he finished talking about the events that lead up to Chase’s death he hesitated briefly before explaining the battle that claimed Chase’s life. The pure venom he saw in Betsy’s eyes convinced him to go on. He told her about the situation, and how they were overwhelmed and almost everyone present died as well.

  “Keep talking.” She commanded when Rickie stopped after Chase’s death.

  From there the 5 of them told her what happened. They held almost nothing back. The only thing about their story they didn’t tell her was them finding the loot and the loot they got from the entire encounter. Every detail, the horrors they faced, the things they saw, nothing was held back. Throughout the entire story Betsy just sat there glaring at Rickie as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  A few minutes after they finished recounting the story the front door swung open and a man walked in and shut the door. At first he was welcoming to the guests in his house, as he saw two new people standing in a rather relaxed position by the doorway into their kitchen. He wasn’t able to see his wife or Rickie, but he figured it had to be Rickie and Chase that came back. That demeanor changed when he squeezed past Bjorn and saw the state his wife was in. He immediately walked over to her side and sat down next to her and instead of asking questions just listened in on what was happening.

  That was when Bjorn excused himself so that he could go to the alchemist, and hopefully gain that last level for his profession. The others stayed behind as Bjorn made his way out the door and back to the main street.

  It was relatively easy to find his way back to the alchemy lab. When he got there it was still early afternoon. Even with everything that happened that morning it still hadn’t taken that long to tell their story.

  When he pushed his way into the lab there were 5 people inside. 4 of whom were lined up against one wall standing at attention, while the last one was pacing back and forth lecturing to them. As he looked closer at the group there was the woman from last night standing amongst those getting lectured. Her burnt orange skin made her look like she got the worst spray on tan he had ever seen.

  “- irresponsible. How many times have I lectured you on making sure you are fully sure before adding alchemical components together. There are even manuals. Manuals! Ones that I worked painstakingly for months to make to avoid accidents such as these.” The man said.

  He was a short man, barely breaking 5 feet in height. His characteristics were odd. He was shorter than really any human he had come across were. So his first thought was that he was a dwarf. But he wasn’t as rotund as most dwarves were, he had a lanky build that looked closer to a gnome. But he had the thick long beard that was common amongst dwarves. To top the entire weird look he had the same almost unnaturally long arms that most gnomes had.

  One thing that he had learned in the Eld was that it was exceptionally rude to ask about one’s heritage. Especially when the person looked like their family tree was something that you could throw three darts at and not hit the same species. So Bjorn just quietly entered the room and let him continue his tirade. Bjorn identified the man and found out his name was Greg, and his race was third human, third dwarf, and true to his form, third gnome.

  When he entered those getting lectured noticed, but Greg didn’t due to the fact that his back was to the door. The verbal abuse continued. “And what were you doing mixing sage wort into that potion? It doesn’t even call for it. You also should have added the distillate later after you let the liquid simmer for 10 minutes. I distinctly remember telling you that the distillate of arrowhead toad and whip juice should under no circumstances ever be mixed together because of what happened.”

  Bjorn couldn’t help himself. “Actually if you prepare the sage wort correctly you can safely mix the two ingredients together without that happening.”

  The man wheeled around and took a good look at Bjorn. In less than a few seconds the man looked Bjorn up and down and made his opinion. Apparently he thought Bjorn was still wanting. “And I assume you are actually the alchemist who Gisabell was talking about who stopped by last night. If you knew so well why didn’t you stop her. I mean look at my table. It will be stained that ugly orange color forever.” He gestured rather emphatically towards the table where the woman, who Bjorn now knew was Gisabell, had been working the night before. True to Greg’s word the table that she had been working at was a perfect match to her skin tone.

  “I have no idea what the rules are here in your lab. Who am I to stop her from brewing a potion in a lab where I have no control. And to top it off mixing those two ingredients aren't terrible inherently if the sage wort was properly prepared then you won't have that violent reaction.” Bjorn said as he walked over to one of the tables and pulled out one of the stools underneath the table and sat down.

  The odd gnome dwarf human man’s eyes narrowed. “Show me.” He stated almost more of a command than a request.

  Bjorn just shrugged. “Give me the ingredients and I can show it to you in less than 5 minutes.”

  The man turned back to his students and looked at the one on the end, he was a tiefling. “Go get him what he needs.”

  The tiefling, who was glad to be out of the formation, hurried through a door on the far wall of the room. Soon he came back with a vial and a handful of the herb. He rushed back over and set the ingredients down in front of Bjorn. Before rushing back to his place in line.

  “I don’t believe you can do it. But I will tell you what. If you are able to mix those two ingredients without looking like Gisabell there you can have free reign of this alchemy lab for as long as you want.” Greg said.

  “Sounds good.” Bjorn said before setting to work. It didn’t take him long to grind the herb down to a soft paste. He stood and grabbed some water from a decanter that was sitting on one of the tables. Sitting back down he slowly mixed a little water into the paste until it took on a gel-like consistency. From there he added the tincture of arrowhead toad blood into the paste.

  When he tipped the vial into the container everyone watched on with held breath. They all expected the liquid to explode into the same orange smoke that Gisabell had created the night before. Yet true to exactly what Bjorn knew was going to happen, it didn’t do so.

  After a few minutes Bjorn used a long glass rod to mix the two liquid together and it formed a dry powder. “As you can see it isn’t always going to get the reaction you thought always happened. All that happened was Gisabell didn’t prepare the Sage Wort properly and because of that she got the reaction she did and now her skin is dyed orange.”

  Bjorn stood and walked over to where the 5 people were standing each of them with their mouths wide agape. “Just because we can do so, doesn’t mean we should do so though.” He handed the small pestle around that he was using to combine the two. “Even though we can form a stable compound with the two ingredients, that doesn’t mean that it is overly useful. From my experience this powder is only really useful for one thing, and that is dying things the color orange. I haven’t been able to find any use for this powder alchemically.”

  Greg was the first one to speak up. “Well, I will admit I was wrong, and that I am impressed. I am sorry for the rude reception you got. And the show that you saw when you walked in here. Some of these apprentices aren’t really the best, nor do they listen to instructions.” When he said that last part he shot a glance at Gisabell. “I do tend to have a bit of a temper that likes to get the better of me. The state that I found the lab in when I came in brought that anger out.”

  The short man stuck his hand out, which had unnaturally long fingers. “I am Greg by the way. And you are?”

  Bjorn reached out and took the man’s hand and shook it. “My name is Bjorn, and I am close to reaching level 40 in my alchemy skill, so I would like to use your lab for a few days to hopefully reach level 40.”

  When he said level 40 a few of the alchemists before him exchanged glances and two of the started to whisper between the two of them. Greg didn’t show any outward signs of excitement by the news. The only indication was a slight tightening of the grip on Bjorn’s hand. After a few seconds he let go of Bjorn’s hand.

  “Of course you are more than welcome to use my lab. I do have a simple request for you though if you are willing to oblige me.”

  Wary of a trap Bjorn didn’t give an affirmative. “Maybe. What is your request? I might be able to help.”

  A very familiar look crossed Greg's face, greed. “While you are here if you would be willing to help share some of your knowledge in alchemy. It would be a great help for my apprentices. That and the two of us could exchange a few pointers, I am sure we would be able to help each other.”

  Ultimately he had no issue with that request, as he expected that he was going to be pestered while he was in this lab anyways. “Sure, on the condition that you all don’t harass me all the time, I have limited time here in this city, and I would like to reach level 40 before I have to leave Vanta. Is that doable?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Of course, of course.” He said and turned to his apprentices and reiterated literally what they had just talked about. As if they hadn’t been standing right there listening in on the entire conversation.

  Bjorn immediately decided he didn’t like this man. “Now if you will leave me be I would like to get to work.”

  “Of yes, of course.” He turned back to his apprentices and started to give orders.

  But Bjorn had already started to ignore the man and the other alchemists and he started work on brewing potions. He wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to brew, so he brought out the small book that Skarit had given him and started leafing through the book seeing if anything caught his attention. When nothing did he brought out the second book he had gotten in Blackrock Bay, the one from Alya when she was getting evacuated from the battle with the spiders.

  As he was leafing through the book he became aware of a presence nearby. Looking up he saw Greg standing nearby, he was straining his neck as if he was trying to see what Bjorn was looking at. When he saw Bjorn looking he tried to act casual and started to walk away. Annoyed Bjorn just shook his head and went back to the book in front of him and started leafing through years of Alya’s work and hundreds of potions, brews, and tinctures that had tons of different uses.

  Bjorn finally settled on brewing the fast acting neurotoxin. One of the potions that Skarit had given him that would have gotten him to level 25 alchemy and given him access to the alchemy guild in Blackrock Bay. He quickly took stock of the ingredients he had and what he would need, and determined he would have to go shopping.

  When Bjorn stood he put his two books away and started walking towards the door. “Where are you going?” Greg called out at Bjorn’s back.

  “There are a few ingredients I will need to go get. So I am going to go get those.”

  “What do you need, I am sure I will have them. I have a really well stocked stockroom back there. Why don’t we go together and see what you need.”

  Bjorn stopped walking and turned to look at Greg. It was hard but he plastered on a smile. “I’m alright, I need a specific herb that is quite valuable and I wouldn’t even dream of taking it from you, you might need it yourself.”

  “That’s alright, I don’t mind parting with a herb here or there.” He started to say but Bjorn cut him off.

  “No, really, I couldn’t possibly impose on you. I will go get it myself.”

  “Do you think you’ll be back today?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know, as I do have some other business I need to do today as well. So I might be back, we shall see.” Not waiting for Greg to say anything more Bjorn walked out. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something about Greg just gave him the heebie-jeebies.

  He didn’t linger near the building and made his way into the city trying to find a store where he could find his herb. It took him less than an hour to get his herb. He started to make his way back to the lab when he had an idea.

  Instead of going straight back to the lab he made his way to it. Once near he started to do some recon. It was relatively easy to see inside the building as it was a mostly stand alone building. He stealthed around the outside over to where a window sat a little above eye level. He did a little hop to get a clear view inside the building.

  Of the 5 that had been there before there were now only 3. Two of the apprentices and Greg. Not wanting to be bothered by Greg Bjorn made his way down the street and ducked into an alleyway that gave him a clear view of the front door of the alchemy lab. From there he sat and waited.

  Several hours later he watched the front door to the lab open and he watched Greg walk out of the building, closing it behind himself. He then took off down the street heading towards the outer wall. Walking right past where Bjorn was stealthed.

  He waited another half an hour to make sure that Greg was well and truly gone before he left stealth and made his way into the building. When the door opened the two apprentices, one a human boy and the other an elf girl, turned towards the door and saw Bjorn standing there. He stepped inside and closed the door behind himself.

  The elf gave Bjorn a little curtsy. “Hello, welcome back. Master Greg left half an hour ago, if you want one of us could go fetch him.”

  Bjorn shook his head and raised one of his hands, palm facing outwards. “No thank you. Really, I would greatly appreciate you not getting him. I can work here just fine on my own.”

  The girl probably in her middle teens looked up at him confused. “Are you sure? It won’t be a hassle.”

  “I am really sure. I am not convinced he really knows what he is doing. He also was a bit of a hassle earlier when I was here last, so I really am fine without him being here. Now where do you store all of your tools?”

  The boy sprung into action and led Bjorn over to a line of cabinets that lined one of the walls. Bjorn began opening up the cabinets looking for the tools he would need. He quickly found what he was looking for, and made his way over to one of the tables. The entire time the two kids followed closely behind him almost blatantly watching his every movement.

  “You know that I will be fine, you don’t have to follow my every movement.” Bjorn said to the girl who was standing right behind him.

  “Master Greg told us to help in any way we can. He also told us to watch everything you do, so we might be able to learn a few things about alchemy from you.” she replied.

  Bjorn set down his stuff and looked over to them. “What are your skill levels in alchemy?”

  “4.” The boy said.

  “6, I have been working with Master Greg for 8 months now.” She said with pride. “I have learned how to make 4 different potions. And I can brew them with a 40% success rate.”

  “Honestly. That is abysmal. When I was level 6 in alchemy I could brew probably 5 or 6 different potions with a 90 to 95% success rate. I could brew probably a dozen more with closer to 50% success rate.” He could see the pride in the girl's expression flee. “I want to know. What level is Greg?”

  Her face started to drift towards the ground. “I don’t know his level. But if i was to guess he is somewhere over level 25. He really knows what he is doing. He is a great alchemist.”

  Bjorn realized his words had affected the girl in a way he didn’t want them to. “Hey look. I don’t think your progress has anything to do with your affinity as an alchemist. I think it has everything to do with your teacher. Again I think he isn’t actually that great as an alchemist.”

  He could see that his words weren’t having much effect on the girl. “I think he is a proud man who has an inflated sense of ego. I think he intentionally isn’t teaching you how to really do alchemy for two reasons. I think he doesn’t have the expertise to teach you, and I think even what he does know he doesn’t want to teach you because he doesn’t want one of his students to become a better alchemist than him.”

  Even though he was trying to comfort the girl it didn’t seem to have any real outward affect on her. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t the both of you watch me work tonight? You don’t have to stand so close. I won’t hide what I am doing. You can watch and I will give you instructions as I do so. By the time I am done working tonight you will hopefully have learned a lot, and at that time you can make up your own mind about me versus Greg. How does that sound?”

  The girl nodded her head and the boy came out from where he was almost hiding behind a table and walked over to where the two were standing/sitting.

  “Do not be afraid, there isn’t really anything tonight that will be extremely difficult so I should be able to teach you while I work. So go ahead and ask me any questions you have while I work. Deal?”

  “Deal.” she said. Her head raising slightly from where it had been hanging.

  Bjorn got to work. As soon as he started he started diving into the uses of each of the alchemical components, and how to prepare them. One of the herbs he needed for the potion had multiple ways they could be prepared to get the same end result. So as a teaching moment he prepared the herbs in all the different ways, describing the importance of each way and how they would be useful for different herbs to bring out different effects from the herbs. He then moved on to explaining how if they ever wanted to become good alchemists they would also need to take up the herb-lore skill.

  Like all things in life there were different qualities to each of the herbs that went into the potion, he described how to spot differences in quality as most often the differences could visibly be seen on the surface of the plant, or reagent, or compound. How each different quality could affect the success rate and the ultimate end quality in their potions.

  For the most part the two apprentice alchemists listened with rapt attention. There were only two separate times where the students stopped Bjorn for clarification on what he was talking about. They were very studious and listened very well. Luckily for Bjorn his time recently doing alchemy was also spent helping out the less skilled alchemists in the war camp, so he was used to teaching while his hands worked. Although he had never had to teach such basic concepts of alchemy before.

  After seeing how Greg treated his students he was once again thankful that the person who taught him how to do alchemy was Medera. She might now have been the best person, or even the most patient person. But she never held back in sharing whatever she knew about alchemy with Bjorn. A philosophy he employed now. The girl had spent 6 months with her alchemy teacher and didn’t even know most of the basics when it came to alchemy.

  For several hours he worked away talking on and on about the importance of proper handling of reagents. The time flew past for him, he was so engrossed in both what he was doing with his hands and with his mind occupied teaching that he didn’t even notice. When he finally finished with the first step of the brewing process it was already well into the evening.

  What he had made was currently a solid almost cube of a light pink material. It was less than an inch across in each direction. He stood and walked over to the corner of the room and set down the small saucer that the cube sat in. “The next step is that this cube needs to sit out in the open air for the next 11 hours. If I leave it right here will it be messed with?”

  At first the boy started to shake his head and then stopped. He cocked his head to the side before replying. “Normally I would say no it should be fine there. But with you here I am sure that Master Greg will be particular about abnormal things happening here.”

  The girl nodded. “That is true. I think he will be on the lookout for things being out of place. That shallow bowl you placed there will likely draw his attention. I don’t think you will have to worry about one of us touching it. But I wouldn’t put it past Master Greg.”

  Bjorn sighed. “If I leave a note saying not to touch it will that help?”

  “It might.” The girl said.

  A thought occurred to Bjorn, as the vast majority of the population in Escar didn’t actually know how to read. Maybe those in the lab wouldn’t know how to either. “Not to be rude or assume anything, but if I leave a note will you guys even be able to read it?”

  Instead of getting mad the girl gave a little giggle. “Of course we will be able to read it. That isn’t anything you need to worry about. Master Greg picked us out to be his apprentices because we all have the ability to read. He said that ‘It is very very important that my apprentices know how to read.’ His exact words.”

  “Alright, fair enough. So how about it, did I pass your test? Do you now believe that I know what I am talking about when it comes to alchemy.” She nodded with enthusiasm “Do you now understand why I don’t entirely believe that your teacher really knows what he is doing with his alchemy?”

  “Oh yes. I think I see why you think that. There is a massive gap between what you know and what Master Greg knows. At least from what you talked about. Your understanding of all the alchemical components alone is more than I have gotten in instruction from Master Greg in the last 6 months. I honestly think I have learned more from you in one night than I normally do from Master Greg in a month. And that is accounting for the other 95% of what you said I didn’t even catch.”

  The boy nodded in agreement. “I agree. I think I see a lot of my errors I have in my attempts to brew. Thank you for your teachings. If it is okay with you I would like to be around when you come back to work on the next step of your potion. I don’t even know what you are making but this is fascinating stuff.”

  “Sure, I don’t mind. The only one I really don’t want around is Greg. I don’t trust the man, nor do I like the way that he was treating the 4 of you when I came in here earlier. I didn’t even need the herb I went to get until tomorrow. That is if I did this first step correctly. I just went to get it now because I wanted to get away from Greg. Keep that last part between us okay?” Bjorn asked them conspiratorially.

  They both laughed before agreeing. “When will you be back to work on this?” The boy asked. “I want to be here when you do so I can watch.”

  Bjorn laughed. “I get it. You’re excited but calm down, you don’t need to ask me twice. I will be back sometime tomorrow morning to check on this cube, if everything goes right sometime around 7 hours from now the cube should start to lose its shape and turn into a slick liquid.”

  He took out a small piece of paper and wrote on it. “Do not touch. If you touch this before it finishes my work will be ruined. I will know. If one of you touches it I will make sure that you regret it. Do not test me.” he left the paper right next to the cube and bid his farewells.

  With that he left the two alchemists behind and started to make his way back to their inn. Upon entering the inn he found the same scene he was greeted with the day before. Men were going every which way while lecherous women and a few men ogled them. He made his way through the crowd to where he saw his friends sitting at a table on the edge of the room. Rickie had his head in his hands.

  Bjorn walked over to them. “How did the rest of it go?”

  “Not well.” Meira said as she turned towards his voice. “After you left there was a lot of accusation on her part towards us. That lasted a while before she kicked us out of her house. Now she won’t even answer the door to us.”

  Bjorn could just barely hear Rickie say. “It wasn’t my fault.” As he said it in a very quiet voice.

  Alaric heard it though. “You are right, friend. It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t any of our fault. That situation was dire on so many different levels. Those who have never found themselves in such a situation struggle to understand what it is truly like. There was nothing any of us could have done to save him. We are all lucky to find ourselves here today. You can’t blame yourself, it isn’t fair, or even right to do so.”

  They all heard Alaric’s words, but Rickie made no sign of hearing what Alaric said.

  “How was the rest of your day?” Tayla asked Bjorn.

  “It was interesting.” He then filled them all in on what transpired throughout the day and his feelings on the alchemist Greg. Bjorn held back nothing, including the weird look that Greg had.

  “This may sound harsh.” Meira said. “But I think maybe the reason he acts the way he does is because of his personal looks. If he is as awkward as you say he is he probably had developed a complex because of it. I would go as far as to say that the lab is probably the first bit of power he has ever had in his life. So he makes the lives of his wards hell to make up for it.”

  “I can do something about him if you want.” Tayla said. “I haven’t ever heard of him before, but I haven’t been in Vanta for a while, he could be new to town.”

  Bjorn shook his head. “No, he may not be a good teacher, or even a good man. But he is the only alchemy teacher these kids have. I won’t take that away from them. We aren’t staying here for long anyways so there isn’t anything I can really do to help these kids.”

  “Hmmm. I could always just mug him on his way to his lab.” Alaric said with a grin on his face.

  Bjorn shook his head once again. “Again no. I have a feeling that if you did something like that he would only take it out on the kids. No, it is best for me to try to finish this level fast so I can leave them alone and be out of their hair. The only thing I can really do for the kids is give them the best instruction I can do while I am here.”

  “It leaves a sour taste in my mouth.” Tayla said, spitting in her finished dinner bowl.

  “Honestly, same.” Bjorn said. “We can think on it, but I do think it is best to not ruin this for the kids.” With that Bjorn pushed himself away from the table and stood. “With that I am going to head to bed. I have an early morning, I got to go check on my work from tonight.”

  He looked over at Meira. “I’ll be up in a bit. I’m going to stay here for a little while longer.”

  “Sounds good.” Bjorn said and he walked past her. As he did he gave her a kiss on the cheek. He walked over to where Rickie sat. “I know this is tough, but we are here for you. You will get through this. It wasn’t your fault.” With that he headed up stairs.

  In the morning he woke up before Meira. Not wanting to leave her warmth he pulled her in close and cuddled with her for a while before he finally got up and got dressed. He made his way down to the common room and found it almost empty. Only the barkeep was up making some sort of breakfast for the day. Bjorn snagged a few still warm biscuits from the woman and made his way out the door.

  When he made it to the lab he thankfully found only the four beginner alchemists in the lab. “Good morning.” He said to the four as he walked in. They cut their conversation short. The elf girl and human boy were talking excitedly. “By all means go ahead and keep talking. “Bjorn said as he made his way over to where his work was sitting.

  The four of them decided to follow after Bjorn and look at what he had made. They didn’t start talking amongst themselves yet. Instead the elf spoke up. “What is your plan for today?”

  “Well if this has turned into the proper liquid then I will hopefully be finishing up the potion today.” He found the cube had liquified and was sitting in a puddle in the bottom of the saucer. He brought it over and with one finger he put it to the side of the liquid. He got one finger under the liquid and pulled upwards. The liquid stuck to itself but slid right off Bjorn’s finger. Just how the book described its properties being.

  Unable to help herself. “And?” The elf asked. Peering around his shoulder excited to see what the liquid was like. They all had taken Bjorn’s message seriously and looked but didn’t even dare touch it, not even the container it was in.

  “I think it worked.” He said. “Only time will tell in the next few steps. Can you go get me a small flask from the cupboards? I also need a clamp, a small stove, and one of the glass stirring rods.”

  Wanting to not fail Bjorn this time it was Gisabell who rushed over to get the things that Bjorn needed. She set them on a table right next to where Bjorn stood holding the liquid. He thanked her and transferred the liquid into the small flask. It was an interesting task. As the liquid only seemed to stick to itself, he had to make sure that it went into the small opening in the flask. He poured it over the top and used the stirring rod to force the liquid into the opening.

  From there he started to warm the liquid, and as he did so he started talking about alchemy to the 4 attentive listeners. He once again talked for hours as he worked. Luckily for him Greg only ever came to the labs late in the afternoon. So they had all morning to themselves. The skeevy man only really spent a few hours in the lab per day. He normally left the students to their own devices and let them brew. He would then collect the potions they made and take it to market. He was profiting off the labors of these 4 kids.

  Between the 4 of the kids they asked considerably more questions than the two had the night prior. Bjorn was happy to answer any of their questions to the best of his abilities. He was so wrapped up in their conversation he didn’t even notice that he had finished his potion. It was a success.

  His success was accompanied by a sweet sweet notification that Bjorn had been waiting for ever since he had read that skill book.

  You have advanced your skill level in alchemy, reaching skill level 40. Potions you make will have 40% increased effect and 80% increased duration of effect.

  Congratulations by reaching skill level 40 in the skill: Alchemy you have qualified to gain the profession: Alchemist. Would you like to gain this profession? Yes/No