Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Verdan took his coffee and a selection of Aethite crystals up to one of the work rooms they had prepared. He wanted to make at least a half-dozen of these gathering crystals, if for no other reason than to let Natalia use the potion machine more.

  The work was slow and required a lot of focus, which translated into regular breaks to ask Adrienne to make him a coffee while he stretched his legs. It was times like this that he felt the urge to use an energy replenishing spell. Just the one would be enough to have him in top shape and with enough focus to finish his work with time to spare.

  Coffee perked him up, but it paled against the clarity the spell would bring. He wasn’t sure how much each mug cost, but it wasn’t a locally grown crop, so he doubted it was cheap. He gave Adrienne a plentiful monthly amount for household expenses, of course, but he’d also not been down to the Adventurer’s Guild in a while to renew his coffers.

  Verdan could feel himself trying to justify using the spell and clamped down on those thoughts hard. He wouldn’t risk a relapse, it wasn’t worth it. Still, his wandering thoughts had raised a valid point.

  “Here you are, Verdan,” Adrienne said, walking over with a mug of steaming coffee. “Henry’s fixed this up for you. Do you want him to make you any food? It’s getting quite late now.”

  “Just the coffee is fine, thank you,” Verdan said, taking the mug and sipping the hot drink. “I realised I’ve not asked about the household expenses in a while. What’s our current situation?”

  “Well, the money you left has been used up, but Natalia has been footing the bill for the last week. I was going to cut back on a few things, but she said that she had plenty coming in and I should carry on as normal. Is that still right?”

  “Yes, stick to whatever she’s said for the moment, I’ll have a word with her about splitting the cost,” Verdan said, running through a mental list of potential sources of income. Placing temporary enchantments on the equipment of adventuring groups had been good, but it required too much intervention.

  The enchantment machines he’d given to the city guard had all been destroyed and all they had rebuilt so far was the one for healing medallions. They’d given a good number to the Kranjir, but some could be sold fairly easily.

  Nodding to himself, Verdan thanked Adrienne again before heading back to his work. He’d have Ruan and Nikau arrange for the guards to work the machine each day. Each person would only be able to make a few medallions, but they would be worth a good amount to the right people. Besides, the medallions saved lives, so if he had to sell something, there were far worse options.

  He would need to update the machine to work with non-Wizards, of course, but that was easy enough to do. He’d finish these Aethite cores first, and then make the changes before finishing for the day.

  -**-

  Some hours later, Verdan left the workshop, the cool evening breeze a nice change after being stuck in a small room for most of the day. Shadows pooled around the buildings, and the bustle of the city was almost completely gone, but there was a light on in the mansion still.

  Verdan’s gaze lingered on the illuminated window, which had the traditional slightly blue tint of the city’s glass. It felt like an eternity ago that he’d thrown himself out through it to escape assassins.

  The rest of the estate was cast in moonlight alone, and Verdan’s eyes lingered on Rocky’s unmoving form in the corner, opposite the gate. Maintaining the spell took barely a trickle of Aether, especially with the construct staying motionless. Still, Verdan couldn’t help but feel it was a waste of potential. That was a consideration for another time, though.

  Shaking his head, Verdan made his way inside and up the stairs to the master bedroom. There was no one else up at this hour except for the guards at the gate, so he tried to be as quiet as possible.

  Opening the door, Verdan paused and felt the stress of the day fall away as he saw Natalia. She was already in bed, a pair of candles on the side table giving her just enough light so she could read.

  Glancing up from the pages, she smiled and put the book down. “I thought you were going to be up all night at this rate. Did you make some good progress?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “I did.” Verdan leaned his staff against the wall and shucked off his jacket as he cast a quick cleaning spell and got ready for bed. “Give me two days to get everything balanced, and you’ll be able to run your machine twice as much and keep it powered yourself.”

  “Oh?” Natalia slipped a bookmark into whatever she’d been reading and set it aside, giving him her full attention.

  Verdan gave her a rough summary of what he’d found as he got ready, pausing right as he got to the bed. “I spoke to Adrienne about the budget as well, she told me what you’d been doing. I’m sorry that you had to step in like that.”

  “I can hardly complain when you’ve been buying me herbs and materials for my work,” Natalia said, waving aside the issue. “As far as I’m concerned, it has been good to contribute. Besides, I’ve made quite a bit by selling my potions. I’ll happily keep paying the same amount if you want to spend your money elsewhere.”

  “Thank you, but no, that wouldn’t feel right. I’m going to start making those healing medallions again, and selling them to both the city and the Guild. That won’t influence your sales will it?”

  “A little,” Natalia said after a moment of thought. “Only for the basic healing, though. Not for antidotes, blood replenishment and everything else. Especially not my new potions either, which will be the real earners. This can all wait for tomorrow, though. Come to bed.”

  Verdan nodded absently, his mind still on the potions. Rolling her eyes, Natalia pulled the covers back, showing him an outfit that was certainly not her usual. Any thoughts of potions and finances vanished in an instant as he climbed in next to her.

  Their lips had just met in a soft kiss when there was a shriek from outside that was abruptly silenced.

  Both of them had been in enough fights to know exactly what that sound was, and Verdan was up in an instant, running for his staff as Natalia pulled a dagger from somewhere and jumped out of bed.

  Verdan could hear movement throughout the mansion as everyone woke up. He hated to leave Natalia, but he had to trust in the plan they’d put together. Pulling the door open with his staff at the ready, Verdan raced down the stairs as Natalia rushed for the stash of potions they kept ready.

  “Ast!” Verdan conjured a shield around himself as he flung the door open to the courtyard, the cold air bracing him as he stood in the doorway, ready for combat.

  Nikau and Barb burst out of the workshop a moment later, with more guards arriving by the moment to behold the strange scene.

  Verdan didn’t have time to really process it all, though; he simply saw the four crumpled forms on the ground and raced to each in turn, ignoring the two he didn’t recognise. Rushing over to the pair at the gate, Verdan felt a lingering spell effect over the area and levelled his staff. “Durst!”

  The spell, or whatever it had been, vanished with a loud cracking sound as something broke on the ground. In the wake of the crack, Verdan could hear the feeble calls for help from one of the people on the ground.

  The moon was barely enough to see by, and the immediate threat seemed to be over, so Verdan conjured globes of light that he threw around the courtyard as he moved to the closest of the injured guards.

  “Boss?” Neld looked up at him with a pained expression on his pale face as he clutched at a wide wound that ran across his gut. Blood was oozing out through his fingers, and a pool of it had formed around him.

  “Grym iacha nercreth.” Verdan touched Neld’s shoulder as he cast his most powerful healing spell. Some of the pain on the other man’s face slipped away as Verdan’s Aether got to work, and he squeezed Neld’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back, okay. Just stay awake.”

  Leaving Neld, Verdan hurried over to the other guard, an older woman who Verdan only vaguely recognised. Like Neld, she was in bad shape, with a stab wound to her upper chest and blood in her mouth.

  Verdan did what he could to stabilise her, praying as he did that he’d arrived in time. The thought was enough for him to mutter a message spell to Branwen. He needed a Cleric here to make sure that no one died.

  “Boss?” Ruan’s voice came from behind him and Verdan glanced back to see the gruff man heading his way. Ruan was shirtless and carrying an axe in one hand and a robe in the other. “I’ve already given Natalia one, you should take this.”

  Verdan stared at the robe before realising that he was crouched on the ground in just his underwear. The adrenaline and shock had kept the cold at bay, but he could feel it seeping into him now and quickly took the robe as Natalia hurried past them to administer a potion to both injured guards.

  “Nikau!” Verdan called the Captain over to him before gesturing to the dark street outside the estate. “Get some people checking over the area. The Witches, Samuel and his lot, Elliot. Check them all.”

  “Understood,” Nikau said, pausing before glancing back at the two dead assailants. “What about that?”

  “I’ll deal with it.” Verdan waved Nikau off and gestured for Ruan to watch over Natalia before heading over to the two dead bodies. They were most assuredly dead as well; one was cut in half and the other had his chest caved in.

  Their killer stood silently in the dim light of Verdan’s spells, his sword dripping blood into the pool at his feet. Unmoving, silent.

  “Did anyone see what happened?” Verdan asked, looking around at those nearby. No one was coming close, and there was no answer to his question. Turning back, Verdan leaned on his staff as he looked up at Rocky. “Why did you kill them? Did you see them attack the guards?”

  Rocky’s head swivelled down to regard Verdan, perhaps in response to the question. For a moment, Verdan thought the construct might communicate with him somehow, but nothing happened.

  Mentally sending Rocky back to his spot at the edge of the courtyard, Verdan watched his champion walk away with mixed feelings. Rocky had done well, and had saved lives, but he’d acted without orders. Something that should have been impossible.