"Hold still," Clive said as he drew his dagger. "I'll have you free in a moment."
The girl tensed as the blade came near, but Clive was careful to slice through the coarse ropes without nicking her skin.
"Thank you," the girl said, rubbing her wrists where the ropes had bitten her. She stood unsteadily, and Clive offered his arm for support, which she accepted after a moment's hesitation.
"My name is Clive," he said.
"Lucia," she replied. " I’m an apothecary." She gestured toward one of the fallen bandits. "They ambushed me on the road yesterday. Took my supplies, my recipes... everything."
Clive noticed her gaze linger on a leather satchel hanging from the lean bandit's belt.
"Is that yours?" he asked.
Lucia nodded. "My potions and ingredients."
Clive retrieved the satchel, carefully stepping around the grounded bandits. The blue flu victims were shivering on the ground, while the brute afflicted with yellow fever seemed to be gradually cooling down, though still incapacitated.
"Will they live?" Lucia asked.
"The effects should wear off eventually," Clive said, though he wasn't entirely certain. His understanding of his new abilities was rudimentary at best. "I didn't intend to kill them."
Lucia knelt beside her satchel and inspected its contents. Relief washed over her face as she pulled out a leather-bound book filled with handwritten notes and diagrams. Several glass vials were nestled in padded compartments with liquids of various colors.
"Everything seems intact," she murmured.
She glanced up at Clive, then to the fallen bandits with their varying afflictions. "That was... unexpected. Your magic… I’ve never seen anything like it."
“It’s new to me too. I’m still getting used to it.”
"Most mages can only work with one element," she said, watching him with interest. "Fire or ice or earth... never multiple types." She hesitated. "How are you channeling the ether that way?"
Clive paused. "I'm sorry, ether?"
Lucia blinked, momentarily thrown by his confusion. She studied his face. “You really don't know?”
Clive shook his head.
A groan from one of the bandits made her glance nervously over her shoulder. "This isn't the place to discuss it. We should move." She rose unsteadily to her feet.
As they put distance between themselves and the clearing, Lucia kept glancing at Clive with fascination. Finally, when they reached a small stream, she held up a hand.
"Let's rest a moment." She knelt and splashed water on her face, washing away the dirt of captivity. When she looked up, some of her composure had returned.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
Clive shook his head. "That obvious?"
"You wield magic unlike anything I've seen, you don't know what ether is, and your clothes are weird."
Clive looked down at his shirt and jeans, realising how out of place they made him look.
She reached into her satchel. "May I show you something?"
When Clive nodded, she reached into her satchel and pulled out a small glass vial filled with silvery dust. Uncorking it, she sprayed a pinch into the air. The particles hung suspended for a moment before beginning to glow. The air around them shimmered, revealing faint currents of luminous energy flowing like underwater currents.
“What am I seeing?” Clive gasped.
"Ether," Lucia said softly. "The raw material of magic. It's everywhere, always." She waved her hand through a particularly dense stream, disrupting its flow. "Most people can't see it without help."
Clive reached out, watching the currents swirl around his fingers. "It's beautiful."
"It is," Lucia agreed. “Magic happens when using your internal mana to convert the ambient ether into more useable forms. But it takes years of practice to do. Most mages spend their entire lives learning to attune themselves to just one elemental affinity.”
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Her eyes returned to Clive's palette. "But you somehow manipulate multiple elemental currents? It's unprecedented."
Clive looked down at his palette. "I’m not sure how it works either, but it seems my understanding of color directly affects how I can shape the ether. Red is warm, blue is cool, yellow is energetic. Artists use these principles to create emotional effects."
The two of them stared at each other in silence, like two people speaking different languages trying to describe the same phenomenon through separate frameworks of understanding.
"A completely novel approach to magic," Lucia finally said. "Traditional magical theory states that a mage must spend years meditating on a single element, forming mana pathways that allow them to perceive and manipulate specific ether resonances. But you're bypassing that entirely with your... what did you call it? Colors?"
"Seems like it," Clive confirmed. " My brush serves as the conduit, and my artistic intention shapes the result."
"May I?" she pointed at his palette.
Clive hesitated before passing her the brush and palette. She dipped the brush into the red paint and made a sweeping motion in the air, mimicking what she'd seen Clive do. Nothing happened. She tried again with the blue, then a mixture of colors. Her brow furrowed with concentration. Still nothing.
"Hmm, it seems like the magic is innate to you. These are just tools," she said, returning them to Clive.
Lucia's eyes gleamed with academic excitement. "Still, the implications are staggering. You're essentially creating a shorthand for magical manipulation—using these colors as a symbolic bridge between intent and effect. The mages at the Arcanum would be beside themselves to study this phenomenon."
"I'm not sure I want to be studied," Clive replied with a half-smile, securing his palette back on his belt.
She giggled. "I should properly introduce myself. Lucia Thornwald, potions expert of the crafting guild. I was collecting rare ingredients in these forests when those louts decided I'd make a profitable captive."
Clive offered a slight bow. "Clive Weston. I’m an artist."
"Artist?" Lucia tilted her head. "That's a nice hobby, but what do you do for a living?"
"Art," Clive repeated. "It's a profession."
"Oh..." Lucia's voice went higher. "People pay you to... make pretty things?"
Clive’s jaw tighten. He'd heard similar tones from relatives who thought he should have pursued more "practical" work.
"They do," he said, adjusting his pack with a sharp tug as they walked. "I've illustrated books, created portraits, designed posters..."
"Like diagrams in potion manuals?" Lucia asked, trying to find a familiar reference point.
"Something like that, yes. But also..." He pointed to a patch of sunlight breaking through the trees ahead. "See how the light falls through those leaves? An artist might spend days trying to capture that moment, not just to record it, but to share how it makes you feel to see it."
Lucia studied the dappled light, then looked back at him. "And someone would pay you for that?"
"They did."
Lucia let out a teasing chuckle. "Your family must be wealthy."
Clive blinked. "What?"
"Only people with full bellies worry about how sunlight makes them feel."
Clive paused. "No, it’s the exact opposite. Sometimes beauty is the only nourishment that can satisfy your hunger.”
“Really?” Lucia paused too, studying his face. "Art for beauty's sake sounds like... luxury."
A rustle in the undergrowth made them both tense, but it was only a forest hare darting across their path. When it had gone, the moment of philosophical discussion had broken.
"We should keep moving," Lucia said, her eyes scanning the trees.
"Where were you headed before they captured you?" Clive asked.
"Marblehaven," Lucia replied. "It’s a nearby town."
She hesitated, then added, "I could use an escort. And you... I would love to have you over, if you have nowhere else to be.”
[New Quest: Escort Lucia to Marblehaven]
[Lucia must survive]
[Reward: 1 Certainty Point]
Another quest. One step closer to the next rank. He would have helped her either way, but the additional incentive helped.
Clive smiled. "I think we can help each other out."
As they prepared to move on, Lucia rummaged through her satchel and produced two small vials—one filled with a red liquid, the other with a yellow white substance.
"Here," she said, offering them to Clive. "You expended considerable energy in your fight. You should replenish."
Clive accepted the vials, examining them curiously. "Health and mana potions?" he guessed, recognizing the classic color-coding from games in his previous world.
Lucia nodded. "Basic restorative formulas. The red will accelerate your physical recovery, and the white will replenish your magical reserves."
Clive unstoppered the red vial first and took a cautious sip.
"This tastes like... wine?" he said, unable to hide his astonishment.
Lucia laughed at his expression. "Of course. What did you expect?"
"I don't know. Something medicinal, I suppose. Bitter herbs or strange chemicals."
"Wine is the perfect base for most potions," Lucia explained.
"Grapes are the best absorbers of ambient ether. By fermenting them, we extract the ether from grapes and convert them into a form that the body can absorb. In the eastern continents, I heard they used rice and barley instead. But to me, nothing beats grapes."
She gestured to the white potion. "That one's made with a white wine base. Lighter and more receptive to ethereal essences for mana restoration."
Clive sipped the white potion, noting its crisp, slightly effervescent quality with hints of citrus and green fruits.
"Fascinating," he said, already feeling a warmth spreading through his limbs from the red potion and a tingling sensation in his fingertips from the white. "I always thought wine was just... wine. A beverage, not medicine."
"Just wine?" Lucia looked genuinely perplexed. "Wine has been the foundation of potioncraft since the First Age."
She continued as they began walking down the path, "Different varieties of grapes and fermentation methods yield bases suited for different magical applications. With enough training, you could even identify potions with just a sniff."
Clive laughed internally. “Imagine learning your favorite cabernet could also mend broken bones.” He was starting to like this world.
This flight of health potions was made from three single-varietal grapes from the same region.
- Identify the region
- Identify the grape variety
- Assess the quality
- Identify the vintage
-Extract from the Master of Apothecary (MA) examination