“Our second item for the evening is a book from goblinoid origins. This book was discovered in the possession of a goblin chieftain, who was defeated in the Almer mountains. The book is written in a runic script which has been identified as Latinus. We will start the bidding at ten gold.”

Turning my attention to the stage as the auctioneer announced the second item, I saw three large images appear in the air above the man. Each image showed the front and rear covers along with an image of the first page.

“They always auction off the crappy stuff first,” Noctus commented, having noticed I was no longer hanging onto his words with rapt attention.

“She said the language was Latinus, but that's an archaic form of Latin script on the cover.” I said, furrowing my brows as I stared up at the images. “I think it says "The great,” er, the last word is tricky. The last and first letter could be c, g or k, because in archaic Latin the sound of each is similar.”

Noctus looked at me in surprise along with Darius who’d been listening to our conversation.

“It says Grog the great.” Noctus said. "Grog is the name of a dark, aligned god who the goblinoid races worship. It’s a common enough book, normally found with Hobgoblin shamans or chiefs, as they are smarter than common Goblins. As for Latinus, it is derived from genuine Latin with some added letters and words, thus creating Latinus. I’m surprised you can read it, it has taken me months to even memorize the basic letters.”

I nodded, mulling over the newfound information for a moment before responding.

“My mother taught me Latin.” I murmured, chewing on my lip as I eyed the book. I wanted to buy it purely based on the desire to see what difference’s Latinus had to Latin. “She studied paleo pharmacology, as she felt that modern pharmacology was stilted. Mom was very passionate about the pharmaceutical industry and believed that knowledge of the past would lead to greater knowledge in the future.”

“What is palo pharmacology?” Darius asked, exchanging a look with Noctus who just shrugged in response.

“Paleo pharmacology is the study of historical documents and data relating to the pharmaceutical industry, such as how ancient societies used medicinal herbs, and plants, and how they treated certain illnesses that were present in those times. Paleo pharmacological studies have shown that even prehistoric man used pharmaceutical techniques, first using water, leaves, dirt, or mud on wounds and then progressing to mixing plants together to create medicines.” I was about to tell them about how Mesopotamians were the first recorded people to begin the practice of running a medicinal apothecary, when I noticed their eyes glazing much in the same way Marcus’s did when I talked about paleo pharmacology.

“Sorry, I got a little carried away.” I mumbled, looking back towards the stage as the auctioneer tried to rally interest in the goblin book, which had a handful of bidders who’d unenthusiastically raised the book's price up to ten gold and eight silver.

“No need to be sorry, I’m sure knowing about paleo pharma, uh, historical medicines will help you with learning alchemy.” Darius said, drawing my attention back to him as the auctioneer closed the bidding for the goblin book.

“Forget alchemy, Darius. She knows Latin, almost every damn book we have about magic is in Latinus. It took me an entire month to translate ten pages of just the normal Latin parts. If we train her as a scribe, it would be much more beneficial.” Noctus said, staring at me with a glint in his eyes that had me shuffling away from him, and closer to Darius.

“She can do both, but only if she agrees to it.” Darius interjected, glancing down at me, and faced with the feverish gaze of the vampire I reluctantly nodded.

“Brilliant, start with these,” the vampire exclaimed, dropping five thick books onto my lap with a thump.

“Uh, err,” I stared down at the topmost book, which was thicker than my wrist, and opened it to the first page.

“Have you got any reference books or notes?” I asked, as I saw the unfamiliar runes that appeared to be jumbled into the Latin script. Noctus nodded, reaching for his pouch, but stopped as Darius cleared his throat.

“Don’t forget where we are,” he warned, and glancing up I noticed several people staring greedily at the pile of books in my lap.

“Noctus, put the books away for now. Kadia’s pouch is too small, and she will need supplies if she is going to help with translating. Supplies which you will provide, you will also work out a fair compensation for her help.” Darius continued, reaching over to flip the book I held closed.

“Of course, of course! Kadia, if you have time after the auction I’ll take you to the scriveners store, we can get writing supplies there,” Noctus said as he shoved the books away into a pouch that was only just wide enough for the books to be placed inside.

“I was taking Kadia to the market after the auction, she needs clothing, armor and other basic supplies, you can come with or go on ahead to purchase what you need from the scrivener store.”

“I will accompany you both, I didn’t have any plans for tonight aside from the auction”You’ll get better pricing with me around,” Noctus said, his demeanor shifting back into that of an alluring predator, and I had to smother a laugh at his exaggerated attempts to be seductive.

“Then I’ll leave the bartering to you,” I told him, then turned my attention towards the stage where the next item was being introduced.

Ignoring the choked laughter sounding from the Ōkami beside me, and the now-pouting vampire, I stared at the images of a red mushroom with white spots.

Red amanita mushrooms are the plant used to create the pain relief tincture. Chewing on my bottom lip, I thought back to the book I’d been reading before Darius showed up. I wonder if the healing effect of the mushroom is present because of a reaction with the alcohol it is infused with, or if eating the mushroom has the same effect. The book said it was used to treat minor aches and pains, does it numb the area locally or block the pain on a neurological level? The book did not say whether the tincture was consumed or applied to the skin, but then again, tincture implied it would be consumed.

“Do I have twenty gold? Yes, over there twenty gold one silver,” the auctioneer called out, shaking me from my thoughts.

Twenty gold for mushrooms? If people spend so much money on the Amanita mushrooms then they mustn’t be as easily attained.

“Twenty and five silver,” I yelled, hoping the auctioneer would hear me through the sound barrier, as I raised my hand into the air.

The choked wheezing noise of the men seated next me, caused me to lower my hand hesitantly, as I realized too late that I might have made a mistake with my bidding.

“Twenty gold and five silver. I have twenty gold and five silver for the 2,000 Red amanita mushrooms, going once, going twice, sold to the red-haired lady on the left.”

“Ahem, ah, Kadia. I’m not sure if you are aware, but those mushrooms only have a short life span before they rot, and, well, they grow pretty much everywhere.” Darius said over the murmuring of the crowd who was looking in my direction, no doubt wanting to get a look at the fool who’d just wasted their gold.

“Oh, I know that,” I lied, trying to fight back the rising surge of embarrassment I felt.

“I wanted to experiment a little with the mushrooms and didn’t feel like going out to pick any myself,” I said, feigning a look of confident composure as people returned their attention to the stage.

Holy shit! What am I going to do with two thousand mushrooms? Should I make a big batch of the pain relief tincture, and sell it to recoup some lost gold? That could work, but I need the pure alcohol to infuse it with, and vials.

“You got a decent deal at least. A single cap from an Amanita mushroom is three copper, if you are planning to brew tinctures you can make about four thousand doses, which can be sold for one silver each.” Noctus said, and I nodded, trying to calculate how much alcohol I would need.

One mushroom cap infused with two hundred milliliters would brew two doses of tincture, so that would mean I’d need four hundred liters of alcohol and four thousand vials.

Hmm, there was a retort in the alchemy kit Markion gave me, what if I distilled the mushrooms? Darius said they would soon rot, but if I distilled the mushrooms, then I could store the concentrated essence to be used later. Could I use the concentrated essence to create the tincture or would the effect of using a distilled essence be different to infusing the mushroom in the alcohol. Does it have to be alcohol? What if I didn’t distill them? Can I dry them? The book didn’t specify that the mushrooms had to be fresh.

“I’m guessing I won’t find a dehydrator around here, so maybe an oven or even a kiln would work if the temperature is right.” I mumbled, as I mulled over the different ways I could try to use the mushrooms.

“What do you need an oven or kiln for?” Darius asked, looking away from the stage where a set of gleaming silver armor was being shown.

“Drying mushrooms,” I said with a sigh, thinking of the things I needed to buy to process the mushrooms.

I didn’t have any tools for harvesting plants or herbs, or anything to store them in, as the alchemy kit only contained tools used for distillation.

“Drying the mushrooms won’t work, it will lose its effectiveness. Sara tried it when she was attempting to learn alchemy, though she increased the potency of the mushrooms by mashing them up with a mortar and pestle. After that she squeezed the mushrooms through a cloth to sieve the liquid.” Noctus informed me, and I frowned as I took in this newfound information.

“Did she try distilling them?”

“Yes, but the alcohol evaporated, leaving the mushrooms to burn. The smell from the burnt mushrooms took days to dissipate.” the vampire said with an amused grin.

“The flame must've been too hot,” I muttered, wishing I had a pen and paper to make notes on.

“We should find you somewhere to work, I don’t think your room is going to be big enough or have the needed ventilation.” Darius commented, and Noctus gave a low hum of agreement.

“There aren’t any workspaces open in the workshop, the space set aside for alchemy got taken over by the smiths who were whining they needed more room because of Markion taking over the main forge. Though, in saying that, there is a workroom in the forge that isn’t being used because the roof is too low for the bull to get inside. Markion doesn’t like people in his forge, but if it’s Kadia, I’m sure it won’t be a problem.” The vampire said, and Darius nodded, looking thoughtful.

“That should work, the reason the smiths took over the alchemy lab was because it was the easiest place to convert to suit their needs, the same should be said for the workroom in the forge,” Darius said.

“I will need to look at the space, but any large room with decent ventilation should be fine,” I told them, mentally creating a list of all the items I would need.

Being near the forge would benefit me, as it would mean I could get Marcus to make most of the things I needed for my alchemy lab.

As the auction carried on with a variety of different items being auctioned off, Noctus ended up buying two books written in Latinus which were claimed to be about enchantments and another which I was sure had alchemic symbols embossed on the front cover but was sold as a book about druidic magic. The total cost of all three books had been just over thirty thousand gold coins, and I’d been shocked to see they were among the cheapest books to be sold at the auction. The most expensive book was about elemental wind magic, which sold for a jaw-dropping hundred and eighty thousand gold. Though the reason for the high price became clearer as Noctus informed me the book was newly discovered and had not been sold on the open market before.

Darius had entered the bidding for a pair of swords, which shined with an almost ethereal light, but ended up withdrawing as the price soared past one hundred thousand and beyond two hundred thousand. A beautiful dark-haired woman whose lower body narrowed into the red scaled form of a serpent entered a bidding war against a hooded man. Once the bidding ended, Noctus leaned back in his chair, smugly informing me the swords were crafted by my brother which meant the guild just earned a decent amount of gold thanks to Darius pushing up the bids.

The next item Darius bid on was a pair of enchanted bracers; which had Noctus hissing and growling at him as the two bid against each other, with Darius triumphing at fifty-six thousand gold as the vampire reluctantly conceded after having already spent a good deal of his coin on the books.

Once the auction drew to a close, it was time to pay for and collect my two thousand mushrooms. Standing before four large wooden crates piled high with white spotted red mushrooms, I found myself faced with the dilemma of working out how to transport my purchased goods back to the guild hall.