Before Theo knew it, a week had come and gone. His shop was doing even better than expected. Word of mouth had brought him plenty of customers once adventurers learned of his pricing.

Potions and enchanted tools flew off the shelves, refilling Theo’s coin purse. Such monetary volume had an unfortunate side effect; the need to be spent. He was at the market once again.

“Vindiya roots are how much?” Theo asked, a seed of anxiety tightening its grip in his stomach.

“4 silvers per root, variable by size but that is the average. I could offer them for 3 silvers 25 coppers if you bought them in bulk, however,” the fulvitre vendor said with a heavy accent, waving their green and pink glass hand over a larger pile of the green roots.

Theo bit his lip, mind spinning. I didn’t realize my research was so off. I thought vindiya roots were 2 silvers each. I bet those merchants had some kind of trade deal and just told me what they paid…

Unsure of what to do, but in desperate need of more health potions, Theo sighed. “Okay, I’ll buy… 30 roots, but only for 90 silvers.”

The fulvitre stood in contemplation for a moment before their head swiveled back to Theo. “I accept. 90 silvers. Are there any other alchemical components you are looking for today, sir? You may browse while I load these into your bag.”

“Thank you. I’ll definitely look around, there’s a lot I need. Though, would it be okay if I pick out the roots?” he asked, gesturing to the pile.

“90 silvers do not get to be picky,” the shopkeeper said, an edge to their voice.

“Very well then. A shame, if only I could let others know how high quality your products are, but I don’t even get to pick them…” Theo said, crossing his fingers behind his back while his heart began to hammer.

Being pushy was not one of his strong suits, but the price was forcing him to pull out all the stops. It was only made tougher by the fulvitre’s lack of a face aside from the mouth. He couldn’t read any emotion from their smooth glass complexion.

The shopkeeper paused for a moment. “Very well. I am Niistral Tyandurr. Tell me your name,” Niistral said, holding out a hand to Theo.

He shook it, mentally appraising how smooth and cool the glass was. “Theo Lukien. I’m an alchemist and enchanter who just moved here from Renwurd last week. I run the shop Runes and Brews,” Theo said with a smile.

“Oh! You are that crazy alchemist I have heard about selling his potions for dirt cheap!” they said with a laugh. It chimed out, catching the attention of those around them.

Theo frowned, feeling eyes on him. His shirt began to cling to his lower back as sweat accumulated. He felt heat gather at his ears. “That was… a miscalculation due to some faulty research. Even so, I would never charge the prices I’ve heard some people state. The shopkeepers I’ve been told about have ridiculous markup. How are adventurers supposed to keep people safe if shopkeepers drain them dry?”

“I do not worry myself with the details. I am a simple herbalist. This is Romuen, the City of Adventurers, not a small town like Renwurd. The demand is high and the supply is limited,” they said, shrugging.

“...Right. Well, speaking of supplies, I still need more,” Theo said, changing the subject. Fortunately, people had only glanced at their exchange briefly and went about their business once more.

“Yes, yes. You were going to pick your roots, were you not?”

“Indeed I was,” Theo said, walking over and considering several. He carefully inspected each, searching for the correct shade of green. The darker, the better - or so his dad told him. After he finished looking, Niistral had already bagged up all of his selections aside from the last.

“Are you pleased with your purchase?” they asked, their voice somewhat clipped and impatient now.

Theo shrunk slightly. “I believe so. I’m also looking for…” he listed off a number of different ingredients. Niistral had most of them, which was quite relieving to Theo. He dreaded going to more stalls than he had to.

After finalizing his purchase, Theo walked away depressed about the weight of his coin purse once more. He sighed. I still have a few more things to buy here too, why couldn’t Niistral have had dramma shoots?

A few more painful, embarrassing interactions later and Theo left the market. He wanted to cry. All that money he made, and barely a profit out of it. Not a lot of people had brought back potion bottles either, so he had to purchase more of those today as well.

His arms and legs strained under the weight of everything he had to carry back. While he trudged forward, a voice called to him from down the street.

“Hey, Theo! Wait up!” The spry perren ran up to him at high speed. Her yellow petals fluttered in the self-made breeze. She stopped just in front of him, panting from the sprint.

“Oh, hello, Pina. Good morning,” Theo said, attempting to wave before the bags hanging on his arms registered.

“Morning. Those look heavy, want some help?” she asked, opening her messenger bag to show him it was empty.

“You’re all done with deliveries already? I’d love some help, thank you,” he said, handing her one of his bags.

“Mhm. Your stamina potions pack a punch! And they’re so much more affordable, I’ve been able to finish my deliveries early,” she said, beaming at him.

“Careful you don’t drink too much. Some of the stamina it gives is magical, but it’s still taxing your body in the long run,” he said, glancing over at the plant girl.

“I’m a yellow, we’re built for speed. That’s like telling a horse not to drink water,” she said, raising a brow at him.

“I’m… not sure that phrase is correct or applicable here.”

“Whatever. Your shop is this way, right?” Pina asked, cocking her head toward a street on the left.

“You know where my shop is, you just want to sprint there, don’t you?” Theo asked, biting his lip in concern over the merchandise in her bag.

“You got it, Theo,” she said, winking at him. “See you there. Vortex Sprint!”

A blast of wind nearly toppled Theo over as Pina blurred off towards his shop. He grumbled, plodding after her under the weight of his purchases.

She was waiting for him when he arrived. “Took you long enough, slowpoke.”

“You really pressed that spell and you know it. I didn’t know you were an Integrator,” Theo said, walking up the steps and setting his bags down so he could unlock the door.

“Integrator primary and Primordial secondary,” she said, grinning pridefully with sharp, needle-like teeth exposed.

Theo stepped into his shop, gesturing Pina to follow. “Why don’t you just heal yourself if you’re an Integrator? Or a spell to restore stamina?”

“Do you know how expensive those kinds of Named Spells are? It took me years of saving up just to afford a Vortex Sprint Spell Book,” she said, opening her fibrous, vine-like arms widely to represent the expanse of time.

“Years? You’ve come in just about every day of the week to buy stamina potions, couldn’t you just… go slower and need less? Not that I don’t appreciate the business but it would certainly save you some money.”

“I don’t go slow. I’m not some ‘slow race is won by going steady’ red. Besides, I’m trying to get promoted to senior messenger, I can’t just slow down,” she said, setting his bag of alchemy ingredients on the counter.

“That’s… still not the phrase. Regardless, don’t you know any healing runes? Or stamina restoring ones? You could always just manual cast them.”

“Manual cast? That’s easy for an enchanter to say. You’ve probably spent your entire life putting runes together. I barely know any runes,” she said, pursing her lips.

“Hmm, perhaps we can strike a deal. You make deliveries for me, and I’ll teach you runes sometime? Carrying all of these home was tiresome, even with your help.”

Pina stopped to consider for a moment, inclining her head in thought. “...You know healing and stamina restoration runes?”

“It’s not my specialty, but I do know some. How about I sell you stamina potions for cheap too? Which would admittedly be what you’ve been paying already. Ingredients were more expensive than I expected,” Theo said, chuckling awkwardly.

“So, no actual benefit on my part there.”

“Yes and no. You won’t see it because you’re paying the same price but it will be less. Technically,” he said, using his hands to represent a balance changing.

“You sure you can teach me healing?” She crossed her arms and eyed him suspiciously. “You’re not an Integrator after all.”

“I’ve made Integral enchantments before. Healing, stamina restoration, beneficial and detrimental effects, I’ve done them all. They may not be one of my attunements, but that doesn’t change the runes. I just need the right mana type to power them,” he said.

“Okay, that’s too good to pass up. When can we start?”

Theo resisted a smile as she shifted restlessly from foot to foot. “I have to make potions, but I could pull out one of my rune books for you to study if you’re available today. Should be easy enough for me to explain it while I work.”

“Wait. A rune book? Aren’t those usually like, family secrets?”

“Maybe in some families. Mine was never too private with ours. Just promise me you’ll be careful with it. The pages are enchanted to be pretty durable, but it never hurts to be cautious. Also, I’d say we’re making a pretty fair trade. I’m saving you money, and you’re saving me the effort of picking up materials. I’ll just have to teach you what to look for.”

“I promise I’ll be careful. Knowing what to look for is basically my job sometimes, I’ll be good at that.”

“Perfect. Deal then?”

“Deal.”

Theo shook Pina’s hand - another oddity in sensation as it felt like he was grabbing a rough plant stalk - and they headed through the door behind the counter through the kitchen, and into his workshop.

He rummaged around in a crate for a moment. “Now I know it was in here somewhere… aha! Found it.” Turning around, he handed a hefty tome to Pina.

“Woah. This book is huge,” she said, eyes widening as she set it down on the table next to her.

“That it is. And you’ll need to go to…” Theo took a moment to flip to the correct page in the book. “Here. You know the Aspect rune for ‘self’, right? I think that one is pretty common knowledge at least.”

“Two lines curving toward the bottom with a horizontal slash through it? Three nodes?”

“That’s the one. That will be your main base for this spell. You’ll need to branch out with a few more Aspects though, maybe something to just target your legs? Maybe the arms and core?”

“Legs definitely. Core would be nice, and I have my bag so my arms don’t usually get tired unless I have to carry something big,” she said, patting the bag at her side.

“Okay, I want to assess your skills. Here’s some parchment and a quill. Draw out what you think the structure for this spell should be. Use the book for reference and pick out some Intent runes from it. Shouldn’t need to be anything huge unless you’re using duplicate Aspects to increase the power. If you’re just running I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

“Alright… it’s gonna be messy, I suck at runes,” she said, taking the quill, dipping it in the inkpot, and beginning to scratch out the circle and nodes to contain her ‘self’ rune.

“That’s fine, that’s what I’m here for. I just want a good baseline. I’m going to start on some potions while you work,” Theo said, walking over to his alchemy station and offloading ingredients into various storage bins.

“You don’t mind some sunlight, I’m sure?” Theo asked as he yanked on a bar set in the wall. The hinge on his roof slats released, opening the workshop to the sun. His mana pool was already full, but it wouldn’t be soon.

“I’m a plant. Sort of. We eat sunlight,” Pina said, smiling teasingly at Theo.

“Right. Sorry, Renwurd was a very human-populated town. We had other races from time to time, but almost everyone living there was human. There were a few fulvitre though,” he said, shrugging.

“No problem here. Your roof slats are nice, they let lots of sun in,” she said, tilting her head back and basking in the light for a moment.

“They do. It’s been quite helpful so far.”

With that remark, Theo got to work. Only the light scratching of quill on parchment filled the room with noise until Theo began grinding up ingredients. Healing potions were the most important to restock, so that was his first task.

With practiced motions, he ground up vindiya root in a pestle and mortar. The invigorating scent immediately perked him up. Once finished, the ground up root went into a small bowl on his alchemy table.

Next came the binding agent - Theo’s personal favorite to use in a wide array of potions - gallarant seed. It was a little pricier but he found it always gave the best results. This too went in the mortar. As soon as it was a fine dust, Theo took a pinch of it and another equal portion of the vindiya powder.

Both went into a glass container filled with water on his alchemy table. With the pieces in place, he awakened his main alchemical tool. Runes on the table lit up, glowing with mana. Gemstones followed suit, shining brightly in various colors.

The runes under his glass container lit up last: the table’s heating element. It was a remarkably similar setup to his oven, but with several more diagnostic runes in place leading to the various gems set in the table.

Soon, the potion was up to an appropriate temperature for Theo to begin. He pointed a hand at the container and pulled on his mana pool. “Distill.”

The materials suspended inside broke apart, dissociating into the liquid. A gem on the table shifted colors slightly under Theo’s watchful eye. It changed from vibrant green to an almost imperceptibly more muted shade. Stability is fine. Good, Niistral didn’t sell me faulty ingredients.

Three more carefully timed casts of Distill later and another gem on the table had shifted from blue to orange, indicating that his potion was low on solubility.

“Heat.” The mixture, already hot, was brought to a boil, but the stability lowered once again. It wasn’t low enough for him to worry about yet.

Time for the catalyst, Theo thought, grabbing a pinch of stardust out of a sack near him. He sprinkled the small bits of crystallized mana into the mixture in front of him. The verdant green color caused by the vindiya root disappeared, shifting to a brilliant crimson.

Not done yet. Theo cast several more Distills, increasing the concentration of the brew but challenging the stability once more. One gem turned a brighter purple but the stability gem changed from an allowable green to an alarming red, so Theo acted quickly.

“Attenuate.”

The bright purple concentration gem dimmed slightly, but the stability gem didn’t shift back to green.

“Cool.”

The stability settled once more, the potion was saved. Theo unclenched a hand he hadn’t even realized he had closed. He exhaled in relief. It was done.

“Everything okay over there?” Pina asked, turning around in her seat.

“Yes, just nearly lost the stability on this potion. Failing the first of the day is bad luck.”

“Stability?”

“Ah, right. Not an alchemist. Stability is basically all the magical bonds in this potion. If it drops too much, they break and the potion is beyond recovering. It can sometimes be… explosive,” Theo said, grimacing as he remembered the time he’d had to to regrow his eyebrows.

“I didn’t realize being an alchemist was that dangerous.”

“Oh, yes. We work with poisons regularly. And then there’s the potential for explosions. Admittedly, most alchemists find the right proportion of uses for all of their Infusion spells, but I prefer having a more active role. I think it makes better potions in the end,” he said, indicating the bright red mixture behind him.

“Huh. And here I am just running around the city. The most I need to worry about is muggers.”

Theo’s eyes widened. “Muggers? Do you have any self-defense spells?”

“Nope. The only Named Spell I know is Vortex Sprint. I’m usually too fast to get caught.”

“Usually?” Theo asked, gulping.

“Well, there have been one or two times.” She glanced to the side, mouth set in a frown before returning to a weak smile. “Anyway, I finished too. I just waited for you to be done, you seemed pretty… intense back there.”

Theo took the cue to switch subjects. “Oh, well, I suppose it was the first of the day. Very well, let’s see what you have,” he said, mentally vowing to teach her a self-defense spell later.

Pina handed him the piece of parchment. He pored over it, taking it back to the desk.

“So, see here how you have these open nodes on your rune circles? You need to fill those or you’ll have mana leaks in your spell. They’ll actually make it more expensive than adding additional Intent runes on to cover the nodes. Most of the time at least. If you use an especially strong Intent rune, that may make an open node worthwhile. That’s a very rare circumstance though,” Theo said, tapping on the page to indicate what he was talking about to Pina.

“Oh, I see what you mean. So I could probably increase the healing power?”

“Well, actually, you have a redundancy. These Aspect runes here already represent the legs, so unless you need the extra nodes, it’s unnecessary to add more of them,” he said, scribbling out where she had the extras.

“That makes sense. See? Told you I sucked at runes,” she said, frowning.

“Actually, for your first try, it’s not bad at all. I like how you linked the self rune into these runes for the different segments of the leg. That will help spread the mana out efficiently. I’m not sure you realize it, but you also put the runes for your core onto the upper leg rune. You’ve got more of a knack for this than you realize,” he said, proudly smiling at her.

“Wow, really? I can see what you mean now, this closes things up nicely once I put the Intent runes in place. Will it be costly?”

“Maybe a little bit, but this is a pretty low-grade healing rune, so it shouldn’t be too mana-taxing. Here, do you know how to mentally arrange runes?”

“Just visualize them and pull on my mana pool, right?”

“You got it. See? A natural,” Theo said, smiling reassuringly at her.

“Okay, let's do this,” Pina said, clenching her eyes shut and furrowing her brow in concentration. It took several times with her peeking for results, then shutting her eyes once more. Finally, a pale green glow emanated around her legs and she opened her eyes. They sparkled with delight. “It worked!”

“It did! Sort of. I could tell just from the glow that there are some issues with this formula. It didn’t seem very effective for how much I think that spell cost. We’ll workshop it more. Could also be that your visualization just barely recreated the runes. That just takes practice though, you’ll get it eventually.”

“Thanks, I didn’t realize it was this easy,” Pina said before a grin sprouted across her face. “Or maybe I have a great teacher.”

“Oh, I’m not that great- well, if you insist… How about you try and rework the formula a little? Solidify it in your head. I’ll make some more potions and we’ll go from there.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Time flew by. Theo found he enjoyed having company. Teaching another person magic proved to be a challenge. He relished in it.

Something teased at the edges of his mind once the conversation about magic turned to idle chatter and joking. The two of them were having a blast.

It all seemed obvious once it hit him. He’d made a friend.