For what felt like the hundredth time, Theo switched sides on his bed. Images of the encounter with Maraz swam through his mind. His gut was in knots and a cold sweat drenched his nightwear.

He groaned - sleep clearly wasn’t happening tonight. Rolling out of bed drearily, he walked into the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. The cold sensation brought him some clarity of mind. He washed and freshened himself up, muttering to himself about the need to clean his pajamas.

With clean clothes on, he grabbed a stamina potion from his shop. Rather than sleep, he decided to begin work on his security enchantments.

Theo dragged his feet into his workshop. It was still dark out. He sipped on the stamina potion, grimacing at the taste, but the brew perked him up enough that he felt he could start on his designs.

Retrieving his enchanted light orb, he set it on the desk and pulled out some supplies. This particular orb had a low enough mana cost that it could sustain itself for hours off just the internal mana supply. He was quite proud of this creation; it could also recharge slowly from ambient mana.

With his quill and parchment ready, he began sketching out the bones of the runic design that he’d been forming in his head. It had come to him while he was tossing and turning in bed, too anxious to fall asleep.

Only some of the runes Theo worked with were familiar to him, so he searched around and found the rune book he was looking for. It had just what he needed in it. Perfect.

The ones he needed to reference were both some Phrenic Aspect runes and Intent runes. Specifically, he had an idea in mind for how to activate the enchantment using someone’s surface emotions. It was unfamiliar territory for him, but he was confident in his ability to figure it out.

He had to start over a few times when he realized the nodes on his runic circles - the boundaries surrounding all Aspect runes - weren’t connecting to his satisfaction. He bit his lip, worried about whether this would work or not. It was beyond anything he’d done before. After several drafts, he had the start of something he was vaguely confident in.

The Aspect runes served as the guidelines for how this enchantment would work. Theo included a trigger that would activate when someone opened the door to his shop. His plan was to put the enchantment on the bell that hangs over the entrance to his shop.

When the bell rang, the trigger Aspect rune would activate, awakening the rest of the Phrenic rune structure. This is where the Intent runes came in. The Aspect runes had the instructions for what the Intent runes would scan, which was the surface emotional state of someone entering the shop. It was set to continue scanning this person for a few moments afterward - just in case.

If the runes found any sort of violent or malicious intent coming off of the customer, an Intent rune for scanning would send a pulse of mana back into the enchantment. This would activate a secondary enchantment on the bell arm that holds it above the door. It was here that the true security portion of the enchantment came to fruition.

Through a combination of Infusion and Primordial runes, the Aspect runes of the enchantment on the bell arm would gather air around the intruder using wind magic, and then use the Infusion magic to change the properties of the air to be solid. The end result was something Theo felt pride for coming up with, a cage of air.

Now if only he could figure out just how to set up the runes to achieve this…

Theo had never done something this complex before. Combining three of the five schools of magic into one set of enchantments was certainly out of his comfort zone. He was up for the challenge, however.

His eyes began to strain by the time the first hints of sunlight shone through the window. Goodness, have I really been working on this for hours?

Theo rubbed his eyes before regarding the scattered pieces of parchment and ink stains in front of him with mild disdain. He couldn’t get the nodes to line up how he wanted to. No matter where he placed them on the containment rings of the Aspect runes, the structure just wasn’t coming together correctly.

He bit his lip, mentally rearranging the runes as he leaned back in his seat. I really should have done more Phrenic enchantments in the first place. This feels like unexplored territory right now.

His stomach grumbled, so he took that as a signal to take a break. Working on this for hours had done wonders for calming him down. He felt capable of keeping food down, a vast improvement from his condition last night.

Theo cooked a quick breakfast, smiling when his new runic setup on the oven worked as intended. He had tested it before, of course, but this was the first true use of it. There’s one thing that’s going well right now.

Most of the previous night was forgotten by now, but he still found himself looking over his shoulder at the door on occasion. Perhaps it wasn’t as forgotten as he had hoped.

After breakfast was done, Theo decided to open up early, so he flipped the sign with a small flourish and returned to his counter. The benefit of running his own shop was that he could still work on his enchantment designs while there were no customers in the store to tend to.

A thought occurred to him, so he retrieved a wand from his supply of them and kept it with him behind the counter. Never hurts to be too safe.

He fumbled with a bar set in the wall for a moment and opened the roof slats of his shop. The first morning rays gave the room a welcoming ambiance. His mana pool was still fairly empty from yesterday’s alchemical escapades, so he stood in a patch of sunlight for a few minutes. A side benefit of this was that the sunlight perked him up a bit more. Or, it could have been the stamina potion he’d polished off.

Theo scribbled away his morning, drawing more potential rune setups on parchment. He took much-needed breaks by tending to the occasional customer that came in. Finally, the bell rung again and Theo looked up from his work.

“Telsa! Welcome back,” he said, smiling at the teal-haired rogue.

“Hey Theo, I brought a friend,” she said, returning the gesture and pointing a thumb behind herself.

Theo’s heart skipped a beat as a handsome man with muted green hair stepped into the shop after Telsa. He met the man’s steely green eyes. They set butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

“Theo, this is Adamant. Adamant, this is Theo,” Telsa said, pushing Adamant forward with a bit of effort. He towered over them both.

“Hey. My friends call me Adam. Your wand saved our asses out there so you can too,” he said, grinning and offering Theo a large, calloused hand.

Theo felt his stomach tighten as he returned the handshake. “I uh, welcome, your Adam.”

Telsa raised an eyebrow at Theo as his face reached heats that could be considered a fire hazard.

Adam looked back up, having stared down at Theo’s latest runic setup while he embarrassed himself. “Huh? Yeah, hey. Good to meet you too. Is this… some kind of security enchantment? Nice setup on the wand. Your runes are way better than anything I can do.”

“Thank you. Um, yes? Maybe? How did you know it’s a security enchantment?”

“Adam here is an Infuser too. Integral secondary though, not Primordial like you,” Telsa said, patting Adam on the shoulder.

“Yeah, mom and dad wanted me to be an enchanter. First Infuser in the family in decades or whatever. No offense, but it was sorta boring. I like this kinda thing,” Adam said, hefting the battleaxe strapped to his back.

Theo noticed an array of runes adorning Adam’s arms. He could identify most of the Infusion runes and a few he knew to be Integral ones.

“Adam, quit pulling that thing out inside; it’s rude. Theo, why are you working on a security enchantment? Did something happen?” Telsa asked, chiding Adam with a glare before turning to Theo.

“Oh! Um, no. Nothing happened. Just… working on it for… caution?” Theo stammered.

“Gonna have to try harder than that to get past me. Not that it would have mattered with that lie. What happened? You have bags under your eyes, you clearly didn’t sleep well last night,” she said, crossing her arms.

“I uh… didn’t sleep at all. There was an… encounter with a representative of the Merchant’s Guild,” he said, trying to chuckle casually.

“And…?” Telsa pressed, leaning in closer.

“Well…” Theo said before going into an explanation of the sequence of events.

“Holy shit, you said that to a guild rep? And threatened him? Damn, Theo, you’re made of tough stuff,” Adam said, lightly thumping him on the arm.

Theo fought off the potential for spontaneous combustion when a cold realization hit him. He suppressed a shudder. What have I done?

“Ah, yes? I suppose? I was really angry when he wanted me to scam people like that.”

“I get the security now, but Theo, you need to be careful. The guild has resources. That Maraz guy? I’ve heard of him before. He has a magic combo like Adam, that’s why he’s so huge.”

Theo took note that Adam’s arms were big but not as massive as Maraz’s had been, which was to say as large if not larger than his head. “I didn’t realize the benefits of Infusion and Integral magic combined were that… significant.”

“Takes a lot of fighting. Or just practice. I can manual cast, so that helps. We can’t really afford many Named Spells,” Adam said, glancing at Telsa who shook her head.

“Not in the budget, Adam. Which reminds me, we brought back those gilgafrog parts; you still interested?”

Switching to business mode was exactly what Theo needed right then, so he gladly accepted the offered bag of materials from Telsa. It nearly dropped him to the floor before Adam caught it and put it on the counter for him.

“Thank you. One… two... three…” Theo counted up the parts, tallying them mentally before taking out his abacus. He added up the price for everything offered.

“I’m sorry to say, but most of these gills are quite… smashed. And not in the way I can use them. Only about two sets in here are usable. I’ll buy all the rest of the parts as well, however. How about… 2 gold, 20 silver for all of it?”

“You sure? That’s more than the- gughk!” Adam said before Telsa elbowed him in the side.

“That’s perfect. We’ll have a few purchases to make, so can you just keep that price in mind while we browse?”

“Of course. I just made some fresh potions, so keep those in mind,” Theo said, widely sweeping his arm to indicate the shelves the fresh potions were on.

“Sure thing. Any recommendations? We’ve got fresh funds,” she said, pointing at the bag of monster parts.

“I just made a batch of ironskin philtres as well as a few tinctures. They’d be ideal for melee fighters like yourself and Adam,” he said, pointing out a few of the bottles on a shelf.

“Tinctures are definitely out of our budget. I think. Your prices are pretty low. How much are they?” she asked, picking one up from the shelf and holding it up to the light.

“50 silvers for a bottle of ironskin tincture.”

Telsa whistled. “Damn. Pricy.”

“Yes, but consider that a tincture will run you for about ten doses while I sell a philtre of the same potion for 16 silvers, and it’s only formulated for three doses or so. It’s a little cheaper in the long run and will take up considerably less space in your bag. Do be careful not to take too much at once, however. It’s quite potent.”

“Adam here has magic for basically the same effect. I think I’ll buy a philtre for myself though. I’m gonna browse a little too. We’ll need some more lightning crystals for the wand. No one in our team is a Primordial.”

“Not a problem, I have more in the basket over there,” Theo said, pointing to the same basket he’d let Telsa pick out of last time.

“Thanks,” she said before walking around the store, simply picking up and looking at different products.

“It’d be better if you linked the aggression detection rune here with this group of body runes. The setup would be more mana efficient that way,” Adam said, leaning over Theo’s runic inscriptions once more.

“Huh? What?” he asked, looking down at the paper. He slapped his palm on his forehead once he saw what Adam was talking about.

Cheeks heating up, Theo tapped a finger on the counter. “Oh dear, perhaps the sleep deprivation is getting to me worse than I thought. It’s obvious now that you point it out. I thought you said enchanting was boring.”

“It is. Doesn’t mean my parents didn’t make me study it. Helps me do things like this too,” he said, pulling up his sleeve to show the full array of runes on his arm.

They would’ve been almost invisible to anyone without Infusion magic, but Theo could see them clear as day, especially when he leaked a little Infusion mana into his eyes. “Body enchantments… I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never encountered them in person before. Only people with specifically your magical attunements can use them, correct?”

“Yup. You wanna check them out? Maybe you’ll have a few pointers,” Adam said, chuckling and leaning in.

Theo forced down some rather distracting emotions and cleared his throat in an attempt to remain professional. “O-of course. For learning purposes. I’d love to see them. Just… to learn.”

“I can activate them so you see a few in action. Don’t tell anyone though, especially Telsa. She hates it when I show people these. Says they should be my secret weapon. I say who cares? They’ll have to be able to beat me for it to be an advantage,” he said, grinning. Runes on his arm lit up, and Theo watched the mana course through them.

“Fascinating. May I?” he asked, gesturing toward Adam’s arm.

“Sure.”

Tracing the runes on Adam’s arm and feeling the mana flow, he found the skin to be more akin to metal in hardness. At this point, professional curiosity had overcome the novelty of the situation for Theo. “It appears that only some of these runes are active, what else can they do?”

“Strength, speed, and a little bit of enhanced regeneration. Nothing too fancy,” Adam said, shrugging.

“Adam, are you showing off your runes again? I know Theo’s a great guy and all, but you can’t show them to just anyone,” Telsa said, returning with her purchases.

“Ah, shit. Um, no? He just wanted to know… how much I could lift. Right, Theo?” Adam asked, turning to him with a pleading smile.

Telsa eyed Theo once again, quirking one eyebrow up.

He felt himself blush once again and internally chastised himself for becoming flustered so easily. “Um. Right. Lifting. Yes.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything else we need right now, so this will be all. We’ll probably be back later when we have another request lined up,” Telsa said, placing two lightning crystals and the ironskin philtre on the counter.

“Right. Your total will be 46 silvers, but…” Theo said, sneaking a look at Adam. “How about I just lower that to 45? To uh, make the math easier on both of us.”

“I won’t say no to cheaper stuff,” Telsa said, putting the potion and crystals in a belt pouch.

“Perfect. So that just means I owe you… 1 gold and 75 silver for the gilgafrog parts. Oh, and um, Adam? Do you think you’d have time to… um, stay and go over this enchantment with me a little more?” he asked, feeling the frog return to his throat as his stomach knotted up again.

“Sure. We don’t have any plans with the team today, do we, Telsa?”

She gave Theo a knowing look and winked at him. “Nope. Nothing at all, have fun you two.”

Theo handed her the money, grimacing at spending more, but he was at least paying under what he’d pay in the market for these parts.

Telsa left, leaving Theo alone with Adam.

“So, your enchantments?”

“My what? Oh. Right. Yes. Do you think you could look this over and let me know if anything else seems off? I’m still trying to figure out how to link this signal into the Primordial runes for the arm.”

“The arm?”

“Oops, I didn’t explain. I’m putting the Phrenic detection enchantment on the bell and the Primordial-Infusion mix on to the arm that holds the bell.”

“Nice. That’ll work well. Let me check this out.”

Adam picked up the piece of parchment and quill. He tapped the feather against the edge of the page a few times, muttering to himself while Theo stared expectantly.

“I know just the rune for this one. If you make the detection runes relay here, you can link it up to the trigger on the arm. It should be pretty easy to shift from paper to metal too. Just make sure you have both general body-targeter Aspect runes and a few for the arms and legs. That’s where you’ll want to prevent motion the most,” Adam said, tapping on the parchment in the areas he meant.

“How are you so good at this?”

“I think it comes from being an adventurer. I’m our main tank, so I’m always trying to hold down the arms and legs of the monsters so they can’t flail. Just makes sense to me for your enchantment to do the same I guess,” he said, shrugging again.

“I’m surprised you didn’t become an enchanter. You have quite the knack for this,” Theo said, taking the sheet back from Adam and setting it on the counter.

“Turns out I like smashing things more than I like drawing runes on them. It’s simpler,” he said, laughing.

“Right. Well, I’m going to keep reworking this enchantment, would you… like to do something boring with me?”

“Whatever you think, you’re a way better enchanter than me, Theo. I can help, but I think a good night’s rest will do the same. I’ve got no plans though so I can stay anyway. My team shouldn’t need me until tomorrow. And… working on someone else’s enchantment that’s already mostly done is kinda fun. I just hated starting the damn things.”

“Your help would be greatly appreciated,” Theo said, yawning despite his attempts to suppress it.

“You really didn’t get any sleep, did you?”

“Not a wink,” he said, frowning.

“Get some later then, okay? Let’s get to work.”

“Do you think you could…” Theo yawned again. “Grab me one of my stamina philtres? I think I’ll need it.”

Adam grabbed one off the shelf and handed it to Theo. He drank two gulps of it immediately, feeling tingly energy spread through his limbs and his mind sharpen once more. “Much better. Let’s get to work.”

The rest of Theo's day passed by quickly and pleasantly. It turned out Adam had some really unique perspectives on enchanting that he’d never considered before. He also pushed Theo’s boundaries a few times when it came to adding or subtracting nodes from the structure of the enchantment.

This was something he would never do on his own, but with Adam’s pushing, he had to admit the slightly less stable rune structures were certainly more flexible. By the end of the day, between helping customers and testing with Adam, Theo had made more progress than he would’ve thought possible in a single day.

He invited Adam to stay for dinner, and to his delight, he accepted. They talked about the fight against the gilgafrogs at the lake dungeon. Theo was on the edge of his seat; he loved hearing about adventures. He also learned more about Adam’s use of Infusion and Integral magic for combat.

It was absolutely enthralling to him. He had never realized the potential applications of Infusion magic in combat. It gave him quite a few ideas for new enchantments as well.

Unfortunately for Theo, time passed by in what felt like seconds. Soon, he was waving goodbye to Adam, who at least promised him he’d stop by again soon to check out Theo’s finished product on the security enchantments.

Theo collapsed on his bed, feeling a mix of sheer anxiety and supreme exhaustion. The anxiety’s source wasn’t Maraz anymore, however. It was Adam. And for far different reasons. In the end, exhaustion won out, and he found himself drifting off into the soft embrace of sleep.