Theo clapped a hand over his mouth, guilt lancing through him. His stomach was in knots. Okay, first. I need to make sure I’m okay before I move more.

Patting himself down, he probed for any obvious injuries. It hurt to move, but nothing felt broken or dislocated, just bruised. He hobbled over to his shelves and picked up a healing potion - a tincture. The sharp bite of the alcohol medium burned on his tongue as rejuvenating force flowed through him.

Looking down at the floor, one small worry fell away. It’s a good thing I enchant my bottles, only three broke from the Wind Tunnel.

Theo shook himself out of his stupor, things felt a little… cloudy still. Had he hit his head? Something teased at the back of his mind about healing potions draining one’s stamina, but he couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment. Whatever. Maraz. Right.

All of this process had taken him maybe half a minute, but that was half a minute that Maraz was bleeding out on the ground. He ran out the door, nearly falling off the steps with his speed, and reached the guild representative’s side.

With a quick glance of his surroundings, people were staring but no one came forward. “Somebody please help! He’s hurt!” Tears pricked the corner of Theo’s eyes, but the sting couldn’t even compare to how he was feeling about what he’d done.

A few people met Theo’s eyes but frowned and shook their heads - or just the latter for two fulvitres. One human came running from a street over, but the second they saw Maraz’s face they froze and turned away.

“Gods, people! He’s bleeding!” he cried out, but everyone began to inch away.

A fulvitre shopkeeper that Theo recognized from down the street - a wand-maker he had wanted to check out sometime - shook their head once more. “Apologies, shopkeeper, but no one here wants to help him. Not after all he has done.”

Theo grasped at the flames of anger in his chest, seizing them for himself. “Well if you all won’t, I will.” He began to check over Maraz. The man was covered in scores of cuts from the glass in areas his clothes hadn’t blocked, but the worst was the bleeding at the crown of his head.

He must have hit his head off of my window frame on the way out, he thought, grimacing as he touched the area, making sure there weren’t any obvious breaks. Fortunately, only the skin appeared to be broken as far as he could tell. Good, this should work then.

Taking the healing tincture out of his pocket, Theo uncorked it and dripped two drops of the potent brew onto the wound. He had to pull Maraz’s hair out of the way, which coated his fingers in brilliant red blood, but he forced himself to do it regardless.

The large gash on Maraz’s head sealed up quickly under the effects of Theo’s potion, but he didn’t wake up.

An adventurer had told him about what to do in this situation once, and Theo just remembered, so he turned an ear towards Maraz’s mouth, staring down at his chest as he did. It rose and fell slowly and he felt shallow breaths against his ear. He sighed in relief. Just unconscious, not dead. Thank Taberna. I need to get him off this street.

“Can anyone at least help me carry him inside my shop?” he begged, but the street was empty when he looked up. A growl of frustration left his throat. “I suppose it’s on me then.”

Lifting Maraz’s side up, Infusion mana reached his eyes. Just as I thought, enchanted cloth suit. That saved him from any puncture wounds at least. He ran a hand over the back of Maraz’s head slowly, picking away any glass shards in the man’s hair. A few were embedded but he didn’t have any way to remove them right now.

Finally, he attempted to lift Maraz. Gods, the man was heavy. Theo frowned, tapping his chin in thought. Even with his newfound Snap strength, he couldn’t lift the hulking form of Maraz. The man likely had a full foot of height or more over his own short form and was essentially a walking slab of muscle.

He tried lacing Maraz’s arms over his shoulders and standing up, but he couldn’t find enough leverage to lift himself off the ground. An idea struck him, however. He carefully lowered the man to the ground before running into the house. Things had shifted around in the past few days, but he eventually found his original air cage diagram. With the runic layout fresh in his mind, he ran back out to Maraz.

His hope that the man would be awake by now was dashed when he was still laying on the ground, eyes closed. “Well, whatever. Let’s hope this works.” Theo crouched low to the ground, manually casting the air cage spell. It snapped into place around Maraz’s form, lifting him off the ground as the air under him solidified.

The strain on his mind intensified, and the vestiges of his mana that were left were draining, but he came prepared. Uncorking a mana potion, he drank greedily from it, feeling his stores replenish to a more appropriate level.

With the air cage locked in his mind, he mentally tied its position to himself. When he stood up, the load on his mind intensified, but he was stronger now. He could handle this, even if he was hemorrhaging mana every second. The air cage followed suit, lifting Maraz’s body into the air.

His head drooped downward, a side effect of Theo not adding runes for the head to avoid suffocating someone. He cringed at that, hoping it wouldn’t cause any undue harm, but he had to get the man off the street. What if a wagon came barreling by?

Slowly but surely, he treaded into his shop with Maraz floating just inches away from himself. It was a tight fit, but he managed to fit the brute through the doorway with only a little difficulty. He had to polish off the rest of the mana philtre to finish the job, however. Crouching down once more, he softly laid Maraz on the floor with the spell, feeling mentally exhausted. If the world had felt fuzzy when he used his healing tincture, it was full-on blurry now.

He crashed and thumped through his shop, trying to find his bearings. At last, he fingers closed around what he was looking for, a stamina potion. I am in for quite the morning tomorrow… He gritted his teeth before swallowing some of the brew. The bitter taste brought sharp clarity to him once more, his vision clearing and his mind working closer to how it should.

In his workshop, he found his tweezers and returned to the shop room where Maraz lay on the floor. Still unconscious. He grabbed a healing philtre and set to work. With the tweezers, he plucked shards of glass out of Maraz’s scalp, applying a drop of the philtre to the area afterward.

Once he’d cleared all of the glass he could find, he pulled Maraz’s head up and poured some of the healing potion down the man’s throat, rubbing it to force him to swallow it. He’d seen a farmer do that to a cow once and hoped the principle worked here too.

Some color returned to Maraz’s skin, relieving Theo further, but the guilt was still there, a knife twisting in his gut. Now that the situation had calmed down, emotions he’d been pushing away welled up. And so did his eyes.

“Please wake up, Maraz. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted to push you out of my shop so you couldn’t hurt me,” he said, tears falling on Maraz’s suit as he leaned over the man. He sat there for a moment, letting his emotions run their course.

Determination settled him, he ran through the door to his house and grabbed a towel - a red one - and a bucket of water. With the utmost care, he cleaned up the blood from Maraz and himself. The healing potion had closed up all of the man’s wounds, leaving light pink marks where they had been, but the man had bled.

As he was cleaning off Maraz’s face, golden honey eyes flicked open, meeting his. He yelped, falling on his butt. That hurt, he was still recovering from his own injuries. But he was happy, Maraz was finally awake!

Theo leaned in close, smiling at the brute. “You’re okay! Goodness, I was so worried! Maraz, I’m deeply sorry for what happened. You see, I Snapped the other day after you, well, broke my air cage and-”

Maraz held up a hand. “Please, Theo. Slow down. Gods, I hurt.” He eyed the remains of the healing potion in Theo’s hand. “Hand me that.”

Obliging, Theo handed him the bottle which he downed in a single gulp. “Better?”

“Bet- what the fuck happened?” he asked, staring at the destroyed front of the shop once more and groaning again. “Can you close your roof slats? Gods, the light hurts.”

“O-Of course.” As he walked over to the bar to close his roof slats, he explained to Maraz. “Well, you see. When you were here a few days ago, I Snapped after you broke my air cage spell. That’s caused some… problems with mana control currently. I’m releasing more at a time than I should even be able to. I made a new wand in hopes of simply pushing you out of my shop and closing the door on you but… well, we see where that went.” He smiled weakly, returning to sit near Maraz on the floor.

“And what was your plan-” he asked, gritting his teeth as he sat up. “Once you closed the door on me?”

Theo scratched his head. “Well, I uh- Hm. I wanted to enchant my door so you couldn’t break it, but I haven’t had the time to get around to that yet.”

Maraz lifted a hand, causing him to flinch. He frowned. “I’m not going to hurt you. At least right now.”

Lowering his raised hands, he watched Maraz check himself over for injuries. “Y-You’re not mad?”

“I don’t believe mad is the right word. My pride is hurt, yes. I’ve been properly trounced by a tiny shopkeeper by the name of Theodius, but I’m not mad. You… tended to my wounds immediately after, didn’t you? I don’t feel lightheaded enough for the blood loss to have been too bad. I- thank you. I’m guessing no one else helped?” he asked, glaring out the window before turning away and blinking rapidly. The light clearly still bothered him.

That was an… unexpected response. I’m almost more scared that he isn’t hitting me right now. Is Maraz more than just a guild thug? Theo asked himself, stifling a frown at the fact that Maraz was informed enough to know his full name. He chose his words carefully. “Well, it’s not that no one helped. It um is just that… no one was… available for your assistance?”

Maraz raised a brow, disbelief clear on his face. “You’re telling me not a single person came to see what happened with that loud of a crash.”

“Well, no. I just- okay. No one helped you,” he said, staring at the floor.

“Except you. Theo, I don’t blame them for not helping me. There’s probably not a single person working on this street that I haven’t… paid a visit to. And I’m more than aware of my reputation. It’s no surprise to me that I would have been left for dead. The question is, why did you help me?” Maraz asked, his honey-colored gaze forcing Theo’s eyes to meet his.

He squirmed uncomfortably where he was sitting. “I… caused this mess, I suppose. I didn’t want to hurt you, just… harmlessly push you out of my shop. Gods… my security deposit. Oh well, that’s gone.”

Laughing, Maraz coughed and winced. “You are an enigma, Theo. I threaten you, and you don’t even wish harm on me. Hell, you help me when you accidentally hurt me. That’s what this was, correct? An accident?”

Theo’s eyes widened. “Of course it was! I wouldn’t want to hurt you! I- don’t have it in me. I feel guilty enough as is.”

Maraz ran a hand through his hair, nose wrinkling at it came away covered in blood. Theo handed him the towel. “Theo, you’ve Snapped, correct? I’m unsurprised that your control was lacking in the heat of the moment. As much as I hurt right now- Do you recall what I told you?”

Fire returned to Theo’s chest. “Despite what happened, Maraz, I’m not changing my pri-”

Shaking his head, Maraz grinned. “Not the prices, Theo. I told you I’m bored. I’ve been working for the guild for quite some time. You may not be the first who has stood up to me, but you’re the only one who has been this… persistent. And annoying. But admittedly, entertaining. Even this, as hard as that is to believe. Life has felt… dull.”

Theo stared at him, hope gleaming in his eyes. “So does that mean you’re not going to threaten me about my prices anymore?”

Maraz glared at him, but there was no vigor behind it. “I still have my job, Theo.”

He frowned. “Oh.”

“But. In my book, you’ve earned yourself a bit of time. Keep coming up with ways to make my life not so dreadfully dull and we’ll see what happens. I have been… enjoying this game of cat and mouse. I find myself wondering what you’ll come up with next,” he said, shrugging, which led to another wince.

Suppressing a shudder, Theo glanced off to his window again. “H-How much time?”

Maraz lowered a brow. “Really now, Theo? Where’s the fun in it if you expect me?”

“I’m… not sure I appreciate this situation,” Theo said, crossing his arms.

Shrugging, Maraz laughed. “Don’t care.” He stood up, groaning in pain once more. With a glance around the room, a grin was back on his face. “Might wanna clean up a little. Your shop is a mess. That’s not good for business.”

Theo glared at him until Maraz turned around, snapping his face to a frown. “I suppose I should.”

“Well, I should get going. I could use a better potion,” Maraz said, clearly waiting for a retort from his jab.

A response bubbled up inside Theo, but he pushed it down. “...I hope you feel better soon, Maraz. I’m sorry once again. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

His eyes widened, what might have been guilt crossed his face so quickly that Theo wasn’t sure he’d seen it right in the first place. “I’m fine. I won’t be beaten by you again. Remember that.” He pointed at Theo as he walked out the door.

Sighing, Theo took in the damage his shop had taken. Most of it was the window, only a few potions had broken, the enchanted glass saved the rest. He stood up and raised two hands. “Broomgust.” Shards of glass flew at him. He yelped and dropped to the floor, hearing the shards clatter against the wall behind him.

I have to do this the old fashioned way, huh? Theo thought, grabbing his broom. It took him awhile but eventually, he had a pile of broken glass on the floor. A single cast of Condense let him peel the spilled potions off the floor as the liquid turned gelatinous.

His doorbell rang. He turned around, the apology about not being open currently died on his lips. “Viktor. Uh, hello.”

The crystalline orb swayed in greeting. “Hello, Theo. I was informed that there had been an altercation at this property.”

Theo took a step back, surprised. News spreads fast. “Oh. Yes. You see uh-”

“I encountered Maraz on my trip here. After inquiring about the lifeblood soaking his suit, he informed me of his defenestration. As he is not pressing charges, you will be under no legal recourse for your actions. However, your security deposit is considered null and void at this point unless proper repairs are made,” Viktor said, the orb swiveling to take in the damage.

His shoulders sunk. “Ah. Yes. Am I… still allowed to work out of this property? I can find a way to pay for the repairs, I promise.”

“You may continue your business as usual. However, my understanding of your culture indicates that business may be decreased drastically when there are hazards such as broken glass inside and outside of your shop. I must also inform you, you are required to keep your storefront clear of any hazards as well,” he said, his orb drifting towards the window to stare outside.

“I was about to clean outside. I can get to it in just a moment,” Theo said, rubbing his face as wave of exhaustion shuddered through him.

“I must also inquire about your own physical health. From the path of the latent mana in the room, as well as the blood coating you, I am under the belief that you were harmed as well. Have you been maimed in any life-altering way?” Viktor asked, invasive winds touching Theo.

“Not in any life-altering way, I hope. My… backside hurts a bit, but I believe I’m just bruised. Though, I used a healing tincture and it was quite draining, surprisingly so,” he said, pressing a hand to his stomach. To his relief, he didn’t feel any pain from the action.

Viktor drifted closer to him, his gusts making Theo’s pant legs flap. “You may have been bleeding internally. Tell me, what was that experience like?”

Theo’s eyes widened, considering the possibility. “Um, painful? I’m not sure. I hope I wasn’t bleeding, but with how hard I hit, it’s certainly possible. I’ve had a dose of a healing tincture, a mana philtre, and a stamina philtre today. I believe I've healed enough that my life isn’t in danger but I know for a fact I will not be well tomorrow.”

“I have been instructed that chicken soup with wheat-based noodles in it is a cure-all for ailments. Perhaps you should research this wonderful panacea. It may help you in your own recovery,” he said, fingers of wind still prodding at Theo.

He sighed. “I don’t- Viktor, I’m sorry to inform you but… chicken noodle soup is simply nutritionally rich. It’s not like a potion. It won’t immediately heal me.”

The orb tilted downward, somehow managing to seem downtrodden. “Ah. I have adjusted the parameters of my knowledge on this ‘chicken noodle soup’ and thusly categorized it more appropriately. Thank you for your assistance in this matter, Theo. You may want to change your clothes before cleaning up the outside of your shop. Some may find the bloodstains objectionable to look upon.”

Theo tilted his head down, his entire outfit had bloodstains on it from Maraz. “Oh no. This was one of my favorite vests.”

“A regrettable loss. I must take my leave now, Theo. I wish you well in your recovery. If you would like, I could offer a ‘hug’, which I am told is comforting to humans,” he said, drifting back towards Theo.

“I- you know what? Okay. I could use a hug right now. Just… lightly, please,” he said, considering his aching body.

“I will apply appropriate force,” the orb affirmed, light winds gripping Theo. He felt odd wrapping his arms around what looked like nothing. It wasn’t very comforting, to be honest, but it made him feel the tiniest bit better.

Viktor broke contact first, the winds simply losing their form as the orb pivoted back towards the door. “Goodbye, Theo. I will check in with you later. Do not let your organic body come into any more undue harm.”

“I’ll uh, avoid that. Thank you for checking in on me, Viktor,” he said, waving the starborn off.

“You are most welcome. I appreciated being able to make closer contact with your organic body. It was most pleasing.” The orb drifted out the door, closing it before Theo could say anything about that last comment.

He glanced down at his clothes once more, then outside at the broken glass glittering in the sunlight. “Shi-” He stopped himself.

“Shoot.”