As Theo dumped broken shards of glass into his waste bin, he spotted his bag. The bag he’d had strapped over his shoulder when he entered his shop. The bag that had been on his person when he was launched through the air from the over-fueled Wind Tunnel spell. The bag that contained his inscribing stylus. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.

Theo rushed over to the bag on the floor, having forgotten about it until just this very moment. Please let it be okay, please let it be okay, please let it be okay. This thought became a mantra as he carefully peeled the bag open, wincing at the slightest shift of the contents inside.

Retrieving the case that contained his stylus, he opened it slowly, looking away until he had fully opened it. He didn’t know what he would do if it was broken. Agonizingly, he turned his head back towards the case. Relief flooded through him. The stylus sat inside the enchanted confines of its case, completely intact. It hadn’t even moved during the blast due to the padded insides of the container.

“Thank goodness,” he said to himself, slumping to the floor as the knot of worry inside him untied itself. Relieved, he gave himself a good minute to calm his rapid-fire heart with some deep breathing before he stood up to clean once more.

Broom and bucket in hand, he trudged outside to clean up. He really didn’t want all the eyes staring at him, but he didn’t have the energy left to be brave enough to glare at them, so he sighed and began sweeping up glass shards.

Viktor had told him to change his clothes, but he wanted the people to see what they hadn’t helped. Anger made his hands shake as he tried to sweep up the mess he’d made. How could they have just stood by while Maraz was dying? His grip tightened on the broom pole, his knuckles turning white.

The world was spinning again by the time Theo finished. He staggered back into his shop, a small bucket full of bloody glass shards in one hand and his broom in the other. With one last, definitive dump, he leaned his forehead against a wall. I’ll just… rest my eyes for a minute.

“Theo!”

A high pitched shout woke Theo up. His eyes snapped open, but the world was still spinning. It felt like a lesser version of his Snap, but he knew what it was. He’d used a healing tincture, a mana potion, and a stamina potion. His body’s resources were simply drained.

Trying to crane his head to see who had called for him, he discovered he didn’t even have the energy to do that. Just opening his eyes fast had been exhausting. A dull, subtle ache in his lower back nagged at him as well. The healing had been incomplete, clearly.

“Adam, lift him- wait- don’t move him!” Tesla’s voice called out, full of worry - and a slight drunken slur.

A large hand settled on his back. Pleasant energy coursed through him moments later. The world spun further as the healing sapped his stamina. He awoke again, his eyes fluttering open slowly this time. Adam stared back at him, eyes wide. “Telsa, he’s awake!”

“Finally. Adam, don’t- don’t heal him again. We needa find out what happensh, we can’t have him passhing out again,” she tutted, still drunkenly slurring.

He was sitting against the wall of his shop. Somewhere deep inside, he was aware that he might be smearing blood on his wall, but there wasn’t even a drop of energy inside him to devote to caring.

Adam leaned in close, catching Theo as his body fell forward. “Theo, what happened? Are you okay?”

He could smell the alcohol on the man’s breath. Right. They’d been celebrating their rank upgrade. Runes glowed on Adam’s skin. They were probably sobering him up somehow.

Even his tongue felt tired, but he forced some focus into himself. “I… Maraz and- wand.” With the hand in his lap, he pointed vaguely towards his waste bin.

Telsa peeked inside, lips curling in disgust - probably at the bloody glass shards - but she retrieved the broken wand from inside, handling it gingerly. Her eyes widened as she took in the cracks and splits throughout the wood. “You did thish?” She looked over to Theo’s counter. For the first time, he noticed the blood on it. She clearly did too, and she figured out what happened.

“Adam, I shink Theo’s wand overcharshed from his Snap. If Maraz went through the window then this ish… Theo’s,” she said, hiccuping and gesturing towards the bloody counter.

“Oh, gods,” Adam said, pivoting between the counter and Theo. He shifted Theo’s position on the wall to something more supportive. Walking up to Theo’s counter, he picked up the four different empty potion bottles, sniffing the remaining contents.

“He used a tincture on himself, Tesla. No wonder he’s out of it, those are strong. Looks like he used a mana potion and a stamina potion too. We don’t know how much of anything he used on Maraz, but with the condition he was in before I healed him, he used a lot of that tincture,” he said, glancing back over at Theo, his lips pursed.

He tried to respond, but the most he could manage was a small smile. Everything was so tiring. Feeling himself falling once more, the world blacked out again.

The third time he awoke, he was sitting in one of the chairs in his kitchen. Adam was at the oven, cooking something while Telsa dexterously spun a dagger around in her hand. He wasn’t sure that was safe with how drunk he remembered Telsa being. She noticed him staring at her.

“Adam, he’s awake again,” she said, completely sober now by the sound of things. How long had he passed out for this time? The room was lit by his magical lights. They cast a soft white glow across the room. From above, he could feel a light wind from his open roof slats and the soft ebbing of mana flowing into him in the presence of the moonlight. Nighttime then, clearly. He’d been out for a while.

Adam ladeled something into a bowl. “Good, the soup is ready.” He turned around, walking over to the table carefully and setting the bowl in front of Theo.

“Hrmmblpl,” he said, his tongue refusing to cooperate.

Adam rolled his eyes, chuckling. “Wanna take turns feeding him, Telsa? He needs this food to get some energy back.”

She stared at him, lips pursed. Shugging, she gestured towards Theo. “Fine, but you go first.”

Theo didn’t even have the energy to feel embarrassed by the spoon Adam blew heat off of. It was some kind of mashed up vegetable soup by the looks of it. Once the spoon entered his mouth, the savory flavor of the soup was barely noticed. Gathering as much energy as he could, he forced himself to swallow the silty-textured soup. It really had been mashed up heavily.

Adam and Telsa took turns feeding him spoonfuls of soup. Eventually, the bowl was finished. It had gone cold long before that point with how slow they had to go.

“He needs to sleep now. I’ll stay the night, Telsa. You go home and get some rest. I healed away most of the alcohol, but there’s a good chance you’ll have a hangover if you don’t get some water in yourself and sleep,” he said, pointing her to the door.

“Got it. Make sure to put a bucket by his bed in case he needs to throw up,” she said, waggling a finger at him.

“Yes, mom,” Adam said, rolling his eyes at her.

She laughed, walking out the door. A few moments later, Theo heard his shop door open and close, the bell indicating Telsa’s departure.

Adam smiled at him. “Time for bed, Theo.” He scooped him up out of the chair, carrying him into his bedroom.

Ears burning red, Adam coughed awkwardly. “I uh- I’ll have to… help you change. I think you’d kill me if I let you sleep in bloody clothes in your bed.”

The process turned out to be problematic. Theo didn’t have the energy to not flop around like a dead fish as Adam wrestled his clothes off of him. There was a silent agreement between the two of them to at least leave his bloody underwear untouched. He did, however, have to communicate his need to go to the bathroom.

“I’m so sorry, Theo. I’m not looking, I promise,” Adam said, holding Theo up but staring away.

With some rough, tired gesturing, Theo managed to indicate to Adam to wrap a towel around his waist. After doing so, the soiled undergarments fell to the ground.

Nodding to him approvingly, Adam carried him back to the bed wrapped in the towel. He and Telsa had already cleaned him up while he was unconscious, apparently. “Clever. And uh, this stays between us. We’ll never speak of this moment again, I promise.”

Theo sighed internally, still too tired to speak. He hoped whatever expression he was making conveyed gratitude. The moment his head hit the pillow, he was already fading. A hand pat him lightly. “Goodnight, Theo. I think I know you by now, so, you’re welcome.”

Morning came and went. Theo found himself awake by the afternoon according to the light from his window. He still felt a bit sluggish, but the long sleep had helped tremendously. Cleaning himself of any blood he could spot in his bathroom mirror, he frowned at the pile of bloody clothes in his room.

“Nothing a bit of stain remover can’t fix I’m sure. What kind of alchemist would I be if I couldn’t brew something to remove blood from clothes?” Theo asked himself, trying to convince himself that he could salvage his vest.

He nudged the pile of clothes into a corner for now. He’d deal with those later. For now, his stomach roared for food and he distantly remembered that Adam stayed the night. It all came flashing back. “Oh gods.” Theo’s skin felt hot. He’d been working up the courage over the past few days to confess his feelings, but with what happened, he couldn’t very well do that now.

Tip-toeing into the kitchen, he yelped when he found Adam sitting in a chair, staring out into the shop room. The man turned around, smiling. “Finally moving? There’s more soup if you want it. I could make something else too if you wanted.”

Theo felt his ears burn. “I- um, thank you for taking care of me. Soup is fine.”

Adam nodded to him, standing up and ladling out some of the soup. It was piping hot when he put the bowl in front of Theo at the table. “I heard you fumbling around in there, so I started heating it up again, just in case.”

“Thank you. Adam, about last night-”

A finger met his lips, hushing him. “As long as you don’t want it to, last night didn’t happen.” He winked.

“Right. That’s… appreciated. It was admittedly quite embarrassing being so useless. I’ve never used potions enough to have something like that happen to me,” he said, frowning and spooning some of the soup into his mouth. It was good. A lot of the same flavor with very little texture difference, but easy to digest and it felt like it would give him much-needed energy.

“I have a couple of times. Always had people to take care of me. Figured I’d pay it forward,” he said, shrugging. “Man, this soup sucks. Sorry, you didn’t have a lot for me to work with on the spot. When’s the last time you went grocery shopping?”

“Last weekend? I’ve been a bit tied up…” Theo said, filling his mouth with soup so he didn’t need to answer more immediately.

“We’ll go today. Oh, and Pina stopped by earlier. Something about manual casting?” he said, raising a brow.

“Oh shoot. I was supposed to teach Pina more manual casting today. Think we could find her before we go shopping? And uh, I’m a bit worried about shopping what with my window and-” he cut off as he heard a knock on his shop door.

“I’ll answer it,” Adam said, standing up.

Theo followed suit, making sure his shirt was tucked in and his vest was properly buttoned. “I can do it. It’s no problem.” Walking over to the shop door, he saw two men through the glass, a sandy brown-haired human and an orange-skinned octopus chosen.

He opened the door. “Apologies, but my shop isn’t open today. If you know what you’re getting I suppose I could allow a quick purchase but-”

“We ain’t here to shop, boss. Our boss told us to come fix a window, so we’s here. Got it, boss?” the human man said, already pushing his way into the shop.

The octopus chosen followed behind the man, a mellow expression on his face. “Yeah, don’t harsh it. We’re just here to fix, y’know?”

Theo’s eyes rounded. “Fix my- But I don’t have the money to pay you right now! I suppose I could-”

The human held a hand up. “Ye ain’t owe nothin’, boss. T’sall paid for. Boss said so. We can start right now if ye ain’t busy.”

“All paid for? But by who?” Theo asked, wondering if… no, it couldn’t have been Maraz. Viktor, maybe?

“Boss din’t say and I don’t ask. Ye got any of the glass from the window? We could fix ‘er up right quick if ye do,” the man said, pointing a thumb behind him towards the window.

“Yeah, fix it up real quick, y’know? Like whoosh. That quick,” the chosen said, swaying his eight arms to the side in a pantomime of how quick it would be.

“That’s um- Okay? I have all of the glass I could find in the waste bin over there. It’s a bit bloody, however…” he said, indicating the waste bin he meant.

“No prob, boss. We got this. Ketey, you wash, I’ll dry,” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“Yaaah, let’s do it, Reeter,” Ketey said, raising his arms - all eight of them. A jug of water on his back flowed out to follow his arms’ motion towards the waste bin. When he raised his arms again, the glass shards were suspended in an orb of water. “Clarify.” The pieces of glass all gathered into one ball inside the water while the blood and other detritus from Theo’s waste bin gathered into another ball.

“Give ‘er to me, Ketey!” the man called out, arms wide. The ball of glass shot out of the water orb. Theo and Adam gasped, but the shards suspended themselves in the air in front of Reeter. “Spin Dry,” his voice echoed as the shards spun around in the air, all of the excess water drying off.

He raised a hand towards Theo’s open window frame. “Heat.” A pulse of mana shot through the room. The remaining shards of glass stuck in the window frame turned orange with heat. The suspended glass shards did as well. They flew into the window frame, sealing together as Reeter manual-casted some form of Primordial spell. Theo could feel the Primordial mana running off the man. He frowned, those spells clearly had leaks in them.

It was certainly impressive, however. Reeter and Ketey worked together, using manually casted spells to slowly build Theo’s window back together with molten pieces of glass. With a wave of Reeter’s hand, the cracks sealed together, leaving clear glass once more.

There was a small portion at the top where they didn’t have enough glass shards left to fix the window. Reeter pulled out a sack of fine-grain sand, mixing it with some kind of chalky white dust. With another cast of Heat, he had more molten glass to work with.

“That was… incredible. My version of Heat only heats up liquids. And were you lowering the melting point of the glass to spend less mana on heating it? That’s truly impressive,” Theo said, assessing the situation as a whole. In less than five minutes, they’d repaired his window completely.

Adam stared with silent awe, simply nodding with what Theo said.

“He’s a smart one, ain’t he, Ketey?” Reeter said, nudging the octopus man with an elbow.

“Totally,” he said, nodding sagely.

Theo couldn’t help but flush slightly. “Well I- How did you keep it from burning my window?”

“Ketey here keeps ‘er cool while I make ‘em hot,” he said, pointing between Ketey and himself with a thumb. The octopus man just nodded along, his beak opening and closing in what Theo assumed was a smile.

“Incredible. That’s efficient workmanship. Don’t you think, Adam?” Theo asked, turning to the green-haired man.

“Uh, yeah. I wish my magic was that cool…” he said, frowning.

“Your magic is very impressive, Adam. It’s just not as flashy,” Theo said, lightly patting the man’s arm.

“We’re done here, boss. Ye ain’t owe us nothin’ so yer good to go. If ye have any problems, we work outta building 4 on 7th street in this district,” he said, offering a hand that Theo shook.

“Yaaah, let us know, boss,” Ketey said, offering an arm. Theo shook that as well, struggling to pull away when he got stuck to the octopus man’s suction cups.

Once the two of them left, Theo turned to Adam. “I mean this in the kindest way possible but… is everyone in Romuen this… odd?”

Adam shrugged. “Romuen attracts a lot of odd people. Some people think it’s the mana density or something, but I think it’s just the culture here. I’ve met enough odd adventurers to just believe it’s that.”

Theo rested his hand on his chin. “Hm. Something to get used to then, I suppose.”

“Yeah, you get used to it. So, what happened last night?” Adam said, his gaze turning serious.

“Ah, well you see…” Theo took the time to explain the situation as best as he remembered it. He had… pride? in his eyes as Theo told him how he launched Maraz through the window. They widened when Theo told him about how he was sent into the counter.

That reminded him. He cleaned the counter while he recalled the rest of the situation. Adam helped out by scrubbing down the wall and floor where Theo had been leaning. Finally, the room was clean and Adam was caught up on the situation.

“Damn, Theo. I can’t believe you helped Maraz. I don’t blame everyone who didn’t, to be honest,” he said, scrubbing once more at a spot that was definitely clean already.

Theo’s expression darkened. “He was bleeding out and no one even moved to help. He could have died, Adam. I couldn’t just sit there and not help him.”

Adam waved a hand dismissively, grinning. “You could have just claimed self-defense or something. Then he would have been out of your hair.”

“Adam,” Theo said with a venomous bite in his voice.

Adam looked at him, eyes widening. “Shit. Bad joke, I’m sorry. That’s not you. I get it. I… respect that about you, Theo. I was just trying to make light of it so you wouldn’t worry so much. I… don’t like seeing you sad.” He frowned.

Theo stepped forward, touching a hand to Adam’s arm. “Thank you for trying, even if it wasn’t particularly effective, I appreciate it.”

Adam leaned in, his head moving closer to Theo’s. “Yeah, I’m sorry I just- it’s hard to focus around you sometimes. I-”

They both froze as another knock resounded from Theo’s shop door. Piercing yellow eyes stared inside at the two of them. “Theo? Are you alright? I heard what happened.”

“Who’s that?” Adam asked, backing away from Theo slightly.

Theo swallowed, hoping the man hadn’t seen what was about to happen. “Frevan Lolorm.”