Sunlight creeped up, blindingly bright even through closed eyes. Theo rolled over in his pile of vests, moaning his complaints. “I don’t want to be awake yet.”

The gentle sensation of mana flowing into his poor, damaged mana pool brought him back to the events of last night. He sent a mental probe into the vessel, taking stock of the situation. It didn’t seem irreparable, but close to as bad as it had been after his Snap.

At least it didn’t hurt. Unlike his body.

Theo rolled over again, groaning as aches lanced through his chest - and his poor bottom. Did Maraz really have to throw him?

Alright, Theo. Time to get up and start the day… In five minutes, he thought, refusing to open his eyes. He knew he was being petulant, but hadn’t he earned at least a few minutes of that?

If he waited, though, he might fall asleep again. He really needed to catch up on keeping his stocks topped off. Maybe Telsa could help him shop. Some of his stardust crystal baskets were near-empty.

Blearily, Theo sat up, blinking away the sleepiness. The soft breaths of Adam reminded him of his other duties, too. With several grunts, he stood up, stretching as much as pain would allow him.

A small slip of parchment sat on his night table - instructions from Galeen. Reading over them, he frowned. How was he supposed to lift and shift someone as large as Adam to prevent bedsores?

“All problems call for magical solutions. Isn’t that right, dad?” Theo said to himself, smiling. A new problem arose, however. Telsa had used nearly all of his vests for the bed… pile… thing. It certainly hadn’t been the most desirable sleeping accommodations but it wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. Though, his neck was stiff.

Vests. Right. What would he wear…? Shirt and pants were easy enough to pick out - lesser selection and all, but the vests.

Theo picked through the pile, finding one with fewer wrinkles than the rest. A few shakes and slaps didn’t magically resolve the problem. He sighed, pulling it on anyway. His de-wrinkling wand had to be somewhere in the boxes he still hadn’t found the time to unpack. He sighed again. Another problem to add to his extensive to-do list.

Wandering out of his room, he resolved to tackle that list after breakfast. Wait, wasn’t he supposed to- Drat. He retraced his steps back into the room and rifled through the box Galeen had prepared.

“Ration potions, huh?” He uncorked the bottle and followed Galeen’s instructions on how to position Adam’s head and rub his throat to coax swallowing. His lips dragged down into a frown. His heart hurt, looking at Adam in such a state.

Hesitantly, he touched Adam’s chest, feeling its rhythmic rise and fall through the bandages. Leaning in, he held the man in as light of an embrace as he could manage.

Tears stung at the corners of his eyes, but he wiped them away.

If Adam were to wake up, is this how I want him to see me? Shaking his head, Theo read Galeen’s instructions once more. He tilted Adam’s head up, slipping the neck of the potion bottle between his lips.

A shiver ran through his body as he did so - ration potions were exceedingly nutritious, but equally vile in flavor. No one had ever figured out a recipe that made them taste better. Even he only stocked them because the occasional adventurer was insane enough to buy them for a long trip. And, he supposed, occasionally for healers such as Galeen who could use them on unconscious patients.

Finished, he allowed one more shudder to run through him.

Just the memories of trying the potion made his stomach queasy. A light breakfast, then. He strolled back into his kitchen, humming a tune to ward off the doom and gloom his life seemed to be attracting lately.

The familiar routine of cooking took over, letting him relax his mind and fall into the process. During it, he opened the roof slats in his kitchen to let the morning sun stream through. It helped brighten both his mood, and the kitchen - replenishing some of his mana pool was just a side benefit.

Soon, a steaming bowl of porridge sat on his kitchen table. The day’s plans flitted through his head as he took careful spoonfuls and blew on them.

In a way, he was happy that the state of his mana pool meant he only had the capability to enchant today. His potion stocks were… okay. Not great, but there wasn’t anything he could do about them right now anyway. So, he’d happily allow his true passion to take the forefront.

A small hindrance to that was that he needed quick money, which meant doing the boring enchantments that were quick and easy to make en masse. Theo tilted his head back, sighing. At least I can do them at the counter so I can man the shop.

Taking his final bite, Theo grabbed the very thing he’d be making today from his shop. A Washing Token. He dropped the piece of scrap wood into his sink, watching as runes lit up across its surface.

Water spun, gaining speed, until his dish was enveloped in a small vortex of water. Once the dish looked clean, he plucked it out, setting it aside to dry. He snatched the wooden piece out as well, the runes on its surface ceasing their glow. Still plenty of mana left in it, good. Now, I just need to get ready.

With that out of the way, Theo bolted around, moving from task to task as quick as his bodily soreness would allow.

Soon, he stood behind his counter, the door to his shop unlocked and his open sign out. Any minute now, customers would come rushing in… Right?

It was a slow day. Only a few… regulars he supposed. Mrs. Nanfreid needed another joint pain poultice. A group of children he vaguely recognized bought more Windthrow Stones. He… wasn’t sure it was the best idea to sell those to kids, but money was tight and it wasn’t strictly illegal to.

The sun moved inch by painful inch through the sky as Theo sat at his counter, inscribing the same runic formulae over and over.

To keep it interesting, he did try minor variations to see if he could improve his formula, but the basics stayed the same. Another Washing Token, this time it spun counterclockwise instead.

The doorbell chimed the entrance of another person. “Welcome to Runes and Brews! How may I-” Theo caught a flash of teal, and then red, similar to his. “Oh, hello Telsa, Nils. Good…” He looked up through his roof slats. “Morning. Still.”

“Morning, Theo,” Telsa said, eyeing his inscriber and the pile of wooden pieces on his counter. “Don’t you normally make wands and stuff? Not… random pieces of wood?”

“Normally, yes, but these are much more time-to-coin efficient. Washing Tokens take under ten minutes for me to make and I can sell them for two silver. The only problem is fitting the runes onto this scrap wood,” Theo said, pushing the varying shapes of wood around with a finger.

“You finished all of those this morning?” Nils asked, walking up to the counter. “Where do you get all the wood?”

“Well, my family’s shop back in Renwurd was near a toy maker. I’d occasionally enchant some of his toys for him and he’d give me all his wood scrap. These are just leftovers, I’m going to need to find a new supply now that I’m here. Or, perhaps, buy some pre-made discs of wood or something,” Theo said, shrugging.

“There’s a few toy makers here in Romuen, you could approach some of them,” Nils offered, frowning at Telsa as she picked up potions and held them up to the light.

Telsa noticed his stare and set the bottle down gingerly. She stepped up next to him, picking up a washing tile and running a finger over the runes. “Nils here can help you re-price things, too. Bet you could sell these suckers for at least four silver.”

Theo looked up at her, eyes widening. “Re-price? Telsa, I know you said it last night but-”

“It would be ideal, especially if you’re trying to assist in Adam’s recovery,” Nils said, holding up a finger. “I won’t change your prices too drastically, but you could at least bump everything up a little bit. It all adds up. Maybe not four silver for a Washing Token.” He eyed Telsa.

She sheepishly set the token down.

Nils continued, “But, maybe even just fifty copper more? Three silver, perhaps? People would still pay that much. Happily. There are shops that sell these for four and a half to even five silver.”

Theo digested that for a moment. “I suppose maybe three silver wouldn’t hurt… but the Windthrow Stones stay at one silver. Those only take me a minute or two because the runes are so simple, I’d feel cheap selling them for more. Not many even buy them at one silver.”

“Fair enough,” Nils said, holding up his hands. “However, do you have any parchment? A quill? I’d like to take stock of your prices and see what could change.”

“I believe I do,” Theo said, rifling through the mess that his counter’s underside had become already. His mother would harangue him if she saw this. Under his business ledger he found a small scrap of parchment and handed that to Nils along with his quill and inkwell. “Here we are.”

Nils nodded to him. “Thank you, now, I believe Telsa wanted to check in on Adam? I would as well, but I can finish this up first,” he said, walking off and inspecting Theo’s prices.

Theo turned to Telsa. “That reminds me, I need to shift Adam in bed so that he doesn’t get bed sores. Could you help me with that until I can make some kind of enchantment that can do it?”

Telsa raised a brow. “Only you would think of that as the first solution. I’m gonna be going on a request with Deskan and Nils soon, so I can help until then but you’ll need to figure something out then. I just… need to find some new daggers, first.”

“What happened to your old ones- no, during the fight with the snake?” Theo asked, his heart plummeting.

Telsa nodded, lips pursed.

“I-I have an idea. Neniramli wanted me to enchant a dagger for him,” Theo said, moving to his workshop where he’d left the dagger.

Telsa followed. “Theo! I can’t have you-”

“I can do a spatial enchantment like the one you used to have. Your daggers let you set points to compress space toward you to move faster, right?” Theo asked, interrupting her before she could even try to convince him otherwise.

“Yes, but- How did you know that?” Telsa asked, her eyes rounding.

Theo ignored her, motivation driving him forward. “This is perfect anyway. It will show Neniramli that I can enchant weapons with formulae other than Infusion and Primordial. But… do you remember any of the runes your dagger used? They had a paired spell you casted, right?”

Telsa nodded, scratching her head. “Yeah, I think I have it written down somewhere at home maybe. Again, how did you know what my daggers did?”

“Nils told me, sort of. He called it space-bending, which is mostly accurate but I think it’s more like you’re compressing the two points, correct? What’s your secondary? I’ve never asked,” Theo said, picking up the dagger and handing it to Telsa.

“Phrenic, why?” Telsa asked, tossing the sheathed dagger back and forth between her hands, feeling the weight.

“You hide the daggers with illusions, don’t you? That way people think you’re just running fast with spatial magic. Almost makes you look like an Integral secondary,” Theo said, feeling smug at Telsa’s expression.

“Not very good illusions if you figured them out,” Telsa muttered, kicking at the floor.

“It was guesswork, more than anything,” Theo said, shrugging. “Come to think of it, don’t give me your old formulae. I want to make you something better. Something that’ll impress Neniramli and I won’t feel like I’m just copying someone else. Now uh, we really should move Adam.”

Telsa handed Theo the dagger back. “Y-Yeah, we should. You good to do it? You still look…” She scanned him up and down. “Rough.”

Frowning, Theo realized he’d forgotten to look for his de-wrinkling wand. “Oh dear, I’ve let all my customers see me in a wrinkled vest all day! How unprofessional!” He hit his forehead with a closed fist several times.

Telsa chuckled, following him into his bedroom.

“So, Galeen’s instructions said to move him onto his side for at least two hours, then back onto his back. And we need to prop him up with some pillows. They indicated some areas to focus on where the pressure is worst,” Theo said, showing Telsa the artful diagrams.

“Jeez, are most healers this thorough? Last one I saw told me to rub dirt in it,” Telsa said, her nose scrunching up.

“I’m unsure. The healer I saw once back in Renwurd asked me why I was even there. I had breathed in poisonous powder my parents accidentally left out after making some potions. She begrudgingly gave my parents an antidote recipe,” Theo said. He crossed his arms and glared in the general direction he thought his home village to be.

“...You win,” Telsa said, turning to Adam. “I think I can probably move him alone. Just be ready if I need you to push, okay? And put this blanket under him so it’s easier to move him next time.”

Theo stood next to her, at the ready but hoping he wouldn’t be needed. He was in enough pain as it was. “Okay. Ready.”

It took a few tries of positioning herself where Galeen had indicated was okay to grab Adam, but soon, Telsa began to push. Her arms bulged as she pushed. A vein popped out on her forehead. “Fuckin’ move you meaty slab of shit. I swear once you’re awake I’m going to-”

Theo tuned out Telsa’s tirade as he positioned pillows and a blanket in place. The blanket would, in theory, allow them to move Adam easier next time by sliding or lifting the blanket instead.

He laughed at that idea. Why rely on a blanket when he could overcomplicate it with enchantments? A smug smile reached his lips until a red-faced Telsa gave him a look.

“It’s done,” Telsa huffed, wiping sweat from her forehead. “How did he lose so much and he’s still this heavy?” She frowned. “Wake up you stupid lug.”

It may have been sweat, but Theo saw Telsa wipe something from her eye.

She turned to Theo, smiling once more and breathed deeply once. “Let’s- Let’s go back and see how much progress Nils has made.”

Theo nodded to her, turning back to his door after one last glance at Adam.

Nils looked up from behind one of Theo’s shelves. “Ah, there you two are. Everything okay? I heard yelling.”

“Adam is still heavy,” Tesla said, walking back to Theo’s shelves and picking up random objects.

“Theo. If I may ask, how are you ah, profiting with these prices?” Nils asked, glancing out the window.

Theo’s cheeks colored. “Oh, well… I did the math and- Okay, it was barely a profit but I thought I’d just be able to slowly grow! I didn’t expect so many… hurdles.”

“Yes, well, it’s um, a good thing we’re rectifying this. You’d… be going grey before Adam could see Vidalia if it was just you saving up. This is the ah, list so far,” Nils said, handing Theo the parchment without meeting his eyes.

Theo took it, scanning down the page, wincing several times where Nils had truly emphasized a bad price.

“I’ll ah, need you to go over what most of your enchantments do aside from the common ones. Most of your wands, really. But these were what I recognized,” Nils said, taking the list back.

“I can do that, but could you bring them up to my counter while I do more enchanting? If I can’t restock potions right now I can at least have an overstock of enchanted tools,” Theo said, picking up another piece of wood and beginning to lay down his formula.

“Of course.”

The sun continued to creep across the sky under Theo’s watch. Nils became an endless stream of questions and suggestions. As much as Theo hated to admit it, his business model was flawed. He could still have cheap prices, but not as cheap as they’d been.

Hopefully his naivete didn’t mean it was too late. He distinctly did not want to return to Renwurd.

Telsa, it turned out, did not have a shopkeeping bone in her body. Her tactics were a bit too aggressive. Customers don’t exactly like having wands pointed at them, she learned. Her new job for the day was to fill poultices with Theo’s used ingredients. Those, at least, didn’t require his spells. Most of the magic was gone anyway.

Theo had fortunately been able to smooth things out with the adventurers, and even made a larger sale under Nils’ new prices! Some adventuring team was the proud new owner of a Flare Volley wand.

The shiny stack of gold coins sitting on his counter when they walked out definitely helped to assuage his previous reservations about raising his prices.

Eventually, Telsa and Nils had to leave, with the promise of returning again tomorrow - perhaps with Deskan. She was apparently on a solo request to blow off some steam - and to get a head start with helping Adam.

Soon, Theo found himself curling up on his pile of vests once more. The day hadn’t gone exactly as he expected but… the future seemed to be looking up. Those adventurers certainly hadn’t seemed upset at his prices, after all. Maybe even Maraz might lay off him for a bit.

As the soothing grasp of sleep enveloped Theo, his eyes shot open once more.

“Did I leave the roof slats open…? No, I definitely closed them after Telsa and Nils left.”

Too exhausted to check, Theo let his eyes flutter shut once more, letting sleep take him.