The following day Louie Ross and Marith found themselves face to face with a thin man whose visage was both unforgettable and clearly indicative of his profession. He had several scars and blemishes from alchemical burns on his hands and face. What little hair he had left only grew in patches on his otherwise bald scalp. They had explained their idea to the Master alchemist who had only now finished laughing as he was running out of breath. Still amused, the Master alchemist wheezed and spoke in a ridiculing voice.

“So you want to create the legendary four season elixir that has been sought by alchemists for hundreds of years without much success.” He laughed, slamming his desk with his scarred hand. “Children always dream big don’t they?”

“But we have…” The Master alchemist interrupted Louie.

“You have nothing but speculations that alchemists have not only thought of but tested over three hundred years ago!” He stopped laughing and was suddenly serious. “You think that four centuries of Master alchemists would have been unable to draw the same conclusion you did?” He snorted. “Don’t make me laugh.”

The three though that the old fart had laughed enough for a lifetime but held their tongues as the man was an Academy Master.

“Then would we at least be able to buy Golden lotus and Dawnbloom?” Ross said sourly.

“No. I can waste precious material like that on a fool’s gambit like this.” He gave a derisive snort. “Now even if you children enjoy wasting your time on silly notions, my time is precious.” He turned back to his desk clearly dismissing the three boys. The three left feeling both angry and dejected. As they were walking back to the healer’s wing to see what Mary-Ann and Rina had learned from the Archmage a tiny voice called out to them.

“Excuses me!” The three turned to see a very short and thin girl with massively oversized glasses. “I overheard your discussion with Master Urjan. If you don’t mind I would like to discuss the matter further!” She smiled as she pushed back her glasses that were slipping off her nose.

The three looked at the girl that did not look much older than them and was wearing the garb of an adept. She had pale bold hair and skin that did not make it difficult to guess that she did not spend much time outside. The girl smiled and the three exchanged looks before hesitantly nodding and following the girl.

Around the same time the girls had explained their idea to Aspartos who looked over at Morgan thoughtfully before ginning at the two girls.

“I wonder if Morgan would be happy or embarrassed over having two cute girls worrying so about him.” He said and cackled.

The two looked at him stunned, Rina turning slightly red and Mary-Ann had trouble finding anything to say.

“But I must say it is an interesting idea, whether it’d work or not.” He tilted his head back and forth as if to weigh the outcomes. “If you manage to find the flowers as well as an alchemist willing to take the gamble, but. I guess it could work.” He chuckled. “Well if you are intent on trying.” He gave Mary-Ann a mischievous look. “Make sure you listen to the healers and do inform me if you are leaving the Academy. Also do have Grandmaster Hypocra insure that anything you plan to give to Morgan is safe.” He gave the two a wink and patted Mary-Ann on the head before he left.

The room was quiet for a good while after Aspartos left. Mary-Ann was looking at the door with a complicated expression and Rina was frowning at Morgan.

“Is it really so strange that I’m worried about a when friend he looks like this?” Rina said a bit uncertain as she walked up to Morgan and gently brushed his now white hair.

“Eh, um… No. I don’t think so.” Mary-Ann said as she was pulled back from her own thoughts. “But I still think that Morgan would be super embarrassed if he knew.” She said with a giggle.

“I guess that is true.” Rina said and turned to Mary-Ann. “Thanks, now I really can’t help but want to embarrass him more.” She laughed and turned back to the boy that was blissfully unaware of the conversation happening next to him.

It was then that Rina noticed something and leaned in closer causing Mary-Ann to get out of bed and join her.

“What’s going on?” She said worried as she joined Rina by Morgan’s bedside.

“Is his mouth not more open now than before?” Rina said as she placed her hand close by Morgan’s mouth.

“I can’t tell, why?” As she asked Rina pulled her hand back to her chest.

“His breath! It's so cold!” Rina said as she looked at Mary-Ann.

“Really?” Mary-Ann said doubtfully and placed her hand next to Morgan’s mouth like Rina had. “It is!” she said in wonder as what felt like a cold mountain breeze passed over her hand. “What in the world?”

As the two stared down at Morgan in wonder the door was opened and Igor stepped in and frowned at the empty bed so he walked into the room without the two girls noticing him.

“Out of bed again are we?” Igor said, shaking his head.

“Master Igor!” Mary-Ann turned. “Morgan’s breath!” Her urgent tone made Igor almost jump forward to the bed with a serious expression.

He placed his hand on Morgan’s neck to make sure that his heart was still beating.

“No, I think he is fine but his breath is very cold!” Mary-Ann explained.

“What do you mean?” He looked at her confused and placed a hand by Morgan’s mouth only to a moment later open his eyes wide in disbelief. “Well I’ll be damned.” He moved his hand to Morgan’s forehead.

Igor concentred as he muttered under his breath and soon a greenish light enveloping his hand. It was quite some time before Igor moved his hand back with sweat dripping from his own forehead from concentrating so hard. He straightened and jotted something down in his notebook before turning to Mary-Ann.

“Nicely spotted.” He said with a wide smile.

“No it was Rina who noticed…” Mary-Ann said, looking embarrassed.

“I see.” He turned to Rina and ruffled her hair much to her annoyance. “Good job, I’ll go tell The Grandmaster. I’ll be back in a bit. I expect to find you in bed by then.” He said giving Mary-Ann a sharp look as he hurried off.

Seeing the normally reserved healer jog off Rina scowlled after him and fix her hair with a mutter as Mary-Ann climbed back into her bed. It did not take long until a grinning Aspartos almost flung the door open and almost skipped into the room humming a strange tune. As Aspartos reached Morgan he touched his head with a faintly green shimmering hand, Grandmaster Hypocra entered and saw the gapping students and sighed heavily.

“Oh, his mana is already beginning to recover.” Aspartos exclaimed excitedly.

“Is that really possible?” Hypocra sounded incredulous.

“See for yourself.” Aspartos grinned confidently.

Hypocra frowned at the Archmage as he examined Morgan. It took the Grandmaster a bit longer to notice as he was simply less attuned to mana but after a while he spoke.

“By the grace of Inaria.” His voice was low. “He really is rather tenacious.” He chuckled in amazement. “Now we only need to worry about his body recovering.” At this he sounded a bit troubled again.

“About that…” Aspartos glanced over at the students. “The kids here had a rather interesting idea.” He smiled at Hypocra and told him of the student’s plan.

Hypocra frowned hard at this and was about to say something when Aspartos gave him a rather telling wink the students were unable to see. Hypocra looked at the smiling Archmage before sighing dejectedly.

“I suppose that could work.” His voice was a lot flatter than usual but the girls were far too excited to notice this.

“Well this is good news.” Aspartos said, making sure that the girls did not notice the disapproving look Hypocra was giving him. “I will come back tomorrow, rest up well now Mary.” Aspartos said and half dragged Hypocra away.

The two left the girls turned excitedly to one another.

“You think there is a chance this could work?” Rina was rather excited.

“It might!” Mary-Ann said with a smile but soon turned serious. “Still depends on if we can get an alchemist to make the elixir for us and if we get the ingredients…” She thought for a moment. “We still don’t even know if we are correct about the Golden lotus and the other incidents.”

“And we don’t know anything about the flower of the north.” Rina added now a lot calmer.

“Let’s just see what the boys find out from the alchemists.” Mary-Ann said as she pulled up her sheets to stave off the slight chill in the room.

About an hour after the Rina had discovered that Morgan was regaining his mana the three boys returned with exhausted expressions. The girls asked what they found out and they first told the girls of their meeting with the Master making both Mary-Ann and Rina turn rather grim. After telling them this they became silent for some time as they looked at each other as if to try and decide how to describe what happened after. In the end Ross groaned and after scratching his hair furiously he spoke.

“After we met with that unpleasant Master, an adept that had somehow overheard our discussion if you can call it that, approached us.” He paused to collect his thoughts. “Her name is Giana and she is apparently the youngest alchemy adept in generations.” He sighed thinking back.

The three boys had been invited into her small office and after being offered some rather unpleasant smelling tea the rather eccentric girl had begun speaking. It had been an onslaught of complaints, observations and a fast but oddly extensive recounting of Giana’s life up to this point. During this time the boys had been unable to utter a single word and by the time Giana was finished the boys had been exhausted. This was clear as even as Ross recounted the story the three boys got rather distant looks on their faces.

“What about the elixir?” Rina said, sounding impatient.

“I’m getting to it…” Ross said tiredly. “According to Giana what the Master said is true, but she believes that the previous attempts at recreating the elixir were based on a misunderstanding.” At this he shuddered, recalling the memory of the short girl almost throwing herself over the table in her excitement.

“What do you mean?” Rina sounded confused.

“She thinks that the materials aren’t really important.” Louie said in a tired voice and Ross nodded.

“Giana thinks that it is the mana within the materials that is important, not the characteristics of the materials themselves.” Ross shook his head trying to clear the image of the almost panting Giana from his mind.

“Could that be true?” Mary-Ann sounded rather sceptical but hopeful. “Would not anyone have tried this before?”

“Not necessarily.” Louie said, drawing the eyes of the others. “Alchemy is said to have evolved from herbalism, but some argue that alchemy is a type of enchantment magic.” He rubbed his chin a bit awkwardly. “I can’t say for certain either way but alchemy is a combination of both magic and herbalism so it is at least in theory possible that the origin of alchemy is magic.” There was a pause as the group considered this.

“And if that’s the case it is possible that the oldest alchemy recipes are more focused on the mana than the herbs themselves?” Mary-Ann asked hopefully.

“If we are crazy enough to believe Giana.” Marith said in a voice that made it clear he did not.

“Her argument is sound.” Louie said a bit reluctantly. “Even if she was a bit… um eccentric.” He added diplomatically. “And it would explain why previous attempts failed.”

“Eccentric he says, more like bat shit crazy.” Marith snorted.

Louie just looked at Marith tiredly and Marith had to look away a bit embarrassed by his outburst. Taking a deep breath Louie continued speaking.

“Besides, it doesn’t really matter if she is wrong or not.” He passed and looked over the others. “If we want to make the attempt, she is our only option at this point.”

The silence stretched as they thought about this and Marith gave an unhappy grunt, when he was unable to refute Louie’s logic. Louie gave Marith a half-grin.

“I thought you like girls with some fire in them.” Louie said with a chuckle.

“I do! But not girls that are basically on fire! It’s you and Morgan who are willing to jump head first into the fire!” He glared at Louie only to seize up as the room suddenly felt a lot colder.

“Oh?” Rina said as Mary-Ann stifled a giggle in the background. “Care to explain what you mean with that?”

“Eeehh, umm, ahhaa…” Marith just made nonsensical sounds as Rina glared at him.

Even Louie, who was about to ask what the hell Marith was on about was rendered mute by Rina’s anger. What broke the tense mood was the burst of uncontrollable laughter coming from Mary-Ann. Rina just glared at her but to Mary-Ann it looked more like a pout than a glare and she kept laughing.

Wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve Mary-Ann slowly calmed herself and was pleased to find that everyone but the still frightened Marith and the pouting Rina were smiling.

“Let’s just do what we can then.” She suppressed her laughter to a small giggle. “Did Giana say anything about the ingredients that she would need?” She looked over at Ross.

“She said that with Marith’s Crystalvine she only needed either a Snowrose or a Wintersgift.” Ross’s expression became serious. “The problem is that Snowroses are both rare and can pop up just about anywhere in the mountain side. And while we know where Wintersgift can be found within a two day journey it is within Icewolf territory.”

“I have heard that even Worgs occasionally show up around that area too.” Louie added sounding a bit nervous. “But we might be able to find some help in Delver town.” He added.

“So we are going?” Ross said with a raised eyebrow.

“Wait! I’m all for going but what the hell is Delver town?” Marith looked at the group annoyed to once again feel left out.

“It’s a village north of here by the foot of the impassable mountain range that sort of just appeared as more and more Delvers came to explore the Rusted Anvil and the Frozen Caverns.”

“If it’s a village why is it called Delver town?” Marith sounded puzzled.

“It’s just what the Delvers named it, though by now one could almost call it a town due to its size.” Louie looked uncomfortable as he continued. “Even if most people that live there are not permanent residents and those that are either supply goods to the Delvers or are, you know…” He looked away with a slight blush that on his pale skin was very noticeable. “Umm, workers.”

“Workers?” Marith asked, confused.

“He means prostitutes.” Rina said with a snort. “Delving is a rather dangerous profession and delvers have a reputation for ‘living in the now’” She gave another derisive snort.

“It is not uncommon for entire cities to spring up around labyrinths but due to the location and the fact that it is so close to the Academy Delver town hasn’t really grown to more than a small town.” Ross said as he stood up and stretched. “Generally the Academy has students avoid Delver town to avoid unnecessary risks but if we are going there you will see for yourself what a town built by and for Delvers is like.” Ross yawned, it was not even lunch yet he felt oddly tired. “If we are going we should prepare as best we can, I’d prefer to not get expelled for leaving unannounced. Sis you coming?” Rina glanced at Morgan before nodding and leaving with her brother.

“Cya later Mary.” She said as she waved and left.

“Wait a minute. They would not expel us for leaving to help Morgan for a couple of days, right?” Marith tried to sound confident and failed.

“Of course they could.” Louie said flatly. “Well I guess they couldn’t expel Mary.” He chuckled.

“Then um, how do I not get expelled?” Marith gulped. “I think grandmother might kill me if I came back after getting expelled in less than half a year.” Marith’s smile twitched.

“I guess we should go and ask for leave from the Headmistress’s staff.” Louie shrugged. “Well rest up well Mary.”

Saying this Louie left with a wave, followed by a flustered Marith and Mary-Ann just smiled at the familiar scene.