Her gray painted face barely hid Cervella’s red cheeks of rage. She barely kept herself from lashing out at passing bystanders some of who kept glancing at her. Felia and Hudal tried their best to hide Cervella’s human features, her ears and white eyes in particular. While the ears weren’t too big of a problem the best suggestion being “keep them in you hair”, the eyes presented a big problem. Unnatural for elves white eyes could give her away at any moment, and Felia was a little bit disappointed, when the woman rejected Hudal’s idea to get two pieces of yellow glass to hide the discoloration.

For several days before today the group had been watching the Vunger family embassy with keen eyes. The guards switched their duty every night at exactly midnight every day. They were as efficient as the soldiers could be. Their marching echoed deep into Felia’s mind with their each step reminding her of the plan they had come up with during their time observing the Vunger army behaviour.

First, Cervella and Felia had to sneak into the Vunger fort outside of town. Cervella being in disguise, of course. Second, they take place of two guards inside the palace. Third, they find and steal the Vunger spear and shield. Fourth, they run out like Hel and remove their disguises. Fifth, go to the Tohcraft public estate and place the objects inside.

The plan was bare bones… As Hudal put it: “It’s shit”. And while Felia suspected he didn’t like it, because it lacked any kind of ‘Profit’ she couldn’t help but agree with him on its shittiness. ‘Running out like Hel’ was her biggest problem with it, but she couldn’t come up with any better ideas, since the place was so heavily guarded. One could argue that the last step of the plan was shaky as well, what that one person didn’t know was that being a public estate, the Tohcraft embassy never closed up. That would let Felia, Cervella, Hudal and Syln easily come in and out, if they were willing to play role of innocent adventuring tourists. And pay the entrance fee, of course.

Right now it was a check if Cervella’s disguise actually fooled anyone. Unfortunately for them it didn’t. And it was all because of the rage filled eyes staring right at Felia, who was wearing a hood and a mask to hide her features from the elves around.

“What?” Felia asked innocently.

“You said this shit right here”, she almost slapped herself, “would work”.

“I did my best”.

“It’s not good enough”. Cervella stared down the elf looking at her, until the guy sped up his step looking straight in front.

“What am I supposed to tell you?” Felia protested. “Your eyes give it away!” They fell silent for a moment. The the elf raised her finger as a realization struck her.

“I am NOT putting glass into my eyes!”

Which was immediately turned down by Cervella. “Ugh...” Felia sighed. “Look. I am not doing this alone, and you are the only one capable of helping”.

“Yes”, she answered through her teeth.

“Two, your eyes give your disguise away”.

“That doesn’t!...”

“Three!” Then she fell silent.

Cervella raised an eyebrow. “Can’t come up with anything?”

“No”.

“Well, now you listen to me. I will help, no question about it, but I will not risk cutting my eyes out doing that”.

Felia fell silent. She thought meticulously about what to do. She decided to stop trying to convince Cervella to an obviously dangerous feat and started thinking about other ways to solve their conundrum. She knew of no magic that could do any of that effect. No machinery possibly could do that. Maybe she could convince the Vunger guards that the woman was ill? No, they would only send her back. But there was one thought bugging her right at the edge of her mind.

“How much money you have now?”

Cervella looked at her eyebrow raised. “By my honest estimates, fuck all”.

“Hera’s blight...” Felia cursed. “All right, do you know if there’s an alchemy shop nearby?”

“You plan on stocking up on healing potions?”

“What’s that for?”

“It would be only fitting for you to decide that we should fight our way through”.

“How’s that fitting?”

“Oh my, and I thought you were a barbarian doing so much stupid decisions. I guess I was put in place by your perfect decision making”.

“I have a decision I can make right now”. Felia felt the dagger on her belt.

Cervella snapped her fingers at the elf’s hand on hilt. “Just like I said. ‘Perfect’ decision making. Darling, I can break your level 8 neck before you even say ‘stealth’”.

“Level 9...” Felia growled quietly.

“Doesn’t matter. Anyway, what did you come up with exactly?”

Felia took a deep breath to calm herself. “I just thought that there might be a potion that could change your eye color”.

“There are potions like that?”

“I don’t know, but there might be. First things first, we need to find an alchemy shop around here”.

Cervella thought for a moment obviously intrigued by the suggestion. “I might have seen a shop couple of days back?”

“And where is it?”

“I think it was in the western district of the city”.

Felia looked at her. “Western?”

“Hmm?”

Felia put her hands on her hips. “The west area of the capital?”

“Yes? What about it?” Cervella was still confused by whatever Felia was getting at.

“It’s the designated Dellier part of the city”.

“So what?”

“So! None of us three been there”. Then Felia put an accusatory look on her face. “You’ve followed Bose, didn’t you?”

“I am more shocked that none of you did this before!”

“Do you want to get killed? Or get Muscolo and Bokh killed?”

“Don’t you drag Musc in this, jackass!”

“They are already dragged in! Why did you even follow him?”

“You seriously have to ask? To find where they keep Muscolo!”

“And Bokh...”

“And that pervert. Sure. Whatever”.

“Well? Did you find the place?”

Cervella snorted, defeated. “No...”

“All right. Not good, but not bad either”. Felia sighed. “At least, warn us next time”.

“Of course”. This sentence sweated profusely with sarcasm from each word, but Felia decided to ignore it.

“Let’s just go”.

********************************

The shop looked… presentable. Not that it was… Actually, it looked as it was decaying. Ramshackle windows clattered in the wind. The rotting wood whistled from the many termite holes. The sign outside lost almost all of its wooden letters and instead of ‘ALCHEMICALLY BREWED POTIONS’ it now read ‘ACBT’. Felia felt a surge of emotions, part of it being the surge of her stomach contents, as she opened the door. As much as it was defying all odds the shop inside was a little bit nicer, but not by much. Old dusty potion bottles stood end on end. Some of the bottles were empty. When no one came to greet them both Felia and Cervella started looking through the potions on the shelves in hope to find something that might do the job.

“Excuse me, dames?!” came a old voice from behind the counter. The dames in question looked that way. An ancient elf, twice smaller than Felia watched them through the big eyes of his glasses. He was visibly shaking, but that shaking was somehow authoritative, but not threatening. Felia put down her hands from the shelves and approached him. “Are you two looking for something?”

“Actually, we are”, the rogue said cheerfully. “We were looking for...”

“Grandpa?!” yelled a voice from further into the house.

“Yes?”

A young elf came from the same door the older elf presumably came from. He noticed the women, nodded in a polite greeting and walked over to his grandpa. “Gran, how many times did I tell you. Let me handle the shop”.

“Oh, you youngsters are just going to break all my stuff!”

“No, I am not. I didn’t do it the last time I ran the shop”. He started shuffling the old elf back inside the door.

“You did before then!”

“When I was five, gran. When I was five”.

“Five years too old to break my stuff!”

The voices got softer and softer until none of the women could hear the elves talking. Then the younger one came back with a cheerful smile on his face. “How can I help you two, dames?”

“So… ummmm… We two were looking for a specific type of potion”.

“What type?” He then looked at Cervella and met her white eyes. “Oh, never mind! I see your friend is ill. Is that correct?”

“Not exactly...”

The elf was confused. “Then what is it you look for, if not for a cure?”

“Well… her… father was a human. And she freaks everybody out with her eyes. And we were looking for a potion that could change her eye color to yellow”. Felia blasted her last sentences in one big breath coming up with the bullshit on the fly. Cervella seemed a little bit impressed.

“Oh. I see...” The vendor frowned in concern. “That’s a rarity these days… I don’t remember correctly, I’ll have to look it up, but there might be a potion with similar side effects? Let me just double check”. And then he went out of the same door.

Cervella approached Felia with a cunning smile on her face. “Not bad, girl”.

“Shut up!” Felia hushed her loudly.

The elf came back carrying a giant dusty book. When he dropped it onto the counter a pillar of dust had risen into the air provoking heavy coughing from all parties. The elf sniffed and opened the book at the reference page. He muttered under his breath following the writing with his finger. He stopped at one line and looked at them, question bursting from his eyes. “I still don’t understand why you would need your eye color to change. You lived like that your whole life and then… this?”

Cervella looked from side to side thinking about it. “She… she...” Words escaped from Felia’s mouth. “She is deep in love with an elf, whose parents can’t stand such atrocity as her mixed heritage. So I am trying to help her cover this up”. These words were vomited as violently as her first were.

Cervella added supporting her. “Ah, yes. Indeed. What a tragedy that there are people like that in our times”.

The elf looked at her. He smiled with sympathy and said in a hushed but audible voice: “I understand. Our gran’s the same way. I wish both of you peace and happiness”. He then went back to moving his finger through lines one by one. Cervella halved in size as some of the air went out in an unheard sigh of relief.

Few minutes have passed with silent steps and paper rustling as the only sounds in the shop. A triumphant thump echoed through the dusty shelves full of the thick round bottles. Felia and Cervella went back to the counter where the vendor smiled the wide smile of a trader who found the best deal he could for his customers. “I’ve looked through all of the alchemy effects there are, and it seems that the ‘Klar Kopf’ potion has the desired side effect”.

“‘Clear mind’?” Felia couldn’t keep herself from asking.

“‘Clear mind’?” Cervella echoed her, not understanding the meaning herself.

“‘Clear mind’” the third voice echoed from behind the counter. Then the elf’s nose stared back in the old book. “The potion should get rid of all psychic effects on one’s mind, including his own. But for your purposes you should drink two of them in quick succession. The effect should last for 6 hours as well as all side effects”.

“Perfect. And how much would that cost?” Felia asked.

“First, I need to find it, but, approximately… 200PP”.

Felia and Cervella fell silent. Rogue’s mask was still showing a small smile. The ranger was just looking at the young counter elf. “Excuse us”, Felia pushed out from her wry mouth. And then she grabbed Cervella’s unresisting arm and they went right outside the shop.

“What are we gonna do?” the elf asked desperately.

“We need to get that potion”.

“Oh, how spot on of you to notice”, she growled. “And how exactly?”

“Find money somewhere, ask nicely, just steal it?”

“Steal it”. It was hard to understand, if it was a question or not, but Felia continued without Cervella giving a chance to read further into her tone. “First, he needs to get them. Can you distract the guy after that?”

Cervella was amused. “I am amused”, she confirmed. “What a cunning plan. Coming from you and none other”. She pushed her breasts forward as a bird getting ready for its morning song. “Sure. I’ll distract him”.

“Not with them!” Felia pointed at her chest.

Cervella curled her back the other way. “Fine. I’ll come up with something else. Sorry, girls”.

“Don’t call them that either”.

Cervella snorted. “I might reconsider, you know?” Bur Felia didn’t listen and got back inside the shop putting her smile back.

The elf looked at her coming back in. Two undusted bottles with yellow substance inside stood in front of him on the counter. He moved his hands presenting them. “Just found them for you, dame”.

Cervella, who came right behind Felia, smiled at him. “Oh thank you”, she said in a sing song voice. “It’s so nice of you, honey”. She approached the counter and put her hips so close to it she was practically sitting on it. “Ah! How embarrassing”. All of a sudden she put her face into her palms.

“What happened?” The vendor scooted closer to her.

“Ah… it’s nothing really”. Then she hopped off and went away from Felia. The vendor followed her.

“Dame, listen. I am here to help. I am fully responsible for any discomfort you might have had in my shop”.

Cervella sighed theatrically. “I… I am just so interested in your establishment, but I didn’t ask you even a single question about it”.

The elf got confused, but dismissed it putting back on his most professional smile. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing really. Ask away, and I will answer any of them”.

“Well...” And Cervella started chatting throwing a question after question at the poor elf not letting him answer any of them. She barely paused to catch her breath and continued soon after.

During all the commotion Felia tried as sneakily as possible slide the two potions inside her cloak.

Sleight of hand is now level 4.

Level up! You are now a level 10 Rogue. You may now redistribute 5 points between Dexterity[30], Endurance[25], Charisma[25].

Level 10 rogue grants you a new skill.

From the shadows is now level 1.

Ha, she thought internally. She finally leveled up to level 10. She would have to look into this From the shadows skill later, but it sounded very roguish, which she liked. Adrenaline and dopamine rushing through her she decided that she might as well steal some other potions as well. Felia slowly shifted herself from the empty counter to the shelves full of blue, white and green filled bottles. She started putting them inside her cloak one by one. When she started moving her hand to a fifth potion, the fourth bottle clinked with the third.

“What?” the shop elf moved his head towards the noise. Cervella panicked and grabbed his head before he could see the empty counter and kissed him. Felia slapped her face as she saw it and ran out of the shop.

Cervella moved her lips back away from his. He was shocked… Actually, no, he was in terror. “What are you doing?!” The he saw her white skin as the gray paint was greased away from her mouth. “What the?!...”

Then she hit him on his head. But she expected more than a small bump on his head. “Ow”, he started, but was cut off again by another hit in the same spot, finally knocking him unconscious. Then she ran out of the shop accidentally knocking a shelf. Ten of the bottle fell down breaking on impact. As she exited through the door, she could hear the old elf scream at the edge of her hearing: “I told you you’d do this again!”

******************************

The inn was as busy as it usually was at this late hour. Syln sat at the counter chatting with Torik. As usual, he did all of the talking. When Felia managed to get him away from the ever full pint, she told of the day’s events and showed the potions she managed to bring. Syln was about to get them from her, when she closed the cloak back.

Syln dismissed her action, but Felia saw him throw an angry drunk look at her. The he smiled his usual fatherly smile. “Well. We didn’t sit around doing nothing either. I managed to find out where they keep Muscolo and Bokh”.

“Really?!” Felia was about to start jumping at the thought of finally leaving this Butovo shithouse.

“Almost. Almost...” Syln put his hands in front of him absolutely failing to calm her down. “Torik, my buddy, told me, where this Bose guy usually keeps his ‘prisoners’”. He added air quotes to emphasize the word ‘prisoners’.

“He actually talks back?”

“Whenever he gets buzzy from a shot or two. Anyway, he usually takes them to a small farm outside the city”.

“Maybe then we could go there and break them out?”

“Not an option”.

“Why not?”

“Magic field around it. He chooses who goes and who doesn’t”.

“Should’ve guessed… You said that Hudal did something too?”

“Ah, yes. He opened a small stall near the market”.

“And what’s he selling?”

“I let him sell some of my equipment. It’s not as I need it now. He bought apfels and some other fruit and now he’s selling them at double the price. No wonder he’s a travelling merchant. The bastard got a talent for this kind of work”.

“That’s... good...” Felia felt a little bit ill. She told Syln everything that happened at that alchemy shop, but the price he told them. What if they would have the money to buy those potions? They just robbed two innocent elves, for Parva’s sake!

No, the rogue protested. She did the right thing at that moment. She had no money and that shit-eating smile on that greedy face deserved to be robbed of his goods! Or maybe not. Who cares? She had the profit at this point, right?

Felia shook her head. That was an internal debate for later. At least, she tried to convince herself of that.

“The guy’s actually managed to get enough gold to buy out the rooms for two more nights!” Syln announced. “Just try not to stab anybody in there next time. Deal?”

She stared at him dead pan through the slit between her mask and hood. She wasn’t ready to take anymore shit today. Even if it had some reason behind it.

Felia slowly had risen up the stairs and opened the door to the room she was in on the first night in the city of Boremar. It smelled a little bit of that elve’s piss and puke, a metalish sensation tinkled her nose. It all seemed so long ago for her even though barely a week had passed. She sat down on the bed and moved away her mask and hood. Her hair became greasy from all the running and lack of clean water. There was small scar on her left cheek from all those rocks she landed on in her daring escape from the guard. It hurt whenever she touched it. She wanted to cry out and sob, when she thought of all that happened. Starting from Al and ending with that alchemy vendor. But she couldn’t. Or rather it didn’t feel appropriate. Not anymore. Not now. She had quests to finish and people to rescue. And with that thought, she fell asleep.

Two days later the alchemy shop owner’s grandson came out of the brewery. He found a small pouch with gold coins worth 400PP on the shop’s porch.