A feline roar, followed by a crash woke me from a deep sleep, and I rolled over in bed with a groan.

Stumbling out of the bedroom, I was met by the sight of an overturned armchair, with deep claw marks in the material. I found the perpetrator huddled under the nearby coffee table, his golden eyes peering out at me as I examined the damaged chair.

“It’s a good thing you’re cute, and a valuable resource for alchemy.” I sighed.

As I poked at one of the tears in the fabric, the chair trembled, and I realized that Leo was not the only creature who’d been up to no good whilst I slept.

Poking the chair again, I ordered the mimic to disengage from it, and watched as dark gray sludge formed a puddle on the floor beneath the chair, before reforming into a ball that quickly rolled across the room to where my fur cloak hung.

Grumbling under my breath, I went to change out of my night clothes. There was little point in trying to go back to sleep, as it was already nearing mid morning.

After several minutes of contemplation, I settled on a knee length dark purple dress made of thick cotton, with a pair of black stockings. The dress was part of the ‘priestess’ wardrobe Rainy had insisted on creating, claiming it would boost her reputation once it was known she was a 'high priestesses personal seamstress'. It was a common tactic used by many clothing designers, but I didn’t see how it would work in regards to myself, who preferred to stay out of the public eye.

“Leo, come here. It’s time to put your collar on, we’re going outside.” I called to the Leosaur, who’d followed me into the bedroom, and was attempting to burrow under the covers of the unmade bed.

With a soft whine, a red scaled feline peeked out from under the blanket, his golden eyes fixed on the leather collar I held.

“I paid a lot of gold for the damned vampire to enchant this collar, and you won’t even wear it.” I huffed in annoyance when the cub disappeared back under the covers, retreating away from me on the bed. “Don’t you want to play outside?”

The lump didn’t move, and I considered forcing it on him before deciding against it. There would be time to work on getting him accustomed to the collar later, for now he could remain inside where it was warm. Though, I was reluctant to leave him alone in my rooms, considering the damage he’d already done to the furniture.

“You’re not staying up here alone, so you can spend the day with May in the kitchens.” I told the lump, as I shoved the enchanted collar into a pocket, slipping my hand past the hidden opening to access the pouch strapped to my thigh under the dress’s skirt.

Moving through the living room with Leo at my heels, I gave a soft whistle, calling the mimic possessed fur cloak, which propelled itself across the room to settle around my shoulders.

The hall of origin was empty when I descended the stairs from the second level, but the sound of a raised voice drifted towards me from the temple's entrance.

Furrowing my brow, I headed down the passageway that led out of the temple as I recognized the voice as Pia’s.

“I don’t care who you are, birdman!” Pia yelled, causing me to quicken my pace. “She is sleeping, and it’ll be a fiery death that awaits whoever wakes her.”

Reaching the end of the passage, I found Pia standing with one of Victoria’s brothers, her spear held out to block the entrance of the temple. Standing opposite her was Icarus, the high priest of Vēdiovis, and two of the armor-clad Tengu paladins.

“If I wasn’t already awake, I’m sure your shouting would have done the job.” I said from behind the faun, secretly pleased when she jolted in surprise. It was rare to sneak up on Pia,with her large deer-like ears able to pick up the faintest of sounds.

“Fo.. ah, High Priestess.” The faun exclaimed. I was relieved she remembered to use my title, rather than the team's nickname for me.

Gesturing for Pia, and the orc, who I thought might be the one called Ethan, to move aside. I turned my attention to the high priest standing outside the temple.

“High Priest Icarus, what has brought you to the temple of Philosophia Naturalis this morning?” I asked, fixing a polite smile onto my face as I addressed the clergyman.

“I have come in response to your request,” Icarus replied, holding up a folded piece of paper.

“I see,” I murmured, giving a slight shake of my head. “When I wrote to ask if you might spare a healer to aid one of my companions, I did not think you would personally attend. Nor did I expect you to come without forewarning. I apologize for not being here to greet you on your arrival.”

“The fault lies with me.” Icarus said, inclining his head. “I neglected to respond to your letter in favor of coming in person. In future I shall endeavor to send word before I visit.”

I nodded, keeping my polite smile firmly in place as I escorted the winged man and his paladins into the temple.

As we walked, I mentally connected to Kip, checking on his location before leading the group to the library in the halls dedicated to transmutation.

“As I mentioned in my letter, Kip was bitten by a frost wolf almost two weeks ago. The wound has been showing signs of improvement, and the pain is manageable with tinctures. But I am concerned that it is still not fully healed after such a long period.” I told the priest as we walked.

“If it is as you say, then I believe the wolf he encountered was an alpha. A lesser frost wolf's bite would have healed by now, and can be treated with healing tinctures. The alpha’s carry with them a curse of death, which gives them the ability to raise new pack members from the corpses of common wolves who perished in the cold.”

With a furrowed brow, I tried to remember if there was anything which stood out about the wolf which had bitten the dwarf. I hadn’t been involved in the battle with that particular wolf, having been busy fighting off my own foes while Kip fought alongside Victoria. It was possible the wolf had been an alpha, as the pair were fighting it for several minutes, and even Pia joined them to fight when Kip got injured.

Entering the library, we found Kip standing near the door, having been waiting for our arrival. After a quick introduction, Icarus wasted no time in ordering the dwarf to remove his tunic in order to examine his wound.

Kip’s eyes danced with mirth as he pulled off his shirt, and I shook my head, knowing he was about to make a lewd joke. Likely something along the lines of buying him dinner first, but to my relief, the dwarf remained silent. He simply turned around to show the high priest the blackened wound left by the frost wolf.

The flesh on his shoulder looked even worse than when I’d last seen it, and I felt a pang of guilt that he’d been forced to wait so long for healing. If not for the situation in Airus, he could have been healed within the city. But he hadn’t gotten a chance to seek out the temple of light before the guild received its eviction notice.

I’d thought that by sending them to Bovia they’d be able to have a safe place to hunker down, and find a healer for Kip, but according to the dwarf, there hadn’t been any magical healers within the small town. Which was why after Kip arrived at the temple yesterday, I’d sent Zosimos with a note addressed to Icarus, with a request for healer.

Hopefully, his patron isn’t expecting more of Tris’s wine for this, otherwise I’m going to get into a lot of trouble. I thought with a grimace, watching as Icarus pressed his hand closer to the wound. White light shone from between the priest’s fingertips as he stroked his hand over the blackened skin, appearing to simply wipe it away.

Kip exhaled loudly, his shoulders slumping as the priest withdrew his hand, a dark sticky substance clinging to his fingers.

“Wait!” Quickly reaching out a hand, I grabbed the priest’s wrist, stopping Icarus before he could wipe away the substance. “Let me get a jar.”

“Priestess Kadia?” Icarus raised a questioning brow, and I noticed his paladins tensing, their hands hovering over the hilts of their swords.

“I’d like to collect a sample of the substance, if I may.” I murmured, releasing Icarus’s wrist. “For research.”

“I would not recommend such an action. This substance is the remnant of dark magic which tainted the wound.” Icarus held up his hand for me to see. “While not dangerous to one such as myself, it is corrosive, and can infect any who touch it with bare flesh. Typically, we would burn the cloth we used to clean it from our skin to ensure the taint is purified.”

“I would still like to collect a sample,” I insisted. “I will use precaution when interacting with the sample.”

“As you wish, but send word quickly if you are infected. This kind of necromantic taint is one that remains after death, as it infects the core, and not merely the body.”

I nodded, filling away that information with interest. Retrieving a jar, and spatula from my hidden pouch, I carefully scraped the sticky substance of Icarus’s fingers. As I worked to remove as much of the gunk as I could, I overheard Kip speaking to the paladins, and fought the urge to roll my eyes.

Kip was in full merchant mode as he showed off his wares, which comprised various glass figurines filled with either a glowing pink luminous liquid, or a bright yellow one. The latter being the light potion I’d brewed with the spark moss sent by the lab in Sēkrit.

I hadn’t spent much time working on the light potion beyond testing out the original recipe. Lucas was already well on his way to improving the current production method, and I was content to leave the research with him. I had no desire to add to my already overflowing list of projects.

“May I clean the rest off now?” Icarus prompted as I sealed the jar, and wrapped the soiled spatula in a cloth to prevent it from contaminating anything in my bag.

“There is a bathroom on the third level of this tower, if you wish to properly clean your hands.” I offered.

“No need,” the priest said with a small smile. “The cloth I will be using is soaked in ethanol.”

As he spoke, Icarus withdrew a container with his free hand, and set it on a nearby table. From within the clay container, which smelt heavily of the aforementioned alcohol, he pulled out a white cloth which he used to clean his fingers. Tossing the soiled cloth back into the container, he replaced the cork before placing it back into the white silk pouch at his waist.

Eyeing the other priest's white roman style toga, I felt a sudden pang of pity for whomever was responsible for the laundry in the temple of light. Which reminds me, I need to do a load of laundry myself. I thought with a grimace, recalling the pile of dirty clothes growing ever larger inside one of my bags.

“High Priestess Kadia?” Icarus’s voice cut through my drifting thoughts, and I flushed, noticing that everyone was staring. What did I miss?

“Priestess, perhaps we should move our negotiations to your office?” Kip prompted, and I nodded, plastering a smile on my face.

“Yes, I was about to suggest as much.” I lied, ignoring the mirth in the dwarfs' eyes. “Would you please take Leo to May, and arrange for some refreshments before joining us?”

The Leosaur was currently sitting patiently by my feet, but I knew his good behavior would not last long.

As I led the group of Tengu up to my library room, which I was still reluctant to admit was an office, Kip mentally filled me in on Icarus’s interest in acquiring glass lanterns with the light potion for his temples. I should have known the mercantile dwarf would find a way to turn any situation into one where profit could be made.

As I sipped on the tea which May brought up, I listened in silent amusement as Kip spoke at length about the light potion. Nothing he said was a lie, but he did embellish our current capacity to produce the potion, and the glassware to contain it.

“This potion is of great interest, but you ask little for something that can not be obtained elsewhere. You could ask thrice this price, and many would pay it happily.” Icarus said.

“Indeed, we ask little, but how could we ask more for an item of the temple of Philosophia Naturalis? This is a simple thing to craft, we will not charge more than its true value.” Kip responded, his eyes lighting up with mirth as he glanced over at me. “Doing so would only result in the temple being seen in a poor light.”

Icarus chuckled, and I hid a smile behind my tea cup at the dwarfs cringeworthy pun. The pair went back and forth for another thirty minutes, before finally agreeing on a price for the production of potion filled lanterns. In all honesty, fifty gold per piece was very cheap for the lanterns, and we all knew it.

If so desired, Kip could have asked for a few hundred gold each, and I was sure he’d still find people willing to pay it. However, I did not want to overcharge for an item that would become easily attainable once the production method was discovered by others.

There were no other items currently on the market that achieved what the light potion did, without the need for mana crystals as a power source, aside from oil lamps or candles. So I knew once the potion became known, it would be among the most commonly brewed items in Kaledon.

Spark moss was not as uncommon as I’d previously thought, it was merely that most overlooked the brown moss, believing it to be dead.

It could easily be found growing near the base of the mountains, where the mixture of morning sun and snow created a moist environment. The moss, when rubbed together, generated a small amount of static, and it seemed to have been overlooked as being useful. Aside from as an item to annoy one’s friends with a static shock. Spark moss did not even appear in ‘Plants and Fungi of Salvia’, which Markion gifted me when I first arrived in Kaledon.

When distilled in ethanol over a period of twelve hours, with sulfur and dried Solarflower petals, the spark moss produced a liquid that, when ‘charged’ by shaking the mixture vigorously, would give off a bright light. So far, Lucas reported that the potion did not show signs of dimming until after four hours of light, and over the last hour it would progressively fade.

The potion could be reactivated on average twenty five times, meaning it produced up to a hundred hours of light depending on if the potion was shaken before going out completely or not. With a hundred milliliters of light potion generating light on a level comparable to an oil lantern, there was no denying it was the superior light source.

The light potion recipe I’d attained was written by Egenor Barothlas, so I suspected that Dreadmere may already be producing the light potion, but so far it had not appeared in circulation. I would have thought that such a simple potion, which would have as high demand, would be one of the guild's main products.

All the materials could be easily attained, with the moss and Solarflowers growing in abundance. Brimstone, otherwise known as sulfur, was also something I’d seen sold in the markets at low cost. Which left me questioning why Dreadmere was not producing the light potion for public sale, or if they’d even managed to create it at all. Maybe, like myself, Ge Hong was not able to locate the spark moss. Though, he did have a larger guild, and more resources at his disposal, so I doubted he’d not been able to find the moss. So why…

“We’ll have the first hundred lanterns ready in three days then,” Kip's voice filtered through my musings over Dreadmere, and I almost choked on the tea I was drinking. Three days! How the fuck did he expect to produce that many lanterns in three days?

“That certainly got her attention.” The dwarf said cheerily, as Icarus’s laughter filled the room.

“I agree, three days is more than sufficient to prepare a hundred lanterns. Kip will begin on the glasswork immediately, and I shall have my disciples begin production of the light potion.” I declared, setting my cup down with a smile as Kip’s eyes bulged, and barely concealed panic flashed across his face. Ignoring the dwarf, I turned my attention to Icarus.

“High Priest Icarus, it has been an honor to host you this morn, and I am grateful for the healing you have granted my disciple. In three days' time, you may send someone to collect your lanterns.” I said as I stood, hoping he would take the hint to depart.

Icarus thankfully took his cue to leave, and after giving the sullen looking Kip an amused glance, stood to follow me out of the room. The two paladins which had accompanied the priest stood exactly where we’d left them, flanking the doors to my quarters like winged statues.

“I can not help but notice that those of your temple I’ve encountered so far are all of the Tengu race.” I commented as I escorted Icarus towards the exit of the temple. Then again, that isn’t entirely true. Dorian is a human, and also a follower of the temple.

“That is in part due to Vēdiovis being the patron god of the Tengu race.” Icarus replied, and I furrowed my brow, glancing over at him with interest.

“Is that why he is also a Tengu?” I asked, recalling the glimpse I’d seen of the other god when communing with Tris the day I’d departed Airus.

“I believe so,” he confirmed. “His sister, Sirène, goddess of wind and sea is also worshiped by the Tengu. However, she takes on the form of a water nymph, and is their patron. Just as your own patron is of the Kitsune race, and…”

He’s what! Eyes wide, I tried to process what the other priest had just said. Tris was a Kitsune? If so, where were his ears? His tails?

“You’re mistaken,” I exclaimed, shaking my head. “Trismegistus is an old man, who appears human. He isn’t a Kitsune.”

Icarus looked surprised at that, confusion showing plain on his face.

“An old man? The Trismegistus I encountered when attending a divine summit with my patron was that of a young Kitsune child. Though, my patron did mention he was fond of altering his form.” The winged priest said, looking thoughtful. “Isn’t that common in your race? To alter your form at will with illusionary magics?”

It was true that the Kitsune race could create illusions. The entire premise of the race was that of foxes using a corporal illusion to appear human. Yuki said illusory magic beyond our naturally occurring shift into human form, wasn’t something we could learn until we’d visited our races village, as someone there would teach us.

But, she’d also told me I would be called to the village through a dream. A dream sent by our race's patron god, calling me home.

‘Tris, what is going on!’ I mentally yelled at the god, directing as much mana into the shout as I could.

“I swear, if that old bastard is toying with me again.” I grumbled when I got no response from the god.

Icarus laughed, his gray-blue eyes alight with mirth. “A common complaint among those of our position. I’m half convinced we are chosen merely to entertain our bored patrons. The reason I was not in Airus when you arrived was because my patron sent me to find a shrieking rooster.”

“A what?”

“A breed of poultry with the power to send a person insane when it crows.” Icarus said with a sigh. “I spent six days searching for a chicken so my patron god could cook it for his lunch.”

“Are all the gods assholes?” I muttered with a scowl, as we reached the temple's exit.

“I believe there are a handful who do not take pleasure in tormenting their clergy, but sadly they all appear to favor artificial beings for such positions.” Icarus replied, with a light chuckle.

As the winged priest ascended into the sky with his paladins, I pondered how much explosive I would need to blow up the temple of Philosophia Naturalis.