Verdan did eventually sleep, and though his dreams were unsettling and filled with violence, he felt better for it. That wasn’t to say his eyes didn’t feel like sunken holes in his head, but he did feel somewhat clearer after the chaos of the day before.

There was a lot he needed to do, not the least of which was to visit Tobias with Kai. For all that he maintained that the merchant wasn’t involved, some pointed questions were most definitely needed. Before that, however, he wanted to go see if Natalia had made any progress with the concoction that Sylvie had found.

Ruan and Declan were on guard at the gates, so Verdan left word with them in case Kai came looking for him and headed over to the old servant quarters.

Natalia was slow to answer the door when Verdan knocked, to the point that he was just becoming concerned when he heard her unlock it.

“Verdan, good morning,” Natalia said a little breathlessly as she opened the door fully. She wore a grey version of her usual attire, though the veil and gloves were in the standard black, which struck him as odd.

“Good morning. How are you feeling?” Verdan asked as he stepped inside, thinking of her health first of all.

“Much better, thank you,” Natalia said as she closed the door behind him. “I think your efforts have made quite an impact.”

“I’m glad to hear it, I have a lot to cover today, but I can come back in a few days for another session?” Verdan asked, clamping down on the broad smile that threatened to break across his face as she agreed. “Excellent, I look forward to it. In the meantime, however, I wanted to ask about that bottle that Sylvie found. Have you had any luck with it?”

“Yes, and no, it’s an odd one,” Natalia said with a hint of frustration. “Actually, do you mind if I….” She waved in the vague direction of her veil and gloves.

“No, of course, please make yourself comfortable,” Verdan said quickly, realising why they looked slightly out of place with what she was wearing.

“Thank you,” Natalia said with evident relief as she stepped into a side room and removed her gloves and veil. The widespread burns, scars and injuries that seemingly covered her body were just as bad as the last time that Verdan had seen them, though he once again made sure that not a single iota of anything negative would show on his face.

Despite his efforts, Natalia did still seem somewhat uncomfortable with parts of her exposed, but she seemed to cope with it by quickly guiding him through to a room at the rear of the building.

“This used to be a storeroom of sorts, but Adrienne helped me convert it into a makeshift workshop once we started discussing alchemy,” Natalia said as she led him into what felt like a smaller version of one of the rooms in the workshop that was filled with alchemy equipment. “This is the first time I’ve used it, though.”

“I’m impressed,” Verdan said honestly, eyeing the room with interest as he noted a few pieces of kit he didn’t have in the workshop.

“Thank you, it wasn’t easy,” Natalia said softly before abruptly turning away to straighten some glassware.

“No, of course,” Verdan said, wincing slightly as he realised how easily he could step wrongly here. “So, this is the potion, yes?” He gestured to a familiar-looking, viscous red liquid that was separated into several containers. Each one was of differing size but was packed to the brim with fluid and sealed securely. Out of interest, he examined them with his Aether senses, noting that they all held varying amounts of Aether.

“Yes, I’ve had to transfer it to sealed vessels as it reacts when exposed to air,” Natalia said, clearing her throat as she moved past him to tap one of the containers. “I’ve been able to identify a part of what it contains, but not all of it.”

“Interesting,” Verdan muttered, leaning down for a closer look at the odd liquid. “What have you been able to identify?”

“The main part is a solution I recognise that is designed to be a carrier and preservative for medicines. It has a distinctive herbal smell with a touch of bitterness to it. It is mostly used to preserve fragile or short-lasting medicines that would otherwise lose their potency. It’s alchemically designed to dissolve when exposed to air, leaving the original solution behind.”

“But, when this one fades, there’s nothing left. How does that work?” Verdan questioned, fascinated by the properties of the liquid.

“Exactly, it doesn’t make sense, which means something else is happening here. The amount of the preservative, which is called zosimal, by the way, used is proportional to the strength of what it is preserving. The bottle was a fair size, so for it to produce so little when removed means that it was a strong reagent. That’s not to say it’s something incredibly powerful, but clearly above the level of what we’ve worked on together.” Natalia explained excitedly, sharing an infectious grin with Verdan as she spoke.

“Fascinating,” Verdan said, eyeing the liquid with renewed interest as he thought of how useful this zosimal would be. “What are your next steps?”

“Well, I need to remove the zosimal while keeping whatever else is in there contained. I’m not quite sure how exactly I will manage that.”

“Perhaps I can help,” Verdan said, tapping his lips thoughtfully as he considered her words. “Tell me more about the process that this zosimal goes through.”

“Well, when exposed to air, the zosimal breaks down rapidly, turning into water droplets in the air,” Natalia said, frowning in thought as she looked between Verdan and the closest of the containers.

“May I?” Verdan asked, gesturing to the closest one. Natalia nodded warily, watching him carefully as he gestured to the bottle’s interior. “Aer.”

A slight wisp of air bloomed within the liquid as a bubble, making it strain against the glass momentarily before it began to break down rapidly. In mere moments the liquid was gone, leaving only a mist-filled tube, the high moisture content making droplets condense against the cool glass.

“Wyr sia,” Vertdan said, grimacing in distaste as he was forced to use one of his least familiar words. Water was never one that he liked; he always preferred ice for some reason. Still, the spell did as intended, pulling the moisture from the air and forming it into a tight seal against the top of the container. “There, no water at all. Is there anything left?”

“Yes, right at the bottom. It’s completely colourless, and there’s barely any at all,” Natalia said, glancing up at Verdan with an impressed expression before turning back to examine it. “It’s hard to tell what it could be. Can you remove the water if I open the container? I want to see if it reacts with anything or if its stable.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Verdan said with a wave of one hand. He’d kept the water-shaping spell active, just in case, so as Natalia opened the container, he was able to pull it out and disperse it into the room before dropping the spell.

Meanwhile, Natalia examined the liquid within the vial carefully before resealing it again. “Interesting, the unknown liquid also reacts to the air and dissipates, but at a much slower rate than zosimal. Still, that would explain why we didn’t see any elsewhere, there’s only a small amount in each bottle, and it fades over time. I’ll try and work out more of its properties, but the first thing I’d say is that I can’t smell the scent Sylvie mentioned. I’d go so far as to say that without the zosimal, it’s odourless.”

“Hmm,” Verdan made a non-committal noise, unsure if Natalia was aware that Sylvie was a shapeshifter or not. Blane had particularly keen senses, and Verdan was fairly confident that came from being an airta rather than anything else.

“I’ll keep investigating to see what else I can find out,” Natalia said with a soft shrug. “For now, though, that’s all I have.”

“That’s more than I was expecting on such short notice. Thank you, Natalia,” Verdan said, impressed with how quickly she’d gotten this far into it. He didn’t doubt that she could have separated the mixtures on her own given time, but he was glad he could help.

Out of interest, Verdan examined the container for Aether once more, noting that the small amount of liquid at the bottom contained a relatively high amount of Aether. There was also a slight mist in the air around them, making him think that though the zoismal had some Aether to it, the majority of what he could sense earlier was this other liquid being spread through the zoismal.

Reluctantly bidding the alchemist goodbye, Verdan left her to her work and made his way back outside and over to the workshop. It was time to find Kai and see what Tobias had to say about the whole matter.

“Verdan, ready to go?” Kai asked as Verdan came to the entrance of the workshop, pushing off from the wall he’d been leaning against.

“As I’ll ever be,” Verdan said, still somewhat reluctant to do this.

“Good, let’s go,” Kai said, setting off at a quick pace that Verdan had to hurry to match or be left behind. “Did Natalia find anything about the potion?”

“She did some initial work, yes. It seems that the majority of it was there to preserve a small amount of a different liquid, one that is colourless and odourless to us. We think that’s what Sylvie could smell, though it’s odd that we can’t. What that liquid is, she doesn’t know yet. Any ideas?”

“Nothing springs to mind,” Kai said, one hand idly tapping on his thigh as he considered the question. “Definitely magical from the sound of it, though, which means an alchemist is involved.”

“True, which at least means it came from outside the city, but we know that already,” Verdan said with a shrug, noting with relief that Kai had slowed his pace somewhat now that they were underway.

“I’d ask around, but I don’t want to potentially let whoever it is know that we’re onto it,” Verdan said with a frustrated sigh. “I hate situations like this where you don’t know who you can count on.”

Kai simply grunted, but Verdan noticed the other man’s grip tighten on his spear, and his pace increased once more.

The city was in a strange situation where some parts were damaged, but most of it was untouched. It didn’t help that the areas which had been attacked by vespa were few and far between; Verdan began to wonder just how many had actually attacked yesterday. It had felt like a full attack at the time, but now it felt more surgical, especially with what they knew about this mystery concoction.

The more he learned about all this, the more Verdan became determined to find out who was responsible. While the targets might be specific, the vespa had by no means stayed in one place, and that level of disregard for life appalled him.