PreCursive

  I took a slow breath in, holding my tration. I’d been challenging myself retly to do this with only my newer golden hand instead of my flesh ohe process was a bit clumsier with the muted sense of both physical toud Aetherial sense, but I could do it. It was just a bit harder, but the practice was good for me.

  Fog, I felt the st piece of the puzzle slot into pce, and I itted.

  The swirling cloud of astralized potion ingredients rebined into the directed vial, f a butter-yellow mild stamina potion.

  I picked up the finished produd brought it to eye level. Swirling it around a few times, I eyed it critically before nodding.

  Yup, this one was fine. Not great, sidering the quality of the ingredients.

  But good enough.

  Now I only had to do about…fifteen more.

  I sighed, looking around the small workroom that I was in. I was standing in front of a tiny desk, surrounded on all sides by shelves taining sub-par potion materials and crates holding my finished products. The space was basically a glorified broom closet with a small vent to the outside, something that I’m sure normal potioneers were grateful for with their brewing. Since I did all my potion-making with Aetherial Melding, I didn’t have to worry about potentially toxic fumes melting my lungs.

  This…wasly what I had been expeg, for a super-important infiltration and sabotage mission.

  I hadn’t predicted being told to get a damned job.

  But that’s what Hook had ht ordered me to do, after he had finally woken up in the Noe safehouse that Dusk led us to inside Elderwyck proper. Tzo had turned out to be good on his word, and the regeion potion that he’d fed Hook had been damned powerful. The allied Healer Dusk had tacted to look him over had been ht baffled at his quick recovery, sidering Hook's injuries.

  As soon as the dwarf and walking again, Sylvia and I had received our standing orders. Both of us were to blend into the popuce, keep our heads down, and work to acquire information that could lead to furthering the efforts of the dozens of Noe Agents ihe city walls. Furthermore, we were turly che with him at the safehouse to receive missions. In order to do that, however, we needed a stable cover.

  Which meant gainful employment.

  And thus, here I was, ing out middling potions from nearly garbage-quality ingredients. The i filtering and refining capabilities of Aetherial Meldi that I was able to get a better product out of poorer materials than anything but a master potioneer could manage. I wasn’t used t with such trash, however. It almost felt like my pride as a craftsman was being insulted having to make do with what I’d been given. But that was silly.

  And it robably the only reason I’d mao get the job I’d found, anyway.

  I’d had some ideas about what to look for when it came to employment, and had thus started hitting up the local alchemy shops and asking if they were looking for brewers. Most actually wao hire me when I’d asked, but had o turn me away. With the closing of the city gates and the increasing votility of the war, their margins were getting thinner and thihey couldn't afford to take me on, even when I presented examples of my work. I’d nearly given up oions idea before I stumbled on this little hole in the wall.

  Jason’s Magical Brews.

  The shop had looked to have fallen on…hard times, tely. The paint had been peeling, the sign was crooked, and one of the windows had been boarded up. But it had been open, I’d seen movement through one of the remaining windows, and most importantly?

  There had been a ‘Help Wanted’ sign out front.

  I’d decided what the hell, and given it a shot.

  That had been a week ago, now. I’d been ing out potions as quickly as my new employer could procure the basic herbs and grasses required ever since.

  Speaking of…

  I was interrupted by the noise of almost ically timid knocks on the door of my brewing closet. I held my breath for a moment, ting backwards from five in an effort to keep my temper. I khat my new boss was only cheg up on me so he could restock the shelves, but…

  Did he have to do this every five damned minutes?

  I let the breath out and turo open the door. When I did so, I beheld the sight of my new employer.

  Jason Aldridge, the ‘Jason’ of ‘Jason’s Magical Brews’.

  A man that couldn’t breotion to save his damned life.

  He was a slight man, at least four inches shorter than my five-eleven frame. Jason was the type of man that was unfortunate enough to have started balding in his te twenties, and also the type to be too stubborn to just shave it all off. It left him trying to cover up the nearly friar-esque bald spot on top of his head with a fearent wisps of dirty blonde hair. The man was wearing round spectacles over his pale blue eyes, whily enrged his already rge eyes to look nearly bulbous. Said eyes were staring at me in a pleading manner as the young shop owner wrung his hands and smiled at me in a sickly way.

  “A-ah, Hans,” He stuttered, using the fake hat I had given him. “Are y-you doh the stamina potions?”

  I did my best to return his smile. sidering how high my Ag Talent had beeing, I had no problem faking it in front of his civilian. “I have some crates for you,” I firmed, to his obvious relief. Turning back around, I picked up the stack crate full of potions that I’d been w on all m and ha off to Jasoaggered uheir weight, turning around to y it on the ter of the shop. Oher side of it was one of our main ers for the stamina potions I’d introduced to Jason’s product line.

  The crew ma of the dockside warehouses in Elderwyck.

  I briefly met his eyes, causing him to fsh me a smile iing.

  Time to get some actual work done.

  Shuffling past Jason, I leaned against the ter aurned his smile. “Simon, how’s it going?”

  “Oh, you know how it is, Hans,” He answered back, his own smile taking on a weary edge. “Things are rough right now, with the way the bean pushers are pushing us. I don’t know how my boys could make it through these extra shifts, if we didn’t have your new potions,” Simon said, pig up ohe mild stamina potion from its crate that I had finished not moments ago. He shook his head in wonder. “Ain’t ever seen something like this before. It’s a right wo is, especially with how cheap they are.”

  When I’d first started w in this shop, I had gone over the catalog that Jason had unched with. I think I oiled as far as my mystical education was going, sidering I’d thought what he offered was very limited. Apparently, things like stamina potions were only seen in much more expeion shops, aypically unavaible to the an. Jason had been shocked when I’d offered to include them in the line-up

  See, Jasoo have a business parthat did all the brewing, only he had been poached with a better offer by a rival shop only a few months after opening. That had left Jason high and dry, and needing to rely on the weak swill that he could brew himself. His shop was vely located not far from the docks, so he used to get brisk business from the dockworkers. That ged when he had to do all the brewing himself. His shop had been failing before I came along.

  Not anymore.

  The dockworkers had returned with a vengeance, especially when it became knoere amina potions to help them get through shifts.

  And dockworkers talked.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked with plenty of real i. “Why don’t you tell me more?”

  ……………………………..

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jason,” I said to the ic shopkeep, shrugging on a thin coat I’d bought for myself. I’d fihe brewing needed for the day, and I was taking off at my usual time around midday. Since I was so much quicker at the process than other alchemists, it was only about an hour after lunchtime.

  “A-ah…” Jason stuttered, looking up from his ledger with a timid smile. “Have a good day, H-Hans.”

  Jason didn’t dare order me around more than he o. He knew very well how lucky he was to have found su apparently skilled potion maker, when he’d been on the verge of selling his failing business.

  I knew I was taking advantage of his desperation just a little, but it’s not like the man wasn’t being from the arra. Still, I felt a little bad when I wondered what he was going to do, when I was gone.

  Not like that was going to happen anytime soon, though.

  This romising to be a long campaign.

  I was stopped at the door by Jason speaking again, though. “Keep an e-eye out, though,” He said, causio look over my shoulder. The weaselly-looking man had a worried expression on his face. “You n-never know when one of those a-attacks will hit.”

  I smiled thinly at him, amused on the inside. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, Jason,” I told him. “See you ter.” With that, I turned around and walked out of the shop.

  I didn’t have to worry about the ‘attacks’.

  After, I was one of the people doing them.

  ………………………………

  The outside air of Elderwyck was dht chilly this te in the year. Winter was in full swing. The sea of the harbor was starting to frost over some, which had certainly been one of the things that old Simon had pio me about. The smell of frozen brine had settled over the ey by now, and I didn’t mind it at all.

  It reminded me of my days ohorny Reef.

  However, that wasn’t the only thing in the air.

  Elderwyck was under an almost stant state of alert these days. Fear, uainty, and e were on on the lips of the people, and not all of that was the fault of the Noe Division. But…we were helping to stoke that fire.

  The Duke and his provincial gover had been ing down hard on the popuce of Elderwyck. Guards and Soldiers were far more on ireets, and proo harass ahat even looked at them funny. Heavier taxes were being levied against businesses and workers, while food and supplies were being more scarce with the overnd trade routes so hazardous. They weren’t quite blocked off, but it was much harder to get ary permit into Elderwyck these days than it had been.

  This city was a slow-burning p of rese and ay, with most of it being directed at the Duke. Apparently, it had been like this even before the Noe division had itted ting it down from the inside.

  Seems like Duke Olsen had beeing a tad paranoid, even before we’d e along.

  We’d only intensified that.

  Eventually, something was going to have to give in this city. And we were going to make sure it wasn’t us.

  But that was for ter.

  Right now, I was on my way to meet up with another essential part of my cover. A certain silvery fellow Agent that I was quite fond of.

  After a brief walk through the murmuring streets of Elderwyck, I arrived at her own cover. When I opehe door, a small bell rang above me from the motion, although the woman at the desk didn’t look up from her book. I think her name was Glynda or something.

  We hadn’t really talked.

  I took a look around briefly. This was another little shop, although it wasn’t doing quite as badly as Jason’s had been. Instead of potion-making, though, this was a stationary, book binding, and ink shop. The walls were lined with sheaves of part, glues, inks, and even a few finished books.

  Holy, I thought my partner had lucked out with a better job than I had.

  “Wele to Elderwyck Stationary. How I help-,” The woman started to say, finally looking up. She paused, though, when she saw that it was just me. I did my best to smile at her although it didn’t do much. She just looked ao see me. “Ugh. thia!” She shouted into the back of the shop. “Your boy toy is here!”

  After that, the woman deliberately looked back down at her book and started to ignore me. A few moments ter, I heard the sound of sandaled feet navigating the back rows of the shop, before ‘thia’ appeared.

  Or rather, the disguised form of Sylvia under her human-seeming illusion.

  Since she’d started w here, the hidden Sculpted woman had started to wear simple woolen dresses to blend in. Todays was grey with a green shawl thrown over her shoulders, while a pin white banda her illusioned bck hair out of her face. Smudges of ink dotted her fad hands from the hours of scribe work that I knew she must have been doing in the back.

  Still, she smiled at the sight of me.

  Glynda and ‘thia’ ignored each other as she passed the front desk and linked arms with me. She didn’t look back as we walked out the front door.

  “She seems like a handful,” I said mildly, as we walked dowreets of Elderwyck, vaguely in the dire of the docks.

  Sylvia hummed, eventually shrugging. “It’s not an issue,” She said dismissively, before cutting her eyes my way and smiling, almost impishly. “So, where are you takioday, Mr. Alchemist?”

  I smiled back down at her. This was, in my mind, one of the most integral parts of my cover. After all, a bachelor could be looked at suspiciously, but a man with a girl he was c?

  Well.

  People were ined to think he had too much to risk by getting into any kind of sabotage. It didn’t tend to cross their minds that the girl could be doing it as well. Not respectable craftspeople like us, anyway.

  That it let Sylvia and I get in some actual dates was only a side be.

  Totally.

  However, I was startled when Sylvia’s grip on my arm suddenly tightened, as we drew closer to the docks.

  “N-Hans,” She hissed at me, her eyes fixed oer. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Furrowing my brow at her tone, I followed her gaze a a bolt of lightning rush down my spine. I don’t think I would ever fet the sight of that particur ship. It looked a little different, maybe ed up a bit. There looked to be a fresh coat of paint on its hull, as well.

  But I had only just been thinking of it earlier today.

  Floating in the harbor of Elderwyck was the Thorny Reef.

  Bel was here.