“Is this really it?”

  The sun is high overhead when Jojo finally finds the place she’s looking for. At least, she thinks it’s the right place. It’s an old, decrepit shack pressed right up against the outer wall of the town, walls made of stones that barely fit together and only barely stacked high enough that Jojo wouldn’t have to duck to walk in. The only real sign that she’s in the right place, aside from the fact that the road ended and it’s the last building, is the faint image of a bottle crudely carved right into the wooden door.

  She almost considers turning away, but she doesn’t. Instead she takes a deep breath, steels herself, and knocks politely.

  Silence answers her.

  After… Probably too long waiting around awkwardly, she knocks again, louder this time. From somewhere inside, a scratchy voice barks out “door’s open,” so Jojo pushes her way inside—gently, as the door feels like being too rough on it would send it toppling to the ground.

  The inside is a cluttered mess. Shelves line all the visible walls, and they’re all filled to the brim, either with unlabelled bottles filled with strange goop or gross bins full of the ingredients needed to make the concoctions. Stacks of books are piled here and there on the floor, evidently not important enough to merit shelf space, and most of them double down on the impression of disuse by having a thick layer of dust on their surfaces.

  The whole building is just a single small room. In one corner is a work station, where several fresh potions are precariously strung up over open flames. Another corner has what could generously be called a ‘bed,’ if you were to go off the thick blankets covering it, and on that bed lays a scrawny, disheveled woman. She doesn’t react to Jojo’s entrance, instead choosing to continue what she was doing—namely, staring at the ceiling and picking at her fingernails.

  “Um… Hello?” Jojo says quietly as she steps inside. She’s exceedingly careful not to bump into anything as she does so. The whole place gives her the feeling that a single wrong move could bring the whole building down on their heads.

  “Hey,” the woman replies. Her voice is flat, monotone, and sounds like she’s been on the wrong end of a pipe for more years than she’s been alive. She sits up and stretches, and her loose clothes flop awkwardly across her body. They look like they might once have been fancy, but years of overfamiliarity have beaten any of that out of them. “So, you here to buy something or to rob me? Fair warning, last guy who tried that fed my mushrooms for weeks.”

  “Um…” Jojo glances around awkwardly. She doesn’t see any mushrooms, but still can’t help but wonder how true that threat is. “I-I don’t have much money, and Ash at the general store said you were good for your prices, so…”

  “Well ain’t that sweet of her.” The woman stands up, though she has to hunch to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling, and walks over to Jojo. Piles of trash rustle as she kicks them aside. A perpetual gloom seems to settle around her as she walks, and wafts over Jojo when she gets close.

  The woman doesn’t smile. She just stares down at Jojo for a second, then extends her hand for a handshake, which Jojo reluctantly takes.

  “You can call me Gouge. So what do you need?”

  “I, um… Hm…” Jojo takes a second to figure out how exactly to word her request. “I guess I’m looking for a really weak poison?”

  “Uh-huh.” Gouge narrows her eyes sharply. “You said Ash sent you here?”

  “Yes?” Jojo frowns. “Um, if it’s a problem, I can—”

  “No.” Gouge waves a hand through the air to quiet the protestations, then wanders away and starts rummaging through a random pile of what Jojo had assumed was garbage. Eventually, she pulls out a little, thumb-sized vial of some cloudy white liquid and holds it out towards Jojo. “Here.”

  “Um…” Jojo hesitantly takes the vial and peers at it closely. The clouds in the mixture don’t seem to move quite right. “What is it?”

  “Weak anxiety poison. Useless thing. Makes you feel bad. Drink it.”

  “Is it safe?”

  “It’s poison.”

  “Right…” Jojo uncorks the vial and smells it, but it’s completely odorless. She takes a deep breath, then another, then downs the bottle as fast as she can.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The effects are immediate. It’s like a lead ball lands in her stomach, weighing her down, pressing against her spine, making everything feel… Wrong. Her neck feels hot. Her legs itch. Something isn’t right, something—

  And then the feeling is gone.

  Jojo coughs, shakes her whole body to get rid of the last remnants of the awful feelings, then straightens herself out and sighs. “Wow. That was… Weird. What a strange poison.”

  Gouge, for her part, was watching the whole thing keenly. She never even blinked, watching Jojo’s reaction like a hawk, and her eyes widen imperceptibly after she recovers. She lets out a quiet “hm.”

  Jojo doesn’t notice anything odd in Gouge’s reaction. “So,” she asks, “how much would I owe you for that one?”

  Gouge shakes her head. “Nothing. It was trash. Do a favor for me instead.” She turns around, and this time takes a vial out of a drawer in her work table. The drawer is packed to the brim with identical vials, although only about half of them seem to actually be filled with the purple liquid they’re apparently designed for. She carries it back to Jojo and hands it out to her. “Drink this.”

  Jojo takes the concoction and eyes it. The liquid is solid purple, too deep to see through, but looking at it closely makes it seem like it’s somehow swirling around on its own. “What is it?” She asks.

  “Same thing, just stronger,” Gouge says. “I want to see how it reacts to the weak stuff.”

  “Huh. Do people actually use this stuff?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe. Now drink it.”

  Jojo hesitates. “I don’t know…”

  “Drink it, or I’ll turn you in for poisoning yourself.”

  “W-What!?” Jojo jumps a bit in shock and takes a step back. “What do you mean, turn me in?”

  Gouge rolls her eyes. “I’m assuming you didn’t tell Ash you were planning to buy poison to up your resistance. If you had, she would have told you that it’s illegal.”

  “It is!? Why would that be illegal?”

  “Well, if it was legal, people like me could rob people like you blind, kill you, and get away with it by saying we were just trying to do what you wanted.”

  “Ugh…” Jojo puts her head in her hand. “I’m such an idiot.”

  “Yes. Now drink.”

  “I…” Jojo sighs. “Fine.” She uncorks the vial and swallows the liquid. It goes down slowly, slower than it probably should, and she can feel it swirling the whole way down.

  It doesn’t make her feel strange, though. She feels completely normal.

  “Good.” Gouge’s voice comes from behind Jojo, making her jump. Apparently, while Jojo was focused on the drink, Gouge circled around behind her to block the door. “Now. Who are you?”

  “What? I’m just Jojo.”

  “Alright. What level is your poison resistance?”

  “It’s five, now,” Jojo answers.

  “And what was it when you came in?”

  “Um… I guess it was one? W-Wait, I mean, it was one. No, one!” Jojo claps a hand over her mouth. “What did you do!?”

  “Truth poison. Lasts about an hour. Or until your resistance maxes out, which seems like it might happen first.” Gouge leans forward and peers hard at Jojo. “So, why are you getting levels faster than you’re supposed to?”

  “I’m—” Jojo slams both hands over her mouth, trying to hold herself back from talking, but something inside her fights back and pulls her hands away enough for her to choke the words out. “I’m a Traveler.”

  Gouge’s eyebrows raise up. “Interesting. Seems like I’ve stumbled upon quite the valuable person.”

  Jojo glares at Gouge. She pulls Frankie’s sword out of her storage, and it appears ready in her hand. “I-I’m sorry, but I can’t let you turn me in and… And ruin my life! I just started this life!”

  Gouge shakes her head. “Bad idea. You might want to take a look at my level before you threaten me.”

  Jojo purses her lips. “I-Identify.”

  “What!? Why are you so strong?”

  “Sorry, but I’m not the one with the truth poison in their system. Don’t worry, though, I’m not evil. I’m not going to ruin your life. I’m just not one to let an opportunity slip away.”

  Jojo glares at her for a minute before finally sighing, putting the sword away, and slumping in on herself. “So, what, you’re gonna blackmail me?”

  “More or less. I have some… Theories I’d like to test, and you just so happen to be the perfect test subject.”

  Jojo groans. “Fine. If you’re not gonna turn me in or anything, then let’s just… Get this over with, I guess.”

  For the first time since Jojo walked in, the slightest smile cracks across Gouge’s face. “Good,” she says. “Let’s begin.”