Seven Lessons in Alchemy, Part One

The winding path through the woods gave me plenty of time to consider how to break the news to Master Nareth, but my excuses seemed to evaporate before the door of his cottage. The old alchemist had little patience with bumbling apprentices and, I suspected, even less with bumbling mass-murderers. Nor had I ever been especially persuasive.

After hesitating for some time, I nudged the door open. Perhaps he was busy and wouldn't notice my return. I could pretend I had simply–

"Ah, you're back," said Master Nareth. He was stirring a cauldron on the other side of the room.

"Yes." I attempted to smile nonchalantly as I set down my travel bags. "I got the things you asked for."

"Good, good. Go ahead and boil the–" Nareth's bushy eyebrows drew together. "Tessa, why do you have a rictus grin?"

"I'm... just happy to be back, sir."

"Of course. What disaster did you cause this time?"

I sighed and dropped the act. "Well, sir, you remember how you told me to gather a jar of Emerald Flux?"

"And specifically warned you, at length, of its incredible danger," Nareth said. I cringed as he began tapping a finger against the cauldron; that was never a good sign. "What happened to it?"

"I, er, I dropped it. In the river south of here."

Nareth stopped tapping and stared slack-jawed. His ladle fell into the cauldron with a ploop.

"Tessa, do you realise what you've done? That river flows through Semberg! The chain reaction from the Flux could poison – I can't even imagine the scale!"

"Around a hundred thousand people," I supplied helpfully, immediately regretting it. "Er, perhaps I'll just be going, if you don't mind."

"No." The old man snatched up a bottle filled with swirling red liquid. I recognised it as an elixir of swiftness I had helped brew several weeks earlier. "I'm going to Semberg, right now, to lend what aid I can. And I'm bringing you before the Council to answer for what you've done."

"Wait, sir, I–"

Nareth quaffed the potion in one gulp. He took a few steps toward me before pausing and licking his lips, his expression growing troubled. "Tessa, do you remember brewing this potion?"

I nodded.

"Did you put mandrake or manroot in it?"

I scratched my head. "Aren't they the same thing?"

Master Nareth's body fell heavily to the floor.

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