Chapter 63: Collaborative Alchemy

"Mother. Mother. The doll has fallen over." Albree stood beside the table, her hands clasping the edge, in order to inform them of this very serious news.

"Just a moment." Murtiel leaned down with a groan and tapped her stylus against the doll, imparting enough mana for it to lift up and begin spinning around again.

"Thank you, Mother." Albree sat back down to watch the spinning doll with rapt attention.

"You're welcome, Albree." Murtiel pushed herself back up to the table and mouthed "Sorry", but Suria only shook her head.

"I understand how children are," she said.

"I just feel bad that I'm taking time from your studies."

"No, you saved me time with that concentrating reagent. But we still need to figure out the necessary balance of ingredients."

The two of them returned to their work now that Murtiel's daughter was preoccupied. They had a series of six miniature cauldrons set up in a hexagon, though Suria didn't think that the formation was actually relevant. As far as she understood the text, what mattered was that each cauldron had exactly the right balance of ingredients before they were all mixed together into the final project.

Practical Alchemy had proved to be a good counterpart to the larger general course, providing them with regular challenges that tested what they'd been learning. It was designed to be a self-contained course for students who only needed basic Alchemy skills to support other disciplines, or for some who just wanted to be low-level specialists. For Suria, it would make sure that her loop spent on Alchemy wasn't wasted, and hopefully become a strong foundation she could build from later as she gained more expertise.

So far Suria had passed all the assignments, but they were growing more difficult and showed no signs of slowing down. If she hadn't been working together with Murtiel, she would no doubt have gotten much less out of the class - the other woman had years of practical experience doing this sort of work, even if she lacked a formal education.

Eventually they had all the cauldrons bubbling, hopefully on their way to a completed potion. That would have been one of the few good times for Albree to interrupt, but the girl was concentrating her full attention on the doll, so they were left to catch their breath at the table.

"How similar is this to herbalism?" Suria asked. "If you don't mind talking about work."

"I don't mind at all." Murtiel settled down against the table, resting her head on her arms. "A lot of my work was more what they call Naturalism here: knowing all the local ingredients and their magical properties. It's really the hybrid of the two that's made the Akrashic Union so wealthy."

"I'm afraid I've never been."

"With a trained herbalist you can produce all kinds of things that would be impossible otherwise. For me it usually meant working with farmers to maximize their crops, and a few potions for back pain, but there are elite herbalists who make all kinds of war potions possible. It's a critical part of the Akrashic economy... well, that gets into complicated issues."

"I know that recent potions have undermined the work of herbalists," Suria said, as if she hadn't learned that from Murtiel herself in a previous loop.

"Oh, you know some?" Murtiel glanced at her, briefly curious, then sighed and closed her eyes. "It used to be you'd train with someone for years, your mother or uncle or someone, and you could have a career. But with the new methods... the little details don't matter so much. They can hire practically anyone off the street and pay them next to nothing..."

Murtiel explained about the difficulties facing herbalists and Suria listened curiously. Now that she wasn't being accosted by students in an argumentative class, Murtiel was much more open about how depressing it was to lose the art she'd cared so much about, but she seemed determined to retrain and go back to the Akrashic Union with new skills.

They were interrupted by one of their cauldrons nearly boiling over - Murtiel snapped into action, casting a stabilizing spell. Suria still hadn't mastered any of those, since she'd been trying to master inscriptions that concentrated ingredients for her own use. Fortunately, the cauldron was saved and it looked like everything was the right color this time.

"Finally," Suria said with relief. "What's the next step?"

"We need that binding reagent." Murtiel looked through her cabinets and eventually ended up sighing. "It looks like we're out. I didn't expect us to finish today, to be honest. Can you go buy some more? I would, but I'll need to put Albree to bed soon..."

She trailed off, looking toward her daughter, and Suria remained silent. So far she hadn't learned much about the two of them, but she knew they didn't have any family in the region, and there had never been a word spoken about the girl's father. It might be an unpleasant subject for a number of reasons, so Suria was avoiding asking it... maybe she would ask at the end of the cycle.

Part of her hated herself for thinking that way.

"Of course I can pick some up," Suria said. She patted the other woman's arm as she rose to her feet, then turned to Albree. "Goodbye, Albree."

"Goodbye, Suria." The girl didn't look at her and was rubbing her eyes as if determined to stay awake.

With the formal goodbyes observed - Albree would become disgruntled if someone ignored them - Suria headed out. Murtiel and her daughter actually lived on campus, in a small wing of the main dormitories that supported families. Their room was painfully small, but at least they didn't have to share it with anyone.

Suria reviewed her schedule, but going into the city wouldn't be any trouble, so she headed straight for the gates. Between buying alchemical ingredients and getting more stone for practicing, Suria was spending a fair amount of time in Darmkael lately. That wasn't a problem normally, though sometimes she ran into the other loopers who were still meddling with local affairs.

No one stopped her, so she was glad to make her way all the way down to Bub's Bobs. The old man waved cheerfully to her, as he always had since she'd protected him from the thief.

"What'll it be today, Suria?"

"I need more reagents, as usual." Suria made a little list for him and he began ducking around behind his counters, finding the rare ingredients. Maybe she could have gotten a slightly better price in some of the bigger shops, but she didn't mind coming here, and her oss was disappearing at the end of the loop anyway.

"Do you think you could help me with my wards?" Bub asked over his shoulder. "That's why we had trouble the other day, you know. Shop should have been better protected than that."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to NovelPhoenix for the genuine story.

"I'm afraid I don't know enough about wards, but I can ask Xuhriha to stop by."

"My son has a seal in that sort of thing, and he was supposed to come by to fix them up, but he hasn't managed it lately."

"Something wrong?" Suria asked.

"What? No, no." Bub pulled himself back up to the counter with a grunt. "He's just so busy these days. They have a little one at home and his wife is pregnant again, so it's hard for them to make it up here."

It seemed like Bub had three children, but only his youngest daughter lived in Darmkael, while his other relatives lived in towns scattered lower on the mountain. In the old days he'd hiked up and down more - so he told her - but as he got older had to rely on family coming up to visit him. His wife had passed away a few years ago, which he'd mentioned with a sort of worn old sadness.

"Just a question," Suria said on a whim. "Have you had gang trouble around here?

"This is a good neighborhood," Bub told her seriously. "We pay our taxes and the city takes care of us. None of the gangs can start a protection scheme here, not even the Blank Hand."

"I keep hearing about them, even on campus."

"Oh, you don't need to worry. If the gangs bother anyone, it's squeezing merchants coming into town. They'd never dream of touching a student, believe me. It was... oh, ten, fifteen years ago? Some student got drunk, ran afoul of a gang, and ended up dead. They say that Darkmoon found the criminals responsible, turned them inside-out, and delivered them back to their gangs, without a word."

"Is that true?" Suria asked.

"Who can say?" Bub chuckled unpleasantly. "It's the sort of story that gets passed around, though. So if you're worried, just wear your official robes."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you." Her school robes were the only good clothes that Suria owned, so it wasn't likely that she was going to wear something else.

Once she had completed her shopping, Suria chatted with Bub for a while longer and then headed out. It was getting later in the night, but she wasn't concerned as long as she stuck to the main streets, and she was in no hurry to return. Xuhriha had learned silencing wards, so they could sleep peacefully even if students around them were causing noise.

Before Suria could make it all the way back, however, she was intercepted: not by the gangs, but by Wynchard Odinel.

"I need your help again," Wynchard told her. "Not with our investigations, not directly. But we're trying to trace how certain contraband is getting into Darmkael, and we need an expert. Gerial is the one who would know best, but he..."

"Why can't you just ask him yourself?" Suria asked, even though she was already turning to walk toward Gerial's estate. They would just keep bothering her if she didn't help, and it couldn't hurt to get Wynchard further in her debt.

"Well, frankly, we're not on speaking terms right now. There's no way he'd be willing to help me."

"What went on between the two of you?"

"To be perfectly honest..." Wynchard looked away as he kept pace with her. "Some loops I've tried to clean up crime around Darmkael, to learn more about what's going on beneath the surface. It turns out that Gerial likes some of those crimes, particularly the ones bringing him illegal drugs and alcohol. Whenever I disrupt things, he sulks about it."

"I'll ask him," Suria promised, "but we need to talk afterwards."

"Of course. Just don't let him know I sent you."

Suria got all the details and then left Wynchard a street away and continued to the Negnan estate, which she realized she hadn't yet seen in the day. There was no gathering going on that night, and to her surprise no guard or spell stopping her from just walking inside. She crept through the gardens, casting her Perception spells and trying to find some hidden trap, but nothing stopped her from reaching the front doors.

Inside the main building of the estate, she found a grand foyer, though it was poorly lit and the carpet looked threadbare. It had a pair of curving staircases to the second floor, one of which was blocked by Gerial. He lay back amid a pile of empty bottles, though he pushed himself upright when he saw her.

"Hey! Suria! Glad you could make it!"

"Wynchard sent me," she told him, "but you aren't supposed to know that."

"Gotcha, gotcha." Gerial tapped the side of his head, then winced at his own action. "I suppose he's causing trouble with the Blank Hand again? I don't get involved with them myself, but whenever they get upset, it affects all my favorite smugglers."

"I'm not sure what they're doing with the main gangs, but I think he's more concerned about weapons being smuggled into the city."

"I can look into it. I figure I owe you that much."

"Are you counting this as my favor?" Suria asked skeptically. "I thought your life was worth more than that."

"Oh, it is." Gerial lurched to his feet and walked toward her, proving steadier on this feet than she would have expected. "I've been thinking about how I could repay you, and I did come up with one thing. This is a runic potion that could increase your capacity by one."

"This is a bottle labeled 'Addie's Addled Hangover Cure'."

"Dammit." Gerial tossed aside the bottle and, after rummaging in his robes, produced a potion that hummed with mana. "Here it is. I'm happy to give this to you at the start of the cycle, every cycle. I'll find better for you if I can. It's the least I can do after you saved my life."

"Thank you." Suria took the bottle carefully, checking that it was clean before putting it into her satchel. "Could you have it delivered to me on campus?"

Gerial clutched his heart as if wounded. "How brutal! You won't even visit me, Suria? You seem like one of the most fascinating women in the loop, so I should like to know you better."

"I should like to know you worse," Suria said.

"Ahh, such exquisite pain!" Gerial pretended to sway on his feet, but then smiled lazily. "I know you're much too serious for my little gatherings, so I'll try not to be a bother. If you don't pick up the runic potion, I'll send it to your rooms once you establish them each loop. I just hope, if the professors ever come for us again, that you'll spare a thought for me."

"I will if I can."

"And in return, if you ever need information on the underworld yourself, I'll tell you what I can. Admittedly, I know more about smugglers, bootleggers, and general ruffians than any of the serious business, but I do know a little."

"So you can tell me what Wynchard wants to know?"

As it turned out he definitely could, in great detail. Suria memorized as much as she could, though the unfamiliar names and organizations mostly washed through her mind - she had enough to deal with on campus without getting involved in Darmkael's underworld. Once she was ready to leave, however, she hesitated by the main doors.

"Wynchard says you two hate each other," Suria said quietly. "Is it really because he interferes with your... merry-making?"

"Well, I certainly don't like that." Gerial flopped down onto the stairs again. "But no, I think it's more that he hates me. He has ever since everyone argued in the early loops."

"Argued? About what?"

"About whether or not there's any meaning to this. You know Wynchard... he's convinced that we've been chosen by some greater power, that we're here for a reason. I just kept arguing that no greater power would choose a bunch of useless students, much less throw them into a time loop without any guidance, or even any warnings."

"So what do you think?"

"It's gotta be a mistake," Gerial said with a shrug. "Maybe some archmage needed a time loop and we got swept up in it. Maybe there was a spell that wasn't supposed to produce a loop at all, but it went wrong. Anyway... I argued that this is all meaningless and Wynchard has always hated me for it."

"I see. Thank you for explaining." Suria nodded to him and then stepped out of the estate.

It wasn't until she got back into the garden that she realized how much it had reeked inside - not simply with the scent of alcohol, but alchemical reagents as well. She hadn't been able to recognize them in previous cycles, but now she realized that he was using concentrating agents. Some drinkers became so accustomed to normal alcohol that they could only become drunk from intensified versions, and it didn't surprise her that Gerial was one of those.

She barely got outside the main gates before Wynchard appeared beside her.

"And?" he demanded.

"He told me everything he knows," Suria said, "but first I want to talk about the Sequential Library."

"You want to venture inside, I take it?" Wynchard crossed his arms across his broad chest. "I admit, getting into the forbidden sections would be our best chance of getting a real book on time magic, but the risk is high. You're willing to spend favors on this?"

"You already owe me," Suria told him, "and I have favors from others. But I don't want to go in if it would be suicidal."

"Not suicidal, not if we plan for it. But it's a non-starter this loop, not with everything going on. Maybe in the next cycle... especially if you can get a librarian to bend the rules for us. Listen, if you help me out this time, I'll see what I can do to wrangle everyone up next loop."

So they had a deal. Suria wasn't sure what all they would face, or what could really be done to prepare, but she would have to leave that for the next cycle. This one was already full enough.

"Now," Wynchard said, "we really need to talk about the Glyphbreakers and the Blank Hand..."