Dzošajan thought of Claudia a few times over the next couple of weeks. Sometimes she would chide herself for so easily caving to her poor attempts at haggling, while more frequently she would think about that idiot bravado, and wonder if her crew had succeeded in ridding the gryphon reserve of poachers. She imagined how Tullius might have reacted to getting his atomizer full of Charm water. She mused on how a hill orc might have ended up working with a crew of adventurers.

When, two weeks later, Claudia did return on another shopping trip, Dzo went out on a limb and asked what had happened during that mission. Claudia was nervous and once again rushed, but she was also incredibly happy to tell what of the story she could. Dzo didn’t really follow. For one thing, Claudia’s ability to summarize while still carrying across the story proved to be less than adequate; for the other, she talked very quickly, and Dzo wasn’t as good at understanding the imperial tongue as she liked to imagine.

Over the next several weeks, Claudia became something of a regular customer, a fact which made Dzošajan happy for reasons she couldn’t quite understand. Their banter quickly settled into a routine, a familiar pattern of jokes and questions repeated each time she visited the shop. Dzo and Claudia would greet each other; then Dzo would ask for the list, and while she went into the back to grab the required potions, she would leave the door open so Claudia could tell her about her adventures and Dzo could pay her for her stories in local gossip. Claudia wasn’t so daring as to ask for a discount after the first time, but Dzo would always subtract two or three truegild from the total as a private gift.

Dzo’s training also continued during that time. By the end of her third month in Quintus’s service, she had the instructions for creating a Potion of Healing memorized to his satisfaction (which meant that she could repeat it once an hour for an entire day without making a mistake once), meaning she was finally allowed to start making potions for sale. She’d been making potions for several weeks already, of course, but Quintus absolutely did not need to know that. 

And clearly, she was good enough to be making potions. Dzošajan could have hardly believed how quickly they could change her body, how effectively they took hold, especially given that she was making them with no previous experience whatsoever. The hardest part ended up being, not patience, but hiding what had already happened. It was fortunate for her that elves, though having keen hearing and sight, did not possess a quarter of the keen sense of smell possessed by an orc; otherwise, Quintus would have noticed the disappearance of the male orcish musk almost instantly. Her chest could be hidden easily enough by the loose robes of an apprentice and the padded uniform of an employee, though having to pretend not to be in immense pain whenever her chest bumped even lightly against an object proved to be difficult. Dzo’s tusks, though, were a different story. Her jaw ached terribly, often for hours at a time, signaling that her tusks would soon be increasing in size, if they had not already begun to do so. No force in the world could make Dzošajan ruin her chances at having a woman’s tusks by filing them down.

Still, all the subterfuge, the late nights in the brewing chamber, the moments of hurried panic as she tried to clean out every stain and smell of her midnight brewing, was all completely and totally worth it. Dzo felt better than she ever had. Her mind, already sharp, was suddenly clearer than she thought possible, no longer clouded by self-disgust and undefinable turmoil. Instead, Dzošajan was left free to indulge in her desire to become the greatest alchemist of all time. While she was forced to focus her efforts on potions of healing and her potion of femininity, she also rapidly consumed the contents of the formulary, not merely examining and memorizing the ingredients and effects of different potions, but noticing connections, forming theories, making predictions that she could test once Quintus allowed her to begin truly experimenting with alchemical ingredients. 

About the only thing that could distract her from this overarching goal was getting to see Claudia again. There was one day, near closing time, when Dzo was aching to be allowed to lock the door and go upstairs. Her thoughts were deep and entangled, wrestling with a theory she’d developed about the relationship between potions which induced elemental resistances and potions which induced transformations, a theory which she could confirm in no longer than half an hour if only she didn’t have to be working. When Claudia ran burst through the door, all thoughts of theories and formularies were banished from Dzošajan’s mind.

“Is everything alright?” Dzo said. “You seem really winded.”

Claudia didn’t say anything, instead bending over to rest her hands on her knees, panting heavily and wiping sweat off of her brow. “I had to… run… across town… in order to… get here… before closing.”

“We’re open tomorrow. You could have come then.”

Claudia sighed, straightening herself with a grimace. “I could have, sure. But then I’d have to get up half an hour early in order to pick up Panaceas tomorrow morning before we leave for Peregrinium.”

“You’re leaving? For how long?”

Claudia shrugged. “A month? A year? There aren’t many contracts left in Extremum, but we heard that Peregrinium has contracts aplenty. So we’ll stay there as long as the truegild is good.”

Dzo nodded morosely, a cold pit forming in her stomach for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. “What are the Panaceas for?”

“Oh, well, that’s a fun story. You see, now that the news is out that Peregrinium has all of the good contracts, every adventuring crew in town is getting ready to head in that direction.”

“I hope Peregrinium is ready for them all,” Dzo said, opening the door to the stockroom. “They’ll descend on it like a swarm of locusts and drink all of the alcohol.”

“And eat up all the best-paying contracts,” Claudia said. “It’ll be a madhouse, tons of competition, unless one crew manages to get to Peregrinium before all of the others.”

“And I assume that that is exactly your plan?” Dzo said.

“Yes! We’re going to take a shortcut through the Blightmarsh. The thing is, most people don’t go through the Blightmarsh because the entire area is a horrible miasma of deadly poison. But if we have Panaceas, we can cross the Blightmarsh safely, and arrive at Peregrinium a full day before anyone else, and have a full day to take our pick of contracts! Smart, isn’t it?”

Dzošajan nodded, a slight smile crossing her face, and was about to make a traditional witty retort when she was interrupted once again, this time by a loud shout from the back room.

“Dzošajan!” Quintus yelled. His voice was hard and brimming with anger. “Come here.”

Dzo felt as though the floor had given out on her, and she was suddenly left falling. “Of course, Master,” she said. She gave Claudia an apologetic look, and Claudia returned a look of sympathy, right before Dzo passed through the door and let it clatter shut behind her.

Quintus stood near the foot of the stairs, a large tome held in his arms, his face tightly creased with anger. “Do you know why I have called you, boy?”

“No, Master,” Dzošajan lied.

“When you first entered my shop, you expressed a good deal of… incredulity at my keeping of so many ledgers. And yet, it is the keeping of ledgers which has allowed me to notice that you have been pilfering potion ingredients from my stores without properly recording them. Why?”

“I don’t know anything about that.” Dzo was determined not to go down without a fight, no matter what.

“Really?” Quintus said. He took two steps closer to her, shutting the book. “You mean that you have not been stealing black licorice, frost lily bulbs, salt of the river Grailium, and quillserpent blood? Do not lie to me, boy.”

“I… I…” Dzošajan wanted to lie. She knew she could manage it, she knew that she was strong enough to not be browbeaten by an aging elf, but there was something in his stare that made her wish to beg forgiveness. Or maybe it was the fact that he had given her a chance to become something great. 

“Why did you steal from me?” Quintus said, baring his teeth. “Was it for money? Do you betray me to my competitors? Tell me, Dzošajan, why you have repaid my teachings, the wage I give you, with theft and deceit!”

Dzo stumbled a step back, but she was determined to remain steadfast, even in the moment of her humiliation. “I was using them, Master. To make potions.”

Quintus’s brow furrowed. “To make potions?”

Dzo nodded. “To make a potion, specifically.”

“Out of black licorice, frost lily bulbs, salt of Grailium, and quillserpent blood? Boy, what potion could one possibly make out of…” Quintus frowned, concentrating, excavating some half remembered memory. “The Elixir of Abundant…” He muttered. He retreated for a moment to place the book he had been carrying back on the shelf, then turned back to Dzošajan. His face shifted rapidly between a myriad of emotions. Rage, yes, but also confusion, guilt, betrayal, sorrow, understanding. 

“Master?” 

“I suppose…” The old elf paused, uncertain of his next words. It was not a state Dzo had seen him in before. “I suppose that I should not be calling you ‘boy’, should I?”

Dzo felt as though she’d been pierced through the heart by a needle, and half-turned away from Quintus to hide the wound. “No, you shouldn’t.”

Quintus folded his arms, expression shifting to the paternalistic. “Why didn’t you ask? I could have made the potion for you. I would have made the potion for you. If it was a matter of pride, I would have even taught you to make it yourself.”

“But what if you’d said no?”

There was a long silence in the back room. Quintus’s eyes went wide. “I see. I possibly even understand. But there is something I need you to understand as well.” He took a step closer. “I cannot tolerate this going behind my back. Not from my own apprentice.”

“Of course not,” Dzo said. Then, with extra disdain, “Master.”

“I think you do not understand me,” Quintus said. “I do not do this out of a desire to oppress you; but there are many in this town who would wish me ruined, or wish to profit off of my downfall.”

“I don’t,” Dzo said. “I just wanted to be… me. For the first time in my life. I already got half of that by being an alchemist, and the other half…”

“I know. But I have no way of knowing what is an innocent bending of the rules by my apprentice, and what is the first sign of subterfuge. Which is why there must be a punishment for this. You will be—”

At that moment, the door of the stockroom burst open. Claudia charged through, brandishing a sword. “Don’t you dare hurt him!” She yelled, eyes alight with righteous fury. “Don’t think I won’t fight to defend Dzzoshaijan, not even from you!”

“What the hell are you trying to do?” Dzošajan said, her voice shrill with panic. While her feelings toward the old man weren’t the most positive at the moment, she also did not relish the thought of having to clean up his entrails.

Quintus looked at Claudia with slackjawed confusion, then back to Dzo. “Who is this?”

“She’s, er, a regular customer. And also a friend, I suppose.”

Claudia, realizing that she did not in fact need to defend Dzo with strength of arms, sheepishly sheathed her sword. “Claudia. Professional contract troubleshooter.”

“Well, Claudia, professional contract troubleshooter, you will be pleased to hear that I do not plan on harming my apprentice.” Before Claudia could do more than express confusion at Quintus’s use of the feminine form, he continued, “I am merely taking her to task for stealing the ingredients which she has been using over the past months to manufacture Elixirs of Abundant Femininity. I should ask, have they been working?”

“Yes,” Dzo said, nodding anxiously.

“Impressive,” Quintus admitted.

Claudia stared at Dzošajan for a moment, jaw slack. “Oh,” she said. Her eyes flicked down to Dzo’s chest level, only for an instant. “Oh.”

“Now, as I was saying. I’ll have to dock your pay, as a reminder that this rule-breaking isn’t to be tolerated. Five truegild for the month should be enough, I think. And from here on out, if you wish to manufacture any potion, you will inform me that you are doing so, and record all ingredients used in the proper way. Understood?”

Dzošajan suddenly felt free to breathe again, in a way she hadn’t since the moment she heard Quintus’s voice calling her name. “I’m… still going to be your apprentice? You aren’t even going to beat me, or whip me, or make me stop brewing the potion, or—”

“I would hardly dismiss or whip a fresh apprentice for a fit of youthful foolishness in the face of a matter of the heart. And besides, the fact that you are in good health speaks to the fact that you are brewing the potion safely and skillfully.”

Dzo wished to leap about in joy, scream her thanks to the heavens, possibly run up to Claudia and kiss her. She instead restrained herself to merely saying, “Thank you very much, Master.” Then, after remembering that Claudia was still awkwardly standing there, she said, “Will that be all? I still have to get the last customer her potions.”

Quintus made a soft hmm, then said, “Next time you brew your Elixir, I should like to see how you do it. Merely to observe. That will be all.” And without further ado, he went back up the stairs.

Dzo turned back to Claudia. “How many Panaceas was that?”

“Four,” Claudia said. 

Dzo went to work, trying to remember where the Panaceas were stored through the cloud of euphoria filling her mind. She had not yet found them when Claudia cleared her throat loudly. “Yes?”

“Dzzošaijan… when my crew gets back from Peregrinium… and I imagine we will… I’d like to see you again.”

“You probably will,” Dzo said. “You adventurers are always consuming more potions, so…” She shrugged instead of finishing the sentence.

“I don’t mean at the shop,” Claudia said, nervously. “I mean… somewhere else. I know a few places around town.”

Dzošajan was, at that very instant, struck by an unavoidable coughing fit. When it finally ended, she said, “I have barely been out of this building more than a handful of times in the last several months. I would like that so, so much.”

Claudia nodded, grinning stupidly, running her fingernails nervously along the ridges of her horns. “Good, good. I’ll get in touch as soon as we’re back in town. Now, erm, I do still need those Panaceas.”

“Right, yes,” Dzo said with a nod. 

It took her nearly three minutes to remember where the Panaceas were kept. She had other, more important things on her mind.

SaffronDragon

And there we go, that's the first (and hopefully not the last) Orchemy story done. And, with it, my entire backlog of written material. For those wondering, my surgical recovery has gone really well: I'm back at home, feeling great, and almost ready to get back to writing. My main project, currently, is setting up my own homepage for storing all of my work outside of Scribblehub, using Wordpress. Once that's done, I'll get back to my actual writing. I don't know yet how long it'll be before I'm ready to start posting regularly again, but it might be a while before I have a backlog I'm comfortable with. Until then, thank you all so much for supporting me, sticking around, reading all of my work. Remember to check out my Patreon if you haven't already, I could always use the support and there are plenty of exclusive stories for y'all to read. See you at the next chapter.