“Ah, uh, you mind if I try it here?”

  “I’m too scared to stop you. Go ahead.”

  Felix coughed. “Right, sorry.”

  Without waiting for a response, he popped open the vial and downed it in one go. It was so bitter he nearly spat it back out. Gritting his teeth, he strengthened his resolve and swallowed the vile concoction.

  After a short but agonising wait, his face began to tingle. His eyes whipped towards Olin. The shopkeeper was already holding out a mirror. Not wasting a moment, Felix pressed his face to the glass and scrutinised his chin. In the tense silence, he watched as soft, downy hairs slowly grew from his jaw.

  Felix stared in amazement as his ever-beardless chin sprouted a stubble. When the growth stopped, he looked up at Olin with wide sparkling eyes. “It worked. It actually worked!”

  “R—right, yeah. I guess it did grow something, huh? And you’re happy with it?”

  “Of course! This is fantastic!”

  Olin picked up the empty vial and inspected it. “That’s uh, good. As long as you’re happy, I guess.”

  Felix nodded before looking at himself in the mirror again. The stubble looked a little out of place on his young face, but at least people wouldn’t mistake him for a child anymore.

  “Ah, right. Was there something else you needed? I don’t think you came in for that.”

  With a smile still pinned on his face, Felix nodded. “Ah, yeah, I need a few things. Do you have something I can write with?”

  Olin dug around the back of the counter before producing a vial of ink, a quill, and some paper. “Here you go.”

  Felix deftly scribbled down the list of plants he originally came up with, then started a second list of local substitutes that might work.

  “Here. I need the first list, but those are mostly from the Feywild. If you have anything from the Highlands that would work in their stead, then I’d appreciate it. I substituted the ones I know how on the second list, but I’m not as familiar with Highland flora as I am with the Feywild’s.”

  Olin nodded along while reading. “Do you mind telling me what you’re trying to make? I’m no alchemist, but I’ve picked up a few things working with plants over the years. It will be easier to help with the substitutes.”

  “Ah, well, it’s nothing special. I want to make a couple of beauty products as a gift. One’s a hair dye, and the other darkens your skin to give you a tan.”

  Olin raised an eyebrow. “Alright, I can see how you’d make that from these. Though I’m not familiar with some of the elven ingredients. We’ll need to go through them and see if we can figure it out.”

  Felix quickly went about explaining the use of every plant in the recipes. It took a lot of back-and-forth to make any progress, and eventually, Olin set the page down in frustration.

  “Are you sure we have to use plants for all the substitutes? I’m not sure why you’ve only used them, but this would be a lot easier if we could mix in some minerals and Altrax feathers.”

  Felix stared at Olin blankly. “Huh? No, we don’t have to stick to plants. The recipe I have just happens to stick to them.”

  Olin tousled his beard and grit his teeth. “Bah! Why didn’t you say so? This should be easy then.”

  The shopkeeper quickly started running through the shelves, grabbing things as he went. The list wasn’t very long, so within a few minutes, he was back at the counter, spilling his haul onto the counter.

  “Here, will these do?”

  Felix examined the clutter of ingredients and after a few changes he approved.

  “Great, let me just pack everything up for you.”

  “Ah, actually... I don’t suppose you have a mortar, some water, and a bowl for me to mix things in? If you don’t mind, I’d like to make it here.”

  Olin looked at Felix like he was seeing him for the first time. “And why would you be wanting to do that? What if we figure out how to make it and steal your creation?” He asked with a raised brow.

  “Huh? I’m just worried that some of the substitutes won’t work, and I don’t want to come back. I’d rather just finish it in one go. As for the recipe, that’s not a problem. I found it in Elorin’s ‘How to Wow Your Husband and Charm Your Crush.’ It’s in most small-town libraries in the Feywild.”

  Olin spluttered when he heard the book's title. Belatedly, Felix realised that his words might be misunderstood.

  “Ah, it’s not like that! I read a lot of books. That just happened to be one of them.”

  Olin raised a hand to stop him. “You don’t need to explain yourself, son. Everyone has their own interests. I won’t judge you for yours. C’mon, follow me upstairs. We should have everything you need there.”

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  Felix stammered, trying to think of a way to explain himself without making it worse. In the end, he just gave up and followed Olin upstairs.

  It didn’t take long to get everything he needed together and start making the dye. It was a simple process of crushing some plants, mixing them in a specific order, and adding a bit of water now and then. With Felix’s permission, Olin stayed to watch the entire process. If it worked, then Felix thought he might see it on the shelves if he ever visited again.

  It took a couple of tries to figure out how to use the new ingredients, but he managed to produce something that looked viable. When he stepped away with a satisfied smile, Olin came to have a closer look.

  “That was pretty simple as far as alchemy goes.”

  Felix shrugged. “It’s just a common tincture. It’s pretty popular with the elves.”

  “So how do you know if it works?”

  “You have a knife?”

  Olin found one and passed it to Felix. With a quick thanks, Felix used it to cut off a lock of his hair. It was a tricky maneuver with one hand, but he knew from past experience to pinch the lock between his thumb and the flat of the blade before twisting the edge into the hair to sever it.

  Setting down the knife, he picked up his newly severed lock and dipped it into the dye. After a couple of seconds, he lifted it out and shook off the excess.

  “Did it work?”

  “Give it a minute. If it worked, it should absorb into the hair, and the colour should steadily get darker. It shouldn’t take long for it to turn almost black.”

  And indeed, after a short wait, the hair absorbed all the remaining liquid and began to darken, making Felix nod in satisfaction.

  “Looks like it worked. We’ll know for sure once we leave it to darken for a bit. Do you have a flask I could put this in? We can move on to the skin darkening tincture while we wait.”

  Olin was happy to oblige. After the dye was transferred to the flask and the tools were properly cleaned, he started on his next project. This one was a little more involved, it required cooking some of the ingredients. It took several tries, and in the end, they had to change one of their substitutes back to the more expensive Feywild plant to get it right.

  Fortunately, the longer they worked, the clearer it became that the dye was a success. The lock of hair Felix left out turned as black as obsidian, retaining only a subtle golden lustre from his natural hair colour.

  The more the results of their first concoction became apparent, the happier Olin was to help with the second one.

  “If this still counts as a tincture, then I need to treat the alchemists who shop here better. I can’t imagine what goes into real alchemy.”

  Felix chuckled. “It’s not that bad. We’re trying to come up with a new variant of a recipe here. Once you have it, it isn’t hard to produce. Besides, I know a couple of real recipes, and they honestly don’t look that hard. It’s just that without the proper affinity, you won’t be able to make them.”

  “Ha, did you happen to find those recipes in libraries as well?”

  Felix nodded. “Yup. You can find a lot of great stuff visiting small-town libraries. An alchemist dies, leaving behind a few tomes and no heir? Better toss them in the library. It’s not common, but I’ve seen it happen a few times.”

  Olin gave Felix a look that suggested he was being an idiot. “And you think some small-town alchemist left behind real recipes? If they had the real deal, they wouldn’t have been stuck dying in a small town without anyone to pass their knowledge on to. You probably got the equivalent of folk remedies with a bit of mana manipulation tossed in to make them taste better.”

  Felix coughed as he remembered the cost of accessing the alchemy books in Starfarer Willow’s grove.

  “Uh, yeah. Fair enough. Anyway, we should test this one.”

  Olin’s expression left little doubt that he noticed the clumsy attempt to change the topic, but he didn’t call Felix out on it.”

  “How are you going to test this one?”

  “There’s nothing for it, I’ll just have to try it on myself. It’s not ideal, but at least there’s nothing in there that could be harmful.”

  Without pausing, Felix dipped the corner of a rag into the tincture. “Ah, could you give me a hand? Just lift my shirt a little so I can apply this.”

  Olin nodded and did as asked. So Felix wiped the corner of the rag on a patch of skin and watched as it went from a pale white to a honeyed brown as his skin soaked up the concoction. Putting down the rag, he took over, holding up his shirt from Olin. Neither of them said a word as they waited to see if anything would go wrong.

  When his skin didn’t blister or turn purple after a couple of minutes, they were happy to declare it a success.

  “That’s that then. Thank you for helping out. If you have another flask, I can get this cleaned up and take care of the bill.”

  “Hmm, I’ll get you your flask, but I have another proposition for you when it comes to the bill. I think we could make a pretty penny selling these. If you’re willing to let me use your recipe, we can call it even. I’ll also give ya half the profits going forward. What do you think?”

  Felix looked at Olin in confusion. “You already have the recipe, and I told you, it isn’t mine.”

  Olin shook his head. “I won’t be stealing your recipe, and make no mistake, it is yours. Half the things in here aren’t in the original. By all rights, this should have taken you months of experimentation, even with my help. I knew it after we talked about what substitutes to use, but seeing it actually work drove it home. You really know your stuff.”

  “Well, as you said, you helped. I couldn’t really call it mine,” Felix said while scratching his now-stubbled cheek awkwardly.

  “Don’t insult me, boy. I know how much I helped, and so do you. This is yours. No reason to be modest.”

  The unimpressed stare Olin gave him forced Felix to consider the dwarf’s words. He hadn’t thought of what he did as anything special, but it was, wasn't it? To him, it was easy, but that ease was built on years of effort.

  He was in no position to say no to coin, either. There’d be a fee to send funds through the Explorer’s guild, but the more coin he had when he reached Keldren’s Deephold, the better.

  That led him to another realisation. This might be more than a good bonus. It might actually be necessary. After thoroughly considering it, he finally looked Olin in the eye.

  “Yeah, I think this could work. I’ll agree to it. I think we could do even better, though. Do you think you could prepare a few of each and send them to an address I give you? I think I have an idea that will benefit both of us.”

  With another half an hour of ironing out details, Felix and Olin came to an agreement. Felix left the shop with directions to the nearest tailor and a smile. He couldn’t fight, and couldn't openly face the people looking for him. But he didn’t need to be passive about it. He could plan, and he could take the challenge for what it was.

  ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a desperate situation. It feels a little nostalgic.’

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