71 – A Day Off
The chef’s entire workstation was laid out bare for the customers to observe, and he clearly took great pride in making a show of his work, flicking pieces of meat high into the air with a cleaver only for them to land on an upward-facing skewer. Despite his piercing gaze and ice-cool attitude, Zelsys felt no apprehension as far as approaching him, offhandedly asking, “What’s the daily special?”
His brow furrowed, he gave her a stern look, then with an equally powerful and friendly voice spoke, “Beast-slayer special. Marinated bear meat and spiced bell pepper and sweet potato skewers, boss.”
The skewers were each separate - one skewer had neat cubes of bear meat, whilst the other bore a cornucopia of colorful vegetables. Between the food and the rather decent ale offered by the establishment, it was a very pleasant meal, priced at a surprisingly cheap one gelt per skewer, for a total of four gelt plus two gelt for their drinks.
It was also, all in all, forgettable beyond the impression left by the chef. Sure, it was good food in a nice place, but the vast, vast majority of both Zel’s and Zef’s attention remained directed towards one another. Soon enough, they had left the establishment and spent the next couple minutes idly walking the promenade, content to wile away the nice weather in each other’s presence.
Candy for the eyes and for the soul was complimented by candy for the mouth when they discovered a young Ikesian peddling candied fruits from the windowsil of his own home - a single gelt for a wax-paper bag of the stuff. So it was that the two women spent their afternoon, and despite that afternoon’s utterly uneventful nature, they were glad to have spent it as they did.
Upon returning to Riverside Remedies, Zelsys was immediately beset by Makhus’s sleep-deprived visage in the hallway just outside her and Zef’s bedroom. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was somehow ghastly-pale to the point it was noticeable through his already incredibly pale complexion. “You’re finally back,” he said. “Good. Zel, mind giving me the Necrobeast’s Azoth and some of your blood? I’ve an idea. Nothing to do with tattoos, promise.”
“...Sure?” Zel agreed hesitantly, retrieving the stone from Fog Storage. She had no personal attachment to it, seeing as she didn’t have a way to derive any use from it. “Why more of my blood, though? I already gave you a sample.”
“Oh, just… The reason is a little farfetched, to be honest,” the alchemist admitted. “I think I could use your blood specifically to isolate a single aspect of an Azoth stone to entirely sidestep the negative aspects of traditional absorption methods at the cost of no secondary benefits.”
“So uh… What did you learn from the tests you wanted to run, in the first place? Clearly you learned something, if you believe my blood to be somehow different from a normal person’s.”
“Oh, you uh… You’ve got teeny-tiny Azoth stones in your bloodstream,” he plainly stated. Makhus was so sleep-deprived his usual barriers had broken down as his mind made efforts to keep running despite only being sustained by Liquid Vigor. “I’m not sure why, but I have a theory. A theory I won’t share until I’m sure of it, ‘cause frankly, it’d be a lil’ much to say it without certainty.”
His bloodshot eyes wandered about for some time whilst he recollected his thoughts, thin wisps of green Fog rising from his mouth despite the fact he wasn’t holding a seal-bottle. He must’ve had consumed so much of the substance that some of its active ingredient managed to evaporate before his body could process it. It would explain his somewhat inebriated state, considering the not insignificant alcohol content of Liquid Vigor - only well and truly copious amounts of it would render its invigorating effect lesser than the intoxication that came from its alcohol content.
Zelsys sighed. He clearly wasn’t in any state to have a serious discussion with, and so she just asked, “How much blood?”
“Uh…” he narrowed his eyes, staring off into the middle distance as he slowly raised his hands as if to count on his fingers. “‘Bout half a syringe to do what I wanna do, goin’ by the Azoth Particle density of the first sample. Made that term up, think it’s got a nice ring to it.”
“Alright, look,” Zel put her hand on his shoulder, having made the decision to play the voice of reason for once. “Get some sleep first, talk to me about this tomorrow morning. Then I’ll give you the rock and the extra sample, deal?”
A slight smile, and a slow nod. “Deal,” he agreed, slowly turning on his bootheel and walking towards his and Sigmund’s room as he continued talking to himself. “How long’ve I been awake for anyway? Twenny hours? Thirty? Forty maybe?”
Into his room he went, as did Zelsys into hers, immediately met by Zef lounging on the bed with a bemused look on her face.
“Let me guess, he’s been awake since yesterday,” she guessed, clearly familiar with this situation. “Acts like a mad scientist when he does that, tried to give my eye a third pupil last time it happened.”
“This is a normal occurrence for him?” Zel chuckled whilst she shed her boots, sitting down on the bed beside Zef. The response she received was a simple, “Pretty much every time he finds a new obsession.”
It would still be a little while before the sun set, and so, Zelsys decided she would do well to learn more about her own abilities. She had an instinctive understanding of Fog-breathing and the Fog in general, that much was true, but that very instinct also told her there was much trial and error she could entirely avoid by just asking questions or reading books. After all, even if the knowledge of others wasn’t one hundred percent useful to her, that didn’t mean it was useless.
“What’d you know about Fog-breathing, by the way?” she asked Zef after a few minutes of silent deliberation. “Between what you learned yourself and what they taught you in training?”