3.08 Alchemy Tutelage

“That cheap?” Rosalie asked. “Huh. I expected her to charge more. Our yield was larger, this time, and higher complexity.”

Zoey and Delta shared a look. Delta grinned, then turned back to Rosalie and said, “Guess she was feeling generous. Maybe something put her in a good mood.”

Rosalie narrowed her eyes, sensing something in Delta’s words, but she didn’t care enough to pursue. She brushed past it.

It wasn’t like Zoey was trying to hide what had happened at Fe’s workshop—Rosalie didn’t care if Zoey got around, only the manner in which she did, as with the dressing room attendant—but explaining their encounter with Fe wasn’t something Zoey could just blurt out.

‘Hey, she probably gave us a discount because Delta fucked her brains out. Using my cock.’

Yeah, that would go over well.

And what an odd sort of an encounter it had been, too. Zoey had just stood there; she hadn’t interacted with Fe at all, besides some blushing, steamy looks. Delta had been the one to use her cock to fuck the sheep girl. And what a sight it’d been, especially when paired with how she felt every jerking plunge of Delta’s arm.

Portals. Pretty neat stuff. Zoey was really coming around on the stranger set of sex items they were receiving. Variety was the spice of life, and all that. Delta’s adventurous spirit was rubbing off on her; Zoey thought she’d like to try out some weirder items, if they received them.

“So,” Rosalie said. “You’re headed to Sabina, next?” Zoey nodded, and Rosalie turned to Delta. “And you, to Maddy?”

“That’s gonna be a fun talk,” Delta said, and somehow, she sounded like she meant it. Zoey had found it seriously awkward to explain her class to Delta, but Delta didn’t seem to hold the same reservations. Though, Zoey supposed, it wasn’t her embarrassing situation to be in; it wasn’t her class. But even if it was, Zoey thought Delta might find it hilarious to explain. Clearly, ‘shameless’ was a term well-applied to her orange-haired team member. “I wonder how she’ll take it,” Delta said. “I don’t think she’s a prude, but she doesn’t get around, either. A sex class might be a bit much for her.”

Rosalie didn’t seem concerned. “There’s always other options. And she only needs to train Zoey—joining the team is peripheral.”

Though, Zoey thought, she still needed to work out how to ‘recharge’ during practice. It only worked with bonded targets, and asking Maddy to take care of it—a stranger—would be going way too far.

Zoey figured she might as well bring it up. Because there was a solution.

Zoey cleared her throat, though, hesitant at having to broach the topic. Delta was the shameless one, not her. “Uh. Recharging, during lessons. I think there might be a way to handle that? Without locking one of you down.” Having to accompany her, Zoey meant. “The portal.”

“Escort it around, and any time it gets hard, take care of it?” Delta asked, grinning. “Yeah, I was thinking that, too. Probably our best option, so you don’t run out of juice. But who? Me, or Princess?”

Rosalie sniffed. “It depends when. That’s hardly something that can be handled out in public. But I suppose if I must, I could work the event into my schedule. Perhaps during training.”

“Don’t sound too excited,” Delta grinned. She saw through Rosalie’s colored cheeks as easily as Zoey; the idea of needing to remotely ‘take care’ of Zoey titillated her. “But yeah. Comes down to scheduling,” Delta agreed. “Can be either of us. We’ll figure it out when I talk to Maddy, get a time she’s available.”

Zoey nodded, and a brief silence settled across the trio.

“Okay,” Delta said. “Sounds like we have our plans. Meet up at the Guild, whenever, we’ll figure out our next steps.”

###

It was a bit odd being on her own.

Zoey had been accompanied nonstop since her arrival to this fantasy world. Either Rosalie, or Delta, or Not-Zoey—but besides small moments here and there, picking out clothes or shopping, Zoey hadn’t struck out on her own in any meaningful way. Now, winding through the crowded streets and bridges of Treyhull, Zoey was alone. Unaccompanied.

It felt weird, honestly. And she must be growing stupidly co-dependent, because not a few minutes after parting, she already missed Rosalie and Delta. To her credit, how couldn’t she?

Navigating on her lonesome was the smallest amount intimidating, too. There were maps and navigation boards scattered throughout the expansive city, but Rosalie had been the one to handle it, before. Not that it was overly complicated—the city was designed with visitors in mind, considering the nature of the Fractures—but still, Zoey had gotten used to relying on Rosalie for … well, everything. Zoey hadn’t needed to be independent in about any way.

She found her way to the artificing district, only making a few wrong turns. She’d never been someone with a great sense of direction. If nothing else, seeing more of the city was exciting; though after a few days the majority of the novelty had worn off, exploring a fantasy world was far from something she’d accustomed herself to. And Treyhull—The City in the Trees—had plenty to admire.

Sabina's store was in much the same state as she remembered. While Sabina had a reputation for competency—hence Fe's recommendation of her—that reputation, Zoey had learned, extended only to the alchemy portion of her career. The shopkeeper portion, she couldn't be much worse at.

The storefront was in poor condition. The windows had visibly not been cleaned in ages, and while not in outright disrepair, the wooden planks were in need of freshening up, too. Nestled between several stores in much better shape, Sabina's neglect was all the more apparent.

Zoey wondered why she spent so little effort in maintaining her store and performing her peripheral duties as an alchemist. Even if she found them tedious or ill fitting of her, a prospering business would allow her to continue her research and advance her runes. That, at least, she should care about.

Maybe it wasn't intentional so much as outright ignorance? That seemed unlikely, but then again, Sabina had an air about her of … well, Zoey wasn't sure she was putting this the right way, but from the few interactions she'd had with the tall antlered woman, she didn't seem to think or behave like most people. Her hyper-fixation for experimentation seemed even more prominent than could be excused for a scientist, as Fe.

She'd remembered to flip over the 'OPEN' sign, at least.

The bell fixed to the top of the doorway rang as she stepped in.

Zoey scanned the interior of the messy alchemy store, looking for Sabina, but she was nowhere to be found. Approaching the cashier's desk, Zoey called out, "Sabina?"

"One minute," the delayed reaction came.

While Zoey waited for Sabina, she perused the shop. Her two visits to Sabina’s store had been short, and she hadn’t looked around much. Seeing how Sabina was to be her tutor, she would be becoming acquainted with this space. Zoey didn’t know how in-depth she would be going with her crafting rune, but she wanted to give it a fair shot. Maybe Ephy had given it to her for a reason. Assuming Ephy was, in fact, behind the runes she’d received.

The store was a mess, in the same way as the outside. Shelves lined the walls, stuffed with potions, ingredients, and contraptions of various shapes and sizes. Utensils for alchemy, undoubtedly, and other strange miscellanea, but Zoey hadn't a clue what each was for. The large cauldron she kept in the corner of the store boiled at a steady, controlled rhythm. Like usual, Sabina had an active brew going, though she'd left it unattended. That part, Zoey didn’t worry over. Sabina might have demonstrated a lack of care in many things, but her ability to brew—that much, she had a pristine record.

Eventually, Sabina appeared, emerging from the back room.

What struck Zoey first, like usual, was her height. Zoey had already been tall for a girl before her transformation, and Ephy’s reworking of her body had added a few inches on top of that, from what she could tell. Sabina, however, towered over her, even still. Towered over everyone, just about. Six three? Maybe taller. And her antlers, which branched out another foot or more, added to her frame.

Even so, Zoey wouldn’t call her ‘imposing’, necessarily. She was too stick-thin and elegant-looking to be intimidating. But … maybe for a sense of the phrase. She certainly drew attention wherever she went, Zoey felt safe in saying.

She was wearing her usual lab gear, which was curiously similar to what Zoey might have seen back home: a white lab coat, goggles, gloves, and practical-looking closed-toe shoes. Ready for working with dangerous substances, which, though Zoey was no experienced alchemist, she assumed there would be plenty of. If nothing else, working with cauldrons of boiling liquid justified the dress.

Her goggles were pulled up and placed on her forehead. Cold gray eyes appraised Zoey, and while Zoey wouldn’t call the woman’s figure intimidating, her eyes undoubtedly were. She had the sternness of an orphanage matron, or a school principal—or those were the images that jumped into Zoey’s head, at least. She brooked no incompetence, one could appraise on first sight, and while the woman’s impassive scrutiny of Zoey wasn’t disapproving, it was certainly … well, scrutinizing.

To sum it up, she was as hot as Zoey remembered. Zoey’s heart rate inappropriately picked up, and her response came a second slower than it ought to have.

“Uh, hey,” Zoey said. “I’m back.”

“I can see that.” Sabina’s gaze flicked to the slow-boiling cauldron in the corner of the room, then returned to her. “What did you bring?”

No niceties, or polite statements that Sabina was happy to see she hadn’t turned into monster food, but Zoey had expected as much.

“Lots,” Zoey said. “Got a good haul, this time. Some interesting stuff. I was wondering, too, if you weren’t busy—maybe we could have our first lesson?”

Zoey realized now might not be the most convenient time. It was daylight hours, and, ostensibly, the time Sabina would be making her living by selling potions. At a minimum, she was working on a brew, as shown by the cauldron in the corner of the room. Then again, Sabina’s shop really didn’t see much traffic, and her active brew could maybe be made the lesson.

“Hm,” Sabina said, giving it a second’s thought. “Now is as good as ever, I suppose.”

And yeah, it looked like it was fine. Convenient. And also concerning—seriously, why was this woman so bad at business? Sabina definitely should stay open; wasn’t she barely making ends meet, as it was?

It was a hefty serving of ‘she simply didn’t care’, Zoey thought, but she also felt confident it was ignorance, too. As if the idea she needed to stay open and look for customers to make money didn’t even pass through her head.

It wasn’t really Zoey’s place, seeing how she barely knew Sabina, but she might try to broach the subject at some point. Maybe give her a few pointers, though that would be awkward—again, she didn’t exactly have the right, or her own experience managing a business. But obvious suggestions. Like cleaning things up. And … opening and closing at consistent times.

Honestly, a partnership might be useful, here. Zoey had some odd ingredients, and with Sabina’s talent with alchemy, they could coax out their uses. Lewd potions of all sorts … if Sabina straightened up her store, there might be money to be made, together. Money didn’t seem like a bottleneck, something Zoey needed to put significant effort into earning, but Rosalie didn’t have access to her family’s funds as it stood, and Zoey wouldn’t want to mooch off her anyway, when the time came that she did.

Maybe Zoey could make her own small fortune. Sex potions ought to sell well, wouldn’t they? It depended on just how rare these reagents were, she supposed, and whether there were equivalents to be found.

“Your yield,” Sabina said, walking to the counter, and dragging Zoey back from her brief contemplation. “Let’s see it.”