Missing someone was… odd.

  First of all, the sincerity of the emotion was odd. Somehow, it was deeper and more personal than even the emotion that had struck me whenever my parents were away on Autumn’s business during my childhood, or when I had desperately desired the attention from them that so rarely came.

  The second oddity was the fact that I was missing one of the deadliest creatures I’d ever heard of, and whom I’d been terrified of not so long ago.

  Shaessath, The Incandescent. Shaessath, The Molten Expanse. Aesa, my grandmother.

  All interesting titles in their own right, even if I still couldn’t figure out how I’d ended up in the position to use the last one.

  Regardless, it was an undeniable fact that I missed her. I especially missed her presence in my laboratory, and the hours we’d spent working successfully towards a potion to improve a draconian’s bloodline.

  The second person I was missing was Alys.

  We had only been attached at the hip for a relatively short period of time, but I had grown delightfully accustomed to it. Now that I was back to working in solitude, I kept wanting to drop whatever I was doing in favor of tracking down my mate and wrapping her up in a hug.

  But I resisted. With Aesa being away, and Soren getting stuck with the task of tending to the spirit-gifted flowers and the mutated manchineel trees, Alys and Amara had a chance to spend some quality time alone. From the way my dragoness was smiling every time they came in for dinner, a meal which Soren and I had taken to cooking together, it was well worth it to spend my work hours alone and give them space.

  Still, it was hard to believe this was only the third day since Aesa’s departure. It felt longer. Between her absence and my decided lack of Alys while working, time seemed to stretch and drag.

  The worst part of my current mental state was the sudden dip in my motivation to experiment with the draconic materials Aesa had left with me. I went through the motions of properly refining them in the beetle flames and combining them with the flowers, but that was it.

  I did make more progress on perfumes, and I managed to catch up on the town’s routine demands. I now had enough alchemical products set aside for any customer who might actually show up at my shop, but again, I was frustrated by —

  A chime cut through my frustration the way a dagger might sink into a kidney: sudden, entirely unexpected, and with a rather nasty sting.

  The sting came from the stirring implement I’d been using, which had deposited a few boiling hot drops of the brew I’d been stirring onto my hand.

  Thankfully, I was not a mortal who would get hurt by something like that. Not so thankfully, the brew had also landed on my sleeve, so I now had an unacceptably large, glowing green stain there.

  I paused to get my emotions under control, though the mounting anger was relatively easy to set aside when I realized that someone had just entered my shop.

  Alys would not trigger the ward laid over the door. Between me and Aesa, it hadn’t been difficult to add the rest of my expanded family to the list of people allowed inside without setting off an alert. So, I could admit to feeling some mild excitement as I resealed the beetle’s flames and cast the string of spells that would eliminate all toxic fumes clinging to me.

  “I’m on the way! I apologize for the wait!” I shouted up the stairs.

  For a moment, I struggled with the urge to change into an unsoiled set of clothing, but I quickly decided not to be silly. This was the frontier. If whoever was up there would think less of me for having a stained sleeve from working, then they could kindly leave my shop. Not to mention that I had only made that stupid mistake because I’d been startled by their arrival to begin with.

  It wasn’t really an excuse, and my father would have been rather disappointed with my sloppiness, but I would just need to do better in the future.

  The thought of my father sent a brief spike of very conflicted feelings through me, just like it always did. It also wiped away the smile that had snuck onto my face at the thought of finally getting my second customer. Nevertheless, I managed to assume a welcoming expression by the time I emerged from the basement and stepped behind my shop’s counter.

  The wolfkin couple standing by the door stepped forward immediately.

  “Ah, Thorn!” The wolfkin man shot me a wide grin, which I returned even as my mind scrambled. “There you are! It is good to see you again!”

  I knew him. I knew I knew him. Alys had introduced us. This was the local patriarch of the Hoffmann family, the finest and only producers of cheese in Swiftband. The family was also notable because it had four members, rather than just two like most other families in town. The Hoffmann couple had been accompanied to Swiftband by two sisters, both related to the family patriarch, I believed.

  Stolen story; please report.

  It still took me an embarrassingly long time to dredge up his name, even though my pause was no longer than a second.

  “Dreven, it is good to see you, too. And Cellica.”

  My forced grin turned into a much more genuine smile as I looked the pair over, noting that the man was carrying a large bundle of some sort. The hint as to what might be inside of it came in the form of a rather distinct smell that only made my smile grow.

  “How can I help you today?” I went on. “I’m guessing you’re not here just to gift me all that cheese?”

  “Ha! I would be happy to, actually, but not today. First of all, congratulations! You barely got married, and now you’ve got a little one on the way? You and Alys work quickly.”

  “Ah, thank you,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks redden slightly in the face of their matching wolfish grins.

  I absolutely adored the fact that I was going to be a father, obviously, but receiving congratulations never failed to color my happiness with a hint of awkwardness. They were essentially congratulating Alys and me on the grand achievement of figuring out how to bed each other.

  Thankfully, the odd twist to my thoughts was derailed when Dreven’s expression turned a little more serious.

  “Sorry for bringing business up immediately, but the elders held a town meeting a while ago, and they explained there would be some changes made to how the town is run. They made a few announcements, too. One was about your shop, and about how we can ‘trade things for alchemical products.’ I take it that’s true?”

  “Of course! Was that put into question? Did they not explain things properly?” I resisted the urge to tack on a furious ‘again’, seeing as the elders had failed to get the news out that my shop was open weeks ago. “Is that why no one’s visited?”

  “Well, no.” Dreven cleared his throat. “That would be on account of the giant dragon people kept seeing around your house. I mean, we know it’s just Alys’ family coming to visit, but…” He shrugged. “Well, no one’s seen the dragon in a bit, so here we are.”

  I pushed down my annoyance and forced myself to see things from the perspective of an average Swiftband resident. Would I have dared approach The Molten Expanse in their shoes? Probably not.

  I still felt a little grumpy, though.

  “Yes… I understand that. Anyway, I assume you need something? Honey ginger candies, perhaps? Or something with a slightly more potent healing factor?”

  “It’s Holly.” Cellica spoke up, pressing into her husband. “She’s not doing very well at all.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked immediately. There was no way I would let anything happen to the Hoffmanns. Not after all the cheese they had just gifted to Alys and me.

  “She got hurt a while ago. One of our cows got startled and caught her arm with its horn, and the silly girl was too embarrassed to tell us. The wound… I think something got into it. It’s gotten worse and worse. And she couldn’t take care of it very well with just one arm, and…”

  Cellica trailed off. The worry in her voice was hovering on the edge of panic.

  I was already moving towards the rows of shelves Alys had made for me. “Have you taken her to see Vance?”

  “We haven’t.” Dreven winced, then looked away sheepishly when I shot him a look of pure disappointment. “It’s not because he’s a doctor and not a healer, alright? It’s… it’s absolutely stupid, but Holly refuses to go to him because she is embarrassed and, ahh, she…”

  An explosive sigh left me when I realized the exact sort of foolishness I was dealing with here. “She is fond of the good doctor, then?”

  Both Dreven and Cellica’s cheeks colored, though I could tell the man was fed up with his sister’s nonsense.

  “She is. I’m getting really worried, though. If there’s anything you can do to help, I’d owe you much more than just this one package of —”

  “No.” I cut him off as I reached the relevant shelves. In short order, I selected three healing potions, several special antidotes, and a small package of immune system boosting powders. I also picked up a small jar of honey ginger candies for the general health and healing boost, and carried my selection over to the counter. “Make that offer again, and I will get upset.”

  “But —” Cellica began, but I wasn’t having it.

  “Listen. Your family has been nothing short of a blessing for the quality of our meals. And you’ve given away far too much cheese already, simply because you are grateful to Alys. So, this isn’t just me wanting to pay you back a little. This is me refusing to let anything get in the way of you making more cheese.”

  I was absolutely serious, but the duo laughed in the way people do when they hear a genuinely good joke, even if the laughter was tinged with a profound relief.

  “Now, here’s my recommendation.” I indicated each product in turn. “These bottles are healing potions. These over here are antidotes that I’ve altered to treat infections as well as general poisons. They should be effective against blood poisoning. The candies, you are likely familiar with already. And, finally, immune system boosting powder. Have you heard about the latter?”

  I was surprised to see them nod.

  “The elders spoke of it a while back, so we know what it does,” Cellica explained. “It is currently being handed out to the more frail members of the town. But the elders mentioned you wanted everyone to have access to it eventually?”

  As she spoke, I moved swiftly past surprise to genuine shock. I could hardly believe the elders had properly communicated something to the townsfolk.

  “That’s right. The powder will help her get back on her feet and hopefully prevent any infections from making a comeback. Start with the antidote, though I warn you it will likely cause pain while it does its work. Then the healing potion, then the candies, and finally the powder, in that order. However, and I can’t believe how often I’ve had to say this, I am not a healer.”

  I paused to make sure the message got through properly. From their fervent nods, I trusted that it had.

  “So, my recommendation is that you take your sister to Vance and see what he can do before she takes the treatment I just recommended. Either he can boost the chances of the treatment working, or he’ll be there to oversee things and make sure your sister is actually fine after she’s taken everything. Either way, you should let Vance do his job.”

  “I was tempted to drag her off to him to begin with,” Dreven admitted. “She can just be so stubborn sometimes.”

  “Well, I’m fairly certain this will work, but why take any chances? Also, she’ll only need one antidote and one healing potion. I recommend keeping the others on hand in case something like this happens ever again.”

  They tried to protest, saying a bundle of cheese was hardly of the same worth as the alchemical products I was giving them, but I wouldn’t budge. In the end, they walked out the door with everything I had selected in tow, and I had a whole batch of cheese to enjoy with my family!

  I also couldn’t deny the feeling of warmth that lingered in my chest.

  Finally, my shop was doing its job. Finally, I was making alchemy more accessible to the townsfolk.

  Finally, I had some positive feelings to make the day go by a little faster.

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