ideas, inspired. If a temporary enhancement was possible, it was within the realm of possibility that permanent changes could be made with nothing more than potions.
Alchemists had known for centuries already that, if you abused potions to the point of addiction for too many years, they could permanently modify your body as though through surgery.
The principle was a cornerstone of certain treatments, though usually only as a last resort. There were always side effects.
Maybe someday, one bottle could make you a Champion. Maybe that was already how it worked, and the Champion’s Guild just didn’t want everyone to know. Maybe…
Petal blinked and looked up. Night had fallen, and at some point she must have waited for all the students to pack up, descended from the rafters into an empty classroom, and left.
She inferred this from context, as she remembered none of it.
She was wandering the streets of Kalvin’s Rest, a port town in northern Erin where she knew no one. There were only a handful of locals still on the wide streets, and several of those gave her odd looks as she shook and clutched her notepad close.
She had gotten too absorbed. This happened sometimes. She was only vaguely aware of the passage of time when she drifted into her own head. Now, she found herself in a strange place hours after she said she’d return.
Petal slunk back into the shadows between a squat brick building and a place that looked like a saloon. Raucous laughter came from within, and she felt no desire to investigate further. She had to make it back to the ship.
Then a voice she knew cut through the laughter.
“You’re just meeting out here in the open, are you?” Jyrine sounded amused. “Children hide their secret clubs better than you.”
A man’s laughing voice responded, his consonants noticeably slurring together, and Petal followed him around to the other side of the presumed saloon.
Jyrine stood surrounded by four men, and she was by far the youngest and shortest person there. The least of the men was twice her size, and just watching him, Petal started to shake.
The loudest of the men was brown-haired and red-faced, and Petal didn’t like the look of him at all. He gestured too broadly with his hands, he was clearly drunk, and he looked Jyrine up and down with an openly hungry expression.
The other three didn’t give off the same sense of danger as that one, but they were still technically surrounding Jyrine. Did the girl know how much danger she was in?
“Well, you’ll have to lead the way. Unlike you boys, I have someone waiting for me at home.” Jyrine’s earrings gleamed emerald in the starlight as she nodded deeper into the alley. Which…now that Petal noticed, opened up onto something that looked like a cave.
How did that happen? Had someone hollowed out the stone wall of a building? No, the stone shouldn’t be more than a foot thick. Not nearly enough for a cave. And she was sure the alley had ended in a wall just a moment ago.
Petal pulled her head back around the edge of the wall, taking deep breaths and gathering up her courage. It took her enough effort to talk to strangers at all, and she hated confrontation, but she couldn’t leave Jyrine alone with these outsiders. Petal had to be the older sister.
Gripping her spirits tight, Petal stepped firmly into the mouth of the alley.
“…go of her,” she mumbled.
Two men, including the red-faced rude one, stared at her in surprise. The alley now ended in a wall. Jyrine and the other two men were gone.
What had happened to the cave?
Where was Jyrine?
The drunken leader glared at her, his expression darkening. “What are you looking for, little girl?”
Petal’s mouth stuck open, her lips quivering. Jyrine was gone.
The man’s scowl deepened, and he seized her by the left wrist. He shook her like a doll, demanding her attention.
It felt like Petal couldn’t get a deep enough breath.
“What are you looking for, I said! You spying out here? You spying on us?”
Petal tried to push air through paralyzed lungs to make a breath. “I…I’m a…”
With her one free hand, she withdrew her alchemist’s goggles from inside the pouch that hung from her waist. She waved them around, pushing them against her eyes in proof.
“…alchemist,” she managed at last.
The rude man shoved her away, still glaring at her. “Get out and don’t ask questions. Go!”
“That was my friend.” Petal’s voice was still unsteady, but she was proud of herself for