“That was lovely. I can’t thank you enough for making that bathtub.” I sighed contentedly as I walked into Alys’ house, the warmth enveloping me after the brief period I’d spent getting dressed in the unrelenting cold.

  “I am glad you like it.” Alys shot me a smile warmer than my bath had been, though her brow quickly furrowed. “I have so much to do if I want to incorporate it into your house properly.”

  “Hmmm?”

  “I typically set a home’s foundation by digging it up, then slowly melting everything down into the sable stone. That makes the foundation much more stable and resilient. But that doesn’t account for plumbing or even a simple drainage system, since we don’t have any of that at the moment.”

  “Now that you mention it, I do remember wondering at the odd material all the houses seemed to be built on top of around here,” I mused.

  “Yes, that was me. Then you had to come along with your request for a basement and a bathroom. I could set up the basement the way I’d originally planned, just by making all the walls and room partitions out of sable stone, but then we wouldn’t be able to drain the bath normally.”

  “You’ve used that term twice now. ‘Sable stone.’ Is that the name your grandmother gave to the material her spell creates?”

  “From what she told me, my grandfather named it. But yes.” A smile flickered across Alys’ face. “I guess I could just use my breath to evaporate all the water once we’re done, but that wouldn’t help us take a shower and clean off before slipping into the bath. Evaporating the water at that point would leave behind a buildup of dirt and other unpleasantness. Not to mention the steam would cling to everything and probably cause mold to pop up.”

  “Right.” I sat down with a sheepish smile of my own. “I’ll admit I was tired enough that I just collapsed into the bath without washing up beforehand, this time around.”

  She chuckled, giving me a fond look as she walked over to the table and set a full plate in front of me. She’d kept it inside the oven while I was bathing, which I appreciated.

  “I did the same thing. That’s why I emptied and refilled the bath for you.”

  “Ah, makes sense. Thank you. The bathtub, though… I emptied it out, but it was rather heavy and a little unwieldy. Won’t we have some trouble moving it into the basement?”

  “Let me worry about that. That’s probably the simplest thing I’m going to have to handle.” Her expression shifted into a bit of a glare, though her tone was playful. “You really do make everything more complicated than it has to be, don’t you?”

  “Whatever could you mean?”

  I took a bite of my food to mask my grin. Then I paused and closed my eyes to enjoy the taste of lamb. It really was rather frustrating, being unable to indulge consistently in the meats I was used to. Still, that only motivated me to work harder on my new paste recipe.

  Alys grumbled lightly, but she was also leaning on one hand with her elbow on the table, watching me with a small smile.

  “What?” I asked, unable to help feeling a little self-conscious.

  “Hrrrm. Nothing. I am enjoying this moment. You mentioned working on something new today?”

  “Yes…” Giving her another suspicious look, I quickly checked my plate to see if any sauce had found its way into the food. Once I was certain this was not the case, I ignored her smirk and went on, “I think I have a decent product already. I made an animal supplement in the form of a paste. Theoretically, it should make the animals healthier. And, ah, make it easier for their numbers to grow. Quickly.”

  “Thorn… did you make some sort of animal aphrodisiac?”

  “No. Not exactly?” I sighed. “Alright. Maybe.”

  She burst into giggles, hiding her face in her hands as her shoulders shook. “Ooohhh, wait until Nasha and Arandel hear about this!”

  “That is not fair! Besides, tell me you don’t want steady access to chicken, lamb, and pork,” I demanded, biting down on my meal somewhat aggressively. “Go on, I’m ready to hear you lie to me!”

  “Fine, fine, that’s true…” Slowly, she got her giggles under control. “So, you think it’ll work? This paste you made?”

  I shrugged. “Probably? I’m going to need to get it tested. I was planning to approach that wolfkin family, the people who make cheese. I know they had a surname…”

  “The Hoffmanns?”

  “Yes! Thank you.”

  “Good idea, but I forbid it.”

  “What? Why?” I shot her a confused look, only to catch her looking back at me with considerable amusement.

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  “You want the stuff tested because you’re not sure it’s going to work properly, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that means there might be negative effects?”

  “Maybe? It’s unlikely, but maybe. At most, it would be a slight decline in the taste of meat or other products from the animal. Nothing worse than that.”

  “Hrrrm. That sounds fine and all, but do you want to take that chance with the one family that makes cheese in Swiftband?”

  I grimaced. “Oh. Good point.”

  “Yes, I know. I’ll give you the names of a few people you can visit tomorrow. Or you can hunt down Nasha and ask her for advice.”

  “Hmm? Why her?” I asked between bites.

  “She likes to help out with the animals when she has time, so she’d know everyone trying to raise some. The families with fewer animals might not be willing to risk them… Well, actually, maybe they’d take their chances if it meant increasing their numbers of livestock fast? I don’t know them well enough to guess.”

  “A dragoness is not on good terms with farmers? Who would have thought?” I teased.

  “I’ll have you know my grandmother never engaged in livestock theft!” she huffed. “People offered her animals as tribute, for fear that she’d just burn down everything in the vicinity of her lair. Do not laugh!”

  I wasn’t laughing. I was snickering quietly and hiding my smile from her judgmental eyes, but that was neither here nor there.

  “That’s it! You are done, right?” She peeked more closely at my plate, then nodded. “You are done. Come here, you.”

  “Noooo, an evil dragoness is abducting me! Somebody help!” I ‘wailed’ in the most deadpan tone of voice I could manage as Alys picked me up with almost insulting ease, stomping up the staircase to her bedroom.

  “No one’s here to hear you scream,” she hissed, which just made me break out into laughter again.

  —

  We started the next day bright and early. I was eager to find someone to test my feed paste, while Alys wanted to get started on the foundation of my house.

  I offered to stay and help her dig, but she looked at me like I’d insulted her and told me to get walking, or else. Being a clever fae, I didn’t ask what the ‘else’ option entailed.

  My draconic paramour had given me two names: Hagmar and Nelaeryn. A dwarf and an elf, respectively. They were neighbors, and according to Alys, they were constantly quarreling about one thing or another while pretending like the entire town didn’t know they were in a remarkably steady relationship.

  Hagmar raised sheep, while Nelaeryn preferred chickens. They had met on the road when the settlement drive first set out. One of Hagmar’s sheep had somehow made its way into the large cage where Nelaeryn was keeping her chickens. The pair had found the sheep trying to munch on a few chicken wings.

  Alys described the resulting quarrel as ‘more explosive than her breath.’ She then told me the two had been discovered in Nelaeryn’s tent the next morning when everyone was ready to leave and neither of them showed up.

  Interesting bit of town history aside, their homes were conveniently located right next to each other, at the very edge of town. Alys did tell me, however, that the two planned to move continuously as the town grew.

  Most of the farming-oriented families shared this plan. They would give their homes up to newer arrivals as new buildings were erected further away from the center of the town, trying to keep unpleasant smells away from more densely populated areas. Larger, more affluent settlements had ways to mitigate or even eliminate such issues, but Swiftband couldn’t afford a host of heavy enchantments just for managing the smell of livestock.

  Thankfully, farmers woke even earlier than builders and alchemists. I found the duo sitting together in front of Hagmar’s house, pretending like they were maintaining a distance from each other.

  “Good morning!” I called out when I was close enough to be heard without shouting. “Hagmar and Nelaeryn, I presume?”

  “Now, why would you say our names together like that, hmm?” the elf demanded. Her platinum-colored hair was pulled up into a rather severe bun, held in place not with traditional elven hair sticks, but with wooden skewers that looked like legitimate weapons.

  “Yeah, what she said,” the dwarf followed up gruffly.

  The two exchanged a heated glare. If Alys hadn’t told me their story, I would genuinely think they were about to lunge for each other’s throats.

  For all I knew, perhaps they actually would, but the context would be starkly different.

  “I was simply told that two of the best livestock keepers in town lived next to each other. I didn’t want to assume, but…” I gestured at the two areas marked out by fencing, where sheep and chickens wandered.

  “I see. And what would you need from us? Not every day we get a visit from the town alchemist. S’far as I know, neither of us is sick.” Hagmar eyed Nelaeryn speculatively, a bit of worry slipping into his expression.

  “No, no. It’s nothing like that. You see, I was thinking about how I could best help out the town, and I realized that the most important thing for our future is animal husbandry.”

  I was laying the praise on a bit thick, but I wanted them to be cooperative. Judging from the slight smiles on their faces and the new attentiveness in their eyes, I believed I’d succeeded.

  “Is that so? And how do you imagine you can help there?” Nelaeryn jumped in, looking at me appraisingly.

  “Well, I don’t know much about raising livestock. But I know a great deal about keeping people hale and hearty. And, to a lesser extent, animals. That’s why I made this!”

  I swung around a plain bag with no spatial expansion where I’d stored two large boxes of my newly developed paste. Extracting one and opening it, I presented it to the farmers.

  “This is a special type of feed paste I’ve made. It should keep your animals healthy, make them more resilient to any diseases and injuries, and even… ah, assist with increasing their numbers quickly.”

  They raised their eyebrows at that, but they took my claim in stride. In fact, it was that last bit that seemed to have caught their attention.

  “All of that would be mighty useful, aye…” The dwarf nodded thoughtfully, then looked away from the feed to meet my gaze. “You said ‘should’, though. Guessing this stuff is new?”

  “It is,” I confirmed. “That is why I’m here, actually. I need your help with testing the feed. I am almost certain it won’t have any side effects, be it for the animals’ health or the quality of their meat and produce, but I’d like that verified before handing the paste out more widely.”

  “Smart. Smart. The question is, though… why would we want to take that chance?”

  The dwarf’s eyes glinted as he stared at me. I held back a sigh when I saw a matching expression on the elf’s face.

  I could go to the elders and ask them to strongarm the duo into helping me, but I was loath to try that. It was much more prudent to stay on good terms with the people who supplied me with food.

  Taking a deep breath, I put on my most charming smile.

  “What would it take to convince you to help?”