Intense emotions, I found, were more tiring than any amount of alchemy or physical training. I felt wrung-out and hollow by the time we reached home, in spite of the warmth still coursing through me from Alys’ touch.

  There wasn’t much talking between us as we collapsed into bed. Only the lingering awkwardness of changing in the same room briefly lifted my mind from its hazy state, and even that wasn’t enough to jolt me into wakefulness.

  Alys seemed thoroughly amused by my sleepy behavior. Without saying a word, she drew me close and shifted me around until she was hugging me to her chest. I let it happen. She was comfortable, and I liked being close to her anyway.

  The moment her wings closed around us, I fell asleep like a candle that had been snuffed out.

  For all that I felt like my world had shifted ever so slightly towards something better, the following morning wasn’t anything ‘special.’ No grand gestures, declarations, or anything of the sort.

  We simply woke up and ventured downstairs. I made us a simple breakfast of omelets, placing cheese on top of the finished products and then folding them in half before letting them fry for a little longer. We ate the delicious food with our shoulders pressed together, leaning into each other’s presence.

  That was it.

  I felt utterly content with the simplicity of it all. I was coming to cherish deeply the simple peace that permeated my mind when I was in her presence. I couldn’t quite explain it properly or put everything into words, but spending time with her mattered.

  Of course, she was also perfectly content to kick me out of her house and then head over to where she was working on the foundation of mine. Even then, I couldn’t feel upset. I loved seeing the small smile on her face as she got to work, clearly enjoying herself.

  I resolved to employ similar passion with my own work… which, I realized, was beginning to pile up.

  I had accumulated several projects that required attention: the powder for boosting the immune system, the potions Nelaeryn would need during childbirth, the enhanced food paste or whatever else I ended up making for Grafton, and the animal feed experimentation. And, of course, occasionally tinkering with my healing products to improve them further.

  That was quite a list already. Furthermore, my supply of truly impressive ingredients around which to base these projects was frustratingly limited.

  I did have an idea I could pursue for the potions Nelaeryn would need, however.

  When Alys and I slew the eel-like draconic descendant that had tried to attack Swiftband, my poison had ravaged the abomination’s body, reducing it to nothing but bones and scales. Thankfully, said bones and scales were fully intact, and Alys had gladly consented to letting me have them.

  Perhaps I should have asked the elders for permission, but it was the two of us who had killed the thing. The town’s forces had merely helped a little while it was in its death throes.

  Besides, I really wanted the ingredients.

  Dragons were renowned for the potency of the ingredients that could be harvested from them. Better still, with the bones intact and under preservation enchantments, I had access to bone marrow. Its nourishing effects were extremely powerful, even when it was ingested raw. If I managed to craft a potion that imparted temporary draconic toughness on its user, Nelaeryn would be safe throughout her pregnancy.

  If I managed to imbue the potion with permanent effects, that could have several interesting results.

  Nelaeryn might never have to fear her curse again. If she took the potions a certain amount of time before the birth, her child might also see beneficial effects from it. That could theoretically protect the next generation from the curse as well.

  Not only would I keep my promise to Nelaeryn and her husband, but I was sure Alys would be proud of me for neutralizing the curse without having to break it. That was more than motivation enough for me to put in my full effort.

  Yet considering the bone marrow’s potential benefits for Nelaeryn also brought to mind two other ways I could use it.

  Grafton. I could help Grafton by dipping into my supply of an extremely potent and rare ingredient. Bone marrow, as I noted before, was highly nourishing. It could help him get back on his feet quickly.

  But I really, really didn’t want to do something like that just for him.

  The other idea was much more appealing: there was a chance that I could do something nice for Alys. It was a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.

  I didn’t like those negative emotions I’d seen flashing across her face when we were discussing dragons and all of their advantages. Now, I couldn’t turn her into a full-blooded dragon. But I could use draconic ingredients to help her purify her bloodline.

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  Probably.

  Potions like that did exist, but they were not an exact science. They had to be tailored to the person who was intended to drink them. I also didn’t have any recipes or knowledge of how such potions were made. All I knew was that only the most skilled alchemists attempted them.

  Normally, that fact alone would have driven my family to collect at least a recipe sample or two. Except my family didn’t care about such potions. They were only useful to what I once heard a cousin of mine refer to as ‘half-breeds.’ In other words, people with a trace of lineage descended from a species greater than their own.

  That made any such recipe utterly worthless to the Courts.

  Common fae could benefit immensely from such a thing, of course, but that didn’t help matters. The Courts were always a step or two away from declaring a cleansing of all those who ‘dared to muddy fae blood.’

  Hence my lack of training in bloodline purification potion recipes.

  But I could make educated guesses. I had keen, highly attuned alchemical instincts. And those instincts told me that while I could use scales and bone to craft bloodline purification potions, bone marrow would be far more effective.

  As such, I had three potential projects all vying for the same limited resource.

  If the eel monstrosity hadn’t been so big, I would be much more stressed. As it was, I would have a decent supply of the harvested ingredients, even if I ran them through my beetle’s flames for some condensation.

  I still didn’t think I had enough draconic bone marrow. Not for all three projects.

  Between the rendering, the experimentation, and actually crafting the potions, I would burn through the bone marrow faster than I could blink. Getting more would be a nightmare and a half, even if I could track down a draconic descendant whose death in the name of research and empowerment Alys would feel comfortable with.

  Then again, I would need to feel comfortable with it, too. I didn’t think I would like what I would become if I started hunting down sentient creatures in order to reduce them to ingredients.

  While I turned all of this over in my head, I worked on the simplest project I could tackle at the moment: helping Grafton.

  In essence, all I needed to do was to pack as many calories as possible into as small a portion of food as I could manage. That would hopefully allow his body to siphon some of the nutrients it needed away from the curse. If I were feeling particularly nice, I could work on a simple potion to let his body process said nutrients at an accelerated pace as well, but the base food was the most important.

  I can pack many vitamins and minerals into a paste with ease, I mused. I have the torture juice fruit from Alys, and that’s definitely rich enough in… everything, really. As a bonus, it will taste horrible, too! Yet that’s hardly everything his body would need…

  Suddenly, I had an idea.

  I paused what I was doing and wandered outside, looking towards the forest. “Kiri! If you can hear me, please get one of your birds over here!”

  I waited for a full minute. I was beginning to think that my gambit had failed when the flutter of wings drew my gaze towards the forest, just in time to see an owl emerge from the tree line. It was a small creature with comically large eyes that made it rather adorable. When I held my arm out and it settled there, with only a small pinch of claws against my skin, I couldn’t help taking a moment to pet it.

  It gave me a look of such put-upon pride that I decided to keep the petting session short.

  “I am working on something to help Elder Grafton, so I was wondering if Kiri could get me some meat. A deer, perhaps? Or a particularly large rabbit?” I smirked. “I suppose she could even go for a skunk or something similar, if Elder Grafton has annoyed her recently.”

  The owl tilted its head at me, hooted, and then flew off. The fact that it smacked my face with its wing on the way was surely a coincidence.

  Giving the adorable critter one final look as it vanished into the trees, I made my way back to Alys’ house. One simple request later, I had another three fruits to work with. It was astounding how quickly they regrew and in what abundance the tree produced them. Even after my small harvest, there were still four fruits hanging from the branches, and I knew there would be more by the next morning.

  Alys’ grandmother was a miracle worker. I couldn’t deny that I would’ve wanted to meet her at least once, even if she wasn’t related to the draconian I’d fallen in love with.

  While I waited for Kiri to do her part, I busied myself with reducing my other ingredients to a paste and rendering them down to something more nourishing. I tackled the fruits from Alys first, then a variety of nuts and other snacks I still had from my journey to Swiftband.

  The process was a bit annoying. I had to make a paste, reduce it to a much smaller brick of dried-out material, and hydrate it again so it was actually edible. Still, at least it was steady work that kept my hands moving.

  I tried tasting the resultant food paste and immediately regretted it. It was like someone had intensified the base taste of the ingredients countless times over. I genuinely felt lightheaded for a second.

  I decided then and there that serving such a thing to Grafton without mitigating the taste somehow was too cruel, even for me. I also decided to set aside a portion for Alys, because something told me my paramour would actually enjoy the taste.

  The horrible things I did for love!

  It was just as I was using up the last of my traveling snack supply that I heard a noise outside my tent and poked my head through the flap to investigate. The sight of a direwolf approaching would normally have elicited a different emotion, probably annoyance, but now I felt nothing but happiness.

  Kiri was certainly reliable. The wolf was carrying one of the largest deer I’d ever seen on its back.

  That happiness curdled somewhat when I realized I would have to process the animal on my own. But I didn’t mention that, of course. As the wolf dropped the carcass in front of me with what I could only describe as a grin and began to trot back towards the tree line, I merely sighed and started rummaging in my storage bag for the right tools.

  “Thanks!” I called, addressing Kiri directly through the wolf. “I’ll let the elders know you were extremely helpful. You can probably use it to annoy Grafton somehow!”

  The wolf swished its tail at me in response and vanished.

  I rolled up my sleeves, took a moment to grimace, and then got to work. I never had enjoyed extracting ingredients from creatures myself, so Grafton had better appreciate all I was doing for him.

  Something told me he wouldn’t.