I could have deflected. None of those present were rude enough to push, save perhaps Ritsu, who might be inclined to poke at me subtly. (Though I could admit that expectation was likely born from my current prejudice concerning the fox.) No one in the room would have taken serious issue if I refused to engage.

  However… I didn’t want to.

  Wasn’t the whole point of the evening to improve? To help Alys and me combat our tendency to cut ourselves off from the rest of the town? Besides, while the people surrounding me wouldn’t be rude or take offense, what would I do if a stranger in my shop posed a similar question? Better to practice now than to risk any future customers leaving with a grudge.

  More important, I did genuinely want to get closer to these people I considered friends.

  That’s why my mind was spinning away at top speed, poring over what I could say in comparison to stories already shared. Martha had spoken the longest and most freely, but in the end, I latched on to Nasha’s tidbits about her family.

  “You said you had relatives who make perfumes. Right, Nasha?” I received a nod from the beagle, who was looking at me a little guiltily now that she realized she had put me on the spot. “Well, that’s actually a bit like alchemy…”

  I trailed off briefly, lost in a memory I’d all but forgotten.

  It was so easy to focus on all the unpleasant parts of my childhood. They loomed so large, often drowning out the moments of true levity I’d experienced during my training. But those moments had occurred.

  I forced myself to keep talking. “My father’s the one who taught me most of what I know about alchemy. Yet he didn’t always give his full professional attention to potions and such. You see… he loves my mother, truly and sincerely.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Kiri twitch in disbelief.

  “So, for one of their wedding anniversaries, he decided to make a perfume based on her favorite flowers. And he decided to involve me.”

  I fiddled with Alys’ fingers absently, reliving a scene far in the past.

  “It didn’t go all that well, at the start. He somehow managed to make the perfume poisonous, thrice, before we even moved on to the matter of smell. Then we nearly managed to knock ourselves out a couple of times, the end results of our experiments were so foul. As it turns out, just because you are considered an exceedingly proficient alchemist doesn’t mean you can turn around and brew whatever you want. Not if you’ve never so much as touched the field before.”

  I carefully didn’t bring up my father’s official rank as an alchemist. Fae or not, there came a point when people who ranked high enough had very, very few peers. I didn’t need stupid foxes sniffing around and making any more connections to my background. Thankfully, my visceral reaction to the Summer Court dish was at least useful enough to throw him off the correct trail, if he did ever try to dig further.

  Despite the consciousness of that small omission, I couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across my face. I had precious few truly happy memories with my parents. But this particular one, now that I was remembering it, certainly counted.

  Dragging one’s unconscious father out of a lab after he was foolish enough to stick his nose right into an experimental perfume, and nearly suffocating oneself in the process, might have been traumatizing to someone else. To me, it was funny.

  In hindsight, at least.

  The protections and fail-safes would have ensured we came to no real harm, even if we both passed out. I could have cleared the air out with a single spell if I’d kept my wits about me. But we had disabled the personal air purification spells to fully experience our perfumes, and I’d panicked when I saw him drop.

  “One of the perfumes was so bad, he actually did pass out.” I chuckled, drawing sounds of amusement from the others as well. “We spent close to a week trying to get it right. Barely made it in time to present the gift to my mother, but she loved it…”

  I trailed off again, remembering how proud I had felt for my minor contributions when my mother’s face lit up.

  Of course, she had immediately proceeded to focus her whole attention on my father. The two had drifted off into their own world, as they did so very often, and I’d been relegated to the side to ‘enjoy’ the feast prepared for the occasion.

  Which was probably why I’d had to work so hard to dig up the memory in the first place.

  “Anyway.” I cleared my throat. “That did remind me that maybe I could attempt a few perfumes myself. I do try to keep my regular products smelling nice, or at least to eliminate smell entirely, but that’s not exactly perfume. Would anyone even be interested in such things around here?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I’d asked the question rhetorically, merely sorting through my thoughts out loud, so I was a bit startled by no fewer than three shouted exclamations of “Yes!” Kiri, Alys, and Martha instantly flushed and looked at each other before laughing.

  The minotaur laughed loudest of all. “Trust me, it will be popular. Just because we’re out in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean people don’t want to smell nice. Besides, it’s good stuff if you want to try and find someone to spend the rest of your life with. Or, you know…” She winked. “At least a few nights.”

  I forced a laugh to keep from blushing. She wasn’t flirting with me, but I still felt a little embarrassed at the implication that I would be assisting in the progress of such relationships.

  “I’m not too much of a fan,” Nasha chipped in. “My nose is very sensitive, and perfume can get in the way of my job. But I would still like to have some, for times when I’m not planning to go out into the wild.”

  Even Pen, though she stayed quiet, looked vaguely intrigued.

  What sealed my fate was glancing into Alys’ eyes and seeing a spark of what I could only describe as greed. Even if no one else wanted perfume, my dragoness was more than reason enough to put some effort into the endeavor.

  “I will see what I can do. I won’t promise they’ll be top-tier perfumes to awe the entire kingdom, but I think I can come up with a few options people will like. Maybe something subtle and, hmmm… pine-based, or wildflower? Perhaps even herbal? That way, it would blend into the forest scents rather well,” I mused, making Nasha’s tail wag loudly enough to draw attention to her.

  Rather than tease the beagle, the others focused on offering their own suggestions for scents they’d like incorporated into perfume. Unsurprisingly, Alys was keen on the idea of wood scents. I promised I would look into that area first.

  This did lead to some hearty teasing from the group about my prioritization of Alys’ requests over everyone else’s. I just shrugged and said it was only right that I do my best to keep my wife happy, which rather blunted their teasing and put a distinctly draconic smug smirk on Alys’ face.

  Regardless, the idea had definitely inspired me. Like most other alchemists, I had focused primarily on potions, salves, and pastes. They were the traditional things to make. Even with all my education regarding poison, I’d rarely worked with vaporish products. My family didn’t want the kind of substances we made to spread carelessly, after all.

  The few such items in the Belladonna arsenal were designed to turn gaseous only once exposed to the air. Such recipes were rare and used only for the most subtle and difficult assassinations. Even the sleeping potion I used on the bees, which made it possible for us to access their hives safely, required fire to propagate.

  I resolved to change that, at least. I didn’t want to have to start a bonfire in my garden every time I gathered honey. In fact, perhaps I could use some sort of scent-based product there. Didn’t mortal beekeepers, with not a bit of skill in mana or alchemy, use smoke to control bees?

  Frowning slightly to myself, I turned the thought over in my head. If I could come up with some form of gaseous product for the bees, it would assist just about everyone. I would have freer access to our hive, while hunters could potentially start harvesting from the direbear-protected locations. The town would then have far more honey to go around. And since the honey was an excellent source of low-grade healing, that would be a massive boon all on its own!

  “You don’t have to share anything if you’re uncomfortable.”

  The soft reassurance from Alys caused me to snap back to the conversation, which had continued to flow as my mind wandered.

  Looking around, I saw that everyone was focused on Kiri. Her stiff posture and Alys’ comment quickly showed me what was happening. Someone must have posed the same question to her that had so troubled me, and Kiri’s background was not any safer to discuss.

  I was just about to step in when the Winter princess spoke.

  “No. It is… fine. I trust everyone here, though I would like to request that you not share what I tell you with anyone else.”

  Her willingness surprised me, but I wasn’t about to discourage her if she was trying to take the same steps I was pursuing. Especially since she had been in Swiftband longer than I had, yet possessed just as small a presence in the town as I did.

  “I am just having trouble coming up with something to share,” she explained. “My childhood wasn’t particularly happy.”

  The admission came easily, like it didn’t matter much. From personal experience, I was not fooled.

  “But… we kept a lot of animals. Many of them rare and exotic. No one liked taking care of them, however. Only me.”

  I nodded. I didn’t think for a second that the Winter Royals deigned to work in their stables themselves, caring for the various deadly creatures used during their Wild Hunts. They certainly had servants for that. And, considering the tendencies of all Winter fae, I had little doubt that even those servants saw the task as beneath them.

  Kiri was likely the only one who had ever showed any genuine care, let alone kindness, to those creatures.

  “I spent a lot of my time with them. I learned how to care for them, how to help them thrive. How to understand them. I’m better than any other member of my family when it comes to using familiars,” she stated proudly.

  I simply nodded again. Truly, the number and variety of beasts she used was staggering, even for a Winter Royal.

  “They made me happy. Kept me safe. I’m only sorry I couldn’t have taken more of them with me when I left…”

  Kiri trailed off, leaving me to blink at her in shock.

  More of them?

  I hadn’t seen any especially powerful or exotic creatures among her collection of familiars. Had she simply kept them out of view? Or was one of the animals I’d observed around her more than what they seemed?

  I kept that firmly in mind, just in case it ever because a useful thing to know in the future. In the moment, however, the look of sadness that was somehow seeping past Kiri’s lack of expression took precedence.

  Everyone else seemed to agree with me. The conversation moved on, drawn to more current events. A few minutes later, Ritsu asked about Kiri’s current roster of familiars.

  The Winter fae perked up immediately and launched into an enthusiastic discussion of her animals. Their numbers, their breeds, their eating habits… I was learning far too much about how to keep the local wildlife healthy and content, but it was worth it.

  At least the sorrow was wiped away from Kiri’s face.