I drummed my fingers absently on the surface of my lab table, waiting to see what would come of my experiment as my thoughts kept drifting back to the previous evening.

  In spite of the awkwardness provoked by poking at our pasts, everyone had pushed through and enjoyed themselves. We’d avoided the topic for the rest of the evening by discussing our current lives instead. It was fascinating to get a peek into the day-to-day existence of my friends, which I never would have gotten otherwise.

  I did note when the conversation shifted that Alys hadn’t gotten to share anything about her own past. I didn’t much mind, since I knew I could simply ask her about it on our own time, but I let her know I’d noticed with a look. This netted me only a sly grin in return.

  Later, after our guests had departed and we were washing dishes, I asked her why she hadn’t spoken up herself.

  Her response was accompanied by a devious giggle. “Only the elders know about my grandmother.”

  She’d left it at that, but I could tell she was imagining everyone’s faces when The Molten Expanse showed up. Even with my anxiety concerning the visit, I found the idea amusing myself… because surely, surely, my dragoness would not pull a similar trick on me.

  Right?

  Leaving aside a whole new potential source of stress, I focused once more on the bubbling blood being heated by my beetle’s flames.

  Alys’ blood.

  I hadn’t been able to resist the temptation to discover exactly how her blood would react to the beetle flame’s refinement. So far, the results were promising. The volume of the blood was reducing, of course, but its color was also growing richer and ever more jewel-like.

  Furthermore, the mana I could sense within the blood sample was growing. Not just getting denser, mind. The volume of mana soaking the blood was actually improving.

  I’d also witnessed an odd interaction between it and the flame’s own mana properties. The blood was devouring the flames even as it was affected by them, its power both strengthening and intensifying. This had definitely not happened when I carefully tested the flame’s effects on the materials from the eel draconic creature.

  Then again… Alys did have the blood of one of the world’s most infamous fire dragons flowing in her veins. The eel abomination had been attuned to water and lightning, and one of those elements directly clashed with the medium I was using to purify the materials. I could hardly expect any sort of resonance or synergy there.

  As fascinating as all this was, I was still left wondering what I could actually do with Alys’ blood. I supposed I could use it as a key or supporting ingredient in a bloodline purification potion, but that felt a bit… wrong.

  From rumors, guesses, and some limited… ahhh, ‘research’, it was believed among fae that dragons could benefit from devouring other dragons, specifically those of higher power than themselves. Likewise, feeding draconic materials to draconians and similar species resulted in limited bloodline purification, especially if the materials came from full-blooded dragons.

  Yet I knew for sure, with no guessing or rumors involved, that full-blooded dragons despised such cannibalism of their own fellows.

  Things were a bit murky when it came to draconic descendants, as proven when Alys freely let me have the eel abomination’s materials. Of course, that might have been because she didn’t consider the creature to be a draconic anything. She also had no idea I would think about feeding the materials to her.

  But cannibalism was still considered to be the highest insult and desecration one dragon could commit against another. Hence the historical records of some particularly vile dragons publicly performing the act against their slain rivals.

  There were rumors about certain rituals in which dragons would devour the bodies of their own fallen relatives in order to turn the tide of a battle, but only in cases of extreme desperation. And, again, those were only rumors. They differed wildly from the public stance all dragons took on the subject.

  Feeding Alys her own blood was, therefore, a topic I had no idea how to begin approaching.

  Even if I set aside her thoughts on autophagy, I also didn’t know what such an act could even do for her. There was the option of performing some kind of transfusion, especially if Vance could assist me, but I feared the benefits would be limited. It wasn’t like the strengthened blood would ‘infect’ the rest of her supply and convert it. Blood production depended on one’s bones, and I wasn’t even going to entertain the idea of extracting some of Alys’, just for the vague hope of improving them and putting them back inside of her.

  The mere thought made me shudder, even if I knew certain fae would jump at the chance.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  In the end, I realized the solution was simple: I needed to ask Alys what she thought about the subject. Whatever she wanted to do, I’d follow through with it. Other than the bone extraction scheme, of course.

  At any rate, I could always —

  A chime rang out, startling me and making me look around my lab in confusion. As wrapped up in thought as I was, it took me several moments to remember what that sound meant.

  Finally, my scattered mind landed back in the present. I hastily moved the blood into a proper container, resealed the beetle tightly, and bustled out of my lab.

  During the elders’ visit to my shop, the subject of my availability had come up. The conversation had centered around what would happen if I was down in my lab when someone decided to pay me a visit.

  To my utter shock, the solution had come from the most unexpected source: Grafton. The elder had grumbled to himself for a bit before asking for my permission to lay down two wards. One was on the door and would trigger whenever someone other than me or Alys walked into the shop. The second, connected to the first, was laid inside my lab itself (reluctant as I’d been to grant him access to the room) and would alert me to the visitor.

  This was the very first time the wards had activated.

  To say that I was startled would have been a grave understatement. I barely remembered to cast the spell that would remove most lab contaminants from my person. Thankfully, I’d spent most of the morning contemplating draconic materials and hadn’t done any brewing. While it was only right to keep the habit up, it wasn’t as important.

  I wasn’t sure what to expect when I finally emerged from the basement and hurried into the store section of our home. What I could say with certainty was that I hadn’t expected a startlingly young-looking wolfkin. She was examining the jars of honey ginger candies, her hands wringing the handle of a large basket she was holding.

  “Hello?”

  “Oh!” The wolf beastkin squeaked, whirling away from the jars to turn towards me. “Sorry! I was just… I mean… I was…” She flushed deeply and looked away. “Um… Nasha told me I should come here.”

  “I see,” I said slowly, caught off-guard by the whirlwind of words that had poured out of the girl. “Well, everyone is more than welcome to visit. The store only opened recently, since it took my wife some time to finish building it, but I should be able to help you with whatever you need.”

  The pride I felt for Alys’ work helped to buoy me, even if I was cringing a little on the inside.

  I wasn’t trained to act as a salesman. No Belladonna needed to be. People were already willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money to purchase any of our alchemical products. At least I wasn’t a complete awkward mess in this regard, since I could copy the way some of my family members acted when they really wanted to rip someone off: all smooth, silky ‘kindness’ and ‘helpfulness.’

  Not that I was planning to rip off any of the townsfolk. Other than Grafton, perhaps… eventually…

  “Wife?”

  I forced myself to focus just in time to catch the wolfkin’s glance. Her expression was tinged by sudden understanding and… was that disappointment?

  “The rumors are true, then?” she asked. “You married Alys?”

  Rumors? The news shouldn’t have been delegated to mere rumors after the elders…

  I froze. Had we actually told the elders our relationship was now official? I scoured my memories, but in the chaos of everything that had happened, I genuinely could not recall ever doing so. Even during the reveal of my shop.

  And that meant Alys’ grandmother was probably not aware that the granddaughter she was about to visit had claimed a mate.

  Biting back what would have sounded suspiciously like a whimper, I bent all of my Courtly training on the situation at hand. At least I could make sure news of our official relationship started spreading through town now.

  “We are married, yes,” I happily declared, ignoring the odd emotions I’d caught on her face earlier. “Now, how can I help you today? Were you hoping to trade for some of the candies? Poultices? A potion, perhaps?”

  Her face paled as her wolf ears stuck straight up. “Oh! No! I-I have nowhere close to enough coin set aside for something like that.”

  Once again, I was caught off-guard. And this time, I knew for a fact that I was justified to feel that way.

  Not only had the elders promised to spread the news of my store being open, but they had praised my plans to let people trade for extra healing supplies. I’d been explicit in my desire to give things up relatively ‘cheaply.’ I just wanted some more variety in our diet, along with materials to make more alchemical products which would help the town. The elders knew this.

  Yet here was my first customer, protesting that she didn’t have enough coin.

  I gave her a reassuring smile. “You do not need any coin. You can trade herbs, plants, and even food at extremely favorable rates for any alchemical products I have on offer. If you spend a bit of time harvesting things in the forest, though I would urge you to be careful when doing so, not even potions are out of your reach.”

  “Wait. That rumor is true as well?” she asked, her face shocked and her ears flicking in excitement.

  I wasn’t losing my temper, but I could feel my mien getting close to… frosty.

  “Yes.”

  “Ooohhh, I need to tell everyone! But, um, that’s not why I’m here. Nasha sent me, you see. She mentioned something about perfume, and how you are looking for things you can use to make it?”

  I blinked at her, then blinked again, keeping surprise firmly out of my expression. “That’s right. I’ve been thinking about dedicating some of my time to making perfume.”

  “Then I can help!” the girl exclaimed, bustling closer to the counter so she could thunk her basket onto it. “This is so exciting! I’ve been saving the perfume I brought with me, but it’s not like I had a lot of it to begin with. Then Nasha, of all people, asks me about my flowers! Nasha! She never cared before, but…”

  I was starting to tune out the wolfkin, whose name I still didn’t even know, but she recaptured my attention when she threw her basket open to reveal carefully prepared bundles of flowers. Roses, jasmine, lilacs, and more were all there, their scents mixing into something both pleasant and heady.

  “I sourced most of these from the forest. I love flowers, so I brought some of these with me from home. See?” The wolfkin’s tail wagged rapidly as she lifted a bundle of yellow roses out of the basket. “These are so lovely! And they smell so nice!”

  I, meanwhile, was stuck between profound thankfulness that Nasha had apparently liked the idea of me making perfume more than I realized, and the need to wring the beagle’s ears for sending the wolfkin after me.

  At least I was going to have plenty of flowers to experiment with.