Rayne

by Blake Severson

  From these common potions, they moved to more advanced ones. Cure Disease Potion, Mana Potion, Stamina Potion, and the always loved Health Potion followed. These were every adventurer’s bread and butter and always brought profits with them. They were also commonly found in some thieves hideouts for a premium, but what was money compared to your life?

  The completed potions and salves never left this shop after Rayne had made them, and all ended up back in storage crates and carefully packed in containers to take out on trips to sell. Gerrard would occasionally take a box to different businesses to sell. Rayne discovered that Gerrard didn’t sell any of the stuff directly, and all of his goods were moved through other vendors. These vendors were also his source for more ingredients.

  The thrill of learning this was making him giddy, and he was doubly pleased with Libby’s progress. She was doing a fantastic job at the inn, and Greta just gushed over her. She started treating her more like a daughter over time, and Libby started to open up and talk even more. Her voice also gained a little more authority to it and wasn’t meek all the time. Their life had finally become one they were both proud of.

  ◆◆◆

  Months passed as the work became monotonous but at least Rayne hadn’t had to use his daggers for anything lately. His plans for resuming his work with the Shadows of the Flame were quickly receding. He was enjoying the chance to be an average person and live a normal life.

  Their work continued and, after almost a year with Gerrard and Greta, they felt like a true family together. Rayne could give Gerrard a hard time and joke with him while Rayne was also pretty sure Libby could burn the inn down and Greta would just smile at her in delight and compliment her on her Firemaking skill.

  Rayne had also heard the story of the inn’s name. To his surprise, it was nothing like what he expected. Instead, it was almost a literal representation of the story. Gerrard had tried to collect some honey from an old tree stump during one of his early merchant runs to surprise Greta and when he had leaned over the rim of the tree, he fell in and was trapped. This led to quite a few stings, which he had obviously survived, before one of his fellow merchants could get him free. Ever since that day, Greta had never let him forget his folly of falling in the honey hole.

  As the months rolled by, Rayne noticed a disturbing trend. Times had always been a little tight, but over the past months it was getting progressively worse. The stock of herbs the shop had kept dwindling and they were cutting back on their production almost weekly. Their deliveries were also dropping as he had overheard Gerrard complaining about poor prices he was getting for the merchandise.

  Rayne heard the door open and turned to see who was coming in. The big man who entered was familiar to him. Adula was a man that Rayne had seen plenty and was one of Gerrard’s resellers. The big man smiled good-naturedly and waved to Rayne as he continued through the store and went to Gerrard’s office in the back.

  Rayne was confused by Adula’s appearance. He was wearing a weapon for the first time Rayne had ever seen. The look in his eyes showed a touch of fear. Rayne worked his way to the back of the room and took up his position near the wall to Gerrard’s office. It was close enough to hear the conversation.

  “It’s getting worse. If something isn’t done soon, this city is going to end up in a civil war,” Adula said.

  “What are we to do? The taxes are already so bad we can barely stay open. You have been suffering from a lack of sales just as I have since no one has the money for goods anymore. Even being able to get raw materials has been a challenge,” Gerrard responded.

  “I fear that will get worse. I’ve heard that most of the outlying farms are being stripped bare and don’t have enough seed stock to replant. The crime rate has gone through the roof lately and it isn’t safe for trading caravans to travel anymore,” Adula said in despair.

  Gerrard sighed at that news, “I fear you may be right. There isn’t anything we can do but prepare for the worst. I suggest you start stockpiling any essentials you can and just hope this blows over.”

  Adula wasn’t the first merchant, nor the last, that came by the shop with similar complaints. Rayne had also heard plenty of similar discussions in the inn while eating. The darkness that loomed in the air affected the entire city and the situation was gradually falling into chaos.

  Crime had become so frequent in the city it had forced Rayne to start wearing his armor and daggers again. They felt alien to him after so long without using them, but he would not take the chance of needing them and not having them. The city had been quickly spiraling out of control and there didn’t seem to be any reprieve coming.

  Rayne had also heard rumors of a faction growing in the city that planned to overthrow Lord Preston and attempt to fix the problems. None of them were smart enough to realize that overthrowing Lord Preston would only cause the king to bring his army and interfere. Unless they took out the entire corrupt organization, nothing would ever get better.

  What truly worried Rayne was the increase in guard forces around the city. He knew that Lord Preston didn’t have this many guards, so another city had sent support, and they were out in force through the streets. This only lent further proof to the idea that something bad would happen.

  The new guard forces roaming the town only caused additional unease, especially since most of them looked like common thieves and not actual professional guards. They must be the rumored bandits that the lords used to terrorize the land surrounding the cities and stealing supplies for the nobles.

  Tension increased for a few weeks, and occasional fights broke out between the guards and the citizens. At first, there was nothing major. A few bumps and scrapes with the occasional bruise or a black eye. As time went on, blood started to fly and eventually, people were killed. Not only were the public fights worse, but it was increasingly common for dead guards and citizens to be randomly found. They were being ambushed out of nowhere and left for dead. The citizens found were mainly women, and with the nefarious origins of these new guards, the citizens were livid at the idea of how they had suffered before they were killed. The guards were usually just killed assassin style and left to rot in an alley.

  Rayne continued his studies and tried to avoid as much conflict as possible. He was even given the chance to work with Christina over time. She was not only beautiful but incredibly intelligent. She taught Rayne about some of the finer aspects of potion-making and also showed him a secret of her own. She had learned an ability with her talents that allowed her to tweak potion ingredients a little to increase the effectiveness of the potions while they remained steady.

  Christina couldn’t teach him the skill itself, but she showed him how the process worked and even showed him how to do some of her modified potions. The process was almost impossible to figure out without the talent, though. Her modifications were never the same on different types of potions. Sometimes she added a little extra of one ingredient or another. Other times, she would mix them together in a different order or let different sets of elements cook together first before combining them.

  Without her unique skill, this ability would require constant trial and error to figure out any of this. The sheer amount of individual requirements for each of these potions made it impossible for Rayne to determine how to do it himself. He would have to hope for the talent to show up one day so he could purchase it. Until that time, he had diligently remembered Christina’s modified recipes for the different potions she made.

  Rayne enjoyed their time together and learned a lot about the woman from their time together. Her family was very religious and devout followers of one of the old gods. Rayne wouldn’t pry into that because it could be dangerous to discuss openly. Her parents were so proud of their daughter getting her apprenticeship in the Alchemy shop. They imagined her marrying a well-off man with her skill and looks to lead her to a better life.

  Rayne had managed to get to level 14 in Herbalism and was up to level 9 in Alchemy. He would be much higher, but the d
rop in available resources and profits slowed their work down considerably. He had been lucky to have one rack worth of herbs to dry or even one jar full of ingredients to preserve in the last few months.

  Everyone was scared to leave the town because people were disappearing when in the wild. Traveling merchant caravans were almost unheard of because they never seemed to make it to their destination. No one was brave enough to travel the surrounding countryside for herbs or spices for the same reasons. Since Gerrard bought all of his ingredients and then sold the results of the work, it was greatly affecting him. He had no dedicated suppliers that were farmers themselves.

  Most of the surrounding farms had been left fallow, and the only thing being planted in the farms that were not barren were grains. Even those looked mostly empty and only had small sections of the overall farm planted.

  Hearing the descriptions of these problems frightened Rayne and brought his mind back to a meeting he had overhead long ago. He remembered the agreement that was made and also recalled the lords discussing stripping the outlying farms and small villages bare to prevent the theft of resources by the orcs and goblins. Was this the precursor to the invasion? Rayne thought to himself.

  The lords had agreed that the cities would be protected but Rayne had no reason to believe that the Dark Elves would honor that agreement once they controlled the surrounding territory. Short of a binding contract with the king and the goddess, nothing could stop them.

  The city had become so dangerous it was rare for Rayne to walk to or from the Alchemy shop without witnessing one crime or another. Burglaries had become more common. Rayne had even seen a few of the robberies as they happened. It was amusing watching someone crawl out of a window and getting startled when they spun and ran face to face with someone. Rayne had managed to subdue both of those cases and turned them over to the city guard.

  One night someone had even run by the business right before they closed and tossed an oil lamp through the door. The lamp had burst, and oil started flowing over the floor while the fire followed along with it. Rayne had been in the room and acted on instinct by grabbing one of the Fire Suppression potions from a crate and tossed it into the flame. The white substance quickly spread like a blanket over the fire, and the heat dissipated.

  Christina had been in the room and watched the situation happen with a frightened look on her face. Rayne got to work cleaning up the fluffy substance while Christina continued to stare in shock. Rayne looked up to her and saw the fear still etched there.

  “You okay?” He asked her.

  She didn’t answer for a few seconds so he asked her again a little louder. She shook out of her state of shock and looked at him. “What was that all about?”

  Rayne shook his head at her question. “That was a consequence of the horrible state of affairs in this city. I fear things will get much worse before they get any better.”

  “What do you mean?” She asked him.

  Rayne sighed but explained some of the things he had been observing lately and what they likely meant. When he told her he thought a riot would soon ensure, she looked about to cry.

  “Do not worry. Gerrard will surely look after you if something happens. I’ll be around.”

  She nodded at his statement and bent down to help him clean. They were able to get all the fire suppression substance off the floor and there was only a small charred spot on the wooden floor where the lamp had initially hit. Rayne had reacted fast enough to get the rest out before it had enough time to burn into the wood through the oil.

  Rayne worked hard to keep Christina’s mind off of the problems, but she had gone home the day of the fire and talked to her parents about it. The next time Rayne saw her, she seemed more reserved and worried. He could only guess her parents had confirmed what he had described to her. From their interactions, he knew she was very sheltered and was always eager to please her parents. The thought of letting her parents down in any way was her greatest weakness.

  The issues with the supplies started to sink in and then she remembered that Gerrard hadn’t been selling things as often either. Things that any true businessman would have recognized, she never caught on to. Gerrard had told Rayne when he first introduced them that she was almost ready to be on her own, and working with her on Alchemy he fully agreed, but it was obvious that her shortcoming was not in Alchemy but in the business sense itself. Gerrard needed to instruct her on the finer points of managing and running a business if he ever expected her to make it on her own.

  As the days continued on, everyone around town was more and more tense. The day that finally broke the dam holding back the violence arrived like a storm and no one had been ready for it. It started off like any other workday for Rayne but by the end of the day, his life was going to drastically change again.

  Chapter 11

  The Riots

  Rayne’s day started as normal with a good breakfast, even though their servings were not what they once were, and his morning visits with Gerrard, Greta, and Libby. Libby had been excited because Greta was showing her one of her secret recipes for bread that everyone loved so much.

  Rayne and Gerrard made their way to the shop for a day of work. Upon arriving, Gerrard had an odd request for Rayne. Instead of doing their normal work, Gerrard asked Rayne to write down all of his known recipes from memory for the different potions he had learned.

  Not quite understanding why, but knowing better than to question Gerrard, Rayne set to work. His memory was excellent, and Rayne wrote down every potion he had learned while here. He even notated the different possible modifications for the ones that Christina had shown him. He felt rather confident in most of them, but there were a couple he thought he might have gotten wrong.

  It was later in the afternoon when he had finished, and he handed the notebook to Gerrard. The man took it with a raised brow and started leafing through it. His eyes grew wide as he saw the sheer number of potions and salves that Rayne had remembered, and his mouth hung open when he saw the modified recipes.

  “How did you know this modification would work?” Gerrard asked him.

  Rayne wasn’t sure if he should answer truthfully. It wasn’t really his secret to give, and if Christina hadn’t told Gerrard about her talent, he wasn’t sure he should either. Gerrard had always stressed the importance of telling the truth though, and the man had never let him down.

  “Christina showed me how to modify them. She took a talent in her Alchemy that shows her alternate methods to make potions that can change their effectiveness,” Rayne told him quietly.

  If Gerrard’s eyes could grow any bigger Rayne would have thought they were twin moons in the sky.

  “Christina can do that? Why has she never told me about it?” He pondered to himself. “I appreciate you telling me. I am sure it must have been a tough decision since she had not told me herself.”

  “It was, but I knew you were a good man and could be trusted with the information,” Rayne told him resolutely.

  Gerrard chuckled at that. “Thank you for the confidence, Rayne. I will keep quiet about what I have learned and hope she will see fit to tell me herself in time. That being said, this was actually a test for you. With your skill and the breadth of your knowledge I have decided to promote you to Senior Apprentice in the shop.” Gerrard came over and laid his arms on Rayne’s shoulders. “I knew you had it in you.”

  Rayne nodded his head in appreciation but found it hard to speak with the look of love in Gerrard’s eyes for him. That had been an extremely rare sight for him growing up but in the span of time he had lived here, it was becoming more and more common.

  Gerrard gave a little laugh and told Rayne they were going home early to celebrate. They passed Christina in the main room and Gerrard called to her.

  “Christina, we are headed to the inn for a celebration. Rayne is officially a Senior Apprentice. You should come join in the celebration.”

  She smiled at the news. “Congratulations, Rayne! I’ll finish up th
is project I am working on, and I’ll be right over.”

  “I expect you there! I know how you get caught up in your work and lose track of time. No excuses now.” Gerrard called back to her good naturedly.

  Rayne and Gerrard made their way to the inn and Gerrard informed the entire inn of the news as he entered. Everyone gave a loud cheer and Rayne and Gerrard made their way to the empty table near the kitchens. Greta came out with some drinks and quickly wrapped Rayne up in a hug.

  “I’m so proud of you, Rayne.” She told him with a kiss on his cheek. Rayne blushed at the attention, but he would not complain about it. They sat at the table together and shared stories of some of Rayne’s exploits as an alchemist. Gerrard had to tell the most embarrassing story where Rayne had mixed the wrong ingredients and caused a fireball that singed off most of his eyebrows. They eventually grew back, but the smell was hard to deal with for the rest of the day.

  They sat there visiting and having a good time when a group of guardsmen burst into the room. There were eight of them that walked in and all of them looked like the bandit version. The lead one of the group stopped up short and sent an evil smile to the patrons of the bar.

  “Lord Preston Wayne has declared that any and all people caught outside after sunset will be jailed and charged with treason. The punishment to be handed out will be death by hanging,” the man said to a deafening silence through the building as everyone took in what the man was saying.

  “Furthermore, all citizens of the city are immediately subject to a twenty-five percent tax on their goods and coin which we will collect at once,” the leader continued.

  There was an uproar as people started protesting that they couldn’t get away with this. One woman got up to yell at one of the guards and he backhanded her and sent her flying. The man next to her jumped to his feet and charged the guard and tackled him to the ground. He straddled the man and started pummeling him relentlessly. The man stiffened and slumped over as one of the other guards ran him through with a sword. That was what finally broke the stalemate and the entire crowd surged for the guards.