Robin, the proprietor of the shop, proved to be a short, round little alchemist in early middle-age. Pleasantly plump, with his hair cut short and round cheeks like little apples, the alchemist was remarkably approachable, and something about his build and stride quickly convinced Olivia that he, too, was eclipsed. The pin on his chest, a crescent moon, seemed a subtle way of emphasizing that.
“Oh-hoho,” the alchemist greeted them with a bubbly laugh, bustling out from behind a counter as they entered. “Well look here, not every day I get a visit from such a proud young group! Sentinels, I would assume?”
“Not quite,” Cadence answered simply, refraining from any further elaboration.
The shopkeep took the answer in stride. “Of course not, and it’s none of my business. Well, as you know from the sign, I am Robin, and you can address me as sir, or mister, or Robin, or whatever else you’d like. I assume, if you’re visiting my shop specifically, you’re here to take advantage of my primary service?”
There was a beat of silence while Olivia chewed her cheek nervously. She felt it when Allana gave her an impatient look, then the wraith girl rolled her eyes and answered for the group. “Yep.”
Robin nodded his head fondly. “Very well, very good! And are all four of you looking for transitional assistance?” The alchemist’s eyes darted around between them, keen and analytical.
Tenebres coughed lightly. “Uhm. No, I’m all set. I was curious if you have any cosmetics, though, since we’re here?”
Robin’s face grew slightly more intrigued. “Of course, over in the left corner. Do let me know if you have any questions.”
Tenebres nodded, and as he moved away, Allana followed him. “I’m looking for the same,” she explained to the alchemist as she passed.
With the pair excusing themselves, Robin turned back to Cadence and Olivia, inspecting them both thoughtfully.
Cadence nudged Olivia gently, and the eclipsed girl felt a bolt of panic that no doubt showed in the look she gave her friend. The celestial smiled and tilted her head slightly. “Don’t worry,” she reassured her, “just be honest.”
Robin had clearly seen this sort of dance enough times, and he quickly put together their roles.
“I see, I see,” he said, approaching slowly. “Would it be okay if I asked your name?”
Olivia cleared her throat awkwardly. “Ah… Well, uhm. Olive–Olivia. Olivia.”
“And I’m Cadence,” the celestial added helpfully. “I just came to support my friend.”
Robin beamed at her. “And well you did! So then Olivia, would you like to come in the back and have a seat? I’d love to discuss your transition goals.”
Olivia swallowed thickly and managed a sickly smile. “D-do I smell tea on?”
“Of course, dear! I’d be happy to share a cup or two.” Robin turned, waving for Cadence and Olivia to join him in a more private back room.
#
“Much of this is very doable,” Robin explained happily. “I’ll tell you it was no small endeavor, in my younger years, to find a mixture that would encourage hair growth on the head while discouraging it lower down, but I stumbled on the perfect blend not so long ago. The rest is very normal–alchemists just like me have been working on formulas for things like voice, height, and build changes for decades.”
Olivia felt a little bit of anxiety ease out of her, a weight she hadn’t even been aware of easing off of her shoulders. Olivia had never really stopped and thought about her transition goals, as Robin called them, but at the end of the day, they were fairly simple. She didn’t need to be curvy, or busty, or comely, or slight, or anything specific. She simply wanted to be… her.
“Of course, while my services will help adjust your build, since we’re not going for anything specific, I expect many of your natural traits will come through. You’ll still be tall for a woman, and likely quite muscular too–but if everything goes well, I doubt anyone will mistake you for a man.”
Olivia smiled, remembering the first time she had met Farris, long before she had admitted her own identity even to herself. The warden had been a striking figure in a way Olivia hadn’t been able to put to words, and only recently had she begun to understand that she had noticed, even then, Farris’s eclipsed traits. Her stride, her swagger, something in the lines of her face, they were all faint marks of the person Farris had been forced to be by birth– but no one would call the warden officer anything but sunny.
“I’m fine with all of that,” Olivia said.
“Now, there are two caveats to my services that I should make you aware of,” Robin said, his face getting a little more somber. “The first is the cost. I’m proud of the services I provide–but unfortunately, the elixirs I make require the use of certain difficult-to-source reagents. Now, your straightforward goals at least save you the additional costs associated with more targeted transitions, but this is still far from a cheap process. Now, that being said, I have worked out service contracts and other arrangements before…”
“We’ll pay it,” Cadence said, before Olivia could. “We may not be sentinels, but all of us are battle-gifted, and we have the income to match.”
“Cadence…” Olivia started.
Cadence placed a hand on Olivia's knee and gave the girl a reassuring wink. “Allana, Tenebres, and I already talked about this. Don’t worry.” Cadence turned back to Robin. “We’re still low level, but we have plenty saved up and more on the way. It’ll be covered.”
Robin dipped his head in acknowledgement. “And isn’t that excellent to hear? I must say, Olivia, that you are fortunate to have friends that care as much as yours evidently do.”
Olivia smiled through a very different kind of blush, and nodded, trying to ignore the tears burning at her eyes. She had known the others were her friends, after all they had been through, but after a lifetime in the cutthroat High Court of Elliven, it was still hard to remember just what that meant all of the time. But Robin was right–she was incredibly lucky to have met her three companions.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I’d have to agree.”
“Very well then! That brings us to our second caveat, and that is time. Alchemy is a wondrous art, but as I’m sure two well-traveled young people like yourselves would know, it has its trade-offs. Good, thorough alchemic results take time–just as a cheap healing potion will provide less effect in the short-term than a recovery potion in the long-term, a proper transition takes time. Time during which, unfortunately, you will need to come by here at least every two weeks to receive a fresh dose.”
Olivia felt the bottom fall out of her stomach even as that weight crashed down once again. She saw Cadence look at her carefully to one side, and saw the sympathy that appeared on Robin’s face.
“When you mentioned that you were battle-gifted, I began to fear this would be a concern…” the alchemist mused.
“How long?” Olivia asked, her voice hoarse and tight. It was like ripping the words out of herself. She swallowed, and marshalled her words. “How long would it take?”
“Now, the process is different for everyone, but… with the strongest potency I’ve found safe to administer, at biweekly doses, and with your transition goals… At least a year. Give or take a couple months.”
Olivia took a sharp breath, and looked down, lifting a hand to cover her face. The earlier wetness that had been beckoned by the kindness of her friends were washed away by more bitter, stinging tears.
Next to her, she distantly heard Cadence trying to speak for her. “There’s no way to buy all the doses up-front?”
The little alchemist’s voice was morose when he answered. “Unfortunately, no. The formula doesn’t hold for much more than a week or so at a time. Generally, I fill two doses every other week, to minimize trips back and forth, but…”
“We’re not likely to be in the city for more than another month,” Cadence told him.
Robin made a soft sound of understanding. “Yes well, unfortunately, that is something of a problem...”
She couldn’t stop the tears, and it only made her feel that much worse. Like an immature child, watching his father burn his writings. He never should’ve gotten his hopes up like this. He should’ve known it would never be that easy.
Oliver’s voice-cracked with pain as he asked, “Is there… any other way? Any way to get it done sooner?”
Robin shook his head sadly. “If I could offer it, I would. But neither I nor any other mage in the city could provide a transition any faster than that.”
Olivia felt like her body was going to cave-in over the hole where she had begun to build her dreams of a new life.
Next to her, though, Cadence was insistent. “You said no one else in the city. Does that mean there is someone elsewhere who could?”
Robin’s answer was uncertain. “Perhaps. I’m not familiar with any by name, but I’ve heard tell of eclipsed and celestials who receive much more rapid changes from sufficiently skilled medical mages. It requires a unique combination of blessings, though, including a Sage gift. With no Apothic Order members in Correntry, that’s beyond what anyone here can offer, but…”
“Okay,” Cadence said with forced cheer. Olivia felt her reach over and jostle her by the shoulder. “Hear that Oli? It’s still possible! We just need to find a Sage who can help us, I’m sure Adeline can help us do that!”
“Mhmmm,” Oli groaned, head still down. He couldn’t manage much more than that. “Great. Does me so much good now, after I finally took this step...”
Cadence bit her lip, and turned back to Robin. “I’ve got one more question, if it’s okay. Have you ever heard of a replenishing flask?”
The round little alchemist’s eyes brightened immediately.
#
“Now, you must remember, this won’t be as effective or as rapid as my normal dosing would be,” Robin told Olivia for the third time. “Replenishing flasks are wondrous items indeed, but my most potent formula would take far more than a week at a time to refill. I believe I got the elixir as potent as I could, but it took some guesswork–I’ve never actually seen a flask like that in person.”
“I understand,” Olivia reassured the alchemist yet again. Compromise or not, the eclipsed girl couldn’t ignore the excited little spark in her chest that she was finally going to actually start her transition.
“How much do we owe you?” Cadence asked.
Robin pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Normally, for a full transition, my services total in the area of twenty mantles.”
Olivia swallowed thickly at the cost. Even by aristocratic standards, twenty mantles was a significant amount–a single mantle purchased room and board at the Grime and Glory for a month.
But Cadence simply nodded, apparently unphased.
“But,” Robin continued, “that is only to cover the cost of my more expensive reagents. As I only had to brew you a couple doses, my final costs would be closer to only a single mantle.”
“Let’s call it five mantles,” Cadence said. “For all of your help.”
Robin’s eyes sparkled, and he dipped his head. “Very well–but I insist on that cost including whatever cosmetics your friends decide to purchase today.”
“Careful there,” Allana called over from the other corner of the shop, “I think Seo is ready to take most of your stock!”
“Shut up, Lana!”
“How do you even know all of this? I don’t even know what half of this stuff is.”
“Some of us have to try to look cute, you know.”
Cadence counted off a half dozen thick golden coins to the alchemist, still smiling despite the expenditure–which Olivia suspected to have been supplemented by Allana’s pilfering.
“Thank you for your generosity,” Robin said with a sincere, apple-cheeked smile.
“Thank you for your advice,” Olivia responded automatically. She was unable to tear her eyes from the enchanted flask.
“Well?” Robin asked expectedly. “Take your first dose, dear. One big swallow.”
Olivia blinked, finally looking up from the bright silver flask. Tenebres and Allana had paced back over, offering smiles that matched the reassuring pat Cadence gave her.
Olivia took a deep breath, and was shocked to feel her hands shaking as she unscrewed the cap. In that moment, the girl felt more nervous than she ever had before–more frightened than when she had fought Hellesa, more anxious than she was before her duel with Allid, more terrified than the day her father found her stories…
Olivia swallowed again–and then, before she could think about it anymore, she lifted the flask to her lips and took a single swig.
The taste was unlike anything she had ever tried before. Herbaceous, like a fine tea, but using herbs more bitter than the norm, with uniquely tart and sweet notes mingled throughout, like a berry juice had been mixed in. It tasted like sunshine and the exhilaration of a strong gust of wind. It tasted like the impact of her sword meeting an opponent’s, like Cadence’s reassurance, like fire smoke and stories with Rose and Beryl. It tasted like long practice sessions with Adeline and the first step on the road out of Elliven.
In short, it tasted like Olivia. It tasted like a new life. It tasted like acceptance.
